queensland Brisbane River Session #91, #92, #93, (and #94)

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi all

Well I've figured I better get this report up after the crabbing trip, which was good fun. It was not successful, but I got out and tried some things. I think my next fishing session will be tomorrow, after a two day break. The first session was on a nice and sunny day after all the rain we've had of late.

I got to the park at about 3:00PM, and deployed a line or two baited with dead prawn, and another line with half garfish. I was hoping I'd just hook something that would pull string, or at least make itself noticeable. Goal = Failed. There was another fella fishing there, so after I set up I had a chat. He was called Shaun (I think that is how you spell it) and had not had any luck yet. We had a bit of a chat, and he said he has caught Flatties, Sharks, a few catties, perch, eels, etc, but the one the excited me the most was when he said he was catching 30-35CM whiting a bit (Toowoong) downstream of me. One day I will catch a keeper size Brisbane River Whiting. When the river clears I may even have to try with Dad, drifting over a mudflat with a paternoster rig and worm and prawn as bait.

Anyways, after no luck for him, he set off, so maybe I'll see him there another day. I moved the rod up to the wooden part of the jetty, and hoped for a bite. It's worth mentioning the little bail arm spring had bounced out of my Penn Reel. I hate to admit it but I think it may be time I invest in another heavy spinning combo. I'll have to save up for quite some time though .

The first run came soon, and I tried striking, but the fish had seemingly taken me into a snag. I reckon I would've lost at least a kilo of led to that snag. Probably not the best for the environment, haha. Anyways, when I still thought there could be a fish on, the rod on the jetty buckled. I hesitated for a second, which is probably what cost me this fish, but judging from the hit and slime on the line it was probably a forky. I redeployed baits, and for the next hour, I got countless runs and no hook ups. I'm going to shorten this part as really nothing except these weird runs occurred. I was trying to hook the fish different ways. Striking hard, striking soft, letting it run for long, slowly tightening the drag, blah blah blah. It didn't work. I kept loosing prawns and could not entice a fish.

I switched the rods, hoping the whippier rod I normally use in the cod spot could make getting a hook up easier with these finicky fish. I ended up getting a brief hook up, with some OK pulls, but then it let go. I have absolutely no clue what this fish could've been - maybe a breambo?

Anyways, sooner or later, with no bait about (I'd given the cast net a throw) I departed the jetty. It was a boring session but I didn't have my hopes high for fish due to all the rain. I know I've had some good sessions in rain but I find when there's heaps the river really needs it's time to clean up and get back to it's normal, salty self . Here are the stats of this trip - 

Statistics of Trip:

Tide: High, 12:40PM, 2.2M, Low, 7:00PM, .2M

Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous, 90% Moon - fair bitta run!

Bait Caught: -

Bait Used: Prawns, half garfish

Fish Caught: -

Tackle Used: 12lb, 20lb, 30lb braid mainlines, 10lb and 80lb fluorocarbon and mono leaders, 3/o suicide hooks, 6/o circle hooks, size 2 and 6 ball sinkers, large barrel swivel, Abu Garcia Veritas 3-5KG rod, Rogue Firepoint boat rod, Ugly Stik, Diawa Shinobi 2500, Abu Garcia barra king 650, Spinfisher 650.

Weather: Sunny, damp, light wind.

Notes: Finicky fish. Maybe due to rain??? Not much foot traffic, and embarrassing when loosing fish in front of crowd.

Overall Success Rate: 30% - dismal sesh

Anyways, the next day I decided to give the park another crack. I got the normal gear, and this time instead of garfish bait I decided I'd give some pike eel a run for it's money. I got there at the normal time, and deployed the lines.

My chair was set up and I could finally grab a drink out of my bottle and relax. It didn't take long for a bit of a hit and run incident on the cod line, except this fish stayed put. To my disappointment, the fish fought like an old boot (literally not one pull back). My ten pound leader was well over-gunned for this fine specimen, but then again, 1 pound leader probably would've been too. I pulled a bloomin' Small Eyed Gudgeon up, which as far as I'm concerned a waste of bait. The silly fish wouldn't let go of my hook and eventually parted the ways via surgery and a set of pliers. Bye bye, Mr. Gudgeon. 

Flathead + Cod + Catfish = This!

Anyways, after that dirty rotter, I got a run on the light line. Once again, this happened lots of times, like the day before. I kept missing the hook up, before I eventually set the hook in something that had a bit of go left in it. It hung out deeper at first, and I turned it's head. It wasn't willing to give up though, and started going for structure. After a quick criss-cross with another line, he went for structure yet again. Tense moments were had, but after the end of this tussle in front of some passer-bys, to my disgust, I had a slime maker. Boy, I don't think I've ever described the fight on one of them that highly. 

Of course

Just before this, a ten minute storm had rolled over me, but as quick as it had came it had gone. It was good to cool off at least!

Still Dirty

A couple more things to note are that the runs I was getting were weird, and I missed a few more hook ups too. Almost like the fish wasn't actually hooking up, just inhaling the bait and spitting it when they felt like it. I had downsized the hook to a smaller suicide (maybe a 2/o) and then hooked the catfish on that, which fought particularly hard for it's size. There were no hits on the line baited with a slab of Pike Eel, and it was also catching unusually more weed than usual. The river still was a dirty-er colour than usual, and lots of debris/scum was still floating about. Hopefully it clears soon! Here are the stats of that trip -

Statistics of Trip - 

Tide: 1:30PM, 2.0M, High, 7:40PM, .3M, Low

Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous, 81% - still a bit of run

Bait Caught: - (I did a few throws with the net also)

Bait Used: Prawn, Pike Eel

Fish Caught: Catfish x 1, Small-Eyed Gudgeon x 1

Tackle Used: 12lb, 20lb, 30lb braid mainlines, 10lb and 80lb fluorocarbon and mono leaders, 3/o suicide hooks, 6/o circle hooks, size 2 and 6 ball sinkers, large barrel swivel, Abu Garcia Veritas 3-5KG rod, Rogue Firepoint boat rod, Ugly Stik, Diawa Shinobi 2500, Abu Garcia barra king 650, Spinfisher 650.

Weather: Few clouds, sunny in general

Time Fished: Around 2:30-ish PM - 5:30PM

Air Pressure: 1019

Humidity: 73%

Overall Success Rate: 50%- not a donut

OK, so the last trip I put in some extra effort to go and catch something. I got the lines ready the night before, one with a 6LB FC Rock leader, and little lure that I caught in my cast net the looked OK for bream, one rod with 20LB leader and a 3/o circle hook (well, 30LB trace), and the normal salmon/shark rig. My plan was to stop at one spot, try and catch some livies, and then go and fish at another spot. 

I got to the first stop after an uneventful ride, which was quite relaxing really. I got the cast net out, and began throwing. The first ten odd throws were average at best, but then I started doing more and more better throws. I tried off every part of the jetty, except the part which had a rope going into the water (crab pot I think). 

I rode to the next spot quite disheartened as I had no bait, but that didn't stop me... Well, it sort of did. The first few casts (I found out the lure did not work at the last spot, not worth a new treble ) with another lure, a soft plastic, were slow rolled and hopped along all the mud banks around the jetty. I gave the cast net a throw or two for nothing, so I kept flicking the lure (with no bait rod out).

Eventually, I retied my loop knot on another lure. This one was a little bream vibe that Sam Steele gave me. It worked nicely, but after many casts right up against mangroves for no love I was a bit disheartened. I'd forgotten my balaclava but had luckily remembered sunscreen - knew I was forgetting something as I left. I kept flicking, and also gave the cast net one or two more throws.

I tried a little Holt Production prawn by now, and boy was it quiet. No fish on lure and no bait to be seen, seemingly. I sat down on my chair, and kept casting into the mangroves. Different spots, different skip casts, different landing points in relation to the middle of a mangrove tree ... A young boy (4) came down now and stepped on my rod tip, it did nothing luckily, I didn't really mind, but his mother did... Anyways, I was so desperate for bait, that when I saw the shell of a river shrimp floating, I netted it up to use in hope of a catfish! 

Anyways, I really gave cast netting a hard crack now, and to my surprise, well, I managed two things. A prawn about the size of my fingernail, who somehow stayed in the net, and a glassy. Glassy went on the hook, but by now, some bloody ski lice had got to the jetty. They took up most of the jetty and couldn't even be bothered to move their bloody tube from drifting out the front, and were being annoying in general from a fisherman's, and general citizen's perspective. Lol.

Small Prawn

Only catch on lures, extracted from mangrove 

The jetski finally left, so I deployed the glassy, but only to watch them come straight back in. Now you won't believe this, but when they were doing that bloody annoying thing where they go in a circle then jump over the wake, they did it so fast one of them was flung sideways and up, maybe 2.5M! It was hilarious to watch to be honest. Anyways, old mate in his big ski boat decided to rock up now too, which I didn't mind, but the jetskiers were finally asked to move their tube. Anyways, from then on I soaked my live glassy with a sinker 100 times too big in about 2 meters of water, for nothing. When I got him up he was a goner, so I guess I might've hit the backbone a little to hard .

Anyways, here are the stats of the trip:

Statistics of Trip - 

Tide: 8:30AM, .5M, Low, 2:15PM, 1.8M, High, 8:20PM, .4M, Low

Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous, 71%

Bait Caught: Glassy x 1

Bait Used: Glassy

Tackle Used: 12lb, 20lb, 30lb, braided mainlines, 6lb, 20lb, 30lb, 80lb, leaders and traces, size 4 ball sinkers, large barrel swivels, 3/o and 6/o circle hooks, Abu Garcia Veritas 3-5KG rod, Rogue Firepoint boat rod, Ugly Stik, Diawa Shinobi 2500, Abu Garcia barra king 650, Spinfisher 650.

Fish Caught: -

Humidity: 69%

Air Pressure: 1022

Weather: Sunny, few scattered clouds

Overall Success Rate: 30% - pretty average fishing!

The report for number #94 has already been done, titled Crabbing Catastrophe [Brisbane River Session #94], so if you're interested in that and haven't seen it here is a link - 

Thanks for reading if you've gotten this far and I hope you've enjoyed!

Cheers Hamish

[The Mad Hughesy]

so i have to ask..do you have a big session planned for the 100th fishing trip? maybe even a report with your top captures over those 100 sessions. 

another good write up mate!

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

31 minutes ago, christophagus said:

so i have to ask..do you have a big session planned for the 100th fishing trip? maybe even a report with your top captures over those 100 sessions. 

another good write up mate!

Thanks Chris. 

Well I've got something in mind, and if all the times, tides, moon phases, and dates pan out it will hopefully be successful!!!

Cheers Hamish

[The Mad Hughesy]

40 minutes ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Thanks Chris. 

Well I've got something in mind, and if all the times, tides, moon phases, and dates pan out it will hopefully be successful!!!

Cheers Hamish

looking forward to it!

[benno573]

i'd suggest your weird runs and non-catches could be pike eels.  They are great at grabbing a bait, doing a weird run and missing the hook.  they are also very active in dirty water.

shame about the results but good on you for having a go despite the dirty water.

re ski lice - this is the unfortunate thing about using shared facilities... it means that even undesirables can legally use them.

also - i'd be stoked with that gudgeon... it would be a PB for me and i would take that as a positive for an otherwise quiet trip.  pearl perch on the reefs fight fairly poorly as well and i will never ever hold that against them!

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

On 08/04/2021 at 3:40 PM, benno573 said:

i'd suggest your weird runs and non-catches could be pike eels.  They are great at grabbing a bait, doing a weird run and missing the hook.  they are also very active in dirty water.

shame about the results but good on you for having a go despite the dirty water.

re ski lice - this is the unfortunate thing about using shared facilities... it means that even undesirables can legally use them.

also - i'd be stoked with that gudgeon... it would be a PB for me and i would take that as a positive for an otherwise quiet trip.  pearl perch on the reefs fight fairly poorly as well and i will never ever hold that against them!

Hi Benno

Thanks for the tip on Pike Eels. Now that I look at it that does seem very likely. The other possibility is sub-20cm catfish, as I found out the other day there are lots of them about at the moment. I's assume if they were catfish I'd have hooked one, so maybe that means the eels were the most likely culprit.

It's a shame about the ski lice too. Hopefully the cold weather drives them away. Haha, maybe next time I won't greet a gudgeon with a frown. When you put it like that there's nothing wrong with them!

Cheers Hamish