queensland brisbane river session #111

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi all

After a lot of planning, convincing, and good behaviour, I somehow managed to tee up a fishing trip with  someone on the river, and even better - Dad was going to drive me there. Saturday was busy; a day that had Mountain Biking, Tennis, School, and getting ready for fishing all crammed in. Of course, I wasn't just going to get fishing. There had to be a catch. The rest of the family was going to bring the bikes along and ride on the nearby bikeway for a couple hours while I fished. "Eh, no worries"... or so I thought. I woke up at the crack of dawn, and got everything packed in the car. After that, I helped Dad put all the bikes on the car. We were ready to go. Now all we needed were the passengers.

Let's just say for the next hour and a half it was not pretty, until we finally arrived there. Whinging, whinging, whinging... apparently being woken up on a Sunday morning isn't a good feeling . Somehow, we managed to all arrive unharmed at the chosen spot, which was a good thing. It was a bit of a walk, but after getting everyone else ready I got my three rods, backpack, cast net, and esky all gathered up and started walking. I crossed a very busy road but eventually made it to the jetty. Nice!

I said hi to the fella I was fishing with (he is the one I went fishing with a few times at the local park), and I got my lines in. To begin with, I baited up with some river shrimp and garfish. He had tailor scraps (he'd caught one there a few days ago) and squid I believe. After catching up for a bit, I threw the net a couple times to no avail. We kept persisting for a fish though, and even by this time it was already warming up!

The first bite that was had was had by the other guy. His rod buckled, and he yelled out to me. We didn't have a net, but we did have a gaff. The fight was really good, with large headshakes and lots of movement. What was it going to be? The rod was buckled over, and the fish was coming up. We saw the leader, then the sinker. It was a flatty! And a really big one too! I mean like 70CM big! Woohoo!

He'd been getting a few around this size in the recent times he told me, so it was looking good. Unfortunately, he'd hooked it on a high part of the jetty. We had to walk him down to land him (by him I mean her - she looked full of eggs). This was the challenging part, and because we didn't want him to flick off the hook we had to go slow. Unfortunately, that's just what happened. The fish flicked away and won it's freedom. We were a bit disappointed but didn't mind at the same time - at least they were biting.

It was looking good on the fish front - we'd seen a couple birds circling and diving for bait, which was really amazing to watch, and I was told this is a good sign for fish activity. It didn't take long for a bit more success, but this wasn't too amazing - a quick fight ensured a catfish surfaced. After this, we noticed the tide had slowed down a bit, so we got to cast netting. I was down on the jetty throwing the net and I managed to get a silver biddy. This was live baited immediately in hope of a squire. The rod with a shrimp had been switched to garfish and dropped straight down. I was down on the jetty when I heard Michael telling me my rod was going off, so I got the net up and ran over!

This fish was good. It was heavy. It wasn't moving. My adrenaline was up. The fight began. It was on the small setup - a Stradic 3000 and Shimano Raider ( @benno573's old rod). I was excited, and I started trying to get the fish to come up. I couldn't move it, and then, it ran off. The drag was tight, and I had no control, the fish was staying down and going under the jetty. Michael got the other line in, and then I had a clean playing field. After the first run, where the fish went right under the jetty, I was on my knees. I needed to try and get him out of the snags, because I could feel the line rubbing against all sorts of things. I was slowly gaining line on this giant of a fish. After about a minute of where I thought he was going to bust me off, I got him out of the snag. Now, he just ran straight back under the jetty. The line gaining process was slow, but I was lifting the fish up and up even more. Eventually, I saw leader. He wasn't coming up. What was it???

The braid was in. The leader was visible. It was only a matter of seconds... CATFISH! No No No! Just what we didn't want. But when I say catfish, I mean this thing was enormous. I reckon you could've fit a footy into it's guts. It was a huge fish. I got him up, and we managed to lift him up. The fish was grabbed in the mouth, and ever so slowly was lifted up. "Oh my God"! The joggers who were watching this long fight take place were amazed at the fish. To be honest, so was I. It was humungous. It wasn't a thready but it was definitely a good workout for the combo. We got a quick photo and measurement (58CM - funnily enough, my PB catfish before this was about half the girth and 58CM - this one was just way, way fatter) and then opted for the quick release. At least we were both off the donut. 

I didn't hold it for the photo

Anyways, after that fish, we were still seeing birds, and the tide was slowing. It was becoming stinking hot now, but man, that catty amazed us! The photo does not do it justice, as the saying goes. Apart from a couple bites, the fishing had gone a bit quiet for us. I decided to have another go with the cast net, as it was nearing tide change. I threw the net with a decent opening . I felt some pulls and tugs. I felt lots of pulls and tugs. I felt some fish! As I pulled up the net I had that great feeling of seeing silver flashes in your net. I got it up - low and behold there was a school of perfect sized bait mullet in the net! 

The few I took home

We made good use of these and straight away chucked one out each live. They were looking good and seeing as though it was tide change we thought this would be our best chance of getting a fish on one. I reeled in my Stradic now and left my two heavier combos out, which gave me some hope of a good fish. Some others had came too, who were fishing with some squid. 

Neither livies were getting a hit, but after numerous bait checks our hopes were still high. It was really hot so everyone crowded the shady parts of the jetty. We were still hopeful for a bite, and around this point, when not much was really happening, another fella rocked up. Michael knew him, so we all had a good chat about numerous things to do with fishing. The bite had really gone quiet, and we weren't even getting any nibbles.

My Dad dropped by quickly. I managed to convince him to let me stay longer, which was very good. I had to make the most of it now, so the goal was just to catch a fish. I wanted to see if anything would take the livie, but Michael and the other bloke were switching to a strip bait. I decided to keep one rod with a strip bait and one rod with a livie. It was looking hopeful, and our lines were getting numerous nibbles and bites for about half an hour. We were all quite excited, and this gave us a bit more hope. Michael's line got a couple good bites, as did the other blokes. It was really good to see. The theory was the (squire) could get their mouth around a strip better than a 20CM livie. Fair enough, haha. 

Around half past 11, three lines went off at once. Michael hooked up, and I heard the great sound of my ratchet going off. The other fella had his rod dragged across the jetty! I ran over to mine, and there was something on it. Unluckily for me, it had bricked me in some snag beneath the jetty. Dam! The rod with the hookup was being bent over like no tomorrow, and it was looking good. After a long, quiet bite, this was what everyone needed. We were ready to land the fish, and just like that, up came a beautiful Brisbane River Squire! Yewhoo! It looked very good, and the colours on it were superb. We were all happy with the fish, and it was some good encouragement to get the lines back in. 

A great river fish

Eventually, it was time to walk back home for me. We had been getting smacked and nibbled constantly but not managing to hook up to anything. Baits were mauled and rod were pulled, but fish the fish were seemingly finicky. We also thought a school may have moved in, due to the increased fish activity. The other bloke headed off just before me, and I left just after. I gave Michael a couple of the mullet and kept the rest to freeze. It was a really great session, and I had a great time fishing the river at a new spot. I didn't catch the most or best fish, but I got to watch some mighty fine ones being pulled up anyways. 

I hope you enjoyed this report - I may be a bit inactive now because school is ramping up but holidays will be good as. Here are the stats of the trip for anyone interested - 

Stats of Trip:

Tide: 4:15AM, .4M, Low, 9:50AM, 2.0M, High, 3:50PM, .3M, Low

Moon Phase: 96% full

Bait Caught: Mullet

Bait Used: Mullet, herring, silver biddy, river shrimp, garfish, and squid. 

Fish Caught: I got a huge catfish, Michael got a squire, catfish, and flatty

Tackle Used: 15LB, 20LB, 30LB Braid Mainlines, 15LB, 20LB, 30LB Fluorocarbon and Mono leaders, large sinkers from about size 4 star to size 2 and 6 ball, large swivels, circle hooks (4/o and 6/o), Shimano Stradic 3000 on Shimano Raider 4-7KG, Penn SSM 650 on Rogue Firepoint Boat Rod, and Abu Garcia Barra King 6500 on Ugly Stik. 

Air Pressure: 1020-1023

Humidity: 83%

Weather: Sunny, lovely blue skies, light winds

Temperature: 26 degrees Celsius

Overall Success Rate: 90% - awesome day on the water

Cheers Hamish

P.S. When I left the other bloke came back after running some errands and got another squire!

Two squire

[Cavvy]

Bad luck no squire for you Hamish!  Nice day out for the family aside from the rocky start!

[ellicat]

Sounds like your last cast was just too soon.

Stonker catfish !

I noticed the barometer was 1020. Ten twenty, fish aplenty is the saying.

[Brodie_S]

nice one Hamish seems like you a pretty good sesh this time worth waking up for on a Sunday 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

21 hours ago, Cavvy said:

Bad luck no squire for you Hamish!  Nice day out for the family aside from the rocky start!

Thanks Dad. There's always next time!

7 hours ago, ellicat said:

Sounds like your last cast was just too soon.

Stonker catfish !

I noticed the barometer was 1020. Ten twenty, fish aplenty is the saying.

Hi Brian

Yes, I think it was. I still can't get over the fight the catty put up. It was at least ten minutes long. That is interesting about the barometer - maybe I will get to test it in coming weeks.

47 minutes ago, Breaming with bro said:

nice one Hamish seems like you a pretty good sesh this time worth waking up for on a Sunday 

Cheers Bro. It was definitely worth waking up for!

Hamish

[GregOug]

Bloody hell Hamish. I make sure I make myself a coffee and some toast before I sit down to read one of your reports. Well done on a great day. Did you measure the squire? And how do you measure the air pressure? Do you have a barometer or get it off the BOM website?

[Angry51]

Geez Greg, I hope you haven't been reading since

August 23.

[GregOug]

7 hours ago, Angry51 said:

Geez Greg, I hope you haven't been reading since

August 23.

I’m a slow reader.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

10 hours ago, GregOug said:

Bloody hell Hamish. I make sure I make myself a coffee and some toast before I sit down to read one of your reports. Well done on a great day. Did you measure the squire? And how do you measure the air pressure? Do you have a barometer or get it off the BOM website?

Hi Greg

Thanks, the squire was 40CM. I just get the forecast off BOM, as I don't have my own barometer.

Cheers Hamish

[GregOug]

18 hours ago, GregOug said:

Bloody hell Hamish. I make sure I make myself a coffee and some toast before I sit down to read one of your reports. Well done on a great day. Did you measure the squire? And how do you measure the air pressure? Do you have a barometer or get it off the BOM website?

On the subject of barometers, does anyone have a recommendation of one to buy for use in the boat. This one looks like what I’m after, but the reviews of it are terrible. Apparently the dial is only painted on.

[Ed.]

A lot of smartphones have a barometer sensor built in to them, that will just tell you what the pressure is. If you want more info regarding best times/tides to fish you will need a Solunar app.

On if on the web, try https://tides4fishing.com/au/queensland

Just select the closest position to where you want to fish, (It is about 3/4 of the page down) and you can select which day/month you are also interested in to go fishing at the top of the page.

Cheers

Ed.

[GregOug]

1 hour ago, Ed. said:

A lot of smartphones have a barometer sensor built in to them, that will just tell you what the pressure is. If you want more info regarding best times/tides to fish you will need a Solunar app.

On if on the web, try https://tides4fishing.com/au/queensland

Just select the closest position to where you want to fish, (It is about 3/4 of the page down) and you can select which day/month you are also interested in to go fishing at the top of the page.

Cheers

Ed.

Thanks Ed.

[Ed.]

You can also get a dedicated Solunar Fish Gauge like the Kokoda FishIQ, it's the one I have, but the only problem with this one is that it does not have an On/Off button so once you put the battery in, it will keep the screen active till the battery drains(CR-2032), and then you have to put in the location (limited areas in OZ only ie, Cairns, Gladstone, Gold Coast, Melb, Sydney) and also the time in again, although I think that there is a user location set by Lat/Long., but I haven't tried it out.

With this one you can press a button and it will switch to the next tide change (4 periods) to show what you might be able to expect fishing wise at that time or you can select which day/month you want. It also has a blinking bar on the graph to show you what part of the tide you are in, plus the current moon phase.

Personally I didn't use it much as I found it was much simpler just to go on to that site I mentioned (above) to work out when I should try to fish.