Brisbane River Session #171 and #172

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi all

Yesterday I decided to head out for a solo session on the river (friends not free). I woke up a bit before six and got to the train station, only to miss the 6am train. I got the next one and eventually arrived at Roma Street then Southbank, where I ran with my cart, backpack, and fishing rods to get to the ferry on time. I luckily made it, and was at my chosen spot shortly after. 

There wasn't a lot of bait around, but after a few throws I had enough herring for the couple of hours I'd be fishing. I also tried for some prawns but only got more herring, which I kept throwing back. I lobbed a big one out on my overhead, and even though there were other lines out this was the only one getting interest. I rebaited with a half herring, and it was being nibbled immediately, but it was about five minutes before I heard line screaming off my reel. I got to it after about 30 seconds, and set the hook. The fish was heavy, and after some head shakes it took off again. Annoyingly, it managed to find a nearby snag and break my 30 pound leader on it's run.  I suspect it was either a jewfish or stingray, but based off the long time it took for the fish to eat the bait I think it may have been a jewie. 

After I rerigged, I casted a bit more for prawns with no luck. I then started waiting for a line to go off, and had about two more hours of fishing (had to leave by 11 to watch the Roar play Macarthur, at Suncorp Stadium that arvo). I had a couple little hits, but another 30 minutes or so saw me hooked up to something quite feisty. I was annoyed to see a large pike eel, which I cut off after retrieving my sinker and as much line as possible. A little while later, my overhead was going off - I set the hooks with a relatively light drag and hooked up to something alright. A fair few headshakes and a couple small runs saw a 44cm squire landed, which made the day worthwhile!

Nice river squire - my biggest landbased so far

After that, I fished for about another hour but then called it quits after releasing the herring and washing down the jetty. I let the squire go, and the soccer game was fun to watch (even though it was 0-0 full time). 

Stats of Trip:

Tide: 3AM, .3M, Low, 8:45AM, 2.2M, High

Moon Phase: 97.7%, increasing to Full Moon

Bait Caught: Herring, ponyfish

Bait Used: Live and dead herring, whole pike (which caught the pike eel)

Air Pressure: 1012, increasing throughout the session

Humidity: 83%

Tackle Used: 20 and 30 pound braid mainlines, 30 pound fluoro leaders, size 4 star sinkers, large barrel swivels, 4/o and 6/o circle hooks, Abu Garcia Barra King on Ugly Stik, Abu Garcia Nexus on Shimano Sedona 6000, Shimano AERO on Kmart rod.

Moon Rise/Set: 4:20AM Rise, 4:15PM Set

Other Notes: Not a heap of bait, some big herring but mostly used small ones. Sunny, rain first thing on ferry. Lost fish probably jewfish. No prawns in morning but in arvo they were there (mate caught some). Fun sesh! Running sinker for the squire, paternoster for the eel, running sinker for the bust off. 

Overall Success Rate: 60% - a nice squire

After that session, I was going to go fishing with a mate the next day, but he cancelled after the soccer game, so I decided to return to this location solo. I was lucky as my Dad offered to give me a lift, which I accepted. I arrived at the jetty a little past 6 in the morning, and my first throw brought a heap of herring. Following this, I was pleased to start catching some decent banana prawns (my mate who was there the prior arvo had got some and I'd seen some reports from other areas in the river). I had my lines out though, and it would've only been 20 minutes before my Shimano Aero baitrunner was hit hard.

Line was peeling off the spool, it my rod was pulled around the jetty. After I set the hook, I could tell it was a good fish. I started off making some progress, but it wasn't long before the fish took a couple of scorching runs underneath the jetty. I managed to pull it out, and after two or three more runs where the fish shot off around structure, I saw my leader. The fish was trying to stay deep, but eventually I managed to make an ID. It was a good thready, around the meter mark!  Seeing as though I was fishing solo, had no net, and had tangled lines, I knew landing it was going to be a struggle. It was about five minutes before I got it to a position I could lip grip it, and I lifted it up straight onto a damp brag mat. After I grabbed a photo (measured 101cm), I vented the fish using a (hyperdermic) needle, and heard the air come out of the swim bladder. I then lowered the fish back into the water, and started swimming it.

Despite the fact it seemed like it was going to swim off initially, it kept going belly up. I swum it for about a half hour before I decided to bleed it and take it home. I was a bit disappointed by this, as it must've just been bad luck it died (as it was vented), but I was still stoked to have caught the fish! I called my Dad up at this point, and after bringing in a stingray which had taken the bait half way through the thready fight (relatively small) I got back to cast netting. Here I caught about 15 nice prawn, which added up to about 0.5KG's. My Dad eventually arrived with an esky and some ice, so we got a couple more prawns in the net before cleaning the jetty and icing down the fish. I spent the rest of the morning cleaning up my gear and the fish, and will be having some in the next couple of nights (and giving some away to @TheCharliefisho). 

Got a photo back at home as the photo I got while fishing was trash.

Prawns

3KG of fish and half a kilo of prawns (note: the brown dots are just leaves)

Big notches - filleting job was a bit messy around the backbone

Thready minus fillets

So overall, it was a pretty successful weekend with two short sessions landbased in the Brisbane River. I probably won't be fishing as much as I'd like to now that school has started again but I'm hoping I'll be able to get out once or twice in the next few weeks. I'm pretty happy with the thready as it is the first I've caught in months and also the first I've seen caught landbased in a few months too. Hopefully now it's warming up there will only be more getting around!

Stats of Trip:

Tide: 3:40AM, .3M, Low, 9:30AM, 2.3M, High 

Moon Phase: 99.8% - basically full moon (but full moon is tomorrow at 7am)

Bait Caught: Live herring, prawns, scat

Bait Used: Live herring and prawns

Air Pressure: 1010 increasing to 1016 - quite low

Humidity: 90%

Tackle Used: 20 and 30 pound braid mainlines, 30 pound fluoro leaders, size 4 star sinkers, large barrel swivels, 4/o and 6/o circle hooks, Abu Garcia Barra King on Ugly Stik, Abu Garcia Nexus on Shimano Sedona 6000, Shimano AERO on Kmart rod.

Moon Rise/Set: 5:00AM, 5:15PM

Other Notes: Rain last night and in the morning, cloudy. Bite was around 24 hours before full moon. Somewhat humid and muggy. Lots of prawns and bait possibly bringing the thready. Paternoster rig doing the damage on the thready.

Overall Success Rate: 85% - would've been better if the thready released but still a good session!

Hope you enjoyed reading,

Cheers Hamish

[ellicat]

11 minutes ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

whole pike (which caught the pike eel)

Well, that makes sense. haha

A couple of successful missions before knuckling down with the school work...just what you need to get you through. Nice fish.

[Angry51]

Well done Hamish.

All that hard work is paying off.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

17 minutes ago, ellicat said:

Well, that makes sense. haha

A couple of successful missions before knuckling down with the school work...just what you need to get you through. Nice fish.

Thanks Brian, definitely glad I managed to catch the thready! 

6 minutes ago, Angry51 said:

Well done Hamish.

All that hard work is paying off.

Thanks Angry.

[Another Wazza]

Great work Hamish!, they are both good fish

[Old Scaley]

You are having a pretty good year, Hamish. Congrats. 

[Cavvy]

Deja vu for me with the last big threadfin you caught Hamish - the call for help - "fish has gone belly up bring the esky".  Big difference this time was you looked after everything when we get home including all the filleting.  Hopefully will taste good as we've a fair bit to get through!

Any other tips from folk on how to keep these big ones alive?  Maybe the time you had to take getting it landed after it surfaced was an issue - being solo without a net.

[ellicat]

1 hour ago, Cavvy said:

Any other tips from folk on how to keep these big ones alive?

I don't think there is too much to to be done. They are just a susceptible species that wear themselves out with the fight they put up. The best chance to give them, as with all fish, is to leave them in the water and release as quick as possible using a release weight if necessary and/or practical. Fisheries don't class them as vulnerable etc so taking one every now and then isn't hurting sustainability.

[subtlefly]

Nice work!

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

22 hours ago, Another Wazza said:

Great work Hamish!, they are both good fish

20 hours ago, Old Scaley said:

You are having a pretty good year, Hamish. Congrats. 

43 minutes ago, subtlefly said:

Nice work!

Thanks guys, I’ve been having some luck lately.

59 minutes ago, ellicat said:

I don't think there is too much to to be done. They are just a susceptible species that wear themselves out with the fight they put up. The best chance to give them, as with all fish, is to leave them in the water and release as quick as possible using a release weight if necessary and/or practical. Fisheries don't class them as vulnerable etc so taking one every now and then isn't hurting sustainability.

2 hours ago, Cavvy said:

Deja vu for me with the last big threadfin you caught Hamish - the call for help - "fish has gone belly up bring the esky".  Big difference this time was you looked after everything when we get home including all the filleting.  Hopefully will taste good as we've a fair bit to get through!

Any other tips from folk on how to keep these big ones alive?  Maybe the time you had to take getting it landed after it surfaced was an issue - being solo without a net.

You’re right @ellicat, they are not the toughest fish and keeping the odd one is fine too. Lucky they taste good! 

[benno573]

I wouldn’t feel bad about it not releasing, I personally would have released it straight into my esky…

 

@ellicat I don’t know that @Cavvy was deeply concerned about sustainability, my guess would be he was more exasperated that he AGAIN had to rush off with an esky to bring a fish home… on the plus side 3kg of fish @ $40/kg… it’s not the worst result…. That’s how I justify it anyway!

@AUS-BNE-FISHO - might be time to invest in a folding esky, fish bag or similar to be deployed in such situations? Would help you get the fish chilled down quicker and increase the eating quality. 

[Cavvy]

1 hour ago, benno573 said:

I wouldn’t feel bad about it not releasing, I personally would have released it straight into my esky…

 

@ellicat I don’t know that @Cavvy was deeply concerned about sustainability, my guess would be he was more exasperated that he AGAIN had to rush off with an esky to bring a fish home… on the plus side 3kg of fish @ $40/kg… it’s not the worst result…. That’s how I justify it anyway!

@AUS-BNE-FISHO - might be time to invest in a folding esky, fish bag or similar to be deployed in such situations? Would help you get the fish chilled down quicker and increase the eating quality. 

Yes a folding esky sounds good - I can feel one coming on for Christmas!

[kmcrosby78]

Congrats on another great threadie Hamish and also a landbased squire PB, on fire!!!  Enjoy those fillets, it's been a few years since I at them (I still haven't caught one - my brother caught two in the one night with me .......) but they taste great!!  And yes, a fish bag would be a good acquisition . Be good for Santa ...... 

[rayke1938]

Good feed on the flesh remaining on the backbone and the cheeks.

Congrats

Ray

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

10 hours ago, rayke1938 said:

Good feed on the flesh remaining on the backbone and the cheeks.

Congrats

Ray

18 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Congrats on another great threadie Hamish and also a landbased squire PB, on fire!!!  Enjoy those fillets, it's been a few years since I at them (I still haven't caught one - my brother caught two in the one night with me .......) but they taste great!!  And yes, a fish bag would be a good acquisition . Be good for Santa ...... 

Thanks guys - I did get the cheek meat and scraped some meat off the backbone so hopefully that will be nice as well.

[jon]

Awesome work yet again Hamish!! A small fish bag with a few ice bricks would serve you well when travelling. dispatch and fillet the fish straight away put fillets in a plastic bag and straight in the cooler bag.

[Thorbjorn Hale]

Nice catch Hamish, i've seen a few threadys being caught recently i think im going to start targeting them again.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Went cast netting this arvo - third throw got a net full of ten (20cm) catfish - spent half an hour getting them out and then left after a couple more casts for nothing . Middle reaches of the river don't seem to be too bad despite the water releases atm either, but it was the last of the rising.