A quiet past few weeks

[charlie.hans.fishing]

Hello everyone.

Here's a report which will highlight all my recent fishing sessions in salt & freshwater environments over the past few weeks. 

To say the least it was very quiet on the fishing front..

 

Condamine Trip

This was a small trip with a friend where we stayed in a town called Killarney,which the Condamine River ran through. 

I figured it would be well worth while giving it a shot here to catch my first Murray Cod or yellowbelly. (thank you to those on the forum who gave me helpful pointers regarding this)

For the first session we clambered our way down a steep grassy bank, near a bridge. This was a well renowned cod hole to the locals and recently, a 60+ cod was caught here.

 

We fished for roughly 2.5 hours, with locally bought live worms and tasty cheese.

Additionally, I used my newly purchase baitcaster setup with a olive-coloured spinnerbait purchased at the servo.

Here, they sold a variety of fishing gear, including handmade hardbodies from Dave's lures - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057184071213, bait, setups, terminal gear, etc.

 

We waited eagerly to see some interest on the worm rod, which soon buckled over.

After a good 5 or so seconds of fight , the presumed cod or yellowbelly ran right into the snaggy bend of the system and bricked me. Bugger!

The remainder of the session had no action. Bummer. 

 

As we were doing other activities such as hiking into Bald Rock national park and Girraween National park, as well as observing Brown's falls, I only fit in 1 other session.

The most convenient spot was the bridge again, so we headed over and soaked some lines, using the same baits on 2 different setups as the 1st session. 

Unfortunately, only after 50 odd minutes we were interrupted by heavy rainfall and were forced to head back, with no fish. 

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Gear and stats:

Setups:

Daiwa Legalis lt2500d + Daiwa Exceler 2-6kg w/ 10lb jbraid 4x. (Worm Rod)

5/0 baitholder and 4/0 circle hooks used, live worms. 

14lb leader and trace.

2&3 ball sinkers used. 

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Abu garcia salty stage krx 1-3kg, 1000 shimano nexave. (bream and light spinning setup so not necessarily suitable for cod fishing but its just something i wanted to bring along)

5/0 baitholder hooks used, tasty cheese blocks. 

14lb leader and trace. 

2&3 ball sinkers used. 

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samaki zing 17-20lb baitcaster rod, daiwa fuego ct 100hs w/ 20lb 4x j braid. 

20lb fluorocarbon leader.

tsunami spinnerbait in olive ayu colour. 

 

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Coolum/Sunshine Coast Trip with Family and friends. 

 

For a couple of nights my friends and I including @AUS-BNE-FISHO stayed up the coast.

This was just a little mates trip but with Hamish and I being into fishing we of course had to bring some rods haha. 

Like, what else are we meant to do?

Anyway,

We only fished a couple sessions in stumers creek from memory, using only lures.

We had no luck, it seemed pretty quiet about for others too.

It's good to mention someone on facebook caught a decent jack on bait here recently though, further up from the mouth of Stumers. 

 

For my family it's a traditional thing to stay at Coolum Beach for at least a week every Christmas holidays.

Unlike most years, this years fishing was abysmal.

Usually we catch whiting, flathead, and bream in decent numbers and size at various spots in and around the noosa, maroochy, and coolum area.

This year was not it, though. 

 

For our first session my dad and I went beach fishing.

I used my newly bought surf rod from @Tuna are fish (cheers) and my dad was using a 7ft shimano sonic rod. 

At the local bait shop on David Low Way we purchased enough bait to set us up for the trip, which we would learn later was not necessary. 

We bought beach worms, small and large prawns, and some whole squid. 

 

The afternoon we arrived is when we set out, and we found a gutter and started fishing.

The weather was unfortunately quite bad this year as well, with it being quite overcast, rainy, and windy. 

We fished for a couple hours before dark.

My dad was getting plenty of bites which were either pickers or just missing the hook, and I hooked up to what was thought to be a decent dart or whiting but unfortunately pulled hooks. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Average Arvo

 

@AUS-BNE-FISHO was coincidentally staying in the same area as me at the same time, and the next day he set out and i believed caught 8 dart.

The morning after this, I went again with my dad and brother further up the beach at a better looking gutter.

We managed a few bites but otherwise had no luck. 

Bugger 2x.

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Gear and stats:

Setups:

Jarvis Walker 12ft white tail 5-10kg surf rod, 4000ax shimano reel.

15lb braid, 10lb fluoro leader.

Mustad long shank hooks.

3 ball sinkers.

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Daiwa legalis 2500 reel, shimano 7ft sonic snapper, 4-8kg.

10lb braid, 10lb fluoro leader. 

Mustad long shank hooks.

3 ball sinkers.

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(brother's combo)

Jarvis walker 6'6 rod 2-5kg (cheap but good bait rod), 2500 shimano fx. 

10lb braid, 10lb fluoro leader. 

Mustad long shank hooks.

3 ball sinkers.

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Bait

Beach worms and servo prawns. 

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Tides and Moon

1st beach session - 4:30pm outgoing tide, 1.2m. 

Moon - 35% full 

2nd beach session - 5:20am, outgoing tide, 1.5m.

Moon - 25% full 

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Noosa Spit Session

As something to do I decided to head down to the Noosa Spit area near the dog beach and river mouth one afternoon with my family. 

We fished with bait and lures. 

I was using one of my light setups with a slim swimz, and I had some nibbles and a follow up from an ok sized bream but no luck. 

My brother (who's only 6 so this is fun for him) was catching a variety of little species such as some tropical things like scat or mosies, and a 25cm or so bream, on bait.

 

Smallllll bream. 

A guy fishing right next to us got lucky and managed a few whiting which he took home for a feed.

Once again we used long shanks and baitholders with basic servo prawns. 

 

Hire Boat Day.

On our second last day of the trip we hired a BBQ pontoon boat from one of the noosa river hire places. 

It was a really nice day as the sun had come out. 

 

We left around 9AM and left the marina at around 10. 

 

Our first destination was a little inlet off the main river. 

There was sandy banks on either side and a deeper dropoff in the middle where some boats were anchored. 

I casted around some soft plastics for flatties and then some deeper diving cranks in hopes for bream around the boats but I had no luck. 

My dad, mum, and brother were using bait and had a few bites here and there but had no hookups. 

 

We then zoomed off and headed to the Noosa spit near the mouth of the main river, had a swim, as well as cooked up a lunch of burgers and grilled corn.

We fished for whiting on the flats as i changed the rigs onto some lighter leaders and smaller hooks, sinkers, etc. 

A family next to us caught a very undersize flathead on bait however we had no luck.. 

There was a lot of disturbance from swimmers, jetskis, other boats, etc, so the fish on the flats were probably quite spooked. 

 

For the remaining part of the day (3 hours) we headed back into the upper reaches of the river past all the hire company shop fronts.

I jigged for some bait using a sabiki jig but I couldnt get onto any despite the nice deep water. Also, none of these hire companies provide sounders of course so fishing can be a little tricky off of them. 

The best thing we could do was try scout out any bait around or just pull up to a random spot, drop the anchor, throw some lures, and drown some baits. 

Fortunately for my brother, he hooked onto a little leatherjacket . Little kid's luck, I guess. Not that it's much to brag about, bro. 

We've always found that we will have our lines out for a while and then pass them onto my brother and he instantly gets fish. Lol.

After fishing the remaining time to no avail, we decided to call it a day and drive back to the hire place. 

Oh well. 

Tides: 10AM - 0.9m, outgoing, 4:40PM, 0.6. 

Moon: 8% full.   

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Daiwa exceler and daiwa legalis, Shimano sonic and shimano ax, Abu salty stage and shimano nexave, telescopic shimano maikuro II baitjig rod, Jarvis walker rampage and shimano ax, Samaki zing gen 3 baitcast and daiwa fuego

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Circle hooks, baitholders, longshanks. 

6, 10, 14, and 20lb leaders. 

2.5' minnows, zerek live shrimp, barra buster hardbodies, little crankbaits, 3.5 inch baitjunkies.  

Squid and prawn used as bait. 

 

Final Session

 

In the past, I've caught some flatties on lures on the Gympie terrace esplanade, on the shallow sandy banks. 

On my last day of the trip, my dad and I headed here and casted around 2.5 inch soft plastics in different colours in conjunction with S-factor. We covered all the ground which was best of about 1.3km. 

Not a single flathead or fish. 

I guess that's just how it is sometimes. 

 

 

Cheers to everyone for reading. 

Apologies if this report isn't well formatted, it was a fairly rushed one as I wanted to get it out of the way haha. 

Hope you enjoyed,

 

Charlie. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Nice report Charlie, shame the fishing was a bit quiet. Did you manage to find anywhere to pump yabbies? 

[ellicat]

Thanks for the report, Charlie. That's fishing. Good on you for giving it a go.

My trips so far this year have all been very quiet for hours on end. Luckily, we've managed a keeper or two to finish off.

[Kat]

Great report.  I too have found the fishing very hard this year.  Some days absolutely no action - not even the normal pickers in the usual spots.

Still better than most other activities I can think of though!

[charlie.hans.fishing]

1 hour ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Nice report Charlie, shame the fishing was a bit quiet. Did you manage to find anywhere to pump yabbies? 

I was going to pump them and see if they were at stumers but I didn't end up getting a chance. Maybe in my free time I'll go pump them for fun. 

[charlie.hans.fishing]

50 minutes ago, Kat said:

Great report.  I too have found the fishing very hard this year.  Some days absolutely no action - not even the normal pickers in the usual spots.

Still better than most other activities I can think of though!

That's right!

[Bretto77]

Everyone gets bummed out by the fish (or lack thereof) sometimes. You have no chance if you don't get in and try, so good on you for adding to the experience bank. Like Kat said, we have found things unusually quiet at times recently too. It happens.  

[Bretto77]

1 hour ago, TheCharliefisho said:

I was going to pump them and see if they were at stumers but I didn't end up getting a chance. Maybe in my free time I'll go pump them for fun. 

Fresh and/or live bait is leagues above servo bait. Cheese and chalk is the old saying. Speaking of cheese, you mentioned trying it for the cod around Killarney. A mate of mine from Darwin was in Shepparton recently and picked up some nice cod on cheese. He seems to think that it wasn't so much the cheese as the shrimp that gathered on the cheese that got the cods attention. It got me thinking anyway.

[charlie.hans.fishing]

14 minutes ago, Bretto77 said:

Fresh and/or live bait is leagues above servo bait. Cheese and chalk is the old saying. Speaking of cheese, you mentioned trying it for the cod around Killarney. A mate of mine from Darwin was in Shepparton recently and picked up some nice cod on cheese. He seems to think that it wasn't so much the cheese as the shrimp that gathered on the cheese that got the cods attention. It got me thinking anyway.

Yeah, I would've gotten some fresher bait if possible but I did try to look for better quality frozen bait opposed to the tweed stuff. That's an interesting point, you've got me thinking too now...

[Rick Ludd]

Great detailed report there @TheCharliefisho. You had lots of luck there, some good and some not so good.

That Leatherjacket that your brother caught is a Tripodfish and I think a Blacktip one. Which is not that common a capture so he can brag about that. 

Keep up the good work mate.

[charlie.hans.fishing]

1 hour ago, Rick Ludd said:

Great detailed report there @TheCharliefisho. You had lots of luck there, some good and some not so good.

That Leatherjacket that your brother caught is a Tripodfish and I think a Blacktip one. Which is not that common a capture so he can brag about that. 

Keep up the good work mate.

Thanks Rick. 

He was excited to hear! I guess he can boast about it 

 

Charlie