queensland brisbane river session #234 [should've stayed]

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi all

This morning I snuck out for a quick fish to one of my spots that I hadn't been to in quite a while. I convinced my Dad to give me a lift, but first stop of the morning was to catch bait. Unfortunately, my bait spot didn't really have anything at it, so after spending fifteen minutes there we headed to the main fishing spot. I was there a bit before six, and the tide was still rising. This was good, because it meant I could catch a couple silver biddies and a Chrissy tree of anchovies. 

I sent some baits out on sunrise, and kept throwing my net in hope of a few more livies. No success was had, and by 7:00AM when I had only received a few picks I was starting to feel the pressure. I had a few mates coming from school who weren't fishos so was hoping I'd be able to put them on some fish. Sure enough, at 8:00AM, I had some tailor bites which didn't hook up, then the next cast wound in a 48CM or so model that provided some solid aerobatics. 

Tailor

I sent a bait back out, but it went a bit quiet again (released the tailor). Luckily, Michael arrived to the jetty as well, so I had some company. My mates from school like to sleep in, so I wasn't expecting them anytime soon. I guess that's a shame for them, because I pulled in two more tailor over the next hour or so, the best being 53CM (new PB!). 

Nice

We kept both of these with a plan to cook one up on the jetty, and after a rather uneventful bite period Michael got some more tailor hits. Unluckily, it didn't hook up, but we were hopeful of a few more fish. There weren't anymore livies about either, but we persisted with a mix of dead and live bait. Tailor were caught on live biddy/fingered biddy/live herring. 

My mate Nicu eventually arrived, but it was mid way through a particularly fast run out tide so we weren't expecting many fish. Luckily, it was nearly lunchtime, so after some casting practice, we filleted and cooked up the fish. This coincided with my other two friends arriving, so once everyone was there we all had a feed of some fresh tailor (which was very tasty). 

The bite remained quiet throughout the day, and even with a mix of live and dead bait we failed to hook anything big. Eventually, around 1:00PM, the boys headed off on a shopping trip to pick up lunch. It had been very slow fishing in this time, with hardly any bites or bait turning up either. Luckily for me, sometime after they had left, I baitchecked one of my rods which had a piece of tailor belly as bait. As I started winding in, I thought to myself, 'This is on', and sure enough as I began to bring the weight up to the surface it took off a few times. Thinking it was a ray, I pulled it in quite roughly, and even though it was running a fair bit I kept winding. I was very pleased to see a rather large flatty surface, nice! After a good netting job from Michael, we had the fish on the jetty. A quick pic and I sent the 75CM model on it's way to get caught when it was even bigger. 

New PB Flatty

After that was sorted out, everyone was a bit more hopeful a bigger fish would cruise through. It was well into the rising tide now, and my mates eventually returned with some pizza for everyone - they should've stayed! We all dug into the feed, and with the last of the livebaits lobbed out were hopeful of a fish. Apart from another guy fishing, John, pulling in a sand crab, it remained quiet for the rest of the arvo, much to the disappointment of my mates. By 3:00PM, we'd all had enough, and after cleaning up the jetty of all litter from the previous night we were out of there. A ferry and train ride home saw the end to a pretty fun day for me - hopefully next weekend I'll be able to put my mates onto their first decent fish from the river if they come out again.

Stats of Trip:

Tide: 6:15AM, 1.8M, High, 12:30PM, .5M, Low, 7:30PM, 2.5M, High

Moon Phase: 84.5%, nearly full moon. Lots of run. 

Bait Caught and Used: Live anchovies, live herring, live silver biddy. 

Fish Caught: Tailor x 3, Flathead x 1

Tackle Used: Shimano Baitrunner DC 8000 on Kmart Rod, Okuma Coronado CDX 55 on Silstar Crystal Powertip Rod, Shimano Sedona 6000 on Abu Garcia Nanotech Nexus. 30 pound braid mainlines and 50 pound Black Magic trace. Size 4 star sinker and 6/o circle hooks. 

Air Pressure: 82%

Humidity: 1024

Notes: No prawns or trawlers, potentially suggesting they have left the river/were not there. Not much bait either so would make sense why there were no threadies or jewies chasing the baits. Also a fair few small queenfish around. 

Overall Success Rates: 70% - fun day

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed. 

Cheers Hamish  

[Angry51]

That's a good report Hamish.

Lunch fresh outta the water and that's a nice flattie.

Your mates miss the best part of the day sleeping in like that, they don't know what they're missing.

[ellicat]

So that's where all the fish have gone. haha

Good day, Hamish. Do you reckon your mates will get up earlier next time ?

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

59 minutes ago, Angry51 said:

That's a good report Hamish.

Lunch fresh outta the water and that's a nice flattie.

Your mates miss the best part of the day sleeping in like that, they don't know what they're missing.

Thanks Angry, it was a pretty good lunch. 

31 minutes ago, ellicat said:

So that's where all the fish have gone. haha

Good day, Hamish. Do you reckon your mates will get up earlier next time ?

Probably not Brian, knowing them.

[Neil Stratford]

Well done on the PB’s . Couple of solid fish there.

regards

Neil

[Old Scaley]

Nice work, Hamish. Pretty impressive tailor for the river! And a great flattie as well. I guess that is now your new favourite spot.

[mangajack]

Almost August now....the rivers will be mostly bare of predatory fish soon.

Plus August is the start of that horrible brown snot algae bloom every year.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

7 hours ago, Neil Stratford said:

Well done on the PB’s . Couple of solid fish there.

regards

Neil

Thanks Neil. 

4 hours ago, Old Scaley said:

Nice work, Hamish. Pretty impressive tailor for the river! And a great flattie as well. I guess that is now your new favourite spot.

Cheers Steve. I do like this spot but it can often be very quiet as well. 

1 hour ago, mangajack said:

Almost August now....the rivers will be mostly bare of predatory fish soon.

Plus August is the start of that horrible brown snot algae bloom every year.

Why do the fish leave the river @mangajack? Is it something to do with the algae?

[Doughnuts]

Nice work Hamish, nothing like resetting the PB's

[mangajack]

4 hours ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Why do the fish leave the river @mangajack? Is it something to do with the algae?

I believe it is so fine it either irritates the fish or clogs their gills and they move to escape it....either right upstream or out into the bay.

A few years ago i saw a fish kill whilst the algae was thick...yet algae introduces oxygen into the water....2+2 = they probably couldn't breathe.  It happens fairly frequently in this lagoon and always in September.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

3 hours ago, Doughnuts said:

Nice work Hamish, nothing like resetting the PB's

Thanks Doughnuts. 

1 hour ago, mangajack said:

I believe it is so fine it either irritates the fish or clogs their gills and they move to escape it....either right upstream or out into the bay.

A few years ago i saw a fish kill whilst the algae was thick...yet algae introduces oxygen into the water....2+2 = they probably couldn't breathe.  It happens fairly frequently in this lagoon and always in September.

That makes sense, I don't fish much in August anyways because of school but will keep an eye out for it when I do go out around then and see what difference it makes. 

[Andrew_P]

Interesting theory on the algae @mangajack

hamish - if you were fishing Saturday morning there is a weekend closure for commercial fishing activities in the bay and river from 6pm Friday until 6pm Sunday. That could explain it. 
 

My understanding about the reason for the closure is to reduce conflict between rec fishers and commercial fishers in this area. Also an interesting concept

 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

32 minutes ago, Andrew_P said:

Interesting theory on the algae @mangajack

hamish - if you were fishing Saturday morning there is a weekend closure for commercial fishing activities in the bay and river from 6pm Friday until 6pm Sunday. That could explain it. 
 

My understanding about the reason for the closure is to reduce conflict between rec fishers and commercial fishers in this area. Also an interesting concept

 

Thanks Andrew, I guess it can get pretty crowded in areas the prawn trawlers are fishing so probably a good thing. 

[kmcrosby78]

Great session there Hamish, very solid tailor and that's a cracking flattie!!  Out of interest, were you out your way or further towards the city/mouth? No need to be specific .

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

46 minutes ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Great session there Hamish, very solid tailor and that's a cracking flattie!!  Out of interest, were you out your way or further towards the city/mouth? No need to be specific .

Hi KM,

This session was much closer to the mouth, compared to where I usually fish. I haven't had much luck locally recently apart from a few prawns, but going to put in a bit more effort around some closer spots now that school has started again.