queensland Brisbane River Breaming

[blue_mako]

Hey Guys.

Tested out the new combo today. It went great and feels way better then the stiff old Dropshot and not so smooth Symeter.

I have found the IMX holds hooks much better, as I expected with the sensitive flex. I only ended up dropping what felt like a Flathead since I thought I was snagged then the snag started swimming off. First head shake and out came the hook.

Anyway, I got down to my new favourite spot along Portside at around 1pm since I finished early on my last day of school . It started off slow since the tide was lowish and not moving much. I got a few good knocks here and there with a follow of about 10 or so small 5cm Bream every cast near the bank.

At about 1:20 it started bucketing down and I took shelter for about 10mins before it calmed. I was still getting the regular big hit with lots of smaller fish following until I met up with the spot that has been producing quite a few fish lately.

I began casting a 2inch Bloodworm Power Grub on 1/16th Jighead out deep then before it even got half way to the bottom Bream were already over it.

The bites I was getting weren't really held long enough to strike for so I began using a slow roll and wiggling the rod tip rappidly hoping that when the rod tip whipped up and picked up the slack a quick bite from a Bream would turn into a hook up.

After about 3 casts I was onto my first fish on the new combo. An average 20cm Bream. I got the usual, \"Wow there's acctually fish in the Brisbane River\" compliment and threw him back.

Two casts later, a bit better Breambo at around the 27cm fork length. Two more Bream followed in the next few casts at around 23cms. Also a small 15 or so cm Estuary Cod.

I moved a few meters down onto the rocks, closer to the water to stop the belly in the line anfter missing a few hits. After about 5 casts I had two more slightly bigger then legal Breambo's. When, wack! zzzzzzzzzz for a few good seconds this fish just took it and ran on the 2lb. The way it was kicking had me saying, \"Finally a bigger Bream .\" But when I saw a quick glimpse of brown I thought no way is this my first Jack. (And it wasn't.) Up came my P.B. Estuary Cod on artificial at somewhere between 30-35cms. He also decided he wanted to show me what he had for lunch and out came a little 7-8cm Breambo .

Soon after I got what I thought was a snag. Until it started swimming and kicking and up comes a nice little Flattie around the same length of the Cod.

All up it was a good session once I found the fish. I would have stayed longer but I ran out of light Jigheads and I'm now getting low on Grubs. So the total loss was 4 Jigheads, 4 or 5 Bloodworm tails, 2 Wriggler tails and 5 or 6 Pink Lemonade tails.

For 6 Bream, 2 Cod and a Flattie it was a pretty good day. You can't beat a bite a cast!

Cheers, Troy

[Angus]

Nice one Trojan.

Thats a good plastics session anywhere.

Good old Brisbane River.

Angus

[blue_mako]

I'll give you Trojan .

[Mick]

I remeber the days of being able to fish when I wanted... now days I have to plan it 3 weeks in advance and go no matter what the weather as i wont get another chance for a long time..

Troy would you take new bags of Gulps or what ever your fancy in return for some lesson on using SP... you seam to have well and truley mastered it ....

[blue_mako]

I don't like using Gulps . It's cheating cause it's not even plastic and fish will acctually swallow it. Whereas Power Baits and Squidgies they will spit it out once they swim off and realise they shouldn't be eating it.

What gear do you have Mick? Do you have anything suitable for plastics? Get a day off soon and you can come for a fish. If you don't have the right gear by all means you can use my other combo .

Troy

[Mick]

I have the gear ...I think:unsure:

7ft Berkley Abu Drop Shot Carbon one piece rod

Diawa Luxel 2500 reel

6lb Playpus Pretest Mono (should I be using it as a leader.. with a lighter fireline as main line ??)

Nitro Jig heads various

Various brands of platics...

Post edited by: Mick, at: 2006/11/16 14:55

[blue_mako]

Yup, that's pretty much it. Yeh just get something like 2-4lb Fireline so you can feel more structure and bites and set hooks quicker. 2lb Fireline will break at around 5-6lb of pressure so don't be shaky about going light with braid. Also just get the cheapest fluorocarbon you can find in 4-6lb for leader.

If you don't already have 55mm Squidgy Wrigglers in Frostbite colour or 2inch Berkley Power Grubs in Bloodworm colour or 2inch Atomic Fat Grubs in Crawdad Gold colour then get some of these with some light jigheads, no heavier then about 1/12th oz. If you have grubs alredy don't bother buying anymore, they all seem to have similar results, even the pretty pink ones . They work best around Portside since its rock botom and walls so you just slow roll it over the top of the rocks and what ever lives well around rocks is what you'll catch.

Troy

Post edited by: blue_mako, at: 2006/11/16 15:20

[Mick]

WIll the pretest work for the leadrer or is the fluro the go...

[blue_mako]

With Pretest you will still probably catch fish. Though you will always increase your chances if you use fluorocarbon. I use 2lb Fireline Crystal with 3lb Nitlon fluorocarbon leader. The more finesse you go the more hook ups you'll get, you just have to be patient in landing fish. Though generally speaking it shouldn't take much more then a minute for most fish to be landed anyway, even on the light gear.

Troy

[Mick]

Well I am off to K mart / Amart tonight anyway so I will see what I can pick up...

Portside is that the new passenger terminal / Dndy theater etc... down from BW?

[blue_mako]

Sure is Mick. When are you up for a fish? I have all holidays so just about all days will be free from now on.

Troy

P.S. Don't buy Berkley Vanish leader! The breaking strain is marked down. So if it says 2lb on the spool it will probably break at around 4lb. But you never really know what the breaking strain is so I would avoid it. I have learnt from my mistakes .

Post edited by: blue_mako, at: 2006/11/16 16:02

[Mick]

Thanks for the heads up ..

I will see when I will bw free for a fish .... working 50 hours a week looking after a 20 month old and a pregnant very morning / afternoon / evening sick wife is leaving me a bit short of time at the moment ... would an \"early\" morning Sat suit you?? thats about all I can fit in for a couple of weeks ....

[blue_mako]

Yeah mate, that's fine. How early do you mean? Because the earlier the better and more prepared you are for sunrise. You name a time and I will be there. Which Saturday suits you?

Troy

[Mick]

Yes that early.. this Sat just before sunrise sounds good to me ...

[werewolf]

Troy you must get absolutely bricked at times fishing that light, but even small fish would be good fun:silly:

How is it that 2 pound braid breaks at 6?

That doesn't make sense to me:blush:

[Angus]

Werewolf dont mean to answer for Trojan. But braid just seems to have a higher than stated breaking strain. Go figure.

Angus

Post edited by: Angus, at: 2006/11/17 09:03

[blue_mako]

Yeah, they tend to mark up the breaking strins of braid because it would be extremely thin if they did a pretest braid to break at the exact lb of breaking strain. I think it's a marketing thing.

Troy

[ando_04]

Mick: What time tommorow would you like to meet? Say 3am? What time would you be there until? Also what gear did you pick up from Amart and Kmart?

Troy

P.S. I'm at Ando's house, I forgot it auto logs on as him .

Post edited by: ando_04, at: 2006/11/17 12:45

[Cowfish13]

Don't they mark the breaking strain at the knot in some braids?

[blue_mako]

Cowfish: Yeah they do. But they mark it by using the Palomar Knot, which is a terminal knot to a hook. But If your fishing a leader then many leader knots will acctually be stronger then a standard Palomar Knot.

I use a Palomar when I use Stick Baits (Lures that you have to impart the action for. e.g. Power Minnows). When I use Grubs, Paddle Tails or Hardbodies I use a Perfection Loop Knot since it lets the lure move more easily. Though for Leader Knots I always use a Uni to Blood Knot. The Perfection Loop and Palomar Knots are some of the strongest terminal knots, though the main key to lurefishing is your Leader Knot. The Palomar and Perfection Loop Knots are strong but a Uni to Blood Knot is stronger. So what will happen is, when you get a snag, the line will always bust at your Jighead or Lure so you don't have to keep retying leaders .

Troy

[jeff f]

good karma to you troy, i think i just learned more about ultra light sp fishing from this thread than i've picked up anywhere else. you should be holding classes

[Angus]

Uni to Blood is good.

But i still cant go past Blood to Blood knot.

But it has the smae result. Nearly always it will break at the jig head as opposed to the leader knot. And i totally agree with your logic Troy, anything is better than tying leader knots all day!!!!

The funny thing is to avoid leader knots James uses mono straight through. Now so many people will critisize this method, but i think James's catch rate speaks for itself!!!

My point here is that while gear is important, dont forget that you also need some skill and patience to back it up.

Angus

Post edited by: Angus, at: 2006/11/24 06:54

[Maliika]

Hi there!!

I am fairly new to fishing in Brisbane and was wondering about some good spots to catch bream and/or whiting. I have a little tinnie but am equally happy to fish from land.

Hoping for a good feed Sunday night. Fingers crossed!!

Just some tips as to whether to fish the river or perhaps Bribie?

Thanks guys.

Kate

[Angus]

Kate there are plenty of bream in the brisbane river.

If you have a tinnie maybe give off luggage point a crack.Plenty of bream there with the potential for a Cod, flathead or Jew as well. And if you put some bigger live baits quite possibly a Bull shark or a Salmon. As for whiting they are in the river. But i never heard of anyone getting a \"bag\" of whiting. More often just one here one there. But in saying that i dont here mant people using smaller prawns on lite line or worms that would be more likely to produce whiting.

And just for the future, a question like this would have been better as a seperate new post

Good luck to you.

Angus

[Maliika]

Sorry.... :blush: Thanks Angus. I posted it as a new topic.

[Angus]

Na dont worry Kate.

I only sad that as you will be more likely to a reply that will help you

I sent a PM as well.

Good luck!!!

Look forward to hearing how you do.

If you have any questions RE the forum, dont hesitate to ask.

Angus

[werewolf]

Gus/Trojan

Seeing how you boys join your leader via a knot, do you use a snap swivel at the lure, or do a palomar/perfection loop etc. Reason I ask is, won't you end up with some nasty twist after a big casting session with a threadline without a swivel???

Also with your leader, do you make it long enough that it will start to run through the guides, and if so does this interfere with your casting???

cheers guys, see ya's at the weigh in

[Angus]

Werewolf: I use Blood to Blood for the leader, ad then another bloody knot to the lure. I have not experienced any probs with twists. However fishing structure, even with all precautions made, a leader rarely lasts the day. Dont like snap swivels as they can effect the swimming action of a lot of hard bodies. And with plastics it would certainly deter the fish.

With Troys knot and my blood to blood knot it can be trimmed down so it does not effect casting at all. In fact my leaders are sometimes long enough they go all the way back into the spool. However i am still able to cast far and accurately.

One peice of casting advice i would give, is every 10-15 casts, cast out as far as you can and retrieve at full speed. When fishing with plastics and some hard bodies there is often a lot of slack line. If you do not allow this to be spooled back on correctly at some stage, you can end up with one of those god aweful braid birdnests.

Angus

[Feral]

Being an expert on these new fangled leaders, (Ferg showed me at Awoonga) I use an albright knot, and the leader is about as long as the rod for rule of thumb. Lure or what ever attached with a loop knot. Yes the knot goes back through the runners and onto the reel. Does not cause any problems