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@Old Scaley and I followed @Drop Bear out to his secret spot where they've been cleaning up lately. Ran into @tugger out there as well. The fish were a little scarcer today. Steve was first on with the first fish to blood the boat. https://youtu.be/mtuLWQGE4wo Then he couldn't get the hooks to stick on a couple and I hadn't had a touch all morning. I was thinking a doughnut may have been on the cards. Finally one took the pillie and I was on. The fish did some circles and then dove down a bit and wrapped my line around the motor. I thought it was all over, but managed to get the line clear and landed my first mackerel in 13 years. He went 65cm on the lie detector. Managed only one more with a 69cm giving a decent tussle. The boat went well and it won't be long before she takes me out again. Thanks for the day, Steve. Bestest decky ever (as well).

Well I've been pondering for the past 6 or so months about getting back into boating. The Bay is appealing to me and some of the more recent reports have had me keener and keener. I first of all thought about re-powering The Force but that fell by the wayside as a bad idea pretty quickly. I set a budget and started looking around but couldn't find anything quite like I wanted (except for @Cobiaaddict 's rig but that well smashed the budget). All the boats I liked were double my budget. I kept a few Gumtree and Ebay tabs open and kept looking at them for the last 3 weeks. I dropped a couple of hints to the Trouble and Strife a few times. Last Saturday I could stand it no longer. I told Michelle I needed to double the budget to get what I wanted and she was happy with that. I wanted to keep it to myself so I could surprise a couple of mates by turning up to West End for a 'pussy' session with the new rig. I needed to lean on someone to whittle down my list, so in the end I gave @benno573 a call and we bumped it down to 2 then back to 4 then the top prospect was identified at Mermaid waters. 2 of the others were at Yamanto and Maryborough. Benno and I went for a look on the weekend and I came to an agreement on price with the bloke. We settled today and now I'm the proud owner of a Quintrex Escape 470 powered by a 60hp 4 stroke Merc. It has a step thru section to the anchor which will help my dodgy back pulling the thing in when on a loner trip. Alas when I'm with anyone else they will be MY deckie for a change so I won't have to pull anchor. I owe a few friends from AFO a lot of trips from over the years and look forward to the payback. I've named her Ellicatch. Here she is.

Hi all I'm a bit (very) exhausted at the time of writing this but I'm going to do it anyway. This arvo I decided to finish up school (which I did, I have a weekend free of work because I finished it, hooray!). I asked my mate if he wanted to come down for a fish and by three fifteen I was out of the house with the loaded up cart. I walked down with four rods and was fishing with all lines in at about three thirty. The first ten minutes was more setting everything up, but then I had a couple throws with the net. Except for a couple of tiny biddies and bloomin scat, I had nothing. I did a bait check on the smaller lines and they were all pickered. Then I remembered since it was rising tide, a line right in the channel made between the jetty and shore is good for perch and catties. In about 2 minutes of having this line in, it got pickered. The same thing happened a couple more times and then I realised we were running really low on prawns. Action was required and I got throwing off the jetty. The first cast resulted in some good prawns, so I gave my mate a yell to come down with the bucket. Down he came, and I tested the new Pryml aerator. It worked excellently, and it kept the prawns live. I decided to reel in the heavy line after that to get a live prawns on pronto, but as I did I felt weight. It took about 2 seconds to realise I was on, and I gave my friend a yell to come with the net. The first fish of the day came up shortly, a decent catfish of 38cm - I tried to deal with him, but the circle hook had pinned him twice through the mouth. It just happened that when I was struggling de hooking him, my Dad came down with my brother and Mum. He eventually got the hook out, and I gave the catfish a good swim. He wasn't going straight down, but he was swimming the right way up along the surface. I think he just needed some water through his gills, because I think he swam back down up the river. After that, I deployed a live prawn and bait checked the other lines. They had been picked, so I re baited with a bit of mullet and another bit of prawn. It wasn't long before I was back cast netting, and I got one or two more prawns. Just then, the big rod went off again. I thought it was just a pick, so I told my friend so and he was aware. Then, just as I was pulling up the net, it buckles over and line goes out. I yank up the net (which had a couple prawns in it) and I tighten the drag and strike. I am on! The fish first took a good run down deeper and I just had in the back of my mind what it might be. After about two minutes of screaming runs and me pulling it in, I began to get it closer in. It tried to go under the jetty and pylons, but I made sure to keep it out. It was just about then when I saw the trace and what came after it. Another Threadfin Salmon! Simultaneously, my mate and I yell out in joy, and then we try to land the thing. It was hooked very well, so I knew we weren't losing it but I also knew it wasn't worth getting the hook back because it will just rust out soon, as opposed to giving the fish surgery. He ran back up to grab the scissors, and then we proceeded to properly christen the new landing net. It took about 4 goes because the fish kept jumping out, but eventually I got him in then it and brought him up on the jetty. The thready initially tried to hop back into the water, but I picked it up quickly, hastily measured it, and then got some ripper photos (or to be specific, the group of boys who went to primary school with me did ). Here is the thready, sorry the photos aren't entirely the best but they are still visible - After he/she was safely released, which was a bit of an affair as it required quite a few good swims, I just enjoyed the moment for about 5 minutes, and then everyone else there wouldn't shut up and just kept yelling, "Yeah Hamish, big fish!!!!" LOL. It was actually quite fun, and then eventually I checked the other lines, which had no bait. By this point, I simply just cut up a live prawn, chucked them out and waited. I then re tied my hook on the trace and cast the other out with a live prawn. By now it was about 5:00PM, so it was starting to get dark. My mate said he would be going when I left, and I told him we'd be about another half hour. The lantern in the cart came out now, just so we could see a bit better, and I kept throwing the cast net off the jetty. This resulted in a couple more big prawns, and time flew by. Before we knew it, I made the call to start packing up and it was good I did. By the time everything was away, it was getting dark. I made the trek home, and the funniest thing was when I saw my Dad in the driveway I said one word. "Salmon". He bluntly replies "Yeah right, show the pics mate!". I very promptly showed him and the look on his face was great! I then unloaded the contents of the esky of unpacked the prawns that were leftover, and some were of great size. Here is a quick happy snap of them. I also find with about 15 minutes on an ice brick, they go to sleep so I think for anyone keeping them that is the best way to get them killed. Here they are - Here are the stats of the trip - Stats of Trip - Tide - Low 12:20PM, .6M, High, 6:00PM, 1.6M Moon Phase - Waning Crescent, which is the phase that occurs roughly after three weeks of the full moon. This means there isn't much run. Air Pressure - 1021.8 Weather - 24c, 8Km/h winds (I think there were higher winds because there were white caps), 61% humidity, slightly cloudy. Fish caught - Catfish x 1, Threadfin Salmon x 1 Bait caught - Prawns, biddies, scat. Bait used - Live and dead prawns, mullet. Tackle used - 8", 6"6' Ugly Stik and Rogue Firepoint Rods (plus a graphite rod that I don't quite know the name of, which also starts in Session #4). Size 1000 Shimano Sienna, Size 2500 Shimano Nasci and Diawa Shinobi, Size 650 Penn reel, 30lb braid mainline, 14lb mainlines, 15lb Pryml fluorocarbon leader, 30lb fluorocarbon leader, 80lb mono leader, large barrel swivel, size six ball sinker, size 2 ball/bean sinker. Overall success rate - 100% - Target specie caught OK, so I hope you all enjoyed the report, I certainly had fun catching the contents of it . I hope everyone can stay safe with COVID-19, because while the restrictions are eased it is still around. I also am super happy with the thready, my thready curve of once a year might become once every three weeks. Cheers Hamish

Well, the stars aligned this morning for myself and my two sons, we all had time off work this morning and headed out for a quick fish from the Port of Brissy in search of any pelagics. Bashed the beacons for awhile with no schoolies, so headed to an old mark where we have had success before in the middle of nowhere and was pleased to see on the sounder some massive bait balls Wasnt too long and off goes the Shimano baitrunner ! Nearly half an hour later and finally boated a nice Longtail Tuna which went just over a metre ...... Tried to swim it alongside boat for awhile for a graceful release but it was pretty gassed and ended up in the esky for dinnies.... (Lots of dinners i think) Happy with that , so decided to make it a short session and back at the ramp by midday leaving behind a gloriously flat bay !

That's the other news... I decided to make it a non smoking boat to aid me in giving away the filthy habit. I'll save $300 a week if I give it up, so would have paid back a large chunk of what she cost, in a year.

Mr @Drop Bear and I went in search of a feed of calamari today. We left Wynnum in Robbie’s boat around dawn and motored across the Bay in pretty good conditions just as the sun came up over The horizon. Another good start to the day, not too cold and not a lot of breeze. The plan was to hit an area where @Drop Bear has been having some success. After a nice run we arrived and started a drift. The squid were playing hide and seek, and they were better at hiding than we were at seeking. So much so that we didn’t didn’t see a single tentacle. @Drop Bear decided to float a pillie out the back under a float, and it wasn’t long before the float took off and after a short fight a nice school Mack was in the esky. So plan A quickly became plan B and we had a fun little session, pulling in 8 before the small packet of pillies ran out. We did get a couple on hard bodies as well, but the bait was the most successful. The wind was stronger than expected and once the tide turned we had wind against tide making for less than ideal planing. We had always planned to do some trolling of spoons on paravanes for Mack’s, so we trolled all the way back to just off St Helena. Robbie did his best to dethrone @kmcrosby78 as the Grinner King of Moreton Bay, catching several on the troll, but we didn’t see another schoolies. We did a bit of sounding around east of St Helena and dropped a few baits (just fillets of whiptails we caught earlier) on some promising territory outside the green zone. We had bites, but the only fish landed was a couple of small squire. Time to head home after another great day on Moreton Bay. Here is dinner on the cleaning table. Thanks again, Robbie. It is great to be back fishing with mates again.

It was only unlucky for the fish. Went to NPD with Rick this morning starting off a bit bleak but it soon got better as the fish started to bite. around 30 bass and a couple of yellas at first spot opposite the end of koala straight. Next spot in 20 feet of water on the flats near Andrews drop off. We then went to old reliable spot in 50 feet of water near fad 1, There was a couple already sitting there and they told us only a couple of bass but plenty of forkies. The sounder was showing fish between 25 feet and the bottom. As per normal the bass were at 25 feet with the forkies on the bottom so we then proceeded to get into them. Knocked off at 11am with 75 bass,2 yellas and only 2 forkies on the tally card. Rick scored the 2 yellas which made him smile but he did not smile when he caught the only forkies for the day. Cheers Ray

Well it's Snapper time in the bay again ☺ Been looking at seabreeze for a couple of days now and really wanted to head out on monday, tuesday or wednesday this week but the wind factor doesnt look good. I rarely go fishing in the bay on weekends but today was the opportunity where conditions were too good to pass up. Headed to spot x on the eastern side of Green Island with the Yammy singing at WOT where they were on the chew straight up. Kept a couple for dinnies and returned a few in the 40cm or so range back down to grow for a year or two ☺ Missed another two absolute horses, one while i was having a pee over the side (why does that always happen) A good solo trip just 25 minutes from the ramp and look forward to a few more before 14th july ....

Just a quick tip and reminder for everyone here, while ducking outside to check on the battery chargers in the boat i for what ever reason decided to give the wheel a quick wiggle, well one of my wheel bearing were loose as a goose ! A quick tap with a rubber mallet released the bearing buddy and revealed a horrible brown mess (water and grease). A quick tidy up with a whole heap of rags revealed the bearing was still OK and good to go, a guick repack and tighten and im back on the road again.Just goes to show what I thought was good trailer bearings nearly bit me in the bum big time so just goes to show its never too late to give your nuts a wiggle and make sure there up to the task. Cheers

I had been keen to get out amongst it for a while and the weather and tides looked good today, I had second thoughts at 4am this morning though, it began raining pretty heavy while I was having a coffee, I checked the rain radar and it was pretty scattered, so I rolled the dice, hooked up the boat and took off, other then the grey sky, the weather wasn’t too bad at all. first runs on the board came in they way of a 55cm school mackerel, he succumb to the old floating pilly technique. Around the turn of the tide I found myself hooked up to a nice Jew, he fell for a Z Man curl tail, and put up a spirited fight on a 20lb baitcasting outfit, he managed to collect my floating pilly line during the fight, which made for some interesting net work, followed by some not so interesting untangling. The Jew went around 84cm, not a horse, but still great fun. A couple of weeks ago on a Friday, I ventured out in my mates boat, we left Vicky Pt around 7:30am and worked around some of the southern bay islands with limited success, about 11am we decided to work the Banana Banks with plastics, and it payed off, paddle tails and curl tails did all the damage. The smallest lizard in the pic was a 45cm bar tail, we probably got another 4 or five that weren’t legal size though, and about 6 or so monster sized grinners, by the end of it neither of us were calling what fish it was, as the grinners broke our hearts too many times.The bay was like glass from the time we launched, right throughout the day, you don’t get much better then that. About a week before the lizard trip, I took my mate out around Amity, and could only scrounge up 1 schoolie off the old floating pilly trick, the grinners were thick as and quite brazen too, they were smashing 7” plastics like they were going out of fashion. The last 3 schoolies I’ve caught have all been 55cm, a bit of variety in size wouldn’t go astray, but I’m certainly not complaining.

Had a sleep in this morning. When I got up I looked out the bedroom and saw this. Then I went downstairs completely forgetting to say goodmorning to the wife....oh dear.

Hi all, the forecast for for Saturday was just too good to ignore. Add to that it is May - the best month (in my experience) to fish the bay. Add to that it was just after a full moon. Add to that the change in ‘rona rules and I decided it was time to get the old band back together so @Old Scaley and I hit the water. we managed to beat the worst of the rush at manly boat ramp and headed for some of my old spots around mud. Conditions on the trip over were tough... we arrived at the spot and threw some placcies around for a while. Steve promptly went into negatives with a grinner, I got two undersized snapper and then a small school mackerel. Steve hooked onto something more substantial and despite my initial call of green sea toad I soon slid the net under a lovely cod at 49cm. Happy Steve. it was getting later in the day so we put the plastics away and deployed some baits. A steady stream of undersized snapper and grassys came over the side before my half of a bony bream bait got smashed. A good fight ensued on the lighter gear and a 47cm snapper was boated. Happy Benno. word must have gotten out because more and more boats kept appearing near us and the bite shut down. After landing the second “it’s time to move” fish (trumpeter) I made the call to head to an area I found ages ago that is quite a way from the island and usually attracts very few boats. Without a mark in the GPS and the change in markers around Mud in the last few years messing with my old reference points I closed my eyes and pointed and said I think it is about there and with more ar$e than class hit it pretty much bang on. it was close to slack water and the bite was slow at first. As the tide picked up the bite also came on. 2 x tuskfish, a tarwhine, a random butterfly bream and even an unlucky school mackerel found their way into the esky. Awesome little sesh, plenty of undersized of the right species, a few bust offs, bite offs and near misses. And.... no other boat within about 250m of us which on a day like Saturday is unheard of. GPS mark promptly added to new unit in Steve’s boat. We made the call to head in just as the NE sea breeze was starting to come on so couldn’t have timed it better if we tried. Ramp wasn’t too bad but I think if we’d arrived back an hour later it would have been a very different story! heres a photo of the catch (less the cod and less some unwanted bits) dragon getting his share - mackerel tail entree and just one more conditions shot because it was so horrible... thanks heaps to @Old Scaley for the day out, was an absolute corker and hope to do it again as soon as home life allows such things. Hope the cod went down as well as the tuskfish last night. Mackerel Thai red curry tonight - can’t wait! cheers for reading benno <‘><

Hi all As some of you may know, it is my birthday today, so after some convincing I got my Dad to wake me up at twenty to five this morning to go fishing at the local park, seeing what we could catch. In the cart there was a new landing net, perfect for me because of its size. After I had put three layers on and walked down there, we got the lines out baited with a mix of prawn, live and dead, and a bully line out just for fun with a piece of eel. After all of 2 minutes, we had our first strike. I leapt over to the rod, hoping to be on. To my dismay, nothing was on the line. "Oh well," I thought, and got my line back into the strike zone. In no more than ten minutes, I was on. After tightening the drag and doing some pumps, I could tell whatever this thing was it was heavy. I was proceeding to pull it in, saying to my dad I might need a hand because whatever it was, it was a good fish. When I was about to see it, it took a pretty decent run out, so then I started having a fun little fight and a bit of practise for big tough fish. After a couple more runs, I saw the unmistakable shape of a catty. It was a pretty good fish, but another one of the brown ones. These ones seem to be bigger, fatter, and fight harder. It measured 40 cm and was still dark when we took the photo - A nice catty just before dawn Also, I know it sounds a bit silly but is this a different species of cat to a forkie? I find even forkies at this size don't fight as hard and these go really hard on both light and medium gear. Also, I think these ones practically live in the mud because you can see how dirty the fish is, compared to pulling up a salmon catfish (forky). Maybe that just happens with all big cats. As well as that, these guys bleed all over when de hooked. Any ideas? OK, back to fishing. While the lines were set we were [well, my Dad had 'volunteered' (I totally didn't make him LOL) thankfully] throwing the net. The prawns we were getting were great. The first few casts resulted in only one or two, but after that they went off. The bait tank had a good amount in no time, so live prawns for the day. Hooray! While my Dad was going with the cast net, I saw the 8 foot rod getting pecs so I picked it up. I was on straight away, and I felt the really brutal but small head shakes of a perch. The size prawn it took was impressive, but I find good size River Perch don't shy away from big live prawns (for anyone targeting them, even though there's not much to target them for ). I got it up, proceeded to get a photograph, de hooked it and sent it on its way. Here it is - A 20cm-30cm River Perch Even though he wasn't the biggest perch or in the best condition, it was still nice to catch him and see him swim off to grow bigger for next time. I then re casted my lines and started having a go with my cast net. After one or two prawns, I looked up. In the space of about five minutes, my dad was holding the rod, ready to strike. Then, he yanked hard. Since the drag was so loose the line came out crazy fast, and luckily after he tightened it it was still on. He eventually got it up, and up came another solid (not massive but good sized) River Perch. Here it is, it was safely released - Certainly not in the worlds best condition, but a solid, gold, BR River Perch. By now, we were in full swing. Four lines out, all targeting different things - shark, salmon, cod/bream, and vermin/perch for the sport. After that nice little perch, I see the heavy line bent over. I sprint down to the jetty and pick it up, and I could tell it was probably a catty. This catty however had lots of go in him, and it was probably my fault I'd set the drag a tad to tight but if it was looser it would've been a hell of a lot more fun! LOL. Just as I surfaced him, he pulled really hard and to my shock my leader knot pops. My immediate thought was, "poor fish!" because it now has a hook and 2 metres of line dangling out of its mouth, so I decided to figure out why. My four reasons are the following - Leader knot slipped (not very likely though as I check all my knots, especially leader knots and that didn't slip); line was weakened from the knot (most likely); the drag was to tight and something wasn't up to scratch; or finally the fish had somehow worn the line. Whatever it was, I was disappointed but it was an old hook so it will rust out in no time . After that, my friends dad happened to be passing by and since it was also Mother's day today (what great timing )off my Dad went. I didn't have any camera also, so for the next catch you'll just have to believe me. Both the lines up on the pier (I reeled in the shark line because legally I'm only allowed to have three lines out in tidal waters in QLD) and it took about one million attempts to get the hook out but eventually I got the hook out of my eel bait and threw it away. I then looked down at the jetty and saw that my line was on. I ran down and started reeling in whatever fish I had. It turned out to be another big catfish, measuring around 40cm. This guy went really hard also, next time I'm battling one I'm loosening the drag off completely and just going to have some fun. Sorry there's no pic, but he flopped out the hook and I just slid him back in to the drink. I also think I'll start giving bigger catties a proper release instead of a flop down, a bit better for them. The bite went really quiet after that. The bait tank still had a good amount of bait in it, so no need to do any netting. I just sat down and watched the lines. The odd nibble occurred, and the big one just kept getting pecked off, over and over. it had been happening all morning, and when I saw it going off I ran down (about 45-60 minutes minutes after the bite went quiet). Whatever it was had dropped the bait, and a couple more nibbles almost confirmed to me so. I started cranking in the bait, and I think this is what set the hook. I realised I was on, and started fighting the fish. It didn't stand a chance on 80lb line I thought, but for the pound to pound fight it was great. Trying to go under the jetty and around the pylons, when I got this fella up I knew I didn't want to lose him. How I wished my dad was there to scoop it up and christen the landing net... Oh well, I got it up. You may be wondering what this fish was. Well, it was a 30 cm bream. A nice fish by most people's standards, and a very welcome by-catch. Now that I think of it, 3/4 of the last sessions I've had I've caught a bream, the three being morning. It's not even Winter yet. I am thinking the bream in Winter will be promising here, but like usual, no promises! LOL. I politely asked some passers by to take a pic and they did quickly, and I got him back. He kicked off straight down, hopefully now he's fine living somewhere else. Here he is - While it may not be the best pic, it was a welcome catch on 80lb line! After that bream, I decided to start washing the mud and other assorted river gunk off from the jetty from the net. Hopefully that makes it a bit better and cleaner for others. There were a couple more hits and strikes nad taps along the way, but nothing stayed connected so I reckon if they weren't breambos they were catties. After I'd cleaned up, I began discarding some smaller live prawns (made sure they were alive). I got rid of them and kept the bigger one, most of the big ones we'd caught had been eaten, LOL, but all up if we were cast netting all day we easily would've gotten 30, we probably had about 25 in total. Just to show the average size of the prawns we were getting, here is one in comparison to my hand (would've been about a 12cm prawn) - Back at home, I washed up, packed the gear away, gave my mum a Mother Day pressie, got my parents pressie, and cleaned up the gear. A very good and exhausting b'day, that's for sure. I hope you can all stay safe even though these restrictions are gradually easing, we still need to go by the rules. Sorry for any errors in the text also. Here are the statistics of the trip - Stats of Trip - Tide: High, 1:00AM, Low, 7:20AM, High again at 1:00PM. 2.5M, 0.4M, 1.8M. I fished the last of the run out, the change, and the first of the rise. Moon Phase: Full Moon, which may be a reason why there were so many prawns. Weather: 19c, 8Km/h winds, 59% humidity Fish Caught: Catfish x 3, River Perch x 2, Yellowfin Bream x 1 Bait Caught: Bucket load of prawns and a couple frogmouth pilchards Bait used: Live prawns and frogmouth pilchards Tackle Used: 6"6' and 8" Ugly Stik Gold rods, size 1000 and 2500 Shimano Sienna and Nasci, 14lb mainlines and 20lb leader, size 650 Penn reel, 30lb braid mainline, 30lb fluorocarbon leader, size six and two ball and bean sinkers, large barrel swivels, size 6/o and 4/o circle and suicide hooks, 2M Rogue Firepoint boat rod, Size 5000 Jarvis Walker with an Aurora Rod, 30lb braid mainline (that's my cheapy combo, 20in 80lb Halco wire trace. Overall Success Rate: 80% - no target species caught but a great day out! Hope you enjoyed, Cheers Hamish The fully loaded cart for a finale picture!

2 score and 2 plus 3.

Photos come up fine on iPad and iPhone. See if they work when I add them.

Well, @benno573 and I hit the Brisbane River tonight for Ellicatch's first run. It was pretty choppie with all the wind and she handled it all well. The night didn't start too well when I discovered the Fish Factory is no longer there so plans for the bait were quashed. A quick Google of @Old Scaley's supplier showed he shuts at 4pm, so no dice there. We would have to rely on gathering our own bait. Ramp error number 1 after a long layoff - forgot to take off the tie-down straps. Doh! Luckily Benno noticed before we attempted the launch. Put in at Colmslie and headed up to Breaky Creek where Ben castnetted a heap of anchovies, prawns and mullet. The night looked promising. I gave up the skipper role and let Ben take over as I couldn't see squat with all the lights and the wind making the eyes water. I think he enjoyed the experience. After trying a couple of spots we ended up down at the mouth. Not a bite between us all night so the boat has no mojo. Will have to work on that for next time, which won't be far away. It was good not having to pull the anchor and get wet hands as it was pretty chilly out there.

I was going to head north yesterdaybut was unable to reach my deckie, so headed out to NPD late (9am start ) Headed out intothe main channel and run into a couple of PRFMA blokes that had just added a couple of more fads to the water. While having a chat I noticed the sounder lit up with bass everwhere. Bowled over 40 on bait then continued down stream.Ran into this fishingnut talking to himself in the middle of nowhere, he said he was finding it hard so I gave him some info. I then carried on determind to get some on spinnerbaits, I just love that kaching when they attack the lure.I picked up a few trolling crazydeeps before heading home. As I rounded the last corner there was Beau having the time of his life, so I stopped and increased my score by a few more. 76 all up, jigging, trolling and baiting. Dino

Good day again at NPD. I had a full crew with Hai,Stew and stews mate Guy.Took a few spots before we found a good school in 50 feet of water near the fad opposite the fig tree.Hai increased his pb with a good trophy bass whilst Guy got a workout with a couple of forkies, Stew being a gentleman said I will release it for you and promptly got spiked in the hand for his trouble. When Guy caught the next one he was told to look after it himself. Both forkies were too big for percy and the eagles. We knocked off with the counter showing 107 bass and 2 forkies. Cheers Ray

Off to a chilly start out the dam this morning, after losing a shrimp trap to snag I had 5 shrimp to try and convert into bass so off I go trolling my merry way down dam taking in the serenity, let’s just say after a few hours of enjoying the serenity I had Deffinetly had enough of it ! Searching all the usual haunts of the dam revealed nothing except a few scattered fish here and there and even they weren’t interested, by dumb luck I managed to to find the school I had been searching for after going to investigate what I thought was a eagle eating a snake (turns out he it was a stick) with the sounder lit up like a Xmas tree it was on for young and old. No trophy fish landed but what they don’t have in size they deffinetly made up for in fight. By far the best session I have had on jigs out there and also managed to get a pb of forkies! I don’t mind to as they get a quick shave from me and turned into eagle food as Percy was not interested he’s too well fed ! Took a while to find em today but well worth the wait. I managed to take a few quick pics In between the action. 37 bass all up, also managed to get gill spiked by a bass for the first time today too right in between the knuckles I can tell you now it’s not much fun!

When I was younger we used to target the river perch every April ( From Memory) Always a sunday afternoon because if dad was not working on a Saturday he would be listening to the races. ( Sacrosanct kids not allowed to speak so we used to take the dog and go and play in the bush). Fishing gear was cord lines on wooden spools. Walk a mile from Ekibin up to the tram at Chardons Corner and catch a tram into town where we used to buy a shillings worth of prawns form the bait shop that used to be under the Victoria bridge and then walk up past the Grey Street ( William Jolly ) bridge . We would fish to dusk and half fill a sugar bag with perch not many forkies those days but dad would occasionally hook into a jew which he had no chance of landing. Then a repeat of tram and walk back home and then clean the fish. We would never take more than half a sugar bag of fish as in those days we did not have a fridge and kept everything in an Mawson ice chest. Iceman came 3 days a week delivering from a horse and cart. Milkman ,baker, also by horse and cart and paperman rode a horse with the papers in large bags over the withers; All the fish scraps were fed to the chooks after some of the heads were boiled up to make stock. Fish for the five of us till Wednesday which was grocery day when my sister and I would then walk from school up to Manahans the grocers at chardons corner and meet mum and we all used to carry the grocerys home. Sorry for going off subject I tend to remissness in my old age and waffle on. Life was so much simpler in those days. Cheers Ray

Hey, I thought I would give you an update on what is happening with OzFish in Moreton Bay. We are continuing to recycle huge amounts of oyster shells and hope to have a trial reef in the water in November. We just got a grant to purchase a shell washing machine that will help us to wash loads of shells ready to make reefs out of them. OzFish have moved all our info to their website now. Check it out and let me know what you think or how we can improve it. https://ozfish.org.au/chapters/central-moreton-bay/ Our major fund raising event "Wynnum Fishing Classic" and "Wynnum Manly Seafood Festival" has had to be postponed due to the health restrictions we have at the moment. I don't have an idea yet of when we will do it again. Hopefully September but who knows. We are working with the Port Of Brisbane authority to do our trial shellfish reef out there. This is going well but very slow due to covid stuff. We have 50 ROB baskets out at the lease full of shell. These have caught loads of oysters over summer and these oysters are growing well. We will be making a load more over then next few months to put in out at the port of Brisbane.

Hi all As some of you may know, I was going out for a bay session in the yak today (well, I suppose it was hardly a bay session as I was pretty close to the ramp the whole time). It was a bit of everything, as we did some drifts, did some crabbing, I got wet and frozen and was my Dad's wind shield once the wind picked up. Overall though, we learnt how to use the sounder pretty well (but I'm not going to say how it is because we haven't actually got an idea to mount the thing on the end on the kayak, or we haven't gotten around to it yet). So, we decided to do any early morning session. Once I was woken, at about 5:30AM (so not to early) we got the kayak on the roof of the car, I got the bait I'd caught out of the freezer, and we set off. Since it is about a 40 minute drive, we arrived a bit before 7:00AM. We got there and no one was at the ramp except a guy throwing a cast net, so I had a go with my tiny 4 foot. The only problem was since it was so tiny, I could barely pull anything together. A herring, big glassy, and some prawns (which I didn't even catch, the guy gave them to me). By this time though, at about quarter past 7, it was time to set off. I baited the pots up with a mullet (caught in cast net) and some herring, and sat them on me to paddle out. Here I am at the start of the day - The first went to the first green marker, then the second went to the other side. We had one big blue one (even though it's a BCF cheapy, it works well) and a tiny orange one which I plan to replace (it's probably to small). After that, we decided to begin fishing. My dad had the rod I rigged with a two hook paternoster rig, which we had the top with a live herring and the bottom with a good fresh prawn (the ones caught in BR Session #18). Mine had a little live prawn on. With the help of the sounder, which we struggled to read at first but eventually got it going, we found some decently deep water. We paddled up and drifted back until it pushed us a bit too close to the bank. No touches, nothing. We proceeded to do this for a second time, but in a slightly deeper patch. This was a longer drift, and about half way through we saw some fish on the sounder. They didn't touch it though. Then, there was a huge eruption right in front of us! We couldn't believe our eyes. A massive fish of some description (we didn't get to lay eyes on it ) had just busted up in our faces. After the initial shock, and some colourful language, LOL, we got the lines back into the water. That fish had left us gaping, literally, so we went for a third drift. This time when we saw some fish on the sounder though, we were getting small nibbles. I felt them, and they weren't big by no means, but I reckon it might've been a decent bream. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to hook up, so after about 5 minutes of them having goes at our prawns, and us drifting towards shore, we were back. Now, the wind had picked up considerably. There was a little bit of chop (probably not that much for most with boats but enough for me in the front of the yak to get soaked, as well as the reels). We were about 1KM away from the POB ramp, so we knew we should get back in to shelter. In a very rough, wet, windy, cold paddle, we made it to the sheltered (and probably shallowest part of the area). We tried doing another drift there, but it was a bit to rough and windy. The tide had also run out enough for us to see 4 big crab pots right on the beach, around from the boat ramp. We were a bit bewildered, as we knew this spot was probably overfished, and couldn't believe someone may put pots right there. Someone could've walked down and back with all four and got away in no time, not to mention whatever was in those pots would be high and dry in about an hour... We were back at the ramp after a bit more paddlin', and we offloaded the gear. The decision was made to call it due to the wind, because I was freezing. We then went to get the pot on the other side, which was good because soon it would've been high and dry. We went over it and I thought I'd saw a crab, but then we I was pulling it to the sandbar (easier to balance than on a yak) I thought there was nothing. Then, my dad pipes up and says "Hamish! Big crab!". I was immediately excited because it would be great if we could get one keeper but on closer inspection it was a jenny. I was really sad, but we paddled back to the ramp to deal with it and released it after a quick video - IMG_6396.MOV Does the video actually work? Tell me if it doesn't because I'll just put a pic in. It scuttled off under the ramp and probably to some mangroves, hopefully it can make more muddies and I can catch them next time . After the pots were done with I threw the mullet and herring back into the drink to Mr Percival and his mates, the seagulls. The rods were away and the kayak was put back onto the roof just as the wind picked up even more. When I was back at the ramp, quite a few boats were coming in. I don't think anyone did the best, but some people I overheard said they'd gotten an OK feed of something and were scooping livies out back into the drink. Back at home, after warming up and having a rest I began the task of giving the reels a nice wipe and clean. I took them apart, made sure all the parts were clean, wiped off everything, wiped it with a cloth in freshwater, then dried it. I then proceeded to lube up the reels, so they are ready for next time. The rods were given a good wipe as was terminal gear (i.e. pliers, lip grips, etc). As I was putting the crab pots away though, I noticed one of the ropes was frayed. I realised how bloody lucky we'd been not to have lost it, because it was frayed well - I cut that off and it's in the bin now, but I think that was pretty lucky. Here are the statistics of the trip - Statistics of trip: Tide: 5:40AM High, 2.3M, 12:30PM Low, .6M. Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous, so more than 50% but not quite full Weather: 18C, 15-20 knot winds later in the day, so winds building, sunny day. Bait used: Herring, live, mullet and herring, crab bait, live prawns and fresh prawns. Bait caught: Herring, glassies, prawns Fish caught: - Crustaceans caught (new category for when I'm crabbing and prawning ) : 1 Big jenny Tackle Used: 14lb braid mainlines, 30lb braid mainline, 20 and 9lb leaders, size 1 teardrop sinker and size 2 ball and bean sinker, average size swivel, 50-75cm trace, 6"6' and 8" Ugly Stik rods, Rogue Firepoint 2M boat rod, size 2500 and size 1000 Shimano nasci and Sienna, size 650 Penn reel, size 2/o and 4/o circle hooks. Overall Success Rate: 75% - Crappy weather for the yak, but a good learning experience Thanks for reading this report everyone, I hope you enjoyed. I hope they eventually ease off the restrictions of the virus so we can get out for more social gatherings, though I guess that won't be soon. Also, thanks to everyone who gave me a pointer about this area, it was really helpful. We would've been absolutely clueless otherwise! I am going out tomorrow again with my friend for a fish, so if the results are really worth reporting on I'll put up BR Session #19. Cheers Hamish

Well what can I say, weather was picture perfect and the fish were happy to play the game too.found three different schools and caught them on as many techniques. Also managed another pb for npd. Still chasing a a yella out there they have eluded me for a while but I will find em. Will let the pics do the talking, 36 bass and a whopper forky. cheers

WE ignored the forecast and braved the cold and wind. It was cold enough but multi layers of clothing kept me warm but was a challenge with negotiating PFD, rain coat, rainpants, trackydaks,shorts and undies when it came time for a widdle. No one told the fish about the crook weather with both Ray Hughes and Mark upgrading their PBs with fish over 50cm. The quality of the fish was excellent with several over 50 and lots over 45. I was the only one that did not crack a 50. We boated 20 bass by 7am half way down Koala Straight finishing up with 60 bass and 2 tandans from that location. We left there and did the shrimp traps and tried one other spot opposite koala straight before moving to Andrews drop off where we increased the tally clicker to 163 bass finishing up at 1pm. Cheers Ray

It was a great day out as usual. A good feed of cuttlefish and squid. The mackerel were on again and we left them biting once we boated 10. They were all mid 60s and above. The biggest was 72cm. @Drop Bear has the photos.

Good stuff old mate, where is the ash tray ?

Hi all Here is my report from yesterday's' arvo session and today's early morning session. The first is quite average, but the second was way more exciting. I have a good clip in here, and I think this will be quite a long read because it's two in one, but I'm going to write it anyway. So, yesterday afternoon I went down to the park again with my mate. He brought his mate along this time, so the pressure was on me to catch fish. I chucked the lines out first up with dead prawn and frog mouth pilchard and got to work with the cast net. The first cast resulted in about 7 frogmouth pillies, so at least I had some salmon livies. I then re reeled the salmon line in and chucked them out, hoping for the best. After a while, it was evident to me the bait was either falling off or just getting picked up while I waited... While the others were watching my rods, I kept trying to catch some livies. From time to time I was getting a small live prawn and that would always go onto a rod. After about an hour now, we had nothing. I told my friend to maybe move the rods on the end of the jetty, and he started to get little nibbles. While this was happening, I was still throwing the net. After relentless throwing though, up came a surprise. I saw the head shape and thought it may be a whiting and it actually was. This was the only real catch of the day. Here it is - I suppose it is so salty that they have been coming up here. After that surprise, it just got quieter and quieter. It was about 4:30PM and I knew all I could do was wait. The lines were out but apparently today the fish weren't, LOL. In about an hours time we still had nothing and I still didn't have any good livies. This was most surprising as well, because if this kept up I might donut. I cannot remember the last time I've caught zilch at this location, so I guess that is saying something. In saying that, I see plenty of people come down fishing with worms and floats, wrong baits, etc and not getting results so I guess it is about having the right rig and using the right gear. While we were fishing, it was also starting to get pretty threatening. It was quite blowy, and I was still feeling a bit chilly with my three layers on. The clouds in the sky were also looking like they might pour down on us at any given moment. This wouldn't be to good because one of my mates didn't have a raincoat. Luckily though, the skies didn't rain, and we got out of there dry. Sorry that that was a pretty average report, and that I didn't get much to report about. The next report should be a lot more exciting, I actually did pretty well in it. Here are the statistics of this trip though - Stats of Trip Tide: Low at 1:00PM, .5M, High at 7:00PM, 1.7M. I fished the rising tide. Moon Phase: Third Quarter, so not the most run Weather: 21c, 52% humidity, 14Km/h winds, partly cloudy Bait caught: Few frogmouth pilchards, whiting, prawns Bait used: Prawns, frogmouth pilchards, live and dead Fish caught: - (First time I've dougnutted here in yonks) Tackle Used: 14lb mainlines, 30lb mainline, 15lb, 30lb leaders, 80lb trace (fluro and mono), 4/o circle and suicide hooks, large-ish barrel swivel, size 2 and 6 bean and ball sinkers, size 1000 and 2500 Shimano Sienna and Nasci, Size 650 Penn reel, 6"6' and 8" Ugly Stiks, 2M Rogue Firepoint boat rod Overall Success Rate: 30% - A donut but I caught a whiting which is a surprise That is that one done everyone, here is Session #23 (If you are still reading ). OK, so last night I made sure to go to bed at a decent hour and I put the timer on for 5:10AM this morning. Well when I got up I decided against creeping around the house and leaving because I could sneak in an extra hour of sleep . I got up again at about 10 past six and got ready. By 25 past I was at the jetty and I got the lines out. Once the lines were out, I got to cast netting. The first few throws were not what I was looking for - nothing. After a couple throws though, I got a little live prawn. This went straight out on one of the lines, and in about five minutes this line went off. I didn't think it was big at all, and I was right. I was quite happy though because it meant I didn't donut. It was a little perch, this one a nice silvery colour - A silvery perch taken on a small live prawn. He was actually barely hooked, so I got the hook out no problemo and gave him a quick release. It swum off well and I re baited and re casted. By now, I was running very low on prawns, dead and alive. Just as I was thinking this, I got another small one in the net. This went on the rod next to the pylons, targeting bream and cod. Nearly instantaneously, it was taken. I run over and to my dismay there was no bait. I then just looked down and to my shock the rod was going off. Yes! I ran down and picked up the rod, which was buckled over. Before I even felt the fish though, it spat the hook. I reeled it in to find a mangled frogmouth pilly, which may very well have been from the doing of a bully. By now, some others had rocked up and were fishing off the jetty. I talked to one of the guys for a bit, told them what I'd caught etc. The person dropped a line down just before my next hook up and pulled up a tiny catfish which would've been a good shark livie size if in Summer. The rod, which now had a prawn head on it though, then went off. I ran over, and when I picked it up it was still on! The fish was taking some really speedy runs and was putting up a good fight on the size 1000 reel. It was getting right up onto the retaining rock wall thingo (I don't know the name LOL), and just kept running like crazy. When the passers by saw, it surfaced and I identified it to be a big cod. He grabbed the net to land it for me, and with some good maneuvering we got it up. He looked a lot bigger than he was, but I lipped him, measured him and took a photo. Here he is - Nice Brisbane River cod He looked a lot bigger than what he was, but the lie detector doesn't tell lies . It was 37cm, and was considerably heavy. I gave him a quick release and he swam off back down to terrorise more prawns and bait. I think this shows how healthy the ecosystem around the Brisbane River is, because the amount of people passing me with a surprised look on their face when I tell them I've caught something half decent is amazing. Soon after the cod, the bite went quiet. I caught one more small prawn in the net, and then the tide picked up. The lines were still being manned, and much to my dismay I missed something on the rod out in the river (very suspicious that it was a perch). The next half an hour was very quiet, with no bait caught and no nibbles. I was really hoping to get a livie for the big rod, but I didn't get one then. The other people eventually pulled up a tiny bream (15cm) and it flopped off the hook before they could do anything with it. I still needed some more live bait, and I really wanted to get my line out there in case there was another big take. Well, after a couple scat and small herring I hit a jackpot. Two good size mullet in the one cast. I immediately fired up the aerator and they were very lively. I then went down to the jetty to reel in the line and re bait. After I pinned the mullet through the jaw I gave him a big chuck out and left the rod. I then went back up to the jetty to check on the other rods, which both required re baiting. After about 15 more minutes, I gave the other rod a bait check. Mullet, lively and swimming. after this was thrown back out, the cod/bream line started getting picked. I didn't manage to hook whatever it was, but my guess is either a tiny perch or bream which was eating my cod livies. To fix this up, I decided to try and put a live mullet on. I thought if there was a big cod there, it wouldn't shy away... After another bait check and re cast on the big rod (which also resulted in a bad tangle involving me cutting the line to clean it up and re tying my two lines) my Dad came down. We were just talking about what I'd caught (I showed him the pics) and then he practically yells "Hamish, is that your rod?!". I turn down to see my rod buckled over going out. I sprint down hoping for the best. When I struck I realised I was on and began fighting it. At first I am pulling up a dead weight, and I thought it might be a bully. Then, it took a little run. After that, I think it realised it was hooked. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! That is what it sounded like for the next twenty-thirty seconds anyway. I do have a little film clip, so here it is. I would also like to warn everyone there isn't very good language in it (Sorry, I was pretty nervous I'd lose it) and my voice is squeky as heck so that's why I sound like that. To summarise what I've said in it, here are the definition of the following - "It's gonna spool me!!!!" - Me after it took a big run, annoyed that my hard work pulling it up just went to waste. "Sh!t!!!" - Whenever I was nervous, scared, excited, or really really angry. "Don't get your hopes up" - My Dad being pessimistic. Here is the video though, please enjoy Getting done on a salmon.MOV Now to the heartbreaking one... Busted and dusted.MOV OK, so if you've watched that, you'll know... Well... That I got done... I was very sad and devastated about that, but I took it pretty well, just re rigging and getting another line out. I was so shocked to be honest that I had just hooked up to something that big at the park! It is taking a toll on me now though, I feel like I just lost a million dollars ! After that bust off, the bite went pretty quiet. No more hits on the big rod, no more live bait, no more picks. The other people left about an hour before me, so I said bye/cya and they left. When I was doing a final bit of cast netting though, I picked up another good size whiting (OH, and in case you're wondering, I mean it would be a ripper live bait, not that it's a good sized fish in general). I hope these become consistent enough so I could catch one on a rod and reel, it would be awesome if I could catch a new PB there too - Finally, just as I was cleaning out the esky, I found a prawn that was white all over. None of the other prawns were like this, and I'm 99% sure it is just frost from the freezer, but just in case, I didn't use it for bait. I don't think it would've been white spot disease either, because after it thored in a bucket for about 10 minutes it was normal coloured. Just wanted to check for anyone who knew, is this white spot disease? That is the report done now, I hope you all enjoyed. I will do the stats of the trip next. Sorry if the language in the video was offensive to anyone, and ellicat/AFO, if you want to take it down feel free to do so. I hope everyone stays safe with COVID-19 as well, and I hope everyone can get out for a fish. Sorry for any grammatical/punctuation errors as well. Statistics of Trip - Tide: High at 6:40AM, q.9M, Low at 1:45PM, .5M Moon Phase: Third Quarter Moon, so not to much run Air Pressure: 1021 Weather: 20c, Humidity 63%, Partly Cloudy Fish caught: Estuary Cod x 1, River Perch x 1 Time fished: 6:30AM - 11:30AM. 5 hour session or so. Bait caught: Prawns, frogmouth pilchards, mullet, herring, scat Bait used: Live mullet, frogmouth pilchards, prawns, live and dead Overall Success Rate: 75% - Some decent fish and what was probably the biggest fish of my life! Cheers Hamish

Good for you @AUS-BNE-FISHO. Hamish, you are showing some of us older blokes how it is done. You get an A+ for perseverance and dedication. Nice work. And you are keeping good records so it could be a science project for school. Not to mention how your English expression is getting a workout. We have seen a lot of young fellas come on and off this site over the years. I thought they were all super keen, but I think you have them whipped.

Ownli A p.E teechr ...........

No worries at all mate, happy to help out where possible. I found a lot of other groups/forums were all about a “look what I caught” peacocking session, but while the traffic on AFO may not be as high as others you’ll generally get a reasonable response to a reasonable question (like if you just ask for gps marks or something you are unlikely to get a reasonable response). i’ve been on this forum for about 12-13 years now and have met some top blokes through here who I catch up with regularly, not always for fishing purposes either - bbqs, camping trips etc. I have also unfortunately met @ellicat who makes me carry all his gear when we go rock fishing which is far from helpful. I used to have a 5.3m boat and spent a lot of time trying to crack fishing in the bay and the areas just out from the cape. Welcome to get in touch if you’d like an additional deckie one day, happy to show you some spots/techniques that I found worked for me.

Slightly winday on the dam this morning and as hard as I tried I could not find any fish. Nek minute I look at my watch and its 8.30am and not one fish so far. I was casting to the edges for zilch. So I headed off trolling looking for a school and bingo, up popped a nice school. Its the first school I have seen for ages. Managed 50 before the leg was telling me to go home. Dino

Been there done that . Over time I’ve changed my pre boating routine from always turning over the motor the night before to avoid ramp embarrassment to investing in a Ctek trickle charger as I don’t get to use the boat as often as I’d like. I now also have a cheap eBay Bluetooth battery monitor that I can pair to my phone and check the battery Is charging from my lounge chair. As a final strategy When launching I always start her up before She is off the trailer (one less thing to do if she doesn’t start). If I see someone struggling to start their boat I’ll always offer some reassuring words, simple things like kill switch, neutral gear, fuel bulb. Sometimes in the panic at the ramp people forget the basics.

It was good to get out with Luke to NPD for a low wind day after all the wind lately. Fish were hard to find early, one rat up until 8.30am. We stuck to it and was rewarded as the morning wore on.I was raising the bass tally and Luke was on the yellas again. Might have to increase the bait fishing as the lures are getting harder, well until the schools show up. Dino

Have had this on the bucket list for a while. Scored it on about 8inches of water. 6lb braid and 8lb leader

Fish were few and far between today, no big schools like they used to be years ago only and hand full of scattered fish hiding in small dips and gully’s around the dam, trolled down the dam for only 2 fish with not much even showing on the FADS. Things improved on the was back to ramp with a a few fish landed and the stump and finding a school of catfish that got turned onto eagle turds. Casting to the edges was the biggest reward today with a 60cm toga happy to come aboard for a quick pic and off to tell his friends about me. A quick stop one the way back at a good showing on the sounder on koala straight yielded another PB! Two in one day lucky me !! Thinking I was on to a ripper a yella a big bloody catty appeared from the depths to get some surgery. Beautiful day out on the water with afew fish as a bonus, get out there and enjoy it while you can folks. cheers

About as long as that eBay link was

Hi all Here are the two reports from my weekend, and while not much happened they were still somewhat eventful. I am hoping you will not find this boring, but here goes! Once the lines were in, baited with fresh, dead banana prawn, I set the gear up, got the net out, filled the bucket up with water, and threw the net. The first cast resulted in nothing, but in the next four casts I had two solid prawns in the bait tank. I chucked the salmon line out then, and began my long wait. While this was happening, I was talking to two people about a couple years older than me. One of them recognized me from the tennis competition I play in, so we had a chat (I think I've played him once or twice). He said he owns a house on the water, and he told me he'd caught a few bream, a few catties, and one thready. This was just in the duration he lived there I believe, as he said he didn't fish that much. I also told him what I'd caught there, but the thing I find funny is that the species list is becoming too long to remember. They then left, so I gave the lines a quick bait check. They were all pickered, so I rebaited them all. I chucked them back out and set the drag. I then started to cast net a bit more, and to my surprise a whiting came up in the net. After a quick look at it, I noticed it was a Winter Whiting, so into the live bait tank he went. Here he is prior to being deployed - He stayed in the bait tank for another uneventful 20 minutes, and then I checked my line. The prawn was off it, so I pinned him through the mouth like you would with a mullet and chucked him out. He seemed to stay put, so I did a bit more netting. I didn't really get much, but the prawns on the other line were still on. I then just sat around the top to have a bit of a relax and waited. The fishing was very quiet, with no bites. Since it had been about another 20 minutes, I went down to the jetty to check on the whiting. I reeled it in, and to my surprise when I pulled him up, well, he/she was a mess. To give you an idea, look at the above and below images as a before and after Done! I am not sure what it might've been, but my initial thought was a little shark, as I have heard sharks will hit their baits from the tail first, not head first, like other fish do. From second thoughts, I realised it very well could've been a crab feasting on my live bait, or it even could've been baby breamv or something of the likes of that. I guess, unfortunately, I will never know, so I will just have to guess and hypothesize. After that whiting, another live prawn was deployed. It would've been close to dark by now (around 5) so I starting tipping water on the jetty to get mud and gunk from the net off, and put the gear in the cart so it was ready to go. I made sure to keep the rods in though, just for good measure. In another few minutes of pacing around, the rods seemed like they could use a bait check. The two rods were pickerred, and I decided to keep the bottom one out so I had better chance. I re baited and re casted, and hoped something would take my bait in the last few minutes... Well, that never happened and it looked like I was going to finish up with another doughnut. I sadly did, and then I trudged all the way home, dragging my fishing cart along. This was not before I decided to take a quick sunset snap of the relatively gloomy day, so at least the report had some pictures - That is it done and dusted, or the first one anyways, so here are the statistics of the trip - Statistics of the trip - Tide: Low, 11:30AM, .5M, High, 5:15PM, 1.7M Moon Phase: First quarter moon, so not that much run Air Pressure: 1019.8 - a bit lower than my better days have been Weather: Quite cloudy, light winds, gloomy Tackle used: 14lb and 30lb mainlines, braid, 30lb, 15lb fluorocarbon leaders, 80lb trace, size 2 and 6 ball sinkers, 4/0 circle and suicide hooks, large barrel swivel. Bait used: Prawn, live and dead, and live winter whiting Bait caught: Winter whiting and banana prawns Fish caught: - Overall success rate: 40% - Not to bad of a day out OK, that is the report done. I hope you enjoyed reading, and hopefully you aren't bored out and can't read the next. I hope QLD's COVID-19 cases stay at a minimum as well, and I hope everyone can get out for a fish soon. OK, so here is report two. It was a bit more exciting than the first, and I had three of my mates with me, two who had never really fished before. I met them at the train station at half past one, and we would've had our lines in the drink by about 2:00PM. The first cast I did I got zilch, but on the first cast I did on the jetty bait started rolling in. In about 5 casts, I had three solid mullet and about a dozen prawns, which I happily live baited on the lines. My mates were pretty happy with that, and then we could just sit and wait for a bit. Since there was no action in about ten minutes, and one of them kept bugging me to show him how to throw the net, I showed him. Giving him the best instructions I could, he only managed a figure of eight on the first throw, LOL. The second was a slight improvement, but then he decided to put the net down and fish for a bit. I gave the lines a bait check then as well, the mullet was still very lively and the prawns were actually still on, much to my surprise. They were deployed again, and this time the wait was a bit longer. To keep myself from tiring out, I kept catching some prawns in the net. The best throw was three bigs ones, and, boy, they certainly make the net vibrate and pull A LOT for their size. By now, it was about 3:15PM, and with nothing happening, I was starting to think we might doughnut again. Luckily, the fish liked the live prawns and I saw the rod out in the middle of the river (or that area) getting pecks. I figured it was a perch, so I set the hook and told one of my mates they could pull it in. I suspected it was a perch, and I turned out to be right. A tiny one - I de hooked him, got my mate a quick pic (he's only caught a few fish in his life as he doesn't fish often) and then I chucked him back. He kicked off straight down, so another that was another successful release. Once he had dealt with that, everyone wasn't so bred again so I did some cast netting. Since the tide was absolutely rushing in, the net was a big effort. I also wasn't getting any bait, so I decided to give that a break for a few minutes. In that time though, one of the rods went off. To be specific, to cod rod did (no rhyming intended but it does ). I picked it up with haste but to my disappointment it had bricked us pretty good under/around the pylons. At the start, he was right stuck in there but with some rod maneuvering he started to come out. Then, whatever it was, took a run for structure... That had us done, and I could tell we weren't landing that fish, after about a ten minute wait, I started pulling the line out and eventually the braid snapped. That was a pity, because the fish (most likely a cod) felt pretty good. After the liens were re rigged, I had a throw of the net off the jetty. I felt some vibrating in the net, so I thought I might have some prawns. When I pulled the net up though, I realised I had a little perch in it. After a quick photo (sorry it's not to good) I chucked it back in the drink and off he went. Here it is - After that, they were really shut down, or maybe we were just missing them. I know that the lines weren't getting pickered, because when I did bait checks there was still bait. My friends had to go now though, as it was pretty much four thirty (they wanted to be home before it got dark). I said goodbye, but just before this, my other mate (who normally comes fishing with me) said the rod I had positioned in the channel just went off. There wasn't a fish when we reeled it up though, just a headless prawn. Whatever it was (most likely a small perch) had completely missed the hook. This was probably the last event to occur, as it was very quiet for the rest of the duration of my fishing. By about 5, it was getting a bit darker, so I knew it would be wise to load up the cart ready to go. Once this was loaded, I went down to check on the jetty rod. It seemed to be getting picked/pecked, so I picked it up and reeled it in. I assume the culprit was a bream, but both the mullet and the prawn which I had put on were gone. I guess some fish got an OK feed, but not me. I casted it out again, with the last big prawn and hoped. To sum it up, nothing more happened. I left in the dark, miserable that I hadn't gotten anything good. I am also quite tired today as I went out mountain biking this morning (that is the reason I wasn't out this morning). Here are the statistics of the trip - Stats of Trip - Tide: 12:15PM, .4M, Low, 6:20PM, 1.8M, High. I fished the rising tide. Moon Phase: First quarter, so not that much run. Air Pressure: 1019.9. Just realised I got today's air pressure for yesterday's fishing session, so you'll have to do without an accurate one for that one. Weather: Wind, 3Km'h, Humidity 90% (not sure how accurate that is but that's what the weather forecast is saying), and partly cloudy. Fish caught: River Perch x 2 Bait caught: About two dozen prawns, Mullet x 3 Bait used: Live mullet and prawns, dead prawns Time fished: 2:00PM-5:20PM or so Tackle Used: 14lb and 30lb braid mainlines, 80lb mono trace, 30lb and 15lb fluorocarbon leader, large-ish barrel swivel, 4/o circle and suicide hooks, size 2 and size ball/bean sinkers, size 1000 Shimano Sienna, Size 2500 Shimano Nasci, Size 2500 Diawa Shinobi, Size 650 Penn reel, 6'6" Ugly Stik and Rogue Firepoint rod, 8' Ugly Stik Rod. Overall Success rate: 60% - A nice afternoon. OK, that is the double report done. I hope you all enjoyed reading, despite the fact it wasn't the most exciting session at all. I hope you can all stay safe with the virus. Sorry for any spelling errors either. Cheers Hamish

I launched around lunch time and had to wait for a boat to come back in so i could grab their trailer park spot. And yes thats another reason i dont normally fish on weekends - boat traffic on the water. Luckily yesterday there wasnt too much traffic where i wanted to fish. I normally fish the incoming tide at this spot so yesterday there was no need to leave early, i fished from 12 till 3pm , and then unfortunately the easterly breeze picked up and spoilt the flat conditions, but i never sat down once in 3 hours maintaining two rods, the bite was red hot. And on a side note, i have never caught so many juvenile snapper while catching bait recently, so great to see..... ☺ For those interested their is an article in the april edition of bushnbeach, which you can view on-line, by yours truly on bay snapper which i had a crack at....

Good sessions are the norm at the moment, some schools are hungry and some wont touch a thing.If you move around you can find the hungry ones. At the moment the bass have started to roe up and most are of a good size, I caught many just under the 50cm mark and with full bellies.It makes for a good session when the bass are all over 40cm. Managed 41 with a lot caught early.I keep forgetting to take a selfie so you dont forget what a handsome bloke I am Dino

Chilly morning to start, that gave some fish lockjaw. Lucky there was still a few around, with a nice yella first up and then when the sun showed up the bass were on. Managed 61,trolling,jigging, casting and baiting, with 3 bass right on the 50cm mark and all nice and fat. Dino

I'll let the wife know. The trailer is hers apparently.

Hi there Fisherman’s gear, and thank you, almost every time I go fishing I’ll throw an unweighted pilly out the back, let a decent amount of line go, and just leave it in the holder, depending on the current, it’will stay up top for a while, or sink slowly down,. Ive always just called it a floater, and can see there’s a few ways one might interpret that. With no effort at all it’s accounted for some pretty decent catches in the past, cheers

Cracking day out. @Old Scaley cleaned me up and caught most of the fish. I got a few and a good share of the cuttlefish. So delicious. It was bumpy on the way out but perfect trip home. I hope to get out there again next week to see if they are still hanging around.

Awesome boat Brian and I think it may be the same model that my mum and dad had which was a fantastic rig. What size chain do you have as the chain sock comes in 2 sizes to suit either 6 or 8mm chain. Make sure you watch this video below on how to fit the sock properly as it can save you hours of frustration due to the gal on the chain.

Went to NPD this morning and left the thermos at home so no coffee from 4am till 3pm. Reduced to drinking dam water. I had a gas stove in the bow but when I tried to use it there was no spark to ignite the gas. Good thing that the fish were on the chew so I did not have time to go into the DTS. First up we tried 2 spots for only one fish. Next spot we tried was andrews drop off which only showed a couple of fish on the sounder but they soon came around when we dropped some live shrimp down. We ended up with 91 bass with Stews forkie the catch of the day. It was too big for both percy and the eagles. The eagles will get it when it drifts to the shore. Stew started off using 2 rods but soon resorted to one after getting a few tangles trying to manage 2 40cm bass at once . The sounder shot is what we left when we knocked off at midday. Cheers Ray

You could enjoy a session like that if you could give up a durrie or three for a few hours.

Keep it nice people. No need for inflammatory remarks. Everyone can have an opinion on a clearly grey area. (pun intended).

Happy Birthday Hamish. Hope all your fishing dreams come true.

Missus says the same thing !