Hi all,
headed out for a kayak trip with a mate with flathead being the main target. Arrived at spot a and was greeted with appalling conditions…
Although the lack of breeze did mean a serious bath in 40% deet was required immediately!
the water looked dirty and a quick trip down to spot x proved this to be the case. Given it was just after high and the dirty water would only get worse, I made the call to move to a different spot about 40 min drive away.
we loaded up and then re-launched at spot b. The tide here was almost dead low and the water looked much cleaner. We both had hits fairly shortly after launching with no hook ups. The tide started to push in a bit and I decided to try old faithful pontoon 21 crackerjack 55 which has delivered the goods repeatedly over time. About 50m into the troll I had a good hit and soon landed the first for the day at 46cm. I explored a bit more and other than 4 pike and a crab pot had no further interest. A spot that had looked likely on the low tide now had enough water over it and sure enough I was on again with a tango shad accounting for a mid 30’s model which was released, shortly after the crackerjack got whacked hard and a much more solid weight came on the line. I then landed a 54.5cm model which was released straight into the esky.
By now I was being very greedy and trolling 3 lures behind the yak which is fine if you are going fairly straight - it has 4 rod holders after all. This allows you to use different colours and sizes in the same area and work out what works on the day. I had a good hit on my heavier rod with a larger yozuri 80mm lure nicknamed the slayer and a nice 50cm model was boated. I then went to retrieve the tango shad and it got nailed on about the second turn of the handle. A nice 45cm model was added to the net and some serious “sorting stuff out” ensued with two cranky flathead on my lap.
I trolled around the area a bit more but couldn’t get another hit so went exploring further upstream. I was trolling along a mangrove edge past some likely looking drains with no luck. I then went past a larger feeder creek with bait everywhere and just felt like something would happen. Sure enough the crackerjack got nailed. The last fish of my bag came in at 51cm. After boating this one, it managed to do a half back somersault with pike out of the net and embedded one hook of the second treble firmly into my calf. Never had a flathead been pinned so quickly! Thankfully the other treble fell out of the fish in the process which just left me with a lure hanging out of my leg. At this point, I realized the pliers were not on board anymore (an accidental donation to the fishing god) and my mate with his pliers was about 500m away against the current. Pedaling a hobie with a treble in your calf is certainly less than comfortable and also creates a decent shark burley trail. Managed to wave him over from about 100m away and the treble was successfully removed - thankfully in one swift attempt.
I kept trolling my way back to the launch point as my mate had plenty of room in his bag that I was happy to try and fill. Two more undersized flatties were landed and subsequently released.
all in all, a cracking day out exploring an entirely new system and the fillets make 4 feeds for the family which is a good result.
Blew the cob webs out of my little tinnie the other day and cruised out from the Southport seaway to chase a Marlin. Perfect weather for it and I was soon jigging up a tank full of live slimie mackerel.
Drifting over the same bait schools dropping a couple of live baits was the method we used. At around 8am we hooked up to a good black Marlin with the fish jumping clean out of the water.
I drove the boat while my mate Adam filmed and Jasen fought the fish. Each time the fish went deep I motored off to plane him up. Then each time the fish came to the surface I'd drive towards it to get back line on the reel.
The fish jumped 4 different times getting some exciting wahooos from us each jump.
It was about the 20 minute mark we saw the leader line but it still had one more jump before we could grab the leader.
Adam leadered the line and Jasen grabbed the bill of the Marlin while Adam dehooked the fish. We swum it beside the boat with the engine ticking along at idle to get some water through his gills.
We measured the fish and estimated it around 60kg then it swum off strong. Another Marlin hit on a livie without hooking up then a snip from a wahoo followed before we called stumps for the day.
Went to Mum's for the weekend - she lives on Macleay Island about 1 min walk from her place to fantastic Yabby banks and beach. A mate lives right on the beach and I shortcut through his place and fish and pump yabbies literally at the end of his boat ramp.
So me the BF and his kids arrived on the ferry about 8am, stopped for some groceries and headed straight to Yabby pump as it was a 9am ish low tide.
Yabby pumping didn't take long as they are plentiful and easy to pump. The BF decided to head out on the flats a little further for a look at some exposed weed beds and ended up thigh high in mud ha ha. His first time there.
Anyway went straight back to the house to jump in the pool with the kids and wait until the water was higher enough to start fishing.
Once there was enough water we started at the far end of the beach. The BF landed a decent sized Bream about 32cm first cast. The whiting were chasing the yabbies there but were babies so I started moving up the beach casting until I landed the first legal - which I think was about 26cm.
The BF followed and we set up eventually where I have always had the best success. Right in front of my friends house.
According to the BF I was slaying them! I was pulling in whiting at least every second cast for about 1/2 hour. Some were unders but some were legal and it was beginning to look like we would be able to provide my parents with a feed of whiting at least.
My catching slowed and the BFs picked up (dammit - thought I might be able to outfish him). We lost count but ended up about even - with me landing the biggest ha ha.
The biggest whiting of the day was 29cm and once we started pulling in small ones all the time we decided to leave and start the filleting process.
All in all there were 19 legal Whiting taken home and one Bream. We all had whiting for breakfast and I imagine my parents had a good feed of whiting again last night.
As an afterthought I would also mention that at this particular spot almost all the whiting I have caught have been with a slow retrieve of the bait. Very rarely can you let the Yabby waft around in the current and catch a fish.
Hi all
This is going to have a lot of reports included, so I will limit all of them so they are short. There's not really that much I can remember of anything, anyways. I also went for some other trips in between these sessions at different locations which do not warrant their own report, so they will be crammed in here somewhere. There was one success story behind these, so -
*Read the LAST report for the best story, if you don't want to read through everything else*
Anyways, to the first report -
This took place at the end of August, and was a brief kayak session mounting the depth sounder and fishing for bream. One of them was successful. We launched around midday, with one rod and the sounder. The kayak was slid into the water, and then there was the moment of triumph. Would it work?
YES! Woohoo!
Our sounder
With a far more functional fishing kayak, hopes were high for some bream. Despite marking many solid looking fish on the depth sounder, after about an hour of fishing a lot of structure and jetties, I could not manage a single fish. It wasn't looking good and we had to get back home for my tennis game, so we started paddling home. It was quite sad there were no fish but good the sounder was working.
Bream spot
Quick Stats -
Tide: 8:20AM, .4M, Low, 2:30PM, 1.8M, High
Moon Phase: 67%, Waning Gibbous
Tackle Used: 12LB mainline, 6LB FC Leader, Abu Garcia Veritas 3-5KG Rod, Diawa Shinobi 2500 reel, small hardbody lure
Fish Caught: -
Overall Success Rate: 60% - sounder was great news.
The second session happened a couple of days later, and it was at my local park. It was a morning session, and being at the start of September, it was still quite chilly. I rocked up with my cart at my normal starting time (a bit before 6), and got the lines out. I knew it was going to be a tough days fishing as the tide was roaring in on the top half of the tide, which is my least favourite condition for fishing there. My mate was coming down as well, so I had some pressure to catch some good fish. After not having a nibble for an hour and a half, my mate rocked up at about 7:30AM. I figured I could land some catfish if I through my lines off the back of the jetty, which always produced catfish for me when I was younger.
Fast forward another two hours - the tide was very high, the bait esky was very low, and the fish tally was zilch apart from a bream I caught in the cast net. Time to head home!!!
Tiny
Quick Stats -
Tide: 2:40AM, .6M, Low, 8:00AM, 1.5M, High
Moon Phase: Waning Crescent, 14%
Tackle Used: 12LB, 20LB, 30LB Braid Mainlines, 15, 20 and 80 pound leaders, 3/o suicide and 6/o circle hooks, size 2 and 6 ball sinkers, large swivels, Abu Garcia Verittas 3-5KG, Diawa Shinobi 2500, Ugly Stik Rod, Abu Garcia Barra King 650, Penn Spinfisher 650, Rogue Firepoint Boat Rod.
Fish Caught: -
Bait Used: Garfish and Mullet
Bait Caught: -
Overall Success Rate: 10% - should've slept in that morning
The third session was slightly more eventful, though nothing much did happen. It was an afternoon session, and I was fishing solo. I baited the salmon line up with a mullet about 15cm long, and the other two lines up with herring, if I remember correctly. The tide was running out, and I was throwing the cast net around a fair bit to try for some livies (to no avail). It was quite crowded at the park that afternoon, and there were a lot of walkers passing by.
After about an hour and a half of no action whatsoever, a large group of people went down onto the jetty. As they went down, I saw my rod, baited with a large mullet, buckled over. I jogged down, and as soon as I set the hooks the fish took off on a big run. Just at this moment, a large boat came about a metre from the jetty, like they were going to moor up. The boat spooked the fish though, and it ran down deeper and faster and rubbed through my 80LB leader. Undoubtedly it was a big shark, so I was quite disappointed when I lost it. The worst part of all was that the boat didn't even moor up - so it had just cost me a big fish for no reason🤣. After that bust off, the rest of the session was very quiet, and no more fish were caught. Bugger!
Nice arvo anyways
Quick Stats -
Tide: 11:00AM, 1.9M, High, 5:51PM, .2M, Low
Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous
Bait Caught: -
Bait Used: Mullet, herring
Fish Caught: -
Overall Success Rate: 40%
Tackle Used: 12LB, 30LB, 20LB Braid Mainlines, 15LB Mono Leaders, 80LB Mono Leaders, Size 4/o circle and 6/o circle hooks, large swivel, size 2 and 6 ball sinkers, Abu Garcia Veritas 3-5KG, Ugly Stik, Rogue Firepoint Boat Rod 5-8KG, Diawa Shinobi 2500, Abu Garcia Barra King 650 Penn Spinfisher 650.
The next session, which was a couple of days later, was with two of my mates, and was slightly downriver. We rode our bikes to the spot, which I hadn't been to for a number of sessions, and my Dad cast netted us some live mullet (in about three throws) then headed off. We got our lines out and waited. Two other fellas rocked up, but since there was a large grassy strip for river access it was all good. For the first hour, it was very quiet, with only a couple nibbles on a smaller live mullet. It was approaching high tide and we all had our fingers crossed for a good fish.
Eventually, after not catching anything for another hour, my mates decided to go and get some food. They rode off to the nearest store and in about 20 minutes came back with some hot chips. We ate them quite quickly then got back to fishing. For the next hour or so, we caught absolutely nothing, before the tide became to low to fish and we decided that it was time to head back. On the way home I'm sure my mates were considering why they bothered coming, lol. The one thing of note was a baby tailor in the cast net, which was released.
Lunch
Tailor
Quick Stats:
Tide: 5:49AM, .2M, LOw, 11:45AM, 2M, High
Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous, 94%
Tackle Used: Varied braid mainlines with 30LB leader for threadies, two rods with 80lb mono leader for sharks. Shimano Stradic, Shimano Raider 4-7KG, Penn Spinfisher, Rogue Firepoint Boat Rod 5-8KG, Ugly Stik, Abu Garcia Barra King. Size 4/o and 6/o circle hooks, size 2 and 6 ball sinkers.
Fish Caught: -
Bait Used: livies (mullet, mainly)
Overall Success Rate: 30%
The next session wasn't in the river, but was fishing for tilapia. It was with one of my mates, and on the same day as the prior report (one above). We got to the park with some bread, and began sight casting tilapia. For some reason, they are very spooky in this pond. I've been putting in a lot of effort trying to catch them lately to no avail, despite some very good tips. The first hook-up was mine, and despite letting it run for a while the fish still spat my hook before it could get hooked up. I only had 6lb leader, which is very light, so i was being careful not to be too ambitious with my fishing. After about another hour had passed of no successful hook-ups, I was presented with a missed opportunity. A large tilly was feeding in the shallows next to the bank, and I missed scooping it up with my net. It got away. Blast! My third and final opportunity at a fish came when a tilly at my bait, ran with it, was hooked, and then bit through my 6lb leader. To make matters worse, I see him regularly with my hook still in his mouth! 😠
The next time I went fishing was a few days later, and was not actually in the Brisbane River - instead in a small creek running into it. It was with my friend, and since his house is near the creek I told him he should give it a go. We both decided to try it, so early one morning I cast netted some live mullet (and one big one) and rode to his house, then the creek spot. Someone had set up some rod holders, so we got set up there and tried our luck. We fished for about an hour and then decided to move to a nearby jetty. After picking up some lunch we rode to the jetty and began flicking our baits. There were already some people there, who had caught some good bream on prawns, which we didn't have. We still tried our hardest, but after a couple hours of fishing we only had a few catfish to show. We decided to head off, so I gave my mate the leftover mullet and rode home.
The Spot
Good mullet
Quick Stats:
Tide: 7:40AM, .4M, Low, 2:20PM, 1.9M, High
Moon Phase: 65%, Waning Gibbous
Bait Used/Caught: Mullet
Fish Caught: Catfish
Tackle Used: 12 and 15 pound braid mainlines, 10 pound leaders, small sinkers and suicide hooks. Shimano Stradic and Raider combo, Diawa Shinobi and Abu Garcia Veritas combo.
Overall Success Rate: 50% - a fun fish
I decided that it was time I gave a spot I was meaning to try for ages a crack - my friend had caught some very good fish there, including numerous jewies and threadies. It was in the city, and I wasn't to prepared to fish it, as it was off quite a high pier. I improvised by making a landing net with rope tied to it to land any fish I caught, and I rigged up my rods with the biggest sinker I had. I met my mate at his house at about 9:00AM, and after a brief drive in we had our rods in the water a smidge before ten. I had netted live mullets at the crack of dawn that morning, and had about 15 mullet ranging from 12cm-20cm in size. Perfect!
To cut a long and boring story short, after 3 or 4 hours of fishing, we had only gotten a small hit from a pike eel (assumed), a bait mauled by a bream, a lot of wind, sun, and threatening storm clouds, and a couple snags. Not good!!! The day wasn't quite over when we wound in our rods though; we still had to get the ferry back to Guyatt Park to get picked up. I cut the hooks off and to my surprise the ferry staff actually let me and my mate on, with the fishing cart. We got back to Guyatt Park and had some pizza, and then the day was over.
Donut
Quick Stats:
Tide: 8:50AM, .6M, Low, 3:00PM, 1.8M, High
Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous, 95%
Bait Used: Live Mullet
Tackle Used: 20 and 30 pound braid mainlines, 30 and 80lb mono/fluorocarbon leader, size 4/o and 6/o circle hooks, size 6 ball sinkers, large swivels, Penn SSM 650 on Rogue Firepoint Boat Rod, Abu Garcia Barra King on Ugly Stik.
Overall Success Rate: 30% - better than sitting at home
After this, my family went to Caloundra for a quick day trip. We spent more time in traffic than on the beach, but I whipped out my telescopic rod and through a lure around to no avail. I eventually just had a chat with a local about fishing there who told me about all the good fish that could be caught along there. It was interesting enough, even though I didn't hook anything.
The next session was also a bit different, and we were fishing for bream with lures. I rigged up my rod with 6 pound leader and a small hardbody, and organised with my mates to meet at UQ ferry terminal. We all met up and got on a ferry heading downstream, not entirely sure where to go. We decided to get off at Regatta, because the rock wall going along near the ferry looked fishy. None of us got anything except a snag, so we decided to move on. We walked along the rock wall there until we got to some mangroves, which we also had no luck at. We found a small but shallow creek covered by a bridge as well, but there were no fish willing to eat our lure here, either. It wasn't looking good!
Bream spot
We went on the next ferry and fished around Southbank for a bit, and stopped on a pier. My mates went and grabbed lunch, and I minded the rods. The tide was roaring through here so I didn't bother fishing too much, except for seeing if anything would eat unweighted bread. We had no luck, so decided to get the ferry down to Tenneriffe, where we fished the rock wall along there. We still caught no fish, even after trying numerous lures. Overall, it was a bit of a dud session, but fun to get out.
Does anyone have any tips for landbased lure bream?
Quick Stats:
Tide: tide varied based on spots - it started about half/one-quarter up and ended high
Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous, 80%
Lures Used: small hardbodies, z-man grubz, diawa baitjunkies.
Tackle Used: 10lb braid mainline, 6lb fluorocarbon leader, Abu Garcia Veritas with Diawa Shinobi reel.
Overall Success Rate: 15% - boring day
The next session was back at one of the spots I had no success at before, and I had high hopes for one fish. I took a different mate who I needed to catch up with, and got fishing. The arvo prior was a low tide at the local park, and I managed to net some solid live mullet there (although they weren't very sizeable). I packed them all into the live bait bucket and hoped that they would get smashed the next day.
Little
Yuck
I met my friend and my mum drove us in the spot, which was lucky. We got the lines out, and seeing as though there was already someone on the deeper jetty, we casted out on a shallower jetty. There was no action whatsoever, apart from the fella on the deeper jetty getting a catfish. I was throwing the net around and went up to them, and I introduced myself to them. One of the fellas didn't speak English at all that well, and was just sitting down minding his own business, but the other fella was quite nice. He allowed me to bring a rod up, which I was happy to do. He was even kind enough to give me a bigger sinker, because he reckoned they were essential at this spot. Legend!
After quite a while of chatting, he eventually headed off, as did the other fella, so it was just my mate and I. We didn't have that much longer, but I casted all rods out. It didn't take long to hear the iconic sound of a fishing reel having line ripped off it... After setting the hook and briefly fighting an alright fish, a nice breambo surfaced. Not too bad! I was most shocked that I got it on a half garfish, though. We headed home soon after this though, as my mate and I needed to be back home to do assignments. We got the ferry back to Guyatt Park, had some lunch, and were picked up and driven home.
Nice! 33cm
Quick Stats:
Tide: 8:00AM, 1.8M, High, 2:00PM, .4M, L0w
Moon Phase: New Moon (or pretty much)
Bait Caught: Live mullet
Bait Used: Live mullet, garfish, pillies, prawns (the fella who left gave me a heap of assorted bait)
Fish Caught: Yellowfin Bream x 1
Tackle Used: 15, 20, and 30 pound braid mainlines, 30 and 80 pound mono/fluorocarbon leaders, 2/o, 4/o, 6/o circle hooks, size 6 and 4 ball/star sinkers, large swivels, Shimano Stradic and Raider combo, Penn SSM 650 and Rogue Firepoint Boat Rod combo, ABu Garcia Barra King and Ugly Stik COmbo.
Overall Success Rate: 40% - not a donut, for once.
The next time I was on the water was a crabbing trip, getting rid of some old bait (or that's how we convinced mum to let us go). It began with the typical loading of the kayak one night, with two pots stacked up, a light stick, and rod. We launched at the local park and began paddling to the first destination. It was closer in to the park than last time, so we weren't sure if we'd get much. We had a quick flick but then got back home to wake up early to collect them, which was going to be tiring.
Loaded Up
We woke up early, and because we were a bit before the tide change, we flicked a 3 inch plastic around for a little while. We thought there'd be too much fresh around for any good fish anyways, and apart from a couple mullet jumping there wasn't any surface commotion either. It was time to pull the pots, and disappointingly, the first had a little bream in it. The second, was also depressing to look at, but at least it had some crabs. Only problem was they were 7cm undersize and female. 😞
Nice view
Quick Stats:
Tide: Left for low, high, low
Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous, 93%
Bait Used: winter and summer whiting frames, pretty sure there were some bream frames too
Crabs Caught: -
Overall Success Rate: 10% - should've stayed at home
After this, I had a huge weekend. It was my Mum's fiftieth birthday, so we were in Mount Tamborine one night, then I had a 32KM scout hike, so I hiked a section of the Sunshine Coast Great Walk (over two nights). It was great, and we saw plenty of animals, mostly goannas, but caught no fish.
A goanna got up close to us
This is how the jetty was left a day before the next session. I got rid of all the catfish too.
The next session was a bit later, and an early morning bike session. I woke up a bit before 4:30AM, but for some reason Mum didn't want me to go fishing before then, so I ended up leaving at about quarter to five. I got to my chosen location for catching live bait at about 5:10AM, and got to throwing the cast net. It wasn't looking good for me after about 20 minutes - all I had was a sizeable prawn and a couple baby mullet that I through back. I kept throwing with the net though, until I had three good sized live prawns. I ended up leaving when someone came and told me off for casting on the jetty. I didn't mind anyways, I was heading off as it was.
Livies
At the second spot, I deployed lines with live and dead baits, in hope of a fish. The tide was rising, and despite rain in the last couple of days prior to this trip the water was quite clean. I noticed my light rod, baited with dead mullet, was getting some action, so I had a look. I wound it in and rebaited, this time with frogmouth pilchard, and kept fishing. My big rod had a small run from a catfish, which I failed to hook with a 6/o hook. What a waste of a prawn!
The one rod I hadn't checked yet was my 20lb overhead outfit. Both lines had been rebaited and recasted, but as I picked this one up there was some action. The fish was slowly swimming out to deeper water, and I set the hooks. I knew whatever this was it was big, as it was a huge weight. I was struggling to move it, but eventually began coaxing it closer to me. It began taking a couple small runs, and I was getting it close to the jetty. I thought the battle may be over, but to my shock the fish took the fastest run I have ever had in my life!!! It was with a tight drag - the only problem was, the fish was running for the jetty pylons about 20 metres away from the jetty I was fishing off.
I knew it wasn't going to end well, and when the fish stopped running after about 40 seconds, I was bricked. I tried getting it out but it only took a couple tail whacks of whatever it was to break through my 30 pound leader. Damit!!! For the rest of the day, the catfish were not biting, and I was quite devastated. I fished with dead baits until the tide was high enough to throw the cast net, where I caught some mullet and herring. I was back in business, but the tide had changed to the run out and a lot of scum was coming down. A fella in a tinny was throwing a lure, and just as he drifted past I hooked up to a shark. I picked up the 70cm bully and, I don't reckon I've ever seen someone turn on their motor and get out of the vicinity that quick! I guess old mate didn't like sharks. 😉.
Pup
I kept fishing for a little bit longer but it was very hot and my mum wanted me to be home. I was disappointed with my lost fish but happy that I tussled with a biggun at the same time. The last live herring I had put out came back mauled to death. I guess the pickers in the river come out when the sun rises.
Dumb pickers
Stats of Trip -
Tide: 1:00AM, .4M, Low, 7:00AM, 1.7M, High, 1:00PM, .5M, Low
Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous, 79%
Bait Caught: Live Prawns, Herring, Mullet
Bait Used: Live Prawns, Live and Dead Herring and Mullet
Fish Caught: Bull Shark x 1
Tackle Used: 15, 20, 30LB Braid Mainlines. 15LB, 30LB, 80LB Fluorocarbon Leaders. Size 2/o, 4/o, 6/o circle hooks. Size 2 and 6 ball and bean sinkers. Large barrel swivels. Shimano Stradic and Raider Combo, Penn SSM and Rogue Firepoint Boat Rod Combo, Abu Garcia Barra King and Ugly Stik combo.
Air Pressure: 1013
Humidity: 37%
Weather: Sunny
Notes: Thready was taken on a rising tide, shark was taken with a patch of freshwater on the falling tide.
Overall Success Rate: 50% - wish I caught that fish.
Because I was running low on bait, I convinced my Dad yo take me prawning. There had been some rain, and I had seen some solid catches of prawns in the river. We drove to Colmslie Boat Ramp and arrived a bit after sundown, to a couple others there. After asking around it was found no one was getting any prawns, so as well as throwing, I had a chat to some other people. One fella was about 20 and was quite knowledgeable on fishing, especially chasing jacks on the Goldy, so I spent most of my time chatting to him, and my Dad was chatting to a different fella with a tinny. After about 2 hours of netting, with one prawn (a cheer of joy was heard from the ramp when this was caught) and a few frogmouth pilchards and herring, my Dad and I drove over to Murrarie Recreation Hub. It was the same there, and apart from a few herring we caught nothing. We had a pie from the servo on the way home and decided that we would be back sooner or later on a quest for more prawns.
Bird, Moon, Bait
Statistics of Trip:
Tide: 4:15Pm, .6M, Low, 9:45PM, 2M, High
Moon Phase: 100% - this was the blood man or eclipse night (or something like that)
Bait Caught: one prawn, about 25 herring/frogmouth pilchards
Gear Used: 12 and 10 foot BCF cast nets
Air Pressure: 75%
Humidity: 1016
Rainfall (prior week): Around 45mm
Overall Success Rate: 30% - no prawns
The next session was also a bait collecting session, and was marginally more successful. It was the at the same location, and when we got to the jetty there was no one there. Not a good sign. Towards the start, one fella came down for about 15 minutes, but he didn't get any. We weren't getting much more than the odd herring, which was annoying. There was an abundance of greasy's around, and in total we kept about 30. After a couple hours throwing at Colsmlie, and chatting to a couple keen kayakers about fishing the POB area, our grand total was three big banana prawns. After bucketing down the boat ramp at Colmslie, we drove over to Murrarie to quickly try our luck. We only got herring and prawns there, which was disappointing, and some people fishing there got an undersize bream. Overall, it was another dud night bait collecting.
Bait
Statistics of Trip -
Tide: 3:15PM, 2.2M, High, 10:11PM, .8M, Low
Moon Phase: Waxing Gibbous, 92%
Bait Caught: 3 banana prawns, about 25 herring/frogmouth pilchards
Gear Used: 10 and 12 foot BCF cast nets (bottom pocket)
Humidity: 77%
Air Pressure: 1014
Rainfall (prior week): 125mm
Overall Success Rate: 30% - pretty dismal
The next session was with two of my mates, and my hopes weren't high due to all the rain that had been happening recently. I met up with them anyways, and we got our rods out. We were targeting bullies and also fishing for anything else interested in taking our baits. After about an hour and a half of not getting anything, things were looking down. We heard the sound of a rod going off, and my mate picked it up. He wound very quickly, but because the drag was loose a lot of line came off, and the fish got some slack. He handed it to me and I tightened the drag, and I could tell it was big. Unfortunately, the fish spat the hook, which was disappointing because it felt like a thready. This happened again, but unluckily for us that was the only action of the day.
Quick Stats:
Tide: 10:25AM, .6M, Low, 5:00PM, 2.0M, High
Moon Phase: Waning Crescent, 40%
Bait Used: Prawns, Mullet, Frogmouth Pilchards
Fish Caught: Nothin
Tackle Used: 12LB, 20LB, 30LB Braid Mainlines. 15LB, 20LB, 80LB Mono and Fluorocarbon leaders. Size 2 and 6 ball sinkers. Large barrel swivel. 2500 DIawa Shinobi, Abu Garcia Veritas. Abu Garcia Barra King and Ugly Stik. Penn SSM and Rogue Firepoint Boat Rod.
Overall Success Rate: 40% - at least it was fun with my friends
There was so much rain that the ponds at the local park had overflown. I went riding and found a dead tilly high and dry. Lol.
Silly fish
After this, the next session was another bait fishing session. It was after one of the recent downpours, and I didn't think I would get much due to all the rain. I was right, and despite waking up very early and cast netting at my favourite bait spot, all I could manage was a bullrout 😬. Lucky I packed deadbait!
Not Good!
I rode to the next spot and got my lines out. One baited with a large dead prawn, one with a cube of mullet, and the other with a herring... although I got there, the water was absolutely full of debris, sticks, and vegetation, making it very hard to fish. It wasn't looking good, and I kept myself entertained for the first couple of hours by netting bottles and rubbish out of the river.
Yuck
Believe it or not, this was the same sot 2 hours later
The scum eventually began to clear, and I began getting a couple runs on my whole prawn. I decided to cut my losses fishing for something decent and chucked out some prawn chunks on my lightest reel, which I caught 4 catfish on in about 25 minutes. I ran out of prawns eventually, so I switched my bait to a cube of frogmouth pilchard - on two rods. After about 15 minutes, I heard the loud noise of drag going off. I looked at my rod, then saw it sliding across the jetty. I barrelled towards it and in the nick of time picked it up. I'd forgotten to set the drag. 🤦♂️I fought this fish briefly, for around a minute, but then it cut through my 30 pound leader. A lot of the line was frayed, so I believe it was probably just a bull shark. I had two last baits out now, and after a little inquiry on my Stradic combo I realized I had been snipped. Weird. Pike eel?
The biggest catch, haha
Got four this size
I ended up finishing shortly after and, in very hot weather, pedalled myself home.
Quick Stats:
Tide: 2:40AM, .2M, Low, 8:40AM, 2.2M, High, 3:00PM, .4M, Low
Moon Phase: Waning Crescent, 5%
Bait Used: Dead prawns, frogmouth pilchards, and herring
Fish Caught: Catfish x 4
Tackle Used: 15, 20, 30LB Braid Mainlines. 15, 30, 80LB Fluorocarbon and Mono Leaders. Size 2/o, 4/o, 6/o circle hooks. Size 2 and 6 ball/bean sinkers/ Large barrel swivels. Shimano Stradic and Raider combo, Penn SSM and Rogue Firepoint Boat Rod combo, Abu Garcia Barra King and Ugly Stik Rod.
Overall Success Rate: 25% - lame session
After that session, I decided to give the river a couple of days to clean up. In this time I did a lot of research about my spots and more people than I would've thought have caught good fish at them (over a period of years, lol). The next session was actually a crabbing session, and I got rid of pretty much all old fish scraps out of my freezer. I packed the pots full and we launched the yak a bit after dark, with a rod, our lightpost, and the pots. We dropped one about 300 metres from the jetty (a bit closer than where we've had prior success) and we dropped a second pot where we have had some luck with rain before. It was quite deep, but we were hoping that this would mean the crabs would be there. I've heard when there's rain the crabs hang in the deeper water, where it is more salty. I flicked a surface lure around a bright jetty for a bit, but there was no action.
The next morning we went back to the pots on a low tide. To our dismay, only one of them was there! After pulling it up to see no crabs, we dropped it back down. We had a quick look for our other pot but, it seemed to have been taken away by vegetation. The next morning, when we went to check our pots, we had none left! We waited about 30 minutes, found someone else's pot stuck half in some mud, but not ours. Damn! The final theory was that one got taken away by vegetation, and the one we lost on the second day was nicked (Saturday, all day).
Bream and the last of my crab pots
Do you need a longer rope in a situation like this (to prevent them drifting away with vegetation), tie them off somewhere, or not put them out after a lot of rain?
Statistics of Trip:
Tide: Left for numerous full tide cycles
Moon Phase: 4th was a New Moon, so not much run.
Rainfall (prior week): around 40mm
Crabs caught: -
Gear Used: Two BCF large crab pots - one orange, one blue.
Bait Used: varied from chicken to mullet
Overall Success Rate: 10% - lost our crab pots 😞
The next time I went fishing was a couple days after this - last Tuesday. It was just at the local park, and I was aiming to catch anything. I brought down some prawns, and some herring. It was quite hot, and I let that fool me that there wouldn't be any freshwater in the river... There was heaps, and there were so many reeds it was almost unfishable. After loosing many baits and having to wind in my rods many times to get them off, I finally hooked up. After a brief fight, I brought up an eel that measured about 60cm from the river. I decided to let him go as I already had some eel in my freezer at home. I chopped him off at the side of the jetty, and after about half and hour more of fishing, called it quits because I couldn't get away from the weed in the water.
High Tide and Eel slithering away
Quick Stats:
Tide: 2.5M, 12:30PM, High, 7:45PM, .4M, LOw
Moon Phase: Around first quarter
Bait Used: prawns, herring
Fish Caught: Freshwater eel x 1
Tackle Used: 12LB, 20LB, 30LB braid mainlines, 15LB and 80LB mono leaders, size 4/o and 6/o circle and suicide hooks, size 2 and 6 ball sinkers, large swivels. Abu Garcia and Ugly Stik combo, Diawa Shinobi and Abu Garcia Veritas combo, Rogue Firepoint Boat Rod and Penn SSM Reel.
Overall Success Rate: 30% - bad fishing
The below report is the best one!
OK, so this is the final report in this report marathon. It happened yesterday, and was a morning session. I organized with two mates to meet up there. One of my mates slept over at mine the night before, which gave us time to pick up snacks, and the other was meeting us at the jetty. The chosen location was more downstream than I usually fish, and I knew there was still going to be plenty of fresh about. Despite this, I was mad keen to have a fish, and the clock was set for 4:45AM. After a short drive we arrived at the jetty by 5:25AM, armed with some dead baits and a cast net.
My dad had a go with the cast net to begin with. The stringy white net was flicked from his hands and made contact with the murky, chocolate coloured water in a shape that resembled a circle. The bullets of lead were quickly consumed by the Brisbane River, quickly sinking towards the bottom of the river. Some small herring became trapped in the net, and were pulled up in the bottom pockets. Within a couple throws of the cast net, a much larger fish become snared in the net. The frail mono was put to it's test with this fish, but somehow it held. Upon revealing the fish, it was identified as a blubberlip bream. It was about 35CM, and we decided to just let it go. The fish had made a huge whole in the bottom pocket of the net, which was very annoying.
New species for my Dad, even if it was in a cast net
After this blubberlip bream, our hopes were a lot higher. There was a steady inflow of sizeable herring coming from the net into the live bait bucket, and we were also catching a heap of tiny prawns (all let go). My Dad had headed off by now, and my mate and I had deployed all our lines with suitable sized baits, based on the hook. We were starting to feel slightly hungry, so got out the trangia and some bacon and began cooking it up. My mate was cooking the bacon and I was cast netting, and we were getting quite a few herring. This was good, because I really didn't think there'd be much around with all the freshwater! Three rods were deployed with herring. One casted out as far as I could go, one casted out about 15 metres, and one dropped straight down. While the bacon was sizzling, my friend noticed a bit of action on one of the rods. He picked it up, and after a couple of seconds wound it in. It was snipped clean off. At first we were baffled to what it could be, but then we figured it must've been a pike eel.
After re-tying the line, and eating our bacon, AND catching some more herring, some other people rocked up. They were fishing with deadbaits, and neither of us were having any luck. While we were both sitting down in the shade, a rod went off. I gave it to my mate, and it was pretty obvious that the live herring was down something's gob. After a bit of fighting, but no runs, it was pretty obvious we had an infamous Brisbane River pike eel on. We were about to cut him off, because it was quite large, but then a women from the other group ran up to me. She wanted it for a soup, so I said it's all yours. I gave it to them, and they kindly got the hook back, then chopped him up for eating.
IMG_5816.MOV
Hate these
After that pike eel, I got back to cast netting. I was getting a couple of herring, so eventually all of our rods were baited with livies. I had felt something large in the cast net twice, and both times it had escaped. Not this time, I thought. I slowly tugged the fish up through the murky river. I was very happy when I caught my own blubberlip bream, at about 35CM. Whether or not it was the same fish, is beyond me. After a quick photo, he was released.
Good one
As we were walking back up the jetty, we heard the sound of drag on my Stradic 3000. We bolted over the railing and ran to the jetty. It was my turn to wind in the fish, so my mate gave me the rod. I tightened the drag and began fighting the fish. I could tell it wasn't massive, but a decent fish. I was fast cranking in line, and then the fish ran towards the surface..
A silver salmon zipped out from the filthy water, and it would've leapt about 1.5M high and 2m long. Yells of joy could be heard coming from the jetty as the fish glided off on a run under the jetty. The adrenaline levels were high as my friend slid the net under the thready and it made one more desperate attempt for freedom. It almost made it out of the net but my friend kept it in them. We brought him on the jetty and he made many escape attempts before we could get him on the measurer. At 61CM it was only a 'rat' sized fish, but I was still very happy with the capture. It was a special fish for me, mainly because of the fight, but also because it broke my longest thready drought. My first since Janurary. Woohoo!!!
Nothing huge
After releasing that fish to the shock of the others on the jetty (undersized, which I told them), I got the lines out again. It had gone quiet, and I didn't seem to be catching any more fish. A bit after 9:00AM,a rod with a whole prawn was checked for bait. As I wound it in, I realised that there was a fish on. I handed it to my mate, and after about 30 seconds he wound in a small pike eel. I needed some more bait in the freezer at home, so I donged this one to death and wrapped him up in the esky. I caught a small bream in the cast net too, which was released -
Midget
After that, my other fishing mate came down. It was good to catch up, because I hadn't seen him since the last time I was at this jetty. There was absolutely no bait around now, which was annoying, and there wasn't much action on deadbait. One of the rods got pickered constantly by a presumed pike eel, but apart from that there were no fish chewing. We kept throwing the cast nets, and eventually Michael got two River Perch, which he was kind enough to share with me. He sent one out live, then we filleted the other one. Michael caught another perch, which was also filleted up. The pike eel had chewed up the last of my thirty pound leader, and eventually the whole rig was lost to a snag. I baited up with a river perch fillet, and apart from the pike eel constantly mauling a herring, it was quiet. Suddenly, Michael was hooked up to a good fish. The first part of the fight was slow - the fish was a dead weight. Then, it took a fast run Unfortunately, it spat the hook soon after. We were all sad about this, but then I saw my big rod, with river perch fillet, go off. It was a good fish, and it took a good run. I gave the rod to my mate and it continued to run, until it snipped clean through 20 pound leader. It was to fast for a pike eel, so the verdict was a snapper or jewfish. The one that got away!
Anyways, I fished for a bit longer and Michael got an undersized crab. We didn't get any more good bites and had to head off, so said bye to Michael and got the ferry back to where we got picked up. Overall, it was a good day and me and my mate had fun.
Stats of Trip:
Tide: 2:30AM, 1.8M, High, 8:10AM, .7M, Low, 3:00PM, 2.4M, High
Moon Phase: 52%, so a bit of run
Bait Caught: Herring, small prawns
Bait Used: Herring, live and dead, Prawns, live and dead, mullet, bony bream, frogmouth pilchards, river perch
Fish Caught: Threadfin Salmon x 1, Pike eel x 2, Blubberlip Bream x 2, Yellowfin Bream x 1.
Tackle Used: 15, 20, 30LB Braid Mainlines. 20LB, 30LB, 80LB Mono/Fluorocarbon Leaders, 2/o, 4/o, 6/o circle hooks, size 2 and 6 ball sinkers, large barrel swivels. Abu Garcia Barra King on Ugly Stik, Shimano 3000 Stradic on Shimano Raider, Rogue Firepoint Boat Rod, Penn SSM 650.
Air Pressure: 75%
Rainfall on the day: 20mm about
Humidity: 1008
Weather: Clouds with sun
Overall Success Rate: 90% - a great day out with some bust offs
Overall, I think I still have a lot to learn about prawning. It seems my best captures have been when the moon was smaller. Maybe I need to take more focus on that. With hotter weather I might be lucky and manage a bream on a lure. It's about time I start to try for that more. The freshwater hasn't helped with my Suburbs of Origin run, so hopefully it all cleans up quickly. The thready was great to catch. A shame it wasn't today, when SOO opened.
Thanks for reading the huge report everyone. I hope you enjoyed.
Cheers Hamish
My brother took me out in his boat this morning for a soft plastic session off Wellington Point.
The morning didn’t start off well , with a bit of fine drizzly rain still happening.
Got to the destination in about 3 minutes , and I scored 2 squire in two casts.
After that rush of blood , things slowed considerably .
We ended up coming in at 10am .
Final Tally was 4 squire , 1 Grassy , 2 Flathead , 1 gold spot cod and a 600mm Barracuda .
After all that rain ,the water was surprisingly clear .
regards
Neil
Good trip well done!, probably one of my favourite things about this site is watching regular members progress through their fishing journey. You've come along way, awesome !
Good trip well done!, probably one of my favourite things about this site is watching regular members progress through their fishing journey. You've come along way, awesome !
Good trip well done!, probably one of my favourite things about this site is watching regular members progress through their fishing journey. You've come along way, awesome !
Good trip well done!, probably one of my favourite things about this site is watching regular members progress through their fishing journey. You've come along way, awesome !
Good trip well done!, probably one of my favourite things about this site is watching regular members progress through their fishing journey. You've come along way, awesome !
Went out in my brothers boat this morning .
Put his boat in the water just after sunrise at 5.15am this morning and we were chucking plastics 2 minutes later.
We had a nice feed each by 9.30 am and it was getting quite warm so headed back in on top of the tide and before any wind got up.
Not a lot of bait or fish showing on the sounder but the Fish bit consistently all morning .Put a dozen tags in a mixed bag of undersized squire , grassys and bream , kept 6 Squire and 4 Grassys for a feed between us.
Fish , salad and chips for dinner tonite.😁🎣
Regards
Neil
Yeah yesterday was the first time in years I had to sit at the bar coming home to observe sets before punching through was a super low tide when I crossed though
Nah havnt been going much at all unfortunately. Did managed to get out yesterday against my better judgment to battle a pretty stiff northerly. Hit every fad from wave rider buoy to 3/4 up Moreton for zero dolphin fish which sucked as they have been apparently thick there a few days prior. Stopped at boat rock on the way home for a legal Maori cod and a bonito and headed home wet and tired with with two legal fish and pretty big fuel bill😔 was gonna do a report but didn’t take any pics.
Hit the bunker group last week with a few friends and my son Brock. I deckied in my mates 6.7m bar crusher and Brock was in a 6.8m Haines hunter. We hit some ordinary weather heading out but it got alot better as we reached the bunker group reefs.
It started off alright with our boat finding good coral trout and red throat emperor.
We tried for some red emperor but they just weren't biting so moved back to some shallower water where the trout were chewing.
We found another good patch of fish as we moved around and watched the boys in the other boat bag a few Red emperor. My son getting his PB red as well as the skipper getter his 1st ever Red times 2.
We spent the night anchored behind the reef we were fishing and rafted up having a few well earned coldies together.
The next day we caught some more quality fish, then at lunch time we had a snorkel over the reef checking out all the colour of the coral and fish. As the trip rapped up our boat had caught good coral trout, red throat emperor, moari cod, tusky, Spanish flag, hussar and plenty of just under red emperor.
We left the reefs and headed in getting back to the ramp just on dusk. A stop in town that night before driving home the next day and filleting our catch. Here are the trout from our trip back at the ranch.
Yeah yesterday was the first time in years I had to sit at the bar coming home to observe sets before punching through was a super low tide when I crossed though
Nah havnt been going much at all unfortunately. Did managed to get out yesterday against my better judgment to battle a pretty stiff northerly. Hit every fad from wave rider buoy to 3/4 up Moreton for zero dolphin fish which sucked as they have been apparently thick there a few days prior. Stopped at boat rock on the way home for a legal Maori cod and a bonito and headed home wet and tired with with two legal fish and pretty big fuel bill😔 was gonna do a report but didn’t take any pics.
Nah havnt been going much at all unfortunately. Did managed to get out yesterday against my better judgment to battle a pretty stiff northerly. Hit every fad from wave rider buoy to 3/4 up Moreton for zero dolphin fish which sucked as they have been apparently thick there a few days prior. Stopped at boat rock on the way home for a legal Maori cod and a bonito and headed home wet and tired with with two legal fish and pretty big fuel bill😔 was gonna do a report but didn’t take any pics.
Yeah yesterday was the first time in years I had to sit at the bar coming home to observe sets before punching through was a super low tide when I crossed though
jon got a reaction from Drop Bear in Yak sesh 09.01 - bag out!
jon reacted to benno573 in Yak sesh 09.01 - bag out!
jon got a reaction from kmcrosby78 in 1st Offshore trip in C-Jay - Multiple Mackerel, Flatties and Snapper!
jon got a reaction from Kat in 1st Offshore trip in C-Jay - Multiple Mackerel, Flatties and Snapper!
jon got a reaction from ellicat in 1st Offshore trip in C-Jay - Multiple Mackerel, Flatties and Snapper!
jon got a reaction from Old Scaley in 1st Offshore trip in C-Jay - Multiple Mackerel, Flatties and Snapper!
jon got a reaction from tugger in Bunker group 2021
jon got a reaction from AUS-BNE-FISHO in Look at these legends
jon got a reaction from Angry51 in 2am Start
