mangajack

Hi All.
It has been raining here for over a week. Still raining today with more to come.
Thursday was the only fine day. Sunny.
Arrived around Sunrise. Had the place to myself.
Walked around nothing happening. Then caught my first bream.
Moved again up near the rocks, caught two whiting & two more bream.
Bait was Blood worms & live nippers.
That was enough. Headed for the Norah Head coffee shop for breakfast.
Cheers.

I definitely agree to the fish getting wise on what not to touch…at least the older bigger ones.   
I wasnt fishing down in Brisbane in the 70’s or 80’s, we were in Bundy and havent fished up there since we left so it is great to get some perspectives on things.
There is no doubt there is significant fishing pressure but I imagine the actual take would be less that it was - I mean Dad and I used to bring home 100 whiting or bream in a session back in the day.  It was fill that basket and feed the family fish until next trip, no one even thought the numbers could reduce.  I do feel confident that bag limits and a lot better educated people about sustainability is doing a lot of good.

Good topic....leaves me with mixed feelings on todays fishing.
Most notable fish changes I have noticed are the following:
Bream....catching genuine 1kg bream used to be normal....fish in the high 30's were normal in the 70's and 80's....biggest one I caught was 47cm but skinny as anything post spawn. In the past two years I have caught two legit 1kg bream.
Yellowtail kingfish.....in the early 80's there were large schools of simply massive fish in Moreton Bay....1.2 to 1.5m fish. About mid 80's NSW had massive YTK fishtraps being used....almost wiped out the stocks migrating the coast....Have not seen one over 1.2m in decades.
Snapper....numbers have not changed much but average capture sizes are about 1/2 the size of the 70's is most areas I have fished. Interestingly snapper were either bait or trolled hard bodies back then and plastics didn't work well....plastics have taken over, but I have noticed a bit of decline in the past 6 years in two places that hold decent fish....bait is still catching the same amount.
Sharks....seasonal for me and I didn't target them too often but I don't see the numbers of sharks I used to in the 70's and 80's.....I remember seeing them in the hot water outlet of the power station in frightening numbers, dozens visible any time of the day or night.In the Bribie Passage we used to lose decent snapper and jew to sharks fairly regularly back in those days...I have lost fewer than 5 fish in the past decade to sharks. I know lots of guys have real problems with them these days, but I just don't have the issue enough to bother me.
Gold spot cod......they are bloody tiny these days on average. I could manage 80cm cod every run to the port in the 80's....a 50cm cod now is noteworthy.
The biggest changes though are fishermen and women.....numbers are simply massive now and lots of those are decked out with high tech sounders and GPS units....Sure most don't use them well but still quite a lot use them effectively and catch lots of fish.....and this brings forward the next point.
Fish education.....catch and release might be good for fish stocks but it does educate them about the lures or baits we use. The "in" lure to use today gets flogged in the faces of the fish so much they learn to not touch that lure. Now catch and release is essential for all undersized fish and I fish myself also selective of the size of fish I will harvest.....I will not take snapper under 50cm for example....so I am guilty of educating the fish with the lures I use too.
I recently dug out an old lure box from the 80's....I will be giving these lures a run heavily over this winter to see how they go.....will let you know.
Also of note here is the environment.....it has changed massively in a lot of places, some better and some worse. In the 80's Redcliffe tides ran south for the incoming and north for the outgoing all the way up to Scarborough reef and probably beyond....todays water movement is a slow constant southward current and no north movement at all....This occurred with building Fishermans Island at the Port. The reefs off Redcliffe are well silted these days as well.
Water quality of the Brisbane River is far better today than in the 80's up to Breakfast Creek....not much data outside of that though.   We had regular droughts back then as well....salinity levels were higher then than in the past 15 years with the constant flushes happening.....results show in the captures.
In the mid 80's there was a quite severe drought where we saw lots of fish that were normally offshore being caught inshore. Pearl Perch land based around the Tweed and on the sunshine coast headlands....spanish mackerel in Bramble Bay...cobia at Dohles Rocks....YTK at Shorncliffe pier.
 

usually it is polyethylene.....grades vary greatly.
UHMWPE is a high end version of this.....you do not need that high a quality plastic.
Holland Plastics, PM Plastics, Nerang Plastics all will have what you are looking for.
A google search will give you dozens of suppliers near you.

Tailor have been a problem for me since early December.....I try and avoid them.

usually it is polyethylene.....grades vary greatly.
UHMWPE is a high end version of this.....you do not need that high a quality plastic.
Holland Plastics, PM Plastics, Nerang Plastics all will have what you are looking for.
A google search will give you dozens of suppliers near you.

Tailor have been a problem for me since early December.....I try and avoid them.

Dug a few worms yesterday and headed down the Pin area in search of a few whiting . Ended up getting 10 for a feed but the size was down with most fish just over the 300 mm mark but had to sort through a lot of small bream for them.
Came across a massive school of juvenile mulloway ,so tossed some soft plastics at them and  got 6 in no time before I spooked them ,pity they were all underside fish  , with a small flathead thrown in as by catch.
Happy enough to come home with 10 whiting , with all other fish released.
photographed these for the southside
Mulloway 630 , 610 and 500mm
Bream 290 and 265mm
Flathead 470mm
Whiting 330 mm , 340mm and 335mm
 
 

usually it is polyethylene.....grades vary greatly.
UHMWPE is a high end version of this.....you do not need that high a quality plastic.
Holland Plastics, PM Plastics, Nerang Plastics all will have what you are looking for.
A google search will give you dozens of suppliers near you.

Launch at the Port of Brisbane ramp and fish in the river, head upstream just past the tug boats....Clara Rocks....snaggy but good fish there on bait....bream, flathead, tailor, snapper and jew are the residents there. Be hard pressed not to catch a feed there.

Good topic....leaves me with mixed feelings on todays fishing.
Most notable fish changes I have noticed are the following:
Bream....catching genuine 1kg bream used to be normal....fish in the high 30's were normal in the 70's and 80's....biggest one I caught was 47cm but skinny as anything post spawn. In the past two years I have caught two legit 1kg bream.
Yellowtail kingfish.....in the early 80's there were large schools of simply massive fish in Moreton Bay....1.2 to 1.5m fish. About mid 80's NSW had massive YTK fishtraps being used....almost wiped out the stocks migrating the coast....Have not seen one over 1.2m in decades.
Snapper....numbers have not changed much but average capture sizes are about 1/2 the size of the 70's is most areas I have fished. Interestingly snapper were either bait or trolled hard bodies back then and plastics didn't work well....plastics have taken over, but I have noticed a bit of decline in the past 6 years in two places that hold decent fish....bait is still catching the same amount.
Sharks....seasonal for me and I didn't target them too often but I don't see the numbers of sharks I used to in the 70's and 80's.....I remember seeing them in the hot water outlet of the power station in frightening numbers, dozens visible any time of the day or night.In the Bribie Passage we used to lose decent snapper and jew to sharks fairly regularly back in those days...I have lost fewer than 5 fish in the past decade to sharks. I know lots of guys have real problems with them these days, but I just don't have the issue enough to bother me.
Gold spot cod......they are bloody tiny these days on average. I could manage 80cm cod every run to the port in the 80's....a 50cm cod now is noteworthy.
The biggest changes though are fishermen and women.....numbers are simply massive now and lots of those are decked out with high tech sounders and GPS units....Sure most don't use them well but still quite a lot use them effectively and catch lots of fish.....and this brings forward the next point.
Fish education.....catch and release might be good for fish stocks but it does educate them about the lures or baits we use. The "in" lure to use today gets flogged in the faces of the fish so much they learn to not touch that lure. Now catch and release is essential for all undersized fish and I fish myself also selective of the size of fish I will harvest.....I will not take snapper under 50cm for example....so I am guilty of educating the fish with the lures I use too.
I recently dug out an old lure box from the 80's....I will be giving these lures a run heavily over this winter to see how they go.....will let you know.
Also of note here is the environment.....it has changed massively in a lot of places, some better and some worse. In the 80's Redcliffe tides ran south for the incoming and north for the outgoing all the way up to Scarborough reef and probably beyond....todays water movement is a slow constant southward current and no north movement at all....This occurred with building Fishermans Island at the Port. The reefs off Redcliffe are well silted these days as well.
Water quality of the Brisbane River is far better today than in the 80's up to Breakfast Creek....not much data outside of that though.   We had regular droughts back then as well....salinity levels were higher then than in the past 15 years with the constant flushes happening.....results show in the captures.
In the mid 80's there was a quite severe drought where we saw lots of fish that were normally offshore being caught inshore. Pearl Perch land based around the Tweed and on the sunshine coast headlands....spanish mackerel in Bramble Bay...cobia at Dohles Rocks....YTK at Shorncliffe pier.
 

For me I get up to about 10 of these fish a year in SEQ.
I am not sure if they are more numerous now or our techniques and lures have changed that is enticing more bites.
II regularly caught smaller models in the 80's in Bribie Passage....usually on small live baits.
These days I catch larger models on soft plastics off Redcliffe, at the Port and in the Pine River usually.....mostly around the 60cm mark.....I think the presentation is the key to not catching many or any small ones these days.

One thing of note Raef and I have noticed lately....flathead have become a pretty scarce for us capture in the last 18 months....areas we normally can't avoid them are now pretty much flathead free zones.
One section in the pine we fished today has always been a flathead area as far back as I can remember (50 odd years of fishing this stretch) and yet today and the last 4 visits there have not produced a single flathead.....the norm was 6 to 10 flathead there.
I have noticed the same thing in the Bris River, Cabo River and Ningi Creek....hot spots gone dead.
Anyone else noticed this since the 2011 and 2013 floods?

I came into the Shorncliffe foreshore to try for a squid or two on the way back from Reddy....PEOPLE!!! geez....there was at least 500ppl on the jetty, probably closer to 800 than 500. Absolutely crazy at about 9.30am.

Redcliffe was loaded with boats....like a regatta....hundreds of boats everywhere.....pine was the heaviest i have ever seen it too.
2 small snaps, 1 decent flounder, more than 6 tailor up to 60cm.....went into the pine for a look...found a pile of fish near the slabs with two big jew under them.....i pinned 1 jew on 8lb line.....that finished as soon as it found out it was hooked. Raef got done by something decent on the rock shelf.....boated several brassy trevally and small jew.....got about 2 litres of prawns for lunch.
All fish released....

Some nice low 20s while at work.
 
24 for a bream, 22 for the other one and the cod. 
Hopefully something bigger lurking around!

37 model in the mud. There's a few babies around at the moment. Great fun on light gear

Filled a seat  as a Deckie this morning in the fresh water.
Not that I did much deckieing . I just sat back an enjoyed the ride for most of the day.
Did manage to pull a few nice bass for team south though. 
Australian Bass 415mm 460mm and 420mm
Thanks for the invite Ray, much appreciated as always.
regards
Neil

Landed lunch this morning during a very wet and windy couple of hours at Hayes inlet. 43cm Flatty and 23cm whiting. I was happy to get anything in those conditions. 
 
Are squid out and about long the peninsula yet?

Found a significant school  of Threadfin  and baby bull shark tailing   in 1.5 m of water this morning , right where they’ve been for weeks, so didn’t have to go looking for them. 
Helped myself to a couple before the wind started  to puff up a bit ,  then took off for home.
Had a double hookup on the second one , but it got off before I could attend to it , which was a bit of a bummer.
2 was enough  , so  left them feeding , for next time.
Beautiful clean fish off the sand , full of banana prawns , bled out and iced down well , they should taste good! 

A start for team south for May.
Threadfin 1010mm and 910mm.
 
 

Jagged a barred grunter this morning....just not quite big enough for the plate.

 

what it was like on 16/11/23

Good topic....leaves me with mixed feelings on todays fishing.
Most notable fish changes I have noticed are the following:
Bream....catching genuine 1kg bream used to be normal....fish in the high 30's were normal in the 70's and 80's....biggest one I caught was 47cm but skinny as anything post spawn. In the past two years I have caught two legit 1kg bream.
Yellowtail kingfish.....in the early 80's there were large schools of simply massive fish in Moreton Bay....1.2 to 1.5m fish. About mid 80's NSW had massive YTK fishtraps being used....almost wiped out the stocks migrating the coast....Have not seen one over 1.2m in decades.
Snapper....numbers have not changed much but average capture sizes are about 1/2 the size of the 70's is most areas I have fished. Interestingly snapper were either bait or trolled hard bodies back then and plastics didn't work well....plastics have taken over, but I have noticed a bit of decline in the past 6 years in two places that hold decent fish....bait is still catching the same amount.
Sharks....seasonal for me and I didn't target them too often but I don't see the numbers of sharks I used to in the 70's and 80's.....I remember seeing them in the hot water outlet of the power station in frightening numbers, dozens visible any time of the day or night.In the Bribie Passage we used to lose decent snapper and jew to sharks fairly regularly back in those days...I have lost fewer than 5 fish in the past decade to sharks. I know lots of guys have real problems with them these days, but I just don't have the issue enough to bother me.
Gold spot cod......they are bloody tiny these days on average. I could manage 80cm cod every run to the port in the 80's....a 50cm cod now is noteworthy.
The biggest changes though are fishermen and women.....numbers are simply massive now and lots of those are decked out with high tech sounders and GPS units....Sure most don't use them well but still quite a lot use them effectively and catch lots of fish.....and this brings forward the next point.
Fish education.....catch and release might be good for fish stocks but it does educate them about the lures or baits we use. The "in" lure to use today gets flogged in the faces of the fish so much they learn to not touch that lure. Now catch and release is essential for all undersized fish and I fish myself also selective of the size of fish I will harvest.....I will not take snapper under 50cm for example....so I am guilty of educating the fish with the lures I use too.
I recently dug out an old lure box from the 80's....I will be giving these lures a run heavily over this winter to see how they go.....will let you know.
Also of note here is the environment.....it has changed massively in a lot of places, some better and some worse. In the 80's Redcliffe tides ran south for the incoming and north for the outgoing all the way up to Scarborough reef and probably beyond....todays water movement is a slow constant southward current and no north movement at all....This occurred with building Fishermans Island at the Port. The reefs off Redcliffe are well silted these days as well.
Water quality of the Brisbane River is far better today than in the 80's up to Breakfast Creek....not much data outside of that though.   We had regular droughts back then as well....salinity levels were higher then than in the past 15 years with the constant flushes happening.....results show in the captures.
In the mid 80's there was a quite severe drought where we saw lots of fish that were normally offshore being caught inshore. Pearl Perch land based around the Tweed and on the sunshine coast headlands....spanish mackerel in Bramble Bay...cobia at Dohles Rocks....YTK at Shorncliffe pier.
 

Good topic....leaves me with mixed feelings on todays fishing.
Most notable fish changes I have noticed are the following:
Bream....catching genuine 1kg bream used to be normal....fish in the high 30's were normal in the 70's and 80's....biggest one I caught was 47cm but skinny as anything post spawn. In the past two years I have caught two legit 1kg bream.
Yellowtail kingfish.....in the early 80's there were large schools of simply massive fish in Moreton Bay....1.2 to 1.5m fish. About mid 80's NSW had massive YTK fishtraps being used....almost wiped out the stocks migrating the coast....Have not seen one over 1.2m in decades.
Snapper....numbers have not changed much but average capture sizes are about 1/2 the size of the 70's is most areas I have fished. Interestingly snapper were either bait or trolled hard bodies back then and plastics didn't work well....plastics have taken over, but I have noticed a bit of decline in the past 6 years in two places that hold decent fish....bait is still catching the same amount.
Sharks....seasonal for me and I didn't target them too often but I don't see the numbers of sharks I used to in the 70's and 80's.....I remember seeing them in the hot water outlet of the power station in frightening numbers, dozens visible any time of the day or night.In the Bribie Passage we used to lose decent snapper and jew to sharks fairly regularly back in those days...I have lost fewer than 5 fish in the past decade to sharks. I know lots of guys have real problems with them these days, but I just don't have the issue enough to bother me.
Gold spot cod......they are bloody tiny these days on average. I could manage 80cm cod every run to the port in the 80's....a 50cm cod now is noteworthy.
The biggest changes though are fishermen and women.....numbers are simply massive now and lots of those are decked out with high tech sounders and GPS units....Sure most don't use them well but still quite a lot use them effectively and catch lots of fish.....and this brings forward the next point.
Fish education.....catch and release might be good for fish stocks but it does educate them about the lures or baits we use. The "in" lure to use today gets flogged in the faces of the fish so much they learn to not touch that lure. Now catch and release is essential for all undersized fish and I fish myself also selective of the size of fish I will harvest.....I will not take snapper under 50cm for example....so I am guilty of educating the fish with the lures I use too.
I recently dug out an old lure box from the 80's....I will be giving these lures a run heavily over this winter to see how they go.....will let you know.
Also of note here is the environment.....it has changed massively in a lot of places, some better and some worse. In the 80's Redcliffe tides ran south for the incoming and north for the outgoing all the way up to Scarborough reef and probably beyond....todays water movement is a slow constant southward current and no north movement at all....This occurred with building Fishermans Island at the Port. The reefs off Redcliffe are well silted these days as well.
Water quality of the Brisbane River is far better today than in the 80's up to Breakfast Creek....not much data outside of that though.   We had regular droughts back then as well....salinity levels were higher then than in the past 15 years with the constant flushes happening.....results show in the captures.
In the mid 80's there was a quite severe drought where we saw lots of fish that were normally offshore being caught inshore. Pearl Perch land based around the Tweed and on the sunshine coast headlands....spanish mackerel in Bramble Bay...cobia at Dohles Rocks....YTK at Shorncliffe pier.
 

Didnt want to take over someone else thread, but the discussion re grunter is and example of discussions I have had with friends.
Winding the clock back to the mid 90’s and we used to hear about the odd threadfin being caught in the northern reaches of the passage but usually if you wanted to catch them you were going to Maryborough.  Now without saying they are now common place there are certainly good schools of them around the estuaries.
Grunter - now there is a fish I thought was really only ever up north.  Its interesting to see the sizes of these being caught - heck a 50cm specimen up north is a good fish and here we are with 60cm fish.
Nannies, coral trout and red emperor…..yes normally just small but are they more prevalent?
So is it just that the internet has opened up more discussion about what is caught and they were always around or is the warming trend of the east coast current bring warmer climate fish further down south.
Or even the reduction in commercial fishing and fairly strict size and bag limits for rec fishers increasing the numbers to the point that they are observable.
As a second point could it that nannies and reds in these southern waters are just a product of the current and as they grow migrate north for warmer waters?
Anyway its an interesting thing.