The Mad Hughesy

12 minutes ago, ellicat said:

Nice little mac tuna. Bet you put that in the fridge for some future sharking.

When I was running solo I had a rope attached to the port stern corner and would use that to control the rear end whilst I was up the winch end.

great tip, thanks

No i threw it back actually! silly me should have kept it hah

well done mate. i just knew that your persistance would pay off. great fish

that eel is perfect bait for bullies! plus you will fin that not much else will take it. Catfish still will have a nibble but not as much compared to other baits. 

it will do both of those things...but probably not the best option 

when you talk about chasing snapper, do you mean big snaps offshore or more bay sized snapper? id think a 4000 sized reel would be much better suited. i use 4000 for pelagics in the bay. 50lb braid is very heavy for the bay. My 4000 reels have 20lb and 30lb on them

So where does this leave the memberships for the PRFMA? it has had the same notice on the website for a while now. we have had alot of rain so far in 2020 to he point where NPD now hasto release water...will we see new permits available for purchase?

44 minutes ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Hi christophagus

Yeah, I've never tried using catties as live bait, do you cut the spines off first?

Hope you get out soon,

Cheers Hamish  

yeah you can do, ive been stuck by cat fish spines before...they give a good tickle!! just a quick snap off with the pliers does the job.

that caty would be a great sized live bait..

keep persisting mate! enjoying the reports as i dont get to fish much these days hah

pontoon 21 greedy guts in the black and gold

13 minutes ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Yeah, awesome how you got so close  Made bigger waves than some trailer boats  

Cheers Hamish

To be honest I just saw some disturbance in the water so decided to go investigate

21 minutes ago, Old Scaley said:

Did you get a good look at Nessie @christophagus? I can’t pick it from the video. Dugong? The wake is pretty impressive.  I know there has been at least one sighting of a killer whale in the passage but that is not it.  That is what makes the sea so fascinating- you never know what is lurking down there.

haha yes it was a dugong. there is a healthy population of them in the passage. last time i had to wait putting the boat on the trailer as two of them were floating by right in front of the boat ramp pontoons

that wake was nuts! such a big animal, gotta love nature

pillie wont last 5 minutes mate, it will get picked to pieces. if your buyung bait, go whole squid or whole poddy mullet (for bullies anyway)

thats a very light coloured cod. great morning fishing!

also holding the shark like a pro now haha nice one man

2 minutes ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

G'day christophagus 

Thanks for those tips, they seem very efficient. The smaller ones do seem a lot more dangerous too. I've never really restrained them that well before, so I'll start trying to do that a bit more  and making cuts in there mouth. 

Cheers Hamish

i only ever make the cuts in the mouth if the shark seems really tired and i want it back in the water fast, or as a last resort. i do prefer to just remove the hook but sometimes it isnt that easy. Just make a judgement call on each capture. Just be super careful when you are up close with the knife, those little bullies are deadly quick!

Watch this video mate. Skip to 11:30 to watch how to get on top of the shark like I explained above

couple of things mate

1. dont be afraid to make a small cut in the side of the mouth where the hook is to get the hook out. in my eyes, getting the hook out and shark back in the water fast is the most important thing. So a small cut to release the hook fast is a good option

2. depending on the shark size, use your body weight to control the shark. so you can basically have the shark between your legs with a knee on each fin. you will have complete control over the shark and it wont be able to bend around to bite you. (ill try to find a picture of this)

3. otherwise, just pin it on top of its head and push with all your force to pin it on the ground. (ill post a pics up of this too)

once youve got control of it, then juse pliers, dehookers etc to remove the hook. ive found that pliers are fine, just takes a bit of shaking to get it loose sometimes. the smaller sharks are more dangerous in my opinion, they can bend back on themselves alot faster and easier than bigger sharks.

great report mate. those bull sharks can be very acrobatic sometimes. 

18 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

My tips on this would be to try and launch at harbours or ramps protected from current and wind. I launch and retrieve my Fisher 5.6m solo - I pull the winch hook/cable down towards the end of the trailer before I hop in and reverse down the ramp and use a bow rope to swing the boat around as needed - you could also tie on a stern rope to give more control from the back of the boat if you feel you need it. My boat has a canopy which catches the wind a bit but I manage fine.

When my kids were too young to fish, I found night sessions in the river were a good compromise.

never thought of the ropes, great tip, thanks mate

20 hours ago, Towknee said:

Hi Chrisophagus, what boat do you have? Understand the meaning of free time with babies.

i can take my eldest out in the boat, youngest is a few years away.

 

my wish list is.

 

1. Catch a nice feed of tailor with my Son

2. Take my old man on a successful mackerel session in the bay

3. Explore the bay more

4. Catch a long tail tuna

5. My son catches a flathead

 

 

ive got a Quintrex 500 coast runner. 

45 minutes ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Ok, that would explain why I've never seen eel in a tackle shop before. Catching your own bait is very fun, i love the feeling when you get a cast net full of something or something on your line you can use again and say (whenever someone asks) "What're you using for bait" you can say "I caught it, it's a eel" etc. I'm not sure but I'm probably just not old enough to be left there with some of my mates so i'll see if my dad can take me tonight or tomorrow. You seem to have a good plan for going there and i like how it's landlocked (no current to worry about :).

I will check out some bait shops too, as i'll go there if i don't have any luck. How big are the eels around there, too? I remember shark fishing for the first time, i had a big run (probably shark) but then i landed an eel probably excess of 1m. I let it go. Are most of the bait shops family run or are there a chain of them. It seems more likely a family run business would sell less common baits (but very good) more than somewhere such as BCF (which doesn't). I won't use berley then if it's not necessary, I've never noticed much difference wit it (unless I'm berleying up some catfish with bread, then they go crazy). 

Cheers Hamish

P.S. The bait shop on the GC sounds really good, if i go up for a holiday there sometime I'll certainly check it out. 

im not sure what it is currently like with the lack of rain etc lately. i have not fished at pine rivers park for a while so the water might be quite low.

yeah, youre right. its the local family owned business that sell more specialised bait. the goldcoast sells tuna, sting rays, all sorts of good stuff. 

the body of water im talking about is circled in blue below.

16 minutes ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Hi christophagus

I am in Sherwood, so south side of Brisbane. 

May you recommend some bait shops that sell eel as well, i have never seen any in one (I've only ever been to BCF's and Anaconda's though, i catch most of my bait lol)

Thanks for that spot, I will give it a try. Though, what time/best conditions/tide would you recommend?

I already have good stock of herring, i them caught at my local park, so I might chuck one out on a heavier rod with some lighter rods with bait such as red meat. Do you use berley like tuna oil or stuff more like old meat?

Cheers Hamish

i can tell you now, that Anaconda and BCF wont sell eel. Good on you for catching most of your own bait...i recon its just as fun sometimes. especially when you hook into a big eel. The eel i catch at pine rivers park is lankdlocked, so no tides there. But i always found that just as the sun set, the eels would come out to feed. so i like to get there while the sun is still up so i can setup all my gear, gets baits in the water. then settle down in my camp chair and wait for the action after dark. but these days, im lazy, so i just buy eel haha

There is a place called "bait tackle store" at underwood that were advertising eel recently

also, the bait shop at the gold coast has a massive range of shark fishing bait and gear. it is well worth a visit if you are into shark fishing. They will give you heaps of advice etc as well as huge variety of bait fomr small to large sharks.

Charltons tackle at redbank usually sell eel as well. im almost certian there are a few places around manly or logan that sell freshwater eel. Just give a few local tackle shops a call to see if they have any in stock. 

on the rare occasion, my local fish shop has had chunks of eel for sale too

ive never bothered with berley, its just a bunch of extra stuff to take fishing that i couldnt be bothered with to be honest. 

hey Hamish

Are you North or south side? i used to get all my eels from the freshwater lake at pine rivers park (always at night as thats when they would come out to feed). otherwise, alot of bait shops actually sell freshwater eel now. If you are only chasing little bullies, then a medium sized eel will produce 20 or so baits

ive found pike eels to be a bit hit and miss. but they will take any larger bait like whole poddy mullet or whole herring.