kmcrosby78

Maybe the Northsiders can recruit this Charlie fella into their ranks,lol 
Nice fish.

Wow, great write up Luke. What a fantastic story of an old fish! If only the bass could tell it's own story. Cheers 

Here's a little fishing tale of a big North Pine Dam bass.
In August 2012, Dennis (@Dinodadog) recorded a new PB for himself when he captured quite a sizeable bass. This fish was huge, and fell only just short of the magical 60cm mark, coming in at 58.5cm. Being this size, the bass was probably quite old, maybe even 15 years or more. Adding to this, the fish had at some point been captured at least once before, as it had an old algae encrusted tag stuck in its back. Unfortuately though, there were no records of this tag. Since that day, on almost every trip out to the dam, I wonder where that bass is, and hope that someday we'll see it again. I mean, it would surely be 60cm by now!
 


 
Well, skip forward to June 2016. Another fisherman by the name of Charlie was out on the dam hunting a big bass himself. Charlie was currently enjoying greatest month of his fishing life, nailing a few whoppers and it would be fair to say he was in great form! He hooked and landed the biggest bass he'll see for a long time, laid it out on the brag mat, and up comes a new PB of 58cm. Charlie, absolutely thrilled, also notices this fish has a crusty old tag in its back. The details are sent in to Suntag, and back come the results that link these two very lucky fisherman. Charlie and Dennis, both recaptured the very same bass four years apart. The fish had not grown one bit! The very slight difference in measurement can be explained by small variations in measuring devices, or possibly that the bass was in fat winter condition when Dennis caught it, and a bit slimmer (and even older) when Charlie found it.
 


 
So, if you're hoping to see that whopper you caught again one day, it is very possible! Catch and release, so someone else can land the big one!
 
Link to Dino's original post that the fish first featured: 

 
 
Luke

Yep ditto for the Siennas.  I have had two for a few years now and still going strong (the 4000 slightly less so after it was flipped out of the boat at the ramp a year or two ago but still working). For about $80 with a rod when on special at BCF, you can't go wrong.

For a cheap, performing reel try the new or old sienna... have caught some absolute quality fish and the drag is stupidly smooth for a low budget reel. Have had mine for three years and still easily fish light hardbodies or plastics, and the drag sounds beaut and doesn't jump if i have a fish pulling line. 10/10 would recommend

Thanks for replying for me @kmcrosby78 haha, didnt see this notification til now. Thanks @AFO Admin

Ok, yes on the long term to do list is to correct broken links to articles. Have put the article now into the first post 

Interesting Sam - doesn't appear to have been edited. Perhaps there was a problem when the change to the new website occurred?  Just an idea.

TAKE A TERN FOR THE BETTER 
I am now into my third season of targeting Longtail Tuna and have learnt a lot in that time! Not only from helpful threads such as this one and the many articles that appear from a simple 'longtail tuna' search on google, but the many hours I have put in to catching (but mostly NOT catching) these awesome local sports fish. 
Most aspects of Longtail Tuna fishing are covered in these types of threads, from what tackle to use to how to approach a surface feeding school with the boat. The topic that I realise doesn't get spoken about in great depth or detail is how to find the fish by observing the birds. Of course, in nearly every article about these fish you will find phrases like 'follow the birds' or 'the eyes in the sky are your best friend'. But what does this mean if you don't really know what you are looking for?
After many hours of trying to be very observant and sometimes focusing mostly on the birds and how they act I have noticed a few characteristics that I will try to explain as best as I can later on in the article. I have noticed terns to be the most reliable bird ahead of gulls, gannets and other sea birds so please note these characteristics are of terns only.
 

                                                     Common Tern with its prize
The advice that I got initially was the idea that when the birds are hovering over a school, the fish are generally at the same depth as the birds are above the water. So when the birds get closer to the surface, so are the fish as they push the bait up. Think of it as a mirror image and pretend the birds are a school of fish. This is mostly true, but in recent times I have found this theory to be flawed on some occasions. Sometimes when fishing in different light conditions the birds may need to fly higher or to the edge of the school to be able to get the best view, so keep an eye on their beaks and where they are pointing to gain a rough idea of where the fish may be. Always have an open mind and you will learn something new every session; there are no set rules for catching these fish.
Here are a few behaviours of terns that I have noticed when fishing for Longtail Tuna during the peak season:

Travelling from A to B
When a bird seems to be flying around in search of food. They fly at a half pace scanning their heads from left to right. These birds may be ignored to an extent but it doesn't hurt to keep an eye on them in case they see something.
Resting 
Often you will find a flock of birds sitting on the water. This might sound stupid, but if they are nearby drive your boat towards them and scare them off. They can sometimes put you onto fish within a few minutes if they are around!
Tracking 
Is when a bird or birds are following a school of fish whilst constantly looking down. They are flying with a bit more intent and sometimes flutter and dip towards the water if they notice fish are starting to rise. They might be able to see bait fish that aren't close enough to the surface to be able to feed on them or may be following a school of predators. Either way, it wouldn't hurt to get a cast in there! A lot of hookups come from casting around these tracking birds without actually seeing fish busting up. Idle around the area if there are multiple tracking birds and get the boat in a position to cast below them. Remember to keep an eye on your sounder and hang around bait if you find some.
Sprinting 
Is when they are flying at full speed, obviously. Usually you can see a few single birds from different areas flying urgently in the same direction as each other. They know something that you don't and if you follow them you will most likely find the fish.
Hovering, circling, diving
This is how they act when they have found predatory fish pushing up bait to the surface. They will trace back, circle and hover until they get an opportunity to feed. Once the birds start diving it means there are bait fish on the surface and you will soon see a tuna feeding frenzy more often than not. As soon as you see birds acting this way, it is important to take the opportunity to get the boat in the best position for when the tuna break the surface. Those precious seconds of anticipating where the tuna will surface could mean you are able to get one more sight cast ahead of the fish before they go down and start to round up the bait again.
 
These are my observations and theories so far and I hope you learnt a thing or two about how terns go about their daily business. It is the birds who fish every day to survive so make the most of their presence. Understanding their behaviour will save you time and bring you success if you can differentiate between a bird stalking a school of fish or a bird simply passing through the area for example.
As they say, 'the eyes in the sky are your best friend.' Thanks for reading and happy tuna fishing,
Sam.

Right, I'm convinced, will definitely be trying it sometime - although probably not in the presence of my son as he is quite fond of them!!!

You get Giant Trevally off the end of the Urangan Pier on the Green Toadies pretty regularly. Locals use them as a preferred bait and actually intercept other anglers about to throw them back.

give it a crack mate 
 

Picked up my new boat yesterday.  Seems like an eternity since I sold my last one (about 5weeks).   Its a Clark 457 Rebel. Bought through Karee Marine.  The guys there did an awesome job and were very helpful through the whole process.  Took her out in moreton bay yesterday and in the passage today to do some of the run in hours.  So far im really happy with it.  Bush'n'Beach have just done a write up on the boat  http://www.bnbfishing.com.au/boating/clark-boats-releases-new-side-console/

Fishing yesterday in the Brisbane River and caught this beast 1.8m and 10kg 

Mate, seriously one of the best written and easy to read reports I've ever seen on this site, well done!!  That's an incredible flathead for suburban Brisbane, truly mind-boggling. Beats my PB by 2cm!!!

Hi all.
So I just got my car back from the shop, after burning a MASSIVE hole in my bank account. With Christmas coming I decided to limit my spending, which meant no big trips to land based spots around SEQ, and staying home. However the fishing craving never subsides... the addiction is too strong...
SATURDAY
I had never tried the closest body of water to my house being Enoggera Creek behind the RBWH, so I decided to give it a crack with some bread on light bream gear after seeing some of @curranboy99's posts up at Kedron Brook. So a shout out to him, as without his post I wouldn't have a report to post, thanks mate.
I walked down yesterday afternoon with a loaf of white and gear in hand, to the the spot just under the Lutwyche Road foot bridge. I decided to aim for structure, hoping for some bream.
Rather than using a float set up, I decided to option for a weightless single hook setup instead. I was using my new Stradic 1000HG, Gloomis DRS820 GLX, Sunline Super PE 8 braid in 6lb with a meter of 12lb leader tied on with my altered slim beauty knot, and a size 4 Penetrator hook. 
The tide runs slowly this far up the system, and it was halfway through the run-out tide. I used the crust of the white bread to burley up the water, then compressed pieces of the white center into a small ball, hid the hook inside the bait, and threw out in with the burley.
At first there was no action, until a few minutes later a heap of bait were fighting over the burley. From what I saw it was small mullet, and maybe some small herring, but I can not be sure. So i decided to throw in just behind the bait, in the hope some larger fish were in behind, trying to have a crack at the live bait.
Within a few seconds of my bread hitting the water, it was hit pretty hard, and the fish ran out to the middle of the creek. It didn't get far, as my setup is a litter overpowered for the smaller fish species, but very fun with the right drag settings. I ended up landing a very healthy catfish. After 4 more, I called up my brother-in-law to come down from our place to have a crack as well. Over the next few hours we ending up going through the whole loaf, and landing roughly 15 catfish. While not a desirable fish, it was still a very fun session in the rain. i believe the biggest one for the day went 38cm.
SUNDAY
After a successful session the day before, my brother-in-law decided to step it up and get some pilchards. So around 9.00am we headed down to the same spot again, this time aiming to fish the last of the run-in tide. With a small bag of frozen pilchards and a couple pieces of bread, we decided to use all the bread first to see if we could find the catfish again first. This time however, my brother-in-law after two casts with bread, produced two very healthy BREAM!. His first was not legal, however the second went 28cm strong. This got me excited as I love chasing bream on light gear, however all I could produce was another 5 catfish. 
After the bread was gone, we swapped to cubing up the pilchards into 1.5 cm chunks, hiding the hook in the flesh around the back-bone, and casting in on the same rig setup. After only landing 2 catfish between us in about an hour, we deiced to move further upstream to a pedestrian bridge near the dog park at Downy Park. We used the same setup however targeting deeper water surrounded by mangroves, hoping for something more toothier.
First cast in, and straight away I get a hit and weight on the line. At first I thought it was a big catty, but as it surfaced we were shocked to see a decent sized FLATHEAD! I was very appreciative of my decision to not go ultra light at this point... 
After my initial shock, I quickly realised I couldn't lift this girl up to the bridge we were standing on, so while keeping her head in the water (VERY important with flatties), I swam her over towards the bank on the Windsor side of the foot-bridge and landed her, JUST. As I got her out of the water, the leader snapped.... After a quick pick myself, and a local walking past who caught all of the action, I decided not to eat her and we let her go. I very rarely keep fish, however now and then I will keep the odd tailor or Flathead as I love the gamy flesh. Today I decided against it, mainly because I didn't know how healthy the ecosystem is in the river, and I don't want to take a bigger breading female and predator out of the system. I'm all for sustainability.
After this not much happened. In the next 2 hours the tide stopped and turned, and still nothing. Using the last of the pilchard we had just cut up, I ended up getting one more catfish, and then to my surprise, a decent sized TAILOR!!
Again I was shocked, but this one I think would had just been shy of legal size, so i decided to try pole it up to where we were standing on the bridge. However this time the leader did not hold up, and it snapped as I watched the tailor swim away to fight another day.
Sorry for the lack of photos, it was raining mostly all weekend and I only had my phone so I did not want to get it too wet. All in all a good weekend. I was left in disbelief as after catching 4 different species and a couple legal fish, left me thinking I may have to seriously reconsider why I travel hundreds of kilometers in the search of fish, when such a fun time can be had literally a couple hundred meters from my house.
Thanks for reading.
 

Good to see you back AFO (got busy trying unsuccessfully to solve the Melbourne Cup riddle so haven't been checking daily for a few days). As a non-Facebooker it'll take me a little while to get used to the new layout however it looks good and more importantly, in my view, seems very fast which is a huge plus.  Well done and thanks as always for all of the effort put into the site.

Well I am back and may edit this post as there is SO much to cover...
The trip was amazing and so much more than I hoped it would be. Baia is simply phenomenal offering so many river and bluewater opportunities. The lodge itself was top notch and the fishing was out of this world. Way more surface action than the last trip as well which is always a highlight.
Sef, Henry and myself headed to the furthermost river for our first days foray to cast up some blacks... The blacks were there in good numbers and so were a lot of quality jacks...


On the way to the Torio there were also some good bluewater captures including mahi mahi and yellow fin...

The next day we hit the Pandi which turned out to be a river we frequented. This river is ALL about the surface with log jams and lay downs everywhere making throwing diving lures tough. Although there were plenty of blacks at the mouth, this river was home to tonnes of monster spot tails as well...

After spot tail mania we had a fairly so so day in the Langa Langa river. Awesome hits but conversions to big bass were a little slow. In saying that we did have some fun out the front among some birds hooking into countless trevs, queenies and mack tuna.

So for our last day we decided to once again concentrate on the Pandi River. More spot tails abounded but you have seen enough of those, I will out up however Henry's beast and the biggest for the trip. If things were recorded this could easily be a world record as Henry caught in on a 8/14lb Nordic Stage Cheater with a 2500 sized reel and 16lb braid. Just unheard of over there. The guide said not only was it one of the lightest rods he had ever had in the boat... It was the largest spot tail bass he had ever seen. It measured in at 36.5lb (not a guess actually weighed).

After the trip had officially ended Henry and I were lucky enough to stay on for two more nights as guests of Riccard the owner of Baia.
We headed up into the headwaters of the Kulu river on the first day and caught a collection of JP's and Spot Tails on bream sized gear (actually our new prototype Nordic Stage Loki rods). This was heaps of fun and ended in a blow up mattress ride back down the river selectively ignoring the warming signs...

Our last day was spent bluewater and snorkeling. Some good trevs and doggies were hooked with smaller ones coming in. I was grossly under gunned for doggies but it was fun to give it a crack! Snorkeling was just world class.

And that was that! Back to the real world!
After a few early inquiries it looks like I will be doing this again in 2016 so feel free to contact me if you are keen to get on board.
 
Cheers.
 
Angus
 

Thanks Guys!

When Paul was pulled forward while fighting the 56cm tailor I knew it was a good fish. They know how to make the most of a fast running current. Fishing at night I always use bait and last night it was pilchards.

Damien, a few nights past when it was a full moon, a fisho mate was casting slugs 7-8pm and scored some nice tailor on the beach at Sea World.

Hi Guys,

Paul and I drove down the Coast after dinner. We walked down the beach just past Sea World and saw a crowd of fishos on the beach. As the tailor are hitting the Gold Coast beaches, we decided to try Narrowneck. The gutters are not as deep but we can fish away from the crowds.

It was a cold 9 degree night with a light Westerly. The sweep was quite strong and the breakers made wading in the water to cast out quite a challenge. We fished the rising tide for two hours and ended up with 6 nice tailor. The best tailor went 56, 53 & 52cm. A yummy meal of tailor fillets tonight.

Cheers... Joe.

Quick update. Bought one of the really cheap ($15) smoker boxes from Bunnings along with some wood pis (seafood mix - mesquite and alder). Despite all my research and the responses on here, I still didn't really have a clue. Anyway I worked out that the box gets half filled with chips that have soaked for at least 30 mins and then placed between the burners and the grill on the old 4 burner BBQ. Let the bbq heist up until there is plenty of smoke.

I prepared the trevally fillets by soaking them in brine for an hour. Plenty of brine recipes on the www. Then dried them on paper towel in the fridge for an hour before salting them and covering in a thin layer of maple syrup. Put them on a rack with some baking paper under them and placed them on the plate side of the bbq, but without the burners on the plate being on. Cooked like that on a low heat (only the one burner under the smoker box was on) for about 30 mins. Smoke was running out (more chips next time) so I turned the other burners on for 10 minutes to get the fish up to cooked temperature (63 degrees centigrade according to my cooking thermometer). Back into the fridge and then eaten today with some anchovy mayo. Tasted great - a big like breakfast kippers. Now I know it what to do, I will be trying different things and will post some photos next time.

Bl00dy brilliant Mr Kennennedy ........ :silly: Shows what you can do with a bit of thought.

We then have to attach the lid using the shock cord and another clip made from the copper wire.

Cut the shock cord slightly longer than the height of the pot and tie a double knot in one end and thread it through the frisby then the clip and back through the frisby and tie another knot.



Then melt a hole in the other end of the pot placing the hole at 90 degrees to the weights and take another length of shock cord and knotit and thread it up through the pot and through the hole on the lid.
Pull this cord as tight as possible and tie a knot in it and trim it off.



Completed pot.

I burn my name ( Pity I cannot spell it) into the pot with the soldering iron .I also burn my name into the float ( Helps preventing people thinking that they are their pots.)
I have lost a couple of photos where I initially attach the mesh to the frisbee so I will take some more tomorrow night and update.
I did make some pots out of galvanised gutterguard and they were a lot easier to make but they are starting to rust out after only 2 months in NPD, If you can find some 250 mil begonia saucers they are a lot easier to make up and use less gutterguard and catch just as well as the larger frisbee pots.
Happy shrimping.
Cheers
Ray

Kingfish are very susceptible to going soft if not iced down or slurried quick enough.
Opening the gut cavity and icing them down is a good way to treat Kings as you need to lower their core temp asap,much the same as Tuna.
The Kingfish that go soft after killing them is caused from an infection of microscopic Kudoa which lives in the flesh of the fish.
It gives the flesh a soft and mushy appearance which we call Milky Kingfish.
The parasite only causes the flesh to turn milky after the fish has died over a period of a few hours so there is no telling if the Kingy has it when you first catch the fish.
Icing the fish heavily as soon as you catch it is the only way to prevent the parasite from destroying the flesh but this does not always stop it if the infection is bad enough.
Once dead for a few hours you can tell by pressing firmly on the side of the fish in a fleshy area and you finger marks will remain as deep depressions in the flesh.
A good fish the depression will mostly disappear immediately.
When I fished for Kings commercially it was only 1 fish out of several hundred that we would find with this Kudoa Parasite and I would not know until we took the fish to the co op later that day as it took quite a few hours in the ice box for the parasite to do its work on the flesh.

A couple more points.

The bait fisho's don't have to miss out on these great sport fish either, a shore fire method to get them on bait is to drift single hook rigged unweighted/lightly weighted pilchards through the feeing zone and you'll pick up fish as they travel through the area.

Lobbing livies into the feeding schools will yield plenty of fish too, it's probably the easiest way to get them, I haven't done this for years but can remember even if you fudge up a cast the fish would happily travel 10-20 metres away from the school to nail a well presented live pike and being such a big bait they would absolutely smash it. You have to make sure your terminals are up to scratch here as the tuna will pop you on the hit if your knots and hooks aren't top notch.

Last point is etiquette. Please practice good etiquette, basically this means have respect for your fellow anglers and give them space, if you see someone tracking/stalking fish leave them alone and go and find your own school to track......all you will achieve if you try and muscle in on other peoples action is to spook the fish and ruin it for both parties and you may find yourself on the receiving end of a bit of bay rage....
There is no need to follow the same school as someone else, there are plenty to go around, when the fish are on there will be multiple schools about and they will be spread over a large area..

Ok I just remembered another important point, fuel.....you can tend to burn quite a bit of fuel when chasing choons so make sure if you don't have a big tank in your boat to take extra. I usually burn 25-30 litres for the day (40 hp Etec, 4.2 tinny) but there are days that I could use up to twice that, I have a 50 litre underfloor tank and carry a 10 litre jerry for just in case. Try to remember to keep an eye on the gauge as in all the excitement it can be an easy thing to forget about.

Cheers,

Al