tiotony

First called it for a shark. First one for the season - 107cm. video-1632991701.mp4

Nice...

Hey mate I used to live in Singapore; moved back to Australia for better fishing! Let me know if you make your way to Cairns and we'll go for a fish

Certainly looks like a barra tail

Pass the more populated areas and keep driving up to Weipa; and you'll likely get plenty of barra.

I don't think that's much of a barrier; much higher waterfalls a little bit further upstream that I literally see jungle perch jumping up.

https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/695 https://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:afd.taxon:e9ea3fc0-053f-4614-8aea-0a563815a691#overview There's loads of them in the brackish (I get them a lot as bycatch when burleying with bread for bream), and catch a lot of smaller ones in the fresh after monsoons when the creeks are running high. Up close you can see they are obviously cousins to sootys / coal grunter etc. and they pull just as hard too.

So the winter south east trades are in full swing, my usual spots will be terrible until september or october when we get noreasters again. Now that the monsoons have stopped have started my winter fishing regime, which is basically brackish and freshwater stuff out of the wind. Here's some recents (note I think this type of fishing is more about the scenery and wildlife, than catching fish!): video-1622947128.mp4 video-1622621345.mp4 video-1622621278.mp4 video-1618312231.mp4

Park where the yellow highlight is next to the footy field; from there you'll see a bike path heading to the creek. I'd suggest head left downstream (casting as you go), all the way down to the road bridge on the main drag. Then walk back up Redlynch intake road past the shops to your car. Lure pattern is not an issue; its all about getting a good cast in without the fish seeing you. Send me a PM if you like and we'll go for a walk along the creek. I haven't fished there for ages because the whole stealth thing frustrates me. By the way well presented live bait outfishes everything here, no contest there. You can walk up and downstream from Kamerunga bridge but its very crocky so have to be mindful - I see big crocs all the time there. I just fish off the bridge because there's always rats to be caught on little plastics there, however I have been blown away there by bigger fish more times than I can count. There's loads of bull sharks there too if that's your thing. I've got a mate who lives right on Stony creek upstream from there if you want to try an inaccessable to the public area; however its a bit crocky and snakey.

Navy base boat ramp is off limits to the public. Shame because back when I was in the Navy and could fish there it was the best landbased spot in Cairns.

Hey mate I'm in Cairns too. Some of my older posts have some info on Cairns landbased spots. You could also check out Buzzy Thao's Fishing Adventures on youtube too. Will be tough going with the south east trade winds now; however when the north easters come back in September/ October, the northern beaches near you really fire. Can still get some fish on the beaches in winter fishing at dawn before the wind comes up; but its way better in north easters. Got a metre king salmon last week at dawn at Holloways (that came home for several meals): Spots close to you that are out of the wind I'd suggest hit Freshwater creek at Redlynch with your bass gear; actually went for a walk down there the other day (I live in Redlynch) and saw plenty of JP's and a couple of big sootys. Mind they are very shy in the clear shallow water there so you have to do long casts from cover. Also close to you is old Kamerunga bridge on the Barron; always rat barra/ jacks/ GT's there on little plastics. Got a mate with a reef boat too if you want to get hooked up - member pancakesandhaggis. Cheers, Tony

I guess if the SE wind is down (unlikely that time of year - trade winds till sep/ oct)you'd get a fish or two right on the beach at Trinity. Very sharky in winter though so expect to go through a box of hooks if using flesh/ live bait. Way around the sharks is to pump yabbies which will get you a zillion fish on the beach (without sharks) - lots of what we call 'little jew' which are a smallish jew species (think they are the 'silver jew' on the DPI website) - yabbies are crack cocaine for them but not sure where there are yabbies around Trinity. Also grunter. Fitzroy I've only ever chased doggie mackeral in winter back when I used to boat fish. But hear about people getting big fingermark on isolated bommies at night (boat fishing), and (shore fishing) chucking metal lures at dawn getting lots of queenies/ blue spot trevs etc on the rocky outcrops. Not too far from Trinity is Palm Cove jetty, which that time of the year may be pumping for mackeral if the wind is down. Also I've heard Trinity beach is whiting central in winter - maybe catch whiting and chuck one out live and see if you can get a tripletail (other than sharks); seen quite a few reports of tripletail at Trinity in the local fishing pages - actually one just this week. Sorry I pretty much go into fishing hibernation in winter (except for trying to see how big a bream I can catch on bread in the river down the street), unless the SE winds die for a spell, so thats all I've got.

I've heard they get a lot of big barra in Tinaroo with live mouth almighty under a float, fishing from the bank

Sandflat Fishing Australia and Buzzy Thao (who lives not far from me actually)

100% sand bass - common in FNQ

Don't know if it would work down south but certainly works up here (well before they closed nearly all the wharves to fishing anyway). 50lb braid/ 80lb leader, very lively live bait e.g: 10-15cm mullet lip hooked or big prawn hooked through the last joint of the tail, on a long (1-2m) leader. Use the tide to drift the livey right underneath wharves - this is why the heavy gear is needed, because you basically need to hit them hard and fight them out from under the wharf. Maybe could go a bit lighter down there because your not including having to manage big barra and fingermark. The key is to be way inside the structure with a very actively swimming live bait - used to be my most productive form of landbased fishing before the wharves lockout - see all my posts from several years back. Surely there'd be some big jacks under the wharves down there.

he kept that salmon, would have died anyway seeing how he landed it (pulling it by the gills up the beach) and how long he had it out of the water

A guy that my mate (member pancakes and haggis) took down there. Can't say I'm particularly pleased about the spot being shared far and wide on youtube:

Me either till I researched; seems basically a Stradic level reel but with baitrunner function. Felt way more confident keeping the pressure on fish this morning when the salmon were really pumping, rather than going 'softly softly' for fear of getting busted on a sudden surging run. Drag smoothness felt like I was using a Daiwa Sol, and I could pump and wind really well when fish were turned and back off easily when they were close to shore. Didn't mention (because don't have photo proof) but hooked a submarine last night that I had on for about 30 minutes before it busted me on the only bouy on the beach (probably big shark actually), but whole time felt confident in the drag

Ok PM me your address and I'll mail it next week. No line on it though - I got spooled on it and didn't bother respooling

I think that's the fifth we've got this week, all quick released of course - easy done fishing with a buddy - angler gets fish to shore, buddy dehooks and angler takes quick pic before release. I hate seeing people messing about for ages before releasing and its obvious its dangerous for the fish; they need to 'revive' the fish whereas the quick pic and release they're fighting you to swim away Last night:

I've been doing a lot of landbased livebaiting the last few years and as such gone through a few baitfeeder style reels. My findings: The Baitrunner's 'free spool' functions well but the drag is way too rough for light braid/ decent size fish. I still have a 2500 size I'll likely never use again if anyone wants it. The Penn Liveliner seems a robust reel and the drag is fairly smooth. However, the 'bait feed' is far from free spool and I've had a lot of fish spitting livies because the 'free spool' is actually about 25% drag setting. Again I still have a 2500 size I'll likely never use again if anyone wants it. Have a mate who uses the Okuma bait feeders for the same fishing style (beach livebaiting) and he seems to have no complaints. However they are a fairly low end reel and so maybe a bit rough and not have a long life - I literally saw him suffer an unexpected bustup on a massive barra just yesterday afternoon - possibly due to rough drag. The two Thunnus I just got I've used for a few sessions and so far seem flawless. Seem to be the best bait feeder style on the market. Very smooth reels and got a metre barra last night and seven salmon this morning using them - no complaints from me.

Good to not have to chase fish up and down the beach! Also the longer rod more than compensates for the heavier braid casting distance wise.

The odd 120 gets caught but don't see them caught landbased as much as there used to be; I haven't landed one in about a year. They seem to be out about 100-200m now and a lot of boats chase them nowadays - they sound up and down the beaches till they pick them up on sidescan then drop down big vibes; you can literally see a boat doing this in the background of the photo of the rod!

Tried the new outfits this morning, definately worked out as I can cast far enough to get into the strike zone with the longer rods. Just used one rod this morning as the livies were getting smashed straight away. No line screamers this morning, but got five blue salmon in the 50's-60's and two 80's barra; also dropped a nice king salmon around a metre which pulled hook on a jump. Four salmon kept for a feed (two for me, two for neighbor). Back to tackle shop today to move up from 25 to 40lb leader too.