Daryl McPhee

Ponyfish are a mucous gland with fins. 

Ponyfish are a mucous gland with fins. 

Finally wet a line at dusk today, was great to smell the salt air again, omg lost count of the bloody stingrays but a few good whiting, with one standout at 42
 

The tides were right to visit Shorncliffe Pier to extract some seafood for Christmas lunch. Yabbies and worms produced a feed of yellowfin whiting with a couple of bream and tarwhine mixed in, while the crab dillies provided some tasty blue swimmer crabs. 
As always, fishing up in the shallows in less than a metre of water is the way to go when chasing whiting. 
A left field catch from there last week was a 32 cm swallowtail dart that must have wandered out of the surf zone. The first one I have got there in over 30 years. 

The tides were right to visit Shorncliffe Pier to extract some seafood for Christmas lunch. Yabbies and worms produced a feed of yellowfin whiting with a couple of bream and tarwhine mixed in, while the crab dillies provided some tasty blue swimmer crabs. 
As always, fishing up in the shallows in less than a metre of water is the way to go when chasing whiting. 
A left field catch from there last week was a 32 cm swallowtail dart that must have wandered out of the surf zone. The first one I have got there in over 30 years. 

The tides were right to visit Shorncliffe Pier to extract some seafood for Christmas lunch. Yabbies and worms produced a feed of yellowfin whiting with a couple of bream and tarwhine mixed in, while the crab dillies provided some tasty blue swimmer crabs. 
As always, fishing up in the shallows in less than a metre of water is the way to go when chasing whiting. 
A left field catch from there last week was a 32 cm swallowtail dart that must have wandered out of the surf zone. The first one I have got there in over 30 years. 

Nice feed, Daryl.
Quite a while ago Ted took me to his dart spot at Mud Island. I was skeptical as I thought they were a fish exclusively found in the surf. Sure enough he started to catch them one after the other where a lagoon empties out of Mud. If I hadn't seen it I would never have believed it.

Christmas crabs! Hard to beat.

The tides were right to visit Shorncliffe Pier to extract some seafood for Christmas lunch. Yabbies and worms produced a feed of yellowfin whiting with a couple of bream and tarwhine mixed in, while the crab dillies provided some tasty blue swimmer crabs. 
As always, fishing up in the shallows in less than a metre of water is the way to go when chasing whiting. 
A left field catch from there last week was a 32 cm swallowtail dart that must have wandered out of the surf zone. The first one I have got there in over 30 years. 

It's all about beating the grocery price rises!

It's all about beating the grocery price rises!

The tides were right to visit Shorncliffe Pier to extract some seafood for Christmas lunch. Yabbies and worms produced a feed of yellowfin whiting with a couple of bream and tarwhine mixed in, while the crab dillies provided some tasty blue swimmer crabs. 
As always, fishing up in the shallows in less than a metre of water is the way to go when chasing whiting. 
A left field catch from there last week was a 32 cm swallowtail dart that must have wandered out of the surf zone. The first one I have got there in over 30 years. 

Nice work Daryl! 

The tides were right to visit Shorncliffe Pier to extract some seafood for Christmas lunch. Yabbies and worms produced a feed of yellowfin whiting with a couple of bream and tarwhine mixed in, while the crab dillies provided some tasty blue swimmer crabs. 
As always, fishing up in the shallows in less than a metre of water is the way to go when chasing whiting. 
A left field catch from there last week was a 32 cm swallowtail dart that must have wandered out of the surf zone. The first one I have got there in over 30 years. 

Well done Daryl, your family should eat well for Xmas lunch.
And cheaply too.😀

The tides were right to visit Shorncliffe Pier to extract some seafood for Christmas lunch. Yabbies and worms produced a feed of yellowfin whiting with a couple of bream and tarwhine mixed in, while the crab dillies provided some tasty blue swimmer crabs. 
As always, fishing up in the shallows in less than a metre of water is the way to go when chasing whiting. 
A left field catch from there last week was a 32 cm swallowtail dart that must have wandered out of the surf zone. The first one I have got there in over 30 years. 

The tides were right to visit Shorncliffe Pier to extract some seafood for Christmas lunch. Yabbies and worms produced a feed of yellowfin whiting with a couple of bream and tarwhine mixed in, while the crab dillies provided some tasty blue swimmer crabs. 
As always, fishing up in the shallows in less than a metre of water is the way to go when chasing whiting. 
A left field catch from there last week was a 32 cm swallowtail dart that must have wandered out of the surf zone. The first one I have got there in over 30 years. 

Hi all
I finally finished school last Friday, so I have been fishing a couple of times for the comp. The main species I have been targeting have been jew, threadfin, and sharks, although nothing has been too successful yet... 
Session #173
Last Wednesday arvo was the first session, and the aim was to collect some bait for shark fishing the next Friday. We arrived at the chosen spot armed with some deadbait and a cast net, and before I had even began netting my mate was winding in a fish. It looked like an eel, and we were all pleased when a nice and fat 'shortfin' eel came up. It was dispatched and put into a bag ready to be frozen for some sharks. After that, I started netting. It wasn't long before I had a few bonies, some sizeable and others small, all in the bucket ready to be used for bait. These didn't last too long on the lines, and the first catfish for the day was pulled in. Annoyingly for us, the sharks didn' seem to be interested in the bonies, but in saying that it wasn't too hot so they might have just not been feeding. We kept fishing for another couple of hours, but with school the next day we decided to call it quits when we hadn't seen any more fish at dark.
Stats of Trip:

#Session #174
On Friday arvo, @TheCharliefisho, myself, and a couple of our other mates decided to go to a local spot and fish for a shark. It is worth noting we had been creeking fishing a few days before, but only caught some catfish. Conditons were alright for a shark, so after lines were put out I was pretty confident we would have a hookup. It didn't take long, and after 20 minutes Charlie was on a shark. It was putting up an alright fight with some headshakes and runs into the mangroves, and eventually we got it near the net. Annoyingly, it bit through the leader, and won it's freedom. It wasn't massive - maybe 80cm - but still a solid shark. We continued fishing with a bit more hope but apart from several small catfish, one of which was livebaited, there were no more fish caught that arvo. All catfish caught were below 20cm, and there wasn't much bait around either. 
Stats of Trip:

Session #175
The next day, I went kayaking at a spot I had not fished in a long time. We arrived a little past 8, and made our way down to the launching area. My dad was with me in our kayak, and one of my fishing mates, Michael, had his kayak as well. I had one rod rigged with a soft vibe and another with a 4 inch Holt Productions swimprawn - the target species being anything that would take one of our lures. The sounder was working well, and the river was pretty deep with the average depth around 10-15 metres. To start off, we fished the opposite bank which was quite sandy with our lures, and we were surprised at the amount of bait jumping even though the sun was well and truly up. Michael was already there, and had seen some fish earlier in the day on the slack tide. After casting for about 30 minutes and not having any action except seeing a couple of free swiming bream, we decided to try fishing off the kayak. We paddled upstream to an eddy, and I jigged a vibe up and down for a little while seeing if I could manage any fish. This didn't work that well, and we decided to have a cast in an area with some snags closer by. Seeing as though this wasn't an eddy, the tide was roaring and it was very hard to stay in position. We eventually decided to pull up on another beach in the shade, where we all casted lures for about 30 minutes. My dad and I had to leave a bit early though, and even though the session ended with me losing a soft vibe I still had fun!
Stats of Trip:

Session #176
The next morning, Charlie and I went out fishing with livies at a spot on the river. We got driven there and were fishing by 6, and after looking around I got to catching bait. The tide was still running out, so I ended up casting the net off the front of the jetty for a school of herring - enough for the session atleast. We got the lines out and started fishing. Initially, it was a bit quiet apart from a bream (about 30cm) which we forget to take photos/couldn't be bothered to take photos for the comp. After that was released, another fella came down - shortly after this, I noticed (presumably a jewie) playing with the bait, which did so for about 10 minutes before we wound in to check the line. There was actually a fish on the end not moving, which may have been a ray or jew. Charlie started fightinjg it, but annoyingly due to the other guy's line being put quite closely to ours it tangled up and by the time we had sorted it the fish got into some pylons and spat the hook. It was taking some solid runs though, so at least it was a bit of excitement for the morning. We had a shark rod out as well but this hadn't gotten anything so I switched it back to a livie.  
The tide was beginning to change now, and we were hopeful another rod would go off. Unfortunately, it went a bit quiet, and there weren't really any bites happening at all. A while before this, a bike buggy had floated by. Some police came down looking for it, and someone in a little tinny towed it back to the jetty. It was mostly empty, but there were normal and water police who came to look at it. Charlie and I even got to go in the water police boat, which was a cool experience. Apparently someone thought there might have been a body in it but it actually looked more like a homeless persons belongings. After they left, the fish didn't start to bite, but Michael from the last session and another fisho, Andrew, also came down. They caught some herring too but even though we had plenty of lines out nothing seemed to be biting. It was a nice day, but the fish weren't around so Charlie and I headed off at about midday as we had some things to do in the arvo. 
Stats of Trip:

Session #177
The next morning, we were back at it but at a new spot. We had another one of our mates with us, and we arrived at the location at about 8AM. I got to casting straight away and it was pretty quiet, but seeing as though it was a lowish tide and Charlie saw some herring off the front of the jetty, I gave it a cast. I got enough bait for the session (and some leftover), so that was a good call. We deployed the lines, and in about 20 minutes a rod was going off. Charlie started to fight it and after a few headshakes and a little run he had his first river squire on the jetty, at 37CM. I have a feeling I won't be seeing any more of these until next Winter but still a cool catch - 

Squire
After that, we were hopeful some other species would start biting. It seemingly went a bit quiet though, so we were happy when a ball floated by which we took out of the river and started kicking to eachother - it ended up back in the river in about 15 minutes. We continued to fish and the temperature continued to rise, as did the tide. Despite the presence of a trawler earlier in the morning, there were no prawns to be seen. Another fisherman came along who set up fishing for bream, but he only got one small one for the time he was there. The bites were really quiet, and we were hardly even losing herring after each cast. It seemed there weren't even any pickers interested in taking a bait. At about midday, our other mate decided to go home so it was just us. We kept fishing until about two, when we decided to call it quits as the tide had changed and we hadn't seen a nibble. We got the ferry then the train back and were home a bit before four. 
So overall, none of these sessions were particularly successful but we did atleast manage a squire. I didn't go fishing today due to a family issue (sister broke her wrist) but tomorrow I will be back at it chasing a thready or jew. Later this week I might go bream and cod fishing and see if I can manage something alright as well. Here are the statsistis of the trip if anyone is interested:

Thanks for reading,
Cheers Hamish

Here is a photo I took of the two species together for a forthcoming fishing column. 
 

@Kat and I had organised a session on the Bay for Monday, but the forecast turned a bit dodgy, so we canned it Sunday. Then @Old Scaley sent me a text seeing if I wanted to join him for a river session. I felt a twist in my arm and accepted the invite.
Launched at Port of Brisbane ramp and went and deployed 4 crab pots, before heading down to the wharves to throw some plastics for a jew or threadie. No love after a while doing this and with the wind above forecast (glad I wasn't in the Bay) we headed back up the river to the pipeline. We threw more plastics here but again no joy.
Decided to head further upstream and drift some baits. Not much luck doing this either. The thought of the dreaded donut entered my head. Then finally around midday they came on the chew and I landed a nice legal squire, followed by Steve with one too close to call so was let go. We did a few re-drifts and picked up some more then Steve was onto a weighty fish that wasn't playing like a snapper. Sure enough up comes a beaut flathead. High fives all round as we haven't seen a legal flattie for quite awhile. Shortly after he did it again with a slightly smaller version. Then one of us got another squire but I can't remember which one of us.
Despite a few more hits and misses we decided to call time. Checked the pots for a nil score, then headed back to the ramp well satisfied with the day.
Thanks for the invite and day out Steve. Best day on the water for some time.
 

 

@Kat and I headed out this morning from Manly. Fished Mud for most of the run-out tide. Managed a 45 snap and Kat a legal grassie around 33 from memory. Kat also got onto something huge that busted off about 15 metres from the boat. I'll post a video of that tomorrow.

Conditions were superb with a glass-out for most of the day. We had a few runs and failed hookups along with some undersize squire and grassies.
Around 1.30 we headed down to Green. I got a 44 snap and Kat got another grassie or two as well as a 37 squire. Dinner sorted for both of us. I hooked up to what we suspect was a large shovelly that did what it wanted when it wanted. Eventually it busted off on an abandoned crab pot that has been there all year. Easy release method.

We had quite a bit of action and dropped more fish than we would have liked, but it was a good day to be out there.
We were out there from 7.30am to 5pm but there always seemed to be something happening.
Thanks for the day, Kat and especially the food - including homemade chocolate chop cookies.
 

I picked up my umbrella and braved the rain for a Brisbane river fishing session. I netted a few prawns and hoped for the best. I managed to pick up a nice squire but also a few catfish and an angry pike eel
PS: the snapper had pretty bad barotrauma so it should make a nice dinner.

Hi all. I squeezed in a bit more fishing in over at Amity Point over the last week and a bit. While I was not targeting them, there were big bream everywhere with plenty of fish over 35cm, a few over 40cm with Max getting the biggest at a whopping 44cm. These were mostly caught floating down whole pillies with a light lead. There were a couple of squire amongst them. One of my students from West Virginia caught his first ever fish in Australia - an undersized mulloway of about 60cm, following on from my 80cm fish earlier. There were also a few undersized spangled emperor with the biggest being 42cm.  
 

 

Hi all. I squeezed in a bit more fishing in over at Amity Point over the last week and a bit. While I was not targeting them, there were big bream everywhere with plenty of fish over 35cm, a few over 40cm with Max getting the biggest at a whopping 44cm. These were mostly caught floating down whole pillies with a light lead. There were a couple of squire amongst them. One of my students from West Virginia caught his first ever fish in Australia - an undersized mulloway of about 60cm, following on from my 80cm fish earlier. There were also a few undersized spangled emperor with the biggest being 42cm.  
 

 

Thats a great bream! Nice work!
I always thought BIG bream will be in plague proportions one day.... given the amount caught that must be released 😜