bersim

My mate Wallyfly caught a rod up at baroon dam, it was a baitcaster, when he reeled it in it had a bass on the end with the line wrapped around it, cutting it nearly in half, but was still alive, released to live another day.
I found a baitcaster up there also with a 6000 eggbeater reel on it and the lure still attached, I got the lure, Luke got the rod for cleaning the reel and my son got the reel for open water fishing.
Just recently I found half a rod up there as well. I might add I have donated a nice baitcaster outfit to the depths up there as well.
Also down at Wangdang Illawarra I saw a flash in the water and cast to it while I was flathead fishing one day, result one kids rod and reel with a big bream on the end of it.
My best by far was when the water went down to 15% at NPD I hooked a few bundles of lures all in tight balls some balls were worth $200 dollars. Near the dam wall, while casting spinnerbaits,heaps of jackal lure amongst them (i think a lot of them were already mine
Dino

Pic added

Sorry for not replying earlier.  I'll be coming along!  It will be good to see a few old and new faces again.
bersim@bigpond.net.au for the catering invoice
James

Similar to Glen a Barra in a cast net in the Pine river. Total ripped the net because it was caught on the snag the Barra lived in. Released to populate the Pine

The other strange catch was a water rat caught on a mudeye when fishing for trout.

It wasn't a monster but still cool! Here's a picture, I photoshopped out the back ground so no one new where i caught it  A few years back we were fishing up at the pin and were positive we sore a barra 'boof' right next to the boat but didn't see it again .
 
 
Cheers, Glenn,

Thought it would be interesting to start a new thread as I've heard of some pretty cool catches over time. 

The question is, what have you caught? I'm talking about odd fish, rare fish, old boots, rods, anything!! I'll start;
 
I caught an L.Wilson "Live Fibre" Custom Built baitcaster rod, complete with a Shimano Caenan spooled with what I'm thinking is about 20lb braid. I was bait fishing with the old man in Storm King Dam near Stanthorpe, and managed to pull this up from the depths completely at random! At the time, it still had a Jackall Mask Vibe rigged as well... But I promptly lost the lure to a snag. The rod required abit of a clean up as it had all sorts of things growing on it. But it works as good as new and I'm progressively learning skim casting for my trip north after christmas. 

 

Steve to the rescue!!  
So what are we thinking... Steak, Sausages, Chicken skewers etc??
IF anyone manages to get a decent catch of crab close to the day, or a haul of prawns they can most certainly be added to the mix!

I am not wonderful, burley or handsome, and only just a man but since @ellicat has offered to drive I will still have one hand left which I am happy to apply to the BBQ.

Sorry for not replying earlier.  I'll be coming along!  It will be good to see a few old and new faces again.
bersim@bigpond.net.au for the catering invoice
James

So far we have 14 confirmed!!! There are a few who have said they're coming on Facebook but not through here.
Like Angus said if you don't want the lunch feel free to BYO and come along anyway!!!

Sorry for not replying earlier.  I'll be coming along!  It will be good to see a few old and new faces again.
bersim@bigpond.net.au for the catering invoice
James

I was SPECIFICALLY talking about you Brian!

Ellicat I see your article but they mucked up the word "Replacement" and put "Quotient"`...

All I can say is that is one stupid bass hahaha.  But on a serious note that really is something special.  Very cool to see how it's going and to know that after all that time it is still looking pretty healthy and the tag is still in.  Fish of a lifetime for sure!  You'd think it at least could have grown a cm or 2 just so it could be called a unicorn though!
 

All I can say is that is one stupid bass hahaha.  But on a serious note that really is something special.  Very cool to see how it's going and to know that after all that time it is still looking pretty healthy and the tag is still in.  Fish of a lifetime for sure!  You'd think it at least could have grown a cm or 2 just so it could be called a unicorn though!
 

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

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 

thanks guys.  Took her for a run up to the top of Bribie today.  unfortunately no fishing yet.

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/

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.
 

Thanks for putting this up!  I didn't know about the condensed view thing and that's exactly what I was after.  Really appreciating all of the effort that has gone into the new and improved AFO.  
James

With the new platform comes a new way to navigate the AFO site. The aim is to keep the site navigation simple and easy to use.

Forum Menu
The Forum takes centre stage and is the first menu item. Click this to view the index of the forum which will show you all the categories.
Activity Menu
Next is the Activity menu. This is the main menu item to see what has been happening on AFO and what content has been created. These are displayed as activity streams. Content means anything that is created, so new forum topics and posts, photo galleries etc. 
Under the Activity menu are some sub-menus. These are useful for finding specific content.
All Activity = all content activity including new forum topics, new forum posts, who has liked a post, who has updated their status, who has added photos to their galleries etc
Forum Activity = new forum topics and posts
Unread Content = content you haven't read yet on the AFO site
Content I Started = this is where you will find content (e.g. forum topics) you created
Content I Follow = You can follow content on AFO, this notifies you when there are replies or activity to this content. This menu item shows the content you have chosen to follow
Members I Follow = You can follow members now, so that when a followed member posts new content (e.g. a new topic) you can be notified. This menu item shows all the members you follow
Status Update Activity = shows the latest status updates on AFO
Gallery Photo Activity = shows the latest photos uploaded the gallery. This is not forum images that are uploaded to posts. This is a separate area where members can create photo albums and upload their own photos. Member can then insert these photos into forum posts, but you can also just upload images directly in forum posts as well.
Online Users = shows users online
Gallery Menu
This takes you to the gallery area where members can upload images into albums they create. A great place to store your photos digitally and to then also you can also easily insert them into forum posts. 
 
Search Menu
Here you can search the AFO site. Please note 2 or 3 word search string currently are not supported and will return an error. This is a limitation of the new platform and if this is changed in the future we will advise AFO members.
 
Viewing Activity Streams
Another tip is that you can change how you view the activity streams. You can view either in expanded or condensed view. Click the icons in the top right to change.

 
Expanded View shows text and images. The icon to change display type is shown circled in red

 
While Condensed view shows less information. The icon to change display type is shown circled in red

 
 
Hope this helps explain some of the new layout and changes to AFO.
 

Here is another cool pictures Henry sent me of the croc that followed us for a while trying to get our poppers

And some clowns from right out the front of the lodge...