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.
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.
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.
