AUS-BNE-FISHO

Hi all

My dad and I were thinking we should go for a paddle on the Upper Brisbane River fishing for bass. We finally got around to it, and after putting some bait traps in at my local park I got some good river shrimp. My brother and sister came along, and it was a nice session overall. Here's what happened and the only catch was a huge surprise  

We launched the kayak at twin bridges, at Fernvale. Though, since my mum's having a rest, we had to take my brother and sister... At first, they didn't want to go, but after some thinking we decided we could tow them in Dad's 35-year-old rubber dingy, which is in surprisingly good shape. At first, I was towed to a snag where I've had a big bust off, but not in a pool after the rapids where, I would've preferred to go (as well as my Dad). The people camping seemed fine with us staying there, but we certainly didn't want to get kicked away so we just stayed in ankle deep water. Though, getting towed was a disaster as I was slumped back the whole time and couldn't paddle. We switched roles on the way home and it worked fine because they sat on the edge and didn't half sink it  

The rubber dingy

After soaking a Cicada Jackall, spinnerbait and live river shrimp for about 15 minutes, my Dad and siblings decided they'd want to go over and have a play over the other side of the river. Though, as they were walking over, you won't believe what my brother stepped on. At first, they thought it was line, but then after pulling it in, they realised it was an un-rusted rod with a Diawa Shinobi attached, which still worked!  It had a decent hardbody attached and they gave it a cast straight away  Free rod and reel for us! The owners must've been so bummed about it, but they obviously didn't know the water was waist deep.

A few river shrimp, caught in opera house traps

We fished/swam for about 15-30 more minutes, but we weren't catching much (probably due to the fact that people were camping and we were so noisy) so we decided to head back. We had to make it a short session anyways, back to school tomorrow so apparently, we needed to 'rest' LOL. I only have to drop my books in though, but they've got a full day. Also, does anyone know where to purchase plumbers’ putty as we need it to mount our depth sounder on. Overall, it was a nice paddle, and on the way back we stopped at the Fernvale bakery for a pie, it was delicious.

Statistics:

Tackle used: 2/o suicide hooks, 20lb fluorocarbon leader, #8 shank hooks, small pencil float, split shots (I know 20lb is a bit excessive but we don't like losing lures and its very snaggy territory around there)

Temperature: About 31C

Weather: Partly cloudy, very humid, 

Caught: Fishing rod and reel, live river shrimp, live garden worms

I hope this was entertaining,   

Cheers Hamish  

Hi all

Last night I put in another session on the Brisbane River with my Dad and brother. We were fishing, near Green Bridge. Overall, it was a pretty successful night, here is what happened. 

So, we rock up to the fishing destination (jetty, don't tell anyone) and see it's as crowded as we've ever seen. Two guys fishing together, and an older couple taking up the spot we'd normally go in. After a quick throw of the cast nets, we decided to fish off the side and back of the jetty. One rod out for bream, the other live baiting for salmon/jew. We started throwing the nets for about 10 minutes after I had chucked out a whole dead herring and a cube of prawn. Initially throwing the nets, we were catching nothing, so we went to have another sit down with the rods. We got our first take on the dead herring with in 2 minutes of us doing that, and the fish felt good. Sadly, after some vicious head shaking, it spat the bait and we lost the fish. I re-baited and we started throwing the nets again.

That's when we started getting some good prawns, we realized to be successful we had to throw our net right in the shallows/mangroves. After numerous bait checks, we got another take on the herring, which felt considerably smaller. It pickered the bait off the hook, making me think it probably wasn't a trophy fish at all . Now, it was about 7:30 and the prawns really started coming in. Unfortunately,   the older couple hadn't left yet, nor had the other guys, taking up most of the jetty. In fishing situations like these, I probably should've gotten there earlier to get a better spot. After a couple more tiny takes and a few more prawns, the older couple hooked up to a decent fish which turned out to be a fairly big pike eel. Then, they got a double hook up, a pike eel and a little bull shark. Then, they caught another little bully. This happened in the space of say, 45 minutes. It was about 8:15 and I guess those other guys decided that the fishing was good 'cos they called in one of their mates, and in within fifteen minutes of that, they called in another one of their mates. These guys started to get a bit annoying/rude, throwing their lines directly over mine and trying to take my spot and swearing a bit too loudly for when there's little kids around (another guy had rocked up with his children, about 4-6 I'd say). It was then about 8:30PM, so we did a final bit of netting, caught a couple prawns and frog mouth pilchards then packed the nets away in the car. 

With the final half hour of fishing, I just chucked out a whole herring on my light line to see if a big bream/cod was sitting in the mangroves. It ended up turning into a small pike eel, which was about 50cm and released because no-one seemed to have a donga and we didn't really need any shark bait. The bloody thing nearly bit me twice (once on the shoe, once on the glove) and then we decided just to 'nudge' her back in. Here it is - 

After skull dragging it in, we began to pack up and just left the last line out with a live mullet on it. Well, nothing smashed it, and I spent about 10 minutes untangling it from the guy who threw his line over mine. At 9:00PM, we decided to leave just as it began to rain. Overall, it was a pretty good session, here are the nights statistics (tide, time, moon, etc)

Statistics of Night

Tide: 1.2M - 1.7M (halfway high to high)

Time Fished: 6:40PM-9:00PM

Fish Caught: Pike eel, 50cm

Bait Caught: Prawns, frog mouth pilchard, mullet

Moon: Third Quarter Cycle

Tackle used for the night:

30lb mainline, 100lb mono leader, size 6 ball sinker, 80lb trace (mono), 6/o circle hook, large barrel swivel

14lb braid mainline, 20lb fluorocarbon leader, size 2 ball sinker, 2/0 suicide hook.

That's everything, hope you enjoyed this report.

Cheers Hamish