AUS-BNE-FISHO

Hi Nathan This website may help - https://www.nsw.gov.au/topics/maritime-licences/boat-and-pwc-licences/get-boat-or-pwc-licence#:~:text=If you're under age 16&text=Licence holders under age 16,between sunset and sunrise%2C or Cheers Hamish

Nice job Dino, how deep do the crazydeeps dive? Cheers Hamish

Welcome to the forum Nuggs. A cast net is definitely the way to go if you want to catch larger species. You can get prawns and baitfish depending on where you are. Some strips of pike eel or stingray may get you onto a shark, as well. Cheers Hamish

Nice work. It's always a bit of fun to get a little bully. How heavy did you fish to land him? Cheers Hamish

Hi Sunny Threadfin of all sizes are more active in Summer. In winter, you tend to get more fish of good size. My favourite time to fish for them is April and Spring. Water is a bit dirty but plenty salty for lots of bait, meaning lots of threadies! Cheers Hanish

Hi ubnt Thanks. The catfish you are catching are infected with some sort of parasite or virus. As far as I'm concerned it doesn't hinder eating qualities nor the overall health of the fish. Brisbane River catties are definitely not the best on the chew or healthiest fish out in the river. The water quality around West End is fine, as far as I'm concerned. When you consider how much the tide runs through there (and all the way up to Goodna and further) you wouldn't think the fish could be to bad. Cheers Hamish

I'm glad they caught him - at least when you crab from a boat you have some reassurance about dropping pots in, opposed to landbased.

Nice work Ray - 65 is good going! Cheers Hamish

Welcome to the forum Jake, well done on the bass. I'd imagine there'd be a few other creeks holding them, that run into the river. Cheers Hamish

Hey @Kiwiboy Despite the fact I have tried many times for bream on hardbodies (Bris River) I have never had any success. Colours in dark green, dark silver, and brown all supposedly work well for bream. Cheers Hamish

Hey Mick I have fished the Seaway a few times, mainly early mornings in Winter. We would start out by netting live herring in the canals near the Runaway Bay Boat Ramp. It is imperative to fish with good livies, opposed to dead bait. As well as herring, bony bream, biddies, and haddyheads were also used. We would then motor to the Seaway and fish on the left hand side (when leaving the seaway). Ideally, you will remain around 15m from the rocks with the motor still on, or electric motor. Try and stay in the same spot as much as possible. Jew, trevally, big bream, cod, reef fish, and the occasional jacks were possible here, though I only ever caught trevally, Jew, and bream. Fish with a sinker big enough to hold on the bottom, a light gauge circle hook, and about a metre of 20 pound trace. Good luck! Cheers Hamish

Nooo! We can't ditch threadies!

Nice work Ray, you got some good ones!

Nice work Brian and Steve. Glad you guys got onto a couple of nice ones. Was this just around the Southern Bay Islands? I cannot see the photos for some reason. Not quite sure. Cheers Hamish *nevermind, my wifi is just terrible! I can see the pics now

Nice one Greg. It definitely looks like you are onto a good spot. Maybe next time if you fish on neap tides (not new or full moon) you will be able to anchor better? Also, have you thought of putting a floating bait out for mackerel? Cheers Hamish

Yes, it was pretty good. Hopefully a few more legals next time though! It was lucky the fish didn't have baroutrauma, otherwise it might've floated away. I got him in very quick which I think may have contributed to the healthy release. Thanks Chris, it was a bummer. I reckon if it wasn't for those headshakes we would've gotten the fish in. Cheers Hamish

Hi all I have about 15 or 20 reports to write in the Brisbane River series, though I am going to put the two most exciting ones up right now. Seeing as though I am back at (online) school as of today, I will write up the remaining reports and have them posted by the end of the week. Anyways, the first relatively successful trip was a crabbing trip in the river... A number of factors went into convincing Dad to take me crabbing - the main one being that his freezer was chocker-block with ice-cream tubs of pike eel, catfish, and whiting frames. I had also bought four crab pots from BCF, and for $50 dollars it was a good deal (though when you add in rope, floats, etc, it quickly becomes a little less than $100). I spent a few days making bait bags out of some wire, and I labelled floats, pots, and tied ropes all according to the Fisheries Guidelines. On the Tuesday before Australia Day my pots were ready to be soaked, and after catching a few muddies on a couple of my expeditions to a local jetty my Dad and I had a chosen location. We piled the yak and all the gear into the car, and got to the carpark. Between tying ropes, baiting pots, and figuring a few things out it took far longer than anticipated to get the pots ready to drop, but eventually we were on our way to the jetty with the yak fully loaded up. A fella was fishing there, who might've been about 21, and after a brief chat it was confirmed he was on a hunt for a thready. After a bit more chatting, we had the yak in with the first two crab pots, and paddled over to the other side of the river. We had about 25M of rope to drop in about 12M of water, which may seem excessive but is needed in these parts of the river due to the speed of the tide. Baiting up We found the first location for a drop, it was a gradual but definite drop off - we dropped the pot at the bottom and hoped for the best. The next location, which was a few hundred metres upstream, was another drop off. This time, we had 15M of rope and we dropped it at the bottom of a drop off that went from about 3-6M very steeply. We paddled back to the jetty to grab our next two pots, which we dropped on the same side of the river as the jetty. The third pot, which had about 15M, was dropped in 8M of water at the bottom of a drop off as well. The next pot was dropped in 6M of water, because we couldn't be bothered to find anything. "It'll be fine", we thought... We had a bit more of a chat to the other fella fishing, and we found out that he fishes offshore a lot, and has landed a lot of large marlin, snapper, and other varied reefies/pelagics. He wound in a catty and then called it quits the same time as us, so we left hopeful that the pots would come back full of big muddies. The next morning (Australia Day) we arrived at around 7:00AM. We slid the yak straight into the river and shot over to the pot that was longest away. My dad did the honours with this one, and despite the fact it had a brick in it, it was still pretty clean when it came into the yak. The other thing that was clean was the two big muddies sitting in there, but unfortunately one was a female. On the way back in, we couldn't see one of our pots. A bit of investigating led us to the pot's float, which was only half exposed. I must say, despite being overpriced at BCF, the Styrofoam floats are far superior to milk bottles in terms of buoyancy. After pulling this one up as well, we were happy to see another sizeable buck - slightly bigger than the first! Nice One (i felt under his shell and he was pretty full too!) I flipped the pot upside down (when we were back on the jetty) to see if all crabs were males, and the lone crab managed to bite and claw through my net! He scurried around on the jetty before I could trap him, and managed to win his freedom... lucky! This guy got away After making up our minds that Dad would go and get the last two crab pots while I minded the ones on the jetty, and began cleaning them up, it began to heat up. Dad shot off to the other side of the river, and after a brief paddle, he came back with another pot, with two jennies in. One was giant, and then other was tiny. Nothing great, but not terrible. Dad Saving the Day Jennies (released) The final pot, which is the one that we didn't try to find a hole or drop off for, came up with nothing. whether the fact that catfish were the only bait used had something to do with it, I wouldn't be sure. What I am sure off is next time I'm putting in a good effort to find a hole, drop off, creek mouth, rocky ground, etc before dropping the pot. When cleaning up, a fisherman came down and gave us a hand with the crabs. We decided to give him the legal buck, and everything else was returned. We went home and had a great Australia Day, and were both satisfied with the crabbing session, despite the fact it wasn't anything amazing. Car Loaded A few more things that I did was: - On the long ropes I had two milk bottles as well as the Styrofoam floats attached as floats. - The pots that produced were the ones with catfish and pike eel, whiting frames, and whiting frames and catfish - not just catfish - I filed down some hooks, undid the bottom of the pot, and threaded my bait bags in, so they were like a pro pot opposed to just a BCF one - Bricks were used in the pots to prevent them drifting Here are the stats of the trip for anyone interested - Stats of Trip: Tide: 10:00PM, .4M, Low, 4:30AM, 1.9M, High, 10:30AM, .7M, Low Moon Phase: 40%, Waning Crescent, so not the world's most run. Crustacean Caught: 5 x mud crab (2 x legals) Humidity: 78%-91%, so quite muggy Air Pressure: 1011 and 1012 mbar Rainfall (prior week): 48.6mm, so water was quite dirty, possibly pushing crabs into deeper, saltier water Bait Used: Catfish, Pike Eel, Whiting Frames Gear Used: 4 Pryml Crab Pots, Cheap Rope, Styrofoam Floats, Bricks Overall Success Rate: 65% - a couple of nice crabs Alright, so the next interesting fishing trip was today (Sunday), AKA my last day of freedom. Since I was going back to school the next day, Dad agreed to drive me to the chosen destination (spotx) in hope of a thready for the Suburbs of Origin Comp. We woke up a bit before 5 and departed quickly - I was casting my line into the water at about 5:15AM. I was armed with a baitrunner generously donated by @ellicat, as well as a 20LB overhead outfit, and my Stradic 3000 and Shimano Raider combo. After dropping lines in with dead baits, the main task was to get some livies. I was armed with a secret weapon - sinking berley bombs. I dispersed the sandy, pilchardy, bready, cheesy, hammy, yucky mixture into the water and it descended below the chocolate coloured waters of the river. The first throw was not fruitful, nor was the next ten or fifteen, but after I switched again with my Dad, I got a couple decent sized prawns - the first catch of the morning. These were whacked out on the overhead and baitrunner, and I was feeling good. In about 15 minutes, after a few more average sized prawns had been caught (they were still scarce) I checked the bait on my baitrunner. As soon as I casted this I had seen a few distinctive bites, but I dismissed it initially as I believed it was just the heavy star sinker settling into the bottom with the turbulent tide turning it back and forth. I changed my mind when I felt some headshakes, and pulled up the first fish on the baitrunner, a small catty. unhealthy with the red dots as well After that catty, I swapped cast netting with my dad again. the first throw, I got a few in my net - and then the prawning action was HOT from then on. I was regularly getting three large prawns each throw, which, for daytime prawning is quite good. It wasn't until the bait bucket was already looking healthy that I hit the motherload, which was easily my best cast in terms of prawns ever. Apologies for the blurred photo - I am happy to send the unedited pic via PM to all members. It's just that this is my friend's spot that he more or less told me about, so I do not want to give it away by posting pics for anyone on the internet to see. I will remember to get a less spot revealing picture next time to avoid doing this. Woohoo After I explained to Dad how much action I was getting, I switched roles with him. As I was picking up my overhead to give it a bait check, I heard the line on my baitrunner peeling off. I ran over, and engaged the reel. For the first part of the fight, the fish was a dead weight, and I was struggling to gain anything. It then took a short run, and the dead weight continued. It was staying down deeper and had many headshakes - a sign it was a decent fish, not a stingray. After another small run, my dad began filming the fight - net in one hand and camera in the other. I was gaining line on the fish, and the baitrunner was making light work out of it. The fish was at the point in the fight where it was directly beneath the jetty, and I began cranking it up. As the leader and star sinker surfaced, the anticipation to see a golden slab of threadfin was higher than ever. The swivel was visible, and then the vibrant scales of a Brisbane River Thready were too. It was by far the most coloured fish I have ever (nearly landed), but unfortunately for me, it managed to shake my 6/o circle hook out of it's lip just before my Dad slipped the net under the fish. Luckily, my Dad did get it all on video. Fu Fa Fu Fu Fu .MOV Devastated! (please let me know if this vid is visible?) Anyways, after that incident (which I have decided can be blamed on Dad, who was too slow with the net!) I got my lines back in, eager to hear the sound of line being stripped again. It was about 7:45AM now, and another fella rocked up. We split up on the jetty, and my Dad and I took the left side, and he took the right side. He had a similar rig to me, and put out some dead baits, before getting to cast netting. I called it with the net because I had plenty of prawns anyways, but I figured I'd give it a throw a bit later anyways. I set up camp on the jetty, with two umbrellas, the cart, a chair, and I settled it. I went over to the other fella and had a chat, and he said that he mostly fished at a different jetty. He to was fishing for a thready... Just as I was walking back to my gear, his rod buckled over! I grabbed the net, and he began to fight the fish. It was staying down deep, and taking some OK runs. Unfortunately, a large-ish stingray was all that surfaced. I netted it, and it's barb became stuck in my net so well I had to trim it. Sorry Mr Stingray! Just after I released the ray, the fellas other rod went off as well. It took a good first run, but then after that it was obvious he was hooked up to a catfish. He got it in (it was about 35CM). I was thinking of keeping it for crab bait although I decided that because my bait esky didn't have a lot of cold bricks in it, I'd be better off letting all catties go. After that, the bite began to go quiet. When I had arrived, the tide was roaring, and the fish were biting when the tide was beginning to slow down. At this point of the session, all that was biting was small catfish and pickers. Live prawns weren't lasting, and despite the fact I had managed to net a couple small herring the pickers were still chewing through them non-stop. Seeing as though my Dad had caught a large anchovy before he left, (although it was dead) I decided to tie up a snell rig for a jewie, and put the anchovy out whole. It took a couple goes but I got the rig the right length and chucked my bait out. About 20 minutes later it wasn't pickered but had these weird, flesh eating things on it. Any ideas? Yucky After that, it was fast approaching 9:00AM, so I did another couple of bait checks (my lines were all baited, no surprise) and I wanted to have some brekky. I did bring my trangia but then I remebered I didn't bring any bacon, so I had nothing to cook . I continued to check the rods, but, despite watching them carefully, it was still hard to distinguish pickers and the tide, because of how fast the current was going. It was getting slightly later now when the other fella wound in a small River Perch, which was coming home with him. After cleaning his fish, he gave it about 15 minutes longer but then called it quits. He hadn't gotten too many livies, apart from a small herring or two. Just as he was leaving a freakishly heavy gust of wind tore my brolly from the fishing cart, causing it to fly into the water seconds before I could grab it. I threw the cast net to try and catch it to no avail, apart from getting a little herring. Ahhhh!!! After this fella left, I did a little more casting for a few more prawns. I continued to stay seated under my (lone) umbrella now, and I enjoyed my PB roll for morning tea. I was quite happy when one of my mates said he would be coming down, which meant I would have some company. I chucked out more prawns and herring, sometimes two or three on the same hook, for the same result everything. Pickers, pickers, and more pickers! Eventually, my mate arrived. I think he was using a slightly different/better berley mix than mine, because within a couple casts he had three prime livies (mullet and a gudgeon), as well as a few decent prawns. He had come down to try and hook up on his new rod, which was a nice graphite one. The tide was really roaring now, and our size 4 star sinkers were hardly touching the ground. I probably should've been using something bigger, but I didn't actually have my bigger sinker as I'd left it at home. Time was getting on now, and I managed to hook up to one of the pickers that were relentlessly stealing our baits - a small catty. This guy was neck hooked and unfortunately for him, he didn't survive the release. I would've kept him but by the time we'd flicked him back he was out of range... A shark would eat him anyways! With no more action at about 3:30PM, it was becoming a quiet day. The only thing that was keeping us occupied was watching our lines to ensure that they didn't get run over, and watching a particularly large boat try to moor up to a nearby dock, which it tried about 4 or 5 times to no avail (and ended up scratching up the side on a pylon ). The tide was still roaring and there wasn't a huge presence of bait, or at least not the same amount there was earlier in the morning. I checked my overhead and to my surprise it had a small perch on it, so I made the decision to switch my heavy rod to a snell rig and chuck the perch out on that. I decided I would keep all lines out except for the heavy rod, seeing as though they had done no good. I was hopeful for a big jew or thready, but it was not meant to be. After packing up all my gear and getting a few more prawns, I checked my line, untangled it, and upon casting my River Perch flew away (and kicked straight off - hardy perch!). I had everything in now, and spent the last 20 odd minutes cast netting for a bit more bait. I ended up with about 30 good bait prawns, plus my mate gave me a bag or two full of frozen herring, which was awesome, as it meant I finally had some decent baits in the freezer! I left the jetty at tad before my 4:28 ferry arrived, and ended up having to run the last hundred odd metres to make it on time. Overall, it was a great way to spend my last day of freedom, with good company and some near misses on the fish. It was an eleven hour session overall, so today I've been pretty tired to say the least! It was great to watch Barty, Rafa, and Kyrgios/Kokonakis win their categories in the AO, and it was a shame that Dylan Alcot didn't win his game. I didn't manage to stay up late enough to watch Rafa win, only late enough to think he was gonna cop a flogging in the third set (which is where he managed to make a comeback ). I hope you enjoyed reading these two relatively exciting reports, and I should have the rest of the Brisbane River Series up by Thursday or Friday. Here are the stats of this trip for anyone interested. Statistics of Trip - Tide: 2:00AM, .5M, Low, 8:40AM, 2.7M, High, 3:30PM, .6M, Low. Moon Phase: Waning Crescent, around 4%, so moon is getting closer to new moon, which means there is slightly less run than usual. Fish Caught: Catfish x 2 or 3, near miss with a 90's thready, river perch x 1, Others caught stingrays, perch, and catties Bait Caught: Live prawns, herring, mullet, river perch Bait Used: Live prawns, herring, mullet, river perch Tackle Used: 15, 20, 30 pound braided mainlines, 30 and 50 pound FC Rock Leaders, Size 4 star sinkers and a size 6 ball sinker, large barrel swivels, circle hooks (3/o, 4/o, 6/o), Shimano Baitrunner Aero 6000, Rogure Firepoint Boat Rod, Abu Garcia Barra King 650, Ugly Stik, Shimano Raider 4-7KG SNAPPER, Shimano Stradic 3000. Air Pressure: 1012-1014 - the barometer stayed almost the same throughout the day Humidity: 66%-86% (note the time the thready was hooked the humidity dropped by ten percent) Temperature: 21-30oC Weather: Sunny, a few passing clouds. Rain was predicted but there were only a few sprinkles. Boat and Water Activity: Extremely high, but what can you expect the river to be like on a nice and sunny Sunday Overall Success Rate: 60% - would've been better if dad netted the thready! Cheers Hamish

Thanks @christophagus! It was a great comp and many caught some good fish too.

Nice job Ray, those are some nice bass. Cheers Hamish

Hi Brian, The reel is loaded with a full 300m of braid! And I got some berley ingredients, and a bit of tackle (star sinkers and circle hooks) as well. Cheers Hamish

Hi all A huge thanks to @ellicat for the Shimano Baitrunner he gave to me!!!!! I really appreciate it Brian! Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get something on it. Cheers Hamish

Like said above, it’s not a good idea. The Brisbane River, Pine River, rivers/creeks/canals around the Gold Coast, Jumpinpin Islands, and areas around Wellington Point all offer good kayak fishing options. Cheers Hamish

Good luck ID-ing it Brian, is that one you’d use for Murray Cod?

G’day @SteveGS Welcome to the forum. If you are located around the Northside, three alright landbased spots are the jetty at Bulimba, the UQ rockwall, and Newstead House. Three decent spots if you are on Southside are Colmslie Recreation Reserve (great for young kids especially), Dutton Park Recreation Hub, and all the rock walls around Mowbray Park (good for bream/cod). Live bait, such as prawns or mullet will maximise your chances at something OK, but if that fails, servo mullet or prawns give you an alright chance at a small bully, bream, or catfish. Tell us how ya go! Cheers Hamish

I find it interesting they want to take the big fish out. I guess that’s so they stop eating the fingerlings so there can be more fish caught in coming years. I guess you have to consider how many times the same fish gets caught. I suppose there’s always the chance it will just die on the release, as well… Thanks for the article @ubnt. Cheers Hamish