AUS-BNE-FISHO

Shame, I was expecting a good haul without having the curse along 🤐
I heard they were both in numbers in the river this week.
 
(Okay, I didn't really hear that) haha

Around this time for the last 3 years I have promised Mrs Scaley a feed of freshly caught Moreton Bay prawns. Every year she rolls her eyes and sighs, already convinced I won’t deliver. This year, all the signs were good for yesterday - recent rain, some reports of good catches, some spare time for me.  Now all I needed was a deckie to do all the hard work.  As luck would have it, I had a call from the Dentist (not his real avatar or occupation) and he was expecting another bout of industrial diarrhoea on that very day so a plan was hatched to hit Southern Moreton Bay to finally end the prawn drought.
Since he gets very few chances to get out lately we decided to go all out and throw everything at aa ambitious attempt at a seafood basket of prawns, crab and prawns. 
We launched at 5:45am to catch the low tide for some yabbies.  It was then that I discovered that the battery that runs the accessories wasn’t going to deliver for one more trip like I thought, despite charging it up the day before. To make it worse, the Dentist had nagged me about it last time we went out but my thriftiness got the better of me.
We laid out our 8 crab pots in a promising spot, then hit spot A for a quick fish before the prawn search began.  I was first up with a nice whiting in the mid-thirties followed by a bream about 28cm. I kept the bream in case we didn’t catch a feed. The Dentist, meanwhile, persisted with 2 rods as usual and managed to trawl up all sorts of vermin, including small rays and a huge catfish (sorry for the photo quality - not my forte).
After a short session in which we added a few fish to the esky we set off for the main event, the prawn hunt. We checked the pots on the way and there were muddies there, but no legals. So we were hopeful that a longer soak would yield some mouth watering monsters. Prawning without a sounder was always going to be a challenge, but we gave it a red hot crack. I pretended that my casting ability was inferior to the Dentist, so I was able to sit back and marvel as he threw cast after cast - some pancakes, a few figure eights, and I think there was even a trapezoid in there at one stage. We muscled in on a number of prawning scrums (presumably they all had working sounders) from Karragarra Island to Macleay Island and Redland Bay, but not a single prawn was sighted. No one else seemed to be getting any so I couldn’t even blame the Dentist’s casting ability. 
After what seemed like days but was only a few hours we decided to give up on the prawns and  check the pots. No keepers so dropped them in spot B while we had a final crack at the fish. We added a few more whiting to the esky then picked up the empty pots and headed back to the ramp about 2 pm. 
Not the seafood basket we were hoping for, but still a nice feed of whiting (and one prawn that was ironically caught in a crab pot) and a top day out. Lesson number one from the day is that we can only do two activities in one trip, three is too many. Lesson two is for me not to be so tight and replace the battery before it dies completely.  Coincidentally the local German supermarket had 100ah deep cycle batteries for $229 so I grabbed one of those today and will go prawning again soon.
Thanks for reading
 

Good luck. Be interested how the fishing is after all the rain.

Yeah that's Rob this was an upgrade on our usual camp facilities

To reply to all those comments.. The shorts even saw a Test match at the Gabba in the 80s..It did taste not to bad ,succulent white flesh similar to a Ling or other Cod like species..When I hooked this fella it did not put up a fight at all as I thought I was dragging in a lump of weed. I know there are some of you elderly gents like me who have fished Whalleys gutter, that's where I caught this bloke plus a couple of Grunter. I am on my way to the Well this weekend.Leaving from Behms creek and try for some flatties or Jacks..Buzzard  

purple and black spinnerbaits with gold blades. best colour combo in murky water or in low light in my opinion.

Not a regular capture but they certainly still exist.  Have caught several down around jacobs well / pin area over the years, as well as one near Mud Island and a few off the beaches at moreton.  Even had to jump out of the boat one day while trolling in about 50cm of water for flathead and dig one out of the sand with a paddle.  it had grabbed the lure and buried itself immediately about 20cm into the sand.  managed to get both the fish and my lure back.  best one came off the beach at moreton and weighed in at just over 2kg.
Comments around edibility are completely correct.  Beautiful delicate white flesh.  Surprisingly meaty fillet given the size of the head.

All the best for the recovery process Dino. Your other knees appears to have healed well.

@Luvit - I saw this topic and my first thought was 'that lucky bu99er hasn't been there again has he ..........' 🙂  Hope you're well mate.

Nice one Mark, looks a good spot and a bit of an upgrade to another island we may or may not have camped on previously ........ 🙂 Is that Rob (NoName) in the blue shirt?

Hey tugger
Thanks for that
Cheers hamish 🙂 

Not free but reasonable price call 55773932 to book

Hey tugger
Alright, that sounds better. Do the campsites cost much or are they free/public use?
Cheers Hamish

Hey Luvit
I'd be excited to see the bow waves, they are incredible just watching online/video, I can't imagine what it would be like in real life.
I have mainly chosen these lures for flathead, and possibly jacks since I won't be chasing barra any time soon (unless I get a famous Brisbane River Barramundi 😉) 
Cheers Hamish 🙂 

Hey Luvit
I'd be excited to see the bow waves, they are incredible just watching online/video, I can't imagine what it would be like in real life.
I have mainly chosen these lures for flathead, and possibly jacks since I won't be chasing barra any time soon (unless I get a famous Brisbane River Barramundi 😉) 
Cheers Hamish 🙂 

All good colour choices,  Hamish.
I tried up loading a video of a Barra bow wave as it chases down a 6" paddle before smashing at my feet then doing some tail walking before I land it. It failed to upload I'll try again later.

Hi Luvit
That is a real solid fish, I have a friend who fishes in Bowen for a trip occasionally (mainly his Grandfather though).
I must get around to getting some gobblers too, I reckon the Hardy Head, Aged Copper and Red Pepper would do the trick for me 🙂 
Cheers Hamish

Redfin are very cannibalistic and we use to touch small Rapala's with red nail polish for the fins. 
Black & Gold is a good combination in dirty water for the silhouette, gold sparkle seems to work better than silver in dirty water. Looking at most spinner baits for cod they are gold because of this exact reason.
They are very aggressive feeders and nail just about anything. 
 

This was sent into me yesterday by AFO member Shane Ovington who is in Bowen QLD.  
He said they got many around the 70 cm mark. I was grateful he took the time to photograph one for us. Solid fish.

Hyper Bubblegum 4" paddle did the trick.

Never caught a redfin before as they don't swim up this way, but I do fish in some pretty dirty water the colour of milky tea. I'd be tempted to use something like a black curly tail grub on a jig spinner. Black to make a strong silhouette in the dirty water and the jig spinner to create strong vibrations and flash from the metal blade. 
If I was wanting to use a hard bodied lure I'd also go for black.

They are classed as a pest but the best fun to catch and eat. The bigger ones eat the small ones. They lay their eggs on weed it’s unpalatable  to trout that’s why they get such a go on

You can only reach it by boat so I don't think it gets to busy 

You could match worms and grasshoppers with plastics. Also frogs and cicadas. 
There would be some sort of bait fish in there. Maybe smaller redfin, freshwater gar, prawns, shrimp. 
 
 
I've never fished for them but I imagine they'd be similar to bass. 
 
 
Are they considered a noxious pest? 
I can't find anything that says they have to be destroyed. Can see they are classed as an introduced pest but that is all. 
 

Yeah I use worms and grasshoppers or what ever is about at the time just like catching them with plastics hardbodies and spinners. It’s more fun. 

Go a dark purple or black when the water isn't clear.