AUS-BNE-FISHO

Trev 26.5cm
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNZg3pijBjwQGyGZCu5K5t_C9VillVOhVsjALmyOfIHF9KCGXZ-LCN_adCwq4BjJw/photo/AF1QipNEq-WfLnF_3scwcJqEf81B0ebp7Txq0xMWf5mL?key=Mm1JY0RtVXZ5Z0JCc1MySV9ZTDR4Y0hjQThJaFpR
 

Headed out with Steve ( @Old Scaley ) this morning. The plan was to take a window in the weather and fish the Rous early and head back to Green Island around 10. The weather didn't play ball and it was fairly rough as we approached my mark, so the call was made and we headed back to Green, hopeful of a few grassies and maybe a squire or two.
Things were quiet to start, as the tide was on the verge of turning. A couple of small grassies and tuskies were landed by Steve and a couple of tiny squire pestered me. I threw the bait jig over to see if there was any about and landed this little trev -
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNZg3pijBjwQGyGZCu5K5t_C9VillVOhVsjALmyOfIHF9KCGXZ-LCN_adCwq4BjJw/photo/AF1QipP-MD0uT7V7np4H_nVKx5JVJFYWh0acOu-T29xk?key=Mm1JY0RtVXZ5Z0JCc1MySV9ZTDR4Y0hjQThJaFpR
One for the comp. haha
The tide eventually changed and the grassies came on the chew. They took a liking to cuttlefish as well as some flesh baits from grinners and whiptails. We threw a couple of just legals back, but managed to score 8 in the low to mid thirties. A couple of good feeds coming up.
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNZg3pijBjwQGyGZCu5K5t_C9VillVOhVsjALmyOfIHF9KCGXZ-LCN_adCwq4BjJw/photo/AF1QipMzGUDIKX7esyr1uKg1BLZKkX9JDJTkCC3hinHW?key=Mm1JY0RtVXZ5Z0JCc1MySV9ZTDR4Y0hjQThJaFpR
Also caught a bream for the comp, but failed to measure the shark that started my score for the day. It was only around 70cm, and took a pillie under a float.
Breambo -
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipNZg3pijBjwQGyGZCu5K5t_C9VillVOhVsjALmyOfIHF9KCGXZ-LCN_adCwq4BjJw/photo/AF1QipNEq-WfLnF_3scwcJqEf81B0ebp7Txq0xMWf5mL?key=Mm1JY0RtVXZ5Z0JCc1MySV9ZTDR4Y0hjQThJaFpR
 
Looks like it'll be a while before we can get out again, unfortunately.
 
Apologies to those who returned to work or school today. We weren't thinking about you. haha

Running a tally for 2024

Fishing: 1
Surfing: 0
Got a couple of fish in the shallows on the weekend with my bro. Nothing to write home about but good to get out nonetheless - last trip was early november. All on light gear and plastics. Aiming for a surf soon but not sure when with this whirlygig spinning around up north!

So back in the day I used to fish land based under Boyd's Bay Bridge (on the southside). Bream / Flathead / Trevally and Tailor (during winter)
Caveat being we only fished at night and with live or freshly caught dead bait (herring). Never fished there during the day and never had much success with frozen bait around there.
Collecting baits was a bit of a mission as you can't use cast nets in NSW. So on our way down we would collect bait from some of the Gold Coast canals in preparation for a nights fishing.
Current can get strong there so targeting turn of the tide and slowly floating / drifting lightly weighted baits with the current is key. Keep your bait looking natural and moving and not anchored to down with a heavy sinker.
We were cheapskates back in the day as students, but if it was worth a drive from Brisbane and worth the fishing permit that should tell you there is fish there.
That spot under the bridge we have had some awesome trevally sessions. Where you hear them bust up, throw out a popper and hold on.

fish on sunrise or dusk around the end of the rock walls (either side of the river) and spin with 40g - 60g metal lures on 15-20lb line.  i like the halco twisties as they have a bit more of an erratic action but any of them will work.  good chance of picking up tailor and trevally.  get yourself onto the lowest safe rock you can and cast towards areas of whitewater or where there is a clear deeper section.  let the lure sink down a good way and start an erratic retrieve slow/fast wind, stop, crank etc.  hopefully you'll pick something up - just remember to keep an eye on the surf/swell.

Just sounded up the structure, although got it marked pretty well.  Didnt bother spot locking on it as it was a really gentle drift.
All I know is that the smoker gave me zero chance, I had the rod fully loaded and plenty of drag one the Saragossa 6000 and I made about 3 metres before it decided that the structure was more attractive than coming up and looking at me.  Very similar take to the slatey.  My 40lb leader came up with all the signs of loosing a fight with structure 🤣
I did have the Livescope down for a while and nothing was reacting to artificials so threw down a dirty old bit of squid on a 7/0.  
That north side of Moreton was crazy alive with bait fish but only one small bust up of tuna once and nothing else.  There was something hanging around on the surface - there was a floating stick and initially I thought dolphin fish but they were just sitting fin out and almost stationary.  Only saw one close enough to say it wasnt a pelagic as it was a large flat sided looking fish.  Not sure if anyone else has experienced this, we guessed bat fish or something like that.

Taylor are a category.
Sounds like a tough day at the office. A 30cm flattie would see 3rd place at this stage.

Well i did 11 hours on the Bris River today.....only legal fish encountered were tailor up to about 55cm....wasting perfectly good live baits for jew.
Plenty of squire and small grunter about smashing plastics but none a suitable size for the esky.
Unusually the only flathead encounter was in the cast net.....all 30cm of him.
I concewntrated on the reefs in the river and avoided the wharves today.

Two more for team south Snapper 745mm and Spangled Emperor 550mm

 

 

A bit rough out there today and so was my photography.
3 grassies - 40.5, 39 & 38
1 slatey…they arent in the comp from memory…66cm.  Got bricked by its daddy one drift earlier….absolutely smoked me.
https://photos.google.com/u/1/share/AF1QipNZg3pijBjwQGyGZCu5K5t_C9VillVOhVsjALmyOfIHF9KCGXZ-LCN_adCwq4BjJw/photo/AF1QipNOxdi9aHHq1U1r0Rxi13bsnR71VjcE4Y4ellXW?key=Mm1JY0RtVXZ5Z0JCc1MySV9ZTDR4Y0hjQThJaFpR

Flathead 620mm, Bream 310mm,Cod 320mm, Grassys 390mm 370mm,380mm School Mac 720mm Spanish Mac 2x 1100mm
For Team South.
Regards
Neil





FF

Sounds like a successful mission, if that mission was to find the fish, @Wayne-o . Gotta be happy with a metre plus Spaniard in the esky.
I think the reef fishes ok all year. Bummer the light gear was inadequate, but more knowledge for next time.
Thanks for reporting back. Will you go again before the holiday ends ?

@mangajack@ellicat
so grabbed two halo laser pros, 1.5m and 6m. Crossed the bar at sun up (with 15 other boats!). Trolled around the sunshine reefs for an hour before we got our first hit…a 1m+ spaniard on the shallow lure. We had 2 more hits after this, one bit straight through my new deep lure wire trace….($20 swiftly gone!) and the second seemed to let the shallow lure go before I could jag it. Bit of newbie to this type of fishing but still got a feed. The little bloke hooked a couple of monsters bottom bashing with cut pillies over the reefs….the rigs broke before we could get them up to the boat. Are there big reefies to be had at sunshine reef this time of year?? Our bottom bashing gear seemed like it was way too light. Didn’t look like a shark.
thanks for the help and advice guys!
wayne-o

Ideally up Karumba way... 
Minimum 6kg baitcaster or 7kg spin, or both. 😜
 
Never really into fly but I reckon you'll have fun on the smaller barra and you may also get a few jacks as well. 
 
 

Hey all, 
I am moving over to Aus in a few months from NZ. My current setup was targeted to Trout so I am running an Abu Garcia Veritas 5pc Travel Rod 2-5kg  5-17g and for fly fishing I have an Orvis Encounter 9' 6wt. 
We will be spending a few months in Karumba (so boat fishing using other rods) but then we will be taking some time to travel across the top of Aus then down the West Coast before settling in Perth. 
Just wanting to know if this setup will be ideal in Perth for freshwater species or if i need something beefier? 
Cheers,
Jess

Suitable for some of the bread and butter fish....bream, flathead jacks etc.
You will need to double the line class for some of the larger fish over there.

Good stuff Rebel. Rock fishing is always nice and some extra fish make it even better.

Great photos @benno573! 

Yes seen the same.  Has anyone tried it for comparison?
I should hit my nephew up for a few tuna recipes.  He is head chef at an upmarket Melbourne venue and they have been doing a heap of tuna lately.  He was telling me last week they were buying some massive blue fin in for the current menu and the head alone was 35kg.

Around Brisbane there are quite a few dams loaded with australian bass and the like.  Rayke is the resident expert on them IMHO as he fished two of the dams every week.   I hope I am firing as well as him when I get to his age is all I can say.
Head about 4hrs west and south and you get into the dams stocked with murray cod - an absolute trophy fish and australias largest freshwater fish….by along way.  Just google them.  An absolute beautiful fish as well.  Only thing better is a wild murray cod and they are in all the western rivers from the QLD border down (some areas more than others).
Head about 4hrs north and you get barramundi (on steroids) as per Manga’s post.  Another hour from there is another dam also stocked with barra.  Barra in the dams get probably an easy twice as heavy as a wild barra.  Best we have gotten in Lake Misery (aka Monduran aka Fred Haig Dam) is 122cm and estimated at 30kg.  Only estimate because mate and I are not exactly weak and it was a tough lift.
The biggest thing you will have to adapt to when you come here is we treat 4 or 5 hr drives as around the corner….

pack a 6-10kg baitcater about 7' long and load it with some 50lb braid and 80lb leader....all visitors MUST report to Lake Monduran for a session.

In Wivenhoe Dam (Impoundment) species would include Australian bass, golden perch, silver perch, saratoga and a lot of silvertail catfish 

I thought not as I'd never seen anything similar there

Good stuff Rebel. Rock fishing is always nice and some extra fish make it even better.

Hi All.
Overcast & grey morning.
We didn't have our new recruit, so we headed for the rocks at sunrise.
Calm water which was good.
Started with a bonito. These fish like a fight. Tested my new Penn 6000 conflict reel. Works well.
We ended up with 4 snapper 42 to 48cm. We let the bonito go. Caught 3 of them. Also caught  2 tailor ( released )
Bait was fresh squid & Metal lures. I had a new lure a Nomad Ridgeback 40g. Tailor seem to like them.
Off to breakfast at the Norah Head coffee shop.
Top morning. Lots of laughs. These teenagers are really into rock fishing, even if their Mother's do not approve.
Cheers.