Kat

Looks like a bit of fun Neil - and I would be happy with one whiting lol.  Our last two trips for whiting were an absolute bust.  Fingers crossed for tomorrow morning.
How big was the biggest whiting?

Got slammed by sandflies the moment I got out of the car at the ramp 🤣.  Didn't see your post till now.  Had repellant so all good once the initial itching faded.
Went up Coombabah creek first, pumped some yabbies first up and quickly realised there had been a fair amount of rain day before.  Too fresh - don't think we got any bites.  Made the decision to chase the salt water so left quickly to fish near the bar at jumpinpin - only caught the last hour or so of the run in.  Caught 5 whiting (only smallish), one small flattie and a couple of small Bream and angry little Tarwhine.  Once the tide turned there was nothing to be found anywhere.  Beautiful day on the water though. 
Better than being at work 😸

Got slammed by sandflies the moment I got out of the car at the ramp 🤣.  Didn't see your post till now.  Had repellant so all good once the initial itching faded.
Went up Coombabah creek first, pumped some yabbies first up and quickly realised there had been a fair amount of rain day before.  Too fresh - don't think we got any bites.  Made the decision to chase the salt water so left quickly to fish near the bar at jumpinpin - only caught the last hour or so of the run in.  Caught 5 whiting (only smallish), one small flattie and a couple of small Bream and angry little Tarwhine.  Once the tide turned there was nothing to be found anywhere.  Beautiful day on the water though. 
Better than being at work 😸

Got slammed by sandflies the moment I got out of the car at the ramp 🤣.  Didn't see your post till now.  Had repellant so all good once the initial itching faded.
Went up Coombabah creek first, pumped some yabbies first up and quickly realised there had been a fair amount of rain day before.  Too fresh - don't think we got any bites.  Made the decision to chase the salt water so left quickly to fish near the bar at jumpinpin - only caught the last hour or so of the run in.  Caught 5 whiting (only smallish), one small flattie and a couple of small Bream and angry little Tarwhine.  Once the tide turned there was nothing to be found anywhere.  Beautiful day on the water though. 
Better than being at work 😸

Awesome - great size to them then. Hopefully I can get a couple of 40 + tomorrow morning 🤣

Looks like a bit of fun Neil - and I would be happy with one whiting lol.  Our last two trips for whiting were an absolute bust.  Fingers crossed for tomorrow morning.
How big was the biggest whiting?

Good to see you getting all the donuts out of the way before the Suburbs of Origin kicks off. 😀. We need to team up in January for a no bait session targeting jacks on that rock wall. Might be another donut but would be fun. 

Hi all,
Thought I would chuck up a report about my last few unsuccessful fishing trips in the Brissy River. The first session was a couple of Mondays ago, at a local jetty. I arrived at about 5 and got a bit of bait together, but the bite was slow to begin with. Fishing the low tide change, I was hopeful of a threadie, but unfortunately all I could manage was one pup bullie. It wasn't long until my mate came down, but the bite didn't seem to change. That was until he took a phone call, and a rather large fish picked up my live bony bream, swimming against the current before I set the hook. This increase in drag pressure didn't seem to phase what I assume was a rather large shark though, and it screamed off without stopped until the spool of my 5500 baitrunner reel was empty of all line. Bugger. No more bites were had after this. 
Stats:
Tide: 8:20AM, .6M, Low. 
Moon Phase: 63%
Bait Caught/Used
Fish Caught: Shark
Tackle Used: Okuma Coronado CDX 5500 on Silstar Crystal Powertip Rod, Shimano Baitrunner on Kmart rod, Shimano Stradic on Shimano Raider, Penn Live Liner on Ugly Stik. 30 and 15 pound braids, 50 pound/80 pound traces, size 6 ball or size 3 snapper sinkers. 6/o circle hooks and barrel swivels.
Air Pressure: 1008
Humidity: 80%
Overall Success Rate: 40% - hooked up to a big one at least
The next day I went fishing with @Thorbjorn Hale - the spot we went to initially had no bait so we went back to his usual spot, where there was still hardly any bait. I did manage two large mullet in a couple of casts which saved the session, so after we got them a couple of baits were lobbed out. Things started off slowly, with myself only catching one catty for the whole day, but Thorbjorn did hook up to two very large sharks, both of which jumped out (around 2 meters) but managed to get off before he could land them. We left at around 1ish, with no more fish coming in for the day. 
Stats:
Tide: 8:50AM, .9M, Low
Moon Phase: 54%
Bait Used/Caught: Mullet
Fish Caught: Catfish
Tackle Used: I used three 6000 baitrunners with 8 foot fibreglass rods, 30 pound braid, 50 pound trace, size 4 star sinkers, barrel swivels, 6/o circle hooks. 
Air Pressure: 1010
Humidity: 64%
Overall Success Rate: 40%
On Wednesday, I was back at that spot, with a heavy shark rod and a couple of live bait rods. First up, I sent out some mullet fillet, which brought an undersize grunter onto the jetty. Then, I caught a decent sized live mullet which I sent out on my shark rod, which seemed to remain untouched for quite a while. Thorbjorn arrived soon as well, and sent out some shark baits too. 
Eventually my mullet got some action, and upon undoing a tangle and checking my line it turned out I had a 52cm or so tailor on. This was cut into half and sent out as a bait, and it wasn't long before the pieces started getting munched up by pup bull sharks. Thorbjorn eventually landed one, a decent shark around the 80cm mark. Later in the session, he also sent out a herring, and after about two minutes of fishing he pulled in a very solid 95cm thready. Nice!
Stats:
Tide: 10:00AM, 1M, Low
Moon Phase: 44%
Bait Caught/Used: Mullet, tailor, herring
Fish Caught: I got grunter, tailor, Thorbjorn got shark, threadfin
Air Pressure: 1010
Humidity: 61%
Tackle Used: I used a Penn Spinfisher 8500 and 15-24KG Savage Gear Salt rod, Penn Liveliner on Uglystik, and Shimano Sedona on Abu Garcia Nexus. 50 pound trace or wire trace, size 4 star sinkers, 6/o circle hooks, barrel swivels. 
Overall Success Rate: 70% - a few bites. 
On Thursday, I was at the same spot again, trying for a big shark. Bait collecting was successful for once, with myself managing 6 big mullet in one cast, which was enough to fish for the whole day. Thorbjorn and I sent some pieces out on our shark rods, and strips out on our lighter rods. There isn't really much to say about the days fishing, apart from the fact I caught one pike eel and the bite was very slow. I headed off a bit after midday again to get to work, and got my gear ready to go fishing the next day. 
Stats:
Tide: 11:20AM, 1M, Low
Moon Phase: 35%
Bait Caught/Used: Mullet
Fish Caught: Pike eel
Air Pressure: 1011
Humidity: 69%
Tackle Used: I used a Penn Spinfisher 8500 and 15-24KG Savage Gear Salt rod, Penn Liveliner on Uglystik, and Shimano Sedona on Abu Garcia Nexus. 50 pound trace or wire trace, size 4 star sinkers, 6/o circle hooks, barrel swivels. 
Overall Success Rate: 20%
That Friday and Saturday, I was away camping at Mt Barney, which was good, but I didn't catch any fish in the small creek nearby our campsite. 
On Sunday, my Dad and I launched into a spot in the river we hadn't kayaked before. There was heaps of bait skipping around when we got there, but the first half an hour was pretty unsuccessful with no touches on our lures. A while after that, we decided to go and catch some livebait - about half a dozen prime size poddy mullet made their way into our cast net bucket, and we continued fishing lures now with an unweighted livie swimming out the back. This to was unsuccessful, and at about 9:00AM we headed off defeated with a big donut. 
Stats:
Tide: 9:50AM, 2.1M, High. 
Moon Phase: 10%
Air Pressure: 1010
Humidity: 71%
Tackle Used: Shimano Stradic and Raider, Shimano Curado and Cranx rod. 15 and 20 pound mainlines, 30 pound leaders. 
Bait/Lure Used: Zerek pyra, Atomic slim twitcher, soft vibes, live mullet
Fish Caught: - 
Overall Success Rate: 20%
On Monday, I was back fishing with Thorbjorn at his spot. I arrived a bit before seven to some rather dirty water, which was a bit of a surprise. This did mean I managed to catch a couple of bony bream in the cast net, and seeing as though I already had some spare this meant we had a decent amount of bait. Another fisho caught a stingray and catfish early up, but I only got off the donut with an eel and a toadfish later in the day. Around tide change I also caught two pup bull sharks, but unluckily didn't manage any bigger models. I headed off late in the arvo and got my stuff ready for fishing the next day.
Stats:
Tide: 8:45AM, 2.5M, High, 3:10PM, .7M, Low. 
Moon Phase: 5%
Bait Caught/Used: Live mullet, herring, prawns, bony bream
Fish Caught: Sharks, toadfish, eel
Air Pressure: 1010
Humidity: 59%
Tackle Used: I used a Penn Spinfisher 8500 and 15-24KG Savage Gear Salt rod, Penn Liveliner on Uglystik, and Shimano Sedona on Abu Garcia Nexus. 50 pound trace or wire trace, size 4 star sinkers, 6/o circle hooks, barrel swivels. 
Overall Success Rate: 30% - a couple of bites
On Tuesday I just went for a morning session at high tide at one of my local spots, targeting threadies and sharks. I got a bit of bait relatively quickly, although the bonies were a bit smaller than what I would've liked using. Despite this, I lobbed a mixture of baits out, and waited for a bite (which seemed non-existent). Eventually, I hooked up to something - a fat catty. At around 10AM I headed home feeling a bit defeated with the complete lack of fish. 😞 
Stats:
Tide: 10:00AM, 2.3M, High
Moon Phase: 1%
Bait Caught/Used: Live bony bream and poddy mullet
Fish Caught: Catfish
Air Pressure: 1011
Humidity: 59%
Overall Success Rate: 10%
The next day, I was lucky enough to be able to go out in Thorbjorn's boat. We launched at Jindalee, and gathered some livies for the first bit of the fishing session. It wasn't long before we had a few bony bream and mullet, and we were anchored at the first spot. Here, Thorbjorn caught a shark before it went a bit quiet around high tide change, so we went up and tried two different spots. These were unsuccessful, so we went down to the Jindalee Bridge, where Thorbjorn caught another shark. 
A while later we were back at the starting spot. Here, I caught two sharks and we also had a few more missed bites. Overall, it was a great day fishing, thanks again for taking me out on the boat @Thorbjorn Hale. 
Stats:
Tide: 11:00AM, 2.4M, High. 
Moon Phase: New Moon
Bait Caught/Used: Live mullet and bony bream
Fish Caught: Sharks x 4, Catfish x 2
Air Pressure: 1010
Humidity: 67%
Overall Success Rate: 60% - fun boat day
On Thursday, I was fishing with a mate from school at a spot I hadn't been to in a while. Upon arriving, it took us about half an hour to get a few livies, but after that we were fishing. It was only five minutes before the first bait got something alright on it. My mate took the rod, but to my disappointment (he was still pretty excited), a rather large pike eel surfaced. It got tangled in my dilly quite badly, so I decided to keep it for shark bait. After that, the fishing only got worse, and we landed several small catties and another eel before calling it quits in the arvo. 
Stats:
Tide: 11:00AM, 2.4M, High
Moon Phase: 2%
Bait Caught/Used: Live mullet, bony bream, anchovies, ponyfish
Fish Caught: Pike eels and catties
Air Pressure: 1007
Humidity: 85%
Overall Success Rate: 50% - no donut
On Friday I was back at one of my local spots, seeing if I could get a more desirable fish (answer, no I couldn't). I got a nice size school of poddies at the top of the jetty walkway, and decided that would be my bait for the day. It wasn't long before I was also on the first shark of the day, and then another one which jumped out, and then a third one. The bite went a bit quiet as the rising tide really started to rip in, so I called it quits after that and rode my bike home at about 11:00AM. 
Stats:
Tide: 5:30AM, .2M, Low. 
Moon Phase: 6.3%
Bait Caught/Used: Live mullet
Air Pressure: 1003
Humidity: 72%
Fish Caught: Sharks
Overall Success Rate: 30% - no donut
Not being able to catch anything in the salt, my Dad and I decided to go bass fishing on Saturday morning. We got up nice and early and arrived at the spot a bit after first light, greeted with a very muddy track. We slid through spider webs and on the mud but eventually made it down to the first spot, where I got snagged but overcasting twice (not awake) but retrieved my lure, before my Dad and I moved on to a different spot. Here, my Dad got a decent bass first cast, and I got two in the next few minutes, but then the surface bite died down a bit (bass were around 30-40cm). We continued with surface for a while longer, before I switched to a Duo Shad and proceeded to catch 4 bass up to about 40cm, including one of which I caught on the way back of swimming out to get my lure from a snag. 
Biggest thanks goes to my Dad for swimming into over head high water to retrieve my Cicada after I did a dodgy cast. 
Stats:
Tide: Low
Moon Phase: 13%
Lures Used: Cicadas and Duo Shad
Air Pressure: 1002
Humidity: 82%
Overall Success Rate: 60% - got a few bass
The last session of this report was yesterday, at a local jetty again. I got there a bit after 5:30AM, and although bait was slow I still managed to get a few livies together. I hooked up onto the first shark of the day, but it snipped through my 30 pound leader, and then my mate got two, one of which bit him off as it got close to the jetty. Later in the session, as the tide changed, a got a 55cm or so catty on a 20cm mullet, which was surprising, and then called it quits at about 11. Overall, it was another pretty average session.
Stats:
Tide: 6:15AM, .2M, Low
Moon Phase: 22%
Bait Caught/Used: Live bony bream and mullet
Fish Caught: Sharks, catfish
Air Pressure: Moderate-high
Humidity: Moderate
Overall Success Rate: 20%
Thanks for reading, sorry for the long and unsuccessful report, hopefully I'll catch something this week. Gave it a break today for the first time this holidays but will go and try and catch an eel this arvo. 
Cheers Hamish. 

I'm in for Southside!

Awesome - great size to them then. Hopefully I can get a couple of 40 + tomorrow morning 🤣

Dug some wriggler worms on Tuesday afternoon , it was hot , and unfortunately for me ,the beach was covered in 6 inches of weed where I wanted to dig ,forcing me  to rake it off in order to get at the worms. Ended up getting enough  worms in about half an hour for a quick fish .
Headed down to the Pin on Thursday morning and fished the run up King Tide .
The fish were there but not in numbers I like ,but the quality of the whiting was excellent so I wasn’t complaining  .Also scored a lone Grunter which was a disappointment as I thought it was going to be a huge whiting . I tried to post a couple of photos in the usual way , but they still  don’t load .
Regards
Neil

Hi Legends!  
Last Friday afternoon Brett and I made a trip to the Gold Coast to fish Coombabah Creek.  The plan was to get there in time to pump yabbies, have a fish for some fat whiting, sleep on the boat the night (hoping the thunderstorm didn't eventuate!) and pick the kids up from the Coast in the morning and take them for a fish in the boat.
My fisho mate from Macleay had challenged me to a week-long whiting comp as he was staying in the Creek or the Coomera for the whole week.  Part of the reason for our trip.  We the previous Sunday from the bank and Tuesday afternoon/evening from the boat and it was almost dead – barely anything biting.  I think we might have caught one legal whiting combined both sessions.  With the view that the bite had to change sometime, we were hopeful it was going to be Friday night.  I phoned my mate on the way there, he asked if I was going past the bait shop.  He was supposed to be in the Coomera but had stayed because one of his mate's mates had bagged out on whiting that morning.  He asked me to pick him up some live blood worms – the story was that the blood worms were working and the yabbies weren’t.  I wasn't planning on spending money on bait but got worms for him and some for us.  We also pumped yabbies on arrival. 
We headed up to one of the more productive and well-known spots in the creek.  It wasn’t long before I had a fish on and landed a 33cm Spotted Grunter.  Released to the esky.  Brett got a legal Bream which I made him keep (sister likes Bream).  Over the next few hours Brett used yabbies and I used worms (while being accused of cheating on my beloved yabbies!).  It is hard to recall, but I think I got about 7 or 8 decent sized whiting, while Brett may have got 1.  It went quiet and we were both tired, so we headed down the creek to a spot where we got some nice fat whiting a couple of weeks ago.  This spot is rarely fished by other boats from my observations, it is out from the yabbie banks too far to cast from the land where I have fished numerous times but away from the channel.  We went to sleep pretty quickly. 
About 4am in the morning I was woken by another boat.  I sat up to see what was happening and they were going slowly down the channel looking for crab pots by the mangroves.  I strongly suspect that they were share farmers. I tried to get back to sleep for a while but eventually gave up about 5.15 am and put my line in the water – with one of the last worms– it should have been low tide well and truly, but it was still running out.  Brett started fishing shortly after me.  I hooked a decent whiting after about 15 minutes and was hopeful for more, but the bite was quite slow.  On this trip, for one of the first times, I was using the method that some of you legends had imparted to me – the rod in the holder facing straight down to the water or leaning on the back of the boat – with light drag – then when you see the rod bend – lift up gently etcetera.  That night I had to break the necks of almost all the whiting I had caught to retrieve my hook. 
Anyway – probably about 6am my line was being played with for quite a while, the rod tip bent a little, there was a short run and then nothing.  Eventually I thought I better check my bait and felt a little resistance, a few flaps and then gently lifted the rod out of the holder, I tightened the drag slightly and started winding in.  No resistance - thought I had missed the fish until the drag started peeling off and I could feel the weight, the fish did a few good runs with the drag even tighter – I called that it couldn’t be a whiting, too strong and heavy.  Brett said, while laughing, it is an elbow slapper. 
As I got the fish close to the boat I was both amazed and ecstatic – it was the biggest whiting I have ever laid eyes on.  I was scared I was going to lose it as I pulled it into the boat (didn’t even cross my mind to use the net as I was so excited).  I managed to get it safely into the boat and I still can’t believe how big it was  - measured 43cm on the brag mat (not 44 as in the photo).  Weighed 688 grams!
I am absolutely stoked – I could barely bring myself to fillet it and definitely didn’t break its neck at the time to retrieve my hook!
I went on to catch whiting all day but only a few at a time – 19 legal whiting in total – I think 15 were mine, 2 to Brett and 2 to Brett’s oldest.
Brett also switched to worms but could hardly land a fish all day.  I got quite a lot of very dirty looks.
I can only conclude the method works (Brett was generally holding his rod - fishing rod!).
A big thanks to everyone on AFO who has helped me achieve this – particularly @Daryl McPhee and @Neil Stratford for his PM last year on how to catch whiting.  If I have forgotten to mention anyone in particular please forgive me.
Can’t wait to try this again very very soon.
PICS:
 

Yeah we both need Catfish and Stingray to be added to have a chance of winning a category 

Yeah we both need Catfish and Stingray to be added to have a chance of winning a category 

Why not, will be away for the last half of the month.  Go hard early 

I'm in for the Northside. I might have to learn how to use the camera...
 

I’m in for the Southside 
Neil

That almost seems fair @ellicat. I know you’re a Southslider so at first I thought you must have been drinking. But then I remembered you’re a teetotaller, so now I’m confused.
i suppose the SOUTHSLIDERs will still have their dodgy measuring mats and doctored photos to fall back on. 

That’s all we’ll need.

Oh ****! 

I’m in for the Mighty Northsiders!

P.s to Northsiders - Sorry in advance for lowering the average.

I'm in for southside, although you might have to push it back till 2025 to ensure pic posting is sorted 🙄
 

Love it.  Nothing better than a days fishing and the freezer getting a top up!
Did you post pics straight to site or have to do a work around?
Cheers Kat

Love it.  Nothing better than a days fishing and the freezer getting a top up!
Did you post pics straight to site or have to do a work around?
Cheers Kat

Gotta give Northside a sliver of a chance don't you think?