ubnt

Hi all
I'll try and keep this short - this report will be about fishing the last week in the river. Now that I'm into holidays I've been making best use of my time, and although I haven't really done anything else - 6 sessions in 6 days is decent going. 
The first session I'll talk about was with @Thorbjorn Hale at one of our spots. We got the earliest ferry we could and started off by gathering bait on a jetty. Although it wasn't plentiful, we eventually got a decent amount of biddies and herring - enough to start fishing. It is also worth noting I caught a 25CM or so school mackerel in the net, which was a cool catch for the river (upstream of the Gateway Bridge). 

Mackerel
We eventually arrived at our spot, and deployed some livies. It was pretty quiet at first, but I netted a bunch more biddies, and also hooked the first fish of the day - a decent river tailor somewhere in the forties. Hopeful a few more of these would be getting around, baits were redeployed to the middle of the river.

Tailor
Sure enough, I hooked another slightly more formidable model, which I believe provided some aerobatics for us. If I remember correctly, this one was the largest of the day at 52CM, and was also released as we had just started fishing.

Largest
I got a few more baits in the cast net but after catching a copious amount of ponyfish in the net (if you don't know, these are one of the worst pests - they are slimy, spiky, garbage bait, school up, and get stuck in your net) I gave it a rest. This didn't stop the tailor, and I got my third and final fish for the day. This one was another forties model, and seeing as though Thorbjorn had some tags we decided to tag it. I'll be excited to hear if anyone ever catches it again. 

Last One
The bite went quiet now, and even though things were looking promising we could not really manage anymore fish. I was even fishing with some of the prawns I cast netted the other night which were getting no love at all. Around midday, Thorbjorn hooked up to something on his heavy rod. We were pleased to see a quality breambo surface, which was a nice capture for this spot.  

Thorb's Bream
I ended up staying until about 6:00PM (yes, I was desperate for a fish), but only caught one catfish on a ponyfish. The bait was really dead, and even though there were lights there were no prawns on dark. Here are the stats of the trip:
Stats: NH
Tide: 4:30AM, .7M, Low, 9:45AM, 1.9M, High, 3:43PM, .5M, Low
Moon Phase: New Moon
Bait Caught and Used: Silver biddies, herrings, ponyfish, prawns
Air Pressure: 1013
Humidity: 84%
Tackle Used: I used a Shimano Baitrunner DC on Kmart Rod, Okuma Coronado CDX on Silstar Crystal Powertip rod, Abu Garcia Nexus on Shimano Sedona 6000, each with 30 pound braid, 50 pound trace, a size four star sinker and a 6/o circle hook. Thorbjorn used similar weight rated Penn gear. 
Overall Success Rate: 60% - good to catch up with a mate and catch some fish
The next day was Monday, and my first real day of holidays. Charlie and I met up and decided to hit a spot we hadn't been to in a while. He did the report for this session, which is worth the read!  
Stats of Trip: BW
Tide: 10:30AM, 1.8M, High
Moon Phase: New Moon
Bait Caught and Used: Live herring
Fish Caught: 3 x Jewfish 
Air Pressure: 1011
Humidity: 61%
Tackle Used: I used a Shimano Baitrunner DC on Kmart Rod, Okuma Coronado CDX on Silstar Crystal Powertip rod, Abu Garcia Nexus on Shimano Sedona 6000, each with 30 pound braid, 50 pound trace, a size four star sinker and a 6/o circle hook. 
Notes: Good day for the jewies. I also got busted off by one because I was using 30 pound. 
Overall Success Rate: 90% - great day for the jewies, good to see Charlie got his first. 
On Tuesday, it was just me, so I went back to the spot the jewies had been caught the day before. The tide was gushing in, and I was the only one on the jetty when I got there. It wasn't long before I had a fair few herring in my bucket and was fishing, watching my rods like an eagle, brimming with anticipation.
An older fella came down for about an hour who I had a good chat with, but disappointingly, the only thing I managed was a couple catties. By about 10AM, things were looking grim. It definitely cheered me up to see Thorbjorn and Steve coming down on the jetty, who proceeded to get some herring and their lines out. I also met another nice fella named Mick. 
We were all fishing, and it was pretty crowded at this point. Despite the lines out, it was not meant to be, and it took ages before the first decent fish of the day was landed. Luckily, it was just what we needed, as bait was running low, and Thorbjorn had the perfect idea to strip bait his tailor for us. This resulted in a bunch of fish including catties, pike eels, and a small flounder for me. I left a little past three, and no one caught any big ones for the day. 
Stats: BW
Tide: 11:00AM, 1.8M, High
Moon Phase: New Moon
Bait Caught and Used: Live herring, tailor strips
Fish Caught: Flounder, catfish, pike eel
Air Pressure: 1012
Humidity: 47%
Tackle Used: I used a Shimano Baitrunner DC on Kmart Rod, Okuma Coronado CDX on Silstar Crystal Powertip rod, Abu Garcia Nexus on Shimano Sedona 6000, each with 30 pound braid, 30/50 pound trace, a size four star sinker and a 6/o circle hook. 
Overall Success Rate: 30% - still a fun day on the jetty
That Wednesday, Charlie and I hatched a plan to give a spot we hadn't tried for ages a crack. We were there before sunrise, and even though it was freezing, I got to cast netting. The first cast brought a rather large sea mullet, which we kept for bait, but after that I struggled to get livies to start fishing. By about 7:30AM, we were so cold (hands numb, feet numb, freezing cold) we were about to call it quits. Luckily, the sun came out and we started to feel better. 
When we did get our lines out, the bite was slow. The first set back of the day was when a Citycat hooked one of my lines, dumping my whole spool in a few seconds. Luckily I ran back from cast netting and cut it off before all my line was lost, and seeing as though I salvaged about 50 metres of line I locked my drag up and casted a bait back out there.
While netting, I caught a decent size flounder, which caught me by surprise. Small flatties have been a common catch recently and it seems these are getting thicker too - this one Charlie kept for a feed. Also, one of my rods had a big run while netting, but annoyingly it didn't hook up. 

Flounder
Eventually, I got a nice size school of poddy mullet and called it quits for the cast netting for the day. Charlie and I enjoyed ourselves while I made sure all the ferry drivers knew I had lines out, and sure enough about an hour later one of my lines was getting the tell tale jewie 'nibbles'. The first half of the fight was me just pulling in the dead weight, but before long, the vicious headshakes started. Then, it was onto the first run. The rod which hooked up was actually the rod which only had 50 metres of line left from the ferry, so the drag was locked up. This fish stripped line like it was nothing. Hopes were high - would we finally crack a monster from the river?
It wasn't meant to be. When we were mere seconds away from seeing the size of whatever fish was on the end of my line when it took one last bid for freedom right under the jetty, snipping my line off in seconds. Whatever it was, I hope my hook is out of it's mouth by now, and that I'll catch it again soon!
After that explosive bust off, the bite went quiet. We gave it until we ran out of livies but decided to call it quits by about 2:30PM. 
Stats: KP
Tide: 6:30AM, .6M, Low, 12:00PM, 1.6M, High, 5:40Pm, .4M, Low
Moon Phase: 8.5%, just off New Moon
Bait Caught and Used: Live mullet, winter whiting, silver biddies
Fish Caught: Zilch
Tackle Used: I used a Shimano Baitrunner DC on Kmart Rod, Okuma Coronado CDX on Silstar Crystal Powertip rod, Abu Garcia Nexus on Shimano Sedona 6000, each with 30 pound braid, 30/50 pound trace, a size four star sinker and a 6/o circle hook. Charlie also used similar gear. 
Air Pressure: 1016
Humidity: 64%
Notes: Need to fish heavier and be quicker with getting fish in when around structure. Live mullet and whiting best bait at this spot. 
Overall Success Rate: 50% - at least we had a bite
The next day, I decided to go back to this spot with some mates from school. They aren't serious fisherman, so the aim of the game was to pull in at least one nice fish and teach them the basics. We got there by 10:00AM and after catching a few livebaits, we were set to start fishing.
The bite was slow, but to sum up a pretty relaxed day I ended up pulling in one squire. I noticed a large amount of slack line, and thinking a fish had taken the bait and swam up current I wound in and discretely struck. That's how I ended up getting in a 43CM squire without anyone noticing 😉. Also, I ended up keeping this guy for a feed for once.  

Squire
Stats: KP
Tide: 12:15PM, 1.6M, High
Moon Phase: 15%
Bait Caught and Used: Mullet, winter whiting, silver biddies
Fish Caught: Squire x 1
Tackle Used: I used a Shimano Baitrunner DC on Kmart Rod, Okuma Coronado CDX on Silstar Crystal Powertip rod, Abu Garcia Nexus on Shimano Sedona 6000, each with 30 pound braid, 30/50 pound trace, a size four star sinker and a 6/o circle hook
Air Pressure: 1015
Humidity: 74%
Overall Success Rate: 80% - fun day with the boys
Anyways, the final session of this report was another solo one. It was back at the same spot as the previous two sessions, and I decided to sleep in a bit so ended up getting the 7:24AM train. I was there by about 8:45AM though, but to my disgust, some grubs had been there the last night and left so much mud all throughout the walkway you castnet off it would have been wrong not to spend half an hour cleaning it up. 
After I had done that, I got some bait of my own. It was slow going at first, but I eventually got some solid mullet - about half a dozen. It was looking like it was going to rain, but luckily the storm cell avoided me. The river was really busy though, and with some nearby bridge construction, regular ferry services, and prawn trawlers going back and forth, it was very hectic. It is worth noting the prawn trawlers were killing it, doing multiple runs and getting what looked like a great amount of prawns and minimal bycatch in their nets. If you're buying Moreton Bay prawns at the moment, I'd say there's a good chance they're coming from upstream of the Story Bridge. 
Personally, although it may make the quantity of bites go away, I think a lot of large boats stirring up the river also stirs up the bite for predators. It was quiet at first though, and after about an hour and a half of fishing and dodging boats, an absolutely massive barge came through. It was powered by a couple of tugboats (Pt. Mary and a couple others, I think), and just about took up the whole river. I am unsure what it was for, but I wound in my lines and casted out shortly after it passed.
Another hour or two ticked by, and having eaten my only food early on I was feeling hungry. Luckily, a fish finally was too, and I saw my rod getting tell tale bites. I let the fish eat for a minute, before putting the reel in gear and checking if I was on. Sure enough, the weight of a decent fish loaded up my line, and I started cranking it in. A few seconds into the fight, the headshakes started. Drag clicked off, and I made my best effort to keep tension.
Then, the fish woke up. The reel screamed into life, with line flying off like a rocket. I continued to fight the fish though, and as it got closer I realized it was pretty much identical to the fight of the big bust off a couple days ago. Anticipation was higher than ever, and with a big crowd watching me now the pressure was on. As the fish got closer to the pylons I held the spool to slow him down, and boy, was I stoked when I saw the silver scales of a 88CM Brissy River Jewfish surface. 

Happy days!
The dilly was lowered down into the river, and after a few gut wrenching moments he was on the jetty. High fives were had all round, and although I tried venting and swimming him for a while he wasn't interested in swimming off so unfortunately I had to keep it. I bled the fish on the jetty and bagged him up, ready to go straight home on the ferry and train. I made sure to clean the jetty down before heading home, where I filleted the fish. It wasn't the best filleting job ever but I got two nice fillets off, so I hope it tastes nice. I was going to put some crab pots in tonight/go prawning but was far too knackered so just chucked all my old fish frames away and packed/cleaned up my gear for the week.
Stats of Trip: KP
Tide: 7:40AM, .6M, Low, 1:15Pm, 1.6M, High
Moon Phase: 22.3%
Bait Caught and Used: Live mullet, silver biddies, whiting
Fish Caught: Jewfish x 1
Air Pressure: 1009
Humidity: 87%
Tackle Used:  I used a Shimano Baitrunner DC on Kmart Rod, Okuma Coronado CDX on Silstar Crystal Powertip rod, Abu Garcia Nexus on Shimano Sedona 6000, each with 30 pound braid, 30/50 pound trace, a size four star sinker and a 6/o circle hook
Overall Success Rate: 100% - target species acquired
Thanks for reading if you've made it this far. I hope you enjoyed the report. I won't be fishing over the next couple of days as I'm getting ready for a trip to Yeppoon, where I'll hopefully be able to get some landbased flatties, trevs, and mackerel. A couple things I've noticed about the jew fishing are (as I realize I've encountered a few in these sessions, but been busted off) that they seem to bite best on lively live baits with a long trace around high tide change. Hopefully this will be the first of many jewies I catch in the river, not the first and last...
Cheers Hamish 🙂 

Hi everyone. 
This report is a little late but I just haven't had time to write it up.
@AUS-BNE-FISHO and I took the early train and ferry trip out to one of our spots on the river, and to our surprise we came across one of Hamish's other fishing mates.
They were there before we were, and had caught a good sized tailor, about 50cm. (apologies for the grainy photo, it wasn't mine)

Hamish started cast netting and I jigged for herring with a sabiki and eventually we had plenty of good livies. 
We sent our rods out and waited patiently.
I don't remember everything that happened exactly but I believe Hamish's mate hooked up to a catty, little squire, and nice sized bream.
It was quiet for a bit and then again, the other fella's rod had a big take - he was hooked up to a nice Jewie.
After a fun little fight the fish was netted nicely and was soon on deck - an 86cm Jewie:
 

We must've encountered a nice school of them, because within the next few minutes his other rod went off - the Herring were proving to be good baits.
Now here is where it becomes debatable whether it was MY fish or not 😅, because he had started the fight but offered to give the rod to me (This would have been my first "big one" since starting fishing, so without doubt I took up his offer, haha.)
 
A nerve racking fight ensued but we got the fish in no issues. I couldn't have been happier because we've have spent countless sessions on the river hunting down a thread or jew and were finally rewarded. 
Although not even legal, 74cm, I was still stoked with the fish:

 
Things calmed down after we got the photos and released the fish. 
It was perhaps an hour or two later that I had left to go get Hamish and I a drink from the nearby shop, when I came back surprised to the other guys cleaning a second 86cm jewie!
It was a lucky day for them - I think they salvaged about 8kg of fillets to share between the 4 of them. 
 
Overall, it was a productive session with plenty of nice fish caught.
Apologies for not having all the tide and moon stats, etc, that @AUS-BNE-FISHO would generally include in a report. 
I decided to write this one as he already has a fair few to write himself. 
 
Thanks, 
Charlie. 
 

Hi All, it's been a while since my last post so I thought I'd chuck one up. As others have mentioned, it wasn't a bad morning today, so I quickly decided to feel unwell and head out for a fish. With all the talk of squid lately i thought id have a crack at a couple myself. Although I didn't launch till 7.30 and was back at the ramp just after 10. I managed to pick up a dozen squid of various sizes.

Hi all
Yesterday was my first day of school holidays so I decided to start it off right by going fishing. After meeting Charlie on the early train we were at our spot a bit after half past six. Lines were rigged and the cast net was thrown in anticipation - annoyingly there wasn't much herring around so we had to settle for a mix of silver biddies and glassies. There wasn't much action for the last part of the rise (which is normally best at this spot), but during the tide change I did pull in a legal sandy on the line. Shortly after, my baitrunner had an inquiry which resulted in me getting reefed in a snag. Bugger.
As the tide changed, we still struggled for catching bait, and we couldn't manage any fish. Another fella pulled up an alright flatty while casting near the bank, but no one was catching many fish. Despite this, we persisted later into the day, and Charlie flicked a lure around to no avail.  At about midday, Charlie headed home. I kept fishing for a couple more hours, and in that time I didn't catch any fish, but did pull up a probably legal muddy on the line, but it dropped off before I could get it onto the jetty. I think I'll have to try dropping some crabpots around here soon! At about 1:30PM, I headed home disappointed about the lack of success from the first trip of the holidays. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get some. Other noteworthy things were casting out a biddy and the hook coming back with a bait sized winter whiting on it and a tailor following my bait to the surface (no hookup). 
Stats of Trip: B
Tide: 8:20Am, 2M, High, 2:30PM, .4M, Low
Moon Phase: New Moon
Bait Caught: Not much
Bait Used: Live biddies, glassies, herring
Fish Caught: Zilch
Tackle Used: Shimano Baitrunner DC 8000 on Kmart Rod, Okuma Coronado CDX on Silstar Crystal Powertip Rod, Abu Garcia Nexus on Shimano Sedona 6000, 30 pound braid, 50 pound trace, size four star sinkers, 6/o circle hooks. 
Humidity: 63%
Air Pressure: 1014
Overall Success Rate: 30% - got a couple crabs
That night, I felt like going for another fish, and after a bit of convincing my Dad and I headed to one of the spots I frequent to chase some prawns and fish. We were going for the high tide change, and sure enough, it was pretty busy and there were lots of prawns around. We probably got there a bit late, but after getting some herring/prawn baits out we focused on the netting. They had started to slow with the tide, so we were only getting 1-2 a cast, but most were decent size. 
Apart from a catfish, there weren't many fish getting around, and my Dad and I were taking turns throwing the nets/watching the rods. By about 9:30 (started at 8:00PM), we had managed about 1.5KG's of prawns, with a few big redlegs in amongst them. I gave a few to Charlie and hopefully will get out again casting later this week. Someone else had a big run/bustoff but it was pretty quiet on the lines for me.
Stats of Trip: KP
Tide: High at about 9:00PM. 
Moon Phase: New Moon
Bait Caught and Used: Herring, prawns, winter whiting, mullet
Fish Caught: Catfish 
Tackle Used: Shimano Baitrunner DC 8000 on Kmart Rod, Okuma Coronado CDX on Silstar Crystal Powertip Rod, Abu Garcia Nexus on Shimano Sedona 6000, 30 pound braid, 50 pound trace, size four star sinkers, 6/o circle hooks. 
Humidity: 53%
Air Pressure: 1012
Overall Success Rate: 40% - got a couple prawns
Anyways, thanks for reading. I couldn't go fishing today but hopefully will get out everyday next week and catch a few. 
Cheers Hamish
 

Hi Hamish, I’ve caught Spanish mackerel on all sorts of things.They are one of my favourite fish to catch.I was very lucky that a very successfully pro mackerel fisherman at 1770 shared his knowledge with me when I was young like you.
Both Wolf Herring , school mackerel I find quite good.A lot of pro fishermen use live  slimies and yakkas because they can get them cheap and easily  , some use gar on wog heads . Pike and even WA pilchards  , plus various different lures to name a few things , I’ve used them all with success. But for fishing between the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast I wouldn’t even bother going out if I didn’t take at least a dozen Bonito. The Qld government will soon reduced the bag limit to 1 per person or 2 per boat if you have crew  on board ,so now I’ll  only need to take about 6 baits. I’ve found that by far , the best species of Bonito are the “pretty boys”  (Watsons Leaping Bonito) . 
The bigger and fresher the bait the faster it will get hit. Don’t be afraid of a bait over 60cm long , spanish mackerel will eat that first almost every time. There are many aspects other than bait rigging that you need to know to catch a Spanish mackerel  - location , water quality ,what they look like on a sounder , time of year, tide, troll speed and direction ,are all very important to learn at different places . Believe it or not , a lot of people simply don’t even see a strike and wind in a bait severed a third of the way down , missing every hook . Even when you think you’ve mastered the art , then there’s the sharks to beat. 
regards
Neil

As promis
Rigging a bonito for Spanish Mackerel.mp4    
ed a couple of months ago , here's a video of how I  rig my troll baits for spanish mackerel.

Hello fellow fishers!
 
Just wanted to provide an brief update on a recent Brisbane river land based session we had.
Me and the mrs decided to head up to a land based spot for some prawns, which were in decent number (couple per cast).
Considering we were catching enough for a feed I decided to throw some larger models out as live bait.
 
Had two rods out, one was a distance cast to get as close to the channel and a closer cast (this also avoids tangling on my own line)
About half an hour before the change of tide my baitrunner started buzzing with sound, with a few LARGE tugs and rod tip stayed loaded.
Hooked onto what felt like a potentially medium-large mulloway or threadfin on the rod that was casted out further.
Managed to bring it pretty much to the pontoon and my line had snapped as I saw a touch of colour (however still unsure on what species).
 
I noticed that my 40 pound leader was frayed in a very odd manner.
It is hard to explain but the bottom 5-10 cms of my leader felt like it was sanded down and there was discoloration.
Anyways fixed up my line and cast out another live prawn.
 
On the tide change that beautiful sound of the drag started again however this time was a solid run.
Strike and the fight commenced, after a short period was able to bring a medium-large mulloway (either just legal or just under so not huge).
This is where things went horrible wrong, the hook was just pinned by the lip, concerned that the lift up to the pontoon would of ripped the lip.
Unfortunately didn't have a net on hand, one of the fellow fishers on the pontoon tried to assist in bringing up the jewfish on the pontoon.
This is when the mulloway decided to head dive down and go for another run before I could loosen my drag and the line snapped.
 
While the chaos was occurring my other rod also went for a small run, stopped however the rod tip was loaded.
Brought the other rod in to catch one of the biggest eels i personally had ever caught, would of been well and truly over a meter.
Released off to annoy another fisherman.

You win some you lose some, only makes me hungrier for another Brisbane river mulloway.
Still went home with almost 2 kilos of prawns, so happy days!
 
Date: 12 June 2023
Tide times: Just after top of tide
Moon phase: Third quarter
Bait: Live prawn
Species caught: Mulloway
Size: 70-75cms (was unable to measure as line snapper while trying to bring it onto the pontoon)
Barometric pressure: 1020.24
Rods: Penn Prevail II 10 ft and 9'6 ft
Reels: Shimano Baitrunner 6000 and Penn Live Liner 6500
Line: 30 pound braid
Leader: 40 pound
Hooks: 4/0 live bait hooks
Sinker: 60-70 gram star sinker on slider.
 
 

Decided to fish the southern bay this morning . Didn’t put the boat in till about 6.30am and knew with a low tide at about 7am it was going to be a struggle. On top of that conditions  were glassy as ,with very clear water ,which always makes fishing in the shallows  difficult.Anyway it was better than watching the grass grow.
Got about a dozen under sized  snapper first up and lost a very good fish that found a snag and broke me off . Ended up getting one snapper  that went 54cm , a couple of flathead,  a sole and a crab that when added up , put together a nice little feed.

Fished the southern bay again  . Put the boat in at 2.30pm
Beautiful afternoon on the water, the bay was like a mirror.. Probably too good as the water was crystal clear. We need a bit of rain to put some colour back in it.
Fished with soft plastics , but had to sort through a lot of underside fish to get a feed ,but finally got there. 
Pulled the boat out at 5pm . Left the fish on ice , and will fillet them tomorrow,when they harden up a bit.
Regards
Neil
 

Hi Guys,
Hit the Broadwater again on Saturday arvo on the top of the tide to chase some squid. Few boats at the first spot but nobody catching so moved after 20mions to a new spot.
2 on the first drift and hits or squid on each drift after.
Ended up with 6.
3 more dropped beside the boat by my slow to react deckie and about another 6 dropped during the retrieve.
Good steady session and lots of fun.
My salt & pepper squid stir fry was great. Left the lips numb and the eyeballs sweating.
 

Great way to spend a Saturday arvo. Did you run out of time, or did the squid go off the chew after a period of tide ?

You shouldn't be allowed to post pics like that, I'm drooling.😆
Good session mate.😀

Thanks Hamish for such a great report. 
Have you got any insight on the best time  for fishing for thready in Brisbane River considering your extensive experiences? Have you done any statistics research on your report? Cheers 

Thanks @ubnt. My favorite time for thready fishing in the river is at a tide change (high tide if possible). Ideally on a decent size tide around a full or new moon. I guess that's because the tide will be running hard so when it's tide change there will be a more active bite window. Live bait and I've switched up to 50 pound leader after getting busted off using 30 pound a bit much. If you can get livies you're in with a better chance and make sure you are casting out a good length.
I also prefer a medium-high air pressure and a medium humidity (ie as long as it's not too low or high), but this wouldn't stop me fishing. Some people prefer nighttimes but I prefer day, I still see plenty of fish caught at daytime instead of night. 
Obviously, it varies between spots but in general I would aim to fish a tide change, early morning or late arvo. 

Thanks Hamish for such a great report. 
Have you got any insight on the best time  for fishing for thready in Brisbane River considering your extensive experiences? Have you done any statistics research on your report? Cheers 

Thanks Hamish for such a great report. 
Have you got any insight on the best time  for fishing for thready in Brisbane River considering your extensive experiences? Have you done any statistics research on your report? Cheers 

Thanks Hamish for such a great report. 
Have you got any insight on the best time  for fishing for thready in Brisbane River considering your extensive experiences? Have you done any statistics research on your report? Cheers 

Hi all,
Last weekend I headed out for two sessions. One on Saturday morning fish with livies for threadfin and jew, and the other out with @TheCharliefisho targeting some creek catties. Both were successful enough, so I’ll start on Saturday.
@Cavvy decided he wanted to give me a lift (no, I convinced him) and after a decently early start we were at the chosen spot by 6:30AM. The sun hadn’t peaked up yet though, and it was still prime time for collecting bait and fishing. Dad had a few throws with the net before he started catching some, but it wasn’t long before he had a few mullet, biddies, and glassies. Satisfied with his efforts, he decided to head home and get back to bed. I sent three lines out and got back to netting, and unfortunately for him that was the wrong decision because it wasn’t long before I had a low forties squire on the jetty. I got the hook out and after a quick pic lowered him down in a bucket and swum him until he kicked off.
 
First Squire
The bite was pretty hectic for the next 45 minutes, and only seconds after my next bait (a couple small glassies and biddies on the same hook I think) I was on yet again. This fish put up a decent account for itself, and I was pleased to see my second squire for the morning, a just legal 35CM model. Once again, this guy went back, and despite a little bit of barotrauma kicked back down fine after I swum him for a minute. I think this spot fishes best when the tide is pumping and on early morning, so I’ll have to give it another crack soon.
 
Another
Unluckily for me, bait wasn’t the most abundant, and between my sub average cast netting, I was spending more time trying to catch livies than watching my lines. Also, this spot is elevated about five meters above the water and the ferries like to come in close, so I was a bit apprehensive to leave my lines out far while I wasn’t there.
Fortunately, I got a few more bite sized biddies and mullet, and sent them out. The next fish was a rather fat catty, which was a waste of a good livie, but I continued to persist in hope of a better bite. Sure enough, my rod went off again, and after setting the hook, I had fun landing my largest squire of the day at 44.5cm. I think this took a couple glassies and a silver biddy on the hook – it seems they like small baits but a few of them on the hook. After I landed this guy, the bite slowed a bit on the squire, but there were a few decent pecks that may have been large bream.
 
Biggest
I capitalized on this opportunity and tried to catch a few more livies, but to my dismay, even after casting for 30 minutes or so, I had hardly managed a fish in the net. As the tide started to slow, I chucked out a mullet about as large as you would like for a jewie or thready, and when I was really running low on the baits casted out a couple fillets of strip mullet.
Annoyingly, all this brought was two catfish in quick succession, both of which were fat, ugly, and decent size. After I had dealt with them, I got back to cast netting and got a few herring and other small baitfish, including one large prawn (I really need to get out one night chasing them). I also caught a small muddy on the line and had a much larger one drop off before I saw it (almost sure that’s what it was), as they hit as the tide had slowed to a trickle. As the tide started to change I would love to have said the bait situation did too, but I still couldn’t get any in the net.
 Luckily, just as the run in began, I nailed my fourth squire of the day, somewhere in the low forties. I probably could have kept this one as it was towards the end of the session, but I ended up chucking him back. Lucky day for the fish.
 
New record for squire – bagout!
 At about 1:00PM I had just caught a couple more livies but got an angry call from my Dad asking where I was… Guess I had forgotten I was supposed to be home by then, lol. I casted all my lines out for one last time and packed up, but unluckily no jews or threads came swimming by. I had $1.02 on my card so used it to buy a softserve from Central station Maccas on the way home, and that would have been one of the highlights of the day seeing as though I hadn’t eaten anything. I got home pleased to have finally broke my fishing drought, hopefully I can get a 50 squire or some big fish soon.
Stats of Trip:
Tide: 5:00AM, 1.9M, High (small high), 11:50AM, .5M, Low, 6:00PM, 1.7M, High.
Moon Phase: 47.2% - there wasn’t a heap of tidal difference in height but this spot always has lots of run
Bait Caught: Everything – herring, mullet, biddies, winter whiting, prawn, glassies.
Fish Caught: Squire x 4, Catfish x 3, Muddy x 1
Air Pressure: 1009
Humidity: 60%
Gear/Tackle Used: Okuma Coronado CDX 5500 on Silstar Crystal Power Tip 6-8KG 8 foot, 30 pound x8 J-braid, Jarvis Walker 8 foot 5-10KG rod on Shimano Baitrunner DC 8000 with 30 pound x 8 Penn Slammer braid, Shimano Sedona 6000 on 7 foot Abu Garcia Nanotech rod, 30 pound x 4 braid. 50 pound FC rock trace, 6/o Masterpro circles. Size 4 star sinker. Fixed sinker rig.
Overall Success Rate: 70% - but can’t complain about a bagout on Brissy River squire landbased.
The next session was just a quick fish with Charlie at his creek spot on Sunday arvo. I got there at about four and caught my first catty (he had already caught three) within five minutes of casting out. Charlie proceeded to catch about three times the number of catties as me, I guess I’m a bit out of touch with the old trusty Alvey.  We probably ended up with fifteen fish combined, and highlights of the arvo include me pulling in a small muddy and a couple of big bream hits casting towards the bank (I dropped one before we got it out of the water).
Quick Stats:
Tide: Rising.
Moon Phase: 57%, there wasn’t heaps of run
Gear Used: Charlie used a light spinning setup and I used a Alvey kids combo, both about 10 pound line, small sinker and suicide hook. Servo prawns for bait.
Overall Success Rate: 85% - fun session catching a few fish
Thanks for reading this report, I hope you enjoyed. Sadly I won’t be able to get out for a fish over the next couple of weeks, maybe a couple of short local sessions, as I’m going to be too busy with school. Hopefully I can catch a couple good ones on the holidays.
Cheers Hamish

The snaggier the area, the less I fish it with baits during the main part of the run.
I usually fish plastics if I am intent on fishing that spot during the run.
At the ends of the run and change of tides i fish with just enough weight to get me to the bottom then lift it up a metre or so, or fish unweighted livies if it is shallow enough.
During the change of tide large predatory fish often rise to the top 3m of water feeding.
As a side note, during the peak run larger fish are often just up current from the structure riding the pressure wave....this sometimes occurs in rivers as well.

it will work from a pier as well, but I use them in the boat drifting for whiting and covering lots of ground.

To add to this, here in SEQ when I go chasing winter whiting I have a paternoster of these jigs down. These jigs are neutrally bouyant and are designed for this rigging. Normal prawn shape lures are not as they sink.
Often catch as many as many squid as winter whiting with two guys fishing a rod each for the whiting and sharing 1 rod with the squid jigs.
Far more effective than the prawn style jigs when drifting about for whiting.
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Thanks a lot for a great write up! 

Thanks a lot for a great write up! 

Yes, they will be strictly catch and release for a while now, but with how the rivers been then you need to catch em while you can because it can go dry for weeks. 

Thanks a lot for a great write up!