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Hi all Here are the two reports from my weekend, and while not much happened they were still somewhat eventful. I am hoping you will not find this boring, but here goes! Once the lines were in, baited with fresh, dead banana prawn, I set the gear up, got the net out, filled the bucket up with water, and threw the net. The first cast resulted in nothing, but in the next four casts I had two solid prawns in the bait tank. I chucked the salmon line out then, and began my long wait. While this was happening, I was talking to two people about a couple years older than me. One of them recognized me from the tennis competition I play in, so we had a chat (I think I've played him once or twice). He said he owns a house on the water, and he told me he'd caught a few bream, a few catties, and one thready. This was just in the duration he lived there I believe, as he said he didn't fish that much. I also told him what I'd caught there, but the thing I find funny is that the species list is becoming too long to remember. They then left, so I gave the lines a quick bait check. They were all pickered, so I rebaited them all. I chucked them back out and set the drag. I then started to cast net a bit more, and to my surprise a whiting came up in the net. After a quick look at it, I noticed it was a Winter Whiting, so into the live bait tank he went. Here he is prior to being deployed - He stayed in the bait tank for another uneventful 20 minutes, and then I checked my line. The prawn was off it, so I pinned him through the mouth like you would with a mullet and chucked him out. He seemed to stay put, so I did a bit more netting. I didn't really get much, but the prawns on the other line were still on. I then just sat around the top to have a bit of a relax and waited. The fishing was very quiet, with no bites. Since it had been about another 20 minutes, I went down to the jetty to check on the whiting. I reeled it in, and to my surprise when I pulled him up, well, he/she was a mess. To give you an idea, look at the above and below images as a before and after Done! I am not sure what it might've been, but my initial thought was a little shark, as I have heard sharks will hit their baits from the tail first, not head first, like other fish do. From second thoughts, I realised it very well could've been a crab feasting on my live bait, or it even could've been baby breamv or something of the likes of that. I guess, unfortunately, I will never know, so I will just have to guess and hypothesize. After that whiting, another live prawn was deployed. It would've been close to dark by now (around 5) so I starting tipping water on the jetty to get mud and gunk from the net off, and put the gear in the cart so it was ready to go. I made sure to keep the rods in though, just for good measure. In another few minutes of pacing around, the rods seemed like they could use a bait check. The two rods were pickerred, and I decided to keep the bottom one out so I had better chance. I re baited and re casted, and hoped something would take my bait in the last few minutes... Well, that never happened and it looked like I was going to finish up with another doughnut. I sadly did, and then I trudged all the way home, dragging my fishing cart along. This was not before I decided to take a quick sunset snap of the relatively gloomy day, so at least the report had some pictures - That is it done and dusted, or the first one anyways, so here are the statistics of the trip - Statistics of the trip - Tide: Low, 11:30AM, .5M, High, 5:15PM, 1.7M Moon Phase: First quarter moon, so not that much run Air Pressure: 1019.8 - a bit lower than my better days have been Weather: Quite cloudy, light winds, gloomy Tackle used: 14lb and 30lb mainlines, braid, 30lb, 15lb fluorocarbon leaders, 80lb trace, size 2 and 6 ball sinkers, 4/0 circle and suicide hooks, large barrel swivel. Bait used: Prawn, live and dead, and live winter whiting Bait caught: Winter whiting and banana prawns Fish caught: - Overall success rate: 40% - Not to bad of a day out OK, that is the report done. I hope you enjoyed reading, and hopefully you aren't bored out and can't read the next. I hope QLD's COVID-19 cases stay at a minimum as well, and I hope everyone can get out for a fish soon. OK, so here is report two. It was a bit more exciting than the first, and I had three of my mates with me, two who had never really fished before. I met them at the train station at half past one, and we would've had our lines in the drink by about 2:00PM. The first cast I did I got zilch, but on the first cast I did on the jetty bait started rolling in. In about 5 casts, I had three solid mullet and about a dozen prawns, which I happily live baited on the lines. My mates were pretty happy with that, and then we could just sit and wait for a bit. Since there was no action in about ten minutes, and one of them kept bugging me to show him how to throw the net, I showed him. Giving him the best instructions I could, he only managed a figure of eight on the first throw, LOL. The second was a slight improvement, but then he decided to put the net down and fish for a bit. I gave the lines a bait check then as well, the mullet was still very lively and the prawns were actually still on, much to my surprise. They were deployed again, and this time the wait was a bit longer. To keep myself from tiring out, I kept catching some prawns in the net. The best throw was three bigs ones, and, boy, they certainly make the net vibrate and pull A LOT for their size. By now, it was about 3:15PM, and with nothing happening, I was starting to think we might doughnut again. Luckily, the fish liked the live prawns and I saw the rod out in the middle of the river (or that area) getting pecks. I figured it was a perch, so I set the hook and told one of my mates they could pull it in. I suspected it was a perch, and I turned out to be right. A tiny one - I de hooked him, got my mate a quick pic (he's only caught a few fish in his life as he doesn't fish often) and then I chucked him back. He kicked off straight down, so another that was another successful release. Once he had dealt with that, everyone wasn't so bred again so I did some cast netting. Since the tide was absolutely rushing in, the net was a big effort. I also wasn't getting any bait, so I decided to give that a break for a few minutes. In that time though, one of the rods went off. To be specific, to cod rod did (no rhyming intended but it does ). I picked it up with haste but to my disappointment it had bricked us pretty good under/around the pylons. At the start, he was right stuck in there but with some rod maneuvering he started to come out. Then, whatever it was, took a run for structure... That had us done, and I could tell we weren't landing that fish, after about a ten minute wait, I started pulling the line out and eventually the braid snapped. That was a pity, because the fish (most likely a cod) felt pretty good. After the liens were re rigged, I had a throw of the net off the jetty. I felt some vibrating in the net, so I thought I might have some prawns. When I pulled the net up though, I realised I had a little perch in it. After a quick photo (sorry it's not to good) I chucked it back in the drink and off he went. Here it is - After that, they were really shut down, or maybe we were just missing them. I know that the lines weren't getting pickered, because when I did bait checks there was still bait. My friends had to go now though, as it was pretty much four thirty (they wanted to be home before it got dark). I said goodbye, but just before this, my other mate (who normally comes fishing with me) said the rod I had positioned in the channel just went off. There wasn't a fish when we reeled it up though, just a headless prawn. Whatever it was (most likely a small perch) had completely missed the hook. This was probably the last event to occur, as it was very quiet for the rest of the duration of my fishing. By about 5, it was getting a bit darker, so I knew it would be wise to load up the cart ready to go. Once this was loaded, I went down to check on the jetty rod. It seemed to be getting picked/pecked, so I picked it up and reeled it in. I assume the culprit was a bream, but both the mullet and the prawn which I had put on were gone. I guess some fish got an OK feed, but not me. I casted it out again, with the last big prawn and hoped. To sum it up, nothing more happened. I left in the dark, miserable that I hadn't gotten anything good. I am also quite tired today as I went out mountain biking this morning (that is the reason I wasn't out this morning). Here are the statistics of the trip - Stats of Trip - Tide: 12:15PM, .4M, Low, 6:20PM, 1.8M, High. I fished the rising tide. Moon Phase: First quarter, so not that much run. Air Pressure: 1019.9. Just realised I got today's air pressure for yesterday's fishing session, so you'll have to do without an accurate one for that one. Weather: Wind, 3Km'h, Humidity 90% (not sure how accurate that is but that's what the weather forecast is saying), and partly cloudy. Fish caught: River Perch x 2 Bait caught: About two dozen prawns, Mullet x 3 Bait used: Live mullet and prawns, dead prawns Time fished: 2:00PM-5:20PM or so Tackle Used: 14lb and 30lb braid mainlines, 80lb mono trace, 30lb and 15lb fluorocarbon leader, large-ish barrel swivel, 4/o circle and suicide hooks, size 2 and size ball/bean sinkers, size 1000 Shimano Sienna, Size 2500 Shimano Nasci, Size 2500 Diawa Shinobi, Size 650 Penn reel, 6'6" Ugly Stik and Rogue Firepoint rod, 8' Ugly Stik Rod. Overall Success rate: 60% - A nice afternoon. OK, that is the double report done. I hope you all enjoyed reading, despite the fact it wasn't the most exciting session at all. I hope you can all stay safe with the virus. Sorry for any spelling errors either. Cheers Hamish

Hi all Since school is back tomorrow I decided to go back out for one last session before I'll have to do a bit more work. I set the timer up for 5:30AM this morning but when I woke up I wasn't feeling to flash so had a rest for another 50 minutes or so. By 6:45AM, I had the lines in and I had cracked the cast net out. The lines, baited with dead prawn, were up on the top of the jetty. I walked down to the jetty to see someone had a crab pot in (with paracord for some reason, tangled around the front of the jetty and a milk bottle float) and started throwing the cast net. I threw the net and could feel a couple clicks in it, so I pulled it up eagerly to see some prawns (good size too). One went out on the salmon line, and the others went into the bucket. Just as I was going for the second throw though, I saw the rod at the top getting pecks, and then buckled over. I jogged up the jetty to set the hook and land the fish. First thing after I tighten the drag were some really timid head shakes, but quick ones. This indicated to me it was a River Perch, and after the short fight, I landed him. I lifted him up in one action with the rod, de hooked him, and photographed him. Here is a picture - Decent River Perch After that perch, I chucked out another dead prawn (from Friday) and got back to cast netting. The throws were a bit hit and miss, with one or two prawns per cast. After about 5 minutes though, I saw the rod up on the wooden part getting pecks. I hastily got up there to land whatever it was, and I picked it up. At first I was on, and I thought I would be proceeding to bring up my next perch. About half way through the fight though, the line went slack and I realised the fish mustn't of been hooked properly. Disappointed, I reeled the line in and got it back out. By now, it was a bit past seven and I was still doing some more cast netting. Apart from some prawns in my net, it was going a bit quiet... But once again, I saw some picks and pecks on the rod up on the wooden part. I ran up, to try and land this fish (most likely a perch). This time, I didn't even get close to landing it, because it dropped the bait by the time I was up there. I re baited, and got back to cast netting. This time, I felt some OK weight and something swimming around in the net. OK, I thought... Maybe a big mullet. I left it for a bit before pulling it up, only to see the tail of a catfish swimming off as I lifted it. By now, I had enough livies to sit down and fish (about 8, give or take). The salmon line was given a bait check and casted out again, and so were the other lines (this time with small live prawns). Just about then though, I started feeling a pain in my tummy, and one thing turned into another, I'm feeling sick I was then faced with a dilemma. I told myself if I was going to catch a salmon today, vomiting into the drink would be worth it. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case and while I was half stumbling around looking like I was drunk, I decided that I might need someone to come down because I was now really not feeling it. I asked the passer by to call up my Dad (my phone is yet to have a sim card meaning it's literally a brick outside my home ) and in about 10 minutes he was down. I then had to go, but I made sure to force him to give the net one throw. One prawn was the result, then the rods were reeled up and I was leaving by about quarter past eight. I even beat the old man in his kayak there who pddles every day, I think he was very surprised I left that early. We said "Good morning" briefly, and got back home. I have just been resting today and getting ready to go back to school tomorrow, but here are the statistics of the trip - Stats of Trip - Tide: Low tide 6:10AM, .5M, High tide, 11:40AM, 1.8M. I fished the rise Moon Phase: New Moon, so lots of run Time Fished: 6:45AM-815AM - Had to cut the session short because of sickness Air Pressure: 1012 (Not 1021, which is what I've had most success in before) Weather: 15c, 60% Humidity, 16Km/h winds - Certainly not the best weather Bait used: Live and dead banana prawns Bait caught: Prawns Fish caught: River Perch x 1 Tackle Used: 14lb and 30lb braid mainlines, 30lb, 15lb, 20lb, fluorocarbon leaders, 80lb trace, size 2 and 6 ball and bean sinkers, large barrel swivel, 4/o circle and suicide hooks, 6"6' Ugly Stik, 8" Ugly Stik, 2M Rogue Firepoint boat rod, size 1000 Shimano Sienna, Size 2500 Shimano Nasci, Size 650 Penn reel, blood knots, shocker knots, albright knot. Overall Success Rate: 50% - Fish caught but sick and bad weather OK, those are the stats done. Hopefully everyone enjoyed this read, even though it wasn't the most exciting read. Hopefully we can all stay safe with COVID-19 and hopefully Australia soon has no cases, because I know Queensland only has one apparently. Hopefully the restrictions are eased more as well! Sorry for any spelling errors either, hopefully any mistake is understandable. Cheers Hamish

Hi all Here is my report from yesterday's' arvo session and today's early morning session. The first is quite average, but the second was way more exciting. I have a good clip in here, and I think this will be quite a long read because it's two in one, but I'm going to write it anyway. So, yesterday afternoon I went down to the park again with my mate. He brought his mate along this time, so the pressure was on me to catch fish. I chucked the lines out first up with dead prawn and frog mouth pilchard and got to work with the cast net. The first cast resulted in about 7 frogmouth pillies, so at least I had some salmon livies. I then re reeled the salmon line in and chucked them out, hoping for the best. After a while, it was evident to me the bait was either falling off or just getting picked up while I waited... While the others were watching my rods, I kept trying to catch some livies. From time to time I was getting a small live prawn and that would always go onto a rod. After about an hour now, we had nothing. I told my friend to maybe move the rods on the end of the jetty, and he started to get little nibbles. While this was happening, I was still throwing the net. After relentless throwing though, up came a surprise. I saw the head shape and thought it may be a whiting and it actually was. This was the only real catch of the day. Here it is - I suppose it is so salty that they have been coming up here. After that surprise, it just got quieter and quieter. It was about 4:30PM and I knew all I could do was wait. The lines were out but apparently today the fish weren't, LOL. In about an hours time we still had nothing and I still didn't have any good livies. This was most surprising as well, because if this kept up I might donut. I cannot remember the last time I've caught zilch at this location, so I guess that is saying something. In saying that, I see plenty of people come down fishing with worms and floats, wrong baits, etc and not getting results so I guess it is about having the right rig and using the right gear. While we were fishing, it was also starting to get pretty threatening. It was quite blowy, and I was still feeling a bit chilly with my three layers on. The clouds in the sky were also looking like they might pour down on us at any given moment. This wouldn't be to good because one of my mates didn't have a raincoat. Luckily though, the skies didn't rain, and we got out of there dry. Sorry that that was a pretty average report, and that I didn't get much to report about. The next report should be a lot more exciting, I actually did pretty well in it. Here are the statistics of this trip though - Stats of Trip Tide: Low at 1:00PM, .5M, High at 7:00PM, 1.7M. I fished the rising tide. Moon Phase: Third Quarter, so not the most run Weather: 21c, 52% humidity, 14Km/h winds, partly cloudy Bait caught: Few frogmouth pilchards, whiting, prawns Bait used: Prawns, frogmouth pilchards, live and dead Fish caught: - (First time I've dougnutted here in yonks) Tackle Used: 14lb mainlines, 30lb mainline, 15lb, 30lb leaders, 80lb trace (fluro and mono), 4/o circle and suicide hooks, large-ish barrel swivel, size 2 and 6 bean and ball sinkers, size 1000 and 2500 Shimano Sienna and Nasci, Size 650 Penn reel, 6"6' and 8" Ugly Stiks, 2M Rogue Firepoint boat rod Overall Success Rate: 30% - A donut but I caught a whiting which is a surprise That is that one done everyone, here is Session #23 (If you are still reading ). OK, so last night I made sure to go to bed at a decent hour and I put the timer on for 5:10AM this morning. Well when I got up I decided against creeping around the house and leaving because I could sneak in an extra hour of sleep . I got up again at about 10 past six and got ready. By 25 past I was at the jetty and I got the lines out. Once the lines were out, I got to cast netting. The first few throws were not what I was looking for - nothing. After a couple throws though, I got a little live prawn. This went straight out on one of the lines, and in about five minutes this line went off. I didn't think it was big at all, and I was right. I was quite happy though because it meant I didn't donut. It was a little perch, this one a nice silvery colour - A silvery perch taken on a small live prawn. He was actually barely hooked, so I got the hook out no problemo and gave him a quick release. It swum off well and I re baited and re casted. By now, I was running very low on prawns, dead and alive. Just as I was thinking this, I got another small one in the net. This went on the rod next to the pylons, targeting bream and cod. Nearly instantaneously, it was taken. I run over and to my dismay there was no bait. I then just looked down and to my shock the rod was going off. Yes! I ran down and picked up the rod, which was buckled over. Before I even felt the fish though, it spat the hook. I reeled it in to find a mangled frogmouth pilly, which may very well have been from the doing of a bully. By now, some others had rocked up and were fishing off the jetty. I talked to one of the guys for a bit, told them what I'd caught etc. The person dropped a line down just before my next hook up and pulled up a tiny catfish which would've been a good shark livie size if in Summer. The rod, which now had a prawn head on it though, then went off. I ran over, and when I picked it up it was still on! The fish was taking some really speedy runs and was putting up a good fight on the size 1000 reel. It was getting right up onto the retaining rock wall thingo (I don't know the name LOL), and just kept running like crazy. When the passers by saw, it surfaced and I identified it to be a big cod. He grabbed the net to land it for me, and with some good maneuvering we got it up. He looked a lot bigger than he was, but I lipped him, measured him and took a photo. Here he is - Nice Brisbane River cod He looked a lot bigger than what he was, but the lie detector doesn't tell lies . It was 37cm, and was considerably heavy. I gave him a quick release and he swam off back down to terrorise more prawns and bait. I think this shows how healthy the ecosystem around the Brisbane River is, because the amount of people passing me with a surprised look on their face when I tell them I've caught something half decent is amazing. Soon after the cod, the bite went quiet. I caught one more small prawn in the net, and then the tide picked up. The lines were still being manned, and much to my dismay I missed something on the rod out in the river (very suspicious that it was a perch). The next half an hour was very quiet, with no bait caught and no nibbles. I was really hoping to get a livie for the big rod, but I didn't get one then. The other people eventually pulled up a tiny bream (15cm) and it flopped off the hook before they could do anything with it. I still needed some more live bait, and I really wanted to get my line out there in case there was another big take. Well, after a couple scat and small herring I hit a jackpot. Two good size mullet in the one cast. I immediately fired up the aerator and they were very lively. I then went down to the jetty to reel in the line and re bait. After I pinned the mullet through the jaw I gave him a big chuck out and left the rod. I then went back up to the jetty to check on the other rods, which both required re baiting. After about 15 more minutes, I gave the other rod a bait check. Mullet, lively and swimming. after this was thrown back out, the cod/bream line started getting picked. I didn't manage to hook whatever it was, but my guess is either a tiny perch or bream which was eating my cod livies. To fix this up, I decided to try and put a live mullet on. I thought if there was a big cod there, it wouldn't shy away... After another bait check and re cast on the big rod (which also resulted in a bad tangle involving me cutting the line to clean it up and re tying my two lines) my Dad came down. We were just talking about what I'd caught (I showed him the pics) and then he practically yells "Hamish, is that your rod?!". I turn down to see my rod buckled over going out. I sprint down hoping for the best. When I struck I realised I was on and began fighting it. At first I am pulling up a dead weight, and I thought it might be a bully. Then, it took a little run. After that, I think it realised it was hooked. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ! That is what it sounded like for the next twenty-thirty seconds anyway. I do have a little film clip, so here it is. I would also like to warn everyone there isn't very good language in it (Sorry, I was pretty nervous I'd lose it) and my voice is squeky as heck so that's why I sound like that. To summarise what I've said in it, here are the definition of the following - "It's gonna spool me!!!!" - Me after it took a big run, annoyed that my hard work pulling it up just went to waste. "Sh!t!!!" - Whenever I was nervous, scared, excited, or really really angry. "Don't get your hopes up" - My Dad being pessimistic. Here is the video though, please enjoy Getting done on a salmon.MOV Now to the heartbreaking one... Busted and dusted.MOV OK, so if you've watched that, you'll know... Well... That I got done... I was very sad and devastated about that, but I took it pretty well, just re rigging and getting another line out. I was so shocked to be honest that I had just hooked up to something that big at the park! It is taking a toll on me now though, I feel like I just lost a million dollars ! After that bust off, the bite went pretty quiet. No more hits on the big rod, no more live bait, no more picks. The other people left about an hour before me, so I said bye/cya and they left. When I was doing a final bit of cast netting though, I picked up another good size whiting (OH, and in case you're wondering, I mean it would be a ripper live bait, not that it's a good sized fish in general). I hope these become consistent enough so I could catch one on a rod and reel, it would be awesome if I could catch a new PB there too - Finally, just as I was cleaning out the esky, I found a prawn that was white all over. None of the other prawns were like this, and I'm 99% sure it is just frost from the freezer, but just in case, I didn't use it for bait. I don't think it would've been white spot disease either, because after it thored in a bucket for about 10 minutes it was normal coloured. Just wanted to check for anyone who knew, is this white spot disease? That is the report done now, I hope you all enjoyed. I will do the stats of the trip next. Sorry if the language in the video was offensive to anyone, and ellicat/AFO, if you want to take it down feel free to do so. I hope everyone stays safe with COVID-19 as well, and I hope everyone can get out for a fish. Sorry for any grammatical/punctuation errors as well. Statistics of Trip - Tide: High at 6:40AM, q.9M, Low at 1:45PM, .5M Moon Phase: Third Quarter Moon, so not to much run Air Pressure: 1021 Weather: 20c, Humidity 63%, Partly Cloudy Fish caught: Estuary Cod x 1, River Perch x 1 Time fished: 6:30AM - 11:30AM. 5 hour session or so. Bait caught: Prawns, frogmouth pilchards, mullet, herring, scat Bait used: Live mullet, frogmouth pilchards, prawns, live and dead Overall Success Rate: 75% - Some decent fish and what was probably the biggest fish of my life! Cheers Hamish

Hi all As some of you may know, it is my birthday today, so after some convincing I got my Dad to wake me up at twenty to five this morning to go fishing at the local park, seeing what we could catch. In the cart there was a new landing net, perfect for me because of its size. After I had put three layers on and walked down there, we got the lines out baited with a mix of prawn, live and dead, and a bully line out just for fun with a piece of eel. After all of 2 minutes, we had our first strike. I leapt over to the rod, hoping to be on. To my dismay, nothing was on the line. "Oh well," I thought, and got my line back into the strike zone. In no more than ten minutes, I was on. After tightening the drag and doing some pumps, I could tell whatever this thing was it was heavy. I was proceeding to pull it in, saying to my dad I might need a hand because whatever it was, it was a good fish. When I was about to see it, it took a pretty decent run out, so then I started having a fun little fight and a bit of practise for big tough fish. After a couple more runs, I saw the unmistakable shape of a catty. It was a pretty good fish, but another one of the brown ones. These ones seem to be bigger, fatter, and fight harder. It measured 40 cm and was still dark when we took the photo - A nice catty just before dawn Also, I know it sounds a bit silly but is this a different species of cat to a forkie? I find even forkies at this size don't fight as hard and these go really hard on both light and medium gear. Also, I think these ones practically live in the mud because you can see how dirty the fish is, compared to pulling up a salmon catfish (forky). Maybe that just happens with all big cats. As well as that, these guys bleed all over when de hooked. Any ideas? OK, back to fishing. While the lines were set we were [well, my Dad had 'volunteered' (I totally didn't make him LOL) thankfully] throwing the net. The prawns we were getting were great. The first few casts resulted in only one or two, but after that they went off. The bait tank had a good amount in no time, so live prawns for the day. Hooray! While my Dad was going with the cast net, I saw the 8 foot rod getting pecs so I picked it up. I was on straight away, and I felt the really brutal but small head shakes of a perch. The size prawn it took was impressive, but I find good size River Perch don't shy away from big live prawns (for anyone targeting them, even though there's not much to target them for ). I got it up, proceeded to get a photograph, de hooked it and sent it on its way. Here it is - A 20cm-30cm River Perch Even though he wasn't the biggest perch or in the best condition, it was still nice to catch him and see him swim off to grow bigger for next time. I then re casted my lines and started having a go with my cast net. After one or two prawns, I looked up. In the space of about five minutes, my dad was holding the rod, ready to strike. Then, he yanked hard. Since the drag was so loose the line came out crazy fast, and luckily after he tightened it it was still on. He eventually got it up, and up came another solid (not massive but good sized) River Perch. Here it is, it was safely released - Certainly not in the worlds best condition, but a solid, gold, BR River Perch. By now, we were in full swing. Four lines out, all targeting different things - shark, salmon, cod/bream, and vermin/perch for the sport. After that nice little perch, I see the heavy line bent over. I sprint down to the jetty and pick it up, and I could tell it was probably a catty. This catty however had lots of go in him, and it was probably my fault I'd set the drag a tad to tight but if it was looser it would've been a hell of a lot more fun! LOL. Just as I surfaced him, he pulled really hard and to my shock my leader knot pops. My immediate thought was, "poor fish!" because it now has a hook and 2 metres of line dangling out of its mouth, so I decided to figure out why. My four reasons are the following - Leader knot slipped (not very likely though as I check all my knots, especially leader knots and that didn't slip); line was weakened from the knot (most likely); the drag was to tight and something wasn't up to scratch; or finally the fish had somehow worn the line. Whatever it was, I was disappointed but it was an old hook so it will rust out in no time . After that, my friends dad happened to be passing by and since it was also Mother's day today (what great timing )off my Dad went. I didn't have any camera also, so for the next catch you'll just have to believe me. Both the lines up on the pier (I reeled in the shark line because legally I'm only allowed to have three lines out in tidal waters in QLD) and it took about one million attempts to get the hook out but eventually I got the hook out of my eel bait and threw it away. I then looked down at the jetty and saw that my line was on. I ran down and started reeling in whatever fish I had. It turned out to be another big catfish, measuring around 40cm. This guy went really hard also, next time I'm battling one I'm loosening the drag off completely and just going to have some fun. Sorry there's no pic, but he flopped out the hook and I just slid him back in to the drink. I also think I'll start giving bigger catties a proper release instead of a flop down, a bit better for them. The bite went really quiet after that. The bait tank still had a good amount of bait in it, so no need to do any netting. I just sat down and watched the lines. The odd nibble occurred, and the big one just kept getting pecked off, over and over. it had been happening all morning, and when I saw it going off I ran down (about 45-60 minutes minutes after the bite went quiet). Whatever it was had dropped the bait, and a couple more nibbles almost confirmed to me so. I started cranking in the bait, and I think this is what set the hook. I realised I was on, and started fighting the fish. It didn't stand a chance on 80lb line I thought, but for the pound to pound fight it was great. Trying to go under the jetty and around the pylons, when I got this fella up I knew I didn't want to lose him. How I wished my dad was there to scoop it up and christen the landing net... Oh well, I got it up. You may be wondering what this fish was. Well, it was a 30 cm bream. A nice fish by most people's standards, and a very welcome by-catch. Now that I think of it, 3/4 of the last sessions I've had I've caught a bream, the three being morning. It's not even Winter yet. I am thinking the bream in Winter will be promising here, but like usual, no promises! LOL. I politely asked some passers by to take a pic and they did quickly, and I got him back. He kicked off straight down, hopefully now he's fine living somewhere else. Here he is - While it may not be the best pic, it was a welcome catch on 80lb line! After that bream, I decided to start washing the mud and other assorted river gunk off from the jetty from the net. Hopefully that makes it a bit better and cleaner for others. There were a couple more hits and strikes nad taps along the way, but nothing stayed connected so I reckon if they weren't breambos they were catties. After I'd cleaned up, I began discarding some smaller live prawns (made sure they were alive). I got rid of them and kept the bigger one, most of the big ones we'd caught had been eaten, LOL, but all up if we were cast netting all day we easily would've gotten 30, we probably had about 25 in total. Just to show the average size of the prawns we were getting, here is one in comparison to my hand (would've been about a 12cm prawn) - Back at home, I washed up, packed the gear away, gave my mum a Mother Day pressie, got my parents pressie, and cleaned up the gear. A very good and exhausting b'day, that's for sure. I hope you can all stay safe even though these restrictions are gradually easing, we still need to go by the rules. Sorry for any errors in the text also. Here are the statistics of the trip - Stats of Trip - Tide: High, 1:00AM, Low, 7:20AM, High again at 1:00PM. 2.5M, 0.4M, 1.8M. I fished the last of the run out, the change, and the first of the rise. Moon Phase: Full Moon, which may be a reason why there were so many prawns. Weather: 19c, 8Km/h winds, 59% humidity Fish Caught: Catfish x 3, River Perch x 2, Yellowfin Bream x 1 Bait Caught: Bucket load of prawns and a couple frogmouth pilchards Bait used: Live prawns and frogmouth pilchards Tackle Used: 6"6' and 8" Ugly Stik Gold rods, size 1000 and 2500 Shimano Sienna and Nasci, 14lb mainlines and 20lb leader, size 650 Penn reel, 30lb braid mainline, 30lb fluorocarbon leader, size six and two ball and bean sinkers, large barrel swivels, size 6/o and 4/o circle and suicide hooks, 2M Rogue Firepoint boat rod, Size 5000 Jarvis Walker with an Aurora Rod, 30lb braid mainline (that's my cheapy combo, 20in 80lb Halco wire trace. Overall Success Rate: 80% - no target species caught but a great day out! Hope you enjoyed, Cheers Hamish The fully loaded cart for a finale picture!

Hi all Yesterday I went out for another session on the Brissy River, just at the local park. I wouldn't have gone normally because the tides were out, but I had a mate around who wanted to go for a fish so I decided to take my exhausted self down there (I think kayaking, mountain biking, and another fishing trip does something to a weak 11 year old kid because I felt sick last night, LOL). Also, sorry to post up another report after the Moreton Mania one, I think that one was a bit more exciting anyways. So, once I rigged up the rods, got the gear ready, and packed the fishing cart we went down to the park. When we got there there were a few people congregating on the jetty (teenagers), so much for social distancing... I then proceeded to chuck the smaller set ups out with some prawn I'd caught there prior to the session, and began throwing my net. The first cast resulted in some prawn, and so did the next few. With about 8 livies, I threw the two biggest out on the salmon line. While my mate wasn't getting hit (mainly because either the prawn he put on kept coming off due to bad presentation, tide, or pickers) I caught a few more prawns. By now we were about 45 minutes into the trip, and I saw a couple pecks on the salmon line. I thought it was a catty, and when it took off a couple minutes later I knew it was. Up came the first fish of the day, +1 for me! After I dealt with that, I proceeded to catch some more prawns, and a little river shrimp. For about another half hour, I had some throws where I got some, or got nothing. Our next strike was about half an hour away, but since my friend was taking the prawn off me we missed it (well I saw it and he heard it, LOL). I doubt it was big anyways, but you never know. We kept on fishing, still having a chat to passers by. It amazes me how everyone thinks that social distancing doesn't apply because of the eased restrictions, the amount of crowds I saw pass by was quite large. We had about an hours break from any fish, but I was still getting a few prawns. I had a few drinks because it was actually pretty hot in a balaclava, long sleeve top, polo fleece, sunnies, and cap, and I made sure to put some burn cream on my legs (the mud was probably protecting them as good as anything though, I was dirty as). At about 4:45PM, my friend got a hit on my little rod next to the pylons, and then he thought he'd dropped it. Turned out he hadn't, because when I told him to pull the bait up he had a little perch on. It had a lot of go in it apparently, because it hit pretty hard. Here it is - After the perch, I caught a couple more prawns, but by this time some fella had pulled up with his little tinny to the jetty, and it was still too shallow to throw from the walk down to the jetty so I had a sit down. Not to long after, the little rod has a big bend in it's tip. I run over, and my friend thought it was snagged, which was partly true... Whatever this was, I could feel it was big. It had me around some structure on the bottom, I think a crab pot (ironically enough from a member of the WBB, I remember him coming there when I was young and taking all the crabs into his white bucket ) tied to the bottom. It kept trying to go off, and I was just waiting for him to come out. In about 2 minutes though, I felt my line go slack. I reeled it up to see my bloody 9lb leader had been busted off, sigh! I think I'll only be using 20lb leader on that rod from now on, because if there's a big cod I don't want to loose it again, LOL. In about half an hour, it was time to go home. I proceeded to reel in the big line, but when I got down there the line was going off. I picked it up and I was on. Soon enough though, I saw a thing curling around on the surface. "An eel?!" I thought. Nope!. When I got it up, I realised it was a little log, which was drifting in the current. It just shows how strong the tidal flow is here, because for a bit of wood to be able to take a heap of line (despite the drag being somewhat loose) is pretty impressive. I began reeling up the other lines, but as I reeled in the small one it went off. I was on! I quickly proceeded to pull up something that looked a bit like a small lizard, but on closer inspection I thought it might be a rock gurnard. I am still not 100%, but I think it's pretty close to that whatever it is. I catch them in my shrimp traps a fair bit, too. If anyone has a better idea, please tell me. Here it is - I got the hook out and packed the gear up, time to go home. It was just getting dark on the way home, and when we were back on the road we had to call a dog's owner because it was on the street, I figured it would've just found it's way back to it's home (turns out the person lived 3 houses down) but I guess it's better than getting them worried or something like getting hit by a car . Here are the stats of the trip: Statistics of trip - Tide: 2:40PM Low, .3M, 8:40PM High, 2.1M - I was fishing the rise Moon Phase: First quarter, so not that much run Weather: Sunny, light gusts Bait caught: Prawns and shrimp Bait used: Live prawns, dead fresh prawns Fish caught: Catfish x 1, River Perch x 1, Rock Gurnard x 1 Tackle Used: Shimano Sienna and Nasci, size 1000 and 2500. 6"6' and 8" rods, Ugly Stik. Size 650 Penn reel, 2M Rogue Firepoint rod. 14lb mainline with 9lb and 20lb leaders, 30lb mainline with 30lb leader and 80lb trace. Size 4/o suicide and circle hooks, size 2 and 5 ball sinkers, big swivel. Overall Success: 85% That's all for this report, I hope you enjoyed. Hopefully I will finish my school work off soon so I can get out for a Friday fish, and by the way, it's my birthday on Sunday. Hooray! LOL. I hope to be getting a charter (it's become a bit of a tradition for my b'day because I've had the same one for two years now and it's great) but hopefully the restrictions are eased enough so they can operate. Sorry for any grammatical errors as well. Cheers Hamish

Hi I am thinking of getting a pet silver perch and I was wondering if I can keep it bye it’s self or wether I need more the one