queensland holiday report ( epic sesh ) many fish

[madmullet]

Plese don’t comment till I have finished. I will say cheers when complete

Ok, now where to start in my adventures over the holidays.

Well I would love to do a huge report, but it would just take way to much time so will focus on a select few and have other photos with what it is ect.

First memorable trip was out with brad ( basstracker ) in his new boat, rum raider. We started of a the poo shoot collecting bait with consisted of 30 herring, approx 1 dozen prawns and a couple biddies. We had been given some new locations to fish by my good mate frank and tides, baits and times to fish the area. 1st spot we anchored up in was around 30ft of water with good structure but no fish showing on the sounder. It was about 1,5hrs before the low and hopes were high. We put down our livies and our great new secret weapon we recovered to catch fish. We got the odd run, but it wasn’t till the tide started to slow the spot fired up. Numerous undersized jew came aboard with catties,

shoverlies and bream

thrown in for good measure.i was playing with fire at some stages with putting my 1lb combo down. The rig I was using on this combo was a rod length of 8lb black magic leader attached to the 1lb going down to a number 2 ball sinker, swivel, 1-1.5m of 15lb burkley vanish and a 4/0 black magic circle hook.

Sure enough it went zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, I oicked uo the rod and set the hook, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz of it goes on a very loang run and ping, busted me off.

At this stage the tide was very slack and we were swinging back and forth on the anchor, so we decided to move to spot number to for the incoming tide. We set out our baits and and we were catching undersized jew and good bream when the 1 lb out one again screamed at me zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, I picked up the rod and set the hook, fish on,zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz it took 90% of the 150m of 1lb I had on the spool when I finally gained 50odd m back, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz off it went again, I looked at brad and said, what have I got myself into,zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I would gain 20m and it would take 10. Finally after 30mins of an awesome fight it was directly below the boat, but holding it head in the current so it was very hard to gain any line, I tried doing short slow pumps to gain some sort of line but every time I listed the rod zz zz zz zz zz zz, so it was a matter of gaining a few mm at a time. I finally got him with in leaded length of the boat when he took another dive zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. I said to brad after all this, it better not be a big catfish. Another 5 mins passed and with one last small pump up comes a big jewie. Omg brad said, you have got to be kidding me, he turns to me and says mate I don’t have a net or gaff, ow #### #### #### ##### I said, there is only one way around this, I handed him my rod, lent over the boat and jaw graped the jew and as I lifted him out of the water he put up one last fight, thrashing around cutting my thumb and hand to bits and lifted him into the boat.

Brad shook my cut and bloodied hand and said, mate, if I hadn’t have seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it, top effort mate.

We continued fishing after bleeding him and photos. Brad and I got a few extra under sized jewies and a few bream, not long after calling it a night.

NEXT TRIP OUT

Title, venturing out on smee

I borrowed a mates boat boats name smee,Thursday and headed of into the brisy river to see if I could get into the jew again. My aim was to fish the poo shoot and a couple of my new spots.

My first aim was to put the pots in. I loaded up the pots full of mullet, chicken and tuna and put the pots in the water to soak for a few hrs and then headed off to get bait.

I arrived to the poo shoot around 12.30-1.00 to do some cast netting and after 30mins had some 5 good podies and 30 odd live herring and 30 odd dead herring.

I motored off to my new spot to find no one there, sweet, should be a good sesh then. I was using my new ballistic reel spooled with 15lb nitlon ( best braid ever ) and my 1lb outfit. Well I put a live herring down and another bait out on the 1lb. the ballistic went zzzz zzzzzz. I picked up the road od felt the fish rolling it around in its mouth, so I waited for the next run to set the hooks,zzzzzzzzzz bam fish on a quick fight and up pops a little cod,

got the hook out and put him back. Dropped another herring down, sat the rod in the holder and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, picked the rod back up and set the hook, another quick fight and another cod came to the surface. Over the next 2 hrs I caught a number of undersized jew , a lot of cat fish and bream, just on the slack tide my 1lb went zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz picked up the rod and set the hook, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz the reel screams, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and the knot that attaches to the backing goes throught the guides, ow no, what to do, pull anchor or hope for the best, i opted for hope for the best. Finally I started to gain line and after 35 odd mins of battling the the fish up pops a stinking ray, boooooooooooooooooooooooo, what a waste of time. It didn’t try to hold bottom so I didn’t realize it was a ray, I cut the line as close to the mouth as I could and released it.

at this stage I had run out of livies so I decided to check my pots, then gather some bait and fish the poo shoot. I pulled all 4 pots and got 3 big sandies and tones of undersized males and egg baring females. I rebaited the pots and reset them. I continued onto the poo shoot and gathered some more herring and prawns and decided to fish the rock wall. At this stage it was just on sun set and I was getting excited about the chance of tangling with some more jewies.

It was very quiet for the first 30-40 mins and they started coming on the bite. I got run after run after run but they were very tentative only grabing the bait for 3-5 secs and then dropping it. You would wind your line back in to check out the situation and the livie would have teeth marks all over it. This happened all night with small jew and bream coming aboard. All night I was throwing the anchor buoy over and motoring back to the poo shoot to collect more bait and then going back to the anchor buoy and putting the rope back around the cleet.

At around 3.00 my kix zinged of at a million miles an hr. I picked it up and set the hooks, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz it screamed straight out into the middle of the river. I was playing it for about 5mins and a trawler was coming down the river, I grabbed the torch and started jelling out but he either didn’t see me doing it or just didn’t care and cause the fish was so high up in the water Colum, he drove straight over my line cutting it with the prop. Bugga ############. Well back to the drawing board. For the rest of the night it went a little quite with the trawlers going up and down the river, so I decided to check my pots.

Getting to my pots, I thort to myself, they look lick they have been moved. I pulled the first pot and guess what, it had been raided. I zip tie my pots shut with 3 zip ties to try to put thieves off due to it taking to long to open pots. Nope not these ############# lovely people, they cut, took and dumped all 3 pots and the 4 was stoled and there is no way it would have pulled floats under as I use 3 2l bottles and 15m of rope. I was no more than 1km away from the pots, so I thort I was rite. I re-baited my pots and dropped them back in. I went back to the poo shoot and collected bait again and re-anchored and set the lins out. Not 5 mins later the ballistic went balisic with line peeling of it at a huge rate of knots. I pecked up the rod and held on and as I went to grab the video camera it took me around something and busted me off. While I was retying a leaded on, my bait runner went zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, I droped what I was doing and picked up the rod from my rod holder and waited for the next run, zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, I engaged the bait runner and all hell broke loose,zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, and being 30lb, turned its head quite quick. Getting it close to the boat it gave one last effort zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and once again it was turned and up out of the murky depths came a nice big threadY.

90cm unstretched tail or stretched tail 1m a p.b and a first for me in the brisy river. I have caught many before up north, but never in the brisy river. So I was pumped and I forgot all about my pots. I kept this guy for the table as he was gut hooked and their was a hair bit of blood coming froim the gills. It once again shut down so I decided to have a kip and set the alarm for 4.30.

Beep beep beep, the alarm went off, and it was time to pull anchor, collect afew livies, check my pots once again and try a new spot.

I arrived to my pots and they were in the same spot. I pulled them all and got 1big big buck mudie the size of a dinner plate

he is in a baging tray, 2.4kg he went

and 3 more sandies, so that put a smile on my dile. I moved the pots down to near the gateway bridge and fish a new spot down their. I was planning on staying their for a while so I could have the chance of getting more muddies. First drop down 1 boated a small jew

, not bad, looking good for the new spot, 2nd drop down zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ping into the cover as I was fishing hard in the structure. Grabbed another rod, 3rd drop down boated another small jew

, dam this spot looks the goods at this stage. 4 drop down zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz managed to turn it head away from the structure and and gained some line before zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz trying to get back home. I gained line back and kepted gaining it back and had him beat and to my surprise, another thread poped up,

well I was over the moon. I decided rite then and their to call it quits and pack up.

Rap up of the 18hrs fishing

2 threadies

God only knows how many jew, I stopped taking photos around 15 I think.

20 od bream.

3 rays

To many caties

5 shoverlies 2 cod

6 sandies

1 muddy

What a top trip, and evan though I got raided and a pot went missing, the good trip outweighed that.

now other trips and species caught

porr bream

thanks heaps for reading

[buih87]

nice trip there kurt. i see you got a ballistic as well. thats a mighty fine reel you have there:P

[madmullet]

nice trip there kurt. i see you got a ballistic as well. thats a mighty fine reel you have there:P

yeh mate they are a good reel, and boy did i work it out

[Milan]

Nice haul of fish mate.. Looks like you had a great time over the holidays

[wallyfly]

Good stuff, nice report. Hope they all eat well. :cheer: Tight lines. Ian M

[max pwr]

You really know your stuff kurt..... thanks for a top read mate and great pics. You're inspiring me to have a crack in the Brisbane river myself sometime soon, cheers

[The Mad Hughesy]

Yeah was an ok report, could have caught more fish

Nah awesome stuff Kurt. Can't ask for much better range of fish from the river.

[woody1]

A legal Jew, on 1 lb, landed without a net... mate you just took Finesse to a whole new level!!!! Loved the report, looks like you had an unreal holiday, even tho you are without your boat. As always your reports are full of good info. Thanks for posting and making us all jealous!

[qbkami]

Yeah was an ok report, could have caught more fish

+1 need to have more jewies in the report

Thanks for the report, that Mud would have been yum and feel sorry for that bream damn parasites!

Tight Lines,

Quang

[mottly crew]

nice catch looks like you did better than me well done good read to hope yuo have the same luck next time.

[plugga]

great stuff mate, so many fish

Jordan

[BassTracker]

A legal Jew, on 1 lb, landed without a net... mate you just took Finesse to a whole new level!!!! Loved the report, looks like you had an unreal holiday, even tho you are without your boat. As always your reports are full of good info. Thanks for posting and making us all jealous!

As we were fishing I had a gut feeling the 1 pound rod would get hamered. We were just talking about the elaborate set ups some people use to finesse big fish on light gear. I was telling him about I guy I met from afo who caught a very impressive jew on 2 pound not long back and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz off goes the one pound rod. Being a new boat I hadnt put all the gear in it yet and left the net and gaff at home and this looked like a serious fish for this line (You could literaly easily snap the one pound by hand) After a big battle when I saw the Jew Iwas thinking, this has to be some kind of 1 pound record haha.. Great night and some great new place to fish in the BR thnks Frank

[RichH]

Awesome report! Congrats on the haul! Great start to 2012!

[Jufish]

Great report mate, i take my hat off to you for hand 'gaffing' that big jew!

Top stuff!

[Surfingant]

Top report Kurt, thanks for sharing.

[Greenmachine]

What a cracker holiday! I hope you left some jewies in the river for everyone else. I'll be happy with just one! Finese fishing alright, you are definately the 1lb king now!

Top effort mate and great report.

Catch up soon, cheers Rob

[Carter]

Good stuff on the light line :ohmy:

[kmcrosby78]

Awesome catches there Kurt. 18hrs of fish eh - I haven't done that for years, good fun!! Which of those sessions was the one where those clowns anchored right near you?

[crazywalrus]

some great fish and awesome threadies there mate.

[rosstralia46]

Awesome report mate bloody awesome

[ellicat]

Some effort and reward there :woohoo: When I pushed you off from the ramp I said a little prayer and rubbed some of my abundant good luck on the boat :whistle: Glad you mad it back alive :dry: :silly:

There is a pic there of 8 mullet on a brag mat with another fish. I can't make it out clearly, it looks like a fat Happy Moment What is it really ?

[wesfish]

great variety of species over the break :woohoo: great report kurt

[madmullet]

Awesome catches there Kurt. 18hrs of fish eh - I haven't done that for years, good fun!! Which of those sessions was the one where those clowns anchored right near you?

the second sesh when i was by myself in my mates boat smee.

[madmullet]

Some effort and reward there :woohoo: When I pushed you off from the ramp I said a little prayer and rubbed some of my abundant good luck on the boat :whistle: Glad you mad it back alive :dry: :silly:

There is a pic there of 8 mullet on a brag mat with another fish. I can't make it out clearly, it looks like a fat Happy Moment What is it really ?

i thort it was the other way round, kind of like tryin to get some good mojo off me.

that was from a fresh water seh and its a damm talapia.

good to see you guys again down the ramp

[cy1301]

Thanks for taking me out, had fun

[tugger]

Qaulity fish and report Kurt looking forward to meeting you at the social down at wavebreak to swap a few yarns

Mark

[madmullet]

Qaulity fish and report Kurt looking forward to meeting you at the social down at wavebreak to swap a few yarns

Mark

like wise mark. fingers crossed, i pick my boat up today, but still need to get a fuel tank mate and motor survised.

[crazywalrus]

Qaulity fish and report Kurt looking forward to meeting you at the social down at wavebreak to swap a few yarns

Mark

like wise mark. fingers crossed, i pick my boat up today, but still need to get a fuel tank mate and motor survised.

Get in and get it booked for a service as they are hell busy at the moment. I booked yesterday and the first opening was the 18th at a few mobs.

[madmullet]

Qaulity fish and report Kurt looking forward to meeting you at the social down at wavebreak to swap a few yarns

Mark

like wise mark. fingers crossed, i pick my boat up today, but still need to get a fuel tank mate and motor survised.

Get in and get it booked for a service as they are hell busy at the moment. I booked yesterday and the first opening was the 18th at a few mobs.

cheers bud

[ChrisC]

nice report Kurt

brizzy certainly looks in good nick. still never fished there but hopefully this year i can get up there

cheers

[madmullet]

nice report Kurt

brizzy certainly looks in good nick. still never fished there but hopefully this year i can get up there

cheers

mate seeing you took me fishin, come out with me and i will take you in the boat

[madmullet]

Thanks for taking me out, had fun

no prob coen, hope to get out soon again

[aussie123]

Nice lot of fish there Kurt.

There is a theory that all these undersize Jews this year may be the ones that were stocked into the clarence River down in NSW and they have migrated North.

Some have been sent down to be DNA tested so it will be interesting to see the outcome.

Would be nice to see NSW have stocked our river and bay with jewies,lol.

[madmullet]

Nice lot of fish there Kurt.

There is a theory that all these undersize Jews this year may be the ones that were stocked into the clarence River down in NSW and they have migrated North.

Some have been sent down to be DNA tested so it will be interesting to see the outcome.

Would be nice to see NSW have stocked our river and bay with jewies,lol.

well their you go, it would be nice

[jeff f]

Nice lot of fish there Kurt.

There is a theory that all these undersize Jews this year may be the ones that were stocked into the clarence River down in NSW and they have migrated North.

Some have been sent down to be DNA tested so it will be interesting to see the outcome.

Would be nice to see NSW have stocked our river and bay with jewies,lol.

i really hope they are wrong and find the fish arent from nsw it's the new size limit working :woohoo:

but its only a hope..wish..dream :blush:

[aussie123]

Nice lot of fish there Kurt.

There is a theory that all these undersize Jews this year may be the ones that were stocked into the clarence River down in NSW and they have migrated North.

Some have been sent down to be DNA tested so it will be interesting to see the outcome.

Would be nice to see NSW have stocked our river and bay with jewies,lol.

i really hope they are wrong and find the fish arent from nsw it's the new size limit working :woohoo:

but its only a hope..wish..dream :blush:

I sort of hope its the other way around.

It will be conclusive proof that salt water estuary restocking can and does work as most state governments won't entertain the idea of spending money on salt water restockings.

At the same time if it is the larger size limits working that will be good too.

[jeff f]

Nice lot of fish there Kurt.

There is a theory that all these undersize Jews this year may be the ones that were stocked into the clarence River down in NSW and they have migrated North.

Some have been sent down to be DNA tested so it will be interesting to see the outcome.

Would be nice to see NSW have stocked our river and bay with jewies,lol.

i really hope they are wrong and find the fish arent from nsw it's the new size limit working :woohoo:

but its only a hope..wish..dream :blush:

I sort of hope its the other way around.

It will be conclusive proof that salt water estuary restocking can and does work as most state governments won't entertain the idea of spending money on salt water restockings.

if it turns out the fish are from nsw the nsw gtovernment will never stock any river north of the hunter again :pinch:

At the same time if it is the larger size limits working that will be good too.