Brisbane river Jew fish

[Josh1992]

Hi

So I've been trying to catch a Jew at Brisbane port area for over a year now (lures only). I've done around 30 trips with no result at different times of the year, tides, weather etc. 

I have a good 12 inch sounder and know how to use it (side and down scan). I sometimes see scattered fish of 1-3 but never see the big schools everyone talks about and like what's seen on YouTube. I only really start casting when I see fish which is rare and always only a couple which is hard to target or when I find some bait.

I'm sure there would be a certain time of year or specific tide or moon that people know its worth trying to find and catch a Jew but I really just cannot work it out. 

I've also tried around some of the artificial reefs and also cant find the schools. By luck I caught 2 small Jew when catching snapper at harries but that's it. 

Any help would be much appreciated.

I'm even willing to take someone who knows what they are doing on my boat if anyone is interested. 

My last 2 trips were Fri and sun 5th and 7th July 2024. I found some scattered fish by the green beacons on the other side of the river from the ship pylons and I'm assuming they would be threads? which I also haven't caught haha.

Thanks 

[mangajack]

This time of the year the jew are in the city reaches or out on the bay.....mainly 60cm models left around the port in the past 6 weeks.

Best advice is to ignore the wharves and search out the rock bases to the main channel heading up the river.

Threadies are mostly right up the river past Jindalee lately.

I got a 60cm jew near Caltex last tuesday fishing for snapper.

20 to 30 gram jigheads size 3/0 or 4/0 and 90 to 100mm plastics hopped across the bottom....curl tails working better than paddle tails for me lately. 20lb fc leader and 12 to 16lb braid is what i am using lately.

Big schools are more a summer event around the bris riv mouth, I got 3 from a large school in march this year....not at the wharves....about 30 fish over a 40m stretch of bank in 15m of water.

If you want to get them another way work the lights in the city reaches after about 9pm with surface or shallow swimming lures....once the crowds thin down they start hitting the bait schools around the lights.

Smaller tides are more fishable....depends on where you find the fish though.

[mangajack]

Also of note is a substantial number of fish do not show on the sounder.....they can be masked and missed by changing bottom readings, directions they are facing as you pass them and things like bait schools coming through.

I put the hours in on hard bottom regardless of the fish shows on the sounder. Too many times I have hooked a good fish that has not shown on the sounder....the last jew I got did not show at all and was directly under the boat in both downscan and traditional imaging showing nothing but small bait over rock at the time.

I do not waste my time casting for single fish shows on the sounder unless it is sitting on a tiny piece of reef.

Generally days when there are big schools of bait about are days that my success rate is low....I presume the fish are well fed and not going to eat anyway.

Less bait days I tend to do better on and will actively drift with a bait school....

[mzaakir]

Hey man, I went out on the boat wednesday last week with a mate who knows his way around the port like no one ive ever seen, we found stacks of jewies but nothing was biting unfortunately, i will say this though there are a lot of very common well known spots for jewies in the river, throw around a 95mm or 110mm vibe would start with 110 if your just getting into jewies on lures or yet to get your first, or a 4-5inch plastic on a 1/2 or 5/8 jighead is another very good option.

Spot wise, moreton bay has heaps of jewies around, they are around tailor sometimes, so sometimes its worth looking for tailor if your completely lost. Drop offs those sort of area around the 12-20m mark ive found hold heaps of jewies. Additionally, around the ships hold good jewies and in around the pylons have some smaller models.

What id do is id spent the bite window in the port then after that go out in the bay and get some snapper and look out for jewies, tuna busting up often as well although not big 60-70cm, we saw some but skipped over them as we mainly wanted threadies and didnt really want to waste any time on small tuna in the bite window haha, also snapper in the bay which is fun and can't beat a good bream session haha.

Sometimes it can be hard getting them to bite, fish the bite window, morning bite window significantly better than afternoon. Molix forkflex and heavy hitter have been my 2 plastics i normally run for jewies and threadies, forklex only for jewies though.  Check out Peter Herbst on youtube he uses forkflexs for jewies.

 

And last thing man, just keep scanning, honestly man the more you scan the more youll pickup on where the fish sit, I tend to only fish schools that are 10-15 fish or more unless its a super hard day and ill fish the 2-5 fish schools or even the 1 fish randomly. Live scope helps alot, sometimes therell be 3-4 fish on fish finder but youll drop livescope in and there 40 plus. 

I saw sometimes a few days ago and it was 100% true, 80% scanning, 19% casting and 1% casting

 

Good Luck man

[Josh1992]

12 hours ago, mangajack said:

Also of note is a substantial number of fish do not show on the sounder.....they can be masked and missed by changing bottom readings, directions they are facing as you pass them and things like bait schools coming through.

I put the hours in on hard bottom regardless of the fish shows on the sounder. Too many times I have hooked a good fish that has not shown on the sounder....the last jew I got did not show at all and was directly under the boat in both downscan and traditional imaging showing nothing but small bait over rock at the time.

I do not waste my time casting for single fish shows on the sounder unless it is sitting on a tiny piece of reef.

Generally days when there are big schools of bait about are days that my success rate is low....I presume the fish are well fed and not going to eat anyway.

Less bait days I tend to do better on and will actively drift with a bait school....

Yeah like I was saying if I find bait I will have a fish. But yeah trying to find them could take the whole day if your lucky unless you know the locations to focus on..

[Josh1992]

8 hours ago, mzaakir said:

Hey man, I went out on the boat wednesday last week with a mate who knows his way around the port like no one ive ever seen, we found stacks of jewies but nothing was biting unfortunately, i will say this though there are a lot of very common well known spots for jewies in the river, throw around a 95mm or 110mm vibe would start with 110 if your just getting into jewies on lures or yet to get your first, or a 4-5inch plastic on a 1/2 or 5/8 jighead is another very good option.

Spot wise, moreton bay has heaps of jewies around, they are around tailor sometimes, so sometimes its worth looking for tailor if your completely lost. Drop offs those sort of area around the 12-20m mark ive found hold heaps of jewies. Additionally, around the ships hold good jewies and in around the pylons have some smaller models.

What id do is id spent the bite window in the port then after that go out in the bay and get some snapper and look out for jewies, tuna busting up often as well although not big 60-70cm, we saw some but skipped over them as we mainly wanted threadies and didnt really want to waste any time on small tuna in the bite window haha, also snapper in the bay which is fun and can't beat a good bream session haha.

Sometimes it can be hard getting them to bite, fish the bite window, morning bite window significantly better than afternoon. Molix forkflex and heavy hitter have been my 2 plastics i normally run for jewies and threadies, forklex only for jewies though.  Check out Peter Herbst on youtube he uses forkflexs for jewies.

 

And last thing man, just keep scanning, honestly man the more you scan the more youll pickup on where the fish sit, I tend to only fish schools that are 10-15 fish or more unless its a super hard day and ill fish the 2-5 fish schools or even the 1 fish randomly. Live scope helps alot, sometimes therell be 3-4 fish on fish finder but youll drop livescope in and there 40 plus. 

I saw sometimes a few days ago and it was 100% true, 80% scanning, 19% casting and 1% casting

 

Good Luck man

Thanks for the reply mate but I have already done everything you said haha like literally I know the depth range and look for deep holes and structure etc. I use molix plastics on 5/8-3/4 in deep and vibes and have watched peter which is frustrating in itself lol. 

I spend like 6 hours+ a session constantly scanning and 95% of the time just see a desert (in the port) haha. 

 

[mzaakir]

I don't really want to give you the exact spot haha but off colmslie boat ramp go left and on the other side of the bank youll find i forgot what its called but yk how the port got the ships and next to them youll find those pylons and like a deck above it, youll find something like that at the spot ive mentioned off colmslie boat ramp, sound around there, theres normally heaps of fish, mainly threadies but youll get jewies there alot of the time too, that spot even if there 5-6 its worth throwing a cast.

[mangajack]

One thing that has not been touched in here is feeding lanes.....

Jew like a lot of predatory fish spend a lot of time apparently not feeding....if they are not travelling you will find them stationary where the current brings the food to them.

Often times this can be what seems like in the middle of nowhere with no nearby structure....but we don't see what they want and why they are there.

Just like a small feeder creek on the side of a river, bays and big main channels also have feeders....they might be 15 cm deeper that surrounds but that is all it takes for prawns and small baitfish to follow in the current....these are feeder lanes.

Predominantly these feeder lanes will be a mid tide thing where the current is strongest....the predators will basically glue themselves into that depression escaping some of the current and vacuum up the food as it comes through.

I have found feeder lanes in lots of places in the Bris and Pine rivers and a couple in Cabo and Bribie Passage.   sometimes in 2m and sometimes in 15m and all depths between.....the one thing in common is you will find a singular fish there that will stay there for an extended period of time and it is always in a high current spot.

When sounding spot the fish and mark him....then do two passes up current from the fish at say 6 and 12 metres ahead....you can almost guarantee that fish is sitting a few inches deeper there than 2m either side of him.....it is feeding but not moving to feed.

Both threadfin and jew both do this and both will move off only when the current speed drops off.

Also of note, you never see these spots populated with big fish at night.

[DB-Fishing]

Where are the feeding lanes in the pine mate? Cheers.

[mangajack]

There are about a dozen between DWB and Dohles Rocks.....upstream of the Bruce there are dozens....some are quite long, others are only about 10m long....

If your sounder makes new charts of the bottom it really shows the shallow lanes clearly