Old Scaley

Fantastic videos Ray. Beautiful to watch.

By strange coincidence I literally just finished reading that article. My sister in Mt Isa sent a link. Not from a river though. These big girls were caught in the artificial lake at the Isa which is a stocked impoundment.

Or steamed. Or basted with lemon butter and pan fried. Delicious no matter how you cook them.

That app is pretty good. Hardest part is reading a phone screen in the sun. I assumed we couldn’t put undersize fish on the leaderboard or I would have snapped a pic of the little 40cm (approx) threadie, and approx 35cm estuary cod I caught on Friday. Nothing in the rules to say you can’t, so @AUS-BNE-FISHO, get that tiny threadie up! Not meaning to steal your topic, Greg. How are you cooking the grassies?

Nice bag of tasties, boys. I love Maori Cod, oh and tuskie, and grassies. Did I mention mackerel? Great day out. Congrats.

Nice thread. Nice to see a plan come together.

Tasty looking esky Greg. Good to see you getting out and amongst them.

Scary stuff there. If you are crabbing the river from the bank, I wonder if the muddies might be down a little deeper to find more salt after all the rain recently? Do you get many at Hawthorne generally? Maybe they will come back once the fresh flushes through.

I don’t use it as much as I used to because I am getting lazy and don’t chase live bait as often as I used to, and I have other gear that I prefer to use. I would use it bait fishing for threadies or jew. Also snapper sometimes. The threadies and jew often have a slow first run before they really take the bait, so the baitrunner function is good for not giving them too much pressure in that early run. Snapper on the other hand often just smash the bait and run and having the baitrunner engaged gives a really, really satisfying noise.

Hi Hamish. I have Shimano Baitrunner 8000 D that I pair up with either an Ugly Stick or an old Silstar Crystal Tip Rod, 25lb braid. Next time I respool it I might use mono because I use it for baitfishing or livie fishing only. I don’t think I would want to be casting and retrieving with that set up for too long, but I do like it for non-lure fishing. The advantage that I see is you can set your main drag correctly and adjust the light drag to suit the area and the fish target. Unless you are fishing fairly heavy line, adjusting your drag on the run can be problematic. So if you are only going to use it for bait or livie fishing, I would recommend going with the baitrunner style reel. Or just cash in more bottles and buy them both.

That is really bad luck @Another Wazza. Brian showed me that photo on Tuesday when we were having our own battles with the men in grey raincoats. Hopefully you will nail another cracker soon.

Yes Kelvin. The river was probably the only place that was (barely) fishable today. You get after them, mate. If this one could be caught in the middle of the day in a strong run using cuttlefish head you should do well if you really target them. Good luck!

The bait was just sitting on the bottom. Running sinker (size 4 because of the run) on 20lb leader and a 5/0 circle hook. Definitely not expecting a Jew to take it.

Haha @Kat. Not sure my snapper is any bigger than yours so you might still hang onto third spot in the snapper category. Happy to get on the board today with the only mulloway so far. Especially since it was a bit of a fluke catch in terrible conditions and with a raging outgoing tide, on a cuttlefish head meant to tempt a snapper.

Mulloway 95cm. Caught it on my mates boat today and the only blue thing handy was the rope. Also didn’t have a measuring device long enough but did a rough measure by holding the finger at the 80cm mark and then measuring that last bit to the tail.

Do you reckon the crowds at the Open are getting worse? Back in the day, the players always commented on how knowledgeable and fair the Australian fans were. Now it seems that there is a huge bogan element who think they are at the local footy ground. A bit disappointing.

If you didn’t enjoy the Kyrgios v Medvedev game tonight, you really should never watch tennis. Amazing to think that a guy who - is ranked outside the top 100, has no coach, hasn’t played since September, is recovering from Covid, has a fragile psyche - could give us such an entertaining game against the world number 2. Great match.

I always prepare the day before. No list for fishing trips, but always have a list for camping. Doesn’t stop me forgetting to pack stuff the day of departure (I have left my tent behind twice). For stuff that is last minute, like food from the fridge or bait from the freezer, I leave a note on top of the car keys to stop me from forgetting. With one group of mates I camp with, we always spend some time around the campfire on the last night running through things we could improve. What did we bring that we didn’t need, or what didn’t we bring that we should have? Better ways to set up the camp? We note that down for next trip. I reckon having a list for day trips would be useful though. It might stop my mind from constantly running an internal checklist throughout the night. Like the others I always sleep really lightly the night before.

Is Bribie too far? Or maybe one of the beaches around Redcliffe or Scarborough?

Love the tennis @AUS-BNE-FISHO. Would love to see Diminaur or Kyrgios do well, but I think it will be Medvedev or Nadal in the men’s, and Barty or Osaka in the women’s. I like the Frenchman Hubert as well.

Good time for Bec to taste test the catties then......

You have a shot anywhere from Newstead to the mouth of the river, but more likely from the Gateway bridge down. People have caught regularly caught legal snapper from the Colmslie fishing platform on the Southside. Maybe try google earth to find spots that are accessible rom land. They will eat most baits or soft plastics. Cuttlefish seems to be the best bait, but half pilchards or peeled prawns work as well. Good luck.

Ok, the jury has now returned a verdict in this case. A mate and I went for a fish down the port yesterday, targeting snapper. On the way down to the ramp, he told me that if we caught a cattie he intended to take some fillets to try. This guy is a great cook and loves a bit of a challenge. After all the rain recently I knew there was a fair chance of getting a few of these slimy pests. Sure enough, first fish he hooks is an absolute monster catfish. I said you are not bringing that big ugly bag of slime onto my boat, so it was released to annoy someone else. We were getting a few snapper and more catfish. He settled on a smaller cattie for the esky (wrapped separately of course). Before we got back to the ramp he carefully removed all the spiky bits and whipped off a couple of skinless boneless fillets. When he got home he washed the fillets and removed any blood. He crumbed them and some snapper fillets tried to pass them off to his wife as “blue jew” to encourage her into a blind taste test but she was quickly onto him. Anyway, long story short, he ate the catfish and said it was at least as good as the snapper. I checked on him this morning and he is still alive and not glowing green. So the question about the eating quality of Brizzie River catfish is now answered. Still think I might pass though.

Good to hear your test was negative mate. Hope Bec recovers quickly and you guys can get back to your crazy full-on life.

Yes