Brisbane River Bruisers
At this time of year, I love to get into a bit of saltwater action. The calm days that come during winter are ideal for fishing from small boats. This means that a lot more anglers can get out and enjoy the excellent winter fishing on offer.
Moreton Bay and the Brisbane River would have to be two of the best places to visit. They hold a range of species including bream, flathead, tailor, snapper, threadfin and tunas. All this great fishing can be experienced from a small tinnie only minutes from Queensland’s biggest city.
Here’s what happened on my last Brisbane River trip.
The tide was low around 7.00am and we weren’t expecting too much action until the flow picked up. After ten minutes of fishing alongside a loading dock, the unexpected happened and my lure was nailed. I had been hopping the plastic from the shallow water back into the deep but on this cast; the plastic was snatched on the drop after it had landed. The fish came easily to deeper water before tearing the 20lb Spiderwire Stealth from the spool. The fight went on for around 10 to 15 minutes. Then the beast lay beside the boat – a 120cm threadfin salmon. What a great start to the day.
We fished the same area hard but there were no more strikes. The plan was to head to the mouth of the river and look for some water starting to run back in. We had our sights set on snapper but as we arrived there were scattered birds diving into bait schools in the middle of the river. On closer inspection, we noticed the odd slash as bigger fish were tearing through the bait schools and pushing them to the surface. There was only the odd fish busting the surface and they were very hard to target especially with all the boat traffic using the river mouth.
When three fish broke the surface moving in our direction, I fired a long cast right in front of them. The lure was only a 15g chrome slice but the 14lb Fireline allowed it to fly the required distance. A few seconds let the lure to sink before the reel bought it up to warp speed. A dozen cranks and it was on. A big tuna was torturing the drag on the reel. It went on to fight deep below the boat before being persuaded to come to the surface. At around 8kg it would have to be one of the biggest mac tuna I have ever caught. All this had happened inside the mouth of the river.
The snapper proved to be tough and we gave up on them after a couple of hours fishing. There was still enough run in the making tide to chase some of the river’s big bream. We headed
further upstream towards the Gateway Bridge fishing different spots on the way and catching a few bream. On our travels, we stumbled on a drop off that had current pushing against it and nervous bait skipping around on the surface. The first cast was chased by hungry bream until one finally took the bait. This continued each cast. After multiple double hookups, we’d racked up over twenty bream from the one spot. All of them were over legal size and some were crackers. The school must have been huge.
In a five hour session on the Brissie River I’d had a ball. There had been plenty of action and some big fish early on in the day that really topped it off. I can’t wait to get back and have another go.
If you’re going to the Brisbane River or Moreton Bay then here’s some tackle I’d recommend. You need to cover all bases as there’s such a wide range of fish species.
Outfit 1 – Berkley Dropshot 2-4kg 7’ spin rod matched with an 802 Abu Cardinal reel spooled with 4lb Fireline and fitted with an 8lb Vanish leader.
Uses – Casting light lures for bream, flathead and other smaller fish.
Outfit 2 – Berkley Dropshot 4-8kg 7’ spin rod matched with an 804 Abu Cardinal reel spooled with 20lb Spiderwire Stelth or Stren Braid and fitted with a 40lb Vanish leader (spare spool fitted with 10lb Stren Microfuse and 14lb leader).
Uses – Casting lures for snapper, threadfin salmon, tuna and other bigger species.
Outfit 3 – Berkley Dropshot 8-12kg 6’10” spin rod matched with an 806 Abu Cardinal reel spooled with 14lb Fireline and 17lb Vanish leader.
Uses – Casting metal slugs and high speed spinning for pelagic fish.
Moreton Bay and the Brisbane River would have to be two of the best places to visit. They hold a range of species including bream, flathead, tailor, snapper, threadfin and tunas. All this great fishing can be experienced from a small tinnie only minutes from Queensland’s biggest city.
Here’s what happened on my last Brisbane River trip.
The tide was low around 7.00am and we weren’t expecting too much action until the flow picked up. After ten minutes of fishing alongside a loading dock, the unexpected happened and my lure was nailed. I had been hopping the plastic from the shallow water back into the deep but on this cast; the plastic was snatched on the drop after it had landed. The fish came easily to deeper water before tearing the 20lb Spiderwire Stealth from the spool. The fight went on for around 10 to 15 minutes. Then the beast lay beside the boat – a 120cm threadfin salmon. What a great start to the day.
We fished the same area hard but there were no more strikes. The plan was to head to the mouth of the river and look for some water starting to run back in. We had our sights set on snapper but as we arrived there were scattered birds diving into bait schools in the middle of the river. On closer inspection, we noticed the odd slash as bigger fish were tearing through the bait schools and pushing them to the surface. There was only the odd fish busting the surface and they were very hard to target especially with all the boat traffic using the river mouth.
When three fish broke the surface moving in our direction, I fired a long cast right in front of them. The lure was only a 15g chrome slice but the 14lb Fireline allowed it to fly the required distance. A few seconds let the lure to sink before the reel bought it up to warp speed. A dozen cranks and it was on. A big tuna was torturing the drag on the reel. It went on to fight deep below the boat before being persuaded to come to the surface. At around 8kg it would have to be one of the biggest mac tuna I have ever caught. All this had happened inside the mouth of the river. The snapper proved to be tough and we gave up on them after a couple of hours fishing. There was still enough run in the making tide to chase some of the river’s big bream. We headed
further upstream towards the Gateway Bridge fishing different spots on the way and catching a few bream. On our travels, we stumbled on a drop off that had current pushing against it and nervous bait skipping around on the surface. The first cast was chased by hungry bream until one finally took the bait. This continued each cast. After multiple double hookups, we’d racked up over twenty bream from the one spot. All of them were over legal size and some were crackers. The school must have been huge.In a five hour session on the Brissie River I’d had a ball. There had been plenty of action and some big fish early on in the day that really topped it off. I can’t wait to get back and have another go.
If you’re going to the Brisbane River or Moreton Bay then here’s some tackle I’d recommend. You need to cover all bases as there’s such a wide range of fish species.
Outfit 1 – Berkley Dropshot 2-4kg 7’ spin rod matched with an 802 Abu Cardinal reel spooled with 4lb Fireline and fitted with an 8lb Vanish leader.
Uses – Casting light lures for bream, flathead and other smaller fish.
Outfit 2 – Berkley Dropshot 4-8kg 7’ spin rod matched with an 804 Abu Cardinal reel spooled with 20lb Spiderwire Stelth or Stren Braid and fitted with a 40lb Vanish leader (spare spool fitted with 10lb Stren Microfuse and 14lb leader).
Uses – Casting lures for snapper, threadfin salmon, tuna and other bigger species.
Outfit 3 – Berkley Dropshot 8-12kg 6’10” spin rod matched with an 806 Abu Cardinal reel spooled with 14lb Fireline and 17lb Vanish leader.
Uses – Casting metal slugs and high speed spinning for pelagic fish.
posted by Colonel's Capers @ 3:57 PM
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