Oh What a night!!!

[duncan mcwhirter]

After looking through some photos yesterday, I was inspired to go out for a fish last night and see if I could rustle up a threadie or jew. Got there about 7pm and managed to get a constant supply of good size prawns. The river was perfect last night, very calm and not too cold.
Managed to get two Threadies, my pb, I have never seemed to be able to back it up after I get one so was very stoked to get two. The first one was about the 86cm mark and I'm guessing around 5kg give or take a few and the next one was a little smaller in the mid 70s. The first fish was caught just before high tide and the second one came just after. Both put up good fights. The second one got stuck under the jetty so I had to reach under the water to grab him. Sorry about the pictures, my camera was almost out of juice so had to take them blind. The second fish had very dark fins, interesting to see the variations you can get. Got about 6 catfish as well. Good to see the river firing last night, I have got to say personally I have found it a bit tough the last few weeks. :D

Definately will have a smile on my face for a while. Still chasing the metre plus one, but the threadies I have caught (after last night my tally is now 10!) have all been between 65 and 95cm in the middle reaches so maybe they head out to the mouth once they get a little bigger, would be interested to know if anyone has caught a metre plus one in the middle reaches before?

[Peter4]

You are fast becoming a threadie guru Duncan. Well done!

Pete

[Mozza]

Great pics Duncan!

Look at that tail - no wonder they GO. You'll be on a high for a while after a sesh like that.

Well done.

Mozza

[yanjarra]

what a lady ..what a night

[uglyfish]

nice fish mate,doing better than me i have yet to hook one down here..not wrong about the river tho shes been fishing very slow the past few weeks

[Billy C]

Are threadies any good on the tooth?

[duncan mcwhirter]

Hey billy C Yeah mate they are great on the chew!

[tailorboi99]

Once again, good job Duncan. I agree with Peter4, you are fast becoming both a Threadie and Jew guru. Keep it up.

Thanks Tom

[ddobson]

Good fish for one night. I caught my 105cm on te north end of the mouth on the edge of the deep east of that first ship tie so i don,t know if they are all big up here. Good feed tere to. Cheers

[LostNearBribie]

Geez mate you will have Chief following you around at this rate.
Great fish.
What sort of rig do you use in the river with the live prawns?
Running sinker etc.?

[gaintsquid]

Nice fish, the biggest thready ive ever seen came from kookaburra park.. there are some big ones in the middle reaches just alot harder to find then at the mouth.

[duncan mcwhirter]

Thanks Guys, I think I have a long way to go before chief gets impressed!! No I think its all about timing, I have noticed that where I fish it is only good between the tide changes and even then its like anything, you have to put in the hours, but i'm not complaining, I usually get a good hit every time I go and manage a good fish every two or three outings, so good odds I reckon. \
Lost in bribie - I use 20lb on one rod with a big sinker and about a 60cm trace with 30 to 50lb line and a 5/0 or a 6/0 circle hook. On the other rod I just bought some 50lb fins braid and I love it!! but use the same setup. I try and use one big prawn or two smaller prawns together, I don't seem to have much luck if I put any more on. Herring and mullet are great also but I have found the really small poddys don't work< around 10-15cm is ideal.

[chief]

Mate, I'm always impressed by your reports, All the regular river fishos on this site are certainly a fantastic bunch of blokes and all pull some great fish. I reckon everytime there's a post we all learn something new. As for the river the whole system has fired up This is the recovery after all the rain we had. By the look of it we might not get some heavy rain for a while so for the rest of july and august , things are looking good. The westerly blow has helped as well. Just out of interest are you finding the fish in shallower water? This time of year for me now is squire time but If you keep pulling these winter threadies I might be temped. I was going to give them a go at R2M anyway..Hey Duncan there is a land based section in this years river to mud . See Webby's post in Going fishing-M&G and did you check out that spot?

[chief]

Sorry mate If I could just remind the crew out there if you catch a threadie and taking him for a feed , Don't forget to give Brad Moore a call on 0401 055 589 or email him b.moore@uq.edu.au as he's chasing the frames for research. He will arrange to pick up the fish. Thanks Duncan and cheers

[Crisp Bee]

Good one Duncan. Two on the same night, awesome. They sure are Beautiful fish.
I went for a fish last night 10 to 12 and never got a sniff. I had small live mullet and herring for bait. I am still a Threadie Virgin and figured i won't catch em in front of the TV. cheers

[Fish_gutz]

Nice going Duncan, you might be onto something with the size and different parts of the river, I normally only fish the mouth and surrounds and have never seen one under 90cm come from where we fish but it`s deep water 16meters so that`s not saying the smaller models are not there they might just be in shallower water. anyways some good looking threadies there and yes they do go great on the chew, one of my favorites. cheers Andrew

[chief]

This is not official but it seems as if the farther you go up stream the smaller the fish (average) are. The nursery areas are well up stream and the fish tend to move down the river as they mature . I haven't heard at what size these fish are turning to Large breeding females ( thats why Brad needs those frames) but some fish i had at 1.1 m were mature spent males. The biggest I've had was 1.4 m from the mouth but unfortunately I couldn't tell you if it was a mature breeding female. I;d say it would have been. Some of these large tagged fish have travelled over 400 klms after being released and recaptured. It would be great to know eventually if to protect these large breeding females a maximum size limit applied so w could protect this river population and it could thrive

[duncan mcwhirter]

Thanks guys. Chief , I haven't had a chance to fish that spot yet. I think I got the flu after that night of fishing have been bloody awful since that night. oh well it was worth it.

[RAT-KING]

Great stuff Duncan!!
once u scored that first one they just seem 2 come so easy now!
Great effort!