Catching anything legal

[sunny]

After a long lurk on Ausfish, I think its time I said hello.

Of course, I have a question, and I couldn't think of a better place to ask it ;D

I'm a Seth Effrican who moved to Brizvegas about four years ago. For the good weather and great boating conditions.

Right, now ten years after I last fished on a regular basis I have:
- rods and reels [smiley=thumbsup.gif]
- boat [smiley=thumbsup.gif]
- stupid amount of bright shiny stuff in tacklebox [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

So now, the question is, how do I catch anything big enough to take home? After figuring out that none of the things that worked on South African fish ten yeas ago, work here, I've decided to go back to basics and target bream and whiting. I've been fishing the Pine River, Bribie Passage and Pearl Channel in search of these species.

After much mucking around I now have a rig that catches just about everything that bites (2Kg line, two no 6 long shanks with little or no sinker on a sliding rig and prawns or live worms for bait)

So now all I need to figure out is how to catch anything big enough to take home ??? I've been keeping a log lately and its 3 keepers from a bag of 53. Any advice [smiley=huh2.gif]

[phil_the_greek]

dude pm me i might be able to help on the pine and pumice stone pasage.
ps where do you live?

phil

[rando]

HI Sunny,
Welcome to ausfish, Gary Howard a local rod maker offered me some advise a couple of years ago to much the same question. "Its a seasonal thing" . For instance we are in transition now to the winter species. Bream Tailor Snapper Mulloway would be the primary targets inshore, maybe some of the offshore guys can help you better than me with whats available out wide. ) Have a think about what you prefer to target then set a trap for the big one.
My goal this winter is a 5kg or better snapper, so I'm going to have to beg borrow or steal a boat to get to some of the local snapper grounds.But you can bet your boots Ill be in the surf with a tailor rig every chance I get from now till september and when they,re on Ill have a live tailor on a mulloway rig out there too.I know this is not much help , but any way , good luck and let us all know how you go.
Cheers
Rando

[Captian_Zero]

Sunny

I had the same problem with the number of keeper's as a proportion of the toal catch being pretty low. Still is low but is improving. I can only repeat the advice given to me on this site, as I am still know expert:

Fish at times when the fish will be feeding, turn of tides that coincide with early morning or late afternoons/evenings, know what species you are going to target and learn as much about their habits as you can and use a technique that will be successful on that species, use live bait if available, fresh dead bait next and frozen bait as a last resort (you might want to invest in a yabbie pump and collect your own bait as most estuary species will take a live yabbie). Consider a day out with a fishing guide. Brad Smith on the Gold Coast will be able to put you onto some fish and will also teach you how to target them yourself.

Regards

Chris

[sunny]

What a great list this is ;D

Thanks for the the tips guys. I'll be trying them soon and will let you know how I go.

[Fishin_Dan]

Where abouts are you based Sunny?

[sunny]

Brisbane Northside and have boat stashed at MBBC at Scarborough. The boat is an old 5.3m Haines halfcab.