Shorncliffe Pier - Why does it fish so poorly?

[Big Shaun]

Hi everyone,

I fished around Shorncliffe and Sandgate for the past 20 years and like many enthusiasts I have experienced much disappointment fishing off the Shorncliffe pier in recent years. It is a great jetty with good structure and now even great facilities but not to many fish. Why? I am interested to hear Ausfish members theories as to why Shorncliffe offers poor fishing and other jettys in the greater Brisbane area seem to fish fairly consistently. I don't believe it is caused by line fishing. I do believe bait netting is a contributing factor. I believe most recreational fishers only take what they need and I am sure I am not the only one to see a few really over do it. I have witnessed and challenged a few people for systematically working the pier from pillar to post leaving nothing behind. No bait fish, no predator fish, no recreational fishing and no fun. I remember a time when we collected pipis and chased soldier crabs on the sandgate beach front. Again something that also seems lost from the bay. I hope this stimulates some productive comments.

Cheers.
Shaun

[The-easyrider]

I have just finished reading a post on another site where a young bloke caught two golden travally about 9kg a heap of school macks and some sharks and some big bust offs on 60lb gear

[The-easyrider]

Sorry my bad, the clown ment the pier in Harvey bay

[juju]

As a kid i caught a really nice big bream there once, but back in those days before we had a boat we always caught more either over at clontarf(just over the bridge) or at the woody point jetty...just never seemed to do any good on the jetty...so your not the only one

[baitwaster]

Sorry to hijack the thread, New woody point jetty is open for business now. I went for a stroll along it on Sunday, and baitfish galore under it.

[juju]

woody point always seemed to have a better population of fish present,more bait =more fish logic says.....there is more rock there too compared to teh sand under shorncliffe....but you would still thing that the pylons there would hold plenty of bait

[shrunken pojie]

Hi guys,

Just speculating here, I have absolutely no proof at all about this but... I have just looked at Google earth and noticed a couple of things. It would appear that the deep water is a lot closer on the Redcliffe side of Bramble Bay. Also, would it have something to do with the prevailing winds blowing the fish, bait fish, bait fish food towards Redcliffe/Woody Point? And another thought, where does the channel from the Pine River flow?

Phill

[Freeeedom]

The Shorncliffe pier is a good spot for garfish in the winter time. Fish across the top of a high tide around 8.00 a.m., preferbaly with no wind, and berley with bread crumbs, bran or crumbled chicken pellets. Use tiny bits of dough on a small hook (Numer 12 - 16) under a small quill float. You'll get mainly river gar with the odd snub nose gar and sea gar thrown in.
It's also a good place for bait fish like herring, hardiheads and yellowtail pike in the winter time also. They can all be caught on a bait jig but the pike will destroy the rig after a while. Again fish across a high tide soon after dawn for the best results.
If you want to catch a bream your best bet is to fish on top of the rocks close to the start of the jetty across a high tide AT NIGHT with very lightly weighted baits. You need good bait for them like yabbies, worms or very fresh prawns and you could even use bread as an unweighted bait. Cast out onto the rocky areas and let your line hang loosely so that the fish don't feel any weight when they take the bait. Watch for the line to move away as the fish swallows the unweighted bait then strike. This is best when the night tides are big and it is essential that you be as quiet as possible and don't shine lights in the water. The fish are very ghosty in the shallow water, which is why you get very few in the daytime. You'll have best results mid-week when the ghetto blasters are less likely to entertain you while fishing.
You do get the odd flathead around the foreshores in that area. They will take a live bait such as a herring or a soft plastic. I quite like to wade the mouth of Cabbage Tree Creek for them on a falling tide.
Despite the amount of bait fish around in winter I've never caught a decent tailor off the pier - only just legal ones at times. Not sure why.
In late Feb - March you just might get a school mackerel if you put a garfish, pilly or pike out wide under a balloon on a falling tide.
Quite a few sharks are also taken from the pier - mostly small whalers.
Hope this gives you some ideas
Cheers Freeeedom

[Big Shaun]

My brother has caught a few sharks of the end of the pier. The boys run the lines out about 300m into deeper water. The other week they did catch a threadfin. Bream use to be the bread and butter fish off the jetty especially around the middle just before the pavilion. I know bait netting off the urangan pier has been banned now. Not sure of the reason why. I see more 2 foot shovel nose sharks caught than bream off the shorncliffe jetty. The baxters jetty is no better. There is flathead around the mouth of cabbage tree creek. Occassionally I hear about a run on tailor during the season. Do you think more artificial structure would improve the situation?

Cheers.
Shaun

[Mr__Bean]

Trouble is that there is no supermarket near the Shornecliff pier.

The Redcliffe Jetty has much more "structure" underneath it.

- Darren

[Big Shaun]

Trouble is that there is no supermarket near the Shornecliff pier.

The Redcliffe Jetty has much more "structure" underneath it.

- Darren

We need some wrecks out the front. There are a couple trawlers just wasting away near the boat ramp on cabbage tree creek. I reckon sink them. Pretty sure at least one is already leaking oil into the creek.

[skipalong]

hey shaun i blooded that rod and reel for you caught some mackerel on it great fun.

cheers justin

[Cammy]

I have been fishing the pier for bout 5 years now and it has always been shit for me, i went there everyweekend for about 9 months stupidly trying to catch fish with my best mate at the time, the only decent catches i have ever brought home with me would have to be probably 4 legal bream, and my legal bream is 26cm+, my mate has caught one flathead off their that was 45cm, and we have caught dozens and dozens of rays, only caught 3 sharks though, i have seen 2 jew caught there before. Shark fisherman - that pier is a gold mine, i have also seen dozens of sharks caught and killed on that pier and i have the fins of them to prove it.

The problem with the place is exacly what Mr_Bean said, virtually has no structure besides the actualy pier itself. Unlike other places mentioned, its just sand! Although i have been out there one time when it was dead and i mean dead! the water was waveless and i could see right to the bottom with my sunnies on, and i know where the structure is around the end of the pier there little bits of coral here and there, and its not very deep out there probs 5 metres max on high tide if that, compared to other places. I reckon this is why the places is always so dead, teh place is scarce, and not to mention the people that take everything and leave nothing!

For anyone that wants to try to catch the elusive fish at shorncliffe pier, dont be a sheep and cast out into the bay, cast underneath the pier where there's structure and food, i was there about a month ago just to give it another go and see what was happening with the area. I went to my favorite spot on the jetty, cast into my spot and after bout 10 mins of leaving the bait in the water while i was on my phone, my rod went off and almost snapped, it was an unstoppable, at first i thought it was a ray, but when it broke my line as it swam away to another destination and i rigged up my line plonked it out in the same spot again the same thing happened, this time i wasnt on my phone and i had a bit of a play round with it and i thought i felt a couple of heads shakes. So there might be somthing decent out there lurking, it has happened a couple of times over where i have caught all the decent bream.

I got a bit off topic sry, but the point is most of the time you will catch Shiat all (95%) and some times you will catch somthing that resembles a decent fish (5%), i have been out many times and come home with nothing not even a nibble!

Also caught a baby manta ray out there, now wasnt that a suprize!! lol

Cam

[Just_chips]

It's been raped and pillaged for far too long. As you said some of the cast-netters that frequent the pier have no morals whatsoever.

I also used to collect pipis and soldier crabs along the front of Sandgate and wade the flats on the incoming tide for whiting. It is now illegal to collect moluscs and bivalves in the area between the Kedron Brook Floodway and the Hornibrook bridge as the practice has now been banned, not because of the guys grabbing a few pipis for bait but because some of our minority groups used to walk the foreshore with wheelie bins collecting massive quanitities of them. I think the ban came in to place not long before the bag limit on prawns, that was another species collected in this area by the wheelie bin load by the minority groups.

Before anybody jumps on me, I'm not trying to turn this into a bashing of particular groups but just saying what I have seen over the years in this area, and the authorities at the time have reacted accordingly.

When recreational fishers follow the rules and act responsibly it is an evironmentally sustainble excercise, but when they start behaving as they have around the Sandgate foreshores it is a very damaging pastime that has given the green groups massive pollitical ammunition over the years. This is the sort of publicity none of us need if we wish to keep fishing on the weekends.

Kev

[champion]

It's been raped and pillaged for far too long. As you said some of the cast-netters that frequent the pier have no morals whatsoever.

I also used to collect pipis and soldier crabs along the front of Sandgate and wade the flats on the incoming tide for whiting. It is now illegal to collect moluscs and bivalves in the area between the Kedron Brook Floodway and the Hornibrook bridge as the practice has now been banned, not because of the guys grabbing a few pipis for bait but because some of our minority groups used to walk the foreshore with wheelie bins collecting massive quanitities of them. I think the ban came in to place not long before the bag limit on prawns, that was another species collected in this area by the wheelie bin load by the minority groups.

Before anybody jumps on me, I'm not trying to turn this into a bashing of particular groups but just saying what I have seen over the years in this area, and the authorities at the time have reacted accordingly.

When recreational fishers follow the rules and act responsibly it is an evironmentally sustainble excercise, but when they start behaving as they have around the Sandgate foreshores it is a very damaging pastime that has given the green groups massive pollitical ammunition over the years. This is the sort of publicity none of us need if we wish to keep fishing on the weekends.

Kev

You are spot on Kev !!

I know exactly who & what you mean !!

Joe