Barra in the brizzy river

[Freeeedom]

Does anyone have any pictures of barra or large threadfin caught in the Brisbane River? That should settle the issue
Cheers Freeeedom

[Smithy]

Freedom,

there have been a couple of pics of Threadies from the Brissie River in QFM the last couple of years. See the Grunter in it this edition. Know some blokes at Maryborough that would swear on their mother's grave there is a Croc in the Diamonds/Turkey area south of the south head of the Mary River at Maryborough. Barra are targetable in the Tin Can Bay area and there seems to be reports of them in the Noosa region every now and again.

[Remo]

I have personally caught them in the Brisbane River (Threadfin Salmon), Bulwer Island rock wall to be exact. On a few occasion as well, they weren't big between 450 to 550 Long. All were caught on live prawns. Now it has been many years since I have fished this spot. I #think that they would still be there as I think the river is cleaner now than it has ever been before. ie the snapper moving into the mouth of the river.

As for Barra a mate told me that the dpi were testing strains of barra, and released some at Colleges crossing. But that could have been the rum talking on that issue. But if you look at the maroochy river it is only a matter of time before a self breeding colony has been established there from the escapees from the fish farm at Bli Bli. #

Cheers


Ray

[Hardrigger]

Jeez i wish that was true wouldnt have to head so far up for the prize photo fish

[grave41]

Ive seen pictures of barra caught at bribie on plastics.The Beaudesert museum still has a photo of the crock shot in the logan i think.long time ago. We put a bait net in the maroochy river for poddies and caught babby queenies, grassy sweetlip, parrot and what looked like coral trout.The water was so hot it wasnt much difference being out or in the water. Graham

[Q-Jacks]

i thought barra like somewhere warm???

[Matthias]

There have been mangrove jacks caught in sydney harbour and I have caught queenies in the Tweed river. There is a closely related speices to barra called sand bass which may have been in the brissy river. There also used to be a species of cod in the brissy river which was very similar to the Mary river cod which is now believed to be extinct. Maybe the barra went the same way as the cod.

[porl]

Will be interesting then to see what does change in long term in the brissy river now the sand is coming back. I used to play football in Orley Park in West End in the early 90's and when the ball inevitably went in i was often the one to retrieve it cause i was a good swimmer. Mud, lots of it every footstep i took to get into deep enough water to swim. Now I notice it is dark sand. Put in a crab pot near there on the weekend last just to entertain my 11yr old nephew from melbourne. Didn't catch anything (not that i expected to when we were only there for 40min and he picked it up out of the water every 5 min.), but we were putting it off the end of a boat pontoon and i fully expected at that depth for mud to come up with the bottom of the pot, but it didn't happen.

Wife and kid go away for a couple weeks from this weekend, might start goin down the street in the evenings and flicking some prawn size lures and see what happens.

[Brenno]

last sunday (26/3) a few mates went out to the mouth of the brisbane river for some thing to do, they called me up a few hours laters saying they had caught threadfin salmon, that was 115cm long and weighted around 16kg, i've yet to see any pics.

[rando]

It would be interesting to do a search of historical reports of catches from the river , say 1920 and earlier.
John Oxley library would probably have something.
I wonder if that could be done online, or would you have to go there and physically search for it.?

[rando]

Heres something I found.
Steamships, introduced in 1846, plied the River and steamers soon began to replace sailing schooners on the run between Sydney and Brisbane and on the upriver stretch to Ipswich. The pressure to accommodate shipping also produced a proposal to dredge the River as early as 1846. Nine years later, a survey conducted by Captain John Clements Wickham revealed that the cost of clearing the outer bar and main channel to the wharves in the centre of town to a depth of sixteen feet would be £43,000. A shallow bar forced ships of draught greater than this depth to stand out in the Bay, be subject to heavy seas and require time-consuming and troublesome trans-shipment of goods to smaller craft

[rando]

I am no "great shakes" at using the internet or research etc, but I had a look around the John Oxley Library site for any historical reference to the Brisbane river. Found some references to fish species in the river and Oxley Creek.
Species mentioned were Mullet Catfish Eells Perch Mussels Oysters.

[porl]

This is a cut and paste from a historical site:

One Half Water, One Half Fish
John Cameron (1864)

The Brisbane river, some twenty-five years ago, at times, and on a moonlight night appeared to change from all water to one half water, one half fish. The noise made is really startling, and the writer has seen more than one robust individual jump back from the edge of a boat landing, as if shot; the cause of his fright being a huge jew-fish leaping up close to, and falling on the water in a way to create a noise, something like a big boat being dropped from a height of ten or twelve feet, on to the surface. The river literally appeared alive with marine monsters, whose anger vented itself in lashing the waters with unabating fury all through the night.

On one of these nights the old fisherman who resides at South Brisbane, had a singular experience. He had been working hard all night with his scoop along the shores of the river for prawns, but he could not get a prawn worth catching. All the time he had been working, the lashing, splashing, tussling, struggling and thumping had been going on among the jew-fish, in the middle, and above and below him in the river, but in a particular spot, not far from where he was making a 'last try' he noticed that the splashing was done in a circle, which covered a large space in the river; the circle or ring being clearly defined by a huge jew-fish, constantly leaping up, while others, in turn, lashed the water with their tails. His curiosity was aroused, and he pulled his punt to the spot. As he approached the edge of the circle, there was a terrible leaping and struggling, as the compact mass of fish opened out and he found himself within the ring. It soon explained why he had caught no prawns, for here they were 'rounded up' in a solid mass, a foot deep, entangled with each other, and incapable of individual movement, being something like a great body of debris brought down with a flood. The dispersal of their fish enemies, and the attempt of the fisherman to scoop some of them into his punt, soon infused life into the strata of prawns; what with jumping, wrenching, and other efforts, they disentangled themselves and disappeared like magic...

There is, perhaps, no more interesting sight to an European than to see the natives engaged in fishing. Those natives inhabiting the sea-coast country before the white man 'put in an appearance,' did not fish as their successors do, with modern hook and line, they used the spear and the towrow, &c., and it is questionable whether they did not succeed in making good hauls in their rude way, when the fish were undisturbed by the net, and plentiful, as they do now with the more approved and elaborate tackle and sophisticated fish to deal with. It is something altogether wonderful the way in which the aborigines seem to understand the movements of fish. An European would look upon the waters of the bay, or ocean, and see nothing but a wide expanse of water; an aborigine looks, and he sees shoals of fish, how, why, or wherefore, you cannot tell, but there it is. He is never mistaken. It is no fancy. To him the surface of the bay or ocean is like a page of a book to an educated man. He reads as he runs; each wavelet forming a character in his alphabet. Should a shoal of mullet come into the bay, and, without jumping up, he looks and he knows they are there, and can form a rough idea of the numbers of the shoal, in the same way that Napoleon Bonaparte could estimate the numbers of a marching army.

After a 'fresh' the 'towrows' come into general requisition, more especially among the coastal tribes of the aborigines; and in some of the rivers and creeks they make quite large hauls. It is really an interesting sight to make them strip off and quietly stalk in to the water, nets in hand, and held clear from the body on either side, and, looking for all the world like 'black ghosts,' moving without apparent volition or disturbance of a muscle...

To be successful in towrow fishing, the water has to be 'thick' with discolouration. The fisherman stands perfectly still with his face to the point the waters flow from, and the towrows (a hand net with a hoop at the top) extended in either hand to right or left of his body, so held as to catch any fish that may be swept by the tide or flood, along to part of the steam occupied by the fisherman. If a fish is caught in one of the towrows he is taken out, bitten on the back of the head by the fisherman, and then thrown on to the bank, or put into a dillybag, hung across the shoulder. The dexterity exhibited in this species of fishing is wonderful, they catch hundreds of fish in this way.

The most marvelous instance, however, that the writer has ever heard of, in connection with the power exercised by the aborigines over fish, is in the case of the stinging-ray. The power seems to be possessed by the old men, principally. The operator will stand upon the bank of a creek, river, or the shores of the bay, where the stinging-rays 'lookout,' and he shouts in a peculiar way, but at the top of his voice, when you will see every ray within hearing of the sound, dart up and make a sign of his presence. It matters not if a ray is below the mud hiding, up he jumps at the call. You will see hundreds jump together.



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The Brisbane River
Thomas Welsby, from Schnappering and Fishing in the Brisbane River and Moreton Bay Waters (1905).

The Brisbane River, from the Bridge to Luggage Point, abounds in all sorts of fish, including jewfish, flathead, bream, perch, whiting, sole, eel, eel-catfish, toadies, stingarees, and catfish...

What pleasure there is in punt fishing. I don't mean fishing for a punt, but fishing from a punt. First you borrow your punt, then you ask a friend to join you for a Saturday afternoon, and go halves in a quart of prawns with their heads on. Naturally each man brings his own fishing line and hooks, and each is determined to beat the head off the other both in number of fish caught and the weight thereof. Someone brings a bottle of beer, and chances to someone else bringing a corkscrew...

To speak, however, of the fishing ground from the Bridge downwards, let me say that the fishing in the South Brisbane Reach is best a little above and below the bridge, just about midstream, and that when fish are about some good jew and flathead can be caught at these places. This portion of the river, like all places down as far as Luggage Point, varies according to the condition of the water - that is, salt, brackish or fresh. I have seen the waters in the Sugar Refinery and Bulimba Reach quite salt one week, and as clear as can be to a depth of three or four feet, become quite muddy and brackish, even to freshness when heavy rains have occurred for a day or so. The watersheds of the Brisbane and the Bremer are accountable for this. At such times when the water is salt and clear, the fishing, although not too good, is fair to middling, bream and whiting and flathead being caught well up the Hamilton Reach, but on the downcoming of the rain waters from the upper reaches, the fish are driven back to the mouth of the river, and disperse amongst the inlets and the shallows of the Bay.

Jewfish like a thickish water, although they are freely taken in clear or salt water. Some very fine fish of this description have been taken both above and below the Bridge, and as far as the Garden Point. Fairly strong lines, with from two and to three hooks are used - one hook below the sinker, a couple above - the best bait being fresh mullet, although prawns are not at all bad bait. The sinker should vary according to the thickness of the line, but always heavy enough not only to sink, but to keep on the bottom of the river. If the jew are at all plentiful they take the bait freely, and may require playing. As a rule, they hook themselves well, and, strange to say, whilst invariably taken from fair depths, are often caught with a floating line - that is, a line without a sinker. The night is the best time to catch them in this manner, and the most ardent fisherman who has been there can well explain the sport they give....

Rounding Norris' Point in the Bulimba Reach, the first place of import where the punt fisherman might try his luck is a little below the Hawthorne ferry, Bulimba side, some thirty or forty yards from the shore, just where, until recently, a black buoy was moored. This place was a danger to navigation, vessels drawing more than ordinary water having on one or two occasions struck a rock at this spot. Bream are the chief fish on the ground, taken best at young flood, with prawns for bait, double gut hooks being the best to use. The spot is, however, not to be depended upon.

Further down the river, on the same side, just almost abreast a little creek, there is an excellent bottom, mud in some places, but in patches a hardish sand can be found. The sand gives feeding place and burrowing opportunities to flathead of considerable weight, whilst jewfish of a fair size can be taken. Slack water is the best time to be there for luck or otherwise.

Opposite and a little above the Queensland Brewery some good 'holes' can be found, as rock is the feature of the bank and the bottom of the river there. Many a hook and sinker lie caught on the boulders, lost by fisherman throwing in from the shore. Flathead, bream, and pike eels very often take up their quarters for a time, the place affording not only night fishing, but good day fishing to a patient one. All fishermen have to be patient, for he who goes on the water, and, getting no bites, no fish under half an hour, and tires, and 'would be at home', will never make an angler....

(ran out of space at this point)

[Az]

thumper of a fish, what was it caught on?

[shut_up_and_fish]

i know of the following by good authority and/or visual evidence

barra - behind fraser through the sandy straits, noosa river (pic davo's), certain creek in pumicestone passage (very reliable ausfisher source)

threadies - behind fraser, noosa river (www.fishingnoosa.com.au - tall tales and pics), brissy river (brownies pics on tv)

Back in the 70/80's the old man and uncle used to do a fair bit of pro crabbing in burpengary creek - they swear they saw slides and prints of a croc however only a small creek and believe it would have been sighted again since then but made for interesting thoughts as young boy. Have also heard about croc being sighted by barge workers at tewantin.

Bonefish approx2kg caught by me at noosa north shore - boy do they hit like a steam train.

growing up fishing the pumicestone passage - i am amazed at the species being pulled out of there since the netting stopped and stocks have rebuilt - trevally, queenfish, grunter i thought were mainly northern species. also have been told by senior source that snapper used to be caught around 7kg (lbs 15-16??) at white patch and bridge many moons ago.

very good read throughout.............