If you live around the river, especially around the CBD or east of the CBD, good fishing is right on your back step. Bream are pretty common in the river along with other species. The key is to find a good spot. Things to look for are mangroves, rocks, and/or significant structure such as bridges, jetties, pontoons, etc.
I've heard a few rumors since I moved here about fishing around the river:
Can you fish the stretch where the City Cats run?
Absolutely. You can't fish from the Cats jetties, and there may be regs about how close to the cat jetties you can go, but everywhere else on public land is fair game.
Is the fish out of the river safe to eat?
I'd have to say this depends on what you catch. Something like a Bream is just fine out of the river. These fish go up and down the river and creeks and out to the bay & back. It's all the same water. Legal size bream are anywhere from 2-5 years old. They haven't had decades of eating other fish and accumulating Mercury and other toxins. If the fish is active when you catch it, no visible infections, and the gills are red, it's fine. If in doubt, catch and release.
For river fishing, the best times to target ambush predators/scavengers such as bream and flathead are on the rising tide, and the start of the run-out. I find once the water starts really moving out, it's moving too fast for Bream. Winter is definitely better than summer, but the summer Bream are much more active and fun to catch.
Good spots can be spotted via Google Maps, but these include around the Gateway bridge, Newstead Park, and the parkway stretch in West end between the bend and the new bridge. (look for the the areas with rocks rather than the paved wall they've been putting in.)
Newstead: The key area for bream here is right in the corner between the river and breakfast creek. Be warned, visit here at low tide before going for a cast. There is a LOT of various size rock around here that will gladly hold on to a poorly placed cast. Smaller bream come into these rocks so with a light hook & float you can have a lot of fun with the kids watching the float bob along until a smaller bream grabs the bait and runs. The bigger fish tend to set up a bit further out at the entrance to cabbage creek. Casting about 5-10m out or just outside the major rock structures can entice a few decent Bream. Be prepared for a good fight to get anything legal in past the rock structures Hooking up here is literally the easier half of the battle.
West End: This is a more relaxing spot where you can wedge a couple rods in the rocks and sit back. Bream are up and down this stretch fairly regularly during the day. I'm not that comfortable here late evening though, the fishing does turn on as it cools down:) There's little to worry about snags unless you head a bit further towards the bend where they have the rocks in mesh sections. (which did lead to an amusing duel with a honker of a mud crab I hooked.) The areas closer to the bend across from the Regatta with the meshed stones is productive at high tide, though you can end up with long/short fin eels. The rocky areas across from the river seafood restaurant are good pretty much any water level on incoming tide. The key is that as the tide comes in, bring your casts in shallower, especially in winter. Large bream, and even cod come in no more than 2m from shore to scour the rocks. At times I literally cannot keep two lines in the water with one being hammered as I re-bait the second. Out deeper you run into more catfish. One note: This location is pretty much a Sunday-only spot. Weekdays you won't find parking anywhere around here, and Saturday mornings are the same story with a market in the nearby park.
Gateway: There are a few good spots around the south end of the bridge, and along the north shore. I don't head this far East very often, but be prepared for snags.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Rigging up for Bream
So you should have a rod, reel, line, leader, set of #4 hooks, and size 0 & 1 ball sinkers ready to go do some fishing. How to set it up for maximum effect?
Lets start with the leader. You'll want to tie the leader directly to the main line instead of using anything like a brass swivel. The key to this is the double-uni knot. As far as knots go you only need two knots to catch the biggest bream. The uni knot and the double-uni knot. :)
Leave the leader on its spool and tie it on to your main line using the double-uni. For braid-to-20lb I like to use 6 wraps on the braid side and 4 wraps on the 20lb side. the 20lb is stiff so I want to keep the knot small. Once this is tied on, start reeling in. Wind in until you see the 20lb wind on about 4-6 times around the spool then cut the leader at that length. You don't want to go too long or that knot to the leader will interfere with casts. This length also gives you quite a bit of leader to trim due to wear or breakages. You can use it without needing to worry about replacing it until is down to less than about 1/2m in length.
Now that you've got the leader sorted. The next step is to run a size 1 ball sinker. Now tie on a hook using a uni-knot. Trim the leftover leader and you're done! This is called a running sinker rig. It's dead simple, and for fish like Bream it's all you need. When fishing around structure you need the sinker down at the hook to keep the hook and bait from moving around too much in current and winding itself around something. Chasing bream you WILL need to fish around structure.
Which hook? Long shank or bait-holder? Technically you can get by with just baitholders, but the risk is that they're going to get swallowed so you'll find yourself cutting fish loose and replacing hooks often. When fishing in close to structure I prefer to use long-shank hook with soft baits. When casting out to weeds/sand bars, I'll use a bait-holder with squid.
More on baits next...
Lets start with the leader. You'll want to tie the leader directly to the main line instead of using anything like a brass swivel. The key to this is the double-uni knot. As far as knots go you only need two knots to catch the biggest bream. The uni knot and the double-uni knot. :)
Leave the leader on its spool and tie it on to your main line using the double-uni. For braid-to-20lb I like to use 6 wraps on the braid side and 4 wraps on the 20lb side. the 20lb is stiff so I want to keep the knot small. Once this is tied on, start reeling in. Wind in until you see the 20lb wind on about 4-6 times around the spool then cut the leader at that length. You don't want to go too long or that knot to the leader will interfere with casts. This length also gives you quite a bit of leader to trim due to wear or breakages. You can use it without needing to worry about replacing it until is down to less than about 1/2m in length.
Now that you've got the leader sorted. The next step is to run a size 1 ball sinker. Now tie on a hook using a uni-knot. Trim the leftover leader and you're done! This is called a running sinker rig. It's dead simple, and for fish like Bream it's all you need. When fishing around structure you need the sinker down at the hook to keep the hook and bait from moving around too much in current and winding itself around something. Chasing bream you WILL need to fish around structure.
Which hook? Long shank or bait-holder? Technically you can get by with just baitholders, but the risk is that they're going to get swallowed so you'll find yourself cutting fish loose and replacing hooks often. When fishing in close to structure I prefer to use long-shank hook with soft baits. When casting out to weeds/sand bars, I'll use a bait-holder with squid.
More on baits next...
Gearing up for Bream
The good thing about bream fishing is that you can do it on the cheap and still catch impressive quantity and quality fish. I've caught 35+cm regularly on a $25 Jarvis Walker combo when bait fishing. Rod & reel you can go inexpensive. Where you will want to spend a little extra money is on the line and the hooks.
Reel selection: 3 ballbearing and higher in a 1000-1500 size, no bigger. To catch bream you don't need a lot of line, and depending on where you go you're going to be holding a rod quite a bit. Go light.
Rod selection: You're going to want a 6'6" (200cm) rod minimum length around the 5kg weight range with a sensitive tip and a medium flex. Generally if you give it a good shake , the tip should move up & down with a bit of whip, but the mid-section of the rod should remain fairly straight. If the rod is too short and stiff, you're going to have trouble feeling the bites, and will pull bait right out of their mouths without hooking up. Too soft and you won't be able to turn a fish before it's got you around structure. A 7'6" rod is a bang-on length for fishing under structure.
Line selection: First off, around Brisbane landbased you're going to be doing a lot of fishing in relatively murky water. For bream this is a good thing as they are equally, if not more active in the murk. This also means that you do not need to be as picky about line. For this type of fishing it's more important that you get line for its strength and durability characteristics rather than marketing around visibility. Personally I've found that using a braid line in the 6-10lb range is ideal for a main line. I choose braid for 2 reasons. #1 it is pretty much the thinnest line per breaking weight. Thin line is good for keeping the rig as light as possible. #2. It doesn't stretch. This is important to be able to turn fish quickly away from protective structure. The disadvantage of braid is that it's tougher to use in the wind, it's more expensive than mono, and that lack of stretch can mean you need to be more careful with the bigger fish to avoid sudden bust-offs. While good line is expensive, the good news is that you don't need a lot of it on your reel. 120m will last a very long time. If you buy a cheap combo that comes with mono line, don't worry, that mono will come to good use to pad the spool for the good line. Simply spool off and store about 1/2 of the spool of mono line, then tie the good line to the end of the mono and spool the good stuff on. (Read up on the double-uni knot to tie line-to-line. You'll need this knot to tie your leader on as well.) This helps keep your spool filled for easy casting, while not costing you an entire spool of expensive line. If you're game to try braid out, a good, inexpensive option is Jarvis Walker's Hercules braid in 10lb. It's bright yellow, but as I mentioned, in murky water that means nothing. (It does aid your own visibility at night) It's inexpensive, and I still use it on my secondary rod having never had a snap-off due to the line. Like all braids, trim regularly as soon as you start seeing wear. With the Hercules braid it's perfectly fine with a few small scuffs.
Leader selection: One issue with using braid is it's lack of stretch, and while it's breaking strength is good, it's resistance to abrasion is very poor. This means when you get a fish that manages to swallow the hook, or one that gets you near some oysters, braid will last about 10 seconds of abuse before breaking. The solution is to use a heavier mono line as a leader. My personal line of choice for a leader is a decent brand 20lb mono. line such as Daiwa. 20lb can be a bit stiff, but I find this helps when I do happen to hook a snag, the flex and stiffness of the line gives me a chance to flick a hook off an encrusted rock.
Hook selection: There are two hooks you're going to need for Bream fishing depending on your bait and target. These are a #4 long-shank (or extra long shank) and a #4 bait-holder. These should be decent quality, chemically sharpened hooks. Personally, bang for the buck you can't go past Mustads. I recommend avoiding Jarvis Walker hooks. The metal they select for the hooks is too hard (hooks can easily snap, and I've lost 2 30+ bream due to the hook snapping in half) and the barb is too large. A large barb means there's less chance that a fish is going to work itself off, but it makes it a mess to try and unhook a fish. Also, with the harder steel, you can't really bend the barb without *snap*. (Been there, tried that.) JW hooks also don't stay sharp.
Sinkers: Really you only need two sinker sizes in your kit to catch Bream. Size 0 and 1. Anything bigger than that will work against you. The biggest cause in my opinion for lost fish (or completely unnoticed ones) is the sinker is too heavy. Usually I start with a size 1, then if I start getting bites but no pulls I swap down to a 0. If you're fishing in current too strong for a size 1 then you're probably in too much current to catch bream on bait.
In my next post I'll cover off how to rig all of this up.
Reel selection: 3 ballbearing and higher in a 1000-1500 size, no bigger. To catch bream you don't need a lot of line, and depending on where you go you're going to be holding a rod quite a bit. Go light.
Rod selection: You're going to want a 6'6" (200cm) rod minimum length around the 5kg weight range with a sensitive tip and a medium flex. Generally if you give it a good shake , the tip should move up & down with a bit of whip, but the mid-section of the rod should remain fairly straight. If the rod is too short and stiff, you're going to have trouble feeling the bites, and will pull bait right out of their mouths without hooking up. Too soft and you won't be able to turn a fish before it's got you around structure. A 7'6" rod is a bang-on length for fishing under structure.
Line selection: First off, around Brisbane landbased you're going to be doing a lot of fishing in relatively murky water. For bream this is a good thing as they are equally, if not more active in the murk. This also means that you do not need to be as picky about line. For this type of fishing it's more important that you get line for its strength and durability characteristics rather than marketing around visibility. Personally I've found that using a braid line in the 6-10lb range is ideal for a main line. I choose braid for 2 reasons. #1 it is pretty much the thinnest line per breaking weight. Thin line is good for keeping the rig as light as possible. #2. It doesn't stretch. This is important to be able to turn fish quickly away from protective structure. The disadvantage of braid is that it's tougher to use in the wind, it's more expensive than mono, and that lack of stretch can mean you need to be more careful with the bigger fish to avoid sudden bust-offs. While good line is expensive, the good news is that you don't need a lot of it on your reel. 120m will last a very long time. If you buy a cheap combo that comes with mono line, don't worry, that mono will come to good use to pad the spool for the good line. Simply spool off and store about 1/2 of the spool of mono line, then tie the good line to the end of the mono and spool the good stuff on. (Read up on the double-uni knot to tie line-to-line. You'll need this knot to tie your leader on as well.) This helps keep your spool filled for easy casting, while not costing you an entire spool of expensive line. If you're game to try braid out, a good, inexpensive option is Jarvis Walker's Hercules braid in 10lb. It's bright yellow, but as I mentioned, in murky water that means nothing. (It does aid your own visibility at night) It's inexpensive, and I still use it on my secondary rod having never had a snap-off due to the line. Like all braids, trim regularly as soon as you start seeing wear. With the Hercules braid it's perfectly fine with a few small scuffs.
Leader selection: One issue with using braid is it's lack of stretch, and while it's breaking strength is good, it's resistance to abrasion is very poor. This means when you get a fish that manages to swallow the hook, or one that gets you near some oysters, braid will last about 10 seconds of abuse before breaking. The solution is to use a heavier mono line as a leader. My personal line of choice for a leader is a decent brand 20lb mono. line such as Daiwa. 20lb can be a bit stiff, but I find this helps when I do happen to hook a snag, the flex and stiffness of the line gives me a chance to flick a hook off an encrusted rock.
Hook selection: There are two hooks you're going to need for Bream fishing depending on your bait and target. These are a #4 long-shank (or extra long shank) and a #4 bait-holder. These should be decent quality, chemically sharpened hooks. Personally, bang for the buck you can't go past Mustads. I recommend avoiding Jarvis Walker hooks. The metal they select for the hooks is too hard (hooks can easily snap, and I've lost 2 30+ bream due to the hook snapping in half) and the barb is too large. A large barb means there's less chance that a fish is going to work itself off, but it makes it a mess to try and unhook a fish. Also, with the harder steel, you can't really bend the barb without *snap*. (Been there, tried that.) JW hooks also don't stay sharp.
Sinkers: Really you only need two sinker sizes in your kit to catch Bream. Size 0 and 1. Anything bigger than that will work against you. The biggest cause in my opinion for lost fish (or completely unnoticed ones) is the sinker is too heavy. Usually I start with a size 1, then if I start getting bites but no pulls I swap down to a 0. If you're fishing in current too strong for a size 1 then you're probably in too much current to catch bream on bait.
In my next post I'll cover off how to rig all of this up.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Land-Based fishing around Brisbane.
I've been fishing around Brisbane for roughly the last three years. Having moved from Canada and the occasional fresh-water dip, the chance to do some estuary fishing was pretty welcome.
This blog will be about fishing around Brisbane, and for the most part, targeting Bream. For those new to fishing in the area, Bream are a fairly common fish around here and they can be a lot of fun to chase for relatively little cost. Of course, while fishing for this species, it's typically possible to hook up other species such as whiting, flathead, catfish, and even estuary cod given the right spot & conditions.
This blog will be about fishing around Brisbane, and for the most part, targeting Bream. For those new to fishing in the area, Bream are a fairly common fish around here and they can be a lot of fun to chase for relatively little cost. Of course, while fishing for this species, it's typically possible to hook up other species such as whiting, flathead, catfish, and even estuary cod given the right spot & conditions.
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