Advice please!

[PommyBloke]

I'm new to fishing in general - just started doing a bit locally (Live in Browns Plains (Brissie) area, but drive to coast for a bit of fishing last weekend). I've bought myself a cheap and cheerful basic river/estuary rod and reel and a few lures.
Any advice about where might be a good place to go for some beginner fishing or tips on bait/rigs would be appreciated.
Cheers.

[Fishinmishin]

Where the fish are is the best spot I know ;D Do you have a boat or shore fishing. Please tell me a bit about the gear your using and what you would like to target.

[PommyBloke]

I've got a 7'6" National Estuary rod that came with a 350 National II reel. Only $35 or so from ######### - as I said, cheap and cheerful!
I also got some "holographic" lures, but found they didn't do much on Friday or Saturday in the Logan river, so I tried using prawns down near Hope Island on the Gold Coast on Sunday and got a 20/30 cm flathead and 3 stripy grunters (???) (I think that's what they were at least.)
I haven't got a boat, but was thinkin' 'bout hiring a tinny this weekend - either close to Brissie or somewhere nearby on the Gold Coast. But any tips on a good place to catch any river fish from the bank would be great.

[Cheech]

I am not from the south side so cannot help with land based spots, so will leave that for others.

But a couple of tips for new people that may be missed,,,,

Even though it is an inexpensive rod and reel, still look after it and unless something breaks internally (anti reverse usually), it should still serve you well. What you need to do is after every fishing trip, even if you only cast out a couple of times, always rinse it all off with fresh water. Only on low preasure on the hose. Then dry it off with a cloth, and then spray or oil the 2 bail arm joints, the round roller that the line goes through, and possibly the exposed pin in the handle. Do this and it will stay new and serve you well. Even though most of my gear now is expensive due to basically being addicted, I do this to all my rods and reels, including my 7year olds $25.00 reel, and they are all just like new. I use inox, but lanox will be my next once my current can runs out.

Learn your knots. Everyone will have their favorites. Mine is a uni knot. I use it for everything from terminal tackle to line joins. Do a google search on it and there are plenty of sites with drawings, instructions etc. My basic guide is 5 turns for everything up to about 20lb, and then 4 turns for thick line.

Test your knots every time. When you tie your knot, if you are using light line such as 6 or 8lb, you will find that they often break when you give them a good tug. I will guarrantee that it is a lot better for the knot to break when you test it rather than when you have a fish on the line. Sometimes it is annoying if you have to tie 3 knots in a row if they break, but best you find out. When you tie a good knot, even with 6 or 8lb line, it takes a lot to break it so give it a good test.

Always wet your knots with saliva when you tighten them as it reduces friction and heat and reduces weak spots.

Change your sinker weights as required. Generally you have to be on the bottom. But don't think that you have to have a big sinker to get there. Unless there is a lot of current, in rivers you may only need an 0 or 00. These are tiny and about 5mm diamiter. But if there is a lot of current then upsize. I am often amased at what size fish will take a bait with a big lump of lead if I had to use a lot to get in the zone.

Basic rig if using bait is a standard running rig. This means a sinker on the main line above a swivel, and then below the swivel about half to 1 metre of trace straight to the hook. If you are using braid then you will have a leader, but if you are using mono then the main line straight to the swivel, and then a trace to suit. In rivers for bread and butter fish such as bream, probably around 8kg. I won't get into this too much because even as I am writing this I am arguing with myself as it all depends.

You mentioned prawns. My tip here is to make sure you peel the shell off and use the soft body. Fish seem to love eating soft bait. Bream especially. I don't really know why, but they just do.

Hooks around 1/0 will usually serve you well. Apart from whiting which you will need #4 long shank. You can catch a big fish with a small hook, but you will catch nothing if you don't get an initial hookup. Takes an awful lot of load to break a 1/0. There are many fishermen that are happy to use 4/0 for 8kg snapper and other reef fish, so I am sure you do not need to go too big for estuary. As Dave Downie (fishing guru) always talks about, stealth is important.

Don't think that the bait has to be anchoured. Fish like a moving bait. So movement is not just restricted to lure fishing. Is all about natural presentation.

Lots of other things spring to mind, but I have to put the kids to bed so will finish up.

Hope the above is of benefit to you.

Tag, who's next?

Cheech

[gunna]

I will kick it on a bit. #

Fishing the Gold Coast with a boat is usually fairly tough work - which makes land based even tougher. #So don't get too disappointed if it takes a while to nail down a couple spots. #I would look for areas that hold a few yabbies and also has a nice drop-off or two. Then concentrate my fishing around there. #You need to try the spot on different tides at different times of the day and night. #Don't give up if you don't get something at the start. #Perservere. #And use natural bait - fishing round yabbie banks - use yabbies.

Tag.
Who is next.

[DaneCross]

Excellent reply Cheech, some great tips for a beginner in there [smiley=thumbsup.gif]
PommyBloke,
Before I owned a boat I used to fish mainly from the northern beaches of the Gold Coast, particularly the Spit. The outfit you have however is probly a little small for surf fishing... so some other places I've caught a few fish fish on the Gold Coast are, the the beach on the broadwater side of the Southport spit (flathead and whiting), the Southport Seaway (although snagging up on the boulders under the water is very taxing on tackle and patience), Budds Beach (whiting). In the Brisbane area I have occasionally caught bream from the Logan river along the various points at which you can access the river (check your refidex), Maria (Ben) or Dylan_Rylatt might be able to give you a bit more of a hand with fishing around the Raby Bay area, but around the mouth of the canals see a few fish caught. I've also caught some whiting out on the flats at the Lota end of the Manly water front, at low tide you can access the creek (sorry the name has slipped my mind at the moment) that runs out into the bay there at Lota.
Thats just a few places I've tried around here. As for the northside and the Sunny coast I'll leave that to someone else. I suggest however picking up your refidex and doing a bit of exploring yourself. Go to the places where the land meets the sea and get your line wet! ;)
Good Luck,
DC

Tag, next :P

[Render]

Greetings.

Reinforcements at last! :D

Uhm, below is a picture of the Australian water. It doesn't matter precisely which bit, as every square inch is exactly the same as this. >:(

Accept this fact sooner rather than later.

God save Her Maj, old boy.

R

I *would* say 'tag' but is there really anything else to add?

[Maria]

Gday bloke,

The creek Dane (DC) is referring to is Tingalpa Creek or Lota Creek. Lota Creek is a smaller feeder creek that runs off Tingalpa. I generally fish all around the Redlands area (Victoria Point, Cleveland, Ormiston, Wellington Point, Birkdale, Capalaba etc), and there are a lot of creeks, canals, flats and holes that hold a few fish. If you want further info, let me know.

Cheech seems to have pointed out (and very well indeed) a lot of things that should get you started but in essence, fishing is not just a matter of throwing a line in the water and expecting a fish to bite at it. In most cases, it takes a lot of thinking, planning and trial and error to present your bait in a way that will have the fish thinking that it is something natural moving along in the current.

Don't be affraid to travel eh. Generally, land based fishing requires a fair bit of travel to try out new spots, explore new locations etc. Not only that, it's quite nice to get out and have a drive to see some new places too. I'm quite happy to drive over 100 or 150km in a day for a trip - like I did today with a fellow member. Sometimes the returns are very little, but hey....we call it "fishing", not "catching fish" and you gotta expect some bad results every now and then.

Ben

[SCOTTYGC]

for land based fishing on the gold coast try the sand pumping jetty out on the spit,other places that are good try around paradise point (under the two bridges) and the beaches along runaway bay where the canals meet the broadwater
good luck
scotty

[Cheech]

Oops, when I said 8kg trace, I meant lb, not kg, But then if I was chasing flatties,,,, see, arguing with myself again.

[Dug]

I suggest you buy a 55 ft game fishing boat and full game fishing outfits for about 10 people. We will be down to show you how to use them next weekend. don't forget to stock the fridge. No warm beer please ;D

Welcome to the site sorry I fish Sunshine coast but my suggestion the more you go fishing the better you get and the more fun you have.

cheers doug

[PommyBloke]

Thanks alot for your help everyone, especially Cheech. Really appreciate all the advice. Looking forward to a couple of fishing trips this Saturday and Sunday, so lets hope the buggers are bitin'! I'll let you know how it goes.
Cheers,
PommyBloke

[Cheech]

No worries Pommie.

You would be surprised how many people ask for advice, and then never put up another post to even say thanks. So as long as people appreciate the effort, most of the guys on this site are more than happy to try to help. By the way, when I talked about a trace, if you are using mono, which I suspect you would be, then just use a metre of the main line between the swivel and the hook and don't worry about getting a different class of line just for your trace. When you become addicted like most of us here, you will move on to these things, but not needed at the start.

Hope you have a good one. But if you don't, then don't get put off. We all have spells where we catch bugger all. As one of the guys said, the more you get out there the better you get. Stay on the site and you will learn heaps just reading other threads.

Cheech

[Blue_Escape]

G'day mate,
good to see you escaped "Pomgolia"!
I've almost been as lucky...just got back to Brissie after 4 years in Tasmania! I'm still finding may way around again in the warmer weather but have had the pleasure of 'defrosting' a couple of times staying down the Gold Coast. I had the wife and kids with me at a carvan park on the Broad Water. While I did have a boat, with wify & rugrats in tow in can get a bit hectic, so most nights ended up having a quiet fish infront of our cabin. Amazing what you can still catch there after dark (when all the marine crotch rockets ::) & floating gin palaces 8) are off the water)! Get yourself some LIVE yabbies & (frozen) white-bait and with a bit of persistance I guarantee ;) success. Over a week I caught heaps of whiting including some "elbow-slappers", nice bream, luderick, flathead and heaps of stingrays! (pain in the a#$e :P, but they get the adreniline going on the first run :o)

[PommyBloke]

After a bit of refedexing, I'm planning on following Bens advice and giving Victoria Point a go - either Friday arvo after work or Saturday morning. Any reccomendations on bait? I was thinking of either giving the prawns (shells off!) or yabbies a go on a tracer line.
Ben, if you have any further tips (like best time to go or particular spots etc) it'd be good to hear from you.
Cheers,
Pommy Bloke