How to catch a feed of fish in Moreton Bay (bait fishing) Part 2 Land based

In the hope of generating long and waffley posts from people with lots of knowledge/experience, and in the spirit of Charlie's previous excellent thread - it would be great to hear from those of you with good Morton Bay advice for those of us who don't fish out of boats.

How about this thread is kept for all land based Morton Bay advice apart from rivers? Can generate a new thread for that if people want one.......

I'm starting this one for exactly the same reasons that were behind the last thread - the wife is taking the mickey when I walk out the door, she must be silenced :rolleyes:

Thanks

Gav

OK - I will kick this one off with some of the very basics of landbased bait fishing, not necessarily specific to Moreton Bay, but general tips that apply to any landbased fishing. Maybe others can add on with specific tips that work for them in the bay. These are things I apply to my landbased fishing trips, especially when fishing new areas (new to me).

It helps to have a target species, or group of species with similar feeding habits.

Its best if you can find structure - this can be anything from close reefs, isolated coffee rock, weed beds, drop offs, jetties/pontoons, drains off flats, mouths of creeks canals, rock walls, rockky headlands, gutters on beaches, tidal contour lines on sand flats, deep holes close to shore. A good way to do this is to visit your intended spot at the bottom of the low tide and look - noting the structure in location to landmarks above water (it may not be visible at higher tides).

Make sure your bait is either live or very fresh (and dont leave it sitting in the sun to go off during the fishing session).

Present your bait on the hook so that it looks natural if its a dead bait, and if its a live bait so that it swims (fish,prawn,yabby) or wriggles (worms). Only use enough weight (lead/sinker) to keep the bait in the strike zone - you dont want it anchored to one spot (this usually only produces vermin).

Most - not all - landbased spots produce better/more fish during the low light periods. Dawn, Dusk and night. I often arrive as people are packing up to go home, and vice versa. Their catch rate is generally not that flash. Remember we are talking about how to catch a feed of fish - not how to wet a line and enjoy the surrounds (though your are going to be doing that anyway).

Fish as light as you can....i would rather loose an unstopable because I was fishing too light, than not get any bites because the line was way to heavy. For most of my bay type landbased fishing i use 3-4kg mono (we are talking bait fishing here - not lures - that is a topic for a whole new thread). I usually use 12 - 14lb leaders. If i keep getting bitten off it usually means the tailor are around so i might up the leader to 20lb, but only if i keep getting bitten off.

Keep the rod in your hand when fishing. I usually take a sand spike with me, but this is for keeping the reel out of the sand/dirt while i am rebaiting/rerigging (and prevents the rod being accidentally stepped on - especially at night). I only ever use one rod when landbased fishing. It is also usually not necessary to try to cast as far as you can, more often than not the fish are in close near the structure, not out in the desert. Accuracy is more important than distance (with accuracy will come increased distance)...especially at night.

My preferred outfits for the bay type landbased fishing spots are a 8'-10' rod with a multi taper softish action ( favourite outfit is a Wilson Shoreline matched with either a 5" Alvey or 3500 size threadline/spinning reel - I have both setups).


These are some of the basic tips. Now over to the bay gurus for more species specific tips on baits, techniques, general locations (as in what to fish for in what kind of location).

As I was once told during my business training....if you dont have a target you will never hit it.

Cheers
Greg

What a great idea.

IMHO

1. You must target a species there no point chasing flathead in winter and big bream in summer.

2. Bait fresh is best, if it means buy green prawns from coles:rolleyes: ask for the smaller ones (work it out there cheaper than frozen bait anyhow)

3. Equipment you need to get to the fish and hold them. Best all rounder IMO 4126 (4wraps fibreglass 126 inchs long) rod, 6inch alvey 12 lbs line(it's not sport you want to catch a feed).

4. Tackle fish as light as you can - light sinker(just enough to hold bait , hook (1-1/0) and always black swivel be prepared to lose plenty of rigs around rocks.

5. What region do you want to fish (Cleveland, Brissy River, Redcliffe).

6. Having growning up in Redcliffe i'll give my bit on that area.

This time of year the Bream will be coming on landbased around Redcliffe, firstly pick your tide wind and time of day 1 or 2 hours each side of high or low tide morning, noon or evening or if your reel keen full moon high tide. Second pick or location you gotto think outside the box . while everyone else is fishing the bridges and jettys, try the rocks or break walls rockybanks sometimes the places you think "they'll never be fish there, is where they are" it's got to have structure(Rocks, Weed or deep water) .

Anyhow I've rabbled enough, hope it helps

Ads

Good stuff there boys, I fish mostly from a boat but before I got that I fished landbased at Redcliffe.
There are miles of shoreline there with sandy beaches, gutters rocky reefs right on to the beach etc.
I found a great spot almost by accident as Ads says above. I fish a very public area but not on a jetty.
(People above me walking by or with kids always come down for a look and seem shocked that you can catch a fish there, its funny!)
Just straight on the beach into an area which has sand but out a little is a rocky reef area that extends out of the beach. I fish just along the edge of it, where at low tide it's broken sand and rubble. So its pretty rubbley sort of spot.
I fish this place in the afternoon, say 3pm right till dark, and its great with an incoming tide or outgoing but around the high tide. You want that because the tide brings the fish to you, when the tide is out the water is shallow and fish have retreated to deeper water, but love to come in close with the higher water to feed over areas which have been exposed at low water.

(NB. I have tried there during the day but never succeeded. To catch good fish you must be prepared to get out of bed early or be prepared to fish late, I cant emphasise that enough! If 90% of the fish are caught by 10% of the fishermen, then I will guarantee the 10% are fishing these hours!)

So far we have caught heaps of bream, seems they are the most prolific, but also whiting (summer) flatties, cod etc. My grandkids love it!
I use prawns, and agree that buying good big uncooked prawns from Coles is way better value than little packets of little prawns at the servo etc. But I am sure many other fresh baits would work there as well of course.

Now, how I fish.
To me when you fish a rocky area, the worst thing you can do is hold the rod as you will tend to keep moving the bait. End result of that is heaps of snags. I have tried to teach blokes I have taken there this but many wont be told, end result is they are forever snagged and re tying hooks and not catching. If you are very experienced of course you can discipline yourself and so holding the rod is no problem. I am, but in fact I find I get more fish by letting them hook themselves.

(The reason this happens is that I find like in Charleville's ramblings, that these afternoon or early morning times are when fish are more active, and so they hit much more aggressively)

So I have two rods, 10 ft long with whippy tips, 12lb mono, and stand them in sand spikes about two meters apart and cast them on different angles. I place the rods in the stands and watch them. As I am right there between them as soon as the bite happens I'm right on to it, in fact most times the rod just bends over and the fish hook themselves!

And as mentioned above. light sinkers, light line, and try fishing very close as well as further out, not all fish are right over near Moreton Is. some are swimming right at your feet at Redcliffe!
Hope this helps!
Cheers
Flatzie

To add to the points above. When landbased and I'm planning for a session I'll always prep two rods. 1 a heavier outfit that I have a baitrunner on that I will rig for livebaiting and a smaller rod for the smaller dead baits.

I found this effective because while livebaiting so often I would often get picked at by legal but not targeted fish especially if my live bait wasn't hardy like Herring. So over a good night session you can pick up 5,6,7,8 smaller specimens using deadbait or small livebait and if you get a big larger specimen on the larger rod you actually go home with quite a good feed. So i'll put the baitrunner with Livey o a sand spike or polly pipe holder and hold the smaller rod and wait for the bait runner to scream.

LAND BASED FIND THE DEEPER HOLES IN CASTING DISTANCE!

Cheers

Chris

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fishn-ads

and always black swivel

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Just to expose my ignorance - what do you mean?

Ta

Gav

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Gavfish

Just to expose my ignorance - what do you mean?

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I suspect that he is referring to the fact that some fish, eg pelagics, will be attracted to a shiny swivel rather than the bait, resulting in lots of bite-offs at the swivel. Use a black swivel to avoid this possibility.


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Not much to add on this subject but raby bay canals always pay off for me.
I'm local so it's convenient

What i wanted to add was that I always thought the reports section should have a land based forum.
we have saltwater offshore, then beach, bay, estuary and river crammed in to one.

Quote:

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(NB. I have tried there during the day but never succeeded. To catch good fish you must be prepared to get out of bed early or be prepared to fish late, I cant emphasise that enough! If 90% of the fish are caught by 10% of the fishermen, then I will guarantee the 10% are fishing these hours!)

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This is also my single most important tip .... time of day is VITALLY important when you are landbased. I have caught ALL of my PB's (except for 1 Pignose Grunter) at the times of day when the average fisho is still snuggled up to his missus. Be prepared to do the time and you will reap the rewards. I go out to catch fish .... not sip a stubbie and look at the scenery ;D It always feels good when other guys arrive at a spot after sunrise, to find that you have a feed in the bag already and are gettting ready to go home and fry it up ..... schweeet as :-*

Dead on the money Robvee!

i agree it would be good to have a land based section.good comment.

agreed....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by robvee

This is also my single most important tip .... time of day is VITALLY important when you are landbased. I have caught ALL of my PB's (except for 1 Pignose Grunter) at the times of day when the average fisho is still snuggled up to his missus. Be prepared to do the time and you will reap the rewards. I go out to catch fish .... not sip a stubbie and look at the scenery ;D It always feels good when other guys arrive at a spot after sunrise, to find that you have a feed in the bag already and are gettting ready to go home and fry it up ..... schweeet as :-*

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What's a Pignosed Grunter?8-)

kercus

I agree with pretty much all of the above - but for me the two most important points are probably:

1) Waking up in the middle of the night (at this time of year) to start fishing at least 30 mins before first light.
2)Trying (and I know its hard) to find a stretch of water that has been undisturbed by boat traffic / other anglers overnight.

Point 1 will turn you into a very strange beast after a while - I now fall asleep at all evening events, regardless of importance!

I put up details of all the locations I fish, on my blog at http://landangler.wordpress.com.

I know it drives some anglers nuts when I give away spots and I apologise to them - but I figure sharing creates good fishing karma in the long run.

Heya Gav i know what you mean mate when it comes to the "Missus" taking the piss out of ya lol, i get the same treatment hahaha its good to know someone else in the same shoe's lol

ok mate i'm landbased atm..and have been through the holidays as there were no mechanics around to help with my boat, well thats another story.
I been fishing around redcliffe for 5 weeks now and managed to catch if not undersize snapper and bream aswell, and been catching sharks, shovels and stingers too...something had to give as the missus kept giving it to me lmao:-[
Yes something had to give, as was mentioned on one of my post's i have been using bait for like a million yrs lol and always thought that was the way to go..until
this Soft plastic thingy came into play and its been around for yrs lol
ok i had tried it out a couple of times but never jagged anything ya know why?
Because i wasn't shown the right way to do it...until...now
Lets just say i am pretty much converted to lure's well one in particular because i've tried others and to no success..
1. Is because i wasn't shown how to do it properly.
2. Didn't have the right gear.
3. Knowning where to find your fish ie: (Right under ya nose) or back door.
In doing 1 and 2 first then you too will be catching fish anywhere.
You want to know who taught me?
"Youtube" that is where you start, and study there methods then you will not need a boat to catch BIG fish..i have watched lets just say a lot of video's over and over in 4 weeks and in the last 2 days of putting there methods to the test and was hoping i'd catch nothing just to prove them wrong, i didn't believe my luck..a total of 7 flatties 4 of which were keepers and the others released my P/B 60cm which was this morning total of 2hrs from saturday nite 1hr in the dark 6 Flatty's then in the morning 1st 3 cast then P/B only stayed out for an hr..So i hope this all helps as it has done to me, now thinking do i really need my boat?

Cheers
Billy (The crazy kiwi):P

I agree to the above.:) I can add it's a waste of time fishing in an area where swimmers, boating traffic, this includes jetskies disturbing the area. ;D The mouth of the river in Pottsville up to the bridge is populated with holiday makers and you see people walking and swimming in that stretch and at same time about 6 anglers in the water trying their best at catching a feed. ::)

Before dawn and late in the evening, I'm 53 and still trying to find an area that's not been touched.;D

Some places may exist but when you get developers blocking off access (now called private property) to build suburb blocks in coastal areas, or don't have a 4WD to get to out of the way spots , does present challenges. >:(

Bondy

One of the moderators has put a sticky thread in the General Fishing section highlighting this website...

http://www.sunfishqld.com.au/fishing_guide.php

As it shows a lot of land based fishing spots, it probably deserves a mention in this thread as well.


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Here is a hint for Redcliffe.....7-9pm week nights, weather needs to be 5 knots from the eastern sector or anything from the western sector. Head to almost any rocky foreshore, groin, or inshore from any known rubble patch within casting distance. Do not use a torch unless you are facing the land, definitely no light on the water.
Fish 6lb mainline and up to 10lb leader down to a 1/0 or 2/0 circle hook with one fillet of a pillie folded in half and placed on the hook. Cast it into decent depth water alongside a reef patch but not on it and wait for something to pick up the bait, do not put the rod down. Snapper move right into less than 1 metre of water during the evenings but are incredibly shy. Unweighted baits on light lines are the go. The longer your cast the better.
Full moon evenings you can actually see the snapper come inshore in the early evening in winter when the water is so clear. Any movement of people walking by or torchlight will see them disappear.
Live hardiheads are a gun bait too for inshore snapper.
Generally they are 1-3kgs, but have come across 6kg models too in the shallows.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mullet Musketeer

I agree with pretty much all of the above - but for me the two most important points are probably:

1) Waking up in the middle of the night (at this time of year) to start fishing at least 30 mins before first light.
2)Trying (and I know its hard) to find a stretch of water that has been undisturbed by boat traffic / other anglers overnight.

Point 1 will turn you into a very strange beast after a while - I now fall asleep at all evening events, regardless of importance!

I put up details of all the locations I fish, on my blog at http://landangler.wordpress.com.

I know it drives some anglers nuts when I give away spots and I apologise to them - but I figure sharing creates good fishing karma in the long run.

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Musketeer, Great blog. Thanks for sharing !!!

I do not live up the Gold coast or Brisbane as yet, But I went up there a few months ago looking at houses,
I chucked in the car a soft plastic rod & a few bags of rubbers.
I think once you truly learn the art of soft plastics with the right gear & knots, you'll never look back,
I only managed a few flicks here and there when I could, Managed some very nice fish in my travels in and around the gold coast & the banks of Morton bay including some nice legal reds, Bream, Flatties & a nice 70cm Jew.
I love soft plastic fishing at night personally, but they are very effective any time of day really.
There is an ocean river down here that gets smashed in summer by every man & his dog, boats, jetskis you name it. the banks are shoulder to shoulder, I go down for a bit of fun some times, you'll walk along the bank asking what people have caught & generally the word will be nothing all day, Then I ask them if they mind if I cast a lure next to them,
Generally on the first cast I hook up. then the next 5 out of 10 casts, drag a nice flattie up & release it. they go nuts watching you catch a fish within minutes & worse of watching you release it.
I to only a few years ago never really gave them a fair go. but once I did. I have looked back at bait unless I'm fishing offshore or trolling live baits.
find out what the fish are eating where your fishing, then use a plastic that represents that food.
For me in summer, the fish are eating prawns, so I use a Gulp Banana prawn & fish eat live prawns at night mostly, so use a soft plastic at night, you'll be surprised really

My advice is, learn plastics, then take a mate out for the weekend, make him fish bait all weekend and you only fish plastics, no matter what he is catching. Also remember this, if there is no fish where you are casting, then don't say plastics don't work, cause bait most likely wont work either & if it does. it will only be tinny fish.
My mate used to fish bait till the weekend I took him out and made him fish baits all weekend while I fished plastics. Now he doesn't use bait any more either lol.

So get out there and chuck a line in any where, you cant catch a fish without a bait in the water.

1 other option that wouldn't hurt too, Find a guide, you'll only need one day out with them, they will have to put u onto fish & then simply go back and fish the spots they took you too as a good start.
Should only cost about $200 for the day I'm guessing.

Hi just wondering if anyone had charleville part 1 article?