The Bribie Islander

October 2024 Fishing Report Fishing has been erratic lately, which is fairly typical for spring. This is never the easiest fishing season – the changeable weather and October storms make it difficult to get out for a fish. The rains have put a bit of colour in the water, though, so it might be a good opportunity to get the lures out. The sudden drops in barometric pressure get a few fish going, too, if you can time things around a storm…

Fishability Qld had to fit their fishing trips between bouts of weather- but it’s always worth the effort. Some good-sized bream and flathead have been brought each time; prawns and pillies were the favoured baits. Flathead, bream and whiting are the standards for this time of year. This past winter has been a very good one for flathead, tailor and winter whiting and there are still plenty of great tailor and whiting catches. Although the reports of bigger whiting are patchy, there are some great reports coming up around Mission Point and Coochin Creek. Flathead have been reliable finds in the main channel, over the top of tide off IGA supermarket or near Turner’s camp. Some of the best springtime flathead fishing can be in shallow water, over weed or sand and not far from mangroves or rocky sections, which will break up the current. Zman curly tails have been making quite a comeback in recent weeks, with several good flatties taken!

When the breeze comes from E/NE, the most pleasant fishing is from the Bribie shore of the Passage. White Patch is nicely protected from north-easterlies or anchoring your boat in towards Wright’s Creek is another option. Joel caught his first ever fish there, under the tutelage of his Dad, casting out a clear soft-plastic 70mm Squidgee, and landing a 47cm flathead for dinner.

Richard tells me “There seem to be lots of fish all the way from Red Beach up into the Passage and towards Sandstone Point… good whiting hanging around the lock entrance and more good fish at the Bribie end of the bridge.” He took his grandson, Bodhi, fishing at Sandstone Point on a fairly quiet day (weatherwise!) and came away with four snapper, three flathead, three tailor and a bream!

A couple of weeks later, Richard and his mate, Loris, were happy enough to fish around the bridge during a SW morning breeze, using pillies and prawns, and had seven snapper (37-54cm) and a 37cm bream to show for it. The recent long weekend started out windy, rainy and cold – not great for those wanting a full day’s fishing! Jamie and a mate spent most of their day sheltering in Ningi Creek and came home with two big bream and a “giant sand crab!” (to be fair, it was 13.5cm and quite full.) Ron and his young grandson, Vinnie, were up for the long weekend’s fishing and crabbing, too. Ron was expecting his usual run of good luck with the crab pots, but only scored eight keepers over the three days. He said he’d been talking with a few people who all noticed that the sand crab numbers had dropped off. The fishing wasn’t so bad, though – they caught four flathead up at Turner’s Camp, all between 55-65cm, all on pilchards. Over at the ripples, they tried using mullet and grinner for bait, but again pilchards did the trick, bringing in five snapper between them, 38-47cm. Vinnie’s was the biggest, which made him pretty happy!

Over the school holidays, we saw lots of families fishing – who often just want the excitement of catching a fish, and not necessarily the trouble of keeping it – killing, scaling, cleaning, and cooking a fish can be a bit tricky. Also, a lot of fish are under-sized and can’t be kept anyway. Which brings me to the other tricky business – how to release a fish in good enough order to survive another day. There are some fairly common-sense things to keep in mind:

• Keep the fish out of water for as little time as possible, or release it while it’s still in the water, if you can.
• Don’t suspend the fish from the hook. If you need a photo, hold it under its belly, and avoid touching the midline. And don’t let the kids poke it in the eye!
• If the hook is easily removed, that’s fine, but if it’s been swallowed, then cut the line as close to the hook as possible – its chance of survival should be much higher than if you damage the mouth or cause excessive bleeding.
• If you’ve had to keep the fish out of water too long, it might be sluggish – hold it into the current to help revive it, until it’s ready to swim off.

Whiting has been the flavour of the month, with large catches along Woorim and Red beaches, with most anglers totalling fish in the double digits – it has been a great start to the whiting season.

Worms have been the pick of the baits and are available frozen most of the time from Bribie Bait and Cycle, but from time to time, they have them live. When live worms are available, they usually sell out before 9 am, but there’s always the option to dig your own. Wriggler worms are found in the grit at low tide around Redcliff, and blood worms are found knee-deep in mud.

Some other baits to consider are yabbies, pipis, and squid. I like to cut my squid up the night before and soak it in pink food dye as the red colour is often a trigger for the whiting’s interest.

In the same vein, seasoned whiting anglers will put red tubing up the line on top of the hook. Snapper is still around, with good bags caught around Bribie and in the bay. Some meterplus specimens have also been reported off Moreton using whole yakkas for bait on 5/0 gang hooks. They have also been caught with plastics on the surf side and from drifting pillies. These are one of the prize species of fish in our area.

Tailor has quietened down, with only a few fish landed over the last few weeks. The lack of rain generally means no bait fish in the Passage, and without the bait the fish there, the tailor will stay on the beaches chasing the bait up the coastline. As school holidays are here, if you are taking your kids fishing, your 4-legged friends also like a day out in the boat with lots to see and with their noses constantly in the air, they have a sensory overload. A couple of things to remember for your four-legged friends: aluminium boats get hot, so bring a towel or a blanket for them to sit on, plenty of water and a couple of treats. Pull up to shore now and again to stretch their legs. To be safe, keep them on a lead if you have one that is a runner.

Remember that all boats must have life jackets or personal floatation devices for all passengers and crew. You must wear a life jacket when crossing a coastal bar in an open boat less than 4.8m in length or if you are under the age of 12 in a moving, open boat less than 4.8m in length.

Apart from catching all of the usual fish species and pretty big ones at that, Allan and his mates decided to follow their interest in fishing for sharks in the Passage. The jewies, flathead and others will wait for a while. Using barbless hooks and singleline steel traces that have any sharp tags removed to minimise injury to the fish, they have been successful in catching a range of these animals, mostly bull sharks. However, using his newly acquired Shimano Tyrnos 2011 two-speed reel, Allan landed one that is considered to be quite rare – a Shark Ray. The app Qld Fisheries 2.0 advises that it is also known as a Bowmouth Guitarfish or Mud Skate. It describes the animal as having a large, deep body, horny ridges with enlarged horns along the dorsal midline and near the eyes, blue-grey on the upper surface and pale underneath. Other publications describe its eyes as being human-like. In all cases, the animals caught were treated with respect and care and safely and successfully released after many photos were taken. Pumicestone Passage is an amazing fishery.