Brisbane river fishing

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Brisbane river fishing

Post by Completely Cornered » 30 Sep 2020, 5:41 pm

I've always considered the Brisbane river to be too dirty to eat what you catch but ran into a bloke who happily eats his river catch.
Would you eat what you catch?
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by JimTom » 30 Sep 2020, 6:34 pm

There are still fish in the Brisbane River???
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by Blr243 » 30 Sep 2020, 6:40 pm

Some one else told me you can do all right fishing in the river. It’s surprisingly successful. Most of that yucky look is actually just muddy water , but it’s still a pollution concern to me I would be a little bit wary After the major floods I was working on some of the homes that went completely under and u could see th e high water mudline and it was amuseing to think that a couple of weeks back there could have been bull sharks swimming round the back yard
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by Bill » 30 Sep 2020, 6:50 pm

Use to catch a few Beam in the river, didnt eat anything just a bit of fun. :thumbsup:
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by Blr243 » 30 Sep 2020, 7:22 pm

I heard that when u catch bream in the Brisbane river that the bream Get down on their hands and knees and beg you not to throw them back in there
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by Completely Cornered » 30 Sep 2020, 7:33 pm

Blr243 wrote:Some one else told me you can do all right fishing in the river. It’s surprisingly successful. Most of that yucky look is actually just muddy water , but it’s still a pollution concern to me I would be a little bit wary After the major floods I was working on some of the homes that went completely under and u could see th e high water mudline and it was amuseing to think that a couple of weeks back there could have been bull sharks swimming round the back yard

That's my major concern too, theres some big threadfin in it though
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by Stoney » 30 Sep 2020, 7:49 pm

I saw some pictures from WW2 of the Brisbane river and it was clear as crystal. In a book I have just read the author confirms that as well. What happened?
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by JimTom » 30 Sep 2020, 8:27 pm

Stoney wrote:I saw some pictures from WW2 of the Brisbane river and it was clear as crystal. In a book I have just read the author confirms that as well. What happened?


People is what happened I’d say mate.
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by Bill » 30 Sep 2020, 8:29 pm

Blr243 wrote:I heard that when u catch bream in the Brisbane river that the bream Get down on their hands and knees and beg you not to throw them back in there


LOL I reckon ya may be right, my current fishing boat I bought off a fella who did a lot of Mud crabbing in the river, he use to do all right. :thumbsup:
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by bigrich » 01 Oct 2020, 4:47 am

Depends what part of the Brisbane river you fish, north of Ipswich the water is clean and clear, I’ve eaten eel and telarpia fish out of it . Beautiful

The brissy river is muddy cause of silt run off because of people. It had a sand bottom and rainforest all along it’s banks in Captain Cook’s time

But environmental change has nothing to do with people....... :P
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by JimTom » 01 Oct 2020, 5:49 am

bigrich wrote:Depends what part of the Brisbane river you fish, north of Ipswich the water is clean and clear, I’ve eaten eel and telarpia fish out of it . Beautiful

The brissy river is muddy cause of silt run off because of people. It had a sand bottom and rainforest all along it’s banks in Captain Cook’s time

But environmental change has nothing to do with people....... :P


Mate I’ve not eaten Talapia but caught plenty of them. I am assuming they cook up alright then? And tips or just cook as you would anything else?
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by 9.3x64 » 01 Oct 2020, 7:21 am

I met an old bloke once who told me as a young boy him and his brother used to dive in the Brisbane river near the Regatta Hotel and pick up pennies. He said the water was that clear you could see them on the bottom.
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by Blr243 » 01 Oct 2020, 8:05 am

I know on new housing estates where the land is mostly bare soil with extreme potential for rainwater to gather soil and end up in the river ,,,,,,,,despite soil catchment barrier mesh and other Methods soil makes it’s way into our rivers. But it’s hard to imagine there’s enough soil to muddy the river so much. Perhaps someone can elaborate as to how things can go from very clear to mud over time .....I’m very unsure
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by Grandadbushy » 01 Oct 2020, 9:28 am

I worked in brisbane in the 70's on the fisherman island access road to the refinery at the mouth of the river we used to set crab pots over the bank at work and used to catch heaps of muddies and sand crabs , some of us used to fish at lunch time and some large bream, thread fin, flathead and smaller jew fish were caught, the others ate them although the water was muddy and semi clear at times , i ate the crabs, i'm still here all these years later :thumbsup: but at times a lot of rubbish floated down with the tide.
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by Bugman » 01 Oct 2020, 1:43 pm

All I can remember, from many years ago was a guy catching bull sharks in the river. Can't remember which part of the river though.
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by bigrich » 01 Oct 2020, 3:42 pm

Bugman wrote:All I can remember, from many years ago was a guy catching bull sharks in the river. Can't remember which part of the river though.


kids were catching bull sharks up at savages crossing past ipswich . from memory they were over a meter :thumbsup:
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by bigrich » 01 Oct 2020, 3:48 pm

JimTom wrote:
bigrich wrote:Depends what part of the Brisbane river you fish, north of Ipswich the water is clean and clear, I’ve eaten eel and telarpia fish out of it . Beautiful

The brissy river is muddy cause of silt run off because of people. It had a sand bottom and rainforest all along it’s banks in Captain Cook’s time

But environmental change has nothing to do with people....... :P


Mate I’ve not eaten Talapia but caught plenty of them. I am assuming they cook up alright then? And tips or just cook as you would anything else?


caught one about the size of a good bream , mates wife crumbed it . delicious. their listed as a pest that you don't throw back, like carp . telapia is sought after in the USA and is imported by the boat load

one of the nicest fish i've ever been served was shark tail catfish caught in a clean estuary . serious , don't write off catfish . i ate the eel tail variety many years ago from clean running water and it was great . lots of meat on them too
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by Completely Cornered » 01 Oct 2020, 5:43 pm

Guess I'll give eating on a go then :lol: if you hear about it on the evening news, you'll know!
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by Stoney » 01 Oct 2020, 6:01 pm

I have eaten some stonking size tilapia out of the Ross River in Townsville because my mate has an Asian wife an she was insistent that we keep them and she would cook them. Bloody delicious for a fresh water fish. I guess the Government doesn't want people eating from the land as you are supposed to throw them on the bank and let them rot.
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by Grandadbushy » 01 Oct 2020, 6:36 pm

Yeah Stoney what hasn't the government partially ruined as far as eating wild game, wild pig, roo, wild cattle, i doubt they've missed any animal yes wild animals do carry disease but what animal doesn't , i'd eat almost any animal if i need to survive, as long as it is cooked well, i'm surprised they haven't pushed harder on deer, hygiene when cleaning up wild raw animals like washing hands several times during slaughter, gloves and cover cuts before starting, you can look up the common diseases and see how to avoid them whilst slaughtering an animal and to eat, government sites will advise against eating wild animals where possible but just think of the old timers and how they survived on eating wild food even today thousands of people still eat wild animals, you know the funniest part of the gov is , to them we shouldn't eat these wild animals yet they start sending them overseas for the food industry ,yes they check the carcass before sending them but almost none were condemned only a minute percentage and even today the same goes for the farm bred animals, one of the main ones today is pesticides in animals from mostly up here from putting animals on previously cropped land where the old pesticides are in the soil , there's a bloke up here who after 17yrs has just had his cattle accepted for slaughter and human consumption by the meat works, my theory is clean, cook well and eat most things.
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by Stoney » 01 Oct 2020, 7:20 pm

Grandadbushy wrote:Yeah Stoney what hasn't the government partially ruined as far as eating wild game, wild pig, roo, wild cattle, i doubt they've missed any animal yes wild animals do carry disease but what animal doesn't , i'd eat almost any animal if i need to survive, as long as it is cooked well, i'm surprised they haven't pushed harder on deer, hygiene when cleaning up wild raw animals like washing hands several times during slaughter, gloves and cover cuts before starting, you can look up the common diseases and see how to avoid them whilst slaughtering an animal and to eat, government sites will advise against eating wild animals where possible but just think of the old timers and how they survived on eating wild food even today thousands of people still eat wild animals, you know the funniest part of the gov is , to them we shouldn't eat these wild animals yet they start sending them overseas for the food industry ,yes they check the carcass before sending them but almost none were condemned only a minute percentage and even today the same goes for the farm bred animals, one of the main ones today is pesticides in animals from mostly up here from putting animals on previously cropped land where the old pesticides are in the soil , there's a bloke up here who after 17yrs has just had his cattle accepted for slaughter and human consumption by the meat works, my theory is clean, cook well and eat most things.


I gotta agree mate. Wild goats are being rounded up and marketed as free range meat. The Queensland Government deliberately re-classified deer to pest status for a reason.
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by Ferrisweil » 01 Oct 2020, 11:01 pm

I used to fish the river a fair bit and I can tell you there is great fishing in it...
Down at the mouth, you can catch some donkey snapper, long tails, Macks, threddies and the usual other Estuary species if you fish the right tide and time. Further up, you can continue catching threddies (right up to the university) and in recent years there have been some monster barra caught by those chasing the threddies. Now I know there’s going to be those skeptics calling BS on this, but it’s been quite a common occurrence in recent years but you’ve really gotta have your finger on the pulse re: time/tide/lure etc. Some say they are an endemic population and others think they have migrated from barra farms that have spilled over during floods, but I can assure you, they’re in there, and are BIG. Have also caught jacks and some decent jewies in there.
Further up, around the brackish stuff, you’ll even get small tarpon and once you hit Colleges crossing, it’s bass, yellow belly etc
Of course, there’s bull sharks of every size from The mouth to Colleges Crossing and even the Mt Crosby weir. Mate of mine even used to catch the small bulls on fly years ago up there....
The river actually has some very good fishing but it’s like anywhere, you just have to learn where/how to fish it.
Having said all that, I’m more of a sport fisherman so I’d rather stop at the fish market on the way home than eat anything from the river....
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by bigrich » 02 Oct 2020, 4:59 am

There was a big Barra caught at Jacobs Well about two years ago. I got my crossing mixed up too , I said “savages” when you quite rightly posted “colleges”

I just googled about the Barra , it was 105cm and was caught November 3 2019
A mate of mine says they regularly catch them on the west side of Fraser Island
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by Peter988 » 02 Oct 2020, 8:01 am

Great fishing down towards the mouth. In particular, we chase tailor during winter with great success. Caught plenty of squire bream and flathead.

Just on the tilapia. From the Govt website “ Tilapia are a category 3, 5, 6 and 7 restricted invasive
fish under the Biosecurity Act 2014 (the Act). They must not be kept, fed, given away, sold, or released into the environment. ”

Just be aware there are big fines. Maximum penalty is $200.000 for having one in your possession.
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by Oldboganhunter » 02 Oct 2020, 9:49 pm

Have heard of bloke pulling fish out around big ships while being moored.

Apparently, too smelly to eat.

I would be worried around older industrial areas.....heavy metals, DDT & arsenic washing into river,

:allegedly: :lol:
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Re: Brisbane river fishing

Post by JimTom » 02 Oct 2020, 10:17 pm

Stoney wrote:I have eaten some stonking size tilapia out of the Ross River in Townsville because my mate has an Asian wife an she was insistent that we keep them and she would cook them. Bloody delicious for a fresh water fish. I guess the Government doesn't want people eating from the land as you are supposed to throw them on the bank and let them rot.



Yep Plenty in there mate. They are of a good size too. Never fished the fresh in the Ross however have caught plenty in the Burdekin.
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