A day of firsts

[Member]

Launched from Harpeng Rd today for the first time this season. First fish of the morning came from under an overhang and hit my lure before I even started my retrieve. My eyes nearly popped outta my head when the fish got airborne and I saw what it was  . First Toga for me! She went roughly 62 cm on the scale I've drawn on the yak. I didn't even think they were in the Brissy.

Anyhow, got a couple small bass for the rest of the morning and went home with a smile on my dial for popping my toga cherry!

[Member]

Great to see they're still there. 

[Member]

I have heard of people catching them there but yours is the first proof I've seen, well done!

[Member]

Wow awesome stuff!

[Member]

My babies are doing ok it seems.

Well done. 

[Member]

Nice one!

[Member]

Thanks guys. I feel quite privileged to have bagged a toga there. Seems like I'm one of the lucky few. They are truly a beautiful thing.

Also saw a few platypuses and the odd lungy break the surface. Is great to see the river in good health after the flogging it has copped over the past few years.

[Member]

Well done that's a great capture I have fished there with a gentleman that caught one on a garden worm while we were flicking lures around and have been hoping to get lucky with one myself ever since, you have restored my faith that it may one day happen 

[Member]

Nice:) awesome fish mate...

[Member]

...and for what it's worth, I was out there on monday and there was an orange kayak on the water.

[Member]

Oh there's definately saratoga there. I used to spend alot of time sitting up the bank in a few areas on that river at a couple of spots, spotting the adults crusing. You've got no idea how happy I would be when I'd see babies as well & I've seen plenty over the years.

I was a bit worried about them with the big floods, but there's been several caught from the wall down to Kholo since then AND I've seen at least one little one since when it had a go at a spinnerbait right at the kayak. Cute little fella wouldn't have been a foot long but still agro enough to go a lure.

They're definately in Wivenhoe, Somerset, Atkinsons & the Brisbane River & Lockyer Creek (above te weir) downstream of these dams. You might catch the odd one pegging lures for bass, but if you want to catch more you gotta fish more specifically for them.

[Member]

A flood is nothing to a fish that survived the K-Pg extinction event and the following 66 million years 

[Member]

  That's the second Toga with photographic evidence to posted online from near Harpeng Rd this year. A similar sized one was posted up on KFDU earlier this year and from memory the angler said he got it on an Ecogear SX40. And if we go back 18months there was another picture that got distributed privately that was taken from there too ( Fitz , you know the one of the fella on the Jackson Coosa). Well done and thanks for sharing.

[Member]

Fitzy your right just sitting and watching for hours can sometimes be as rewarding as the fishing its self, and there are alot of Toga, Cod and Platapus etc around but for how much longer who knows.

Not everyone broadcasts their catches or the places they catch them for many reasons, some don't even lift them out of the water to gently release them on most occassions, as you mentioned for the cod at the comp.

Some people have personal bests that are just that "Personal Bests", but what I can say is there probably are 64 cm Bass, 72 cm Goldens, Cod that can't be lifted onto a Yak and two Toga's on one snag in our very healthy river again.

You know the area I'm referring to, the place that 4-5 years ago hardly had a yak or canoe on it and people didn't pull up and go onto peoples private property and boat launching areas and have a cr@p and leave their lunch rubbish behind.

That's why some personal bests are kept just that "Personal Bests"!

P.S. Found another dead Lungie yesterday.

Cheers
Considerate Fellow Fishing Fanatic.