Drummer Gear

[donjuarez]

I keep hearing a bit about Luderick anglers getting smoked by drummer on the odd occasion, and was wondering what you could do to avoid this if anything?

Could you upgrade to 10+lb Mainline and Stronger Leaders, and still have a reasonable bash at blackies? and have a better chance of not losing the drummer when they make an appearance?

[slinkymalinky]

The only way to avoid getting smoked occasionally by Drummer is to put away the Blackfish gear and get serious about them. I used to fish with 6kg mono off the rocks for blackies and it's not even close to being able to stop a half decent pig without a whole truck load of luck.

It's a long time since I hopped the rocks a lot but my drummer outfit was a MT 7144 low mount with an alvey loaded with 10kg mono and I used to consider that fishing light. My favourite spot was a place called Pig Rock on the Kurnell Peninsula and every trip I could almost guarantee getting reefed by 1 or 2.

Cheers, Slinky

[donjuarez]

Thanks Slinky... will keep that in mind... I've got a 13'6" and a 10'6" both low mount... looking to re-spool the Alvey (currently has 6lb), and hoping that there's some good middle ground...

could use the spare spool of the reel I use on my 12' stick, and target pigs specifically... would 20-30lb mono be overkill?

Cheers,

AJ

[luderick -angler]

I know guys that use 60lb tortue and still get smashed by pigs off the blessings at sth maroubra! fishing 30lb should do the trick

Hey slinky PigRock is where i learned to chase luderick off the rocks always a wash and geese they'd get out wide! Favourite spot on that stretch is Althouse though gotta love it there on a calm day!

[donjuarez]

20-30lb for blackies would be too heavy though... right?

no one size fits all solution to this one it seems?

just means i'll have to use 2 different rods... one when I target blackies, and another to target pigs directly..

[arpie]

Hi Throw Me

I use 20lb braid for my blackie gear - Stewy uses 30lb - it is so much lighter than mono, so pretty easy to use. Some folk don't like the 'non stretchiness' of it tho! The real bonus is that it floats, so you don't have to grease your line when float fishing.

The main thing is to make sure your main line is quite a bit heavier than your trace/leader, so you don't lose your float when you get busted off ..... which is a matter of 'when' not 'if'!! However, I don't normally target Drummer - you get them as bycatch when using cabbage & are up the sea end of our breakwall!

Roberta

Yep - much easier having the 2 rods setup for the 2 species

Edited June 16, 2008 by Roberta

[slinkymalinky]

Hey Roberta,

I used to always fish for Blackies with mono... thinking about it though braid is perfect. The fishing is normally on a relatively short line so the stretchiness of mono would not have been a big issue and the rods are so long and soft it's them that do the hard work of shock absorbtion. Abrasion resistance would be an issue when fishing from the rocks but I might have a go for blackies out of my boat this winter and I'll put away my centre pin reel and put one of my light spin reels with braid on a long rod and see how I go.

You don't happen to know any spots/areas in Sydney Harbour where I could pull the boat up on a beach and get some weed & half a bucket of sand do you? (Stewy??).

Cheers, Slinky

[donjuarez]

Given the rocks and structure about I thought braid might not have been an option.. got a spool of 30lb sitting about that could go to good use then!

How long would your leaders typically be? and what line rating? (for blackies that is... )

Thinking I might be able to get away with 30lb braid and just chopping/changing leaders depending on the species i'm targetting.. i.e blackies or pigs..

AJ

[luderick -angler]

AJ heres the two standard rock hopping setups i take 1 blackies i use either my sportex 3901 or extended 663 both are 13ft with a 5.5 inch trudex and 14lb platil main with 6 or 8lb berkly vanish fluro tracedepends on the structure around ie clen water or shallow and reefy

2 pigs/bream i use either a sportex 3904 (for XOS size pigs) or a synder mt6144 i use a alvey 55AE5 blackfish special spooled with synder fine line in 15kg i then use a 30lb fluro trace i run a 1 ball sinker to a hook i use mustad 542 between size 6 to 2/0 depends on how finicky the pigs are sometimes all they will take is that brown weed then you go down to a 2x strong suicde pattern in a no8!

As much as Robeta sings the praise s of braid go the mono in platil yes you have to grease it but you will pull less hooks on blackies

P.S no offence Roberta i used to use braid and dropped over 60 percent of hooked fish though dads seceret line greas formula keeps the line floating for most of the day with one application!

AJ any queries Pm me!

Heres some pics of very old sessions and shots that proves you can get pigs on blackie gear

The pig next to my 663 with the golden eagle now donated to my mate Gavin was taken on a 10lb main and 6lb Yamatoyo fluro toughest stuff around!

The shot with the lads and all those blackies waa sa day when you could walk on em and guys fishing 30lb straight thru were hooking in

The other shot is me with my beloved 3901 and 5.5inch trudex (one of rarest centrepinsfrom the 1960's and a brute great for retreival on long drifts!) and a decent bag

Okay am now very upset and homesick must go!

Edited June 16, 2008 by luderick -angler