Kit

Hey Guys, Has anyone got experience with the new TD Sol rods? I think I may have been unlucky and am waiting on a replacement now; but the finish on these new ones don't seem to be as good as the old Team Daiwa rods. Chris

thats pretty big. A few weeks ago we caught one in sydney harbour. it was HUGE. I really should have taken pictures, but anyway, this thing was like those obese people you see on telly. when you move it, you can see all the fat wobble. we couldn't get it to puff up and I weighed it cos I was curios.. 4.5kg!!!!!!

I know how to prepare them properly for sashimi now.. they taste real good.

ahhh yes. I noticed that when I was cleaning them. They weren't black, but more like an algae look.. I just assumed they were bigger, hence older, and had some algae growth on their gills.. I also noticed that the Cowanyoung don't have "the doctor" I did some more searching and a site says that you can count the scutes on the fish, cowanyoung typically have more.. Also Cowanyoung have a straight lateral line were as Yellowtail have an arch in their lateral line towards the front. oh and these cowanyoung.. They taste pretty good when prepared as sashimi

After seeing Yellowtail being labelled as Mackerel in SA, and also seeing them called Jack Mackerel in Japan, I decided to do some research. Now I knew that there was a species of fish called Cowanyoung that look very similar to Yellowtail; but after reading up on it, it seems that Cowanyoung and Jack Mackerel are the same fish, and are closely related to the Yellowtail. See here: http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/research/areas/s...ck-Mackerel.pdf My question is: how do you differentiate between a Jack Mackerel (Cowanyoung) and a yellowtail? And the huge yellowtail we have been catching in the harbour lately, are they infact Cowanyoung? Chris

I thought I'd post a few pics from my recent visit to Osaka Aquarium in Japan. In the largest tank there is a whale shark. There are also other fish like rays, sharks, huge trevally (1.5m+) and big yellowtail (some up to around 30cm). I'm sure the yellowtail don't feel too secure so they all school up around the whale shark. As you'll see in the pics below, the whale shark swims around while the yellowtail all school up around it. The Trevally casually follow the whale shark around and every so often break the school of yakkas. They're pretty sneaky the Trevas.. they swim around casually as if nothing is wrong, then one will lunge at the school. I had the pleasure of seeing an unlucky yellowtail get taken and quickly gobbled up by a Treva. I didn't get to capture this moment, and I stood around for the next 15 mins waiting for it to happen again but the trevas kept on missing... here are some pics: The trevas swimming around and scoping the prey: One takes a lunge from underneath, scattering the school: Missed!: On another note, Yellowtail are called Jack Mackeral over there, and Yellowtail Kingfish are called Yellowtail. I remember seeing at a South Australian fish shop once Yellowtail being labelled as Mackeral too.. I thought Yakkas were related to Trevally and are not Mackeral at all? Chris

nice fish mate. I've pumped squirt worms from Chipping Norton before too. The only problem I had was getting them to stay on the hook.. How do you keep em on? I tried salting some left over worms once; they toughened up a bit and the fish liked em too. Chris

Nice fish mate. I thought they were all gone. I spent all Saturday and all Sunday night chasing these buggers on bait on Sydney Harbour for zilch.

Stylo, yeah what you say makes sense. It was only in the Japanese catalogue where I saw these two measurements for drag. Other places on the net simply quote 10kg. But in reality, who would run 10kg drag through a 4000 reel anyway. The rod required to take that sort of abuse would be totally mismatched to teh reel.

Back in Sydney now Umm. I'm not totally sure. Its cos they have so many different models of reels that we don't have in Australia, so its hard to say.. Also I'm not on top of all the latest models available here. both of the stores I visited were chain stores, so pricing may not be sharp. I saw packets of Berkley Powerbait for 700yen (just over $7 aussie), so thats is average pricing. But Ecogear soft plastics are 450yen (under $5 aussie a pack which is really cheap). I vaguely remember Shimano Ultegra spinning reels in the 2000 size around 135000 yen which is pretty cheap. But the problem is, even the models that we have here, are different over there and there might be multiple specs in the same model. I bought a 2008 Shimano Biomaster 4000 spinning reel for around $170 aussie. I think this is pretty much the same as out stradic. However, from memory the Stradic we get may be made in Malaysia, where as the Biomaster I got is a Japanese made reel. For everyone saying stuff about the JDM and lack of customers... the shops weren't full of customers, but each shop had multiple staff, and a steady flow of people coming in and out to buy gear. I guess if the market wasn't substantial, the Japanese wouldn't make so much gear for their domestic market. There are about 8 Sansui tackle stores and multiple Joshuya stores in the Tokyo area alone. Remember, what we see overseas is only a fraction of that is available. The Japanese tend not to export the really good stuff.

There seems to be quite a few customers in the fishing shops. I have no idea what the fishing in Japan is like, but nearly all of the gear is pretty light. Its hard to find big lures and big hooks etc. Squidding is very popular in Japan, and there are whole sections dedicated to fishing.

Hey guys, I've just bought myself a 2008 Shimano Biomaster 4000. Having a look at the catalogue, there are two figures for drag: 10kg Maximum drag, 5kg Useable drag. Does anyone know what this means? Chris

I'm typing this post from my hotel room in Osaka right now, but I've just spent a few days in Tokyo. I didn't do much research before I came, but did manage to find a couple of tackle stores. Check out these pics! The tackle store is called Joshuya, and they have stores all over Tokyo. The pics here are of their Shibuya store; there is 4 levels of this!!! I also visited another couple of tackle stores: Sansui (another chain), and Tackleberry (2nd hand gear), but they didn't seem to have as much range as Joshuya. Can't wait to get back and use some of my new gear!

Hi Mate, I haven't fished Quakers Hills, but fished Bella Vista a lot. I used to catch carp to around 3kg, the best bait I've found is canned corn kernals. I used to run 6lb line, a small running sinker, and a size 4 hook. Just thread the corn onto the hook. Watch your line, when it moves off, set the hook. They're great fun on light tackle, not very fast, but loads of low speed grunt...

I've seen fishermen on the rocks suspend their baits a few metres under their floats... normally with big slab baits that they cast out quite far. Dunno what they're targetting and whether its effective though. I like to have about 5m of mono as shock leader on some of my braid setups .. just to give it a bit of stretch when I'm fishing big baits. Thats when I use the running bead because I don't want my sinker running over the joining knot as sometimes it has problems coming back down. So I'm really using it to stop a running sinker rather than a float.

oh... I've never actually used them before. Looks like I might need to give them a go Is there any problems with casting, or if you're running a really long leader winding them onto the spool?

I think the problem with those stoppers is that they don't move, so if you're running a 3m trace, you won't be able to cast. What I usually do, although I do it with a running sinker rather than a float, is to join the leader to the mainline with an Albright or Uni to Uni knot. I then put a small (running) bead onto the trace, then the running sinker (or in your case, the float), then the hook. When wound up, the bead and float will slide down so that it will be short enough to cast. When in the water, the bead will stop the float from going any higher. The bead must have a small hole so that it will be stopped by the knot; the albright will be small enough so that you can cast without a problem. here is a dodgy diagram of it: ======================xxxx-----------------------------------O----------------[++++]-------------------------? main line Albright -mainline to leader Bead float sinker/swivel/hook Hope this helps.

I'm just wondering: would eating fish from those waterways be worse than inhaling cigarette smoke? a lot of fishermen smoke.... I don't eat the fish from cooks, and I'm generally careful with fish in the parra too; but I also don't smoke. But you also need to consider that fish swim everywhere, so the bream caught today in Sydney harbour could have been in Homebush bay or Cooks river yesterday. So having said that I'm probably being silly if I think the fish from Sydney harbour are safer than the fish in the Cooks Chris

Hey guys, I bought a Kokoda Weather Central weather station yesterday. Its pretty good, it shows the time, date, inside and outside temperature, barometric pressure and history, and moon phase. Its supposed to show the tide phase too. Does anyone have one? and how does the tide phase display work? Mine just had Tide - High - Low it doesn't have an indicator on the actual tide Chris

Byron, I'm not quite sure I understand how your rod holders work.... how do you secure them to the wharf? Chris

I have to agree with you about the schoolies. I watched my mate catch one and the fish didn't muck around, just came up and grabbed the livie and took off. If I wasn't standing next to the rod, it would have gone into the drink. Thanks again for your advice mate, I'm definately gonna take that on board. Chris

Byron, I set the drag very tight.. so tight that I often cut my little finger when I'm testing the drag with my hand. I use the bait runner function on the tightest setting though, but that is only because I can't find a way of securing my rod on the wharf. I don't want to have my rod pulled over the side by a fish!

Hey mate, Haven't seen you in ages! yeah for sure.. we'll go fishing again.. I no longer live in the area though.

Braidbuster, In that case, its just pure bad luck then (as usual), as I only use Chemical sharpened hooks. Benzeenees, the missus fishes as well, but she has a light outfit that she catches bream on.. She's also good at catching yakkas for me to use as bait

Well done mate... nah, its a myth.. they don't exist! I'm sure of it! Yakka were few and far between on the harbour.. fished from 4pm till about 12am for only 6 yakkas (see my other post). But the yakkas that were caught were huge... way too big to use as live bait. I ended up keeping em and making them into Yellowtail Sashimi