Daniel Frost

Sounds like you had a good day out , shame about the ep but you still had fun and got out there and thats what is important . Don't worry about your dogs bladder , thats what bildge pumps are for.

The photo's are always so good in your reports , I love the shots you take of the river , it makes me want to give it a crack . Im not really that into trout and rarely use a wand , I probably would take a spin outfit and give it a crack for the experiance as much as for the fishing . You must absolutely love troutfishing as you do seem to target them a lot and make the effort to trek in and out whilst camping with mininal gear , do you fish for anything else or do any saltwater ? Personally ive only fished dams for trout , but it looks like the experiance would be a lot better when hiking a river like the ones in your reports . Bass fishing is my favourite freshwater fishing , but I will wait until it starts to heat up before I get back into that . Keep up the awsome reports mate , always a good read and great photos

Matt im not a big Tassie fan so im with you mate , but they do cast well when your off the shore and it can be helpful when it's tough fishing at Thomos. BUT Why not try using a Blade , everything else eats them and the can be retreived in a variety of ways and you can outcast a tassie with them I reckon . Down the end of Thommo's I was there with Jewhunter one day and tied on a Bomber that I had painted on some white dots with liquid paper then coloured the centers red . The laughing [at me and my lure ] only stopped when I hooked a BEAST which I unfortunately pulled the hook on at my feet .Not bad for a Barra lure with 3 trebles .

Interesting looking lures , im not sure how effective they would be but you never know if you don't try em . Can't see myself making one but it has given me the idea of picking up a slab on my way home .....

The HDS-7 has come down a lot in price and would be a good option , definately worth checking out . Currently I have a HDS-5 and love it , Next week I will be installing my new HDS-8 and structure scan , can't wait . The Garmin units I have not really seen in action . The Humminbird and Lowrance units are great sounders.

Thanks for all the support Raiders , it was great to meet so more of you at the weigh in . The 2 days were both very hard when it came to finding fish and quality ones at that , but I am stoked with our result [and prizes] and would like to thank Mick for all his hard work pre fishing and over the weekend and JBjew for going the extra mile and helping us out showing what true Aussie mateship is all about . The whole competition was run really well and it was amazing to be driving into Darling harbour with another 15 comp boats and getting to experiece the whole Grand Final scene , it is one I won't forget . Just making the GF was great and to finish in fourth with only 4 fish on day 2 showed me how hard the fishing really was , especially when you are surrounded by so many good anglers , blokes I look up to and greatly respect. Was great to catch up with Gillie and Mark also the boys from CBBtackle [plenty of good fisho's from down that way].Also I met Ross from Team Shimano Evinrude what a great bloke and it was great to have a chat and meet many of the other blokes as well . We caught all our fish on blades and fished the Parra and lane cove , but as stated earlier it was hard yards and not very relxing especially when it takes 2and a half hours before you land a legal fish . The weekend was a very busy one with my work commitments on top of the fishing but well worth the 4.30 starts and late nights . Thanks again for all the support and if you are thinking about giving the comps a go then all I can say is pre fish hard , get a game plan and give it a go . You will meet plenty of good blokes and learn heaps with the added experience . At the end of the day your still fishing for fun , so don't worry to much about your result , whats really important is learning where went wrong and then concentrating on the things that worked for you and remebering these and building on them until you have a range of skills and learn how do fish in different conditions . Thanks to Mark and Scott and all the helpers involved in the weekend and series , I appreciated all the effort you guys put in . Cheers Bubba

Coming from Forster I use the FRV stiffy popper, it is a fav , but also pencils , sugar pens when the water is still or bigger thicker pencils when the wind is really blowing. The strength of the wind really determines what surface lure im casting ,thats the most important thing to me. Shallow diving Atomics work well and don't break the budget . But if I am chasing whiting and could only take 1 lure , it would be the stiffy , and as kingfisher said , some mono leader is a must have.

Yeah mate the clear water is what your looking for , also kelp and weed beds or well lit areas at night , and dusk and dawn are good times to fish for them . If you have caught them at Lilli Pilli then you should give them a crack there but I would try fishing at night around marinas ,ferry jettys and some bridges , any spots that have clear water and plenty of lighting , the edges of the light are a good place to cast .Yo Zuri are well worth the money , If you are fishing landbased and you have to lift the squid out of the water I would use 8lb leader or 10 leader , you don't want to loose your jigs when trying to haul them up onto a wharf . There are plenty of land based spots around middle head just pull out a map and start exploring them. The marina's around spit bridge are also a good place to fish at night as well as under the bridge. Good Luck

Did it taste any good ?

There was tons in the harbour last weekend , go around the harbour bridge and then look for the birds , you may have to travel around a bit looking for them , if they arn't at the HB look around near Goat island .

Save yourself a lot of pain and wait for a couple months , practice your plastics , blades and hardbodys , quality fish are around in winter . . October as Iceman said ..wait till then and then your in with a good chance of some surface success . No use in flogging a dead horse .

Well done Roberta , I will have to buy myself a copy and check this article out congrats and I have not seen Shane for ages , he was the photographer for my sisters wedding and we went to the same school , yes I can still remember the days when I would tease him then run like Carl Lewis and hide behind my dad at fishing club meetings and weekend weigh ins. Hehehehehe...god I was a brat.

Yeah mate I just put treble on the offset hook and use a small bit of plastic tube to get it to stay where I want it. [so it sits on the underside of the tail ]. This is what I did last trip to Awoonga and Monduran and it worked fine. Other people I have seen people add a swivel to let the hook sit back a bit further and also give the treble more freedom of movement . Tight Lines

Great bag of fish Wen , you will be eating well for a while . Unfortunately only the one shoe ,well I hope next time you catch a pair

Caught this Barra during some really tough fishing at Awonga and did it with my mate Mick in his Quinney. Caught on a slick rig using a 14lb Rod and 3500 size reel with about 40lb leader , this fish was measured at 115cm and is equall to my dads PB who was also fishing about 300m away at the time of this capture . Hooking the fish in a couple meters of water and watching it explode out of the weedbed was an awsome sight, one I will never forget . When I get old I will bore my family my freinds thier freinds and even strangers at the RSL,shopping centres or bus stops with this story ,[ a very embelished and long version ].

Nice job mate must feel great 2 have done all that with your own 2 hands . It's got a classy look about it and im sure will provide you with a lot of pleasure on the water . Looks like that hull should cut through wake and chop with ease .Rowing gees it's been over 20 years since I rowed , I used to collect green weed for my dads tackle shop in a little row boat . But 8 years .......im glad I don't have one on order with you hehehe Lovely boat mate , happy days , im sure you will enjoy it now its in action.

Its a flickbait I think , Nice fish Bloopin , must be fun chasing jew in the yak , i have done 2 discs in my back so I don't go yakking anymore , but I did go about 4 years ago in the Lane cove and hooked a good jew [for the bream gear I was u,sing] about 6 kgs and due to inexperience and my general unko balance in the yak I tipped half way over during the battle , almost filling the yak up with water, then Igave the jew some slack in my struggle to get out [i was only in 2 foot of water luckily] and away she swum . Yep theres nothing like paddling back in a 20kn wind during winter and then getting back into your car soaking wet . Yes it was a disaster , a full box of tissues job. Bubba

Mate they are a good thing to have , I have 2 in my box , and they are used when im trying to get a lure to sink down a pylon under a wharf or even boats , cast a bit up current of the intended target and as it sinks down to the desired depth for me usually 1.5 to 2m the I just give it small twitches , so the lure stays in the strike zone for longer then a floating lure and it casts well to . The reason I only have 2 is because they are not cheap to be fishing around these dangerous sort of structures and I usually end up casting plastics . But I would be happy that you have a couple , they can be very useful.

Mate I can help you out with this stuff , where to get it and how it all works as I manage a company that provides the materials . Brightside is no longer available but there is a replacement it is called toplac , and comes in 750ml and 1.5L cans and would be a great topcoat Pre coat would be the undercoat you apply first and comes in 1L cans . The timber needs to be sealed with everdure , which is a timber primer and sealer , for you to get the best results . If you put some resin on the surface you are about to glass over it helps keep the cloth from moving around and speeds up the wetting out process with your glass , chop strand matt would do the job , but if you want something stronger use quad axle or double bias.[ they are woven cloths ] also make sure the glass is totally wet , you don't want any dry spots . Filling or fairing, and gluing paste is easy to make just by adding filler powder or glue powder to your epoxy . Let me know if you get stuck and I should be able to help you out. Good luck with your project mate .

Yes I know just the spot your looking for , but you may also need to weld on an 2000L fuel tank and take enough supplies for a week , it's off NZ.

Bass Fishing Bream Fishing Bluwater fishing Rock Fishing Kite Fishing Beach Fishing Freshwater Fishing Shark Fishing Trout fishing Bait Fishing Lure Fishing Competition Fishing and generally Fishing

The Husky jerk works well , you can get a clearish white colour and that has been successful for me , they have a good range of colours and a great action in the water . IMO Those count downs will still work but the Husky Jerks are a better choice for a wider range of applications if your looking at Rapala lures . The skitter pop , I would have caught around 30 to 50 barra on a blue one and it now hangs in my LURE HALL OF FAME. But there are better poppers for Bream .

Thats a good session , and as the A-Team say "I love it when a plan comes together " , quality EP anyone would be happy with that fish . Go the blades !!!! They are an awsomw lure and you are obviously having success with em, good on you men , Congrats and great to see you both with such a good haul of fish , Tight lines Bubba Oh and Bassboy with those sunnies you might just get a role in the next A-Team movie

One day I wsa out the back of JBjews house and having a flick with just a sinker tied to the end of the line , it cast like a bullet obviously but I was just practicing my accurracy and some trick casting . When out comes JB , deciding he wants to show me his casting prowess ... at the time his neighbour was up on his roof installing some huge dish an tioling away trying to get it in place . JB says "Watch this i'm gunna cast it right next to him , it will scare the crap out of him " before I could raise my concerns JB just fired the sinker out at 1000MPH like a sniper taking out a terroist this thing hit him right in the back and the bloke went down like a sack of spuds and we did the Harold Holt back inside the house. The poor bloke must have thought he was hit by a bullet , and JB I can't believe how accurate you were , he was one unlucky man . The morale of the story "if you live near JB, call someone else over to instal anything on your house that is above the fence line" Bubba

Mate it looks like you ended up having fun and that is a nice bream you have there anyone wouldbe happy with that in a comp , the old bass minnow is still hard to beat Well done.Blades would be a good lure to use in the deeper water . When I have a mate cancel on a fishing trip and Im out on my own I like to send them a text that says ........ "JEW 18KG" Then when they call you just don't answer , hehehe , keep em wondering . When I go out "Hans Solo" style I like to try new areas and techniques , you don't have any pressure on you to compete with your mate and you don't have to worry about if your catching fish or not . These are times you can work new things out that can really help you to become a more rounded fisherman . Sometimes I will be sitting in an area where I am sure there are fish but can't catch them so I will try different lure colours , change from H\B to soft plastics or blades and work it really slow for a while , then speed it up and rip in . Or I will just cover groung drifting while watching the sounder and jast casting in the hope I will find some structure on the bottom which is holding fish . These areas can often be in channels out in the open and are not obvious spots that you would just pull up to and fish .