Rick T

I have a small collection of 12 but they have taken me 3 years to get all the rods that I really wanted . Nearly all Daiwa gear except for 1 GLX. 5 battlers, 3 old model Z's, 3 saltiga's all with titanium guides. I have an ishidai on order to replace the saltist reel I just sold to complete the outfits . Next will be a saltiga spin outfit then I'll probably call it a day to my wifes delight

Have a fav for all the types of fishing I do but my saltiga 60b with team daiwa luna or pixy ltd rod with pixy reel would be the ones I ogle at most often.

Done ok on breambos and ep's at Halvo's and Akuna marinas. moored boats in appletree and shoreline of cottage bay. Mouth of Smith's creek and drop offs of any bays on run out can produce some big flatties. The bays at the mouth of cowan where the water is a bit dirtier are better during the day. Overall it can be a fairly tough place to fish but it is a great place to just get away.

I have only been fishing pittwater for a few years now and although I can usually get a feed it seems to be harder and harder each year. harbour and botany seem to be getting better. I have had a few fishless trips this year in pittwater and am yet to have a fishless trip in the harbour. Even though it can be difficult at times I still prefer fishing there as the boat traffic is much smaller.

don't take too much stuff Joe, keep it simple. bream gear is fine, no need for heavy gear as the fish are aggressive but not that hard a fighter. Wouldn't usually bother with poppers yet as it only preduces an occasional fish, for ep's try sp's on outside river bends (especially with rock walls) or lipless crankbaits. They are not afraid of 1/4oz jigs so don't think you have to fish light as often as bream and the new gulp prawns have been producing some big mama's. HB's with a big wobble or rattle are good but a bettspin blade with a 1/8oz jig and a paddle/eyeball tail are probably the most productive shoreline/snag bass catchers. Use a leader around 10lb if you are not too accurate at casting as you will probably catch more branches than fish on your first few trips.

No good mate, hope the part gets to you soon. All motors have their probs but since my neighbour bought a new evinrude 2 years ago and the boat has been off the water 6 months in that time I personally don't trust them. Getting it fixed hasn't been his prob, just the parts needed both times it broke down took 3 months to arrive from the states.

Some nice fish there Joe. Although not 100% reliable it is pretty close to it, bass have a tinge of white on the edge of the bottom fins and ep's don't (not very easy to see on photo's but easy with fish infront). Here's a couple of fish from out there today Mick and I caught that may help to show the difference rather than dictionary. Mick's bass went 43cm fork and my perch 38cm fork. Top fish is perch.

awsome fish, that one fish would have made the trip worthwile

Great report almost a novel and great pics. The hawkesbury has a habit of looking like a sensational fishery but not producing the goods. That is real dedication to fish two different locations in one day and seeing the bass smashing the surface in winter would have been awsome. I would give my right arm to see some action like that over the past few weeks. I was in the fresh today without another angler or boat in sight . Not the numbers of fish you guys got unfortunately but size and fatness made up for it, shame the self timer stuffed up.

Check out ABA aswell. You can buy the lean seat, pole and base as separate items if it is prefered.

80lb sounds really heavy Bill and may be some of the reason it is blowing out, I run 10lb and 20lb max on larger rapalas. Is the lure tracking fine under 4.5knots? I think over that might be a bit fast for a cd7. Trolling speed for 7-9 is only supposed to be about 4.5knots. 7's are great for tailor and have found 9's much more effective on sambo's when they are down.

G'day Jethro I picked up a GLX 4-7kg king stick last year and have found the REC guides sensational. Only picked up some rats but no noise on the heavier stick using 10lb fireline and the total rod weighs in under 100g. Recently matched with 3000 Luvias it really packs a punch for an extremely light weight outfit.

I went with the trinidad purely cause shimano have a combo sale on at the moment with the 400 Tcurve rod. Think ABA had it at the show (some left over I am sure) around $700 for both. Saltiga and Stella are better but double the price. Another option to look at in the spin model is the Spheros 14000/Tcurve combo at around $450. Tough heavy duty spin reel and rod for the $$, sold a heap of them at the show.

Seen 2 getting cleaned last sunday when I went for a spin. Didn't bother reporting as the only nice fish I caught was a 64cm flatty on 4lb that gave me some stick. Other than that a few squire and a couple of choppers

another option is to work out your exact measurements for each piece needed and go to Mr Plywood and have it all precut. I did this for my live well installation and it made a crappy job a fair bit easier. Cost about $50 for the precut marine ply to create a 100ltr live well.

G'day John I contacted Shearwater when I was looking for the same thing and he gave me a very reasonable quote and also made some excellent suggestions as he is an experienced king fisherman. I actually ended going with a GLX rod designed for sluggo's etc as ABA gave me a great deal but shearwater was next on the list and around half the price. I ended up putting more money towards the rod than reel as I reckon a 4000 stradic is enough to do the job. 2500 size diawa may be ok as they have a good drag but I don't recommend a 2500 shimano (which I have a few of). I went with a 4000 because I could hold more capacity of 10-20lb line to put some real hurt on the kings. Here's a few pic's of my combo which would come in a few hundred cheaper than the bronzeback/certate combo but still probably overly expensive, you could get away with an excellent combo for under $500. Have landed a few kings on this rig up to 67cm and it performed outstandingly. I am not a fan of overly long rods for throwing sluggo's especially 9" versions as the tip sags too much.

Yep thats the boat, didn't see u around though Joe but we were off the water early. I know what u mean about props. We were throwing some unweighted lures around the big drain near the red marker. started up the motor to move away and took a chunk out of it. Luckily I have 3 spares at home.

yeah they are about $20 each set. I don't think the locables are necessary, I have been around the heads at a rate of knots without rods falling out. Just purchase a pack of s/s self tappers as the screws provided rust.

G'day LW I store mine vertically and think it is the best way to do so. I have seen a few rod tips done in rod racks and if they are not set out correctly they make a mess of tangles if u put multiple rigged rods in there. My set up is simple, just a few berkley vertical rod holders. sometimes I take up to 9 rods out + who ever is with me and this keeps all the rods in good order. up to 12 rods can be stored this way.

Mick and I hit the cooks on sunday for a quick session. Saw Andy at the petrol station and he joked with us about how much better my hornet is than his skeeter. Only ever fished the cooks a few times and made it there ok thanks to Jocools directions. last time I ended up at the airport terminal and looked like a dumbo driving through the drop off area with a boat in tow. Hit the moored boats and first few bridges early and picked up a handfull of nice bream up to 35cm fork and over half a dozen average size trevors. Moved on to a few bridges further up stream and tried jigging with some 5" and 9" shads for "big bream" with no luck. The sounder was full of action but it may have just been the rubbish. Jigged a drop off near the bridge with a bream rod with 2" hawg and hooked up. A powerful run towards the bridge as I tried to angled the rod to get it to swim into the middle which worked. locked the drag on the 1000 stradic and started to get it back when it made another long run directly past and around the pilon. Mick was yelling at me to turn the bail arm over but I was too slow and got shredded . After that not much was caught as the tide picked up so we called it a day early. A full boar boat "sniffin" was up near the highway bridge, not sure who's boat but gave em a wave and took off. Instead got lost on the way home and ended up at brighton le sands.

Unbeleivable that I purchased the rod a few months ago and only ever used it for squidding but it has been 3 months since I have targeted bream. It has tonnes of guts but easily cast the 1/40 hws jigs I was using. Only rod I didn't get a wind knot in all day aswell but it could be the large runner guide combined with fact I only use 2500 size reels on the daiwa rods. I saw u fellas head into IC around 1pm when I was heading back from snails.

Nice fish fella's, what sort of boat were u in. I also fished the parra yesterday as Mick R had to work and I was to lazy to make the trip to the hawksbury. I started the morning at some fav boats at kissing point and didn't find a fish so moved on quickly. At gladesville there was a heap of working birds so I rigged a 3" hawg and cast out and got slugged a few times with no hookup. I cast out again with a quick retrieve and got a small chopper. Kept casting until the plastic was no more and got a chopper every cast (8 in total) then moved on to the LC. fished moored boats there only landing about 5 bream up to 32cm slow rolling 3" hawgs and 3" gulp curly tail minnows just under the hulls, no fish came from the bottom. Caught up with Mick P/Rich P and another fella with a dark red stessl edgetracker (very nice rig and fella) and everyone was doing it tough. I moved on to Gore bay and fished the fisheries docks and got to break in my kingbolt on a 30cm bream locked up in the pilons. by 11am I had 6 fish mainly legals. I moved again to some deep jigging around the snail bay pilons and the fish were banked up. I would watch the line as the lure was dropping for fish on the drop as I was able to use a 1/12 jig because the weather was awsome. The fish must have been schooled as I picked up 14 bream and a trevor in just over an hours fishing without moving from the same deep pilon. Again mostly legal fish with a couple in the low 30's. Took off around 1pm to beat the M4 traffic but stopped at the bridge and got a nice bream on my first jig so called it a day on that note.

The multi series pictured was taken outside the Sydney heads for a test run on Wednesday by Pete (ABA boss) and Dean Hayes (Sydney/Hawkesbury Charter operater). Dean said it performed exceptionally outside the heads when put through its paces. They also christened it with a few kings with one just over a metre taken on 4kg tackle (Dean will include the photo in an upcoming magazine article). Hopefully next wednesday Mick and I will get to test its versatility by taking it to some ultra shallow and narrow hawkesbury creeks chasing EP's

Joe there was a batch of faulty fireline that has all been sent back to the factory. I presume it was purchased not long ago as it is a recent batch. Take it to your store and have it replaced. I have 10 lb fireline on an egg beater and it is tough stuff. As an example I hooked a 4kg salmon while trolling at 6 knots and the drag got caught and wound in tight, the rod holder broke but I caught the rod and landed the fish with no drag without the line even coming close to breaking (although the rod groaned a few times). After testing most brands as a rule I now use fireline XDS for egg beaters and TufLine or Hotfibre 2 for overhead reels.

See Mick's post mate, it is rated as a 177 multi species boat. I agree with Joe that the speed/boating rules should be regulated by waterways authorities and I also agree with Harry in that there should be regulations that will be applied to the whole boating community. Hopefully the new rules "bombshell" should cover irresponsible driving. An idiot is an idiot no matter what boat they are driving.