Rick T

Yep will catch up with u guys when we get up there and goodluck to u also Joe. Same as the fellas I am heading up as a non boater hoping to score a boater that can teach me a thing or three about dam fishing, especially deep jigging . Its great being a non-boater for the first time, I can just relax and let the boaters do the worrying. Not fussed if I catch anything or not just as long as I learn a bit. I have actually been looking through my old bass lures cause I reckon the fish are gonna be Jackal shy after being flogged for a while.

See what u r saying now mate , Unfortunately plenty of good products from US are discontinued as they are not very popular over there. Not sure how many US fisherman especially in the bass scene actually fish with 8lb, from the shows I watch they mainly use extremely high breaking strain line so maybe that is a reason??. But I have been using the 8lb for months and it is durable and strong with less knots than standard fireline. I still use standard for bream though as the dark green colour (although it gets lighter with use) is difficult to see if you like to watch your line.

Not sure why u would have second thoughts because it is not available on US websites?? I have been using it for river and dam bass for a few months now and rate it very highly. ABA have it in stock.

Thanks fellas, I had a fun day so that was the main thing. Can count on one hand my bream sessions for summer Alan, will get back into it when winter kicks in I did have a little prob with the 500 tekota ripping out of the reel seat on my 6kg baitcaster while fighting one of the fish as it is a bit wide for the locking mechanism. Will hopefully get a different reel seat fitted. One went on the barbie last night, they are a very nice eating fish spanker.

have a handline with 120lb braid, does the job

G'day all Attended my first social today and it was great to meet all the familiar names. I have been spending every second outing in pittwater to reach my goal of landing a legal king from it so it felt a bit like home turf for me. I started off collecting squid but found they didn't want to play so using unweighted bass minnows I would lure them out then put a squid jig in their face. had about 7 nice size ones in the live well by about 8am. Then put a livey on the downrigger and trolled the western shorline. Got a rat at longnose pt (I think it is called that?)but sounded a good school of bait with more big arches then I had ever seen. Did a few more laps of the area then continued peeking out of west head where I picked up next rat. Came back down the east side of pittwater and finally got my first legal king at 64cm (not big but happy anyway) in careel moorings. great fun trying to stop it from making the mooring ropes. Did a bit of breaming for an hour in the moorings without a touch then head to the basin to catch up with the fishraider crew. Fairly tired by the time I left that but decided sound over where the big arches were last time and they were still there. Put a livey on the rigger and got smashed immediately. When I got him up his mates followed so I took a bit of time and rigged a squid head on another rod and trolled the area again. After about 5 mins of hammering the deep hole the rod went off. This time I put the squid head out incase his mates followed. Got it to the top then the second rod goes . finally got both in the boat and still a few mates were hanging around, one looking alot bigger so I grabbed the GLX with 9" sluggo and cast it out, let it sink and twitch. that got hammered aswell. hard fight getting this one back but not as big as he looked in the water at 67cm. All the avo fish except one went legal so a few came home to dinner aswell as some calimari

G'day Jaso They are squid bites for sure. I have done a fair bit of fishing around the moorings this year chasing kings and bream (still hoping for a legal pittwater king before the end of the season ). If u see chunks like that and heaps of missed hits it is the squid grabbing on and chewing the placcie then u rip it out of its mouth thus feeling weight for a second but not hooking up. U won't have much chance of hooking the squid with a small single hook but if u follow up immediately with a squid jig u will definately catch the squid responsible. I usually target the bream deep on the mooring rope unless u can see them under the hull. Leave long breaks (5-10 seconds) between the lifts/twitches. Have been consistantly picking up solid bream this summer using this technique.

one more

G'day Fishraiders A few mates hit the dam for a small bucks party and thought I would post a few pics of the awsome scenery (non adult only). Only about an hours fishing done when we first arrived which quickly got taken over by boozing, cricket and war stories so no fish caught worth talking about. The booz report was 2 cases of beer, 3 cases of JB cans, a case of wild turkey cans and a bottle of WT. Fairly happy with that

awsome report Joe I would give my casting arm to get out there at the moment but bubs, bdays, weddings and work are making it impossible. At least u have some great pics, the action photos makes me feel like I am out there. are they just taking bass minnows etc?

my garage has a Mrs alarm and is stuffed with my weights training, fishing gear and boat. It barely ever gets cleaned cause she is not permitted entry (thats the way I like it) so there is crap all over the place. As u can tell by the pick the carpet is filthy with leader all over the place, marine carpet scraps, charger cord, weights etc I have to leave it that way otherwise everytime she enters she complains about the mess or worse, she'll count my rods on the racks to see if I have purchased more

Here's a few pics of mine matt, rods r very difficult to photograph unfortunately so get down there and have a look as each model is sensational, I would love to hear differently from anyone who has seen and used the rods. I have owned some fine rods in my time and if these don't rate as the best for me I'll eat my underwear. This is the kingbolt and nighthawk. Hopefully mick will post a few picks of the sparrow aswell though, it has a unique reel seat that had me amazed and I have never seen a guide layout on the solid tip as with this rod. I think mick mentioned that 6 of the kingbolts are already gone including ours and there are only a handful of each baitcast model left.

Thats awsome Mick, thanks for sharing the pick

nice catch mate, a few of the rock fisho's were telling me if they hook a bonnie they leave it out and tell the guys around them to cast near them as there is nearly always kings following

classic reply ankles what the?? Niz 3 spin models and 3 baitcast models have arrived Spin rods Kingbolt 6'8" 2-5kg fast action. If u like drop shot style rods like myself for bream this one is a beauty. most of the action is in the tip until it really loads up, the rest is just balls. good for bass and bream. Sparrow 6'6" 2-4kg medium/fast action. This rod is softer overall with an action similar to the seagake. great for people that prefer the softer or "finesse" approach. Tauras 6' 2-4kg medium/fast action. A short soft rod good for hb and for people that prefer shorter rods. baitcast Nighthawk 6'6" 4-10kg medium/fast action. I have purchased this model for spinnerbaits in the 1/4-1/2 oz range and heavier crankbaits such as TN70's for impoundment bass. Rapier and Flanker are the other models but I haven't had a cast with them so can't tell u much about their best uses, obviously bass is what they are designed for but probably useful in chasing small jews/kings etc. I have picked up the kingbolt and nighthawk, the other models are not suitable to the way I fish but as evident by this post everyone has different opinions of what they like so best to go to the shop and try them with your reels etc to see what is best 4 u. This is a hackers opinion only

same here, just going off info but also logically looking at the guides they definately have a very different finish, guess we will leave it to the japanese, taiwanese or whereever they r built to worry about. not sure why u would buy rods u won't use, guess u r a collector? anyway they will be available next week, for those that like em buy em.

G'day Swoff Mate u only have to look at the guides of the new seagakes etc to see they are chrome plated not titanium guides. don't need a daiwa rep war to see the obvious and if anyone will know it is Mick cause he has both models. My goal has been to have all of my rods with ti guides and I am awfully close to doing so and I can show u the difference any time u like but I am certain your rep will find out the truth or u will actually see both types and we won't hear anymore about it. The older model seagake's that had ti guides were more expensive than the recent ones. The baitcaster rods I use are called a "Pixie Ltd". They have a eva grip similar to the devel 03 but in baitcaster style. ti framed sic guides, 99g, part of the Battler Ltd range with higher carbon % in the blank and usually about 25g lighter. I use shimano curado 100 reels, can't fault them and they are as cheap as chips. I will go and take a few pics of plated guides I have (not a daiwa rod) and the ti guides but in the pics it will be much more difficult to see the difference, basically the ti guides have a dull/matt sheen and the chrome plated guides look like chrome. Also a pic of the baitcaster handle to have a peek at. The basics of the post is saying the battlers are available very soon, if u don't like em cause they are not as fancy as Z's, think they r 2 expensive bla bla just don't buy them. Personally I think some of the models are awsome and I will put my hard earned cash towards them. my mistake, I said they were chromed alconites instead of chrome sic guides, not really an issue as they r both good guides, just personal preference if u wish to pay a bit less or weigh a bit less and also availability.

As with any rods some people like them and some don't, they r as personal as we are. As Matt has mention the battlers r made in Taiwan in the same factory as the saltiga gear. I personally can't stand the Z's for a few reasons mainly the rods are either to soft or to short for meand I am not into overly flashy rods. I know they r sensationally crafted but will never buy one as they don't suit the way I fish, were as they r very popular with most other fishers. The battlers are fairly plain (which I prefer) but it is their performance, weight, comfortability and price for rods with such expensive guides that puts them well above any other rod I own. The python's I have are the first rods I use for bass spinning and got rid of all my baitcasters for the limited edition battler baitcasters I now use due to the extremely light weight and sensational performance of them. For breamin' I don't use them much but hopefully a few of the new models will be more suitable to do so.

Mark a little more detail they have ultra light blanks, the nicest reel seats on the market and come standard with titanium framed SiC guides. They weigh from between 92g - 130g depending on the model. The limited edition models look even better so hopefully a few of them make it out with the "standard" ones. Here is an old pic comparing the reel seats and cork grips of a battler (top) to a normal rod (bottom). Personally I believe the best of the best off the shelf rods.

bloody tease thought u were about to let us know they were available

G’day Fishraiders A quick report from out west, after taking care of bubs most of the weekend I got a few hours off yesterday avo so I picked Mick up from work at 4pm and we headed to Windsor for some bassin’. Fairly windy and tide moving at a fair pace we struggled with surface so we changed to eyeball tail grubs and TN50 Jackals. Mick was the first to hook up and to our surprise he landed a nice Perch of around 30cm. We have heard of them being caught that far down but never seen it and it is the first time we have caught one on a reaction style lure such as the jackals. We ended up boating around 15 or so bass after that with the biggest at 36cm. This was the first time I have had a reasonable bend in the battler, I caught it with a cast an inch from a log and basically locked up drag to get the fish from busting me off. First time ever I forgot my camera but Mick took a few picks with his phone of some fish in the live well but not sure how good they will turn out.

Well done Jo, the bream on slices sound very interesting . Any sign of kings at the moment? Narra the missed runs would almost have definately been bronzies. once they pick out the baits in the area they will circle the boat waiting for the next one to go down. They sure do give a good tussle though and are great fun to get to the boat.

great report Mick, I reckon u boys can hold your heads high cause u didn't give up after a nasty first day to get your bag limits the next 2. Nice work Ben on that stonker, shame not many photos get taken at these comps. Would like to see a few more fairly detailed reports like yours and Joes, no secret squirrels . Knowing u and Ben u probably only fished the IC wall for the veiws, just so happen to get a few fish on the way

Nice work again Joe, thanks for the report. Keeping in contention for the last day, just don't beat andrew. If he gets in the prize money tomorrow there might be a boat sale for ABA and we all want to support the sponsors

just heard from mick and they got a nice bag today at 3.14kg . the monster bag today coming from greg lee weighing in at 4.64kg. Andrew cowling still in the lead position though.