JET01

Thanks for the tip.

My mate was kind enough to pump some nippers for me yesterday, but due to the windy conditions we decided to put the fishing off until this morning. His father in law is over from Canada and is a pretty keen angler himself. We hit the flats with an out going tide, normally we prefer to fish the incoming, but as Australia Day will see our favourite spot covered in revellers we thought we'd try something new. I picked up a new rod yesterday specifically for flats fishing and was really keen to try it out. lox yoshi 1-3 7'6. The nippers didn't fair too well over night and most of them had died. After about 20 mins with no action I decided to move up the bank a few meters to where I could see about 6-8 big whiting feeding on the bottom. I flicked the biggest nipper I had in the direction of the fish and was on. Fishing 3lb flouro carbon straight through I really had to take my time. I lost a really big fish a few weeks ago and was determined not to make the same mistake twice. As it slid into the net I let out a big hoot.... Pumped! I stashed it in the live bag to carry on fishing, hoping to get a few more for a feed. The bait situation was not the best as all the other nippers were dead and too soft to use. My mate and his father in law caught a few legals and threw them back. At the end of the session, we put it on the lie detector and took a few snaps of my new 41cm PB, let it swim off to be caught another day. Always great to score a PB on a new rod! Happy Australia Day

There are two big yellow buoys that mark the start of the sanctuary zone. I'm hoping this guy was on the right side of the bouys. Personally I don't think the sign posting is good enough....I know I'm responsible enough to check things like that before I go fishing, but there are obviously plenty more that aren't..... You've only got to pump nippers over at the sailing club on a sunny day to know that people don't care or even know about bag limits.

Sounds like he's still at the donut shop

Too complicated. All you need is ankle deep water a #4 long shank, split shot and 3lb flouro. All the rest is a waste.

+1 for the energiser headlamp. I'm pretty tough on gear. It tough and bright.

I had a steering cable that rusted out on the nomad and it cost around $900 to get it fixed (long weekend prices). Im not sure how often something like this would happen, or whether the chances of it happening to a garaged boat would be even less. The tiller steer would be great for extra space and less maintenance, but i like the centre console for the driving position, drier ride, and having somewhere to mount the sounder and grab rails. Lucky ive got plenty of time to think about it.

Mate drummer are way better to eat and fight harder than blackfish, great catch there!

I went out in a mate boat at 3am from roseville, headed over to the northern beaches to find a reef his mate had fished successfully on previous occasions. Didnt have much luck so moved quite a few times over the next few ours. It now getting close to 12 and all the drop offs were fishing in the 50m range werent producing fish, so we moved to a patch of reef we found in about 35m and reanchored. The boys out there baits down and i flicked my plastic over the side... I only had a 5/8oz head on so it seemed to take for ever to get the bottom. A few casts later i was on! I hadnt had a fish all day, not even a sargeant baker so i was pretty excited that this was pulling so hard. My 15-30lb terez was buckled over and id lose the odd bit if line of the ci4 4000. Fishing 20lb and 20lb leader, i was able to get this fish into the boat pretty quickly. The trag had absolutely smashed the 7" lime tiger jerk shad. Initially i thought it was a mulloway, but after closer inspection realised it was a massive trag. Going 74cm! Shortly after putting my fish in the esky my mate caught another on bait that was 2cm bigger. As Id never caught a trag before i thought id check the fishraider record, to my surprise, it seems as though ive got the lure record, and if my mate was a raider he'd have the bait record. So id like to put this forward for the catch of the month and the fishraider lure record.

I know this topic is quite old, but thought id put in my two bobs worth as i have made the transition from a revo13 to pa12. This will help anyone else going through this in the future. The only reason i moved on from revo was my bad back. I really miss the revo. I had the blow up outriggers on mine and could fish the estuary standing up. Even when boats went past. They are awesome offshore. I used to go out to jibbon bombie and around shark island. You get wet, but youre kayaking so youd expect that. Revos track in straight line better that the revo especially with the larger rudder, the PA12 loses its steerage way too easily (design flaw with the rudder size if you ask me). The horizontal rod storage and huge front hatch is a massive bonus if staying in the estuary. I love taking a lot of gear out with me and i lost count how many times i caught the rods behind me when casting on revo. The pa12 is stable enough to peddle with one foot if you have the strenght and balance. It really is a boat as Roberta said, and probably not what youd want if you are going to spend most of your time offshore. I personally believe that all offshore yakkers should have hand bilge pump or fitted 12v pump as theres no way your should trust that the front hatch on either yak to be waterproof. I used to get water in the bilge of the revo too when botany bay got rough. A for getting the yaks on and off the roof. I get my pa12 on and off my captiva without too much hassle. I use the rack and roll system with the vertical upright to support it. (Upright not required for the revo). Im 5'10/177cm and do it with ease on flat ground. Shorter people may have dramas with taller cars. The seat on the PA12 is to die for. You cant beat it. So comfortable. If my yak had a bed id never go home.

I used to have a stacer nomad 469 side console and have since sold it and moved to kayak fishing. The main reason for the sale was due to lack of a garage to house the boat, which meant i had nowhere to maintain it. Im looking to get back into a boat when i purchase a house with a garage big enough to house/work on it. Apartment living and boats just dont mix. Most my fishing has been done in the estuary, but Ive recently started targeting kings in the bay but would like to head out a bit wider when the weather permits. Especially when its snapper season. The options ive been looking at are two anglapro boats. Either the Bandit 454 or chaser 454 possibly as small as the 424 depending on garage size. Both boats will be optioned up with casting decks and ipilot motor. Id love a sit down centre console, but the console would take up valuable floor space. Most of the time i fish alone or with one other. The only question i have with the chaser (which is the tiller steer version) is whether going outside the heads is out of the question. From what i can tell, the boats have exactly the same hull shape. So, if you had two boats that were identical, except for one being a tiller steer and the other being a centre console, could you take them out in the same conditions? How many of you out there go out the heads in tiller steer boats, and what size hulls are they?

I ummed and arred over the 7'5 1-3kg velocity that was on sale with a rarenium 1000 for 280. I didnt need another reel which is why i didnt get the combo. They seemed like a lot of rod for the price. Theyve been discontinued which is why they are so cheap. I havent bought it yet , but decided to go with the lox 7'6 as the tip warranty is a big plus for me. Recently snapped the tip on my tcurve flight 1-4kg 702 and cant get a replacement because they are discontinued also. Wish shimano had the same deal. As for the velocity, there isnt much info around on them. Just seems as though they didnt really take off... But looking at the specs i reckon they'd be sweet, especially for a flats rod using straight through mono or flouro carbon.

Mate for that kind of money. Have a look at the shimano terez rods and the rarenium 5000. Or if you want a beast of a rod and only spend around $200 on the reel. Go for a nitro godzilla spin, and get a spinfisher ssv. Ive got a 4500LL which has the bait runner function. Youd probably go for one of the bigger sizes. If you put some 30-50lb braid on the godzilla/ssv combo, youd have a versatile kingy stopping machine. The versatility would help you save for a while before you decided to get more gear..... And we all know that day will come.

Been having some success fishing for whiting on shallow flats lately on nippers. Been using 3lb straight through Fc sniper flourocarbon down to a #4 long shank mustad. And a small spilt shot about 18" up from the hook to help with casting and keeping it on the bottom. I've been using on of the Shimano lure project Shad rods. 1-3kg 7'. This thing is an absolute noodle of a rod. Great for absorbing the lunging runs whiting produce. Have been lucky not to pull any hooks and put it down to the rod and light drag. Fish have been going off the bite an hour and a half either side of the high tide.

Hit some local flats with a mate this arvo. Picked up a bag of live nippers on the way home. Only had 20 in the bag so had to make them count. Fished a long shank #4 with 3lb flouro carbon straight through on a 2500 ci4 stradic and a 1-3kg 7ft shimano lure project rod. Great set up for the type of fishing i was doing. Caught 2 32cm whiting and 2 legal bream. Let the bream go, because they taste shitty, and kept the whiting for a feed. Wouldve caught more, but a cormorant and a pelican turned up and spooked all the fish. Just as we fished the last nipper, the storm rolled in. Great start to the weekend.

What did you get them on?

I had a rapala 3 in 1 backpack, which was great. Paid around $100 from memory. It comes with a few tackle trays that are easily interchangable with the plano boxes that fit in the hobie PA12/14 hatches. Plenty of good sized pockets. Even has a raincoat for the bag. But no raincoat is good enough to keep the salt out of metal zips. The one thing that really p$&ses me off about most manufacturers, is when they use metal zips on something that is obviously going to be near salt water all of its life. Surf gear manufacturers have only just started to wise up to how much better plastic zips are. This bag would be great if not for the metal zips. It failed me on the weekend and now the two pieces cant be zipped back together. Inox would obviously help, but with all the other bits of gear that need it, its just another pain in the proverbial. Maybe the site sponsor could look into revolutionising this area of need.

Good work releasing it. Ill try and catch it again this summer

Get a Diawa airtorque 3-5 kg 702. I caught two Jews in two casts with this rod a fortnight ago. Flicking 6" jerk shads on 1/2 ounce jig heads. Great rod. if you cant find one get a pflueger trion 3-6.

Mate they are running out the old penn spinfisher reels and rods at a big online retailer at the moment. These reels are almost indestructable. There are a few different sizes available. $99 for rod and reel so money left over for good braid.

Victorski, Here's my 2 bob (well more like $20 ) I've just started fishing off the rocks over the last 18months. I started fishing for blackfish and that then spiralled out of control. I've got 2 very versatile setups which I can use for everything from Luderick all the way to big drummer off the rocks. I can also use the same rods for beach fishing for big jews down to whiting. I started out using cheap fibreglass rods, but they were too heavy to fish with for long periods, so I gave them the arse. I reckon you need two rods for the fishing you're talking about. And I know they work because I fish with them. Light setup. 3-5kg 10'6 2pc Shimano Catana Coastline light $120. Your Alvey 475B will work fine with this rod as casting distance isn't usually much of an issue when fishing for Luderick. I use either an Alvey 45bc (has a star drag and side cast) with 12lb dango wax, or a shimano 2500/4000 size reel with 15lb mono. It's not a low mount rod, but with such a small alvey it shouldn't matter. I've used it off the beach for flatties, and bream, and off the rocks for luderick. My record luderick with this rod was 43cm. Plenty of length to keep the blackies away from the rocks, I personally wouldn't fish of the rocks with anything shorter than this. You can even use this rod for soft plastics off the beach if you really want. You can also use it for casting slugs into the surf for sambo's and tailor. For the price, I challenge you to find a lighter more vesatile rod. Heavier setup. 6-10Kg 12' 2pc Lox Iridium Surf $250. I use a Penn spinfisher SSV 4500LL with 15lb Kokoda GT-R ultra. Your Sustain 6000 is approx 110g heavier than the reel i have on this rod. The penn doesn't balance very well with the lox as it's a bit too light, your Sustain should be perfect. I usually have my rod under my arm so I put more importance on saltwater resistance than balance when choosing my gear. I bought this setup to use mainly for targeting drummer off the rocks. My best is a 47cm Silver and 44cm Black Drummer in rough terrain. If you like fishing for long periods of time, this kind of setup would be better than a fibreglass rod. I've also used a Ci4 4000 stradic with this rod and I think I could've fished for a week without stopping it was so light. Haven't done anything but rock fishing with this rod. But as the title suggests, it's a beach rod so will work fine casting slugs and medium size sinkers a good distance. You'll be amazed how far you can cast an unweighted prawn (wind dependant of course). The great thing is, the lox comes with a tube which will fit your Catana in it also if you choose to get one. Great for when you're climbing down cliffs to your favourite ledge. As for which lines you should use. The guys that taught me to fish swear by Tortue. I use Kokoda Ultra in Clear and Smoke as they claim to be 30x more abrasion resistant. This is important around the rocks. Kokoda is Alvey friendly aswell which is what got me onto it in the first place, I've 20lb on an Alvey 6000BCVRRT which I use for beach fishing. If you're using a spinning reel then I don't think low stretch really matters. Dango Wax is awesome for float fishing. I tried float fishing with normal 15lb mono the other day and really did notice the difference. I started with 6lb dango wax on the 45BC, but you're better off using 12lb Dango, and 6-8lb leader so if you get snagged or bricked by a random Drummer, you will get your float back. Then you can upgrade your leader and use the 12lb to pull the drummer to your dinner plate. I guess i'm getting carried away a bit here... I've got a rock fishing comp on the weekend and I'm a little excited about it. Get into those drummer and luderick mate, they are good on the plate and great fun to catch. Just remember... A tight arse always pays twice, so if you find something you like that is a little more expensive, just save a little longer... you'll forget about the money when you bag that fish of a lifetime.

I've been using Kokoda GTR ultra for rock fishing in 15lb. Great stuff. Made short work of a 47cm silver drummer in rough terrain. Suitable for alveys and spinning reels.

What kind of gear do you use for targeting hairtail? Can't seem to find any threads on the subject.

Great haul for the party. I love being able to provide for parties, although it does not happen very often. On a different note... Try using some punctuation. Look up the difference between too and to. Let's set better examples for our kids.

Ive had a look at the 10'6 version. Nice rod. But the 12'lox iridium surf was nicer so i went with that.