JET01

Must've been something in the water yesterday mate, I had a session with a mate in Botany Bay yesterday from 5 to 7:30 and we picked up about 9 Flatties... 2 of them we dropped back in the water and the other 7 we took home for a feed... Mik01 is cooking up a nice curry as we speak. If i'd known you were in the cooks yesterday arvo i would've come and said G'day. sounds like i need to spend a bit more time in there. What's the biggest flatty you've seen caught in the cooks. My target species is usually always flatties as they're my favourite fish to eat. Been thinking about getting into breaming though.

I did mean that in jest

Finally a bit of science to this age old question, instead of speculation by a bunch of local fishos The next one you can solve for us is.... Are fish colour blind?

I bought my Stradic CI4 2500 in September 2010 have have done zero maintenance other that a quick rinse with fresh water and a pump spray of inox. Sometimes after i fish it doesn't even get that. Still as smooth as the day i bought it. And i fish anywhere from once to 4times a week. Love shimano's just wish it came with a spare spool.

I only know how to tie a double uni-knot. Does anyone else use them? I went to a soft plastics with Gary Brown one night at a local tackle shop and as far as i'm concerned, if it's good enough for him it's good enough for me. The key is making sure you always lick the knot for a bit of lubrication, then a good little tug to make sure it does slide when you get a fish on. A sharp pair of braid scissors is always a necessity so you can trim the tags down as close as possible to the main body of the knot. If you do this, i doubt any other knots you do are going to be any smoother through the guides. As for the mono backing to the main braid. Just put it under heaps of braid. I fish with a stradic ci4 2500 and have 125 yards of braid on it, and under that some dirt cheap mono. I haven't seen the knot since it tied it on the day i bought my new reel. I only every fish for table fish, so if i ever get spooled, it will be because of a serious bycatch. What do you fish for? the 71cm Flatty i caught yesterday was lucky to get about 30m of line of me and that's with 3lb braid and 6lb leader.

Have you got a s s s s stutter?

On the last weekend of Feb I held a small Flatty Bash with a few mates up at Lake Macquarie. It was an extremely quiet weekend with only a few Flatties caught, the longest going 66cm. Boys had a good laugh seeing as I organised the whole thing and didn't even catch a legal fish the whole comp. So with my tail between my legs I went home a little disappointed. After work on Wednesday I put the tinny in the Hacking and once again came up with nothing but a puffer fish. The disappointment from the Lake Macquarie failure still hadn't left my body. So yesterday, I decided to put the tinny into Botany Bay after work to try and regain my man hood. Had a flick around the moorings at Towra where I'd picked a previous PB. Nothing but a few small tailor pestering my lures. Moved over to Towra Point to see if I could pick up a flouder for Mik01 as it's been since i've provided one. Still nothing.... Been fishing for a while and decided that i was going to head up near the oyster racks and go on the drift.... Picked up 3 flatties which went into the live tank as i still had a few hours fishing. FINALLY SOME FISH, I THOUGHT SUMMER WAS SUPPOSED TO BE EASY. It was just after 7pm when I got a phone call from the at the boat ramp wanting to join me.... "No worries Honey I'll be there in a tick" I've gone for the "just one more cast" and then ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ you know it, i'm on... Picked it for a flatty, and wasn't disappointed. After the longest fight I've had with a flatty, I nervously netted it ( the part I hate when fishing solo with a short handled net ). PB Flatty of 71cm. Stoked. Took a few pics, but the bloody thing wouldn't sit still for long. Took a quick video for a few youtube followers, which Fishraider mods will be happy to know the language is of an acceptable standard this time Caught on: Shimano T-curve Flight 702 1-4Kg Shimano Stradic Ci4 2500 3lb Fireline Crystal 6lb Rovex Flourocarbon Leader 1/8th Jib Head 2 inch Gulp Bay Prawn. All that equals some of the best fun you can have with your pants on. I was pretty excited... It's always nice to break a PB. I even remembered the Fish of the month item! She was released after a lot to stuffing around trying to get the brag mat out. So were the other flatties as by the time we got the boat all cleaned up, it was too late for us to cook. Great way to break a bit of a drought. Nice to have a good entry for fish of the month.

I'm holding my inaugral flatty bash up on the lake this year... great to hear there's plenty of fish being caught. Going to holding a comp similar to the guys down at Mallacoota. They've inspired me big time. Accom's booked. We've gone the Black Label instead of Blue Label to keep things on the cheaper side. Now i've just got to find a flatty loser hat and a trophy. 3 boat race at this stage. Can't wait.

so how long was it?

Mate i reckon you'd love a Nomad. I'm busy for the next few weekends, but if you're going to wait around a month or so before you make a purchase then maybe we could organise a day on botany bay where you can check out my boat. I don't know too much about boats, but from the research i did, Nomads/Top enders would have to be the best alround bay fishing boats IN MY OPINION. In saying that, 75 percent of my fishing is light soft plastic fishing, so the coastrunner or bowrider set up doesn't suit the way i use my boat... I love the 360 degree fishability, especially when on the drift on the flats.

Did you do it yourself or did you get it done at shimano? Should I order the washers and just drop them off with the reel next time i take it in for a service? I could only imagine how good it is now! I'm so happy with it since I caught a king the other week... I can't stop talking about it really.

I keep reading about the Carbon upgrade drag washers... Could i get some put on the CI4 I have?

Hey mate, The guys on here have a wealth of knowledge and will be able to give you some better suggestions with a bit more info. things like: Price range. Do you want new or used? Is this your first boat? What kind of fishing do you do? Lure fishing, dead or live bait, trolling? Are you going to use the boat for anything else other than fishing? Will you be garaging it or parking it outside? Is there anything in particular you need out of your boat, such as: A particularly dry ride? Stability? Space? Alround fishability? Tiller/console steer? Do you want to install an electric motor on it at some stage? I have a Stacer Nomad 469 with a 50hp Merc 2 stroke. I bought my boat in march 2010 and asked all the questions i could and did all the research under the sun and apart from my boat being a little too long to fit in a standard apartment's garage (the one thing i didn't research) it does what i need it to very well. I picked my boat up second hand for around $20K. It is useful for everything... Going outside to Jibbon Bombie Etc on calm days, Handles the bay chop pretty well. I consider it very stable at rest. Even with 3 blokes in the boat i can pull a skiier up in a river. When i bought my boat i thought i would always have someone with me when i went fishing. Since then i have realised that there's nothing better than a solo fish. So if i had my money again i would not go with a side console as they list when underway by yourself, and the ride's not as comfortable... I'd get into centre console Bandit from Anglapro similar to the Top Ender Northern Fisher the Quintrex does. This may be a bit of a ramble seeing as you've suggested a Dory. Just thought i'd give you some food for thought.

After all these positive posts i'm really starting to think i might have had a chance at the Pure Fishing prize of the month... i'll never take a photo without the Special item is again. I could really do with a few prizes... it's been a pretty shitty month.

I bought my Ci4 about 6months ago and i love it. The biggest test it had was only the other day when I pulled in a rat kingie on 3lb braid. I think that speaks volumes for the drag being smooth. If it was sticky i'd imagine the rattie would've busted me off. I'm not sure if someone has gone down this path but I see a versatility in strong and light reels. Especially for travel. With the Ci4 4000 for example. it's got 9kg drag, and only weighs 260g which is less than a stradic FI 2500. Therefore, all you'd need to do in theory is get a spare spool, load one up with 4lb braid the other with 10-20lb or something heavier and then you've got yourself covered for a wide range of fishing. I know it may look silly with such a big reel on a 2-4kg rod for instance, but if it balances (which it will) then the size of the reel doesn't really matter then does it. My two soft plastics rigs are: Bream and whiting, 1-4kg t-curve with 2500 ci4. Big flatties, kings, trevally, 2-4kg trion with a sedona 2500. Been thinking about getting a Ci4 4000 to replace the sedona so i can use it with the trion as a bit of an all rounder when i go on holidays. I still think it sucks the that ci4 doesn't come with a spare spool. And consumers everywhere are saying the same thing... Everytime i contact Shimano ( who are around the corner from me ) to try and get a spare spool, they are always sold out and waiting for more.

PM sent RPL

my username on youtube is jetlee1981 there's a clip of my biggest flatty and the kingie on the end of my new t-curve.... my camera only does 2min clips so it got cut off. We had it in shortly after the end of the clip. be warned that the language is poor so it's not recommended for children. i paid 189 for the t-curve flight

I'm mostly into SP fishing and have a friend that's going over to Japan and Guam this year. I normally fishing with Shimano tackle, but there seems to be a lot of mention about Japanese tackle on these forums and was wondering if there was anything that he could bring back for me that we can't get in Australia for a decent price. ( I know Shimano is Japanese before you all get carried away ) If you have any website links that you can't post on here a pm would be great.

Really? Not even a flatty? I'm organising an annual flatty bash in March for me and 5 other mates. Hope it picks up. I've read some pretty good things about the lake.... Are you sure you didn't have suncream on your lures/bait etc?

Rooster, it took around 5mins, which is a pretty long time considering i'm used to fishing for flatties. My arm was kiling me by the end of it... i'm not used to such strong fish... I was just lucky i was on the flats and there were no snags around. I didn't have much say in where that Kingie went that's for sure. Sorry about the swearing on the clip. Hope i haven't offended any children. The link has been removed to keep this forum family friendly. Just hope we (the moderators and I) got there in time.

Bought a new Shimano T-curve Flight 7ft 1-4kg on Thursday. I fished 2 rods Thursday and Friday and only managed a fish when I fished my 2-4kg Trion, that included a Stingray. Which was a big anti climax. Went back to the same spot this morning as there's been a lot of bait fish around seeing as the water's been so warm. Fished from 11, and after about an hour and a half of nothing... Bang... Drag on the 2500 Stradic CI4 starts screaming. My first thoughts were... "Not another bloody ray" Turns out I'd hooked my first rat King. The most fun I've had with my pants on. 3lb Fireline Crystal, 6lb Flouro Leader, 1/8th Jighead with a 3inch Nuclear Chicken Minnow. I've been fishing a lot of different lures lately, but every time i come back to the Nuclear Chicken Minnows I always seem to be catching fish. I can't believe how much of a pleasure it is to fish with the t-curve flight. I'm almost tempted to go and buy a few more, especially after the price it got my one at. Here's a pic

I bought the 1-4kg T-curve flight this arvo and took it for a spin in Gunnamatta bay. had a hook up on a small tailor that snapped me off (think it was a bad knot) two guys fishing next to me picked up a 60+ flatty each which i was happy to see they both released. bummer i didn't blood the new rod, but it feels great with the shimano stradic ci4 2500. got it for $189, stoked with the price and the rod.

I just can't decide so over to you guys. I'm going to be fishing the Botany Bay flats and the oyster racks for bream. I can get the trion for $99, the lox for $200, and the shimano's for $190-$230 They all feel really nice with the Ci4, but in saying that, none of them balance up the way i want to. I like fishing with my reel stem in between my middle and ring finger, but all the balance points seem to be way further forward near the end of the forward grip. This is why i'm finding it hard to choose. I tried them all with my Stradic Ci4 (200g) and Sedona (270g) but even with the heavier reel they were all tip heavy from the reel stem. As i'm never going to be satisified and suspect custom rods will be too pricey, I'll just settle for now. Opinions please ladies and gents.

i've got pflueger trions in both sizes... just wondering what the better brands were and why? Are the components that good that you could justify spending more that 99 bucks on a trion.

Was is the best rod money can buy? 2 rods 7ft 1-3kg 7ft 2-4kg