bennoz

Pillies are the bait of choice for salmon 100% ! As for ganged hooks – ive been having alot of success lately with a slightly different setup - single 4/0 circle and pillie fillets. What i do is fillet the pilchard (larger the better). Fold the tail end of the fillet over (about 1/3 of the way down) so the skin is on the outside (ie: flesh to flesh) and thread the hook through all the way past the eye so its threaded on the line. Then down the bottom of the fillet, put the hook through twice again so the fillet is resting on the hook shank and theres good “point” exposure. Half-hitch up the top on the tail end and you’ve got the perfect fillet bait (and its secure for long casts into the surf)... wish i had a pic would be so much easier (edit: google “Double-Pinch Method of Baiting Strip-Baits on Circles” for a pic ) Hook up rate has been heaps better (for me anyway). I use Same rig as the others have mentioned. Good thing about this is the pillies last twice as long and you can use the frames (chopped up) for berly Best of luck

how does that saying go: "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

i kinda agree - its not a big inconvenience to buy a life vest and wear it. promote their sale when you renew your fishing license - or better yet provide a discount on the cost of a yearly license when the angler has a vest. bloody sad, more so when a whole family gets wiped out in one go !!!

are you really asking mad keen fisho's if you should buy more gear ??? ALWAYS ! (if the missus lets you that is ) back to your Q'n: In my opinion id stick with the 15kg. There arent alot of fish this wont handle, and if your limited in getting out to a jigging spot i think the upgrade could be better spent elsewhere - like more jigs after all the leathery's have bitten off the ones you currently use

wow - just looked at the conditions for sat id be all over this, but i have prior stuff fi CANT get out of Good Luch - hope u have a Stella day

there are some cheap circle hooks from an online auction website that ive only just started using. The guy was located in Vic if i remember correctly they're very simillar to the gamatasu circle hooks and are decent quality. Very sharp and strongly made. got 100 4/0 delivered for 10 bucks.

check out these pics that were taken a few weeks ago when we had some big swell in syd... sorta puts it into perspective bronte: http://www.coastalwatch.com/uploadedmedia/articles/_MG_8251_201171512545.jpg deepwater break http://www.coastalwatch.com/uploadedmedia/articles/3_20117151286.jpg

agree - great idea to invoke a jerking retrieve very simply.

3-4 m swell coming from the SE. if you wanna see some real action, then head down to kurnell and make your way to a ledge the Bra boys call "ours" http://www.wannasurf.com/spot/Australia_Pacific/Australia/NSW/Sydney_South/ours/ quite packed during the last big swell and seriously...well worth the trip to go see

AND KEEP YOUR RIG SIMPLE ! no point having a 2 dropper with bottom sinker surf rig as its just going to get all twisted and you wont catch a thing. also i like the single hook idea in large swell. Using a whole ganged pillie in heavy surf, the pillie is much larger and will be caught up in all the currents and be thrown about a heap more

ive been in the same boat for a while. trying to work out the "ultimate" travel backpack. Appart from modifing a pack yourself the only obe that comes close (for me anyway) is the black magic tackle pack (the larger version). but at around 180 bucks its pretty expensive. Its got 4 or 5 tackle trays you can swap around depending on what your after. Its got a swapable waterproof insulated cold tray for food / filets/ bait. room up top for reels / larger items and a good size. if i could make this myself, turn the back into a seat aswell, and save some $$$ that would be my ideal pack

all the charts ive found need to be brought. if your interested, the gps marks are freely available on the net - go download google maps and plot the gps marks using that, which will give a rough location of reefs etc

yeah a big thankyou Damo and Mike for a great day i wont be forgetting anytime soon! Will def come along again cant wait to hear how'd you guys go today

after a few weeks of organising groups and getting mucked about by weather, we finally left Rose bay at 9am in picture perfect conditions, with Mike up top and Damo preping some rigs. We powered to 12 mile reef for a jigging session, but after 2 quick jigs and nothing on the sounder Mike called it and we headed off. There were some early reports of a marlin caught near browns, so Damo put out a spread of 1/2 marlin 1/2 tuna lures and we headed out wide. Wasnt long before the outrigger got hit and we reeled in a large stripey. Things were looking good, the lures went back out and we waited... and waited. Got to the Boatpark that is Browns and kept going. Spotted a pod of dolphins, dodged a few massive trees, saw some long liners sets and Shane fell asleep. Damo starts giving us some advice for later and telling a few stories along the way saying "you only get one gaff shot on a big fish". The radio was fairly quiet with not much being caught - amazingly a large dollie was reported. We were heading to Heatons, looking for a change in water temp but it was a constant 21.5-22 deg. It wasnt untill about 3pm when the outrigger got hit again that we decided to start cubing. We were around the 1000 fathoms mark and Mike was feeling good. Livies went out, cube trail was down and wasnt long before one of the boys had the worlds largest striped tuna. Soon after the sounder starts picking up something. The guys are jigging out the back and im feeding a cube down the trail when i feel the slightest bit of weight on the line - just enough to make it go tight. I give it a tug - nothing. So i decide to start reeling in and the line is going off the reel. Im thinking "hang on a sec" when the ratchect startes screaming and were on! Never having game fished before, i was amazed at the weight on the line - this was a BIG fish. A 20min fight ensures and we get our first look, its a 80kg Blue shark. Damo grabs the gaff and tries to snap the line with it, but the shark thrashes and gaffs itself. Then Shark shakes its head and the leader pops, the gaff snaps clean in two and the shark is on his way. We swap strike (im buggered lol), the jigging and cubing continues and a bit after 4pm Kieran (kmatch) is reeling in his cube when he feels a pull. He lifts the rod out of the holder and slowly sets the drag to strike and the next thing we know hes nearly in the water! The 24kg rod is fully bent over & Kieran along with it. Gimbal and harness go on and Kieran starts the fight of his life!. After that 1st run the fish is about 40 fathoms down, directly under the boat...and not giving an inch. They go head to head for 45min and Kieran got it up to about 30 when he decided to have a break. Shane jumps on the rod and the fish has taken a 2nd run down to about 60 but its getting tired. His head comes up and we start getting line back. A good half hour later we see color and its a big Yellow fin. Were all excited but the fish isnt on the boat yet. Damo grabs the leader and brings the fish to the boat. Just as he sinks the gaff the leader snaps and i cant help but think of his words from earlier "you only get one shot on a big fish". We get the fish on board and its high fives all round. This is the 1st time most of us have seen a yellowfin, let along one thats 1.6m long and over 60Kg Big thankyou to the guys from reef magic for an awesome day. They really know their stuff and are probabily the best charter ive been on. A Few pics from me - im sure some of the others have some too Kieran on strike Shane having a go The fish

check out the articles section on this site - lots of great info for ya (just to make it easy) http://www.fishraider.com.au/fishing-articles/blackfish-basics.php http://www.fishraider.com.au/fishing-articles/how-to-catch-blackfish.php

it does work - just takes a bit of practice it took me a while to get, but once i learned how to tie a "normal" dropper loop, the twisted part is just icing on the cake. The twisted part has no effect on the knot itself, its just a modification to make the dropper extend out from the mainline when you say you create the twist part, and then lock it ??? im not sure what u mean here. Normally all you need to do is pinch the twist at the base to stop it unrevelling. Then with the two loose ends of line, create two large loops (larger they are the easier it is)and bring the ends of the loop around, so the hand thats pinching the twist also holds the loose ends. then just wind the loops around each other 5 times and feed the twist through the middle (bit hard to explain without diagrams). practice makes perfect

yeah mate - r u keen ?

Hi All Ive got 1-2 spots available on a Reef Magic charter heading out this Sat July 2nd 2 mates have pulled out at the last minute and theres 4 of us confirmed, so im wondering if theres anyone here that wants to come Weather looks good - swell about 1m, wind around 10knots. And from reports last week, the fin have turned up Should be a great day, so if your keen PM me and ill sort you out with the details Cheers Ben

whatever happens - good luck tomoz. looks fkn awesome

not much has been reported out of syd (due to the weather) some big fin, 60+ kg, have been caught outside of bermi last weekend - but they're few and far between

i kinda like robson - he grows on you. he may be over the top but i much prefer this than that Fishing WA show. Those guys do the same stuff each week, have ponsy crap music and the presenters just dont hold your intrest. When they got rid of that big bloke with the blonde mullet the show went downhill anyways - more robson green. He does do some pretty extreme stuff, just not on every show

wind and swell still around out wide on sunday hey ? It looked almost perfect from where i was standing on the beach Ah the one that got away - hehe, better luck next time

i went on a group charter last year and had a ball. it was a big boat with about 12 people all using hand lines and bottom bashing. i was a bit disappointed at 1st but it was ALOT of fun (8kg Golden trev on a hand line ). The small fish we hauled up were used as livies out the back of the boat (where i was) and it was 1st in best dressed when the rods went off. I wasnt quick enough hauling in a spanish mack before the sharks got it (but i got the head lol) pm sent

conditions look great (except for the damn wind) . water temps have moved to within reach of syd i would love to go out this weekend except for one thing... im minus a boat

G'day fellas. Just got off the phone with damo. It's confirmed. Tomoz has been called off. Latest forecast doesn't look good. Severe wind and rough seas warnings have been issued by the BoM. We should have picked the Sunday... They're still going out - look forward to the report Anyways msg me ur banking details and I'll send the cash back to ya. We'l reschedule for another time.