bombora

Ah Mick, that's the way it's done. Damn fine thinking!!!!! Maybe Chalie Brewer been spying on you PS Any success with it? cheers Bombie

Hiya; was perving at Cabelas today and found something which might help those who can't source jigheads with blades attached a la Revheads and Blakemore Road Runners. This lure was basically a poorman's Revhead, or one you could include in your tackle kit and rig on the water if your mate is getting hits with a blade enhanced jigheads. What the yank had done was simply push an appropriate sized swivel over the shank of the jighead's hook, then put a plastic, in this case one that looked like a crappie grub, on as normal. When the plastic is pushed up the hook shank it snuggles the swivel up tight to the back of the jighead. Add a split ring to the swivel then attach the blade of your choice and voila, instant Revhead style jighead!!! Very simple and practical idea. If you wanna see a pic go to Cabela's website, and it's in the roundhead/speciality jighead section. It's the Charlie Brewer (rather well known bloke ) Charlie Bee's spinner lure. Picture explains all. Cheers Bombie

One more thing; the angled or bevelled face of the shad dart style jighead on the trout magnets also apparently planes in current. cheers again bombie

Hi guys; the actual shape of the jighead on the trout magnets is called a "shad dart" style head (Swoff this is what I was gibbering on about 6 months or so ago!!) in the US. Hard to see in the pic but the head is basically a cone shape, with the wider end _ the front of the jig head _ having a face cut at an angle. Not to be confused with what we here in Oz now seem to call a darter head. The shad dart head is from a strange little fishery on the Yankee east coast, where they fish for a species called a shad, funnily enough , which only run in small rivers for a few months a year. They look a bit like a Tommy Rough and grow to a kilo or two, with big herring-like scales. The shad fishers cast out the small shad darts with either plastic or bucktails in the little rivers running through marshland and let em sink then staircase retrieve. The shape of the head is supposedly meant for places with decent current as the shape forces the head to skew to the side with each lift of the rod. The shads apparently get turned on by the skewing to the left or right on the retrieve. The trout magnet is a gold chromed version of these shad dart heads. Actually the head might actually be brass or something similar to lighten the weight rather than chromed lead. Only seen very very light heads in trout magnets in Yankee mags _ 1/64th/1/32nd and some a touch heavier. Made for shallow streams and creeks and small rivers as they don't cast too far, as far as I know. Now when is an Aussie manufacturer/importer gonna make/source some chromed (gold chrome and silver chrome please) jigheads in different shapes for or Oz-style fishing. I want some in minnow shape heads for sambos kings trevs etc. Cheers Bombie

Great first report and excellent pix Jo; love the boat to boat pix !! Looking forward to the rest of the reports while stuck in the office. Cheers Bombie

I'm a fishing mag tragic, actually I'm a mag tragic in general . These are my monthly fishing mag purchases: Modern Fishing; Fishing world; NSW fishing monthly; Qld Fishing monthly. Plus I buy every Saltwater Angler; some Freshwater Fishing; about every second Saltwater Sportsman and Florida Fishing mags (damn they are pricey now). I'll also buy West Australian Angler mag when I can find it, plus even the Kiwi fishing mag. Plus the annual Barra, Bass and Bream. Plus Flylife about every second one (And I don't throw rope). Plus Trade-a-boat. plus the NSW and Qld Fishing monthly annuals. More but I'm not at home to check. That's on top of Tracks, Surfing World, Surfing Life; Waves; Surfing; Surfer and a couple of European surf mags too!! Plus stacks of others on other topics or general interest. I'm a tad lucky in that mags are a tax deduction . One I never buy is Trailerboat, as they ran a yarn about 15 years ago and were not gonna pay until I kicked up a stink.

Congrats digger; great report and pix! Specially as I read it at work after looking out a window at a near windless day all day! PS Love that glass console in which the guys have that double hookup. Very tasty little sportfisher! Cheers Bombie

Awesome forecast for the weekend; NW to SW winds not more than 15kts, and swell less than a metre (this is the weather bureau phrase surfers hate!). Working Sunday, and by the looks of it no surfing on saturday so might wander down the the DY rocks Saturday late arvo for a quick "sea-level spin" in the flat conditions, hoping for another little king or two like Monday, or a trev or, well, anything really. Might even do some burleying and baitfishing too, if I can remember how to put a pillie fillet on a hook!!!!! cheers Bombie

No worries Ken, as long as you don't mind em being rewritten or finessed a bit by a couple of our re-write specialists, including A. Hitler, J. Stalin and C. Manson. Reasonable, down to earth individuals all Cheers and sorry for the spit, second day back from hols always has me in a crook mood. Ps Ken, charge the local paper for using your pix!!!!!

Ahhhhh, so tempted to bite! Bugger, I will. No, we don't employ editors etc to "spice up" copy. No, we don't "employ" Leanne Payne, she was interviewed for a story. Yes we publish a variety of opinions. Just as Fishraider does. Whether you agree with em or don't, well tough luck. At least you have widened your knowledge of an oppossing point of view etc. As far as publishing unresearched crap, well Lightweight maybe you should visit another fishing site where Steve Starling as an aside to another issue reveals the "several weeks" of research and cross checking and probing which went into the several stories on pros buying back disused fishing licences. Normally have a thick skin about stuff like this and every publicatin deserves criticism to keep it on its toes but sometimes gotta bite when the criticism is ill-informed. Personally I've always thought some rope throwers had an elitist attitude but enjoy their explanations of why its "better" than other fishing. Cheers Bombie

Hiya alol; just back from a week up at Crescent HEad. SUrfing trip but always sneak a fish or two in. Jews were being taken from beach and rocks while there (most mornings going for a wave would check the fish cleaning bin and jewie frames and heads of fish up to about 12 kg where there). Sambos where having sex ( ) at least that's what we think they were doing, in a hole just down from the surf club each morning. Bream tailor and sambos coming to the old fellas on the beach each evening. Some kings to about 70cms from the rocks in the mornings. For me the lake and river where cold and clear and held baby bream and wigglr flatties, apart from a first for me; a 35cms estuary cod _ on a 3inch watermelon shad bass minnow taken from a big snag/overhanging ledge at my feet. Was very happy. Back in Sydney yesterday evening the ocean had been blown totally flat. So flat you could stand at sea level on the ocean rocks and not get your toes wet. Got bored and wandered down to the rocks at Dee Why at 4.30pm. Chucked in left over fried rice to at least get a mado or two milling about and make my rock a tiny bit more alluring to an inquisitive fish than elsewhere. Anyway, scored a rat king of 58cms on a three inch Slider bass grub in lumo. This is the 6th king (biggest 70cms) I've scored by doing exactly the same thing _ throwing Slider bass grubs in either pearl or glow in dead flat conditions in crystal, shallow water at DY over the last few winters. Virtually the entire coast has these conditions when many fishos say it ain;t worth it. Lots of places have these same areas all year round of clear shallow kelp and boulder bays and protected areas. Gotta be something in it as ONLY bass grubs in glow or pearl have worked (quarter once heads have ben good). Gotta also wait till the cliffs cast shadows over the cold clear water. The kings have been a blast on 2 or 3 kg Fireline and 5kg Nitlon leader, fighting em in the flat water and sliding em up a bit of sloping rock for release or dinner. Give it a go if you are bored when the west winds blow the ocean dead flat. Slow roll retrieve with the odd jig has been working. Cheers Bombie

As Ken said Bonnies can chew up a plastic. If ya wanna compromise, tie up some nice bucktail jigs nice and slender around the same length as a bass minnow. Use one of the darter style heads around with some new age artificial fibres for tails and you got the4 best of both worlds _ a lure with jig versatility but nowhere near as fragile (sorry gotta stop harping on about "bucktail" jigs) cheers Bombie

Great report and great pix guys, but I tell ya one thing, I would much rather have my dollars paying a fisheries inspector to watch over NATIVE fish, not put that effort into checking on introduced, stocked non-spawning non-aussie fish!!!! Catch a bugger who has two buckets of undersized bream, rather than guard spotted carp cheers Bombie

Jethro the benefits are supposedly that they bend then return to their shape if you slam em into something or someone treads on the rod, instead of breaking or bending and popping the insert like other guides. That's what I've read anyway. As Joe said the rest of the stuff is really just pure bling! cheers Bombie

Hiya all, Barra Miller's column in latest modern fishing mentions a heap of new spin and baitcast rod components from Fuji. They are all little things to basically make your butt look better . Includes things like metal (in several colours) winding checks, metal sleeves or collars (look like a shiny washer!) for placing, say, between the rear grip and butt cap, machined alloy reel seats (like on top end fly rods) for spinning reels, and some more things. I've been waiting for stuff like this to be readily available and sensibly priced for bloody ages. Wrote a post two or three years ago asking if stuff like this was around. At last it is. I've always thought top end fly rods have the best butt/grip etc combos going (as far as looks, and really this is all this is about) but this stuff should change that. Anyone seen this stuff? Anyone got pics???? Been thinking of ordering a customised Bream Buster or more likely a Beast Buster and now I think I've got the reason to do so. Hope Barra will make a cork skeleton reel seat combo using the machined alloy plus matching winding check and collars, all in a matt silver colour!!!!! Add those silver recoil guides and voila, what a damn sexy rod Cheers Bombie

Hiya MrChips; I live (rent ) above one of the shops at The Strand at DY (good to keep tabs on what's happening there when all ya gotta do is look out the bedroom window) and love having a spin there, except from the rocks rather than the beach. Your beloved Squidgy shads have got me samson fish, kings, trevs, tailor and a million pike from the low rock ledges there, so give it a go (when the swell is flat or maybe 3feet max)!!!! Poppers are good too cause the water is quite shallow. Metal slices etc you gotta be carefulm with cause they'll snag damn quick. Also have taken some nice fish on 'old skool" three inch Slider bass grubs in white-glow-pearl and also chartreuse. Taken a couple of whiting and small dart in summer with small squidgies from the beach too, but it's hard yakka. Gutters are great at DY at the mo. You weren't spinning up near The Poles at DY a few mornings ago where you. I passed a guy by while walking up the beach for a surf. cheers Bombie

Hiya guys, Driving to work today every waterway I crossed was brown as a cup of coffee. Goon was high and dirty, Middle Harbour at Spit was chocolate milkshake, even crossing the coat hanger you could se the colour in the water. On the coast there's 6-8ft of pumping North groundswell and water is filthy at DY beach from run off. Jewie anyone? Hey Ken, a dirty back passage is not nice hope it cleans up soon. Was looking at aerial pics of GC here at work and my there's a fair bit of water on the gound..... Cheers Bombie

Hiya Ken, yeah I seem to go through Fireline quicker when fishing a place like Queenie Lagoon, cheers Bombie

Has happened to me too, particularly as joe mentioned when tightening a uni knot. anyone found fireline frays far quicker in water with heavy suspended sediment or grit? Bombie

Hiya, using em to prospect shallow flats cause I can use a bit of a faster retrieve than plastics. Also using when flats are a bit murky; more vibes to attract fish. The slow fall rate is good in these situations. Jeez they are a tiny lure. Cute, too cheers Bombie (actually gotta pic up another couple this weekend as my three year old niece decided she wanted my last gold one de-hooked and made into a pendant!!! (at least it will keep her from "playing with my plastics and "accidently" de-tailing em.

Hi guys, lake was opened by the council yesterday (Mon). Today's Manly Daily has pic of excavator at work. Swell has dropped nicely for beach fishing too. Was three feet at DY this morn. Cheers Bombie

I'll go the opposite way and recommend good ol' mono for a general all round line for a relative newcomer in the estuary. First choice if we are talking value for money, reliability and also longevity would be for me Maxima. It's easy to handle as well, not too stiff and not too soft, and isn't too bad for line twist. Good colour for our estuaries too, but clear lines are better for trace/leader. And it breaks more than stated breaking strain. Cheers Bombie

Hiy Slider; your experience with bail roller bearing is why some dudes (I think Harro is one of em) favour teflon washers rather than bearings. cheers Bombie

Yup just like that one Lure!!!! Sweet thing. By the by spotted my dream boat in one of the mags last week; 15 ft Boston Whaler centre console with 50 HP Honda and all the salad! Wanted 16K. Best of both worlds boat!!!! But was in Victoria. PS Bmar hope I didn't appear too critical, was just shooting the breeze and some personal theories!!! Your bro's boat still a fine vessel!!!!! Cheers Bombie

You guys beat me to it; lovely looking rig BMar and love the colour scheme, but unless its going to the NT to do some serious miles on Big rivers then crikey the flat hull restricts use for a decent sized boat. Wanna be a flat day to go hunt dollies in it Said it before but will say it again; reckon there's gonna be a sh*tload of flatbottom/Hornet/pointy punts on the market soon . Why: Two reasons. 1:Ditch the tin for glass if you are serious about skinny water fishing. Tin just too noisy (few of the name fishing writers are already doing this) 2: Why restrict your fishing to flat water, cause you aint got no Vee in the hull, when (and its already happening) there's a whole new inshore world to explore with lures _ bombies, wash fishing, out to the FADS on a good day, snapper on plastics, islands like Port Stephens, follow the sambos out of the heads on the runout etc etc. You can still bream fish with the right V-hull and downturned chines combo but still get out into the inshore blue water! Big sellers in Seppoland are what they call Bay boats; exactly the sorta thing that would go down a treat here cause they can fish both skinny water and places with some swell and chop. cheers Bombie