Aero

I've been looking for these ones for a while Thanks Chris

I'm with you Krill, You give them one inch and they'll take a mile. Chris

Nice Breams Greg, that big fella's a cracker ! Keep any for baits for me ? Chris

Great read Matt, Almost makes me wanna chase trout ! Good work. Chris

Solid Dolly mate, Well done ! Tell me, is that a cookie cutter shark bite on tail end of the fish ? Chris

Well Done Guys ! Chop, I'm Pretty sure its a Stripe. Chris

Well well well, Abit delayed, but a week later while Steven was around the corner trying to catch some squid, I stopped clutching straws to clutch this guy Chris

Boban, If your happy with your reasoning then thats fine. Personally I find it hypocritical to lay blame on the commerical sector if I myself am contributing to the problem as a whole, even if it is on a small scale. Taking a fish because it has died, and could not be revived is not my issue here, as im sure if the fish could have been revived it would have been released. Its pitty its a blue marlin, which are not allowed to be commercially taken in the East Coast Tuna and Billfish Fishery. So even though its one Blue Marlin, its one more than the commercial sector has taken. I've also read the striped marlin fishery report. Keep in mind those statistics are pacific wide, and even though the east coast of australia is part of it, its only a small peice of the pie. I dont have any issues with taking of a fish especially in the obove circumstances, though I PERSONALLY still feel that using the commerical sector to justify taking a fish is poor form and hypocritical. Jewhunter, Can you point me in the directions of the comments I made which were not warranted, I'll gladly remove them. Chris

Gaddie, Just to clarify it even further, its acctually 1 per species per person per day. So if I have 3 people on board with valid fishing licences I can technically keep 9 marlin, 3 blues, 3 stripes and 3 blacks. What a joke hey.. Chris

Firsty congratulations, She's a nice fish, and you guys did well to get her ! did she spend much time jumping? ot just sulking deep ? Was she taken on 24kg ? Good work ! Chris P.S Boban, What you've said obove is the poorest excuse to take a marlin. Recreational fisherman using J hooks, incorrect tackle, and plainly taking their 3 marlin quota per day have quite an impact on Marlin stocks. Fisheries like some up north when a fleet of 80-100 odd boats can see 3-5 fish a day are places where recreational fisherman can impact just as much as pros.

Hah now who's clutching at straws ! Chris

Well Well, My reply to steves "I'm ON" was a long sentence full of explicatives that only God, Steve and myself heard. The fact that I plugged a few casts in that very area that steve got this fish without so much as a sniff is beyond me. I basically put it down to devine intervention, the fact that God popped your leader and made you re rig it is enough for me. Regardless, well done mate, it was a pleasure to be able to help land your new PB. Chopper, it was taken up the front of Botany Bay. Roberta, 5 inch Berkley Jerk shad did the damage (again) Greg, Common, We all know how good bream are as Live baits, on the barbie, steamed, OH and of course 5kgs in the livewell are good too ! P.S For some unknown reason, everytime I suggest Steve uses a new lure, a new colour, a new style the first frigging fish he manages to catch WITHOUT fail is a jew. This is the 4th time he's done it to me. Gobsmacked is an understatement Steve !

Now thats a "Good" blue ! None of this under 200kg nonsence ! Congrats ! Chris

Thanks Warnie, It all makes sence acctually ! thanks for clearing it up. Chris

Hi , Are you the shane that was skippering Blue horizons the last few weeks? Chris

Warnie, Being confident in your knots is the biggest factor. We take alot of time to prepare the double on both the braid, and on the mono and make sure the improved allbright is perfect and neat as well as super tight. I use a softer super glue that doesnt become brittle as well. Having a neat knot allows a very smooth transition through the rollers (though we do use 37kg T-Curves with the larger afco rollers) but regardless, we try not to spend too much time with that connection going in and out of the rollers, we do prefer to try and stay in contact with the mono when ever we can. You also cant waste time clearing a deck and teasers and other rods when a better than average fish jumps on. Some one grab the rod and the driver has to get on the throttle and chase down the fishquick smart. Every metre of line you dont lose is line you dont need to get back. you may tangle up some rods, you may bump the teaser with the boat but only losing 150m to a fish instead of 400m makes the world of difference. On one of these outfits we've acctually opened up a 7691LGS 10/0. On a double hook up of blues, we were fighting a larger fish on one rod and left the 37kg in the rodholder with the drag sunsetted. After release of the other fish we realised the line had gone limp, and assumed the fish had popped the braid to mono connection, where in fact we opened up the hook. The only downside that really hurts is trying to lay braid with your thumb under big pressure. the cuts are worth it though. Cheers Chris

We use 50WLRS's as 80lb Reels filled with 800m of PRT Braid and topshotted with 200m of black magic Mono. We've been using this set up for a while for our 80lb outfits and have had no issues thus far. The join is made by plaiting a double in the braid and in the mono, and then allbrighted together and zapped with abit of soft super glue. We know this is not ideal but have never had issues with the braid and the rollers. The tollerences of Aftco's seem much finer than no-name rollers. to get the angle correct to wedge the braid in there would be pretty tricky to do. The only hard bit is trying to lay the braid back on the reel with your thumb under 18kg or so of pressure. Chris We've only caught a hand full of fish on these 80lb outfits (3-4 blues) but have had a trouble free run.

Theres allways next time mate ! keep at it Chris

If divers decide to move in on an area im fishing, Do I have to give way ? I've often had this happen in the bay, they come in from the shore and dont display a flag, so i just ignore they are there. Chris

Same as obove for our Crew If we visually see the same fish strike at more than one lure though, we'll only call it one strike, even though he may have had a go at 2 lures. Chris

Hi Ross, Congratulations to you and your team on a fine T&R. Just a quick question, did you bait the fish off schooled slimies? or switched the fish from a lure to a striped tuna? (thats how we did it with you last time I was on board) Are both boats using circle hooks these days? Chris

Well Done Steve, The first runway so often gets overlooked when it comes to decent kings ! glad you showed them who's boss ! Chris

Hi Anthony, I'm not sure what (brand?) leader material you've had issues with in the past, but the stretch factor of lets say 200-400lb mono over the space of 4cm (roughly the amount required to make the loop) is so minimal its almost non-existant. Keep in mind if you are getting that much stretch over 4cm worth of loop, how much strech are you getting over the other 10-14 foot of leader? I've used quite a few different leader materials and none have had the amount of stetch over the loop to allow the leader direct access to the swivel. Also if the leader does have that amount of stetch it will just as easily pop out a thimble that gets caught up in a snap. On our lures we use clear tubing, or armoured spring. what evers available, for use on tackle up to and including 37kg. We've opened up a 10/0 Mustad (light guage) sunsetted on 37kg without damaging the armoured spring or leader connection. On our live baiting rigs, we don't run any sort of protection for the leader. the mono gets doubled over and fed back down the crimp. again with this rig we've done alot of fish (well over 50) including some okay ones pushing 150kg without any issues, and thats with Zero protection. Some fights going for close to 3 hours, and 90% of the fights on sunset 24kg. Keep in mind that these are disposable rigs and are only ever used for 1 fish. Hope this doesnt throw too bigger a spanner in the works, but I figured its all worth mentioning. Chris

I wouldnt use a thimble on the swivel end of the leader. Armoured spring, or clear plastic chaffing tube is more than adequate. If snugged up tighly and crimped correctly your leader will never make contact with the swivel. Plus dont think anyone here runs sand paper over their sampo swivels to make them abraisive enough to chew through armoured spring. I seen thimbals get wedged on sampo's and twist out of the leader, only moments before the leader let go. an Armoured spring or chafe tube cant get wedged on a swivel, nor can it ever twist out. Each to their own I guess Chris

If your happy Im happy Chris