Bracey

Thanks tasksta I'll give everything a go tomorrow but I won't have enough time to chase fresh squid so will just have to make do. I have some 6" sluggos that have worked before but I still haven't got a legal yet this year. Every fish has been in that 55 - 60 range. Doing my head in. Any info via pm much appreciated. Cheers, Bart

G'day Tasksta I'm going again tomorrow, solo this time so no problems going around the headland. Was that guy using his squid whole do you know or stripping it? Have you been going off Barrenjoey or further in Pittwater. Any luck on lures like white sluggos. Cheers, Bart

We were much further in, at Towlers Bay.

Took my 8 year old daughter out on Sunday morning for the fishing comp. We were going to target flatties but had to have a quick crack for a king first. Downrigged around Barrenjoey with the 80 lbs leader setup and scored a 60cm rat. I have been fishing heavier gear down at Long Reef lately but the story of my season is that they are all sub legal so no great challenge to drag him in but on the board for the day so happy. A lot of boats off the headland and quite a few fish sounding but the little one got sick and that was that so back into Pittwater we go. Headed for a bay with a good drop off and it was like a millpond and the daughter has now come good so looks like we might get a few hours in. Put out a live yellowtail and it got smashed by a nice 49cm flattie that had no chance as I had been too impatient to re-rig and it was on the 80 lb line. Lucky for him it was catch and release so he went back. The daughter was flicking a wriggler on 10 lbs mainline and 10 lbs leader while I was setting some baits, next second zzzzzzzz and she is just going for it. Let it run, then pump and wind it was just such a buzz watching her. I just said to her it’s yours all the way, have fun even if you lose it. After about 5 min we had her first kingfish in the net. 52 cm and she is still smiling. Just after this her cheap rod with 8 lbs mainline and 10 lbs leader and a live yabbie sitting on the bottom just buckles. I’m closest so I grab it and stick it in the water to keep the braid off the boat. The fish heads for the horizon, goes around both our other lines in the water and the next moored boat’s anchor line. We had to cut one of our lines, almost got spooled but somehow got some line back and in clear water. Fight was about 10 min and I got him to the boat. We got one look at him (another 60cm king) and then he just went straight for the motor and it was all over. Lost fish but it was so much fun. So 2 kings took the 10 lbs line while the live yakka and dead squid on the 80 lbs were untouched. I’m always dreaming of the 1m fish but I think the lesson I have learnt is sometimes you need to lighten up and have some fun. 10 lbs is a bit suicidal but who would have thought a king would eat a yabbie? I'm sure something between 10 and 80 lbs is the go. Cheers, Bart

Thanks Jeff Cheers, Bart

G'day Jeff When you say candles do you mean the longer tentacles. The 'squid' that I thought was a cuttlefish had short tentacles and they were all the same length. The calamari had 2 that were longer than the others. Maybe I have mis identified it. Are they still no good for bait when thrown out whole? Cheers, Bart

Just looking to confirm how it is best to rig squid for downrigging. Caught my first live squid the other day, 2 calamari and 2 cuttlefish. I use a 5/0 mustad live bait hook rigged with a sliding snell as the tow hook and a 1/0 treble tied with a uni knot. Squid have an topside and a bottom. So do I pin the squid at the top of the hood from the underneath with the tow hook, so that the barb is out the top of the squid with the treble pinned somewhere near the head on the bottom side? Is that how it will be now towed, with the squid topside facing up? I missed a rat the other day when he just took the head and left all the hood and missed the treble hooks. I felt I might have had the treble to high, is it better pinned on one of the tentacles? Are cuttlefish good bait rigged whole and live? Do you rig the cuttlefish any differently. When I went to put the tow hook in it went straight through the hard backbone that they have. Little bugger made a mess of my boat with all the ink he put out. Thanks for any input. Bart

Thanks for the replies. I have tried a hard reset and that didn't make any difference. This has been happening in only 10m of water so depth not the issue. The transducer is positioned as per the manual. If it was the location of the tran why would it work for 4 hours over various speeds and depths and then start playing up? What are the chances there could be a fault in the transducer. Do these things fail much?Bart

G'day. I recently bought a Lowrance 4xDSI at the boat show. Fitted it myself without any problems. I'm happy with the images but a recurring problem I am having is that it loses the bottom and indicates 0.5m. The frustrating part is that it is only occasionally and can't even be isolated to a particular speed/rpm. Sometimes it does it when drifting. Spoke to Lowrance and they said could be a software problem (can't update these ones) so the retailer sent me a new head unit. Same problem. Retailer then sent me a new transducer and cabling. There is a electronic filter between the power terminals and the transducer so not wanting to go to the effort of swapping transducers I swapped the filter only. Took it out yesterday and it was fine for the the first 4 hours then started playing up??? My last component to change is the transducer, but that's a lot of stuffing around when I feel it is going to have the same problem. Has anyone else had this issue with a DSI. I'm thinking of swapping it for a normal sonar. Other thing is the picture is good but with such a narrow beam I can't see the downrigger bomb. Any info or advice appreciated. Cheers, Bart

Thanks again Scott. Really good info. Cheers, Bart

Thanks Scotty and Dave. Really appreciate the info. Scott that breakdown of the rig is exactly what I have been after awhile so cheers for that. I'll definitely increase the leader length out to 2 rod lengths and hopefully that will eliminate most of the problems. I have tried the bead before but found that it also got stuck on the SB knot. That was with 30 lbs leader and 30 lbs braid. I'll try it again with the longer leader. I have used the rubber stops before and if they are small enough they do go through the guides ok, but having said that I'm using these rigs for live baiting for jews/kings so not much casting required. One last question. Do you guys use FC for the 12' long leaders. I have been using Black Magic FC and have no complaints other than the price. I notice that they also have spools of 'Trace'. Looks roughly the same but quite a bit cheaper. Any ideas on the difference when comparing same ratings. Cheers, Bart

Thanks Dave. The way you describe it is what I have been doing so far. Do you ever have any problems with the sinker catching and getting stuck on the braid to leader knot? I have had this a few times and was thinking of trying one of those rubber float stops in front of the slim beauty knot. Cheers, Bart

Thanks for the input guys. When I put this up though I was mainly interested in what rigs are being used for bait fishing. If using SP then it's simple - slim beauty (or your knot of choice), one rod length of leader to a jig head. If bait fishing though and you need some sort of running sinker do you have it running on the braid or on the FC. I'm trying to look at all the variables - knot strength, tangles of braid around sinkers, visibility from the braid by having it too close to the bait. Or am I over thinking this? Cheers, Bart

I have tried it with a ezi rig and that seems like it would be kind to the braid. What about visibility issues. I normally run about a 80cm of FC to a 2 hook rig. Do you think having the braid to the swivel and that close to the bait would have a detrimental effect. Cheers, Bart

Just wondering what peoples thoughts are on this. My standard setup has been a slim beauty knot with 6' or so of FC leader with either a running sinker or a swivel/trace/sinker then to the swivel. Has been working ok but recently I have been fishing with a mate that just ties a uni knot with the braid straight to the swivel and has either the sinker or swivel/trace/sinker running up the braid. Has anyone had any bad experiences with this and is the uni knot the best for tying braid? It is obviously a simpler setup doing away with the braid to leader knot. Would be more visible I guess and I have heard that sinkers can cause damage to the braid. Any suggestions? Cheers, Bart

Great post Tom. Awesome score on light gear. Cheers, Bart

Thanks guys. I looked it up and they call it a Fiddler Ray or a Banjo Shark.

Nice bream. I must have got his twin brother. Was out in Pittwater and Broken Bay for about 6 hours yesterday and only got some sort of ray and one 33cm yellowfin bream. Can anyone tell me if that is a ray or a shark or some weird combo? Cheers, Bart

+1 for Navionics. If your speedo is inaccurate then GPS Speed has a great accurate presentation of knots, although Navionics also displays speed. For a portable knot reference I found FishingKnots app to have really good animation. Cheers, Bart

Thanks Gyro. I use a very similar rig for my livies. I'll give a try the slice method. Thanks Tom. How long do you have the leader to the hook? Do you also let the lead sit on the bottom or wind it up a bit?

G'day Guys I'm looking for some advice on what sort of rig to use over reef like at Flint and Steel. I'm targeting jews and using a two hook sliding rig with 5/0 hooks. Normally run 3 lines with a livey, a butterflied yakka and squid. I had been running FC leader with a running sinker to a swivel then 1.5m FC to the two hooks but found I was getting snagged a fair bit. So I switched to a 3 way swivel with the aim to find the bottom, then a couple of turns to keep the whole rig maybe 3 to 4 foot off the bottom. This worked well a couple of weeks ago when I scored my first jew, an 85cm specimen. Two problems I see with the 3 way though. I get line twist around the hook line from the sinker line even though I keep the sinker line short to about 30cm. Secondly, I use bait runner reels and I guess I'm defeating the purpose of the bait runner if the line can't run free of the sinker. I was thinking of trying a sinker line to a ring above a standard swivel so the bait can be picked up and run with. Any thoughts on that sort of rig? Should the bait be right on the bottom for jew or can you have it just off to avoid snagging. Have read the jewfish tactics thread a couple of times but any advise on rigs from the wealth of jew knowledge out there would be appreciated. Cheers, Bart

Broken Bay was absolutely filthy yesterday. I only went as far as Flint and Steel and threw a line in. Was there about an hour after the high tide and the current was raging. Is this from extra water flowing down the Hawkesbury or the big tides or a combination of both. I'm only guessing but it felt like about 5-6 knots. Nothing going on so I didn't stay long and headed back to Pittwater which was not much better. Should have tried the headlands outside. Cheers, Bart

You did very well. I went out to Flint and Steel early Monday morning to find that Broken Bay had turned into Brown Bay. Pittwater not much better. No activity going on, at least not for me. Cheers, Bart

Top report. Excellent job on the double hookup. Cheers, Bart

Thanks Clemo80 and fishingrod for the replies. I might stick with the reef pick. Worst case is it doesn't catch I guess. Cheers, Bart