changa

Congrats to you Jeff on a nice flattie. Well done There were some great fish weighed on sunday and For Dave Pearce to take out first place was only fitting given his dad and awesome fisho himself passed away early this year. Dave and Noel have fished just about every Hawkesbury Classic since its inception and rarely miss being in the winners list somewhere. Heres a couple pics of the winners for you guys. Cheers Brett 'changa' Chain Dave with his winning Jew 17kg cleaned All catergory winners, Species, Ladies and Juniors including jeff(2nd from right)

Entries close 23 oct. DOnt miss out on the best comp in OZ. You dont have to be a pro to enter, many wons and places have been won by weekender fishos. Great prizes too. Rods reels, sounders, chartplotters etc etc. ! changa

Hello all, If anyone requires an entry form, please dont hesitate to email me on brett@klcc.com.au Hurry and get your entries in. The classic is the biggest estuary comp in OZ and the weigh in day is a blast ! Ther eis a massive auction on the day where you can pick up some great bargains like fishing gear, camping, 4x4 stuff etc. every registered angler goes into the draw to win a boat on the day but you have to be at the weigh in. you wont get odds any better as the winner HAS to be at the weigh in. changa

Nice solid fish guys.! well done! was it lure or bait caught? changa ps. only the bottom pic is loading on my pc. anyone else havin probs?

Just wanted to let everyone know of some great service i got from Pete and Heather at GO FISH Dural. I have been looking for a Kayak for some time as sick of borrowing mates ones. I looked on ebay and everywhere all over the place only to find that i should have called Pete from GO FISH in the first place. I ended up getting a great fishing kayak BRAND NEW for about the same price that used ones were going on EBAY etc. Couple that with redeeming my FISH OF THE MONTH prize from FISHRAIDER(thanks guys) it sweetened the deal even more. So, if anyone is ever looking for a kayak etc, give Pete a ring. He has a great range and if he dont have what you want, he will get it in , in just a day or so. Top service!!! cheers changa

You get what you pay for guys. Spotters lenses are all hand cut to fit perfectly. They are made here in OZ so its good to help our economy. Personally, i like the glass lenses. I have 3 pairs, tremmor(in bronze penetrator) Crush(which are hand made frames as well as lenses) and new pair of Arctic(which really block out the side sun etc) and new styling also in bronze. Some points on spotters are Crystal clear and the glass ones take a hell of a lot to scratch. my old tremmors are over 10 years old and lenses are still crystal clear. They are also optically correct.(whats that mean i hear you ask)?? Have you ever worn sunglasses that make you sick or queazy? Thats beacause to get the correct fitting and comfort as well as deflection the lenses need to be curved. when you curve glass or poly carb lenses they distort or tend to re adjust your eyes as if you are moving a magnifying glass etc. Spotters dont do this, many out there do. Spotters also are MULTI LAYER lenses that do more than just filter . check out their website if you want the lowdown. I have had makos, maui jims , shimanos, many pairs oakleys, bolle`s and arnettes. none are as good on the water as my spotters. changa

We fished with relatively new crew and angler. Fished down friday and tagged a nice stripe. Fished all day sat and didnt see a damn thing! Changed tactics for sunday and decided to switch to cover more ground and in the course of the day had 2 fish up and both fish at the pitch baits rigged with circles . Needless to say our eager angler that is still learning the circle bite didnt hook up solid. That was our weekend. Good fun tourney with nice people. changa

Its always nice to see a big fish. top stuff!! Its also another to hook her, also another to fight her to the boat, also then another to bring her on board and compete the end game where most are lost. As Dean Butler says, estimates are only estimates and you never know how big she really is until she hits the lie detector There has been many a big blue seen in OZ, but still none have been caught over the grand and weighed by rec's . One day it WILL happen. They are out there . changa

Just a side note to an earlier post that stated to get a burley slick going with BLOOD etc. This is not legal in COMPS or for any other GFAA or NSWGFA comps or normal pointscore days. No parts of mammals are permitted to be used for burley/chunking/chumming. Just in case you thought of doing it in the comp and wondering why you get disqualified........ changa

For those that have never fished a winter comp before, then THIS IS A BLAST!! Also hosted by undoubtedly the friendliest club Also cater and care about their trailerboat fratenity and understand that game fishos come in all sized boats. great comp, great people, great prizes and you will even learn a lot. give it a go, you may just enjoy yourelf. changa

Nath, changed the name of my boat, and every one before that. you think my boat is unlucky changa

Damn!!!!!!! You got some great songs there mate Checked out the previews. You are one talented man Roscoe. I gonna have to get me another couple CD's by the look of things to play on them lazy days changa ps. For those that have not heard them, jump on the site and have a listen. A must have for all fishing boats.

Boban, my info comes from AFMA (australian fisheries managment authority) They control the marlin/tuna pro industry. Currently, apart from the tuna guide that Daniel refers to, there is no accurate guide for estimating our tuna here in OZ. Not even AFMA have an accurate guide for Oz tuna and as i said, thei current guide is the Western Pacific one which is different to the hawaiian one. Let me dig around and i will post the accurate formula so people can choose to write it down if they wish to be accurate, or alternatively they can keep guessing. In the end, a fish is a fish and we all fish for fun. Theres nothing wrong with learning to estimate more accurately though. Stewy, We are not targetting 50kg fish on 8. The majority of fish are 30ish which are no problem on 8kg tackle. I am not going to go into 'How to fish light tackle effectiuvely' here , as is a learned technique to be proficient at getting fish fast. I can catch a 30kg tuna on 8 as fast as the average joe catches one on 24 beside me. Given the fish requires more energy to FIGHT against the drag pressures of 24 as opposed to 8, the fish has lots more energy in storage after being fought on 8 than a fish worn out against the constant pressure of fighting against 24kg. Now, if it were taking 5 times longer to land a fish, then maybe the fish would be worn out on 8 , but it does not take us long to get them. As for the people letting them go, thats good to hear. Its also good to hear people keeping a feed or their PB fish also. What i do is personal in the way of release etc and i am not here to tell others what to do. Im more interested in peoples points of view rather than bitch about what is right or wrong. changa

Roscoe, i just had to go and find that song. What a ripper !!! Now added to my Buffet collection I like your northern waters lyrics. Did you write them? changa

Smokin Joe, i only say that because when you have a red hot bite, and years gone by when there were little no stuff all fish to be had, people constantly talk of declining YFT stocks. Just like Marlin, the YFT have been known to be over fished commercially both here and O/S. Considering that YFT does not freeze the best, why would people take so many fish in a day? Just a question and probably interested in opinions as its certainly not against the law to take your limit.. In my mind, i follow the 'LIMIT YOUR CATCH' motto more so than 'CATCH YOUR LIMIT' motto (which is legal) Usually, after we get a feed, we scale back to 8kg and start tagging our fish(as we have been doing) Its really fun, and like marlin, you get a certain kind of FEEL GOOD feeling as you watch them big YFT swim off into the depths. People dont need tag poles to release. Thoughts? changa

Sounds like a great trip Ross and the photos are fantastic. I bet you just cant wait to get back to work after that Nothing sets the mood for fishing and a great day than flicking on the CD player whilst leisurely trolling along on a bright sunny day to hear one of my favourite Jimmy Buffet songs "Son of a son of a sailor" The opening lyrics set the mood. As the son of a son of a sailor I went out on the sea for adventure Expanding the view of the captain and crew Like a man just released from indenture If you are a serious fisherman, you just HAVE to have Jimmy Buffet 'A Pirates Treasure' on board. changa ps. I think that inadvertantly it was your doing Ross that led me to Jimmy Buffet many years ago. There is a story in that

The Hawaiian charts are NOT the same as our WCPFC weights. There are also East Atlantic and NRIFSF(pacific ocean) charts. These all differ from our CURRENT charts. The only way to get a good guestimate is to measure the FORK LENGTH and GIRTH and use the fomula. Otherwise, you could always weigh them on good quality scales. Ouside of that, you could just say "caught a crackin tuna" Most tuna off Sydney this season are great fish, and its a welcome change to have some quality fish out there is such great numbers. Wonder how many people are releasing them? changa

being a pelagic, they are able to dive to great depths and ascend fast also without blowing up. It had my bent butt 37 t curve with taigra 80W bent in half pulling off much more than 15kg of drag at stages. its the best fighting bottom species caught to date. All i need now is a Broadie changa

Its quite easy to catch fish when the tuna are there in big numbers as they have been of late. It really didnt matter where youpulled up and how you cubed. Once you started, you were usually onto them pretty quick. The point Warnie makes about frozen pillies is a good one. Obviously, if you are fishing for bream and they are feeding only on black crabs, then throwing them a piece of squid, usually wont get the bite. As with cubing, when the fish are not so common, you need to do many things right to maximise yoiur catch, or at least you chances. To cube with pillies on the bait table that are obviously thawed and chopped, will definatley sink at a much different rate than a frozen pilly. Frozen pillies tend to be more bouyant than thawed. So, if the fish were in your trail, but were spooky and back a fair distance, they may not see your frozen pilly which has a very different sink rate to a thawed cube. Its all about presentation in the end. changa

Kamil, they dont smell at all and yes, we ate some fresh as i filleted it. was very nice and i later found out that they are great sashimi but when cleaning the fish on the dock in the dark and rain, i could not be bothered jumping back on the boat and mixing up some soy and fresh chopped chillis and wasabi changa

The Opah is a pelagic, not a demersal. It eats squids and other fishes and usually hunts similar areas to marlins and tunas. This particular one was caught on a whole squid set as a deep bait on 37kg game tackle. We were certainly NOT targetting it (how can you target something you have never caught.......lol) Royboy, i belive they are quite expensive and not that common but they do certainly get caught occasionally by pros mainly. Very pretty fish. changa

I was also very surprised to see that the flesh ranged from a dark pink to salmon coloured and even a tinge of orange. I have read that they are known to differ in flesh colour in different areas of the fish. It cooks up white, and my brother has already had a meal of it and said it was absolutley LUSH!!! Im lookin forward to a meal of it myself. will certainly let you know what its like. changa

Browns is about 180fath down to 270 odd before falling off the edge. There is 6ft to a fathom or very roughly 2m to a fath or just double it. say 250 fath is 500metres just as a guide. There are holes and pinnacles on browns that can quickly vary your depth reading but as an average, the above suits. Panguin is pretty well on the mark. changa

Hodgey, filleting is not that difficult with a nice sharp knife and some helf from a friend to help hold back the flesh whilst you fillet. They have a very hard breast plate(you can see where the rib aree is missing) that you have to cut around but apart from that, there is not many bones at all. changa ps. i have no idea how you submit for fish of the month, and being caught sunday, that would make it a fish for June wouldnt it?

Lukeric, thats because the chart is not Australian and all yellowfin are not the same. There is different types/qualities of YFT. Some they call offshore rats(like majority of our tuna in OZ) and some carry their weight all the way thru the body as in the warmer regions like Hawaii(where the graph is from) and South America, south pacific islands etc. We do get some of the occasional BARRELLS here is OZ, but they are not as common these days. I will try dig up some more info to hopefully help people better understand if they choose to make an estimate. If you really want to be sure, you can always drop into a local game club and they will weigh fish for you, if not you can get it done at butchers, green grosers etc. they all use certified scales. Or, of course, you can always just estimate. changa