GreyNurse

Thanks Ed, Yeah, the plan was to fish the south side in anticipation of the winds that never came. NOW I know what you mean by RUBIX cube. Doh! Anyway, I'll be back to have another go. BTW, I took along my old Butterworth 12' graphite surf rod. With a medium to heavy action and medium taper, no wonder I've left it behind so often. You need a reef sinker to cast any distance, it's so stiff. My slightly younger ABU graphite is better, but compared to today's surf rods, both are probably more suited to rock fishing. Maybe it's time I upgrade.

Hi Steve, It's just me. I've always been a fixer. Nurse, electronics service, nurse again. I just can't stop wanting to make people and things work as best they can. In this case, it's one component and the reel is fully functional, if I ever want to use it. BTW, you should see how these old Alveys come up using Brasso, as Alvey recommends. You can never completely remove the patina on the metalwok, but that's OK. It gives the reel it's vintage look. However, the spool buffs up like new with a bit of elbow grease. The two finishes combined work well and say ALVEY.

In response to Jay88's post, I met him and his mate Jimmy for a session of beach fishing at Maroubra yesterday afternoon.With the weather looking good for it two days ago, it started to turn a bit iffy just after lunch. The wind was forecast at 25 knots at 4pm and rising until midnight, but fortunately that did not happen and it was quite comfortable, weather-wise. I turned up at the surf club first and, while waiting for Jay, proceeded to get dressed into some warm gear and get the fishing tackle organised. Most of the gear was in the boot, so I busied myself getting things organised beside the car. A quick change of footwear and i was set. Just had to get the bait out from the back seat. I closed the boot and realised that I had remotely locked the car. No problem. Reached for the keys..... the keys... where are the.....CRAP. I left them in the boot! Jay pulled up and I told the bad news. We'd have to wait until the NRMA came to the rescue. So, while we waited, he showed me his new IFish Shimano beach rod and Shimano 8000 reel. Straight up, I could see he had a much too heavy ball sinker sitting above a jumbo swivel. I explained how terminal tackle works and that we would be changing down sinker and swivel sizes. The rest was OK. He was worried about not being able to cast far enough, but I reassured him that most fish are within lobbing distance, if you can spot a nice gutter in close. As we were discussing this and other things, the NRMA turned up. Amazing response time of about 15 mins. I explained to the mechanic how I left the bait in the car. His response was, "We'd better hurry and rescue that!" Turns out he's a fisho himself, so 5 mins later its' smiles all round as the boot lid popped and I grabbed the keys. He wished us luck and was on his way. Jay, Jimmy and I headed down to the beach and found a nice gutter running about 10 meters from the shore break. In no time we had lobbed in our salted pilly baits. And that, unfortunately, is as far as we got. The fish wouldn't come out to play. the sun set and we were fishing by weak floodlight from the surf club, but, although we experienced a few hits, no hookups until jay brought in a baby blue swimmer crab. We had fun releasing the nippy li'l bugger. At that point, I had to leave (I didn't want to, but had prior commitments). However, we enjoyed the session as a group. Jay asked lots of questions and i gave him as much info as I could. We promised to get together for another session ASAP, as I'm keen to get him on to a few fish, and he wants to learn so much more. No fish to report, but it was more than made up for by meeting two fine young blokes, one of whom is a Fishraider, and the other who soon will be. I wonder what the poor people did today? Buster the Wonder Crab

Thanks Ed, I can now leave the Hazmat gear at home with a clear conscience. (Mentoring a new Raider this afternoon. Don't want him going home with a bug, just a few fish.)

Just had a thought. Would Maroubra beach be OK to fish tomorrow? Any boaties out there that know the currents? I'd be hoping the current outside the heads would carry the effluent south. Only light winds predicted.

Pursuant to my question on Capstan reels (thanks Ambrose607), I also uncovered an old Alvey 4" reel. Probably made around the 60's. this reel has the Ferguson lever pivot and a simple spring drag. However, there's no model number that I could find to match.The problem is that the clicker spring is broken. I'll let the pic below describe it. There are people who are selling backing plates on line, but they are offloading 4 or more at a time for around $36 including postage. A bit too pricey for one old spring. So I'm shaking the tree again and asking if a Raider has one of these springs, perhaps still attached to a reel, or just the backing plate, that they want to re-home?

This law isn't aimed at just boat trailers. It was first proposed a few years ago and the Manly daily ran an article suggesting that there were too many trailers used to carry advertising parked around the northern beaches. It about trailers in general, but boat trailers tend to be the biggest and most obvious, so the mainstream media is running with that. It was bound to happen one day with so many people living close to the water and boats being generally affordable, but not enough room on the water to moor them. Perhaps in the future, more thopught should go into garaging when designing housing. We often have more lawn than we know what to do with, so double or triple garages might be the way to go. But for now, this is going to be a problem for the trailer boatmen.

I just discovered the Albright knot. Not one you would usually use for braid to mono, but an excellent knot for fly line to backing or leader. Worth practicing as it is very easy to tie and could be done is low light conditions. The main thing is to take your time drawing the knot up.

Congratulations Junior, You've inspired me. I've just gotten together my own fly outfit and I'm going to go and have a crack at it myself. I hope I'm as lucky as you are skilful.

I've still got a bottle of bright chartreuse dye from way back when. I can't say it helped, but it probably didn't hurt. I found it handy for working out which way the water was going when fishing off the rocks. I'd throw in half a capful and watch the spread.

Your safe. Yowie. I wasn't a singer.

What's the RA for the Perseids? Might be a bit too north for me, unless I drive out of Sydney. Still, a warm bed and partner are preferred at this time of year.

OMG, that takes me back. I used to perform that song back in the '80's at the Fortune of War Hotel. One of my faves.We did the normal swing version of it, but then we tried a rock version that worked well, also. The crowd seemed to love it. We also did save the Whales by Country Joe McDonald. Both great fishing songs.

Just another thought that I want to put to the test later this week. With colder water (currently about 14.5 degrees in most systems), fish don't want to waste a lot of energy in fast moving currents. Try the slower water at the edge of the channels if you can. Fish are more likely to hold there, theoretically.

Stewie, are you putting on a bit of healthy weight? You look look very relaxed. The weather in Sydney just turned ugly today, so you timed your getaway well, ash cloud or not. Have a great time time and you and Donna show the locals how it;s done!

Hi guys and girls, I was looking for some line in my workshop today and unearthed my long forgotten Capstan No.24 bakelite reel. I'd archived it years ago because the ratchet button on the back-plate was missing and I'd jury rigged something that didn't really work. Fast forward to today and I thought I should send out an APB on Fishraider to see if an members, or friends of a friend, has one of these old reels that may be unusable but is OK for parts, vis a vie, the ratchet button. I believe the No. 37 has the same sized ratchet arrangement. The other question while I'm here is; What type of fishing were these reels used for? My one has some Dacron wound on, which I assume is backing for fly line.So were they a fly reel? The No.24's spool is only 8cm in diameter. See pics below.

Classic. As Richie Benaud might have said, "Good medicine, that."

I got a couple of red electronic ones on line, and have a few green chemical ones bought locally. Dying to try them out on something. Are there any other fish, other than hairtail, that like a bit of luminescence?

Just two more points before I clam up. Michael Clarke would have to be the most scripted Australian captain there has been. His list of cliches is endless. Don't get me wrong, he's (been) a great cricketer, but has been cursed by injuries. However, off field, in front of the media, he "plays the game" and says what he has been told to say. So much so, that I don;t hold much stock with anything he says . When asked if there was disharmony in the cricket team, he "emphatically denied" the rumors. This is the same guy who said it was "the right time" to retire. Right time? The right time was at least 6 months ago. As 2UE's British correspondent said, Australia is in the same position as England was 6 months ago in that this series was one too may for a number of Australian players. I'd say a few of the younger players knew this and weren't happy with team selections. As I've mentioned, Tests rarely go the 5 days that they are scheduled . Why not then make the duration of a Test match 4 days? If scheduling is handled correctly, the players get an extra day off to recover, and the punters are more likely to actually use their last day ticket. I mean really, is a draw that bad?

Hi mcconnachie, What I think you are saying with your line is that it was heading in the opposite direction to the tide? If so, this can happen as a result of back currents that form around bridge pylons. I'd try and cast up or downstream from the bridge into the main tidal flow and let the current carry your bait toward the pylons. You could increase your sinker weight until the line stops drifting altogether, but then the fish will spook at the first sign of the weight. (unless it's a good sized and aggressive fish). But as they lads have said, winter is a slower time to fish than summer. With water temps around 14 degrees, your bread and butter species will need to be enticed with a bit more than just lobbing a bait in and waiting for them to co-operate.Keep trying and try different things, like catching some fresh squid for bait, or fishing the edge of sand flats. You'll score eventually.

It reminds me of Stewie in Family Guy. Nice little pick up, Craig.

It's true that since the inception of one day cricket, batting discipline has devolved. Not just in Australia, but world wide. Batsmen cannot go for long periods without trying to score runs. The pundits call this aggression. Good bowlers call it grist for the mill. This. and the inexplicable need for a result, has had the knock on effect of more and more test matches not going the distance. Want to give someone you don't like a gift? Try a ticket to the 5th day of a Test cricket match. They'd be better off with a Tic Tac.

I have one of those universal side loading bars (Rack and Roll is the name), and they are fantastic. My yak is only 20kg and 3 meters, but the bar just makes it a breeze to load and unload it. Rhino and Thule make them for their specific racks, as well. Shop around Your paddle length sounds about right, but it could be your blade angles that are the problem. I get some water on me, but that's be expected. I don't paddle in the "classic" manner. I just watched some Youtube vids to get an idea. Then I just go out an plod along. However, I keep my blades orientated the same as each other. Your paddle should allow you to twist your blades a full 180 degrees about. Many paddlers offset their blade angles about 45 degrees give or take. I've watched those guys and girls go, and they really move along and hardly get wet at all.

OK Jay, I've got 12 days of freedom left before I start a new job, so I'm your man. I love beach fishing. Never do enough of it and need an excuse to do more. When is a good time for you?

After a few false starts, Antonywardle and myself finally met up at his kind invitation to take me out on his boat "Two Blues". Antony lives on the Central Coast, so it was arranged that I meet him at Lions Park ramp at Woy Woy at 3.30pm. An ambitious plan, as it transpired as negotiating the traffic through Sydney from Beverly Hills on a Saturday afternoon is worse than having a tooth pulled. But we managed to depart the ramp at 4.30, so I guess that's not too bad. With a brisk Sou'Westerly blowing up the the main channel, we decided to forgo our original plan of hitting Cowan Creek for hairtail and opted to fish the Rip Bridge. We anchored up in about 6m of water off the eastern shore, some 200 meters north of the bridge. The tide was on the way out and along with an eddie adjacent to us, it made fishing both weighted and unweighted baits a challenge. Antony was the first to hook up. He couldn't get a read on what it was and had to wait to see colour before declaring that he had caught a ray. Well, snagged it would be a better choice of words as the hook had penetrated the skin just forward of the knuckle on top of it's head. A quick release was easily affected an Mr. Ray swam off, none the worse for wear. As the sun dropped low on the horizon, I began to wind in my unweighted pillie cube and came up on some good weight. There were a few good head shakes, then it just lugged in. So I tightened the drag and proceed to bring a nice 57cm flatty to the boat. Normally, I would release such a fish, but a hunch told me that this should be a keeper, so it was placed on ice and we resumed fishing with a renewed vigor. After another half an hour, nothing was happening, so we moved to deep water in the middle of the channel. The Lowrance was showing a lot of "noise" all through the 27 meter water column, with some promising lines. I fished a weighted pille about 20 meters down and continued with an unweighted pillie on the other rod. However, with the commencement of nightfall, the bite had shut down. I glanced at my watch. Only 6.30. But something was nagging at me. Five minutes later, the penny dropped. I had forgotten to bring my evening medication with me. Without going into detail, it's suffice to say that the greater delay in taking the meds, the worse the deterioration in my comfort levels would become. Sadly I had to advise Antony that we would have to cut our session short, so I could get back home and medicate. Stupid, stupid, stupid me. At least we had some success in less than ideal conditions. I really didn't expect to take home anything as I had never fished Brisbane Waters before, so a nice flathead was a bonus. I made it home in some discomfort by 9.15 and quickly sorted myself out and had a reasonable rest of the night. Thanks Antony, for your kind invitation. I'll try to return the favour one day, but you'll have to wait until I upgrade from kayak to proper boat. Did you weigh the rock? (Don't worry folks, he knows what I'm talking about) Sunset beside Mt. Ettalong The Prize!