griffox

Yeh, end of Wimbledon Ave is good for yaks, but not trailer boats. Same from the park on Wakehurst Parkway (north side)and Middle Ck Park (west side). I launch the tinnie over on the south side at Jamieson Park, at the end of The Esplanade. Have fun!

By giving a firm pull after the initial bite sometimes it will pull free, but letting the lure drop again immediately will often force another strike from the fish.. and if it doesn't pull free you know you've got him nailed! Don't try and pull the fishes head off as some blokes think necessary, but this is where a crisp graphite rod does the business, a short sharp lift combined with the rods action will hook him up. You don't need a rod made for snapper or kings either (these 6-10kg rods need heavier lures to work correctly), a light 7' 3-5kg rod made for SP use is the go. I use a 7' Starlo Stix Med Spin or an Okuma 6'6" travel rod with 6 or 10lb braid, 8 - 20lb leader. Although they have a light tip they both buid up strength quickly thru the mid section of the rod, working well for bream, whiting, flatties and school jew. But don't forget, SHARP HOOKS!!

Sydney Harbour #1 for its options (The harbour, North H, Middle H, the Heads... + Kings, Dory, Jews, Flatties, Snapper, Squid etc etc).. Georges/Botany great for general bread and butter fishing all along its length.. Hacking for a picturesque mid-week picnic/fishing day (Bundeena, South West Arm, Swallow Rock), the girls love it... And Hawkesbury for a holiday (I've done a few over the years, houseboats and Halvorsens, all good)!! Fortunately I'm not restricted to just one, very often the problem is to decide which one to fish today...!! I feel very lucky to live in a city which allows me to be on any of these waterways in under an hour.

Hook size shouldn't be a problem. Most 1/4 jigheads use 1/0 or 2/0 hook size (unless they're light heads with huge hooks for pelagics), so I would make sure they're sharp first! Use a sharpening stone before you start casting AND after you catch a fish (they all get blunt after a chewin'!). Maybe your rods are too soft... all SP work needs a nice crisp rod to drive the hook home (and for good casting). And lastly, are you giving the rod a solid lift after the take to make sure it's on? After that, keep a bend in the rod till you get him in the net, without letting them thrash aroud on the surface. I would have more get-offs by flatties on deepwater paternoster rigs, where you can't feel the bite as well... But sharp hooks are a good start!

Cheers! Tight Lines in the comp...

Sounds like a perfect day on the water to me!! Aaaaahhh... the serenity!!! Nice one sailfish!

Hi Sydangler, What's the "Red October"? I haven't heard of this comp, where is it run and who runs it?

Generally with bream, yes! Depth of water, current and casting distance all come into play. Also the diameter of the braid is important (the thinner it is the less impact on action). For bream I would use 1/32 - 1/16 - 1/8 oz, flatties 1/6 - 1/4 - 3/8 oz, then 3/8 and above out in deeper waters (snapper, kings, etc). But as the others have said, the size of the SP definately has an effect on the action. And also what that bream feels like on the day!

Thought I'd make the most of what looked to be a nice day on the water yesterday. Launched the tinnie at Tunks Park around 7am and trolled a couple of lures upstream with the rising tide. No birds or surface action so I poked around for a while. Sugerloaf Bay looked promising with patches of baitfish showing, so I anchored up and put a couple of baits out whilst flicking a SP around. Fished either side of the tide, but only undersize pinkies and bream to show for it (quantity, not quality!). Around midday I moved to the wreck at Quakers Hat Bay, also showing a fair bit of activity on the sounder. After half an hour (and more small snapper) my heavier rod (6'/10kg with baitrunner) starts peeling line off, you beauty!! Is it a King? Is it a Jew? No, its Super Salmon!! Aaargh! Short fight, during which time he managed to tangle up the other baited line (just to make it interesting!), I then landed a mid-range 63cm Oz Salmon. Ah well, looked promising for a while!! Weather was perfect, water seemed pretty cloudy (I guess due to the bit of rain the night before) but water temp reached mid 17's by middle of the day, so happy days are on their way again guys! All it needs now is for the fish to co-operate... Tight Lines 'Raiders!

There you go, Huetts already know the right people... We should open a new forum section... "Huey can Help"!! (Just joking Huey, I'm sure you get more than enough of this kinda stuff everyday!!!) looks like a plan hookmeup...

So Mako, did you get out there? (I was locked in to a "brownie points" weekend, so didn't get a chance!) Any good?

Absolute stunner!! Nice work... And good to read that you nailed a few for the table as well!

+1 for the Diawa Tierra series, I have a 4000 on a Strudwick 4-8kg 7' "SicStik" with 20lb braid, a true "do anything" combo at a reasonable price. Another little gem is my Pflueger Supreme XT 9035, smaller, lighter (magnesium body) and higher 6.2:1 ratio with 15lb braid (bought for $89 on special! not bad for a $299 R/R reel!!) I still can't get excited about a reel body in composite, so anything by Daiwa with a metal body is more my speed, especially when specifically aiming for the beasts out there! Bad luck on the bust up dude!!

Sorry, it's been twenty years since I had any of this type of work done (from memory we used to deal with a motorcyle drag race parts supplier in Qld, who would reinforce the clutch baskets and undercut gears etc), so I wouldn't know who to send you to these days. The wonderful world of the internet should find some local transmission/engineering shops that can give better advice in this area. Anyone who builds race cars/bikes should have an idea. Due to the resurgence of drag racing in recent years, I'm sure there would be plenty of western suburbs engineering shops capable. Ring a couple and suss them out, if they don't understand what you're on about, move on to the next one! As for the undercutting of the dogs (BTW I think this is the correct term, not "back cutting", my error! Shows how long it's been since I discussed this kinda crap!), yes this can be done without building up material first. In bike racing circles this was often done to brand new gearboxes, as part of a "strip down and build it better" approach to setting up a new bike before we thrashed it silly on the track! The undercut is only a very slight angled "skim" of the engagement face, which doesn't take away from the strength of normally over engineered gear dogs. We're talking about a few thou', not a few mm's. Hope you have some luck... good that is!!

Lewis make a nice boat, maybe not as "feature packed" as some others, but nice ride/handling and good value for money. Certainly one that I'd be looking at (if I had the space...and the money!!!).

As CJ said, where the two rivers meet (Bottle & Glass Head, just NW of Como Bridge) is a good place to troll or drift for flatties, along the edge of the drop off, on a falling tide. Also good for bream, hard up against the rock walls and jettys of the houses on the North side of Wonnie (i.e. the South face of B&G Hd), on a rising tide. I notice in another report some tailor in the river, so maybe some jews around the bridge also...

Coming from a motorcycling background it was quite common to have gear dogs welded and re-ground. Back-cutting, where a slight negative angle was cut into the engagement edge of the dog was also used to ensure a positive bite between the gear and its mate under high load. Standard gear dogs used to round off regularly due to high RPM changes (in competition use) without using the clutch, so a welded and ground (and heat treated) gear set was common. I know how hard it can be to find parts for long gone motors, so having them welded and ground may be a good (short or long term) solution. Just a thought...

I haven't seen the specs on the two you mention, but I've been using a Daiwa Tierra 4000 and an Oceana 4500 for these species over the last few years and they have both been excellent! As long as they're both metal bodies and crank handles, they'll probably have similiar drag ratings, so I'd go for whichever has a better line capacity. With a quick wash in the shower and a squirt of Inox in all the usual places, both of my Daiwas still look and work like new. I don't think Daiwa make a bad reel!

Well done! I thought you might be a bit optomistic at this time (and water temp.), but glad you proved me wrong! Nice fresh bait... Mmmmm!

Wooohooo!! Legal Kingies in da hood (well, Middle Harbour anyway!!) Let the games begin.... Well done O.P.

I had the tell tale stop on my little o/b a while back, turned out it was a blockage underneath the cover plate on the cylinder block where the outlet hose is attached to the motor. Also check that the hose is not kinked between the engine and the outlet. Impellers should be changed every 100hrs (or once a year if not used regularly), so on a s/h motor that you've only just bought it could be a smart move to change this anyway (then you know exactly where you are up to)... Strange that it worked O.K. the day before, the seller may have had it running for a while before you showed up, thus "priming" the system. Again this would indicate a worn impeller or housing. I'm not aware of any thermostat in these motors, so temperature shouldn't be an issue (check and make sure!). Maybe send Huetts an e-mail...

From fisho to hero... A sombre report but a timely reminder to all! Lucky you guys were there.

Good advice from all of the above... It's not good to be right on the limit with towing capacity. The insurance issue is one thing to think about, but you don't want to have a prang in the first place either... One suggestion for a good value tow vehicle is a Kia Sorento. The older model has a 2800kg tow rating, good economy (diesel) and go for around $20K in reasonable condition. The new models (same as the Hyundai santa Fe) actually have a lower tow rating, 2000kg for auto, 2500kg for the manual. Just my 2 cents worth...

I spent a fair bit of time watching the demo's at the Sydney Boat Show, it was excellent to see the action of the various lures and retrieves and how the fish responded. One thing I particularly found interesting was the way most of the fish hung tight together around the airator outlet, with only a few venturing out for a "feed" at any given time. Good to watch their behaviour... BTW, what boat show at Cronulla? I didn't see any adverts in any of the mag's!

Sorry boattart, just pullin' your anchor chain...!!!