danielsan81

Tried our luck yesterday at Pittwater for the Pirtek national fishing comp. Headed out to our usual spot to target flathead and squid and after an hour or so my brother landed a nice little green eye so we all switched to jigs to see if there were more around to use as bait, but nothing would take. We had other rods out with dead baits which were constantly going off with pinkies. But then my brother hooks up on a nice flathead - and loses it on the anchor rope. Would have measured a solid 50cm we think. So once it goes quiet towards the top of the tide we cruise over to another spot and notice some solid surface action. We head straight for it and cast hardbodies at what we now see is a huge school of yakkas going nuts avoiding predators. We are both new to this style of fishing but boy is it fun. Adam cast a hardbody that matched the yakkas and I had a slimy hardbody. After a couple of casts my rod loads up nicely and after a few runs I reel in a solid king at bang smack on 65cm - my first legal king! We chase the bait school for another 30 minutes and my brother bags himself a tailor and has another one bust off at the boat. After that rush we decide to tone it down and target one of the other species for the comp, bream. Using a simple dead bait technique, we manage 6 legal bream with the biggest measuring 31cm. Not bad, but not great. Hoping its the mystery length! We released all but the squid, king and tailor. Should make a great feed on good friday!

I emailed Shimano and this is the reply they gave me: "The drag system in the baitrunners are set up in a way that allows them to be adjusted with baitrunner mode off as well as on. This will do no damage to your reel. But if you have it set to the on position you have an idea of how much drag the baitrunner mode is giving you." Handy to know. Wierd thing was the tension knob would not move straight out of the box until it was set with the baitrunner in the OFF position.

Just picked up a new Shimano 4500B baitrunner. This is my first baitrunner reel. In the manual it states to switch the baitrunner ON when adjusting the tension on the baitrunner's freespool. At the store I purchased it from they said to never adjust the tension of the baitrunner's freespool when the baitrunner is activated, and that the manual is incorrect. Who is right?