nbdshroom

Well done Ian, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your report. Great photos too.

Well done, you'll be on a high for a week.

Well done. It's funny how the headshakes are not so pronounced at that size. I always swim the jew until it kicks away, even if it takes me 15 mins. Have had them all kick away eventually even when they have seemingly given up the ghost.

Well done, top mulloway.

Well done Jeff, you worked hard for it and waited a long time, but it's your moment in the sun.

Yeah gotta love Aus, especially in this day and age when things can get overly politically correct. Reminds me of Mark Webber hitching a ride back to the pits on Alonso's car and also taking off his helmet in his final race which is symbolic in giving the FIA the finger.

Well done to you and your son. An investment for the future. Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

Ouch Ouch... but at least you caught some good fish Jeff. Yep 2013 lunar year which just ended (year of the Snake), those who are fan tai sui (which are in direct conflict of the position of the stars relative to Jupiter or something like that which means bad luck etc.) are obviously the Snake and also minor conflict with the Pig, Monkey and ..... *drum roll* Tiger! But don't worry Jeff, as you know, Chinese New Year is happening and it's now the year of the horse (bass)!

Fantastic pictures, I enjoyed going through them.

Well done Jeff, that's a top catch and report. You certainly worked hard for it and deserved the reward. Good on you for doing an overnight camp followed up by a 10km paddle interdispersed with heavy labour dragging of the yak!

I'm surprised that the tackle store recommended that you start off with a blade, especially if they knew that you were a beginner throwing lures in the snaggy Cooks river. It will only take a few lost blades in quick succession to turn you off lure fishing. I advise to use SPs or floating-type/surface hardbodies. SPs are much cheaper (so can risk snagging a few) and these type of hardbodies are less likely to snag if they are not worked along the bottom. 1/16oz jighead with any 1-3" plastic (Gulp Shrimp/Crabby, Squidgie wriggler/lobby/bug, Z-man grubz, Damiki grubs etc.) or a hardbody crankbait (e.g. Berkley fatdogs, Atomic crank38 hardz, Kokoda bats, gladiator kozami or more pricey Jackall Chubbies, Smith Camions, Luckycraft NW Pencils/Sammy, Daiwa Double Clutches) will do. Just use your wits about you when using a hardbody and if in doubt switch to a SP. Simply wind in the hardbody slowly and it does all the action for you. You can also try twitching it. The learning curve for SPs is steeper but there's plenty on this forum about how to use them.

Well done and top report.

Well done, that is some serious HB jew fishing. I take my hat off.

Looks like a Crimsonband Wrasse.

Could have been anything - kingie, jewie etc. Yeah let me know when, been too long.

Thanks Pierre. I can attest to the fact that the wind has been unusually strong for the past several months. Just have to get back out there. It's good that you are still finding squid, I haven't landed a decent one in a while!

Cheers Stan. I look forward to your next report. Cheers, I put some details of your questions above. Basically a 2-5/3-6kg carbon fibre rod with a 2000-3000 reel will do the job. It doesn't have to be expensive gear either.

Well done, not a common target but have heard of them being landed on wakebaits, jitterbugs and small poppers. I'm not sure exactly which lures as people that land them often don't show the lure at all.

You can't miss balmoral, there's a rock there and there are always boats there gathering bait. Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

Hey RichieR, the technique was the generic and disjointed double whip. I've also got interest when I've varied the method, in particular a triple whip. The key is to pay extra attention to the braid, more so than for flathead fishing which don't usually spit out the plastic when they hit. That is the fundamental difference I have noticed. Hope that helps! Thanks Ian for your kind words! I don't think I'm doing anything special in particular except persevere and constantly trying to refine my methods. I'm very satisfied it has paid off. I would have been stoked even if it were a 25cm model! All that bream fishing has given me a good platform to improve upon. Hope you get into some decent fish and looking forward to your future reports.

Well done Roberta, I really enjoyed this thread. Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

Thanks pmak, it was very satisfying. Cheers Ben, it held up spectacularly.

Well done on the beast.

Haha, glad you enjoyed it Witha. Cheers Dave, fish soon!

Thanks Luke, you have helped me immeasurably!