troutboy

one word MORA

Hi Matt 84, I dont think it matters whether the reel seat is made of plastic or alluminium, the point i am trying to make is on the majority of factory rods available these days you have beautifully shaped forgrips and split rear grips which in general day to day fishing scenarios rarely come into contact with the hands.The part of the rod that you hold when casting and retrieving is a hard unshaped plastic/alluminium reel seat.Daiwa seem to put a bit more thought into their handle/reel seat designs than many other rod manufacturers and supply shaped reel seats on a lot of their factory rods i just wish other rod makers would follow suit. cheers troutboy

Gday Rah, a small pea sinker on the braid will do little to no damage to the line at all, been doing this for years using 4lbs fireline on my trout bait fishing rods. If you are using light braid tie it directly to the swivel using a 10 to 12 turn uni knot, it will not break. From the swivel tie your flouro or mono leader using a 5 to 6 turn uni knot and if bait fishing the same knot to tie on your hook , if using lures or plastics you should learn the perfection loop or leftys loop knot to allow for more freedom of movement. Uni knots are easy to tie ,retain a fairly high knot strength and may be the only knot you need to tie.If you are using other knots and are experiencing some slippage a great product to try is called UV knot sense by a company called Loon,its an ultra violet cured glue made just for knots which you activate/cure using a small UV light source .Good luck and remember whichever knot you tie ,tie it well, if it looks the least bit suspect in any way cut it off and start again. cheers troutboy

What i would like to know is why rod makers use the latest fuji sic k guides and super high modulus graphite and nano resins etc and then slap on a fuji pipe reel seat.Why have custom shaped cork or eva handles when your hand doesnt come into contact with either surface while fishing.Surely if they are using the best of components a pipe type reel seat would be the last thing you would use

nothing wrong with silver trevally as table fish, just treat as you would for crumbed whiting. cheers troutboy

small sharks have been caught in the lake over the years, although I have not heard any reports for some time.Conjola is a large body of water that contains fish even when closed to the ocean for some time.When the entrance is closed there is no tide to speak of so peak times tend to be early mornings and late afternoons into the evenings. Whiting on the flats, flatties at the dropoff to the steps,more small snapper and tailor than you can poke a rod at. good luck. cheers troutboy

Gday abecedarian, I am not quoting facts in my above post, merely some observations i have made over a 5yr period of fishing a particular river that i have seen go through many extremes in that time.The large and small trout i have seen in this river seem to happily co-exist with each other to the point of smaller unseen trout beating larger targetted trout to the fly on many occasions, or at least they used to. I spent many days this closed season searching for actively spawning trout (not with a rod ) in the same locations as previous years and although seeing some activity, this years numbers were extremely low , despite prime conditions.This i believe was due in part to a certain magazine article published earlier in the season exposing this particular river and some access points in detail.On subsequent visits the amount of rubbish,bait rigs ,worm containers,broken bottles etc was unbelievable and the fishing suffered accordingly.Obviously many more people were fishing and taking more fish leaving fewer breeding size fish to spawn. Those fish that i did observe spawning successfully were mostly smaller rainbows of 1 1/2 pounds on average and not the 2 to 5lbs browns this stretch regularly produced in seasons gone by. In the past it was not out of the question to land several fish of this calibre in a trip, but sadly it seems a lot of these larger fish have been removed and it will take quite some time for the remaining smaller fish to attain the same size.This is why i return all my fish to the water, so hopefully i or another catch and release angler has the opportunity to benefit from catching the fish again in the future Each to their own,I release ,others can legally keep if they choose, neither is right or wrong,but this is what i choose to do as i believe it enhances my chances of catching good sized fish more often. cheers troutboy

The reason some people can get a bit upset with large trout being taken for food especially in a river situation is because there might only be a few large breeding fish in a particular section of river,and there removal can cause future fish numbers in that stretch of river to quickly decline.Yes you are legally within your rights to take the fish and no one should cop any flack for doing so ,but in doing so you must realise that the fish is no longer there to be able to produce more fish for the future and be catchable for any other angler. Most trout fisherman will take a pan sized fish for the table or the smoker and release larger trout purely for the pleasure of catching the same fish multiple times throughout the season.In my opinion trout taste like crap and I am only too happy to return fish to the water to be caught again in the future. Some sections of the coxs river are invaded by the kill it and grill it brigade who take more than their limit and render the fishing dead for everyone else by taking everything they catch regardless of size. No one likes to donut ,if everyone took a breeding female every time they went out there would be no fish left in a very short period of time with little chance for recovery. just my 2 bobs worth cheers troutboy

In flyfishing there are no hard and fast rules,very large fish can be caught on 1 and 2 wt rods it just takes time and patients.As I stated above modern flylines in the weight you are talking about have a breaking strain of around 30 to 35 lbs. The chance of breaking the flyline on even a big fish is highly unlikely unless you end up run around some coral bommie or such structure.Usually the lighter leader or tippet will give way first.30lbs dacron would be my backing of choice for the line weight you have . You can run any strength leader you like but specific flies will not turn over with too heavy or too light a leader.cheers troutboy

Hi Predator, 4lbs tippet is a bit light on in my opinion for the carp,salmon and tailor, may be ok for the bream in an open water situation, but I would be using a tapered leader to 8lbs and add tippet from there.You could safely go to 6lbs tippet or up to 10lbs for a bit more strength on the salmon and carp.Can you exchange your backing for 30lbs instead of the 20lbs as most modern flylines break around 30lbs and you dont want to loose a whole flyline to broken backing. cheers troutboy

Hi all, a sore shouider is the result of you trying too hard. A good cast is totally effortless,as others have suggested get yourself some lessons by a qualified instructor and save yourself a lot of heartache. The fly snapping off is a result of you commencing the forward cast before the back cast has fully unrolled hence a sudden speeding up of the fly and a snapping of the tippet. Do you hear a whip cracking type noise when this happens? It is the fly breaking the speed of sound. Hitting youself with the fly / line can be alleviated by canting your rod around 10 to 15 degrees outside your casting arm,but you must keep the rod tracking on the same plane to do this effectively.Once again a lesson or 2 from a qualified instructor is your ticket to really enjoying your fishing. cheers troutboy

Hi all, trout may be a non native species and were introduced here well over 150yrs ago to satisfy english fishermans love of the species,whether that was the right thing to do or not is sadly out of our hands.Trout fisherman contribute so much money to the economies of local towns that they will never be classed as pest fish . otherwise plenty of shops, accommodation , supplies. bait lures etc would go under virtually overnight.Trout need to be managed appropriately and I for one would be ok with no closed season for trout. My 2 bobs worth ...cheers troutboy

Hi sargerx8, are you referring to the backing or the flyline itself? An 8wt reel shouldnt be holding much more than 200 yds of 30lbs backing which wont take too long to spool by hand.If its the flyline you are referring to it can take a bit of practise to maintain even linelay espescially when playing a fish off the reel,if you find that the flyline is catching on the outer rim of the reel you will have to use your index finger of your rod holding hand to move the flyline from side to side much like a game reel only underneath.Think level wind on a bait caster if that makes more sense.Giving your line a good stretch before using will also help it behave a bit better espescially if the line has been stored on the reel for a long period of time with little use.Also a line dressing such as rio agent x or something similar will have an old line performing like new after a quick treatment. As for saltwater reels ,anything anodized and with a sealed drag will be fine.A Lamson Konic springs to mind ,hope this is of some help Im sure there are others with tips as well. cheers troutboy

How about a Finn Nor offshore , slightly on the heavy side but absolutely bulletproof. cheers troutboy

well we are all aware that ford is going under..........

Sorry to busrt your bubble but there is a reason tradies dont use ryobi,gmc {no longer made] and lower end products. They just dont last.You might think you only need to do small tasks but when something more difficult/hard is needed you will burn out the cheeper models pretty quickly.Also I would not purchase anything under 18v as this is the most popular voltage today and has much more variety in products available.Spend the money buy quality and still be using the product in 15 years time. cheers troutboy

Hi all heres a little trick to see if the sunnies are really polarised or not .When in the store grab 2 pairs of the same model you are looking at buying.put 1 pair on your face and look out into the street. Holding the other pair in front of the pair on your face, turn the pair you are holding 90 degrees to the pair on your face and look through both pairs.You should not be able to see any light penetrating through the lens of the pair you are holding, if you can see any light at all the polarising filter is not working properly.Some cheaper sunnies may have polarised lenses and will do a fine job of cutting out the glare but usually have plastic lenses which can distort the vision and produce eye strain in some people if used for extended periods. cheers troutboy

Hi Kaboobie, I have had success on some quite large flathead fishing next to the inlet using pillies on a set of gang hooks casting as far as possible and keeping in touch with the bait by using a very slow constant retrieve.10lb braid on a lightish spin stick should allow you to cast a reasonable distance using a small ball sinker to get the pillie down.There are also plenty of whiting on poppers inside the entrance to the lake.You must keep the popper moving at all times otherwise the whiting will quickly loose interest and turn away.Very light gear is best for casting distance and use a stiff leader to get the best action out of your popper .Hope this helps cheers troutboy.

pm sent cheers troutboy

Hi all, my go to hardbody for trout in streams is a rapala j5 jointed 5cm floater in brown or rainbow colors For the lakes micro min in rainbow trout with suspend dots. Celtas are a great lure in both streams and lakes but I dont like using the treble hooks , they do so much damage to fish that are going to be released , so lately Ihave been buying cheaper versions such as kokoda that have a hook attachment point that is easy to retrofit with a split ring and a single lure hook.Since using the singles i have not lost a fish to a thrown lure. good luck....cheers troutboy

Gday all. spot on hooked up, you need to let the backcast unroll fully before beginning the front casting stroke. Also if you are using weighted flys you dont want really tight loops, you need to open up your casting stroke a little more than usual. hope this helps cheers troutboy

hey guys give this method a go, using half pillies or whole does matter ,try casting out a fair distance and very slowly but constantly retrieve your line . Fish hit a moving target with more gusto and if you dont start catching more fish i will be very surprised. Good luck. cheers troutboy

Great report Angus, looks like you made the right decision to go. Great photos too, cheers troutboy

Now if that doesnt make you want to catch a fish on fly nothing will! awesome footage cheers troutboy

lovely fish Caddis,there are some absolute monsters in there....well done cheers troutboy