loomylover

G'day mate, Sorry I missed this post! We usually launch at the ramp in North Haven and go out through the camden haven river bar which isn't too bad. Have used the Hastings a couple of times also with no dramas. They aren't notoriously dangerous bars that some develop a reputation for so stick to your standard safe boating principles and you should be right mate. If you would like to catch up for a fish when your up shoot me a PM before your up and we'll tee something up!

Fellas, ignore this man!! Too many when you posted that petey?

Grant, Me and the usual partner in crime think it's very realistic to be able to land a 10kg on the light gear we're using - time will tell though. As for the plastics, berkley gulp 5" jerkshads are the standout - with zoom superflukes also accounting for some nice fish also. In the jerkshads "sardine" is the standout colour most definately. Have also been testing some new plastics that will be hitting the market late this year - more info when that comes closer. As for jigheads, we used to fish 3/8oz as the general rule - we now use 1/8 - and the catch rates have predictably soared. Of course this all depends on the water depth your fishing and the level of movement in the water. Last weekend we caught all our fish in anything from 10-25metres of water, in which case the 1/8 is usually fine.

Thanks for the comments guys - im pretty happy with the weekends results - but i think we've only scratched the surface of how good the spot is. Spot in question is further north of both the hat and SWR As for the gash, the king was like that when it was landed - so you'd have to assume a shark swipe - it didn't deter his fighitng ability on the super light gear though!

After a bit break between our last serious red on plastics assault - the boys decided it was time to head north to a mystery location in persuit on PB's on plastics and a weekend away. I'm not gonna babble on like i usually do - rather let the pics and stats do the talking. Over the two sessions we had (saturday afternoon and sunday morning) we probably managed only 5 hours on the water in total. We scored a total of 23 snapper to 4kg (average about 2.5kg) and a heap of undersized and a couple of better kingfish. The place is pure heaven.. all fish caught on plastics and 1/8oz heads. Enjoy... The pics and numbers of fish his sort of size was endless...can't wait till next months trip. Gear used as usual was the standard bream combo/4lb fireline/20lb vanish combination

The funny thing is Bloo - we pulled up RIGHT BESIDE ocean star - and pulled that fish on the first cast - was an absolute hoot. I'm glad to here you've been coming up here for a while now - what boat have you purchased?

Guys, The big boy went 6.5kg. Martin thats probably the best day we've had on the reds although we're really just scratchin the surface on this type of fishing. About 6months ago pete and i hadn't done a whole lot of reds on plastics or reds on anything for that matter fishing and it was a new experience. Every trip just seems to get better and we keep smashing our PB's. All up we got 15 reds, one pearl perch and one sand flatty - not a bad day at all for 4 hours fishing! I;m not sure about talking about them for years - i've got a feeling by the time the years up one of us will have a few more PB's to the list. Most of the marks that we've developed has just been through pure prospecting - cruising through an area until you some find some reefy country and fishing it - and seeing whats on offer. With that big fish though, we ventured into water deeper than we normally fish and don't have many marks for and pulled up right next to a boat called ocean star - a popular charter operation in port. Should have seen the looks on the crew when that baby come aboard. Mako, your right - the big fish usually come on floated baits, not that i've done a whole lot of that fishing. We were both blown away at one, catching the fish and secondly - getting it on the method we did, no finesse at alll, definately a flukey capture. We like to fish plastics in around 20-25metres of water and then in the deeper stuff it gets hard to do with the light gear so last trip was the first time we've ventured deeper and targetted them on bait in the area. We've had some discussions and next trip the pillies are coming aboard and were going to float some down a berley trail - the boys at the tackle shop reckon 10-15kg reds are not uncommon. Hopefully if the seas are good ill be out there saturday and sunday doing it all again - ahh i love living on the mid-north coast. Wettingaline - where are you based now mate? When you come back up - i'd be more than happy to catch up for a fish.

After a solid two months without an offshore session due to commitments and poor sea conditions - the time has arrived for another snapper on plastics assault - with the hope of heading wider later in the session to add some leatherjackets to the catch. Pete and I departed my place at a relatively late (by our standards) 6am to arrive at the ramp at 6:20 and be on the spot at 6:45am. Within 5 minutes i was on to a chunky little kilo fish that lifted our spirits. No pic of this puppy as only fish over 2kg are worthy of piccies. Me and Pete then added numerous just legal fish to the well pior to this puppy - a PB on plastic for the p-man. 3.2kg of hard pulling red. I followed up with my best for the day but well below my PB - a modest red of 2kg. It was to be Pete's day however. After accumulating about 10 reds they went off a bit and we ventured into deeper water in hope of a few jackets. We sent down a doube hooked rig with squid baits and within 5 minutes - i heard an angrily buzzing drag only to turn around and see pete giving a fish that i called for a big or small kingy a bit of stick. After about 5 minutes up came this little baby... ...

Red has a point, there is no sport on earth that compares to football in terms of COMPETITIVE participation. In saying that, the weekend of rugby league is firmly entrenched in my culture and i would say to see that go. I can say that despite being ripped off, the profile of football is going to soar from now and if we retain most of our squad heading into 2010...watch out folks, the roos mean business. Guus will return too i reckon after a stint with russia, he loves the boys so much and he knows he has unfinished business. GO THE ROOS

I still havn't gotten to sleep. This is tragic. Im extremely proud of the boys but a spot in the last 8 was thrown away tonight. There's no guarantee we would have won in extra time, but momentum certainly suggested so. On the whole the ref had a solid game and gave a red i think italy didnt deserve and a penalty australia didnt deserve. Well be there in africa in 2010 though, giving it out best again. Well done socceroos! Oh, and to the world stage - of the biggest sport on the globe.

No wrong mate - not wrong at all..nearly 4 hours till kick off now. My pick 2-1, dukes to finally get on the scoresheet and timmy to bag his 3rd of the tourny. go the rooz!

Check out this guys, Just pulled this off some football forums. (To be sung to the tune of Australia's national anthem, "Advance Australia Fair") Australians all let us get pi$$ed for we are going through Although the ref was blind and deaf We got our draw, two-two Our team abounds in football's gifts Of talent rich and rare Let history say We won the day Advance Australia fair In Green and Gold then let us win Advance Australia fair!

Mate depends what twinpower your talking about - i've heard that the domestic model that was released in aus is very second rate to the jap version. If you go the twinpower - import it!

Guys if youve got personal problems against the guy that might alter your perception of his performance and the like. Im not arguing though, hes had an absolute shocker and seeing as though hes likely to retire from international football after this cup, I don't think well be seeing him between the sticks again. As you said though, you can have alot of potential as an athlete - but you need to rise in the big occassions - and hes failed to do that. Even against Greece I thought he looked shaky so his form hasn't been the best. Not wrong about schwarzzer either - I see it as that he got half of our foot in the door to germany and I think he should have earnt the right to remain as keeper. Guus has always seen something in Kalac but for whatever reasons (maybe they get on well?) and might of seen something in training during the week to justify putting him in. Let's stop the bagging of our players though - only creates negative energy and wish every one of them well as they progress into the elimination stages of the tournament.. GO BOYS!

Celebrations all round guys. Before you go laying blame on kalac - think a bit first. If you watch the replay closely - the ball took a SHOCKING bounce off the pitch prior to sliding over his hands. Kalac is a world class keeper who keeps for AC milan for anyone who knows there football. Yes he had a shocker, and believe me i was going off my head thinking that error could lose us our campaign. It didn't - but i have to agree, put schwarzy back in next game. Give the guy a break though fellas. The guy you shouldnt give a break however..is Mr grahame pole... What a match though, it had EVERYTHING. A dramatic comeback, simunic who im gonna rename to willie mason with some of the tackling he was doing. How viduka didnt get a penalty on the 6th minute mark i think it was is beyond me. Not to mention the other handball in the box the ref missed. Who can forget the triple yellow card incident? Plenty of talking points, but at the end of the day - THE BOYS ARE THROUGH, just as i thought they would when people doubted us in December when the draw was done. I've always had faith in this side and if we get good officials - as well as play to the best of our ability - get set for a cracker come tuesday morning. FIFA tried to dud us again and our team of whole-hearted rooz pulled through their political bullshit - BRING ON ITALY!!!!!

Good report gogzay (AKA Kingvirgin.) You've pretty much summed it up. I think brazils first goal was deserved, however if popovic had of been there instead of chippers playing out of position i don't think it would have happened. Anyway, bottom line was we missed vital chances, kewell 56th minute sitter the most damaging to our egos. I was up in the air ready to celebrate, then sat down quietly as it soared over the bar. Chances to dukes, breshas, and breshas again capped off the match in which if we had of finished those brilliantly created chances - brazil would have been on the team bus in tears. Not to be, and they showed what a class side they are by finishing the chances they did create. As has also been pointed out Fred's goal was just pure luck and the 1-0 result would have looked more appealing to those who didnt watch the match. But this is the world cup, and scorelines mean everything - SO LETS GO GRAB IT AGAINST THE CROATS!! My pick - 3-1, dukes to bag a double and bresciano to score the other. Hard to imagine harry or timmy not scoring though - lets see it pans out. GO AUSSIE!

Ohh i don't think im gonna be able to sleep tonight. In 23 hours time, the socceroos take on the best there is - Brazil. C'mon guys, time for score predictions? and wheres everyone going to see the occasion? I'm gonna make the drive down to Sydney from Port in the morning just to experience the match with thousands of like minded people in the city. My tip is 2-2, although i really hope we can grab the three points and guarantee advancement into the second round.

GO THE SOCCEROOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At the 80 minute mark, i was beginning to think our campaign was in tatters after a shocking ref call had us down 1-0. Timmy Cahill does what he does best and thats slots away loose balls in the box to make it 1-1. I done a couple of laps of the house and hugged family members before getting back to the game and realising that we had some sever momentum. In fact we had momentum the whole match and made Japan look ordinary the whole 90 minutes. My suspicions were confirmed when timmy put us in the lead with a screamer from 20 yards - YOU BEAUTY!!! Not only was our world cup dream alive, 3 points from our first match put us in a very favourable position to advance. John Aloisi then topped off our night while we topped up our drinks - with a sizzling run, tearing apart the jap defence and then slotting home a very cool finish. Australia had the three points, they also had three goals which will come in VERY handy if indeed qualification for the second round comes down to goal different. What a match boys, i thought i was in ecstasy when we defeated uruguay - this just took the cake even though i wasn't at this one. The victory was definately coming the whole match though, dominating the whole thing, jus't couldnt find the net with near misses to dukes, harry and breshas. BRING ON BRAZIL - GO AUSTRALIA!!!

Hey Guys, Not sure how many of you are as soccer..err football mad as i am, but did anyone watch the roos in action last night/this morning? On paper the 1-1 draw with the dutch looks very promising, but some parts of the performance were far from it! Defensively in the first half they were woeful and the dutch really touched them up - 1-0 at halftime was a very fortunate result i think when it could well have been 3 or 4. Dukes was unlucky not to bag a goal though (top save van der sar.) Second half however the boys adjusted to the dutch tempo and it wasn't a bad match. We scored the only goal we looked like scoring however with viduka getting pulled down in the box - and doing what i feared he would..miss his second successive penalty for his county. Never fear though, trusty Timmy Cahill is always present to slot home loose balls in the box and 1-1 it was. On the whole, we stepped into the domain of one of the classiest teams on the planet and they showed us why, we held our nerve well and come away with a point. All the errors are hopefully out of the system now prior to the world cup. On another note - schwarzer was excellent - with countless top saves that kept us in it. HUGE result though for Australian football and gives the boys confidence as Japan loom.. FIRE UP BOYS - JAPAN IS A WEEK AWAY!!

As far as im aware, poppering for bream and bass is a pretty much summer-only proposition. Whilst winter is on our doorstep, i couldn't afford to not get some of these when i saw the great attention to detail.

Can pull them for around the $10 mark, thats buying a few though and saving on shipping to bring the overall individual price down - so not too bad really.

Mate, when i first saw them i thought they were sugois too. Actually theyre from the japanese range of kinami lures (also marketed by gary yamamoto like the sugois.) Theyre 2.5", check out these other colours. I've ordered 20 because its cheaper for me and shipping works out better. I might offload 5-10 though..

Just ordered a heap of these for my collection guys..this is in the ghost watermelon colour but i got them in 5 awesome natural colours. Anyone wanna have a stab what lure it is?

Rohit, Just got referred to this thread from Mick (jewel) after reading one of my reports. The stick looks like an absolute beast! Would enjoy giving it a test on some reds up this way. Check your PM's. Cheers Anthony

Caught most of mine on the bottom mate, although you get the odd one slightly higher in the water column. One ideais to berley and raise the fish off the bottom then present lures in front of them - havn;t done this as yet though.