shane87

HI ALL, I'M HEADING UP TO MONDURAN DAM FROM 12-19TH OCTOBER AND WAS WONDERING IF ANYONE ELSE MIGHT BE MAKING THE TRIP AROUND THE FULL MOON LIKE ME. I FISHED THE DAM IN MARCH FOR 3 FISH IN 6 DAYS SO HOPEFULLY THIS TIME ROUND WE CAN CRACK A FEW MORE.

The live fibre does come ready built but only in low and med mount not built for an overhead. The snyder blanks are fine but the su177 series will be a monster of a rod especially if built up as an overhead. Your arms will look like popeye after a few sessions.

If your not going to be high speed spinning then it is hard to go past the trusty abu 7000 or 7000c3. This will give you more to spend on a rod and the Live Fibre BZ400 10x is a cracker of a blank. I have one built with a few inches cut from the tip to enable me to cast heavier baits like whole tailor and mullet and it does it with ease. At 13ft and graphite its easy to hang onto for long periods which the su177 won't be. Cheers Shane.

If your not in a hurry have a look at the new automatic 2 speed Tiburon reels that will be available here in about 6 weeks.

The new stella 20000 won best new reel at the recent aus tackle show on the gold coast.

Trying to find a blank that will load up and WORK with 8kg of drag pressure but still handle 20+kg for the 130. Good luck. Just make sure you are strapped into something or someone if you try and fish 130 landbased. Cheers Shane.

Thats about as hard as playing St Andrews with only a putter

The 3 fish were caught on the cube in a .4 degree temp break about 6km east of browns.

Fished wide of browns this morning and had 3 to 45kg by 11.30 and we headed home in the best conditions i think i have ever seen. 4000rpm and 35mph was a pleasure. Cheers Shane.

Thats not an easy one. A rod that might come close is the 10'6 trophy from live fibre as it will cast 20-50gm slugs very well and has the power to fish 6kg quite hard but also has a fairly soft tip. It may be a little heavy for blackfish though.

I think you are confusing action and taper. Yes the taper is how much it changes from tip to but butt the action is how the blank loads up or folds away from tip to butt. In most 7ft graphite light spin style blanks there is not a huge amount of taper in the blank but depending on the material of the blank and how those materials have been rolled on a mandrill you can get a variety of actions in similar looking blanks.

Apart from the outfit being unbalanced you are going to have little chance of staying connected with such small hooks under heavy drag settings. Great hooks but for whiting on 2-3kg.

Bight size slimeys in close!!! We might get the mackeral run in sydney like 7 years ago if the currents play fair.

You may find that the 950 will struggle to handle the drag pressure smoothly. If you intend to fish 50lb braid then the reel will struggle to deliver the performance in the drag department. A 14000 spheros with an upgraded drag kit might fit the bill. I have heard of a few guys chasing fin on threadlines but they were stella 20,000 and in a class of there own.

You will find that the reel will handle both jigging and downrigging comfortably but the rod you chose will be better for either one or the other. Jigging rods tend to bend fairly slowly with not a lot of action in the tip but downrigging rods have a softer tip with all the grunt down low. Very hard to get one rod that is perfect for both applications. Cheers Shane.

Awesome place but has become increasingly crowded over the past 6-10 years or so. I always wait until after school holidays have finished and head up around mid feb and you can get a great mix with late season marlin and hopefully some early season spotties and spaniards. With the water that is heading down the coast and pushing hard in around the rocks it should be a good start to the year. All the best to those who are lucky enough to visit the rocks.

The 4500 size reel will be better suited than the 6000 as the rod is quite lightweight. The rod will handle 5-8kg of drag pressure comfortably and the 4500 should produce this easily once the washers are bedded in. Looks awesome with the camo grips also. Cheers Shane.

For allround durability and toughness it really is hard to beat a spinfisher.

If your going to fish up to 100m then stick to an overhead.

When buying lures for marlin get the best you can. PAKULA,TOPGUN,MAGOO,HOLLOWPOINT AND MARLIN MAGIC are all good places to start. 6-10 inch will suit most of what sydney will throw at you. A good marlin lure will set you back around $60-100 rigged so a spread can get a little pricey but there is not much point burning fuel at $1.40L towing around ordinary lures. Keep your hooks razor sharp,check and re-check drags,be confident with your knots and hope you don't have any chinks in your armour because if you do a marlin will generally find it. Best of luck Shane.

Why not check out the new ATC range of rods. They are only available from a select few shops in sydney but they have a couple of rods that will fit the bill nicely. Cheers Shane.

For around the $250.00 dollar mark you will struggle to find a loomis ( the most over rated and over priced rods on the market ) Brand name rods rely on exactly that BRAND NAME to sell themselves. Have a good look at what is out there these days and you will see that loomis is fast being left behind in the componentry and build quality stakes. This is my personal opinion of course and many will not agree but do your homework and you will find quite a few rods in your price range that will suit. Cheers Shane.

Contact Tony from fishfinder. He has a few of his custom rods on special at the moment. There are a couple of the top shelf spin sticks that are going cheap in order to make room for the next round of toys. Cheers Shane.

Sydney beaches as a rule are fairly shallow and tend to fish best on a rising tide. Find a decent gutter on most beaches and they will produce fish on a rising tide around dark. Whole pillies on a set of ganged 3/0 or 4/0 hooks should have you tackling salmon and tailor in no time. Cheers Shane.

Heading out wide of terrigal to chase some kings and fish floaters for some reds.