Evets

Hey I use 4lb fireline crystal on my 1000 sized Shimano Soare. It is excellent - doesn't coil up like other lines and is nice and soft. I have seen some independent testing results of the 4lb line which stated that its average breaking strain was 11.8lb. The only downside I have with it is that's its bloody hard to tie a knot in it in anything other than broad daylight - because its diameter is a fraction over 0.1mm which makes it hard to see. And I have very good eyesight. Evets

Greg I have a 200g JM three kings special matched up to a JM powerspell PE4 reel. Awesome set up. The rod is rated to 26 kg and quite parabolic in its action. When you jig with for the first time it feels a bit soft when compared to the broomsticks I am used to jigging with. But after the second or third drop it feels just about perfect. The parabolic action lets the rod easily handle 20KG of drag and its strange watching the rod bend all the way to the reel seat when you have a decent fish on but no matter how much sick you give it, the rod feels like it has a whole lot more to give. The reel is really small but holds heaps of braid - I have almost 50 color changes of YGK 50lb braid on it. AND it can pump out a maximum of 25 KG drag - which is really smooth and linear all they way up there. The reel has a 4:1 ratio which seems a bit slow but when you are cranking a 350g jig up from 250M you will really appreciate the lower ratio. The whole set up is very light and only weighs 842grams. You'll be able to jig all day with it and not get tired from holding it. I actually prefer this set up to my mega expensive custom spiral wrapped double helix GUSA 24KG rod / Trinidad TN40N combo I have. I cant jig all day with this but I can with the JM. Evets

hi, is your braid hollow? if it is you can splice the lines together - gives you a 100% join and you will never know its there. And if you want to get tricky you could use a nub knot inside the hollow line. If you dont have hollow line (and cant get any) PM me with your address and ill gladly send you enough Jerry Brown line to join your braid. BTW joining lines like this is really easy and is done almost the same way as making wind on leaders. ill try and post a few pics with instructions on how to do this a bit later. Evets

Pin the live bait through the shoulder near their head - but make sure that when you pin the bait that the kirb of the hook points up when the shank of the hook lies flat against the back of the livie. Otherwise the point of the hook will dig into the back of the livie and decrease your hook up rate. Huh??? put your hook on a flat surface like a table. Carefully look at it. For the hook to be pointing in the right direction, the point of the hook should either be flat against the table or pointing up (and not pointing down). So Before you pin the livie, check to see if the hook is pointing up when you lie the hook against the back of the fish. If it is its pointing down its the wrong way so you will need to turn the hook over. Rubber bands through the eye socket is best suited for trolling. Evets

Changing the tip to a roller is easy peasey. Just need to gently heat the tip with a lighter. After the glue softens up the tip should just slide off. While the glue is soft I use a rag to clean up the end of the rod itself. Go to your local tackle shop and get them to size a roller tip for you. It should have a little bit of movement so that the 24 hour epoxy isn't all pushed off the rod when you glue it on. Depending on the blank I sometimes lightly sand the blank where the tip goes to give it something to key into. Be careful to make sure the roller tip is aligned with the other guides. Be careful not to heat the tip too much because you can burn the blank and the fibres used in the blank can separate. I then bind on some decorative thread to match the other bindings and coat it with some rod building clear. Should only take 15 minutes to take it off,replace it, bind on the thread and put the clear on. As I say easy peasey. Steve

Jamesy, No problem attaching a treble (or a strong single) at the end and spinning with it. BTW when you attach the hanging style hook to the top of the jig instead of attaching it directly to the split ring, attach it to a solid ring first. That way the hook isnt pulling directly on the split ring where it may chafe and break or somehow manage to work it self through the split ring. Evets

I assume that you have checked for kinked hoses but have you checked for rubbish in the pump strainer ? What size hose are you using? Rule pumps need certain size hoses to work properly - yours needs at least 19mm to work properly. Does the pump work without the hose attached? Sometimes the pumps go bad and yours might be on its way out. If you have an air lock you can fix it by drilling a tiny hole in the hose at its highest point above the waterline (assuming its higher than the tank outlet). This will let the air out of the hose and stop the water from draining out once the pump is turned off. Do you have a non return valve? have you checked it ? Do you have an pictures? It might help diagnose the problem. Steve

I have a 1000 shimano soare matched up with a shimano ET 2-4 graphite rod ($60). I didn't like the feel of any of the rods you mentioned and liked the ET the most. The only problem was that the set up wasnt balanced - until I balanced it up by recessing and gluing a number 3 ball sinker into the end of the rod butt. Now it balances perfectly at the reel stem. I covered the end of the rod but with a piece of high density foam and sanded it down flush. Looks like it has always been there. :biggrin2: No reason why you couldnt balance up the rod by doing this. Evets

Good advice above. When I go squidding I look for lights and weed beds. I also burley up using a tin of homebrand cat food (sardines) punctured with 2 small holes and suspended in a net just below the waterline. Works a treat. Evets

The Cotter river is a good place to camp. Plenty of pansized trout around at the moment. Ginninderra falls is also pretty good as well. Has plenty of deep pools and big murray cod lurk there as well. Evets

Huckfin, I have had my best results in areas that have rocky bottoms and weeds nearby. Before I moved away, my favourite spot to go redfin fishing was under (and to either side) the bridge near the ANU rowing club. The bike path goes right past this spot so its an easy ride in (I used to ride there from Latham). Or you can park on the side of the road towards black mountain peninsula and walk in from there. I had great success around that area using Rebel wee crawdads (a hard body) especially when the barometer was rapidly dropping. Id walk right next to the lake with the lure about 3-4 meters behind me and "troll" up and down the concrete edge of the lake. The water is about 1.5-2 m deep and the redfin would hold hard against the wall. Otherwise I would stand facing towards the lake proper and cast into the lake. Id let the lure sit for a minute or so and slowly crank it in. The bottom there is pretty rocky (I know because Ive waded there) and the redfin love hiding in the crevasses and ambushing the lure. The other place Ive had a lot of success is the little bay around the water police station (not sure its still a police station) in Lake Ginninderra right next to the Belconnen Mall. Anyway the bay actually is a man made concrete wall in the shape of an L. There is a strip of rocky bottom that goes about 5 meters from the wall into the lake. Immediately beyond the rocky bottom is natural bottom were the weeds start to grow. In this strip of water you will find redfin. But this gem of a spot is at its very best just before a thunderstorm when it produces amazing yellowbelly fishing. Lures cast at a 45 degree angle in the first meter or so of the weeds (ie dont cast straight out in front of you but cast at an angle to your left or right ) and slowly retrieved will most likely produce the goods. My biggest yellow belly from there went just shy of 8kgs. Caught plenty up to 2 or 3 kgs as well. I only had one lure in my tacklebox to catch these fish. A rebel crawdad up to about 75 mm. Other yabbie imitations just didnt seem to cut the mustard. Evets

Its not the size of the wheel that determines the bearing size. Its the hub and the axle. One quick way of checking the hub is to measure from the centre of one wheel stud to the centre of the next. Ford hubs are 68mm from stud to stud Holden HT / Early Holden hubs are 65mm from stud to stud Holden HQ hubs are 72mm from stud to stud Another way to check is to look at the axle. Round 39 mm and square 40 mm axles usually use Holden bearings and 45 mm square axles usually use ford bearings. But the best way is to pull off the bearing and measure the diameter of the axle right next to the flat part of the axle. If it measures 31.7mm it uses holden bearings and if its 34.9mm then its a ford bearing. Evets Id bet they are Holden bearings.

Big Banana Your picture didnt work so we cant see what you posted. In any event you need to carefully re read my post. My first picture shows how to crimp a double sleeve - i just didnt have any to put in the picture. You may not have any problems in using a double sleeve in your live baiting - and maybe you never will. But there is a difference in they way the double copper crimps and aluminium swages work . Double sleeved copper crimps are used for multi stand wire because the crimp is softer than the wire. So when the sleeve is crimped the much stronger wire filaments indent the inside surface of the soft crimp. When crimping wire the crimp is crimped along the full length of the crimp. Mono swages are oval shaped and work by the swage uniformly crushing both the oval sleeve and the nylon. For this reason the swages used on nylon are usually considerably longer than those used to connect wire as they are based on friction. They should not be swaged right to the end of the swage either. Evets

Hmmmm.... not so sure that registering the trailer necessarily means that it is roadworthy... If the Boat and trailer weigh less than 750kgs then an RTA inspection is not required so payment of the rego doesn't mean its road worthy. If the boat and trailer weigh more than 750kgs then it must have brakes and must be inspected before registering it. I would also make sure that the boat has been boat coded (especially if its an older boat) You'll find it difficult to transfer the title and register the boat if it hasn't been boat coded. Oh also a good idea to do a REVS check on the boat and trailer. Aslo good idea to ask the seller to sign a letter (that you prepare) saying that he is the legal owner of the boat (put in description of the boat eg 4.2 m stessl runabout rego ABC 123 with 50 hp mercury motor serial number 123456789) and that he is selling the boat to you for $XXXX on 16/10/2010. Might save you a lot of heartache in the future . Steve

Zodiacer, Venture a little further south. You will love the shoalhaven river. Catch a few poddie mullet and go and catch yourself some biiig flathead. Evets

Hi Superfish, Double copper crimps are for wire only. Why? A crimp is for wire only as when you compress the crimp mono can be damaged - so use wire only. For mono you need to use an aluminium sleeve and swage it on. That will not damage the mono. A crimping tool looks like this and to correctly crimp the copper crimp put it like this (I dont have any so I put an aluminium sleeve here instead) A swaging tool looks like this Note the direction of the sleeve in the teeth of the swaging tool. Don't put the sleeve in at 90 degrees to this and when you swage the sleeve dont swage it right at the end of the sleeve. Leave a leave a 1.5mm or so space towards the outside of the swage so that it flares out a little bit after it is compressed - like this

x 2 with the handline

Zephi When you swapped over some of the drag with another did you replace the whole stack? Or just a few? Your post said that you'd swap a few over. Id give all of the drag surfaces a really good clean. The black "washers" may have a small amount of grease on them and the grease has broken down which is making the whole stack stick together. Or they may have worn either way they need to be cleaned really well. In fact Id clean the entire drag stack, inside of the spool, drag knob and the shaft they all go onto. Id use something like turps for the spool and drag stack. The other thing I can think of is that the metal washers may not be completely flat. When they are made they are stamped out of large sheet of metal. Sometimes they aren't quite perfect. With a bit of wear they can catch and stick to each other. To check the flatness you need to get a permanent texta and colour in one side of the metal washers. Id then get some fine wet and dry sand paper and put it on a glass table. Put the washer texta side down on the wet and dry and rub it gently for about 30 seconds. Turn it over and have a look to see of the texta has worn away evenly. If it hasnt then there are low/high spots on the metal washer. These need to be fixed by either rubbing them down as described or replacing them with new ones. Dont forget to do both sides of the washer as well. Evets BTW: When you replace the stack put a tiny amount of grease on both sides of the black washers. When your carbon fibre washers arrive rub the grease into them and wipe 99.0% of it off as per Alan Tanis wise counsel. Too much grease will stop the stack from spinning properly.

Grug A wind on leader is a way of joining your leader to your double in such as way that you don't need to use a swivel. The join has a very small profile and is ultra ultra strong. Google it and you'll see a plethora of ways to make them and use them. Or you could buy some from the site sponsors. Nothing wrong with using a swivel but I prefer not to. If you do use one then I wouldn't tie the balloon to it. Some where near the swivel would be best. Steve

Hi Grug When I live bait off the rocks I use a number 16 rubber band to attach my balloon to my main line. I wrap the lack band around my main line about 8 or so times and put the tag end through the other end of the band. I snug it up and then tie the balloon to the band. I don't need a stopper and can pretty much tie the balloon where ever I want. When a fish strikes the band breaks and I fight the fish normally. I reckon this is the best way of doing it. I've use lighter line attached to the swivel and balloon but it always seemed to tangle with my main line. I use a wind on leader usually around 2.5m or so and a double that at least lets me get a few wraps of it on the reel while the fish is still in the water. Steve

So how does one know which type of LD reel keeps the water out/in while in freespool ? What exactly do you look for to determine this ? Evets

Nsaykali, The relevant section of the Marine Safety Act can be found Here. You can go to court an explain your side of the story in that it would have been dangerous to travel any slower, you were in a an unfamiliar area and the weather made it difficult to control the boat. Have some evidence from the bureau of meteorology to support this. With this type of submission the magistrate will hopefully use some common scene and dismiss the charge. If s/he doesn't then you can make a section 10 (of the Crimes (Sentencing Procedure) Act 1999) submission to the magistrate inviting him to make a finding of guilt but with no convection. There are other sections of the act that you could use to bolster your submission but I think that you get the gist of what I'm saying. If it was me, I would definitely contest it, but then again I do legal stuff for a living. Evets

Hi Slinky, Interesting post. Just wondering would the above hold true if you dropped a reel into fresh water ? Presumably the bearings will still start to rust albeit less aggressively and over a longer period of time ? Should I not hose down my reels after each salt water trip because the culmination of fresh water hose downs may damage the reel internals (especially the bearings) ? :wacko: Evets

Hey Vladimir, Interesting mould. Have you made any sinkers as yet? Any problems with air bubbles/voids in the finished product> Id love to see how they turn out. Nice touch putting "take away food" as a feature in the mould as well. Steve BTW- What is the mould made out of?

Hi Victor, The wind on leaders are simply a loop of dacron and a length of leader (mono or flurocarbon) joined together - so they last the same as any other leader. It just removes the swivel or ring connection between your leader and main line. The best way to join the wind on leader to your double is with a cats paw (or one of its variants). Its a bit hard to explain how tie it but if you do google search youll get heaps of hits showing how its done. Should only take 10 seconds or so do a cats paw. Evets