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Sounds like me with Salmon. Whenever I fish landbased, I seem them 40-50 meters out of casting range. Whenever I fish off the boat, they're no where to be seen XD

Cheers guys, hopefully will have more success to report in the future. Funny thing is I've always been told to fish for bream on a high tide, and the first time I get one was on a low.

I read this in the morning and though "Nah, I'll be right". Never have I been more wrong. Couldn't cast anything with the wind, and pulled up something between 0 and no fish.

Oh I know, I just really want to avoid doing that since I should be saving up for other important things I almost cry every time I walk out of a fishing store and look at the bottom line on the receipt.

I've been going out every weekend since the social trying to put plastics to the test, and yesterday I finally had some success! Launched off at Gray's Point at around 1pm, right around low tide, and went towards lilli pilli. Put on a z-man 2.5" grub in the motor-oil on a 1/16th head on some 4lb fluoro leader, and rubbed it all with some s-factor. Cast near the shore, jerked, LONG pause and then BANG. Nothing huge by the standards I've seen here, but this is my first legal fish on plastics so I'm pretty happy. Also accidentally caught this Trevally on a Sabiki rig with the tiniest bit of prawn on one of the hooks. Was a fun fight since that reel is half broken, but it came out at 31cm so it went on the table. Good to finally pick-up some legal fish (though the rest of the day's catch was frustrating little pinkies), hopefully will go out again in this morning's high tide to try and pick up another few to feed the family tonight.

Alright, so I'll probably invest into a second reel in the near future. For now, this rod will just have to serve as my bait rod. I usually drift, so casting distance shouldn't be an issue. Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk

Is it just the harbour where they hang around, or do you reckon they'll hold in botany too?

Water temp looks like it's dropped quite a bit now. Was out on the hacking today and didn't see it go above 18 degrees.

Thanks for the replies guys. I just ask because I want to spool up my reel with some heavier braid to go out to the fads with a mate, but I still want to use that same reel and line, with a lighter leader in the estuaries. If the only effects are how much line you can fit and casting distance, then it doesn't sound like it should effect strike rates? Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk

Does the gauge of your main line matter if you use a long enough leader? Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk

Yeh of course, that's fine. I think most people do that. But I had one guy who started to hand wash his boat (and it was a big boat) AFTER he had finished flushing the motor. Do you know what other ramps have wash facilities? Grays point is the only one I know that works, the one at GRNP is also broken.... Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk

Some people do, others bring out a bucket of soapy water and spend 40 minutes washing everything down. Thanks for chasing this up though! Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk

Can you catch salmon, Bonito etc. Inside? If not, does anything fire up in winter in the estuaries? Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk

Those are the characteristics of it, and a perceived benefit. Given their function is to catch squid, a benefit would be catching more squid. Maybe I'll do a study into fishing techniques for my thesis

But that's what I'd like to find out. Are those "benefits" actual benefits, or simply perceived benefits from the point of the fisherman. I'd perform this experiment myself, but I've never caught squid, so too many variables

For those of you that have such an extensive collection of jigs, have you ever tried to go back and use a $2.50 jig from k-mart or Big W? I'm just wondering what the difference in strikes, hook-ups etc would be between them.

That's a nice looking lot of trevally mate. I've caught one around 40cm near Tom Ugly so I'm sure the big ones are out there. Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk

Thanks for all the responses guys, good to know that I can still target small kingies on this, as well as Salmon in the coming up months. Lots of research to be done now.

Hi all. I bought a 4-8kg ugly stik a couple of months ago, and haven't really used it much because I have no idea what to use it for. From my understanding this is probably too light for kingfish, and I prefer to use my lighter rods for flatties, bream and Whiting. So from your experience, what size rods would you use when targeting different species? Mark Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk

Still haven't had a chance to pick up some lighter jig-heads, but hopefully I'll find some time to go tackle shopping this week. I can only imagine the pain of hooking a perfect fish, only for it to be on the wrong rig :/ Off the beach? Thanks mate, I definitely will. The keeper will come soon, I can feel it.

Wow those are enormous. Imagine the Kings you'd pull in on them Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk

Caught my first 2 fish on plastics today Admittedly they were both undersized pinkies and I wasn't even holding the rod at the time, it's still progress. Despite their reputation of being stupid easy to catch, ive caught less flathead than any other species.... Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk

Thanks for that write up Ian. I'll definitely get my hands on some lighter jig heads. I'll try and aim for high tide for the next few sessions, which will hopefully be very, very soon. Hopefully when I can take the boat out, I'll be able to cover much more ground and use lighter gear if I don't need to worry about casting. Mark Sent from my XT1033 using Tapatalk

After reading Stewie's post from a few years back on Chippo lakes, I thought I'd try to fish locally. Went out to Revesby ready to finally use all this SP gear I've been trying to put together since the SP day on Sunday. 8lb braid, 6lb fluoro leader, 1/8 Oz Jighead. Tried a 3" Gulp Minnow in a pumpkin seed and a 3" Shaky Shad in a smelt. Sadly, after sticking it out for 2 hours with nothing, my hands were numb and I lost motivation. The fellow next to me pulled out 2 nice looking Breams on some real heavy gear. He just baited up the rods, sat back and did nothing while the fish hooked themselves onto his heavy-ass mono with a fat sinker. One day I will master plastics, but not today....

Definitely keen to learn how to use plastics properly. Count me in.