Captain Spanner

As mentioned you can send one down with a sinker and you can also send one out on a balloon if there is a bit of wind and that can help hold him out of the way. Unless he is strong enough to tow the balloon around in the wind.

The tide is often about an hour later at Oatley, so about 5:30pm if it's a 4:30pm fort denison tide. I think the tide will already be pretty low at 3:30. When you get super low tides at Oatley you have to be careful not to drop the trailer off the end of the ramp. The end of the ramp is approximately in line with the first post that is in the corner of the pontoon, possibly a bit before. If the water is anywhere near this level it would pay to have someone CAREFULLY wade in on the VERY SLIPPERY ramp to check you have the depth and where the end is. The angle of the ramp becomes shallower down towards this bottom end too. Good Luck

I have a Crystal Blue 7ft 6-10kg with a 6500 Baitrunner which i like. I also have a 7'6" 6-10kg ugly stick with a 6500 baitrunner which a like. the Crystal Blue has a lighter tip whoch can be good for the jewies but still has balls down low. The Ugly Stick feels stiffer all the way through so it depends what you are after. Both would be within your budget. Sorry i dont have more time for research right now but type in "king" or "jew" into the search function in tackle talk and you should find a few previous threads on this. Also open any thread that is related to similar sized reels that you are using.

The first trick i try is coarse language. If that doesn't work i burley in close like the boys have said put on a little more lead and try to cast out to the back of the school. You can also fish a sabiki rig with a 1oz sinker, cast it past the school and bring it back underneath them, sometimes the yakkas will sit under the sweep.

Thanks for your help guys, I'll let him know and tell you how our progress goes.

Hey guys im hoping that some of the Beach and Rock Guys can give me some help on this. One of my good fishing mates asked me to do some research for his new Beach/Rock Rods for Christmas. His first priority is a Solid Beach/Rock Rod for Jews to match with probably his 6500 baitrunner or possibly his 14000 Saragossa if required and he is hoping for one that can handle larger fish, cast bigger baits that he is hoping to encounter when he heads up the north coast of NSW. He'll mostly be fishing off beaches but occasionally breakwalls. He is also after a bit lighter spin stick for off the beach and rocks for his 4000 stradic for salmon and tailor. His budget is pretty much $400 for the both rods but doesn't necessarily have to be $200 on each. At the moment I think he will only be using these rods on the couple of holidays he goes on each year as he mostly fishes out of a boat. But i wont be surprised if he ends up doing more beach rock stuff once he gets his rods. Any advice on this would be great thanks guys. Feel free to PM me if you dont feel comfortable posting replies.

Without looking it up my guess would be an estuary catfish and i think they are meant to be able to give you a pretty nasty sting with their spines.

I use those cleats from the tackle shop fitted to a pair of Volleys and they work ok. I pulled theinsole out and punched holes in the soles then bolted through then replaced the insoles. I didn't rinse the bolts after the first use and the corrosion did the arildite's job. I'm sure the bolts wont last forever but they seem fine now after a couple of years and i'll just replace bolts as required when they begin to look/feel a worry. I was told by a more experienced rock fisho that when you fish rocks that have lots of little cracks or knobs that your cleats can get caught in or catch on and trip you over it is safer to use thick soled sandles or shoes with tech screws or self tappers in the bottom. I dont have a pair of the 2nd ones as i dont do alot of rock fishing on those type of rocks but it made sense to me. If the teeth wear off the cleat style ones you can file the teeth back in of you're keen. Take the time to think about where the cleats will be under your foot for comfort/effectiveness before installing. Volleys are good because they are still light when wet and dry quick

Sometimes other boats run over your floats/ropes because they dont see them/know/care what they are, causing the float to sink, rope to snap or trap to go for a ride as far as it remains tangled to the boat/prop. If you have 40m of rope out in 5m of water your float could be anywhere within 60-70m of where you think you left it. It also allows the float to possibly drift into the channel and be run over. Your rope only needs to be a few metres (if that) longer than the water depth to allow for a bit of current and change in tide towing your trap away. Traps do unfortunately sometimes get stolen if you leave them and travel well out of sight.

I haven't been down there for a while but there used to be Floats/Buoys around behind the southeast corner of the bommie on the natural south head (not the breakwall) of the Harbour that used to hold livies. Just be careful not to cut the corner driving there unless your boat has a good pair of shoes to walk itself back off the bommie. We used to leave the boat running when in that close to the rocks for safety reasons.

If you were super keen you could buy a shark shield for between $600 and $700 but you would probably need 1 each because the range of the electric field wouldn't quite be effective at both ends of a 6m net. Or i suppose you could have a 3rd guy wearing it halfway between the 2 guys carrying the net and hope the field reached the ends of the net. You can google shark shield if you want to see what they are about and watch some videos about them. I've never used one but i've heard good things about them. I think getting a shark shield just to go prawning may be getting a little extreme but i know some guys will have a crack at anything so it's just another idea.

I have a Jig wrex 526 (not one of the new ones) with a 14000 with 80lb braid and think it works well. My mate has a 508 and i think it feels too stiff for jigs under 300g to be able to make the action feel nice. The 508 does have larger guides than the 526 but i haven't had any leader knot problems with the 526 using 80lb leaders with a mid-knot I have another friend who uses a T-curve Deep Jig 400 and that has the power while still giving a nice action to the Jig. The T-curve has a thicker fore-grip and slightly shorter butt than the Jig wrex but that stuff is up to personal feel. These rods should come within or close to budget. I haven't used any other brand jig rods.

The Silstar Crystal Blues come in a nice 7 foot, 6-10kg which i fish up to 30lb fireline through. They also come in 10-15kg and i think 5-8kg. Ugly stick also make several nice rods in the 6-10kg bracket and i think that the US made ones are meant to be better. I only have 1 and its a US made 7'6" 6-10kg that i fish a 6500 with anywhere from 20lb mono to 50lb braid. I have used and been happy with fireline in 15lb and 30lb, Suffix in 20lb and 50lb and millenium braid (i think it's Platil) in 15lb. If you search through the Tackle Talk section which this is in already and look for posts about 6500 baitrunners, Kingie and Jewie outfits and rods you should find more suggestions that people have already made. Good Luck

That rod sounds comfortable for what you are doing but you may get smoked by larger fish. I haven't fished Longreef but if i was going and i could only take a pocketful of tackle it would be in decreasing order of importance 40b 25lb and 10lb fluoro, 6 inch and 9 inch sluggos (or similar soft stick bait) in white (2nd choice pink) with a few different jig heads and especially unweighted offset worm hooks designed for stick baits, chromies from 10 to 40gms, a couple of different sized poppers, a couple of x-raps. If you take any bait i'd make it fresh squid. Good luck

We often catch similar sized Kingies around the national park and sometimes up to 90cm and also alot of salmon as bycatch. We occasionally get smoked on the same squid and yakka baits as the smaller fish take but haven't landed any BIG kings. We often put out a large live slimy or sometimes live bonito which normally survive the rats and salmon but haven't got a BIG one yet. I know this isn't a success story but thats what we do in hope of the big one. I'm hoping it's just a matter of time. I know on some days my dads mates have caught the larger kings on big poppers when the rats were pinching all the livies but i think that's another right place right time story. Hope this can help you a little.

DOWNRIGGERS The first thing you will need is somewhere sturdy on the boat to mount the Downrigger that is in a managable location and not going to get in the road of driving. There are alot of different arrangements that you can purchase, make, modify to get your downrigger mounted where you want it. You will also need a sturdy rod holder as most of the plastic rod holders that come mounted on the downriggers are not up to the task of kingfish. Without seeing your boat it's difficult for people to give you advice on how to set it up so you might want to think about posting some pics. I would guess that you may need to mount it on the back board/transom near the motor. If you mount it here you need to have a long enough boom (the arm of the downrigger) to keep the cable away from the prop. either behind or mounted sideways and reach over the side. The over the side method will be easier for you to reattach the line to the release clip when you are setting each bait up. You can get swivel mounts for your downrigger so you can rotate them as required. Some brands come standard with a swivel mount and others are an extra. There are also safety issues with the downrigger bomb getting stuck on the bottom or a mooring and ripping the downrigger/back of your boat off if you dont have the drag system/clutch set properly on the downrigger or have a sacrificial weak link in the system that can break so you dont destroy your downrigger or boat. I'd reccomend shopping around for the most appropriate and best priced downrigger for your situation and not rushing into something just for this saturday. Make sure you checkout both Aussie made and overseas made Downriggers if you have a tight budget before making a decision. Think about ease of use as well as price. SATURDAY To keep you occupied this Saturday you can try the poor mans down rigger that i used for ages and i use when fishing mates boats that dont have downriggers. I fish with a running sinker clip above a 2 to 3m leader. I attach a snapper lead (ranging from 1oz to 12 oz depending on depth, current etc) to a swivel with line alot weaker than your main line and clip the other end on the swivel onto the running sinker clip. This way in the case of a big fish or snag the sinker can break away and you hopefully keep your rig and bait. Some guys use rubber bands instead of the weak line, swivel or sinker clip. You can run baits at different depths with different weights. I troll at up to about 2 knots (walking pace). You can use a bigger lead to keep the bait down while you are moving with a bit of pace, but if you slow down or turn it may sink and snag easily depending on how much line you have out so be careful. As an alternative to this you could use a smaller lead or small torpedo, bean or ball sinker and troll along slowly and when you get a touch or see fish down deeper on the sounder slow down and let the bait sink through the school. These methods are most commonly done using live or fresh squid and livies. If you run 2 rods i'd run an unweighted livie on one and about a 4oz sinker with a live or fresh squid or squid strip to get you started on the deeper rod. Good Luck

I'm no expert but a few things i've noticed are: Might have the "Zoom" or "Bottom Zoom" or "Range" setting on. It doesn't sound like you have "Bottom Lock" on but maybe have a look through your settings. With some sounders if you hold down Power for an extended period (may only be a few seconds) to turn it on then it goes straight into demo mode. My old Hummingbird does this. With some other brands you set it to demo in the settings once its on. Good Luck

Myself and my mates have 14000s on a range of rods: Jig Wrex 526 and 508 and T-curve Deep jig 400 and 500. I have a 526 and my other favourite was the 400. Most of us fish 80lb braid but one fishes 50lb and another 130lb with the strength to back it. All 5 of us went on a trip out of shoalhaven a couple of months ago and we caught about 20 kings between 4 and 6kg in a few hours jigging in over 100m of water and everyone loved their setups and had no problems with any of the rods or reels. They were comfortable enough to jig with for the 5 odd hours we jigged that day and the speed,power and gearing of the reels were great. I took mine to fiji and the drag had no probs with dollies and wahoo up to about 8kg (that's all we caught). I now use mine for downrigging and trolling livies in Sydney and it does that job well too. I would recommend one. I would have got an 18000 if they had them available when i bought mine but. Same reel as the 14000 but it has a little more line capacity. If you follow back Framedtrash's posts when he was doing his research there should be a few other guys opinions in there too. http://fishraider.com.au/Invision/index.php?showtopic=44166 http://fishraider.com.au/Invision/index.php?showtopic=44439 Good Luck.

Yeah, I did get your PM thanks Ray and you were very quick to reply too which was great. I thought you said you were unsure of the Pelican Itch/Sea Lice Business because you wear waders now (which we wont have) so i thought i'd just put it out there incase anyone else knew. If someone says that it is there and real bad i might reconsider and i'd say the girls wont come but otherwise im going to give it a crack.

Does anyone know if Terrigal or Avoca Lagoons are open to the ocean at the moment and if there is any problem with Pelican Itch or Sea Lice in them. Im possibly going to give the prawns a go up there tonight.

They sit nicer on a turned back eye like an Octopus hook which is what i use on my jewie rigs but they also work on straight hooks like livebait hooks as i use in my Kingie rigs. I use the straight livebait hooks for kings so the bait doesn't spin when downrigging. I always push the mainline line through the eye from the hook point side when threading on the livebait hooks so when it slides down to the bottom hook the twisting pressure doesn't turn the hook backwards. I also put a lumo bead between the 2 livebait hooks on a 2 hook slider rig so the top hook doesn't crush or wear the uni knot on my bottom hook. I also use lighter line (say 40lb on a 60lb leader or 60lb on an 80lb leader) to tie the slider on so that if one of the lines is going to burn through it is hopefully going to be the slider line. i have had those slider knots burn the line and cut the bottom hook off before when hooking kings and its a hard fast take yet i continue to use sliders because i like being able to adjust the gap between my hooks for better presentation. some guys use a little piece of rubber or plastic tubing as a sleeve to protect the leader from this burning cutting problem im talking about. Good Luck

That's pretty cool. On the south coast of NSW pulling a livie that guy could have just as easily had a 3m Mako jump on that bait, and then possibly on the Yak. That would have made for interesting viewing. Can't wait to see more from those guys. There is a link to a hammerhead one as well.

My mate filled my 14000 and his off his bulk spool of 80lb whiplash and reckons they took about 300m each with just a few wraps of mono underneath to so the line doesn't slip on the spool. You could try contacting the companies ie shimano and a daiwa rep, that import/service the reels in aus and ask them if they will warranty the imported reels.

Myself and a couple of mates have Saragossa 14000s with 80 and 50lb braid on 526, 508 Jig wrex's and they seem to be work well so far. I wanted the 18000 but they didn't have one in stock when i got my setup. I think the only difference betweent the 14000 and 18000 is a little bit of line capacity.

Framedtrash, I'm not speaking from experience but i would imagine if a Maritime or Water Police Officer asked to see your whistle and you held up your finger it may result in a fine. Which is silly because it would hopefully be alot harder to lose or drop your finger overboard wouldn't it.