Captain Spanner

If the question is which lures give you the best chance of catching a kingfish in the hacking for your 7 Y/O daughter in your tinny I would say have three rods rigged. Rod number one. A 6" sluggo (probably white or similar) rigged on an offset worm hook like they are designed for. Probably run a small cone sinker right down on the hook or no sinker at all. Rod number two. A deep diver in the 8-15cm size range that dives a couple of metres and can have a good action fast or slow. Rod three. A chrome lure like a Raider or Sniper in the 10-40 gram range depending on the size of any visible bait that is around. If you cant see any bait start with a 10 or 15 gram. If you can handle trolling three then that is great. Otherwise just troll two. Have the sluggo right out the back and have the diver closest to the boat. You would have the chromie somewhere in between if you have three. Make sure you have a swivel on or above the chromie. A speed of 3-4 knots should see these guys generally get along depending on the diver. If you get a strike leave the sluggo out to sink down but itself, another fish will often grab it. Troll around the points, drop offs and moored boats in the bays. The drop and moorings around Lilli Pill baths would be a reasonable place to start. The moorings around Yowie Bay also will have fish from time to time. I think generally the kings do hot laps of these places looking for baitfish and squid and if you cross their path with the right size lure then you're in with a shot. An alternative method would be slow trolling a livie on one rod and a fresh or live squid or fresh squid strip on the other rod. Squid with sinker 1.5-2m above the bait, and livie unweighted. Try this around the same locations as mentioned above. These methods should put you in with a shot at bycatch of tailor, salmon, frigates and in season also bonito and mac tuna. If you troll the chromies on spin reels with mono be prepared for twisted line and tangles.

I guess it depends how much time you have available to stray from your path to work. I dont fish the harbour/parra river much at all but i would imagine Rhodes is a bit far up for squid. Maybe bream, Flathead, Jewies? I would imagine you wouldn't want to fish around Brooklyn and then try to drive to work in traffic, that would negate leaving early.

Check your PMs

Over the years i have had a number of reels go to shimano for warranty things and have sent many reels to them for service/repair. I have never had anything but great experiences with their service and customer service and it is extremely unlikely i will buy any other brand reel again (except Alvey but that's not the same). I have always been honest with them and never been refused warranty or even questioned over anything. I have TLDs and little aerocasts and that are 25 years old and stradics that are 15 years old that are still great. Sometimes i send them in for a service and sometimes i look up the schematic, write down the part numbers and then ring them up and they post them out, they often put them in the mail that afternoon. The last time i got reel serviced there (March) i dropped them in at about lunchtime and they rang me at 11am the next day and told me they were ready for pickup.

I think this (line stretch) is also part of it. I think when we all use to fish mono right through, a big part of the big strike to set the hook is to max out the stretch in the line as quickly as possible to apply the pressure to drive the hook in. This is not as necessary with braid as the distance the line stretches before it hits the limit and tranfers to the hook is signigicanlty less as you only have about 2-4m of flurocarbon stretching and not 15m to possibly 100m of line (beach and boat fishing).

The bream guys might use light lines in many situations, but they still go as hard and fast as they can on the fish. The original post and comparison was always about their technique, never about their line. You would have seen the old guys surf blackfish across the surface over the years, they just have a long rod and hold the fishes head above the water so it can't dive and swim. usually on light line too, you've probably done it yourself. Similar situation for squid if you can get them up on the top so they can't get a grip. I agree most of the motivation for the US Bass guys carry on in their videos is theatre but it is not the only reason for their technique. They often need heavy lines to cope with the pressure from the weed and also abrasion on the timber.

I've heard that they have very hard mouths so that's why they fish with fast stiff rods, to set the hook. I would imagine that fishing in lakes with that much weed and timber you would need to have the thing come in a straight line to the boat as fast as possible because any sideways swimming will instantly collect heaps of weed on the line and find timber. I think the American fashion of Bigger, Faster, Better is also be involved in the equation and makes it exciting. Our bream tournament guys go pretty hard and fast to keep the fish's head pointing towards the boat from the hookset too. This would not be a coincidence seeing the fashion in the bream tournament scene is mostly derived from the US Bass scene. If the aim is to get the fish in the boat and not have fun taking your time and playing it then i think their method is the most efficient for it's purpose. We do a similar thing downrigging for kings in shallow water with gnarly structure. Heavy braid, heavy drag and drive the boat as fast as you can towards safe water. We don't strike but, we just wind the handle with the rod held at 45degrees to set the hook if required.

If you put some photos up here there are probably a few guys that can help. Alveys don't have many parts to them and are pretty simple in concept.. If that fails there is a pretty keen Alvey Facebook page. I'm pretty sure you can still get spare parts mailed to you from Alvey if any bits need replacing.

What rods and reels are you thinking about? Chances are that someone on here has owned or used them.

I don't know anything about your model but do you have to turn on Fish 'n Chip to get the high res contours? I sometimes have to with my HDS 5 gen 1 and my mate has to with his Simrad NSS12 evo2.

While it is not covered under warranty for a number of reasons including that you opened it, I would think that if you sent it into Shimano they could service/repair it and get it back to life. You will probably pay a service fee ($30 per spinning reel?) plus parts which are not normally that much unless you are buying a replacement spool. Since you already have the thing in 1000 pieces and seem that way inclined you could probably look up all of the part numbers of the dead bits from the schematic diagram and try to fix it yourself. I do this if i have several reels with small things to replace (eg line rollers, washers, simple stuff in older reels). They normally post the stuff out pretty quickly. Just call them and have the part numbers ready.

They look great. Can you please PM me details of what/where/how much and if you had to fit new pedestal bases or if you can use existing ones. Can you just buy the shock pole and fit your own seats or do you have to get the whole package? Also, what is the height like? Adjustable? Thanks

Over the years we have used strips of white plastic shopping bag, cut little pieces of rag (sometimes with a spray of egimax or dash of tuna oil) and often cut up pieces of dead Gulp lures. I used to use paternoster style rigs made of wire with small long shank hooks. I would use at least a 6oz sinker so it would sink fast and the jackets would get hooked by the sinker as they tried to eat the bait on it's way down. So as soon as you knew your bait had gone through the school you'd close the bail or engage the reel and start winding up with fish already on. You can also put a hook right on the sinker.

I'm not sure if the marks are stored in an account or on the device. I would think you would have to set up an account to have them stored on that and then your marks become public. I wouldn't be surprised if when you backed up your phone it stored the data within the apps to the backup on your computer and if you restored your old phone backup from the computer onto your new phone, if the marks at the time of the last backup were restored onto the phone. Similar to your contacts list and other stuff. This might not be the case or it might depend on your model phone and your settings but it would be worth a shot

Are you wanting to buy it after hours tonight or is this for future planning? I buy the frozen bait i want from the bait shop and keep it in my freezer at home. I keep it in big snaplock bags those Sistema Clip Seal containers to manage smell and a little bit drying out. To avoid prawn heads and fins poking holes in plastic bags. Then when i go fishing i take what i need for the session in a little clip lock container that i can put in the esky without worrying about a prawn head/pilchard tail spiking a hole in a plastic bag and bait juicing everything in my esky.

I can't remember the times, but what are you wanting to fish for? There aren't many gutters there for general beach fishing because of the Merries Reefs. You will still get bream and whiting but you'd probably be better at green hills where there is more wave action. Fishing off the rock ledge at the front is a bit tricky too as the shallow kelp goes out for a bit and the waves wash straight onto the ledge and it is also not a real fishy bottom in front. Boat Harbour itself might have schools of fish pass through but it's relatively featureless. For beach fishing you are probably better off where there is more wave action at green hills, for rock fishing you are probably better off on the frontline out towards point potter, cape solander area or around kurnell. If your priority is a nice protected place where you can fish near the car and go for a drive along the sand then boat harbour would be good for this

I heard it was a random free jumper. I think they were on their way home. I've been hit by mullet and flying fish before but this is next level.

I haven't but there are Facebook pages dedicated to this. It's big in the States for shark fishing off the beach. There are specialised components for it.

As with many of the NSW coastal bars, it can get short and sharp with a Nor'Easter blowing into a Runout tide, especially the second half of the run out. There is alot of water that moves through there. I remember coming back in one night in a tinny. There was no swell or wind but because the tide was running out so hard it made it very difficult and slow to make forward progress. Where your jackets.

If you use a bridle setup on your anchor then you will swing less and have alot more control over the direction you boat is facing. This goes for anytime you are anchored. Keep in mind that the safest direction to anchor is bow into the sea/swell. Do not bridle your boat so that the swell is coming onto the side or transom, this is very dangerous, one wave over the back and everyone will have wet ugg boots.

I'm not sure what size/weight lures you are intending on casting but that model seems to be spec'd for 90-230gram which is a pretty heavy cast weight range, meaning it will probably be very stiff for smaller/lighter lures. I think that sounds pretty heavy to be using for snapper. if you go a bit lighter in cast weight you will probably have a rod that is alot more versatile, it just wont be able to throw the monster poppers as far. For context the 195mm Halco Rooster Haymaker (the big popper) is 117grams. You may need a stiff rod to work some of the very aggressive cup faced poppers but once again having a rod that specifically copes with this application will limit it's versatility for stickbaits and plastics.

I use a mix of normal octopus hooks and octopus circle hooks, rod in holder, reel in drag in the boat. I try to fish rod in hand on the beach but often i have to leave it in the holder to help whichever mate i've taken fishing or I might have a second rod out with a bigger or different bait that might sit between me and my mate. I fish octopus circles when the rod is in the holder on the beach because i think they set better when in the holder by themselves than a standard octopus. When 100% fishing rod in hand off the beach i sometimes use non-offset J hooks like Inline Octopus Hooks , livebait hooks etc. One of my mates likes to use Gamakatsu SL12s off the beach for jewies and they do well on all fish. He fishes maximum 30lb leader so he's not at as much risk of straightening them as I would be. If you are fishing a two hook snell you can fish a circle on the top hook and a J hook on the bottom, we often do that. I think a J hook is much better for catching the Tailor you often get fishing for Jewies, which are great for bait, or food if you like them and they are big.

Have you tried making ice slurries in buckets/tubs for snap freezing? I haven't done it with a pre-chilled one yet but whenever ive tried to freeze tubs of saltwater in the past it takes about a week. How thick is your steel plate to be effective? Does it have to be like a thick cast iron BBQ plate? Have you tried it for bait yet? Do the snap lock bags freeze to it or are you able to dry the plate and bags enough that they don't?

Be mindful that Daiwa's sizing (eg 3500, 4500, 6500) is different to Shimano's sizing. So a Daiwa 4500 is not necessarily mid between a Shimano 4000 and 5000, It is Probably bigger, like a 6000. In most of the Shimano reels the 4000 and 5000 are often the same size body however the 5000 will probably have a deeper spool for more line capacity and might have a different gear ratio and possibly a slightly bigger handle/handle knob. Similar deal with 2500/3000 reels and 6000/8000/10000 reels in some models. I'd probably run a 5000 on the beach on a 12' 6-15kg rod for what you want. The Shimano Aerowave Graphite rods are fantastic value for money, If the Prevails are on special they are a similar deal.

I have the Sunbeam Vac Sealer and while it is good it does require you to buy bags, does get messy during use and require cleaning, still leaves some air in it and if you are using it for bait then you need to take a snaplock bag on the boat with you to put it in the second you cut it open to use it. So i have gone back to using the method you describe above with the snaplock bags. I like the Hercules Brand ones with the double zip. They are tough and have a good seal. If catching squid for bait i bag them on the boat using the bait tank full of salt water to push the air out, then put the bags in the clean esky that is full of frozen bottles. When i go fishing i throw the sealed bag in the bucket of water to thaw so the squid/fish isn't getting soaked while it thaws. Same for fillets for wating, I thaw them still in the sealed bag in a saucepan of cold tap water too (you need to put a weight on them to hold them under because they float), change the water when it gets too cold to maintain efficiency of thawing. When thawed, remove from bag and wipe slime off with clean, dry paper towel.