Captain Spanner

To many people what you are saying sounds like a far fetched, paranoid conspiracy theory but I agree with you 100%. I have voiced this a few times and been told i'm ridiculous. The people campaigning against fishing are in for the long game and they aren't stupid (unfortunately). It is also only part of other agendas, we are just collateral damage in getting the vote of the uneducated that think rec fishing lockouts will save the cute little furry fishies, turtles, whales and the one grey nurse shark that hasn't left the rave cave yet because he has gone blind from the scuba dive camera flashes three sessions a day.

Works unlimited times on salmon. Take the hook out first.

Jon, I reckon talking about diving for crays and abs should be ok because it doesn't use a spear. Hopefully Admin agree but i'm sure they will weigh in soon if it's not. 7. No spearfishing or bow and arrow, shooting or crossbow posts or photographs at all

Will you have a boat?

I might be wrong but it was my understanding that the blackfish ate the weed because of all of the tiny little organisms that live in it and not for the weed itself. So using a clean dry vegetable from a garden might not be going down the right path. I think when the guys keep the weed they pad the water out of it with a towel or paper and place it betwene layers of newspaper in a cool dark spot under the house. I assumed this was to keep the little animals alive. Freezing ti would kill everything. If you put a good clump of the stringy weed on some news paper you will see all of the little lice and animals crawl out onto the paper.

If they want it they will get it but the idea is just to make it difficult for them to minimise convenience theft. If you cover it so people don't really know what type of boat is under there it would take more effort for someone to decide they want it too. The goose neck locks are a good start but if you can chain it through the frame of the trailer to something solid (with thick wire rope, not chain) and a serious lock it is better. A big block of concrete buried under the lawn with a ring set in it or something.

I think if the reels were good before the gears got sad and at the moment it is only the gears that are the problem then $50 per reel is pretty cheap to get a reel in new working order. If you continue to use them with something causing grinding or pressure in the gears then it is likely that the this will cause wear elsewhere in the reel and brake other things in time, as well as wearing out the gears as they grind on each other. Is $100 for both reels for them to fix them or just parts, you would have to check the website but i think it is about $20 per spin reel for them to service them (plus parts). So if it is $100 all up it is only costing you $30 per gear set and they will service the whole reel and sort out any other little niggles that might have occurred when you pulled it apart. I know it is annoying that it is costing you almost as much to fix them as it did to buy them essentially at the moment you have spent $160 on two reels that you cant use so you need to spend some money to get reels you can use. I think if you get them serviced/fixed for $100-$140 and have two good as new reels then that will be by far the cheapest option and then there is no reason they will not last as long as two brand new reels ($400-$600)

They might hold some form of luminosity like the lumo beads but it's not visible to me. I can only see it reflect the UV when I shine a UV light on it.

I think that green glow that you see that charges up with the light and even better with a UV torch is lumo material. The UV glow they will be talking about will be colours or materials that reflect UV light. If you shine one of those UV torches on one of those UV glow squid jigs, like the keimura style ones you will be able to see colours and patterns that you cannot see under normal light. I think the theory is that the UV light penetrates further into the water column (less effected by diffraction due to shorter wavelength) so it will still reach and reflect off the squid jig for the squid to see it (we assume that the fish and squid can easily see and like the UV light because we think the colours and technology look cool). I don't know what they can actually see or think but i do use them and they do catch squid. If you watch a video on it or look at some pictures you will see what i mean. Pakula uses this technology in some of his lures too and has some good pictures of UV stuff.

I think it is a little different to seat belts. I don't think wearing a seat belt increases someone's risk of injury. It would be like fining people for not wearing a seat belt while they are doing a river crossing in their 4WD. I think that wearing a PFD increases your risk of injury in some cases as i have mentioned in earlier replies. I don't think it is fair to increase one person's risk of injury to attempt to decrease someone else's, who might not even abide by the rule anyway. Noone is stopping you from wearing a lifejacket if you want to. Blast me for assumptions but I wouldn't be surprised if a significant number of the people dying rock fishing had no fishing license either (I have no stats on this), which would help show that they have little regard for the rules in general anyway.

I'm sorry to hear that Jon, I know the stupid rules already effect the poor kayakers pretty badly. I have been lucky enough so far to not have been that pumped with safety checks, they get annoying. I'm sorry to hear about your young friend. I keep 4 in date Inflatables for use, and 3 old bricks in the cabin (just in case) but i still have the 4 out of date inflatables in the cabin. I figured if we did end up having to go in the drink and had any available time then i would grab the bricks and the inflatables on the more buoyancy the merrier theory. Now i know they are fineable contraband i will remove them from the boat and we will have no reserve PFDs but at least i know my shed will float. Nice one Maritime. I think it is a similar story with the flares, I have been told by some officers in the past that i can keep the out of date ones on board and use them first as long as i have in date ones as well. I think these days you get in trouble for out of date flares too. I don't think the fine print on the details of the requirements (eg proof of purchase date for PFDs) is publicised well enough, there would be few guys as organised as you at having all of your stuff in order and you still get caught out by the rubbish bureaucracy. I have also heard the conspiracy theories about the lifejacket rule being pushed by the green tide as a stepping stone in fishing starting with banning rockfishing based on a safety concern. While it sounds far fetched to people that it doesn't effect i think it is not an unlikely theory, green people are extreme and do play the long game. But they will be hoping that the life jacket mandate doesn't decrease the death rate (in practice i don't think it will decrease much either because the people dying still wont wear them anyway, rules or no rules). They can then say that they tried to decrease deaths by making lifejackets compulsory and that didn't work so now the only option is to ban rock fishing to keep people safe.

Please don't take any of this to be argumentative or aggressive because it is not intended to be at all. I do sometimes just get a bit frustrated by this stuff. The gun example is a little different for various reasons as you have acknowledged. The people that I feel the most for in these situations is the emergency services that have to risk their lives to save/retrieve these people and also the victims families that have probably had no say in losing a loved one. I am definitely not unsympathetic to these effected groups and I do feel a level of guilt arguing against the compulsory jacket thing because it would make their lives easier. I don't have any statistics and I'm not going to pretend to. I am one of the people that just deals with the stupid rules and plays by them, including the stupid 4.7m boat one. Even without the statistics I agree with you that IF EVERYONE, including the people that the rules have been designed for actually wear the life jackets then the fatality rate would likely drop, primarily because the people that shouldn't be on the rocks, (or even in the bath), will float. I think the rate of minor and major injuries would increase. I agree that the people getting washed in should be wearing jackets but I don't think they will. I don't think the rule will stop people fishing in stupid locations and conditions which is the main problem. You will never be able legislate or engineer stupidity out of society. There will be an argument that it won't effect experienced guys because they won't fall in anyway so they should just shut up and wear their jacket. But that's not fair for the one time in thirty or forty years that they do lose their footing and get their arms and legs broken and the eye socket fractured when they would have otherwise probably only had a few cuts on their hands and legs. All to save a guy that won't wear a jacket anyway. And if the experienced guy thinks he would be better off with a jacket in the spot that he is fishing I bet he already wears one. I'm not sure which area you are from so i'lol throw a few out there. If you asked a few surfers at random at Sandon Point, Headlands, Cronulla Point, Shark Island, Cape Solander, Maroubra, Bondi, Fairy Bower, Freshwater, Curl Curl, Dee Why, Avalon, Avoca, Forresters beach if they had to jump if the rocks and swim to safety if they would prefer to be wearing a life jacket or not, or if they felt safer with or without a jacket I think you would struggle to find one that would put the jacket on. If you asked the same guys what wothey kid make them safer, most will say a wetsuit, some will say booties, some maybe flippers and some will say a helmet if it's pretty rough. If they have done any cray diving they might say gloves too. If they could only pick one thing they would probably all say wetsuit and a few might pick the helmet if it's super rough but that should t be part of the equation because they should t be fishing then anyway. On a reasonably calm day watch some guys spearfishing or cray diving close to the rocks and imagine what would happen to them if they were wearing a PFD instead of a weight belt. The important thing to remember here is that we aren't deciding between banning them OR making them compulsory. You are still allowed to wear them even if it's not compulsory.

I don't think that it should be compulsory to wear a PFD. I appreciate that a body floating wearing a lifejacket is a lot easier and safer for emergency services to retrieve but I don't think it increases the safety for all parties that it effects. I think that the life jackets unfairly remove some of the ability for experienced people to make their own decisions regarding their safety and put them at higher risk than they are without PFD. I do not think it is fair at all to place responsible and experienced people at higher risk than they need to be to protect a group of people who have negligently put themselves and others in situations that they should not be. I think primarily wearing a PFD when fishing off the rocks significantly increases the chances of emergency services finding your injured and unconscious or dead body, in the water near the rocks or nearby where the current has taken you. It also saves the time and risk associated in sending divers down to find and retrieve your body. Let's look at couple of scenarios and why the PFD helps the emergency services find and retrieve you each time. 1. You are not wearing a PFD, you are knocked off your feet by a wave, hit your head and are unconscious. The retreating water drags your injured body back across the rocks, further scratching it and breaking it on the way and you are sucked down into the drain/sink zone and possibly under the ledge or wherever the waves and current take you next. Emergency services have difficulty finding your body because it is under the water. 2. You are wearing a PFD, you are knocked off your feet by a wave, hit your head and are unconscious. The retreating water drags your injured body back across the rocks and you are sucked down into the sink zone. The PFD keeps you afloat in the drain/sink zone. The second, third and fourth wave smash you up the rocks and adding injuries including cuts and breaks on the way up and down each time. When there is a break in the waves or when emergency services get there they can retrieve your body. 3. You are wearing a PFD, you are knocked off your feet by a wave, may or may not hit your head but are conscious. The retreating water drags your injured body back across the rocks and you are sucked down into the sink zone. The PFD keeps you afloat in the drain/sink zone. The second, third and fourth wave (that you cannot dive under to save yourself) smash you up the rocks and continue to add injuries including cuts and breaks on the way up and down each time. If you didn't get knocked out on the first wave like in scenario 2 then your chances of that having happened by now are exponentially higher as the PFD keeps you in the danger zone for as long as possible while severely limiting your ability to take evasive action. When there is a break in the waves and someone can safely get to get to you or when emergency services get there it is easier for them to find and retrieve your body from the water near the rocks. 4. You are not wearing a PFD, you are knocked off your feet by a wave, you may or may not have hit your head but you are still conscious. You may or may not be experienced at rock fishing but you at least have some degree of self preservation so you keep your head safe, as you wash down into the water, you dive through the second, third and fourth waves in the set and swim away from the rocks to the safer deeper water. You then swim to your pre-determined safe exit spot when the timing of the waves allow. In this scenario emergency services will not find your body in the water or near the rocks because it got in the car and drove home to its family. Another important thing to remember is that just because PFDs are not mandated for rockfishing everywhere does not mean that people are not allowed to wear them if they think the situation is applicable for it. As with most of these Nanny rules, the people that the rules are designed to benefit won't abide by them anyway and the people that do follow the rules no matter how ridiculous they are, are the ones that are negatively impacted for no benefit. I'm not anti compulsory PFD in general but i do think that people should be able to make their own decisions. Similarly with the boat length 4.8m and under rule in open water or at night. At least have the rule (only compulsory when under way). If i take less experienced friends beach fishing and they want to wear my waders to stay warm i take a manual inflatable PFD for them (sometimes also a glow stick ready to snap at night). Similarly a PFD for them fishing a breakwall entrance at night on a run out tide.

We used to stay down there for the last two weeks of january every year since i was a kid, but only a few times in teh last 10 years. It is best with a boat and you target the drop offs on the edge of the main channels. Plastics, live poddies and live nippers are the best. The main spot that they fish for the big ones is called "The Steps"and it is basically where the tidal river part meets the main lake. It drops from a big sand bank a metre or so deep into a couple of metres deep and then down to maybe 5-8m or something depending where you are. You also get them at high tide up on the sand flats that hold all of the yabbies. You can use poppers, plastics or also hard bodies that dig up all the sand with their bib. If the river is open to the ocean the water will be cleaner and cooler on the run in and dirtier and colder on the run out. There aren't any magic spots sorry, just keep moving until you find some fish. You will also get big ones up in the lake on drop offs but you will have to cover a lot of ground to find them. I would stay anywhere from "the Steps" down stream to the corner just down stream from the public boat ramp near entrance caravan park.

Thank you

Thank you. Is that the shop on the left (heading north) in the industrial area near the big round abouts in South Nowra near Oportos etc?

I might look into it, thanks for that. Do you know any physical stores that stock the stuff that i can walk into and look at it? Do the chest parts of the bibs detach or are they one piece with the pants. I think i might get a bit hot with a bib all the time.

Which model pants do you have mate? Do you run the goretex sock model or just the gasket and wear neoprene booties for warmth? I would imagine that the gore tex socks might not be so crash hot for walking around in shoes full of sand.

Try to figure out what stage of the cast it is doing it and why it is doing it. Is it at the end of the throwing action or halfway through the cast with some line out already? Is the direction of the bail arm closing in the direction of the cast? Is motion of the cast slightly rotating the handle of the reel and triggering the bail arm to snap shut? Try casting with the bail arm in different parts of its revolution and try similar with the handle, eg bail arm furthest from rod, bail arm closest to rod, or bail arm on left or right side of rod. Try handle at bottom of wind, handle at top of wind, handle forward or handle backward. All of these things might be annoying but of one of those locations or combinations fixes the problem then you might just have to make that your new habit for casting that outfit.

I don't know anything about that stuff sorry but it sounds right.

I just replaced my sea master crank battery and the youngest it could have been was 10 years old because 2008 was the highest year on the box ticking options for the date of installation. I have dual batteries (1 crank and 1 deep cycle that is strong enough to start the motor. I was told by guys at the club years ago that even with a new battery, the battery will never fully charge just from driving, no matter how long or far. They said you have to top it up on the charger, i am not a good example but i periodically check the colour in the little round window on the top and give it a top up with the charger if in doubt or otherwise every 6 months or so. I did notice that the colour in the little green dot is better after charging than just driving to charge. The battery serviced a 1996 V4 90HP two stroke Evinrude until 2012 and then from 2012 it serviced a 2012 90HP 4 stroke Suzuki. I replaced the crank battery last week. I'm sure i could have charged it but it was old enough and i wanted to go fishing so i drove past the boat shop on the way to the ramp and bought a crank battery. In that lifetime it would have been used weekly for a couple of years (running all day) and then maybe monthly for several years and only half a dozen times in the last two years until it was retired.

I would send it to shimano, you could start with a phone call to them, ask for the fishing repairs/service department. They used to allow walk ins but these days may not want to talk to you direct as a walk in because you are not a shop. If you have a regular shop that you have a relationship with that sell shimano then they will have a relationship with a rep who can pick it up and drop it off to/from shop and shimano. Don't quote me but i think it is about $20 plus parts for a spin reel to be serviced and you know it will be done correctly then.

I see you have said that the line snapped and you lost your sinker and hook and everything. Was the sinker sitting on the hook or was it up the line a bit above a swivel or similar and if so, how far above the hook. If the sinker was straight on the hook then you could have been bitten off, likely a shark if it was very heavy and loaded up before it cut through the line. If the sinker was further up the line and you have lost the lot then that is different. The line might have had a nick in it or got scuffed around a rock or something on the bottom, was the line rough or scuffed near where it snapped? A second fish might have bitten the sinker during the fight but less likely, if it was a big fish (possibly a shark) and the line was under alot of tension when it snapped then the fish might have swung his tail through the line under tension causing it to break.

Check out this link from a few years ago. http://www.fishraider.com.au/Invision/topic/64217-bawley-point-and-ulladulla-areas/

If the fish can fit the whole bait in its mouth in one go then a circle of some type would probably be good. If you don't like that idea then an octopus hook or livebait style hook.