HenryR

hey lachie, I can't speak for current Caldias but I've got an older one, a 2010 model Caldia 2000, and it's been really good. And I believe Daiwa have got better at making magseal reels since then. The only point of comparison I have for it are Sedonas - what I used for years before running up against their limitations - and a 2000 Certate. As you might expect, the Caldia was a massive improve on Sedonas. Muuuuch nicer to use and much more durable. I've put mine through a pretty hard time. Multiple dunkings, some of them in saltwater, and a lot of kayak induced salt spray in the last 18months - all with, until recently no internal maintenance required at all! Compared to the Certate - I can't tell the difference. Actually, I think I marginally prefer the Caldia because I like its clicker noise more .... One big thing to bear in mind before you take the plunge though is magseal. It's why I bought (got sold, really) a Caldia. It does seem to make the reel excellently water resistant. But, with magseal you either have to stick with Daiwa servicing or go renegade on them and do unsupported (unsupported by Daiwa that is) maintenance yourself. This voids your warranty and can be a bit unnerving at first. I dunno if Shimano reels have a similar must be manufacturer serviced warranty condition ???? My reel went beyond warranty without needing any service, and I've now gone the do it myself route. So far it seems no probs. Once you get in there, it's not really any more complicated than any other reel. Daiwa won't let anyone have the magseal oil (ferro fluid) they use but you can buy a by all accounts perfectly good alternative for $20 from a Qld speaker repair company. Applying it is not tricky - it only needs to go on one spot (and a bearing, but I've not touched that yet, no need). As far as I can tell the rest of the reel is regular lubes. There's a FR thread that touches on magseal. And if you search you'll find some Alan Tani threads that go into more detail. NOTE: doing the maintenance is less scary than the threads make it sound. You can bet everyone jumps online looking for help and then, when they figure out what they're doing, most of them don't post ....

2Ds your write ups are totally fab !!

There's no question they do come in amazing and wonderful colours for such a despised fish. If you have easy access to them, try using earth worms as bait. I've only ever done it once: was somewhere expecting fish other than carp. The carp ate all the worms up in no time and then, once I'd resigned to fact that it was carp or nothing else, they wouldn't touch bread or any of the corn we'd brought just in case there were carp!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_anchor A sea anchor (also known as a drift anchor, drift sock, para-anchor or boat brake) is a device used to stabilize a boat in heavy weather. Rather than tethering the boat to the seabed, the sea anchor increases the drag through the water and thus acts as a brake. When attached to the stern of a vessel, a sea anchor can prevent the vessel from turning broadside to the waves and being overwhelmed by them. Often similar in design to the sea anchor is the usually smaller drogue, which is attached to the stern and intended to slow the boat for better control.

once in a lifetime ..... what a cool thing to see !!!!

great snaps !

hi outdoors, Yep, they're mighty handy to have in a kayak. They won't hold you in one place, what they do is slow drift caused by wind.If you want to stay put for any length of time next to one fixed structure regardless of wind or current, regular anchors are the way to go. But if you're working you way through a series of fixed structures, wharves, boat hulls, or just the shore in general, they can (it does depend a lot on current and wind strength and direction) do a great job of slowing your drift down just enough to get some casts in before you move on. The other thing sea anchors, or drift chutes, do really well is allow you to control the direction you yak faces while it's drifting. Roughly, the end or side of the kayak you attach the drift anchor to will face into the wind. Little folding grapple anchors are good too. They're pretty cheap - $10/15 something like that. Regular anchors do get stuck. You can save yourself a lot of hassle and some risk by using a smallish cable tie to attach your anchor cord (3mm cord is tons strong enough for a kayak) to the top of the anchor. You then attach the cord to the bottom of the anchor with a stronger cable tie. If .. when ... the anchor gets stuck you pull really hard on the cord and (if you've guessed right what size cable tie you can break without capsizing, lol!) the top one snaps and you get to pull the anchor unsangs because suddenly you're pulling it up from behind. If it's still stuck, you snap the second cable tie and cause a little less litter and save yourself buying another length of cord. Search online you'll find plenty of instructionals, with pics explaining that better than I have just done.

yep, 100% OSP. I've tried Bent Minnows on bass a few times and never had any joy. It might be a matter of what type of water they're used in. Most of my bass fishing has been in very small very fresh water - not a lot of bait fish?? For bass: Tiemco soft cicadas are killer. They must have a really good 'mouth feel' because bass will hit them, miss, hit them again and so on until the hooks bite. What fun! The other surface lure not to overlook for bass is good old Jitterbugs. Been around forever. The little ones in black. Worked slow they're not as good as the Tiemcos but they cast further, they don't foul in the air as much as the Tiemcos and they give a more reliable straight retrieve. Really good if you want to cover ground, or are fishing in the dark and need to make good bass-attracting noise, or are just feeling lazy - lob them out, reel them in and they do all the work for you. I've had good results on EPs with Bent Minnows. That's fun. Watching them come out from under rocks. They sit stationary under the lure and study for a while- much the same as bream do - before hitting. Bent Minnows are, I reckon, an absolute masterpiece of lure design.

And, even though it's not actually a popper, it's fun in the same way but with a twist. When summer comes back grab yourself a Bent Minnow (genuine one not a copy, makes a big difference) and sneak up on some bream. It is very cool fun too

This time of year, in estuaries, Zipbaits skinny pop, the 90mm ones. Salmon love them. Is without doubt one of the funnest ways to catch fish

interesting idea. nearly as much work as plain old pvc though I think. advantage of pvc is there's sleeves and end caps, etc made to go with it. and you can hop up the road and be guaranteed there's some in stock.

it's taken a while but .... it's nearly there..... I went for 600mm (x 90mm) because when I have been lugging livies around lately, it's often been in a small mesh bag (it's bag some shoes came in) with foam stitched to the top. Much smaller even than a 600mm tube and though baits don't hold up well to being towed in that set up, they survive fine in the limited space it provides. I figure the tube is more space, the same amount of water flow - i.e. will aerated. Am going to try it and see. The other consideration was, 600mm straps on to the tackle basket at the back of my kayak without sticking out much at all. It's not obvious from the photo. The hatch is two collars glued together. They slide open and closed. I put a little bit of velcro on one end to hold it shut. There no tow points in the photos either. That bit was easy. Drill some holes and knot a little loop of cord. I've put attachment points front and back. Will try both and see what works. Breather holes: I did drill a few after these pics were taken. And, the flotation. Some foam glued to the front and back of the tube and 'streamlined'. I'm practically a boat maker now !! Only, I don't know if it'll tow straight or not. All up it cost less than $30 to make. It weighs almost nothing. It hardly intrudes on my current set up - towing it might be a different story. If you don't want to or can't carry a bucket of water and aerator and battery, it seems well worth thinking about. I will post some more detailed pics and a write up of how it all goes .. in time ..... The tube is set to get a fair work out next week: squid, if all goes well, and yakkas and quite a few kms of paddling.

congrats all ... many thanks to Fishraider .... and big-ups to Admin !

PaddyT makes a good point - can make a big difference what you're tying them in and using them for. In my case 10-40lb leaders and lots of casting the knot through guides

nice experiment, cool result !! I've managed to get carp to take poppers much as you described: gentle pops, long pause, the fish come up, look at the lure and then suck it in, but I've never thought to try it with mullet. I'm a bit of a mullet fan and will be throwing poppers at the next few schools of them I see There's no kudos for catching them but, for their size mullet go pretty good on a light line

i like four carefully lashed - no slack in there at all - alternating half hitches over the leader tag, clip the tag close and then I put about a half dozen more half hitches on the braid. I generally leave my knots in place until the leader runs out and really like to make doubly sure the braid tag doesn't work loose. I reckon the half hitches are crucial. Psycho, dunno if you've seen this or not but, if you're just working fgs out, it is, I'm pretty sure, the very easiest technique for tying them https://youtu.be/52uWL43hUbw I note: he's probably tied more fgs than I ever will and thinks the half hitches aren't much more than a formality

Big Yella, that's the mullet that were taking your lure ????

This may have been posted before as it's a few years old. Is new to me and seems interesting. Anyone know enough to comment? 'FISHING REEL DRAG TRIBOLOGY' https://tocatchafish.blogspot.nl/p/blog-page.html More here; FISHING REEL DRAGS - THE BASICS https://tocatchafish.blogspot.fr/p/fishing-reel-drags.html

was that a graphite rod ?

you're doing a pretty good job of getting to know the local wildlife and, of course, you must have noticed, if you do get homesick, there is no shortage of carp in Australia .....

great fish Bryson

shipwrecked, looks like a beautiful morning to have been out!

Aus Museum website says: up to 20cm. The little ones sure are cute! Scratchie, thanks again .. I am encouraged!

Hey Regan, Absolutely they were eaten. One got turned in to numus - pickled, much like ceviche. Prepped that way salmon are outstanding. It's great flesh and they taste clean and fresh. The others got thrown in a pot for tomato and tamarind curry that could sit in the fridge for a few days. Lots of strong and stinky flavours which, if you like salmon when their flavour becomes fishy, well, then that's great too. It does depend a bit on what kind of 'fight' you like but 3lb is not as extreme as it sounds. it is, as noted above, the braid that's rated 3lb. You might know this already and surely there's should be someone here who understand it ... ??? For some weird reason, most braids break above at their advertised breaking strain. I would guess the actual breaking strain I'm fishing is about 6lb. It's light enough to make some concentration obligatory and the outcome not completely certain but heavy enough that few get lost to minor mishaps. 5 - 10 minute fights and bigger fish need chasing, which is cool in a kayak!

ha-ha, I reckon you'd be right there too 1st time trying to put baits and berley into North Head washes from a kayak. I don't even own a long rod.... All very much with training wheels on. It was a look-see exercise. I did manage to fish some actual washes but intentionally picked a calm day and kept a very safe distance most of the time. Before I worry too much about actual drummer, I think learning how to get a bait in the right kind of spot without getting smashed on the rocks is priority numba 1.