wazatherfisherman

Hi Seasponge go for a 650 size reel as it will balance better on a rod that length. 650GT would be ideal for your purpose, the 600 size reels are considerably smaller in line capacity and more suited to rods up to 11ft and lines up to about 15lb. Of the old series a 650A5 are the most commonly used beach reels. 650 signifies 6+1/2 inch 600 = 6 inch diameters. The 600 and 625 sizes are the popular Bream, Whiting, Dart sized reels. I have an extensive collection of Alveys and like all are saying, am devastated they are closing down, however, there are so many reels out there they'll still be in use for another 50 years and perhaps someone else might take over one of the most iconic reels ever made in Australia

Congrats TommyTJ first of many Kings to come. Great report and welcome

Excellent Pig MrsIso! Great capture on 20lb line- they fight super hard at that size

Excellent bag of tasty fish, great report and photo's

Two of those cylindrical stoppers are the best option, however if you don't have them and need to use fishing line then do two of the knots instead and face them towards each other. Make sure to use the same line as your main line for best results. IF you float/bobby cork fish a bit then get some of the cylindrical ones as they are really good for purpose

Do two of them facing each other and use the same diameter line for the knots as your main line. We use two of the rubber stoppers and they work great- buy the cylindrical ones because they give more surface area/grip. As for the fish I'm with Noel - Tailor very likely candidate and they often bite livey's really close to the hook/s without taking them in. Picture of the cylindrical stoppers below- started using two for sure grip and use two when Luderick fishing so you have a 'visual' indicator of depth changes you make

Great bag of fish!

Hope you only have a cold Mike! Sounds like you won't be able to take advantage of the holiday lathe (beer bottle) when you're finished🙁. Wishing you a speedy recovery mate

Following on from part b) Guides- OK we now have the butt end with cap, grips and reel seat (winch fitting) on, plus our tip has been glued on and our guides taped on in the positions we are happy with, now to attach our guides. When building your own rod, it always pays to do 'under-binds' for your guides- which is simply doing a bed of binding thread for the guide to sit on, providing a small buffer between the steel feet of the guide and the blank's material. The thread-bed provides both protection for the blank material and also a sturdy 'gripping area' for the guide foot, not to mention aids the general aesthetics/look of your build by providing a natural area for contrasting thread colours to be used. Measuring under-binds is a simple matter of just adding a few extra mm in length to your binding distance each side of your guide's foot, as a general rule, if you add about 10mm each side of the toe (the end of the guide's foot that is to be bound over) you'll have left enough length to leave say 3-4mm exposed and the remaining 6-7mm to bind over the top to secure the guide. Mark the under-bind lengths with either a small strip of masking tape, a 'china-white' marker, pencil (if you can see it!) or even liquid-paper. Next thing to do is to make several 'pull-through' loops, which will be used to bind over and pull your cut off thread back underneath the bind, which hide the ends of the thread and locks it off securely. These are just a piece of thread about 12-14cm long that's then folded over to form a loop- I always tie a simple overhand knot in the centre, which gives something to grab hold of and prevents you from only pulling one side under if you lose grip on it. Never make these pull-through's of thinner thread than you're binding as you don't want one to break while pulling through to lock the thread off. Make a few spares of these. There are many ways to start off your binds, but the simple way is to use a small piece of sellotape, which locks the thread underneath and is invisible to the eye once bound over, so for first attempts, my recommendation is to use the tape. Place the thread end under the tape and do just over one revolution of it around the blank, with the thread under the tape pointing in the direction you are going to bind, then commence your bind by revolving the blank, binding over and along the tape. There's no need to apply heavy pressure to the binds and having an even pressure provides the best result both functional and colour-wise. A simple way to apply a consistent pressure to the thread is to run your thread through the pages of a closed book with a weight on top of it. A basic 'jig' to hold the thread bobbin can be made by using a piece of timber with a bolt through it, you can make it fancy by placing a spring/spring washer and a wing nut above for tension control if you want to also. When you are about 5-6 revolutions from your chosen end length, place one of your pre-made pull-through loops on the blank and bind the last 5-6 revolutions over it, before cutting the thread and inserting the cut end ('tag end') through the loop and pull the loop out, bringing the now locked-off thread with it. Neaten-up the now locked off thread and then you can cut the thread- straight downwards towards the blank. Do all the under-binds and then seal with a single coat of thread sealer or 'filler' as it's also known. For this process I've always used a finger tip- just make sure your hands are clean. The sealer dries in about ten minutes. Now that the under-binds are done and sealed, the guides can be sat in place. It's best to only position one guide on the blank at a time and I always work from largest to smallest (tip end) Simply use the masking tape over the guide foot on one side to keep the guide in place while you bind the other side on. Again, using the sellotape is a simple and effective method and makes the transition from on the blank to the slightly higher guide foot relatively easy because you have created a 'bridge' between the two heights by using the tape. Make sure the guides align with both the tip and hoods of the reel seat. Without using the tape, most guides need some slight modification of their 'feet' which is done by grinding/filing an angle that provides more of a slope to bind up on. It's something I've always wondered about- why the majority of guide manufacturers don't produce guides with a more realistic angle on the foot? When buying guides from the large American tackle suppliers, they usually come with 'pre-ground feet' (done by the retailer not manufacturer) however, some of the most modern guide types are finally transitioning to producing guides that actually do have an angle to bind up on. Always bind towards the guide from the blank and once you're up and over onto the guide, the pre-made pull-through loop is placed on when you are about 6-7 revolutions from finishing. Only bind to the end of the level section of the guide foot and finish your bind before the foot framework starts going upwards. Cut the thread, insert tag end in pull the pull-through loop and pull loop under, locking the thread. Cut off the locked under thread after both sides of guide are bound on, then coat with one coat of thread sealer/filler. Once all guides are bound on, I normally do two more coats of filler, waiting about an hour between coats is plenty of time. Leave the rod to dry for about 8 hours/overnight. The final stage is to apply a coat of epoxy over the bindings, which seals and strengthens the bindings, effectively toughening up the attachment and making it permanent. There are several factors to consider when applying your epoxy coating: 1) Ensure that the bindings are completely dry and free of any impurities like dust, fluff or any small particles which may have attached to the sticky filler. 2) Mix absolutely equal parts of any two part epoxies (most are two part) or the hardening process may take far longer than it should. Many epoxy brands come with measuring syringes for easy mixing of exact equal parts. 3) DON'T ATTEMPT TO EPOXY ON DAYS OF HIGH HUMIDITY/RAIN- because the epoxy may attract moisture which can affect hardening times and also make your finish look 'cloudy' 4) Without a purpose-built rotisserie or drier the epoxied rod needs to be turned regularly to prevent the heavier epoxy sagging to one side (the under-side). Generally this just needs to be done during the first hour or so after the epoxy has been applied, as this is the time that the epoxy still has some 'flow' to it before naturally beginning to harden-up in the air. Always keep an eye on this and rotation of the rod 180 degrees each time will have any sag counter itself until the 'flow' has subsided. A light coating of epoxy is all you need, if you want a thicker coating, do another application after the initial coat has been totally dry for a few days. THE FUTURE- Guides are constantly evolving to become lighter, stronger, more flexible and as friction-free as possible, with new materials for both frames and their inserts. There are new frame shapes, flexible guide legs, super-hard guide inserts- including 'cut-proof' materials and space-age advancements in technology. One of the most interesting advancement's I've come across are the new (new to Australia anyway) 'Microwave' guides. These guides are revolutionising fishing rod ideas, based on several factors. Firstly, the largest guide or 'stripper guide' on these new guides has a dual ring configuration, with a slightly smaller ring attached to the larger ring on your guide. The purpose of the secondary ring is to change the shape of line travelling out during a cast, by containing the travelling loops (from the reel) as they spiral outwards. This reduced diameter line-loop means a straighter trajectory from the reel along the guide-train, resulting in less 'line-slap' on the guide rings and therefore longer and more controlled casts. This in turn allows the use of smaller guides (due to smaller spiral needed to control outgoing line) which results in a reduction in size needed of your guides that equals lighter weight/better feel. Another benefit other than improved casting distance/control and lighter weight, is by using smaller guides you can keep the fishing line closer to the blank, therefore utilising the blank's taper/action to the utmost. This translates to more exacting use of line class-to-blank by actual line strength being utilised to the maximum rating for the blank as you have the full benefit of the taper/curve. One of the factors I haven't mentioned previously is that the amount and weight of guides you place on the rod, has a direct bearing on the action of the flexible end (tip end)- too many or too large a set of guides and the rod has the possibility of becoming tip-heavy or 'sloppy'- by using the Microwave guide system with far smaller guides (they use one larger stripper guide, a 'transitional' guide, then the remaining guides are all the same small size) this factor in relation to weight is also removed. In my opinion, in the future, most rods will be being built along this 'Microwave Principle' with reduced weight, better line management, better casting and full exacting use of rod blank tapers. I first built one for a good mate's 50th birthday several years ago and if Australia wasn't still a fair way behind in some fishing tackle advancements, I reckon we'd see them used here as a standard thing. Just food for thought when building. Microwave guides pictured below are relatively inexpensive, light weight and probably the future! I hope anyone who's followed this post and is interested in building their own rod has a go, you end up with your own unique creation.

Fillets always for me- cooking for others that don't eat fish often, you don't want them to get any bones and some people aren't very well versed with eating around the bone or whole fish either. I fillet Hairtail, Dory, Kings etc and skin larger Kings and cut the red meat out. I don't bother taking the skin off Hairtail either- it comes off easily after cooking if someone doesn't like the taste. Fillets over cutlets for me also because I usually cut most fish into small sections, but admit I love Kingfish, Jewfish and Swordfish (bought!) cutlets

I've kept them before and my mate James has had some for a few years now. His are in a fibreglass bathtub I gave him that he's sunk into the ground, with a small aerator running constantly. In the tub there are a few rocks and he has some small bits of plastic pipe wedged in amongst them because they like their own enclosed area to retreat into for much of the day. They also need a shady area and nooks and crannies to wander through. James feeds his with bits of vegetable pieces and also chicken layer pellets- don't overfeed them with the pellets as they break down and foul the water if you put too many in. You have to clean the tub of algae every few months, but they're pretty low maintenance as pets. Don't mix yabbies and marron together as they usually fight for tank supremacy. His are nearing 4-5 yrs old now and they breed intermittently, but often the young get eaten by larger ones in the tub. The big problem both of us had was with rats- they eat them, regardless they are deep in the tub, the rats will eventually work out a way to get them. They were biting off the ends of the nippers while the yabbies were in their pipes, then coming back a few nights later and grabbing them, regardless that we had chicken wire strung tightly over the top they still got in. Other mates with aviaries have had similar problems with rats getting in and grabbing the new-born birds. Only after close scrutiny of the green colour-bond aviary were the claw marks revealed and we couldn't believe they got in and out where they did, same with the tub. Over the last couple of months with the huge rain event, plenty of small yabbies got out into the yard and have turned up all over the place. Years ago I had a real big one walk right around the house and it ended up next door, probably covered about 80+ meters in less than 12hrs. It managed to get out of it's tub by forcing it's way under the chicken wire that had two bricks on top of the wire and frightened the daylights out of the lady next door who'd never seen one. They hiss at you when they get big! Just wanted to add- neither of us ever had a heater, they are pretty inactive when it gets real cold

Great report Kobi! Plenty of good sized fish and good variety. Looks like some fun fishing on your holiday

Great story and photo's! Congrats on your Kingie they pull hard at any size! Good luck with the comp too

This has always been an interesting and also controversial topic with plenty of differing opinions. Personally I've always loved the first quarter up to the night of the full moon, with the couple of nights prior to full being best (for me). It really depends what you're after and where you are trying. Like Green Hornet said above about Bream- fishing the shallows is usually pretty difficult, yet fishing a bit deeper can be really productive as the fish aren't quite as wary. We used to do really well off the rocks for Bream, Tailor, Pigs and Trevally on full moon periods. In the Harbour, the Sow and Pigs reef was usually alive with fish on the big moon nights (including full moon) and huge catches of everything from Bream and Trevally to Tailor and Hairtail were the norm on full moons. The old AFCA annual divisional championships were always organised to coincide with the appropriate moon phases for each section being fished. For the Rock and Estuary comps it was always (they were always Saturday afternoon until Sunday midday) as close to the full moon as possible. The Deep Sea, Beach and 'Open Day' (you could fish anywhere in open day) were usually organised around the first quarter-full moon and the Luderick and Freshwater sections around the new moon. When I was a junior angler in a fishing club (A.F.A of NSW) there were plenty of guys who specialised in different species, one such guy was Doug Costain who was the then editor of the old weekly publication "Fishing News". Doug was a genuinely great fisherman and he specialised in catching Mulloway off the beach (or anywhere really) and often did "guest speaker" nights at different clubs on beach fishing for the species. Doug said (same as Green Hornet) that the most productive time he'd found when fishing for Mulloway from the beach was the new moon rather than full. The reasoning behind this was that regardless that the Mulloway were hungry on full moon, it probably isn't easy to hunt prey stealthily under a bright light if there isn't any ambush cover, hence location is key under the bright moon. Sure you can get them around well-lit bridges, but they have both pylons and shadows to use as cover. Rough seas and foamy water provide cover, so again, location is key. Doug also said -try to imagine the 'buffet was on' during the time of the first quarter and fish activity is high during this time, with fish moving around and feeding-up. After virtually a week of this sort of activity, at some point after feeding for days, everything is 'fed' and possibly leaning toward "rest'n and digest'n"- of course some fish might still be actively looking for food if they hadn't fed successfully, but the majority probably had. Another example was while fishing at Yamba, we had been catching Luderick by day and they were in huge numbers all along the famous middle wall. They'd been biting their heads off every day and there were hundreds of boats tied up for the whole length of the wall with everyone, regardless of their skill level, catching as many as they wanted to. This was leading up to full moon. The caravan next to ours was occupied by two of the best Luderick fishermen, who were well known and respected by most of those fishing the wall -as they had made the trip up from Swansea every year for as long as they could remember. They were known as the "Brown brothers" and as my mate and I were both neighbours and the only young blokes amongst a huge group of older fishers, we listened intently to what they told us about fishing the wall. The day prior to the full moon, we'd started getting our gear ready for the next morning's Luderick session and Bill Brown popped in to see if we'd like to go the RSL with them that night. We replied not tonight, as we wanted to have one last big session on the Luderick the next morning. Bill then said it was a good night to go to the club, because the Luderick wouldn't be biting the next morning. He said they'd be off the bite for two or three days then would be 'on' again, but was so confident they'd be off the bite we of course had to give him the usual heap of questions about why. He said that almost everything in the ocean is prey of something and spawning aggregations (like the Luderick) always attract the apex predators to the masses of smaller species. It went a bit against the grain of what Doug Costain had said in regard to beach Mulloway, but Bill went on to say that the ambush cover was there in the form of the wall and as the Luderick schools were so huge, that stealth wasn't so much a factor, the Mulloway would come up from underneath the Luderick and grab an easy meal. The Luderick knew this he said and therefore were thinking more about becoming food rather than eating it, after all, they had been feeding for a couple of weeks since new moon, where they also had to be careful. We went to the club that night and took his advice re not fishing, but just had to go out to the wall for a look the next day. Sure enough, just like Bill said, nobody was getting any fish. The point of this long 'answer' is that it isn't always about fish you're after feeding, they also need to consider their own survival- which I think is instinctive (and location specific) so when you have the elements of 'cover', food and numbers, the fish still feed happily on full moon.

Same as Green Hornet says above- your night vision only starts working after you are in complete darkness. It doesn't take that long to acclimatise to the dark as long as there isn't any lighting around. If there are lights around, using a red LED light has proven to be better than a white light from my experience and many head torches come with a red light function these days. We fished the low, often wave swept platforms for years without many problems. Torch light was 'banned' anywhere near the water on dark nights and nobody wore a head torch while fishing like this, because looking anywhere other than at the sea could be a fatal mistake. All rigging was done away from the water and having pre-made rigs is the best idea, meaning you only tie one knot- again, away from the sea, so no light on you. These days there are plenty of great options to store pre-made rigs in, like these below- you can make rigs for any possible scenario/target safely while at home- and save fishing time for fishing.

Great report and photo's- well done Max. Welcome also!

Like everyone has said- what's wrong with them to do that. Hope someone can enlarge the footage enough for the authorities

Hi Frank- touch wood I haven't had any bubbles because I always use filler before epoxying- usually about 3 coats of filler, then hit the epoxy with a hairdryer to melt/blow bubbles out. Another good reason for using filler is it's a lot easier to get a guide off if you need to replace one. I recently stripped one of Derek's rods and with only a 'glass-like' coat of epoxy over the entire blank -it was really difficult to do- took about 3+hrs which was almost unbelievable. I've also got about 15-20 either half finished or yet to be started rods/blanks and all the bits and pieces still to do. After looking at my own photo's I'll certainly be doing the magnifying glass thing!

Hi Pete yes mine are definitely no good for any fine detail work any more (and tying knots in fluorocarbon leader after dark!)- I had glasses on doing the bind and photo's and it wasn't until looking at the crappy looking bind in the photo's did I realise, however it was only for demonstration purposes of the tape and pull-through (that's my excuse anyway!) Will turn out better when on the lathe properly I'd like to think!

Hi Pete the sellotape was 1cm originally and I trimmed it to about 8mm before putting on to suit the guide size (12)- it starts from the left hand edge of the orange, locking the thread down. My eyesight isn't exactly that good and I did the whole thing sitting in my computer chair without any burnishing ('evening'/straightening) of the thread. This is the missing pic!

As I couldn't finish the article tonight I thought I'd just put a couple of pics up to show what I meant- the guide has just been bound on for demonstration purposes and isn't a neat bind, however it's only to show the tape, pull through loop (blue) and pulled through cotton. Excuse the untidy bind it hasn't been tightened up but I didn't realise while taking the photo's until viewing on here! The thread is held down by the tape and transitions smoothly over the guide foot and the tape isn't visible when bound over. The 'pull-through' loop is blue for visual. Hope it's clear enough. I overdid the locked-off end on purpose to demonstrate also

Hi Pete the sellotape is probably one of the best discoveries I've learned in building because of the 'nil' transition in height. It's great for using on the lathe also because there's no need to slow the speed down when you're about to go up the foot. I'm going to put a couple of photo's on in tonight's instalment showing how it works. Most of the new-age American guides have far better angled toes coming off the guide foot, which negate the need for us having to file/ground/sand them. I stopped using "A" thread when the eyesight got a little worse and I bought a 1/4lb spool of black in "C" due to "B" being difficult to find in the same large variety of colours. The A definitely looks the best of all though.

Mike you need to use FULL one's for the weight necessary to keep them in place, the joy of using them is you can use them anywhere to do a repair. "Holiday lathes" they're known as! I have a mate that has had a bottle lathe in his garage for many years! Yes leave the tape on- just over 1 revolution is all you need of the real thin stuff. Makes doing a bind really easy and nobody knows except you and I!

Thanks Pete glad you enjoyed it. I still have a small handful of Varmac's and also re-built one of my Blackfish rods with them for the same reason re stoppers- especially since using those small rubber stoppers -I always put two on so you have a visible indicator for previous depth changes- but they could get stuck on small inserts, hence the Varmac's

Hi Mike glad you enjoyed it, the sizing is a bit of a mystery to me because they measure the guides by the outside of the guide ring- not the inside and not including the metal frame! This gives a possible small variation in actual ring sizes, but is used universally by manufacturers. "A" thread being the thinnest grade, provides the neatest bind by far, but can be tricky to run over guide feet on the transition when moving from blank to guide because many guide feet have 'squared-off' ends. When buying guides from some of the large USA companies they come with 'pre-ground feet', where they have ground an angle on the 'toe' of the foot (the leading edge each side that are first contact point for the binding thread) A neat trick to remedy this without filing/grinding the feet yourself is to use clear sellotape to both lock the thread and travel over the foot. It provides a flawless transition to bind over and negates any height differential between guide foot and blank. It's totally invisible also and in a way provides another level of attachment that keeps the foot in place. I'm going to put a photo on in tonight's next chapter showing exactly what I mean. A simple 'binding bench' can be made by taping two long-neck beer bottles together- use two sets of two and rest the rod in the gap! -Works fine and you can drink your 'lathe' once finished!