wazatherfisherman

I've only used the carbon fibre a few times as I only found a couple of lengths (again at Reverse Garbage- great source of used materials, ex government stuff etc) and I pushed it through the cork and glued it into the dowel tip. A few years ago I bought a huge bundle of rod top halves (about 220) on ebay, Shimano, Daiwa etc with guides on as I was rod building and wanted the guides, tips etc. Ended up with a heap of bits of blank (still have heaps intact also) which have been used for all sorts of things like tomato stakes, mini curtain rods etc- also make great stems for floats, especially some thin solid glass ones that were for kids rods-pink. green and blue- these are great for heavy ocean floats and the hollow ones I've used the thinner tip section for stems and the thicker mid section for pencil floats by sealing the ends. Last year, while looking at English "pole floats" I found 2 "job lots" of them and bid on them, thinking they were a bargain for such a lot (70 and 40) of floats- unbeknown to me was they are tiny things about 3-5 inches long! I won both auctions and now have 110 floats that are so small they'd probably only be good for Garfish in Australia! Most of them have either carbon fibre or fibreglass stems

Thanks! I use solder and heat shrink for stem weighting also. Haven't had a go with the cedar yet, bought a giant bag of unused corks from "reverse garbage" and have sanded them down on my fishing rod lathe, but have had plenty crumble when sanding thinly for estuary floats. Love the cedar as a material and carbon fibre rod better than the old cane stems. Really hard to get decent length straight cane in 3 or 4mm these days. Thanks for sharing. Happy fishing. Regards Waza

Hi Neil a lot of friends say that, however I couldn't part with a lot of my stuff! As a young bloke growing up in Sydney, for "daytime" fishing (locally I mean) the regular "kid options"-fish wise, were Bream/Whiting/Flathead or Mullet or Blackies. To be assured of a bag of fish from the Parramatta River, the first 3 required worms (to catch heaps- as young blokes want!) you could pump in a couple of places(that had "cleaner" sand) turn rocks over or dig your own from the mud down the bay/s until the "defacing the foreshore" laws were introduced, from then on you had to buy Cribb Island (Moreton Bay worms- Bloodworms) which were 20 cents each and required a separate bus trip to the bait shop beforehand. As the paper-run only paid $2 a day plus tips (3 hr run!) worms were then a 'luxury' bait and reserved for special occasions! Mullet fishing was a good option because you only needed white bread and the Mullet always gave a great account of themselves on the whippy rods and old stretchy 6lb line, however Mum refused to cook them if caught from the river, stating pollution the reason. We used to eat them if we caught them at Windang (Grandparent's caravan) or from a beach- I still love a "clean" grilled Mullet! So that left Blackies, which were available all throughout the Harbour almost all year round, fought really well and are great to eat (if handled properly). Better still, bait was free! Weed was everywhere and if cared for would last a couple of weeks. So Blackies became "it" for many of us and big bags of fish were the norm, which were distributed up and down the street and there were always heaps in the freezer for the relo's. This of course lead to rockfishing for the real big ones etc etc. The chap who made most of the floats in the picture- Alan Skelton- was known throughout the broader fishing community. He had a huge range of float styles and did custom orders. He told me that he had floats designed for every significant spot around Sydney (and beyond!) and was a master craftsman of both floats and custom built rods. His work with cork, including cork grips, is still spoken of and he built/restored rods for T.V etc. Cane rods were also his specialty. He was also the fishing "grapevine" as he dealt with heaps of great fisho's from his home at Bronte on a daily basis, Alan always knew what was caught or being caught and what was biting. He passed away quite a few years ago, but is known still throughout the Blackie fishing community as the "yardstick for comparison" when it comes to workmanship and design. I'm really happy to have a nice collection of his floats, you would be surprised at the amount of offers I've had for them, but of all my mass of fishing tackle, they'd be the only things I'd never part with. One of my mates once said to me "I know we're close friends - you gave me a Skelton float!"

Nice looking floats Green Hornet! What materials do you use for stems, tops and bodies?

I know there are heaps of keen Raider Blackie fishers out there. Show us your floats! Here are many of mine. These are for ocean Luderick fishing, most are "fixed" -set at a particular depth and don't slide on the line- the majority of these were made by Alan Skelton, famous float maker and rod craftsman, who lived at Bronte.

Doesn't even need to be strong, "having a go" was/is totally acceptable. I still bugger plenty of things up, but if you don't try or have "fear of failure" you never learn. I wouldn't feel "comfortable" if I didn't know which end of the hammer to hold, even if I didn't swing it very well. You can't "google" a nail in

Very well put. I was also a scout and learned heaps of great life skills there, especially respect- for others, environment, self, etc. Was an army cadet until Whitlam disbanded cadet units and although learned many handy life skills I wouldn't list respect(other than by mandatory rank) as something I learned from the Army. I just don't understand why many young people aren't very interested in hiking, climbing, camping, fishing, outdoor stuff- I only had one parent (Mum-dad took off when I was 6) and I couldn't get enough of outdoor adventures, regardless that I had minimum instruction. As a former childcare worker I watched the "electronic entertainment age" slowly engulf kids leisure time. Funnily enough, when the "Pokemon" craze first hit, it actually got kids playing "normally" again, albeit taking on the roles of the Pokemon characters. They were using their imaginations and making their own games to the Pokemon theme, at the very least it got them away from their gameboy's, nintendo's and playstations. Now, the world has gone silly watching other people do things they could be doing themselves. There's even a show that people watch viewing other people watching T.V (Gogglebox)- and it's popular? Google has become the great overseer with an answer to any question asked of it, regardless of it being right or wrong. When the Y2K "scare" surfaced and theories abounded that computers might fail and the world would be in chaos, I wondered what would happen to all the people that were so conditioned to others doing even basic things for them. If google(or similar) became unavailable to answer questions, what would the askers do? I guess, as necessity is the 'mother of invention' people would manage, however teaching a "life-skills" type course at school would be a step in the right direction, only my opinion, but it seems man is going in the wrong direction in many aspects

G'day again that's great re Blackies at the crack! Cheering you both got them! Fight well there eh! There should be some really big ones there now(nothing wrong with the ones you got!) but you have to get wet! No evil Surgeons on that tide. Glad you got some, it's a nice private spot with a great view. The South Pacific is a bit heavier than the UK reels but only minimally and is well made. After the Alvey, you'll love the free spinning spool. You'll be happy with it and it'll last years with basic care

G'day mate I have one of those South Pacific 'pins and it's a nice reel. Only used it a few times and runs beautifully. Don't go the fly reel way because they are 'single action' which means the ratchet is always on, for want of a better description and fly reels usually have one handle knob and a counterweight, 'pins have 2 handle knobs. Nothing will last as long as an Alvey. Traditional centrepin reels are called 'trotting' reels in the UK and are always available on ebay. I bought a beautiful 'pin from the UK called an "Emperor Cypranius" which is the smoothest and lightest 'pin I've ever seen, all high quality aluminium body and s/steel parts. Cost me $110 (2nd hand but as new condition)including postage from UK. The traditional old Grice and Young Avons. Golden Eagles and Trudex's are still around but are expensive compared to some of the newer purpose made Blackie reels and were originally built for freshwater, however they last for years with good care. Not knocking Alvey's new alloy version but a bit pricey, but having said that, some of the Yank 'pins go for $500-$800 US! South Pacific should be under $170

Hi Richard for safety's sake I reckon that'd be wise to only use Aussie caught prawns

Beaches of death was the morning headline and front cover of the Telegraph. The cover was a picture taken from the small beach facing towards the heads at Bradleys Head. 10's of thousands of dead pillies had come in on the big incoming tide in the night (it was full moon and we were Tailor fishing at Sow and Pigs Reef) and washed up on the beach. 1995 was the year and it would have been the night of the full moon in April. We scooped up a couple of boxes as they floated past us. No Tailor to be seen that night but an enormous mass of squid were there feeding on the pillies. The two major seagull flocks of Sydney Harbour were also sitting just offshore, gorging on the dead fish, luckily, the virus didn't affect the rest of the sea life (by being consumed I mean) or it would have been a chain of death. It was put down to a herpes virus that most likely came from using imported frozen pillies to feed the S.A Tuna farms. Why governments don't learn from these types of incidents is the big question. White spot should never have reached here

Hi Dirvin21 further reading on White spot syndrome indicates that crabs are also susceptible to the condition. Local environmental stressors are the influencing factors on the severity. Hope the spots are from a lesser horror

G'day Welster the people that are so 'dismissive' take too much for granted. It's easy to complain after the damage is done. You aren't being 'petty' in my book, more like 'environmentally responsible'. They'd sure be whinging if White Spot ruined our prawn fishery. It only takes one bad prawn to transmit the virus. The Pilchard fishery hasn't forgotten the great Pilchard kill attributed to imported frozen pilly's used for Tuna farm food. I was fishing Sydney Harbour (Sow and Pigs) the night the dead/dying pilly's floated in en mass. "Beaches of Death" was the Telegraph's front page the next morning. It was 'surreal' to have thousands of them floating past the boat

As always, wonderful photos. Nothing chasing the bait (if that's what birds were diving on) at all? During the late 70's and into the 80's, Montague Island was my favourite spot in the world. Always great sea life of some sort.

Hi Richard- no don't use supermarket bought prawns! The continued importation is ridiculous- why bring anything to Australia that poses any risk, let alone one that could wipe out our own stocks. The government knew of this risk beforehand and regardless of 'balance of trade' arrangements should never have let this come to our shores. We have some mindless fools making diabolical decisions. A far more worthwhile environmental campaign than the 'lockouts'. Be safe, buy Australian

Just wanted to alert Raiders to a short informative report on ABC's Landline. Talks about the well documented White Spot virus from imported prawns and the reason that Bloodworms are currently unavailable. A very sad state of affairs. It is on ABC at 12.59 PM Monday

Just when you think you had all possible gadgets, ex girlfriend bought me a 'de-spooler' runs on 2 x AA batteries takes about 90 seconds to strip a spinning reel but line thrown on the floor in a pile, so no recycling possible. Like the guys above, I usually try to reverse line and re-use. Thoughtful present all the same

Hi Fufu the 'device' is a Casio 'Fishing Time' watch, which has tide, moon phase and recommended 'best fishing' times for the day. You just set your latitude and longitude and it comes up with the best fishing time/s for that day. Also can be forwarded to check the information for future trips. At less than $150 a very useful 'tool' but very hard to find one last couple of years. Cheers Waza

G'day mate that's awesome fishing- fresh or salt! It is an interesting topic. Was telling Derek about the Mulloway action we used to get when the S/east wind started to blow in summer, however I remember reading some well prepared posts on here talking about how the bite 'shut down' when the barometric pressure dropped below a certain point. Also remember reading about Mulloway not fully developing their swim bladder until they were over about 6-8 kg, which prevented them rising quickly in the water column, hence why rarely catching them around that size closer to the surface in deeper water. Wonder now how much that has to do with the pressure change Derek highlighted?

I searched for ages to get 2nd watch after first broke at joint- watch still works but can't wear it. Kept it as a 'fishing computer' though!

G'day mate I've also got the watch (2nd one now) and I have great faith in it's accuracy and principles! Love being able to plan things in advance from the wrist!

Thanks for posting the article- it is a fantastic bit of information!

G'day mate the sprinkler spray is a great and sneaky trick! The greatest fisherman I have ever known was George Forrester of the AFA club, like you, he was always thinking 'outside the box' with great practical ideas. He used to have a whale-oil or tuna oil drip added to his sprinkler set-up. He aimed it so he had a 'patch' about 6-7 metres behind the boat. In a Sydney Metro comp once, he was pulling Trevally and Tailor from his 'patch' one after another while the 60 or 70 boats around him got none! The sounder was blacked out with masses of fish through the area, but the sprinkler had them excited.

Hi Derek and thanks for the kind words. Sorry it's taken me a few days to get back to you on this very interesting and (in my view) important topic. Belligero has posted a fantastic article on the subject- I couldn't put it in better terms and it goes right along with our conversation re approaching/arriving S/East winds, particularly during summer. It had me nodding my head in relation to the things we were discussing on the phone, particularly Mulloway. I can certainly relate to the lowering pressure being great for Mulloway as they'd 'come-on' regardless of tide/time of day. The ants sure seem to know when storms are on the way! Having said that though, as Baz and Frank said, the solunar charts that have been used by Polynesians, Maori and many other cultures for centuries. The charts (or whatever their substitute is/was) referred to 'major' periods of activity for life, both in and out of the water. Their use, combined with falling barometer, seasonal availability, food abundance and localised factors are all contributing factors to a complex equation that has infinite 'variables'. Then of course are the times when none of this makes any sense, as the fish are biting in clear water, at low tide on the "wrong" conditions in the middle of the day and on an 'unusual' (not their regular) bait. Hope we never get all the data right as we'll catch them every time and fishing wouldn't be as interesting! Cheers mate and thanks for another interesting and thought provoking article

G'day Neil - great to catch a couple of nice fish. No doubt, more to follow now you've broken your drought. Cheers Waza