JonD

Have a great trip. By the way no wind down here on the south coast, only sea chop is from the bluefin and yellowfin smashing the surface!!!!

Yes, just been out for an afternoon session on the squid and couldn't help but keep that throttle all the way down. Like you say, they like being pushed hard.

I never enjoyed high speed jigging and always opted for a more sedate action with my jigs which would often out fish the high speed lads around me. I've had some pretty high end jig outfits but since Shimano brought out the grappler range of rods, Im finding these are now my go to rods. Super soft parabolic action but with the power when needed. I like the way its so effortless to work jigs, either for kings or on smaller reef species. On a tight budget look at the Storm Gomoku rods, such good value.

You didn't mention how old the line is or if its fluoro or not. If its either old line or fluoro then that's the issue, FC greatly reduces strength at the knot, however there are a few YouTube videos showing how to do what looks like an upside down uni knot. Even though nylon line last for years, uv rays still damage it. If its neither of the above try running the line twice through the eye of the hook so it doubles around the hook, then do a simply 4 turn uni knot and wet it down as you clinch tight. Do a test to see the difference between double wrapping around the eye to single and you will be surprised how much difference it makes with any line.

Aluminium, not cheap at $495. Yes very, that's the shelf and back on around 12lt from here, sounds like a joke!!!! Montague and back under 7lt and a big run to the seamounts and back 30lt possibly. Looking forward to exploring further afield in the future when the weather is good. This is very close to my economy, however Im using a better prop and slightly lighter and smaller boat, so a bit better performance.

I came very close to buying a new boat recently but decided with all the extras my little Formula has to stick with it and go for a re-power instead. A Yam F115 came up at a good price but was unfortunately an xl 25 ins leg. I decided to go ahead with the XL and use the rising brackets to raise it 5 ins, in fact I raised it 6 ins putting the antiventilation plate 1in above the keel. The added weight is only about 15kg from the honda 90 but the power and weight did put me above the boats plate recommendation, which was a cost of $500 to change. Ive had to add 20lt of buoyancy to meet the new plate regs. Getting cables up through a very small half tube under floor was a nightmare to say the least. Putting it on the water yesterday I could notice a difference in weight on the bum and also stability slightly from the added height, neither as much as I had expected though. Thought I would test with a Solas 13 3/8 x 17 first. Quite surprisingly this prop didn't bog down like it had on the Honda, which I had to change to a 4 blade and even then still bogged a fair amount. A touch of the throttle and this prop seemed to now grip far better and pop me straight up on the plane. Even trimmed almost fully out it pops the boat out of the hole like a rocket. At 3500rpm I looked at the gauges and gps and couldn't believe I was sitting around 40kh for 3km per litre. Up the rpm to 4500rpm and I was sitting at a respectable 55kh and 2.8km per litre Trimmed down a fair amount due to the conditions it very quickly shot to 6000rpm and 75kh, to fast to notice the fuel range!!!!!..next time The bar crossing had a warning of 1.9m and once outside the chop was to hard to test for long so I headed back with a boy racer smile on my face. My plan for more power is more about carrying extra fuel and water for extended offshore island trips up north. I was wanting more power for quickly covering greater distances during weather breaks. The issue with the Honda was fuel burn once Vtec kicked in at higher rpm I dropped to almost half the fuel of what this Yam is using. Im going to stick with this prop for now but feel there's still a bit more performance there if I just want to do lighter loads on flat days. This is fun.

Is the bait holding over anything or just in a general area and what is the bait ?

This is a pretty easy place to get to and as you can see provides very good shelter in bad weather. I camp on the island here, where there a game species literally 50m from the tent or swag, also good swimming with mantas etc. Lady Musgrave is north of the tip of Fraser Island. Plenty if islands close to this as well as the shelf drop off very close where almost anything is possible. A friend was 60 miles offshore again today where there were acres of bluefin. She also fished there yesterday for a continuous 6hrs of bluefin action. I wouldn't recommend it but there was a 420 renegade 60 miles out there today.

I bought my first boat when I was 12yrs old from money earnt selling bait and rabbits while living in the UK. The boat was just over 12ft with a 1.5hp seagull outboard. I had worked on charter for several years, mostly weekends and all school hols, I was pretty obsessed with fishing back then, especially bigger target species. I really enjoyed targeting sharks, which in the UK consist mostly of threshers, porbeagles and blues. These were quite a challenge from such a small tiller steered boat but also small boats can often be easier targeting bigger species. My fascination with game species soon saw me heading to Africa and Australia on extended holidays. Im now based on the south coast where I still enjoy the bigger game both from boat and beach. I did ok on marlin over summer and now concentrating on yellowfin and bluefin on light tackle, though I must admit Im finding that my body keeps saying no to the bigger stuff these days!!!!!...nothing quite like seeing a barrel tuna smash through the surface taking your stick-bait on spin gear. I've owned dozens of boats over the years but now back down to a little formula 15 which is basically a haines 445. This boat works fantastically on game species as its economical enough to tow here and there and uses very little fuel on longer trips offshore. I was going to replace this boat with a Remora 490 but decided to repower this one instead, fitting a Yam F115 tomorrow. With a small centre console you can easily move around the entire boat during a fight as well as easily drive the boat when out solo. I also get to head out on several other bigger boats a fair amount. I enjoy longer range trips these days where I can get away from people and mobile service!!!!! The little boat is great for heading 80k offshore with enough drums of fuel, food and water for a week of tropical island hopping. I also enjoy getting in the water to experience what's bellow the surface. Its all on a tight budget for me, no stellas, tiagra's or big talica's, more a case of old sargoosa reels on secondhand rods. The continental shelf is just 10lt of fuel away for me, so an average day on game fish is around 30lt of fuel. Obviously the 80k long range trips cost more but once Im out there I stay around the islands, so end up using very little fuel and camp fee's are either free or $7.50 per night on some islands.

Just to add Agnes Water petrol station has 20kg bags of ice if you do plan to head offshore around the islands.

I would highly recommend heading out to Lady Musgrave for a few days from 1770, not just the fishing but swimming with turtles and manta's etc. Camping permits are needed to stay on the island costing around $7.50 per night but with your side boat I would sleep onboard. Very sheltered anchorage out there even in very bad weather.

I head to 1770 too, love fishing out around the reefs offshore. I normally base on Musgrave, so having fished the inshore much though. Had some rough trips home in those SE 30kts + winds, they seem to get me every time!!!!!....now prepared with a Garmin in reach to get weather forecasts from anywhere.

While we are all aware plastics do take many years, often hundreds to break down they do also change from exposure to sunlight uv rays in a detrimental way. You only have to look at any plastics you have around your garden to see this for yourselves, just look at the nylon washing line and plastic pegs for instance. Something many people might not be aware of is that lighter colours are effected faster than dark, with black being slower to break down from the harmful uv rays. So if you are using light coloured mono lines and exposing them to sunlight day after day, they will be degrading faster than you may think, which may not be obvious until that time you hook the so called fish of a lifetime. In regards to fluoro, personally I don't waste my money on it. I took a variety of fluoro lines taped to a card to a depth of 34m on scuba, where all were easy to see. We personally did test after test alongside clear mono and found the mono (mamoi diamond clear) outfished the fluoro lines time after time with same rigs and bait. Knot strength and abrasion was also lower with the fluoro for us. The amount of plastic waste from the small spool sizes was also a concern for me. I have yet to find any line manufacturer stating which species of fish they used in their testing in regards to the line being invisible to fish. Fish have different eye structures, not all are the same, so what fish are they talking about and where is the proven data. I buy 1000m spools of mono which are kept in a cool dark place which I fill onto smaller old braid spools as my trace line. Each to their own though.

Ive had so many issues with split ring pliers over the years that I bought jigstar game split ring pliers which are easy to use on the heaviest of split rings. On light rings I find most of the cheaper brands will work.

Do you do a bimini with 6lb line, only ever used them on heavy tackle. Ive been using Shimano grappler braid lately which Ive been very impressed with, its about the same price as Daiwa J braid. I can't tell the difference between the grappler and twice the price Shimano Ocea braid. I have three reels with ocea and three with grappler.

Ive kept a few fish under permit for aquariums and found constant water change and maintaining a constant cool temp was key to keeping them. I sold one tank to someone wanting to do what you are keen on which the fella soon gave up as it was so easy to just go and catch bait before he wanted to fish. Something to consider is the slime on the fish may well take on a different smell from keeping them at home with tap water and while you may be able to keep them alive they may not be as good as local fresh caught ones. Don't overcrowd any tank with fish as you will be constantly fighting to keep the water quality clean. I seem to remember needing to change around 20% of the water every three days in my saltwater tank which involved having to find a clean bay to fill two 20lt containers. Sorry Im no help on the freshwater side with mullet.

Im another who has had issues with J braid not holding up for long. I bought 4 spools in various strengths and all were replaced within 6 months. FG or PR knots are best but I still use uni to uni when in a hurry or light lines I now find difficult to tie decent knots with.

I do a fair amount of beach fishing for bigger targets, such as big sharks rays and jews. Ive used shorter rods in the past as the leverage on large fish and casting bigs baits is easier, however distance was always a compromise. I also have a few rods in the 12-13ft range, two which are very soft (slow action) and a couple that are stiffer carbon fast action. The fast action tip action rods are very hard to cast big baits with and also very hard to use on big fish. So recently I bought a storm gomoku 13ft 12-20kg 3 piece rod (blue) as I wanted something more parabolic to make casting easier as well as tackling heavy fish. While these may look a bit off-putting being pearl white, the colour is actually a great advantage after dark with a head torch on its lowest setting. Ive matched this with a new Shimano saragosa 8000 which simply feels awesome to use (also has decent drag without being heavy). There's is plenty of cranking torque from this reel and loaded with 40lb Shimano grappler braid I find this to be a fantastic setup. Im able to load around 50m of mamoi diamond mono under the braid and the same mono as a 15m of topshot above the braid. I like a mono top-shot to give some elasticity in the line when I get big fish close in the surf and also safer to handle when very close to the fish. If your son works at <a large chain store>, all the above can be punched there. Apologies, just realised you were only asking about reels.

The experts claim they head north for warmer water during winter but they are common around the Vic border in water of 13'c which the abb divers keep encountering.

Ive been on several boats with them, they all seem very slow which is ok if you put the pies in early. 10amps isn't much if the engine is running but I would be careful if running when the engine isn't running.

Target was jewfish and gummy sharks, which unfortunately didn't turn up, or perhaps didn't get a chance from all the other fish. It was a case of fish hitting baits after the cast before the rods could be put in the rod holders. With six people fishing I was fully under the pump from replacing hooks and leaders. We ended adding around 20 more fish to the bait collection. Using just mono for traces to avoid some of the sharks did'nt stop us having to release numerous grey nurse sharks again. It seems there's no getting away from them, every beach I head to with good gutters holding salmon and tailor also have GN sharks. This is something we are seeing on the commercial abb boat right down the coast to the Vic border also. Every time the divers come back to the boat they comment on seeing GN sharks, something they rarely saw this time last year. There are even resident GN sharks at Eden boat ramp feeding among the the stingrays in front of the fish cleaning tables. Im always surprised by the bream we hook on 9/0 and 10/0 hooks with such big baits, these are not even big bream but normally an indicator someone wasn't casting out far enough as the bream tend to hold in close picking at the fish frames we use as burley. I was worn out when we got home last night.

Tiring night with barely seconds between baits hitting the water and fish on. Unfortunately it was mostly salmon and tailor with the odd grey nurse shark among them. It doesn't seem to matter where I go, I can't get away from nurse sharks, even the commercial abbb boat Ive been working on we are finding them just about every dive.

I use a shoulder pack with my gear. I don't need such things as rod holders as Im always holding the rod and working it. When I catch a fish and unhook it I slip the rod under the shoulder strap to keep it out of the water. You don't need to carry much gear, most people have bags of stuff they just carry around incase, where I make the most of the small amount I carry.

No, I like to keep them natural and by vac packing them within an hour of capture they stay pretty firm. Just about to head out and use them after checking a few beaches for good gutters earlier.

Normally I catch bait as I fish, I see it as part of the challenge, however I’ve decided to try things differently in order to concentrate more on larger target species.So headed to the beach with my son in the hope of finding tailor. You don’t simply rock up to a beach and hope for the best, it’s more a case of stopping on headlands, then scanning the beaches for worthy looking deep gutters with channels to deep water.Found what looked promising and my sons first cast proved we were on target. Another 20-30mins and we had enough bait for tomorrow evening where we will have the usual crew of kids along for some after school after dark hopeful rod bending.I’ve knocked the fillets off and the head gut sections will be used by anyone keen on targeting sharks. There have been some very gummies big to 25kg recently and one of the young lads has his hopes on a large one of those.Bait is vac packed in the fridge.