PaddyT

I used to slab up dozens of striped tuna /frigate macks for snapper bait-i used to take a thinnish fillet off the tuna -about as thick as a thumb so it would make nicely presented baits-would use a plastic tub -layer of pool salt , layer of fillets, layer of pool salt-layer of fillets-you get the picture. Left the tub in the bottom of the fridge for a week and just drained the juices every day. Then wrapped them in gladwrap and tossed into the freezer. Lasts for at least a year.

ahh-no-first of all its highly unlikely to be ever taken as a serious proposal by fisheries-the amount of money and effort that would be required to evaluate the benefits let alone the possible problems ie disease , native fish depredation, other possible unforeseen issues would be astronomical. Stocked fisheries certainly have mixed success in Australia and the current push for bass in marginal lakes eg Lake Lyell -(although some big bass seem to come out of there ) seems a bit ideologicaly driven (natives vs trout). Not sure why you think largemouth would be a good target, i personally havent caught one but very well respected fishing writers from Australia (Rod Harrison, Ron Calcutt)described the fight of a largemouth being the same as a wet sock-and the yank fishing videos i see dont encourage me to argue. Money for stocking is certainly an issue, perhaps if we wanted real solutions for this then the thing we ought to take from the Yanks is a Pitman Robertson /Dingle Act of Parliament-where money from the sales of Hunting gear,fishing gear has an added tax that can ONLY go to improving hunting and fishing opportunities. Imagine 2 % of the sales of all boats,tackle,etc going to improving fishing, it would have an incredible effect.

Newport can be an excellent kingfish spot from the boat-especially in spring

Isnt the Jenolan closed season now?

Hi Albert, lived up there a few years ago and its a while since ive fished it but its definetly a good spot for small GTs, Queenies etc -stuff we dont see in Sydney. The area called Woods Bay is worth a shot-small surface stick baits and soft plastics on tide changes and sunrise/sunset, Munna Point Bridge is the same and the Sheraton Bridge can also be good. The bust ups are fairly subtle . The rocks can be really good but its a long walk to the most productive areas.

can remember fishing there as a teenager in nothing but footy shorts and a tshirt-didnt care that i turned blue. Good to see it still fires, as a youngster used to pee some of the old timers off by berleying really heavily with cabbage and getting the fish to switch , blackfish are a lot of fun.

probably

Going to say it again-clips are a disaster with anything other than really light gear unless you are willing to pay top dollar for gamefishing snaps -which start at $20 each and go up from there-AND are too bulky for lure spinning anyway. If you want to change lures quickly use the system which was shown to me many years ago. Tie a solid brass ring to your leader, use split ring pliers to change your lure over , works a treat and having caught countless large fish off the rocks and boat using this system -and never had it fail once on tackle up to 80lb braid and 150 lb leaders , it will save you a lot of heartbreak.

Lots of great places in Central Europe to visit-I will point out that the weather between Jan-end of March will be anywhere between just cold to extremely cold and miserable , down to the south will start to become quite warm from May onwards but that is peak tourist season also until September -I have loads of relatives and friends in Hungary so know the area reasonably well-as to the fishing -no idea-Hungary has trout in the Tatra mountains(near Slovakia) and lots of "coarse" fish -pike, perch, carp etc everywhere else.

As someone who downrigs a lot you are better off with the heavier bomb -especially with livies-also personally i dont faf around with rubber bands (neither does a certain sydney guide who catches more kings than anyone i know) -8/0 livebait hook straight in front of the eyes. Dont even bother trying circles for downrigging. Another tip is dont take your eye off the rod, if you get a knockdown bite that doesnt hookup drop the bait back with the bail arm open or in freespool, the king will be there waiting.

Got 3 on Easter sunday in pretty quick time-hardest part of the day was getting livies-went out with 6 in the tank and first 3 got me 2x75 and 1x85 -FADS were very busy-i went elsewhere but there were still 3 boats other than mine-they got nothing-no livies-no bites.

Start by trolling , do your first run in any new spot reasonably wide of the rocks so you can watch for bommies/shallow patches etc , sometimes your best way of understanding a spot is to go with a reasonable sea is running-this tends to expose all the bommies and shallow bits.work your way up to casting. NEVER turn the motor off, when you hook a fish just point the boat away from the rocks and drive out , learn the handling characteristics of your boat, you will find that most outboard powered boats have better control with a few revs on the motor. In certain gnarly spots when im trolling baits for kings i will keep the revs on my boat at about 1000rpm just so i have a better handling on my steering, when im trolling lures its not usually an issue because im at 4-5 knots if im trolling bibbed lures and 6-7 with skirts-so plenty of control. , watch your sounder, GPS (preferably with a decent chart)and whats in front of you. When you hook a fish think about your safety before you think about winding the fish in. Its a very productive way to start offshore fishing .

100% , real mix of temperate and tropical fisheries , easy run to the shelf if marlin are your thing, rivers have good crabbing etc, drive up the hill for trout. Its a great spot.

Best system i used when i was a serious metal chucker off the rocks was to tie a solid brass ring to the end of my leader and then use splitring pliers to change lures. Those little clips are weak as p!@$.

Bail arm open and drop-in current i will stick crew down the back of the boat and slowly drive backwards into the current to keep the line vertical -in my experience jiggling the rod tip up and down doesnt work all that well.