PaddyT

Ahh ok didnt see you are in Tasmania, stick to the TLD 50's, leave the 25's at home, some of those SBT's you guys get are big! However keep in mind you are better off keeping on top of them using the boat rather than fighting from a stationary boat- the rollers on those rods arent great either and need a fair whack of maintainenece to keep them moving.

Yep i reckon once you get to 30 in a session you start finding bruises and handcuts popping up, once im in a bunch of rats like that i find it worthwhile to pull in the lines,preserve the bait until a tide change- that will very often make the bigger ones a bit more competitive for a bait.

Oh yeah mullet- fresh off the beach (a pro netter showed me this and its damn good), fillet or "split" and butterfly- equal parts brown sugar and salt rubbed over scaled fish and cook on open fire on a stick or in one of those fish griller things

Grilled sardines-aka Pillies- delicious European Mackeral-aka-slimies-very good grilled filets sgt BAker- too many bones but they taste fine red rock cod-taste very good but too many bones and spikes for me sweep-big ones taste fine, but complete pain to filet and skin- very tough skin trevally- very good sashimi bonito- very good in all sorts of ways kings- back in the day plenty of people i knew wouldnt eat them (dry out very easily if overcooked) but they are good too1 I reckon snapper and bream are very overrated as eating fish and generally wont eat either these days- personal taste is interesting but the key to it all is look after your catch

The main advantage of doing what you propose is to save money in the long run if you are fishing tournaments etc with a massive number of line changes . For normal fishing a "topshot" system will cost a heck of a lot of money up front to fill those reels with braid- why are you worried about line capacity, tuna fights are generally straight up and down? IMHO the backbone elites are too soft for trolling lures- you want to use a 24-37kg rod for 24kg line not a 15-24kg rod. If you are going to use a topshot- how confidant will you be when your knot goes for a swim?

All of the above is true- BUT we can all do our part by pulling people up when statements like "Rockfishing is the most dangerous sport"- it simply is not- just as many people die snorkelling and scuba diving, more die horseriding, call people out on their BS-rockfishing is a safe activity if simple common sense rules are followed.

You can "iki" a fish with a knife, or just get a braddall from bunnings and use that. Big fish like wahoo, spannies the occasional marlin that i might knock- they get an axe handle to the skull. When they are subdued I bleed them out with a knife under the pec fins or back of the throat latch, head in a bucket of water to stop blood spatter all over the boat then after a few minutes into an ice slurry

Its a monster, lucky enough to see a 700Lb' er a few years back and even at that size they are truly impressive , 2X is a serious lump

"I don't fish any shallow gutters." Hence why I pointed out that a blanket rule for all rockfishing scenarios is foolish- it should be personal choice- in your situation fair enough, if you get smashed up on the way in a jacket will at least keep you alive, in a wave wash situation it will stop you reaching safety and possibly kill you.

Yep and thats fine- thats your personal choice, as soon as Govt starts stepping in"for our own good" thats where I really have problems, the natural instinct of Govt and lawmakers is to "create law" and ban stuff- what about a shallow gutter thats wave washed- a jacket is actually more dangerous than none- as a question about your chosen spot- do you have a climb out route available?

100% the other way- if i though conditions warranted the wearing of a jacket then i would not fish, the drowning rates and deaths for rockfishing in Australia (thats all of Oz not just NSW) are pretty consistantly about 10-12 per annum out of between 250-290 drownings, my prediction is this- in 5 years time when jackets are compulsary everywhere and deaths HAVE NOT DECLINED (they wont) the next step for our fun loving Governments will be to start locking us out of rockfishing spots. Its simple, if conditions are that rough that you need a jacket, or if you are not wearing the correct footwear or you are so uncoordinated you cant help yourself from falling in-DONT rockfish.

I hear you, but before you make any purchases particularily if you are starting out marlin fishing read Pakulas "Between the Lines" and watch the vids, it will get you started- as for a 24kg rod- a few things- for 24kg DONT buy a 15-24 kg rod, buy a 24-37kg rod, gamefishing rods are pretty much good for gamefishing (and thats about it) but go slow and ask lots

No probs, happy to help before you start spending!!!

Love the truck- want one- and shares in Bluescope steel to rebuild it every 6 months!

Its an old post bear but if you want some advice on what to get started with let me know- happy to help. If you are around QH at any stage i can show you some of my gear and go through a bunch of stuff with you cheers

Coffs is your safest option, the ramp is much improved since it was modified a couple of years ago. Wooli Bar is not a great bar to start your bar crossing career on- dont do it without local knowledge thats up to date

What Waz said was certainly the reason i used and most of the gun spin fishos I used to see in the late 80's and 90's usedbronzed trebles. The idea was always that the fish would hit the lure rather than hit the treble which meant a deeper and more secure hook up. I very rarely spin the rocks these days and think that the original Raider lures were actually an improvement on the 1/2x1/4. Most of my spinning lures are fitted with dark trebles- these days i use the black Owner trebles. I dont worry about it for minnows, just metals. Another good tip particularily for bonnies is to use a stop /start retrieve- 10 really fast cranks/stop/10 really fast cranks. The old 1/2x1/4 was a deadly lure in its own right, key was that it needed bevelled corners so it didnt spin on a fast retrieve.

Yep, dead right, i always reckonned that most tuna species go into a state of temporary "shock" when they are first hooked, we used to take advantage of that when the giant schools of striped tuna used to form up in spring inshore off Sydney. We used to spin for them with our rockfishing spin rods, 25 lb mono and a 1/2x1/4 with 4/0 bronze trebles, we used to get the hookup, keep the rod up high and "skip" the tuna to the boat, we would catch 40-50 in a morning session and use them for bait for the rest of the year, if they got their heads down then you actually had to fight them. Different on light gear of course. And yeah, off the rocks or a stationary boat you can "troll" the frigate by letting him out on freespool and then slowly winding him back, repeat, repeat , repeat.

You need to be fast, i drop them upside down into a wet towel and if i have the gear ready i bridle them , but again, I aim to have them out of the water for less than 30 seconds, so practice your bridle rigging at home with a dead fish if you want toget better at it, otherwise i just whack a 8/0 throuhgh the nose and the other thing is dont knock the boat out of gear, keep moving forwards, as soon as the bait hits the water it will have water forced through its mouth and gills, if you stand still the frigate or bonnie will die, also dont bugger around getting them in, use some stick! The dont last as long as a yakka but if they get eaten who cares.

If there around , they are around, 30-35 cm as a livey is a great size, kings will harrase bigger bonnies but not eat them easily, if we see frigates on top we spin one up and whack a hook through its nose and fish it where we caught it

750 hrs in 6 years, and ive been whacked by work and financial commitments the last 3 years so havent fished anywhere near as much as i would of liked. My motor rarely gets turned off, would rather buy it than a motor thats had 100hrs use in 10 years

not saying it doesnt happen but beaches arent really the place i would be targetting them, kings generally need something to hold them, bait, structure, etc

First things first- what do you want to catch?having a plan and a target species always makes for better results.

So you'd spend a few hundred on lures that dont work anywhere near as well?

Launch out of Brooklyn