PaddyT

Do the mod yourself- hacksaw, new piece of foam, 24hr epoxy (dont use the 5min stuff)- less than $15. Over the years ive modified a heap of factory rods- remove a bit of the tip to make them a bit stiffer, or put a butt extension in or removed a bit of the butt because they didnt quite "balance" for me-give it a go

Only problem with moving Jon is that there are a lot more drownings on inland waterways- oh wait a minute, maybe that means they will focus on what is actually a problem- Nanny state strikes again.

Yep , give them an inch in what seems like a reasonable idea and next thing you know- your good fishing spots are gone. This tactic happened in the GBRMP and a few other places along the coast too.

What ?10 -11 people per annum in the entire country- why wasnt there a coroners enquiry into Scuba Diving- cause the same number drown every year doing that! (not to mention a few more from heart attacks etc). This is a precurser to a ban, the number of drownings will not drop because of the lifejacket rules and parts of the coast will deemed -"too dangerous" .

The new rules are a step in the right direction-pros no longer have the excuse of keeping undersized fish and no one needs more than 1 decent jew anyway. Now a slot limit would be excellent but my suspicion is that DPI didnt want to upset the beach netters and estuary general licence holders anymore than they already have in the last few years. Estuaries tend to hold many more undersized jewies than other places such as beaches and offshore so we should see so reasonably good results out of this. Not perfect but OK

Oh Here we go- the whole thing is revealing its true intentions, revenue raising and an eventual excuse for banning rockfishing altogether- i just read the report that the guy who drowned was described as a "poor swimmer". NSW - lets ban and regulate everything!

Ok - to your first point that you are not experienced at boating- first step would be actually get on board a few boats - on the water- maybe see if you have a couple of experienced mates and go in their boats- see what works and what doesnt. A 481 tinnie is capable of "offshore" work but rememeber that 1-2 k's off the coast can actually be a lot bumpier than 10 k's out where you dont get wave reflection off the coast. In a boat of that size 3-4 would be pretty cramped-especially offshore- I run a 5.4 m Center console and 3 POB is the most I run with offshore- and i dont have seats and canopies and other crap that gets in the way. My general recommendation is "bigger is better" but get some personal experience before buying. Brissie Waters is a great waterway for boating and fishing as is the whole Hawkesbury system. Either boat will do that job but again having more bodies on board will make the whole thing less comfortable. Get the trailer set up for "drive on/drive off" and pick a nice windless day and a ramp with no tidal run and practice the launch /retrieve a few dozen times before moving onto more challanging situations- I am assuming because of your caravan experience you can comfortably reverse a trailer. Good luck with the process and enjoy the boating- ask a few more questions too!

Saragosa 5000- its fast, tough and reasonably light- ive got one on an 8 ft Wilson rod that i use for all sorts of stuff, retails under 300

Its a good move , the pros will target them less - cause lets face it if they cant keep any they will make more effort to avoid them, issue of beach hauling remains but not a move I am unhappy with - if recs had to take the hit without the commercials too- then thats no good.

Pike- Stinkus Baddus, Barracouta- Stinkus worsus or Fightus Likewetpaperbagus

I guess on a serious note- I have 2 mates that had Etecs- both had problems (of a fairly minor but very annoying nature), one was issues with injectors, the other some electrical stuff which I cant remember exactly. The issue with both motors was that they kicked into limp mode at the drop of a hat and - this was the kicker for me- the local ETEC dealer was (and still is ) an extremely unhelpful character and the time to get proper attention for their problems went on for over a year in both cases.All motors have issues but its how they are solved that is behind a lot of my buying decisions- sure telwater are whacking Etecs on the back of all their boats- its called a commercial agreement- they couldnt give a stuff what went on the back as long as they can get a cut of the sale- AND Etec do it so they can get more motors out there- its got zip to do with how good the motor is. My local Yammie dealer is a bloody gem of a bloke- my motor had 1 issue in 700 hrs of running so far with the hydraulic ram- motor out of warrenty but he reckoned he should of picked it up at its last in warrenty service - so he fixed it for free!Reckon Im buying anything else- nup. I will add one more thing about Etecs-NO WAY in the world am i going to sea with a motor that saw its last service 299hrs ago, just sayin.

Yamaha EOS, would you buy a Yank car or a Japanese car? Release the popcorn

My local store has never been happy with Diawa service and my experiences are the same- very slow compared to Shimano, plus the fact that some of their reels have to be serviced by Diawa is a turn off for me, the gear itself is fine,and I buy their rods without hesitation as they are very good. Reels , I have 4 Diawa's and they are all ok to good (but that also reflects the price points) compared to about 15 Shimano which are all good to excellent .

Oh, and if theres no current- go home

Off Sydney dont look for the hard reef, look for rubble up or downcurrent of the hard reef

They will do you to start, I would get a spool of 20lb leader and a spool of 40lb leader, will cover most bases

Ok- lets be realistic, most of those fish species that you mentioned wont be available at this time of the year and as for y'fin tuna I think the last one got caught off the rocks in about 1989! Up at Byron and the far nth coast your most likely target with lures at this time of the year will be tailor and the odd (small) GT .So my suggestion would be go light, an 8-9 ft spin rod and a 4-5000 reel loaded with 20lb braid will catch these without hassle. A spare spool of 15lb mono and then you can baitfish without hassle as well. Longer rods are a complete pain on the nth coast as most spots have limited backswing space, a hand full of 40gm Raiders and you should get some fish.

Correct on all counts , have a look at Pfluegar Trion rods in 1-3kg , very good value, ive got 3 that are more than 10 years old, they are a bit heavier than some of the more expensive stuff but are very "tippy" and a good start point

What Derek said is correct, there is a fair bit of finesse with soft plastic fishing and the most critical aspect is "feel", so having a light weight outfit with a fairly "crisp" rod is pretty important- the reel is less so. Sure you can fish plastics with nylon but bite and snag detection will be difficult, thats why everyone uses braid. Find a good tackle store and go in with a budget in mind and talk to the staff (better done at a "local" than a big chain store) and get a feel for whats available. TAlk to an experienced soft plastics fisho and get them to help you out and maybe try a couple of their bits of gear. Softies are a very versitile way to fish- personally I use them for everything from flatties in creeks to dolphin fish and tuna and kings offshore, you are asking all the right questions so keep going!

Just to be cheeky here, have deep dropped softies on the 12 mile with a 10000 Saragosa- question should be what are you targeting?

Ok, unfortunatley striped tuna are a bit thin on the ground these days (the purse seiners of PNG and the Sth Pacific whack them before they get the chance to move) so they are mainly bycatch these days. Dollies are a proposition Jan- April a bit wider off the coast, the close FAD's of Sydney will only hold very small (read undersized) fish 99% of the time- and cause they are hit hard they tend to be pretty shy fish. Starting out you should be aiming for a bit of a mixed bag, bonnies, rat kings , tailot, salmon- trolling lures is a great way to go at first. A couple of Rapala CD9's or Halco Laser pros in the 12cm size are great starting lures. Dont mix your minnows with skirts-you wont get the best out of the lures . If you want to run a couple of skirts then Pakula Uzis are a great starting point. MAke sure to run a red head CD9 or LAser Pro- will outfish every other lure 90% of the time. The washes of both heads at Sydney are great as is Baranjoey, Whale BEach (both ends), just stay clear of the rockfishos - should be a few salmon around now, bonnies should turn up in November

What are you aiming to catch?

Hi Jim, hooked that little black at the wide bait grounds off Coffs, ive had that happen a couple of times now, once off Port Stephens at the carpark and this occasion. It was a bit of fun for half an hour and amazing that the sabiki rig held together for that long, I was putting as much pressure on with the light gear as I could and we drove hard after the fish in an attempt to leader it- but not to be, had a bloody sore wrist at the end! Back to your question about marlin in close of Sydney- sure they are there more often than people realise, didnt do a lot of marlin fishing this season but got one and hooked another inside the close FAD off Nth Head back in Jan- was working the bait schools , had another morning back in 2014 where my son and I hooked 4 in a 2 hr period about 2 miles south of the artificial reef- working bait schools again, find the bait, find the marlin.

Back in March i spent 30 minutes fighting a small black marlin that ate a string of slimies whilst jigging for bait, amazingly stayed connected for that long but the reel a Stradic 3000Ci4 was outgunned and the drag took a beating . After the fight it was lumpy and not happy. So got some 1mm carbontex and pulled the drag apart . The drag assembly was full of fluff from the cooked off soft washers (there are 3 in the reel) which explained why it was a bit lumpy. Cut new discs out , filed them to shape and put a light coat of grease on after removing all the cooked junk in the drag housing . Ended up just using 2 carbontex washers to replace the 3 fibre ones and the drag is smooth as, so pretty happy with that result. About 40 minutes labour and about $3.00 in outlay. Rest of reel in perfect nick and know the drag is back where I want it.

If you want a fish that pulls like a freight train in winter then- drum rolllllllll- blue groper, lots of them . nice flat sea conditions around the ocean ledges- but learn a bit about the ocean rocks first.