PaddyT

Yellowfin have been around in decent numbers before the weather blew up- dont think weather will be good enough to reach them this weekend

Its interesting Jon that you raise this - i know a couple of the Sydney harbour charter operators pretty well and they are very big on conservation- they dont let their clients bag out and they generally dont let them keep meter plus kings and as such the fishery up here has improved out of site since I was a young bloke- this is mainly due to the removal of floating king traps and improved water quality in the Sydney area. The bottom fishing is OK up here but nowhere near the quality of Coffs or the Nth coast (long time since ive fished as far south as you are) I would argue that we dont need more regulation in our fisheries we just need the rules we currently have to be enforced- the biggest deterent to crime is the fear of getting caught- last time I was checked out by fisheries in NSW was over 20 years ago- the RMS and water police pull me over at least once a year. Funnily enough though ive fished up in Qld a couple in the last year and ive been inspected both times- in NSW the fish theives can operate with impunity.

most people cant fish 11 kg of drag let alone the reel!

Hi Kingie chaser your analogy with being a firearms owner is appropriate- have a look at well giving away massive concessions to the anti's is going there- the antis just want to get rid of us. Anyway back to jackets and other nanny state rules- this is also thin edge of the wedge stuff- again i reiterate my point that in the ENTIRETY of Australia year in , year out about 10 or 11 people are killed rockfishing- this is about the same as killed SCUBA diving, about 6 or 7 are killed every year horseriding, 50-60 drown in inland waterways (usually off their face on grog)- the drive for jackets whilst rockfishing will end up like this; SLSA (who are very anti fishing- cause we get in their way on the beach and occasionaly they have to zap around on their jet skis and pull some twit whos fallen in out of the drink) will announce in 4-5 years time that rockfishing deaths havent declined since the introduction of Jackets as a compulsory piece of equipment therefore rockfishing needs to be banned in certain areas- the pollies will jump on the bandwagon (cause its easier to ban things rather than be sensible) and next minute - there wont be any rockfishing- then I guess i can go to my offshore spots- oh wait the greens have banned me from fishing anywhere except on a 200m x200m patch of sand 20 miles up the coast and its to rough for me to go out today- bugger- think I will go to the range and plink a few targets- oh c!@p- i cant own a firearm anymore 'cause the funpolice have stopped me doing that too-sheesh. Sorry fellas I will conceed nothing to those who want to pander lockouts, "safety measures" for my own good and other restrictions on what is already a very well regulated recreational activity (fishing that is)- compulsory jackets is NOT a safety measure- the safest thing you can do on the rocks is NOT FALL IN- so if conditions look like they could cause you to fall in- DONT FISH- go home instead where you will get to see your family again- if you are too uncoordinated to prevent your self falling in- DONT ROCKFISH (and that includes anyone who cant swim for 30 minutes without stopping). I am perfectly happy for someone who wants to wear a jacket to do so but I will not concede that rockfishing in itself is any more dangerous than walking out the front door and getting in a car BUT like driving a car if you do something dumb -you could get hurt- dont do anything dumb and its a perfectly safe activity. Our politicians will simply listen to the loudest scream and if the antifishing brigade are screaming the loudest guess what- they win - scream back. As a final point- for those who want some further evidence- I run a swim school and have done for 14 years- every year i get the Royal (not SUrf) lifesaving drowning statistics which give a true picture of how and where people die in water (nearly every cadaver found in the water will be called a drowning unless foul play is considered)- guess what Royal Life dont and never have considered Rockfishing to be a major area of concern in reducing drownings- hop onto there website and read the annual drowning report its a good read and makes you think

Jon youve hit the nail on the head ! there is a heap of carry on in the media about "Australias most dangerous sport" pretty consistantly there are about 10 deaths a year rockfishing in ALL of Australia(I know you are a keen diver but they have about the same number- no push in the media about that!), there are about 50 drownings a year at surf beaches - no noise about that! Anyway the biggest safety message I can give is this- If the conditions arent right- go home-swells up-go home-wrong footwear -go home. I would bet 100-1 if the entire country is forced to wear jackets there will still be 10 rockfishing deaths a year-life is not without risk- if you want to wear a jacket -go ahead- just dont make me wear one when I dont want to and deem myself a sufficiently experienced water person that i dont need one until my judgement says otherwise.The only thing that this will do is make body recovery faster and cheaper.

Scotts is Ok- beach launch but can be done with a std trailer setup and a 4wd (be pushing it in an AWD)- Nambucca is not generally a bar that even the locals cross- only thing about Scotts is that your boat might be a bit on the heavy side, Coffs will be fine as will SWR, if your going to be living there - and you are right the fishing is superb around there- you aint going to be going out on rough days anyway- trade the HH in on a 5.5 M tinnie and then youve got something that can take you offshore, go crabbing in the rivers or whatever you like- good luck with the move!

A few years back i was running back into Broken Bay late arvo with the sun in my eyes at about 20 knots - Nor Easter was blowing and i was surfing in at around 18-20 knots- one of the wind waves about 10 meters in front of me broke in a funny way and I just swerved in time to miss the corner of a mostly sunken shipping container- scared the crap out of me- called Coastguard (as they were at the time) and let them know but I reckon the odd mystery sinking of small boats at sea is when someone hits one .

Ive done it Frank , works fairly well but i rarely fish at night these days. We took a houseboat on the Hawkesbury over Xmas and I kept a squid jig dangling over the side the whole time (just in a rod holder) averaged 4-5 a day in Cowan Creek where we moored

+1 , best time of year for them- wait till after the full moon and they will be on the chew

ive done a lot better on whiting in the summer/autumn off the beach than winter- the old rule of thumb was fish for them in a month with an "R" in it . Nothing to say you wont get them because im guessing less are caught in winter 'cause there are less people fishing for them. I will be honest i never look for gutters or deep water for whiting but rather the edges of the sandbanks and "drains" that run perpendicular to the beach- they will move into very shallow water on the rising tide and drop into 1-2 feet of water as the tide drops- a bit of red tube or red beads above the hook helps as well

Bass are probably on their way downstream- check in with WB&T- or look up their FB page or Sth Creek bass club FB page- if you can get hold of Aaron (and he is hard to get hold of) then he will fill you in

I cant think of anything else it could be- do you have a live shot?

Every reel i own gets the following treatment and most of gear gets used and abused - left exposed to spray and wind at the front of my center console. I dont own any cheap and nasty gear but have plenty of gear that is 15 plus years old (TLD's , Stradics, Torium) and the gearing/drags are still as good as new. The reels are left with the drags done up at "strike" while in the boat, when i get home i rinse them with the hose on a "shower" setting, wash them with a soapy sponge and then wash down again. I put them away after shaking off excess water and the next day back all the drags off and give a light spray with Tackleguard . I dont service my reels unless their is a problem , and to be honest cant be bothered doing it myself these days so send them to Shimano for any problems and that would be at the rate of 1 reel per year out of about 20 reels. My bail rollers all roll, my drags are smooth and my gears dont grind- reels are much better than they were when I started and simply dont need a huge amount of service- as long as they have all the salt cleaned off them and feel smooth there is no need to stuff around.

That reel will be ok for longtails/kings , small tuna - line capacity not up to scratch for marlin off the rocks, especially knowing what is sometimes hooked at the tubes-with the warm water thats hanging around- i reckon their should be a few longtail still around on the north coast but im long out of that scene so dont have a grapevine these days.

Tubes is still open- good luck with a landbased tuna in winter these days- last one was caught in about 1989! Look seriously your best hope for tuna off the rocks is the north coast in autumn, and thats a different scene to the Jervis Bay fishery. Longer rod- 8-9 ft, probably better off spinning than livebaiting as livies can be really hard to get other than at Tomaree and Charlotte- lighter gear , I mainly fished 10kg up there as the fish are mainly Longtails and mack tuna- biggest issue is getting sharked

Just had bearings replaced by Shimano and a general service including internal seal replacment done on a Stradic 8000 that is about 14 years old- the entire job cost $70 including postage-the cost of new bearings will be $10-15 with original parts- ceramic bearings will not have any dramatic effect- Jack Erskine was changing the spool bearings on baitcasters and overheads a few years ago for casting performance to ceramic ones- I had a chat to him about it at the time and they were really only of benefit to high end baitcasters where they had extremely fine tolerances - the tolerances in a Stradic would be "sloppy" enough that you wouldnt notice any difference. As a general comment- a nice mid range reel like a Stradic is well enough made (certainly comared to the gear that i started with) that you dont really need to fiddle with anything to improve them, they are relatively water and idiot proof which means that service should really consist of a good clean and thats about it- unless something (like a bearing or a seal) wears out. I understand as a young bloke you want to play round with your gear and get a better understanding of it all but todays gear is FAR better than anything i started with 40 years ago. Just hose, wash with a mild detergent, hose again and dry and spray with a bit of Tackleguard and put it away.

If they came with grease put grease back in them- there are bearing oils that go in baitcaster/overheads that can improve casting performance- but the grease is there for a reason- oil will throw out of the bearings as they spin and you will be left with no corrosion protection.

baitcaster or eggbeater?

If youve used nail polish remover rather than pure acetone it sometimes contains other things to give it a bit of viscosity and to make it "feel" better on the skin- this will leave a residue. Acetone is very slightly corrosive to copper as well and is also hygroscopic which means that it absorbs water from the air- the film could also be a bit of the seals of the bearings getting eaten away- acetone will attack a lot of rubbers pretty agressively- could be that-why did you do this anyway?

Good luck!

ive got a Daiwa saltist hyper in pe2-4 which i love, the heavier rods look good too, dont like Daiwa reels much but their rods are good

Jumpinpin- head down to Steiglitz /Jacobs Well and chuck the tinnie in down there-countless miles of mangroves,channels and gutters- good time of year for flatties . Brissie River worth a hit too-jew , flatties, threadies but its a commercial port so you need to be careful.

Hey bud , read my reply to your questions on the Stradic 4000-you can land a 50 kg fish on 6 kg line if your gear is up to scratch- BUT reels are not winches- stop worrying about max drag pressure etc etc- a 1 M king weighs about 8-12 kgs depending on condition etc, same with a jewie- the drag is meant to release line under pressure- not be locked up, as to your original question the Twinpower is a fine reel but you will get better bang for your buck with the Saragosas- as for size- are you mainly land based or shore based- what method of fishing are you using?bait/lures/trolling- how about you tell us a bit more about your situation and we can give you some more specific help- how big are you?how much experience do you have etc etc

Gees used to catch millions of tailor on them, a few bonnies and frigates as well- havent chucked one in years but im sure they still work- not a bad trout lure either.

Its doable , just keep your eye out- get on a couple of !@#$book buy and sell sites and keep watching them