PaddyT

The Stradic Ci series are essentially light tackle reels with smooth gearing drags etc designed to be light weight. I have a 2500 which is loaded with 6lb Fireline (which actually breaks at around 20lb)- earlier this year at Coffs I hooked a small black marlin while jigging for bait and fought that fish for over 30 minutes under pretty heavy drag before it wore through the leader- highest drag pressure I put on was about 3kgs and after the fight the drag washers were smoothed out a fair bit and need replacement as the drag is a bit lumpy- now as for 11kg of drag- I will make the point that i dont really know anyone who can fish more than about 9kgs of drag for more than about 10 minutes without a harness- its a lot more pressure than you realise- this includes a mate of mine who is an ex NRL player and is still as fit as a fiddle . Forget max drag pressure - its a marketing wank . I set my heavy kingfish rod at 10kgs of drag when downrigging and when we hook up i drive away hard from the structure until we are in clear water and then back the drag off a few turns so we dont pull the hook- thats on 80lb braid and 100lb leader- most of the times you cant even pull the rod out of the holder antil ive slowed the boat down and got some angle on the fish.- the reel for that is 20000 Stella which is actually designed as a heavy tackle reel- the Ci 4 is not.-But its a very nice reel and can fight big fish with smooth rodwork and fighting technique-its not designed to be locked up and used as a winch.

If its purely a fishing boat - and by that i mean one that the wife and kids only get on a couple of times a year then dont buy the boat for their occasional use- buy it for what it gets used for 95% of the time- from the sounds of what you are after then have a look on the 2nd hand market for a tricked up 4.5 M center console or even tiller steer- get an electric/decnet sounder etc for under 20 K without too many probs at all I reckon

If you are mechanically minded- no worries BUT- that reel needs to be stripped and dried and all grease removed- the grease will hold salt and eventually cause corrosion- so depending on your abilities either do it yourself- Saltaway will help with the salt in the reel as Jon said, but if you are not mechanically minded then send to Shimano- they have a great service dept.

reckon Sat/Sun very hairy to say the least-tommorrow might be alright down your way Jon as it will be mainly from the west without too much south in it- always good revenge on the kids if you go out on a school day!

Fish might run up the rivers if we get a decent downpour this weekend, you might want to look a bit more off the beaten track- a good hint is have a look at getting to the Coxes/Jenolan River junction this winter good luck

Excellent sea views from the top of the swell, shame about the walls of green water at the bottom

There is a website that is pretty informative called www.bluemountainsfishing.net/ , have a look for some background info including streams and rivers.

We used to waste time with bait etc on catching livies- but in 99 % of situations we catch them much faster with sabikis. We use a very aggresive approach and simply sound the schools out and bomb them with sabikis on as big a sinker as the depth and current dictates- if im not marking bait then we dont drop- 99% of the time the bites will come on the drop so we just drop then wind up above the school and drop again- just leave the motor running and keep chasing the marks on the sounder- another hint for sabikis is when you are winding them in with fish on grab the sinker and then try to shake the livies into the tank- stops nearly all the tangles- sabikis are disposable items, i rarely get more than 2 uses out of a set- also most of the brand name ones - Yamashita etc seem to work much better than the no names. Funny thing though I still strike the odd spot where small hook and a bit of bait works best- these places tend to be spots with very little current eg Cowan Creek

plenty of bait in Cowan at the moment, up the bays on the edge of the weed is as good a place as anywhere, most bays will have yakka's - sabikis arent as effective up in Cowan as an unweighted bait- if you really have your heart set on a jewie dont waste your time with yakka's- live or fresh squid or cuttlefish is the go in Cowan- look in the same places as above on the weedbeds.

If you like your current boat, get a trailer set up for drive on/drive off- makes single person usage easy-

Only very small bait traps are legal in NSW, used them plenty of times for small mullet, just use sabikis for yakka's or a small baited hook- there are flow through bait buckets available but never tried one.

Cheers for that

Hi Peter, just noticed you said youve got a charmate- thinking of getting one- can you get a "cold" smoke on the fish or is it still a hot smoke?

Looks good- let your fish firm up on ice or in the fridge before skinning- helps a lot- and different species take different amounts of time to hit rigor mortis.

Looks fine to me- crabs arent that smart

Didnt finish reply, the kings up Cowan are very fussy, best bet is live or very fresh squid, good luck

A few big cowanyoung around a t the moment but a bit more common out at sea-having said that Cowan is a weird place and all sorts of things turn up there , tuna could be mack tuna at that size, certainly seen them up Cowan before

Good on you for picking up other peoples crap and well done on the fish

my reels get no more than a rinse, wash with sudsy water and a re-rinse- good thing about Stella's , Saragosa's et al is that they are (ab)use and forget , I havent even looked at the line roller on my 6 year old 4000 other than to check it is still rolling (it does) , its caught well over 200 kings , crap loads of tuna, mackeral, dollies, bonito and a few jew- its tough as nails and comes out every trip and sits in front of my boat console where it cops spray, bangs, bumps and everything else- great reel

Interesting that you say that Jon , my local tackle store has had nothing but problems with D and that matches my own experience, but i know guys who swear by the D brand too! My experiences have been reels sitting at D for 2 months before they are even looked at and Shimano getting reels back to me inside 10 days- i know service is not the only issue but if there is a problem with reel worth a grand or so- i want it looked at in a timely matter. For the record I have 2 Stella's-a 4000 which gets flogged and doesnt miss a beat and is the outfit that everyone who steps on my boat loves to grab, the other is a 20000 which I hardly use , too be honest I would probably just go with Saragosa's these days(got a 5000 and a 10000- both get flogged) and they seem unbreakable and damn good value for money- my two cents

What Jon said- except i dont use circles but usually hook most of my kings on full drag- I catch most of mine downrigging or slow trolling livies, occassionally I get a knock out from the rigger and will drop back until the fish re takes the bait- but i usually hit them as soon as they are rapidly pulling the line out of my fingers. Fiddling with the drag is a great way to blow fish. I used to own quite a few baitrunners but only have one left which i use for blackfish fishing (or did anyway I havent fished for blackies in at least 5 years)- the drags are a bit iffie, the other use a found to be good for them was fishing live poddie mullet for flathead (another form of fishing i havent done in at least 15 years), otherwise they arent worth it I reckon.

Drummer- everywhere on the Nthn Beaches, take a drive with a street directory and basically pick a wash, other than the Ovens which has been mentioned ad nauseum above try, Bluefish, Harbord, Curlie, North Whale , Avalon Hole in the wall , Sth Palm and Barranjoey- all place ive caught pigs Pelagics- Baranjoey, Nth Whale, Nth Curlie, Nth Head and Bluefish Good luck

What Captain Spanner said- if you dont have a functioning VHF - dont bother going wider- 27meg is not up to scratch- the blackspot issue is very true,I normally dont log on going out the harbour until im clear of north head- MR Sydney is up at Terry Hills so under the cliffs you are in a blackspot.

Sort the radio out- 12 mile is getting marginal for mobile range if you get into trouble. At this stage the weekend looks pretty crap- strong northerlies Sat and a sthly change Sunday. The close FAD off nth head is about 4 miles from Nth Head and is in a fairly useless position, the 12 mile- well ,its 12 miles from the heads, the Sydney East FAD is closer to Botany but is just south of the Peak which is about 7nm from Sth HEad, there is also the waverider which is in 100m of water off Dee Why- 3 blokes offshore in a 4.5 M boat is going to be a tight squeeze

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