PaddyT

Hi Jon, I take my F100 to the local Yammie guy who has an excellent reputation- he does a minor service every 100hrs and a major every 200- I'm up to 560 hrs over 5 years but the last 18 months ive only done about 30 hrs so I guess thats fine.

Salmon are bait! Just ask a shark

Quick grip doesnt have great water resistance but should be OK for a while. Key thing is make sure the aluminium is degreased, clean and then given a light sand- most of the time that will give you a decent bond to the Al

Great little fishery Moreton Bay, headed up their over Easter- any probs with sharks ?

if you want kings in Pittwater dont waste your time with yakka's- get squid

Good point Henry-BUT- the legal size limit only applies to Sea (Bully ) Mullet so I am assuming you would be ok to have dead sand or other mullet in your possession (up to 20) no matter the size (as their is no size limit on them)- Gray area I suppose

grassy

Used to use them on ganged hooks when I was a teenager because I couldnt afford to buy packets of pilchards- they catch fish, probably dont have the same "berley" effect that pillies have but no need to salt them they are very tough as Noel said.

Still calling grassy - they tend to be darker than the spangles, no min size in NSW- either way great little fighters and good chewing too

Agree Noel- online will give SFA advice either when a shop arrives properly its only going to get worse for the poor little guy

Fan Belly Elvis fish and a "Grassy" -Grassy Sweetlip or Emperor- first one pretty common , second one not so common that end of the world

One add on to this is a sea anchor or drogue is an excellent tool for holding the boat nose into the current if there is a bit of a cross or opposing breeze- use mine all the time. Reef pick on hard ground is the way to go- a lot cheaper to loose than a SARCA

Fine in flat seas but an anchor costs less than a $100 and an Electric starts at $2000, both have their places

They will be around until the water cools off- ive caught them in late May.

I reckon budget on about 10% of the boat purchase price-$40K boat, $4k on electronics-I run 2 HDS screens on my 5.4 M center console. For close inshore work H'bird is fine but for offshore i dont know anyone using their gear . I can easily pick up bottom over the shelf with a 600W 50/200 trannie. Spend as much as you can - you wont regret it

Did the unit come with a card? if not you need to buy one appropriate for your area

Good stuff Dan- as an ex HSS maniac (until my shoulder died) casting long is certainly an asset that few have. Funny how many "100 M casters" come to grief when you take them to a footy oval and measure their best distance. In my early days up the Central Coast there where quite a few guys who could punch out 70-80M with an old fashioned MT8144 , Seascape , 27Lb Tortue and a 1/2X1/4. When the FSU blanks and Shimano Speedmasters came in some got 100+ in good conditions- I was no where near that class of caster . Most of them looking back had a full body swing and excellent thumb control!

Its sad but can I point out that about 11-12 people a year die rockfishing but about another 250-280 drown doing other activities. Rockfishing deaths get blown out of all proportion by the press and the major causes of drowning- alcohol,drugs, rivers etc get ignored. I was taking some overseas visitors for a tourist drive on Saturday and the seas were huge, can I also point out tghat the vast majority of drownings are "Aussies" not overseas visitors.

6-8000 eggbeater, probably 8000 for line capacity- Shimano man myself but whatever your budget is make sure its a fast reel(1 m of line per handle crank)

pretty hard to gaff a fish less than 5 kgs of the rocks, even harder by yourself, get an old fashioned FSU4120, they are light, tough and cheap and have a lot of grunt for lifting- spun with one for over 30 years. The throw lures from 40 gms to 100 without any problems, can double up as a drummer rod, chuck pillies off the beache etc etc.

hop onto the Windsor Bait and Tackle youtube videos- as well as the minicreek bass stuff those guys do a fair bit of drain luring for bream- in some very unexpected places.

As someone whos been throwing metal off the rocks for more years than I care to remember I will offer the following- 99 % of metal lures on the market come with crap hooks- . The tendency is to have heavy gauge trebles with ski jump sized barbs on them, i reckon the reason you drop fish is because you simply havent even got the hook into them , and even when you have the barb tears a larger hole in the fish so when you get any slackline the hook just falls out. You can radically improve your landing rate by going to finer gauge chemically sharpened hooks treble or single. The other cheaper route is get out the file and get rid of most of the barb and make sure the tips are sharp enough to gouge your fingernail. Give it a try.

This- for what is probably a 60K plus purchase ,a cheap flight or 3 day drive will save a possible purchase heartbreak!

Noice-caught plenty of stripes and blacks but yet to get a spearfish or a blue- no matter the species they are addictive

Ok to eat if you can get past the green bones