noelm

Hope everyone is safe and dry at the moment. Our local area is mostly OK, a few roads covered, but as far as the news goes, no house flooding….,yet! Just be safe if out driving, don’t take chances in flood waters over roads. The estuary in front of my place is over the bank, and running fast, like a dark, muddy mess.

Good rain gear, safe location, the fish don’t care/know if it’s raining, they are always wet……

I guess first off, you need to define “best”…….as in best facilities, best species, best accessibility, best catch rate, best climate.

Squirt worms get taken the second they hit the water, no need for them to be alive for more than a short while. Nippers will stay alive for ages if hooked through the body and not the head, but they also get taken pretty quick most times.

If you can get the nozzle close enough it might, just squirting it from the ground won’t do much. Be careful, those high pressure washers can do some damage.

As I have always said, if gardening is not a hobby you enjoy, you are better off to just have grass (not lawn) and just hack it down with the mower. Gardening is quite fun if you keep at it, do a little bit often is my motto, once you let a garden get overgrown, you’re in trouble. Just looking around (pottering to oldies) pulling the odd weed or pruning odds and ends is quite enjoyable and rewarding.

I recently (well kind of recently) got rid of an old “Kembla” bike that was complete, had Sturmey Archer hub gears, but the SW model, not the common AW hub, and really good, still operational centre pull brakes, and 27” Dunlop “sport” 1st grade tyres with great white sidewalls. The bike itself was kind of different, because back then, 27” was a racing type size, speed “chain gears” and 28” was considered full size and more a commuter kind of bike, I used to work at the place in Port Kembla that built them. Note all that terminology is from the “old days”

No, not really, it just occurred to me that maybe what was considered rubbish, is now a “normal” catch. Then I got to thinking, do we “need” a bag limit for general mixed fish, not fish already covered by size and bag limits, just general odds and ends in general? Not suggesting anything underhanded or anything like that, it was just a general “mulling” while I was cleaning my own catch. I have nothing at all against anyone keeping what they need, I do it myself, but what about in (say) 15-20 years, species once considered rubbish, were endangered?

Something got me thinking……I was at my local ramp cleaning some Bream and Blackfish, a couple of boat fishos turned up carrying an esky. As is typical I asked them how they went, “great lot of fish” well done I replied, they then tipped their fish out on the table, there was a heap of “Butchers” some small Sweep, Pike, a couple of “Old Boots” and some tiny Red Rock Cod, (very tiny) I then kind of wondered, is this how fishing has gone? Sure they were tourists and from who knows where, but in that considerable pile of fish, there wasn’t one I would have kept. I chatted with them while I continued to fillet my Blackfish, and they asked how far out I went to catch them, I simply replied I caught them from the shore, they looked at me in disbelief and asked where? I told them exactly where and how easy it was to access, and how I pumped some Nippers at low tide, I’m pretty sure they thought I was kidding. Now, before anyone throws stones at me, I was not trying to “big note” myself, or tell them their bag of fish was (in my opinion) not worth bringing home or anything like that, but it got me thinking about bag limits and stuff like that

Geees, a couple of those chainwheels on the bikes hanging up have got cotter pins…….nothing uses them these days. Way back in the ”old days” the cotter only had a small flat on it, and you had to file it to fit the bottom bracket axle/shaft. These days they are just soft cheese and you whack them in with a hammer, but they bugger up in no time. That’s quite a bike workshop, I guess you spoke your own wheels and true them?

Funny this should come up! I have a good mate who “collects” odd things. He has a hard hat from when the Snowy Hydro was built. A 6 pack of unopened Tooheys kegs, anyone who remembers them, they were sort of like a hand grenade with a wide neck to drink out of. He has every glass MacDonalds ever made. A wind up record player. All sorts of strange odds and ends that were in his garage where we would have a drink and play pool. Unfortunately he is moving house and it’s all in storage. Love odd “stuff” it gives me a real kick.

Conjola is a very nice place, my brother lives there and I get down there reasonably often, like most south coast lakes, fishing needs a bit of “sussing out” a kayak/canoe/small boat is an asset, because getting around the shoreline can be challenging at times, even just getting to the other side can mean a decent drive (or swim) that said, holiday fishing is fun and any fish is a bonus when it’s not a “fishing holiday”:

Seems this gets asked every full moon…….if you don’t go, you definately won’t catch anything! Fish don’t starve to death during a full moon.

Don’t know the area, but, best guess it’s pretty popular with “people” so going to be pretty crowded, that said, without trying it, you will have no idea how good or bad it is.

Blue Rings are very common, almost every rock pool and so on will have them, they are normally pretty well hidden and quite “shy”, so you just don’t see them, but they are around, do NOT fool around with them, just let them go as safely as possible, that said, to catch three is pretty unusual, like most dangerous things, they usually do not “attack” you, most bites occur when people mess around with them.

What are the other people using that you have seen catching them? I guess you are fishing from the shore?

You don’t need big distance, you need the right location.

You don’t need too much burley for Snapper off the rocks, (it will attract thousands of pickers) best places are deepish water with scattered rocks in sand/gravel, especially if you can find a similar spot with a gutter that water drains back into the ocean creating some whitewater with bits and pieces washed in. The best Snapper fishing is not over full on snaggy rocks and Kelp, there is a few great places on the south side of Bass Point that produce nice Snapper.

If you see a line inside, best guess it’s not a scratch. Can you take a picture from a bit further back? It’s near impossible to make out what’s what.

Is that a scratch or a crack?

Long Tail what…Tuna?

Most good tackle stores have reel repairers (and rod builders) that are a long way from “back yarders” the price of the reel doesn’t determine how hard it is to fix/maintain. Sending a reel away is easy enough, it just takes a bit of time and if packed well, minimal chance of damage.

Might pay to join a site around that area, there’s quite a few in SE QLD.

Most decent tackle stores do reel repairs (not the chain store types) but real tackle shops. Alternatively, reels are pretty easy to do yourself if you are even slightly mechanically minded and have some basic tools.

First off, you will never “dig” them out……this same question was asked a week ago. Almost all beaches have worms, look for a nice flat beach, not a steep one, with fine sand not grit and shells. Go at low tide with your “stink bag” and drag it back and forth in the receding waves, you will see the worms stick their heads up……then the hard part begins, catching them, no amount of videos can teach you how to get them, it takes practice.