noelm

Didn’t fish at all, it was just a bit of fun and trying to get some worms for later. I am pretty useless at catching them, but I ended up with 4 which is enough for a quick fish.

Yep agree, Pippis are simple to gather (in legal locations) I took my nephew Beach Worming yesterday, he told me he watched some YouTube videos and it looked easy……..fat chance! No amount of movies can match actually doing it, after about 40 minutes he gave up.

Gardening needs to be a hobby, anyone who is not “into it” should just have grass (as distinct from lawn) people who have gardens and they are over run with weeds are far better off with nothing but grass. We have always had nice lawn and gardens, we are not “flower” type gardeners, but more neat and tidy tropical type plants, or neat trimmed shrubs. Thinking of planting a couple of Citrus trees in the new place, keep them trimmed and tidy, but unsure of that yet. No Palms……..no Gum Trees…….. I have a couple of Dragon trees in big pots (Dracena) that I will take with us. Over the years I have learnt the proper names of lots of plants, and have grown Avocados, Mangoes and lots of other things from seed, learned some lessons along the way (the hard way) about grafted plant seeds, also found out that a rogue feral Bamboo shoot is a nightmare to eradicate! We had a big Mulberry tree at one time, I dug it out, and it continued to grow from the ends of the roots, metres away from the original, took me ages to finally kill it!

OK, we expect pictures of Whiting next……😆

Were you casting to the weed beds? Don’t forget the beach worms, long shank, small hook, light line and a small sinker to fish the beaches.

See how easy it is?………

My son took a short video of the Pilchards on the rocks, but it won’t load for some reason.

Tailor cooked 15 minutes after they were caught…….a bit too fresh, but, a fillet of Tailor, on a fresh bread roll is pretty hard to beat! edit…….they were chasing millions of Pilchards, they came in so close that about a bucket full of Pilchards beached themselves up on the rocks. Almost the entire bay was just a “ripple” of Pilchards.

The size of the engine, towing capacity and all those things mean little when the ramp is wet and slippery, trying to start off, uphill, with a near capacity weight, on a wet ramp is your issue, traction and gear ratios (unless it’s an auto) are your enemy. As Fab mentioned, even a lightweight boat on a bad ramp can be “interesting” when I had my 4X4 Hilux sometimes I had to use four wheel drive at Oak Flats ramp with my tinny, at low tide it’s like being on ice with roller skates, just standing there is near impossible.

Buy/catch some beach worms, use the lightest rod and fish the ends of any beach for Whiting. Plenty of Squid to be had casting out to the ribbon weed beds. flathead lurk on most beaches too, walking along spinning will get a couple.

Can’t beat timing, we are having our family Thursday night dinner, beautiful afternoon, so a sausage sizzle was in order, some rolls and onions out on the balcony. During dinner my son spied some Tailor chasing bait fish. He jumped up, down to the garage, grabbed the rod, sprinted across the road, first cast….ON, a couple more casts, on again, ended up with 4 until he got bitten off, sure going to miss that…..that’s him over on the rocks, then coming back to get a bucket, and what’s left of the family after they all went over the rocks!

It’s funny, I don’t think of it as being “special” having lived there for so long, I appreciate the view and the convenience of seeing fish breaking up, but as I said, it’s just time to consider “old age” who knows how long we will be fit and mobile, the new house is only one of a few places I would move to, being up for sale is what prompted us.

A simple small sinker to a swivel, light line, long shank hook (so they don’t bite you off) and peeled prawn or small pieces of squid. Make sure no bait is on the line itself because they will nip it straight through taking the bait. Just lower it down beside the pylons, don’t cast out, after getting a couple, if the bite stops, move to another pylon. Very simple to catch, but beware, they are master bait stealers, a whole prawn will come back with a clean shell, no idea how they do it, most times you can see them swimming around.

A new area there’s a few options, visit the local tackle store for some basic info. Look at proper charts to find reef areas and use your GPS to find them. Use Google to look for “starter marks” or, simply drift around fishing the bottom untill you hit reef or a patch of fish.

Less than half, plus it’s a simple lawn to mow, my current place is a maze to do in three seperate places. When the pool goes in, mowing will be less, but a bit more “cleaning” rather than mowing.

It’s not that I don’t care about my lawn, I look after it and keep it good looking, it’s just mowing that I don’t like, don’t know why, it’s just one of those jobs…….

Not at all, the house is on the website now.

A battery mower is on the cards, as long as I can test one first, they seem very small! My mower and whipper snipper is still fine, it’s just something I am considering. Mowing is a job I despise, don’t know why, it just pees me off, sometimes my wife does it, because she enjoys it, I whipper snip and empty the catcher though.

No, officially on the market today, had lots of interest straight away, it is/was a risk, but a calculated risk (I hope) the agents and a few developer friends are very confident of a sale in a couple of weeks, but as they say “talk is cheap” it goes to auction 18th Feb if not sold before.

Funny, tourist love Pelicans, but…….the first time one sitting around looking cute for photos gulps down you Flathead fillets, they tend to lose their appeal! A few years ago my mate and I were getting Blackfish off “flat rock” at the front of Barrack Point, there is a great pool we use to keep our fish in before cleaning, there was a Pelican sitting very casually while we were adding fish to the pool, I happened to look around just as he gulped down another Blackfish, racing over to the pool, it soon became apparent that our near bag limit catch was now zero! Hate Pelicans!

Always used the uni knot, been doing so for decades, if tied properly it’s fine. Most of my leaders are only small diameter, so crimping is not needed, my usual Kingfish line is just 24KG straight to the hook, or a swivel and sinker above if there is a need to “force” the down deeper.

Yep, live Slimy, 15KG line, Kingfish don’t fight for a long time, they are very tough, but not long distance, Yellowfin on the other hand can (and do) take hours for a big one, that one was 39KG cleaned, so intact well over 40, (it had lots of guts) possibly even the magic 45 to make the old 100 pound mark?

The metal spin on filter with the clear bowl on the bottom are pretty common, but, they tend to be much longer in size and often won’t fit on some boats, but the replacement filter is cheap (Easterner branded) those “all in one” are reasonably small by comparison.

Buy one that’s plastic, not metal because it will corrode and look like crap in no time. The Easterner brand is at best OK, some of their filters are a bit sus, some seem fine, I have used them a couple of times but prefer a known brand.

I was just mulling this over….during my (too many) decades of fishing, I have caught some very memorable fish, but, some of the best times are the funny things that happen along the way (members like FrankS will know what I mean) just to relate an example, way back in the wild days of fishing “the Banks” my mate and I were setting up to anchor, I was the “anchor boy” at the time, up front and looking forward to direct him where I wanted to go. I was pointing and yelling “left….left” but he wasn’t turning, I started shouting, but we were just veering off course, I turned around to give him a mouthful, but he wasn’t there…….he was a dot off the stern, drifting with the raging current. Turns out, he leaned over to wash his hands and went in head first, boat still in gear, I pooped my pants and got to the controls as fast as I could and went to pick him up! Now it’s one of our best memories, the 39KG Kingfish in my profile was caught on that day, but….its him falling overboard that stole the show! The biggest Kingfish I have ever caught doesn’t even rate a mention when we talk about that day.