Aardvarking

J-Braid is by far the best I've used, and I've tried a lot of brands

I have a Stradic FJ 1000 I bought used for 60 bucks. It is by far the best reel I have ever used, and was so good I bought a Stradic 2500 for my jewfish spinning setup. Imo they are by far the best reel in their price bracket, and for light weight breaming you really don't need anything more expensive.

What everyone has said about not lifting flatheads head's is right. When I'm fishing landbased I'll use around an 8lb fluoro leader (around 2.2-2.3mm is my preference). This is because Instead of pulling the fish up, I can use my rod to lead the fish towards me, which prevents pulling the fish up and making it go crazy shaking it's head, plus it puts less pressure on the line. However, when I'm fishing from a boat or kayak I'll go up to a leader around 0.28-0.3mm. This is because I have to lift the fish all the way up to the boat, which puts more stress on the line and gives flathead more incentive and opportunities to shake their head and fray my leader.

Has anyone ever fished the flats at parsley bay? I've heard the jetty isn't a bad spot, but I'm wondering if it's worth wading the beach at high tide with lures for flathead, whiting, bream etc. I've been there before for a school picnic day and spent the whole time thinking how good the fishing must be, but I figure it's worth making sure it's actually a decent spot before I waste the last day of the school holidays.

What do you mean by using a swivel? Do you mean tying your leader to a swivel which does straight to the lure, or do you mean having a swivel further up the line?

I've done a bit of research, looks there's a good chance of getting some bait at the wharf at San Souci. Does anyone have any experience trying to get yakkas or herring there?

Thanks for your comment, that is very helpful. Are you referring to the pontoon in San Souci park?

Didn't really have a plan for which area, I figured I would base it around where bait is accessible. Most of the George's river seems to have nice deep Jewfish holes to fish. Instead of having a live well I have a live bait tube I built which I tow behind the kayak, so wherever I fish has to be within paddling distance of where I can catch bait. One thing I was thinking, does anyone know if the San Souci wharf has any bait around it? Seems like it might be a nice spot for yakkas, seeing it's close to the mouth of the river. Unfortunately the squid idea isn't really ideal for me right now, because I am in the middle of my final year of school and can only find the time to go out fishing once every week or two. Of course I would love to go out fishing a few days in a row and allocate some squid fishing days, but it's just not doable for me right now seeing I seem to have exams to study for and assignments to do pretty much every week. It is definitely something I'll do more once I get the HSC out of the way, but for now it's just something to dream about for the future.

Seeing how hard it may be to catch bait, I might try another spot instead of the George's, and I'll save it for when I'm a bit more confident with jewie fishing and can target them with lures. Thanks for the help everyone.

Okay, cheers. Any tips on catching poddy mullet in the george's river?

Yep, burleying up with bread and tuna oil. Usually get to the water at least an hour before sunrise, and use a rig with 2 size 12 mosquito hooks on dropper loops and one hook on the bottom with a little sinker sitting on top. The issue for me isn't catching them, just finding the buggers. They always only seem to be where I'm not.

As many may know it has been my journey to catch my first jewfish over the past few months, but the limiting factor for me has always been catching bait. I always get up super early to catch yakkas and squid before the sunrise, and am left disappointed every time when the yakkas don't show up and I can't seem to catch squid. Next time I go out in the kayak I want to fish the Georges river for the first time and am looking for a sure fire spot where I can catch some livies or some squid in the morning, so I'm not left disappointed like I always seem to be. There is nothing more frustrating than spending 2 hours trying to catch non existent yakkas before seeing a school of jewies on the sounder with nothing to drop down to them like I did last session

Good new for all us Jeremy Wade fans who have been mourning the end of River Monsters, he is back with a new series! It is called Mighty Rivers, and I imagine it will be pretty similar to River Monsters, but with more of a focus on conservation that solving mysteries. I'm very excited, I think the first episode comes out soon. Jeremy Wade is probably my favourite person on the planet, so he could make a TV series which is him watching paint dry and I'll still watch it, so it's just a bonus that it's about fishing.

Had a treble go in one side of my finger and out the other. I was in the kayak and would've had to load it back on the car myself, so I had to take it out myself on the kayak. Grabbed my pliers and tried yank it out, took me 8 tries to actually get it out. Was unbelievably painful.

Forgot to mention, when tying them on I try to get the length so it's just short enough not to reach the front treble, and I feel that seems to be the right length for a good hookup, and means less tangling.

I'm making my own. I have about 15 metres of 30lb J-braid I had to cut off a reel because of a wind knot which I am using to tie the hooks on. The hooks I'm using are a size 8 Owner 5315 SSW all purpose hooks. Funnily enough they are actually meant to be bait hooks, but they are perfect assist hooks, because they are the right size and incredibly strong for a size 8 hook. Only reason I actually used them to begin with is because I bought a pack of 50 of them for four bucks on sale a while back thinking "maybe they'll come in handy one day", and when I started tying the hooks they were the only hooks I owned that were the right size. I'm not sure how the fact they aren't perfectly straight effects my hookup, I imagine not at all, but it doesn't effect the action of the lure in my experience.

I have been using assist hooks on my surface lures for a few weeks now, and I can confidently say it has changed my life. My hookup ratio has tripled, if not quadrupled, and I haven't had a single hookset come off with the assists. I liked them so much on my surface lures than I changed the back trebles for assist hooks on every single one of my bream lures, and it has worked a treat of all my other lures too. I can't recommend tying your own assist hooks for bream lures enough, it is fantastic. Today I was doing some surface luring and had 6 hits, and every single one got himself hooked. It was a bittersweet day though. On my 2nd cast I hooked a pretty decent bream on a Sugarpen 70f, my favourite lure, and I managed to get the bream out of a snag and land him. As I was measuring him he wriggled out of my grip and back into the water, dragged my line along an oyster and was gone, with my lure still in his mouth. As many lures as I have lost in my life, it will always kill me to see a bream swim away with 20 dollars worth of plastic in it's mouth, and it hurts than much more when you've already landed the fish. My only hope is that the fish manages to get the lure out of it's mouth pretty quick, because I would hate to think that it's gonna be there forever.

Nope, a saw fish. I know they are critically endangered, but I thought they only lived in Northern Australia, no idea they were as far south as Sydney. Blackwatlle bay is also a weird place to see a fish like that

I was just walking along blackwattle bay today, and saw a dead sawfish floating in the water. I had no idea they lived in Sydney, how would that have even gotten there? Looked decent sized too, at least a metre long. Unfortunately didn't have my phone with me to grab a photo.

Targeting kings on 8lb, you're a brave man! Great catch

J-braid is the smoothest and best braid I have ever used by miles. I have tried fins as well, get the 8 strand J-braid.

Just had my first session with the new and improved assist hooks. The tides were all wrong today in my local spot, considering it is about 5 times better at high tide and it was dead low tide, but I was too excited and gave it a shot anyway. I first tied on the Sammy 65, and was pretty disappointed. The problem was that the assist hooks weren't heavy enough to sink the lure down at the bottom, which meant it wasn't sitting or swimming right. After about half an hour I switched it out for my berkley bubble pop which I didn't do the assist treatment for, and got a few hits but had the same issue as before with bream not taking the hooks. A bit disheartened I decided to see if my Sugarpen would have the same issue the Sammy did, and I assumed it would so I had pretty much given up at that point. I could not have been more wrong. I'm not exactly sure why, but unlike on the Sammy the assist hooks nf the Sugarpen actually improved the action rather than ruining it, and didn't effect the way it sat negatively at all. My the time I tied it on it was getting late and I was about to head home, but on the first hit of the lure on only the 3rd cast I got a hookup, and the drag on my Stradic 1000 starts screaming. After a great fight with a bream on 2lb braid and 4lb leader I pull out a stonker 33cm bream, 4cm shy of my pb 37cm soft plastic bream. I was ecstatic, not only because I managed to get my bream and 25 dollar lure out of a snag, but because it is my first ever decent sized topwater bream, which I only got because of tips from people here, so thanks everyone! As well as the assist hooks, I also took the advice I got here about giving as long pauses as possible which was certainly good advice. I used to give about a 10-20 second pause between dog walks, but today I was doing about 20-30 instead, and this guy smashed it about 25 seconds into a pause. Another advantage of the assist hooks is the hookset felt a lot more solid than it does with trebles, and it pinned him perfectly in the bottom of the lip, so nicer on the fish too. Another great thing is I have a 52 pack of ultra sharp size 8 owner beak hooks I got for $3.50, meaning the assist hooks are certainly a lot cheaper than trebles!

Some rigged lures ready to go. So far I've just tied them on pretty simply, but when I get the time I might go for a more permanent solution and add some flair. I'll do an update when I've tried them out to see how my hook up ratio goes.

I've been trying my best to tie the stinger hooks on, but I can't seem to get the stingers quite short enough. Is there any knot I can tie where I can completely choose the length of the line during or after the knot is tied?

I might give that a shot. I have a pack of owner size 8 SSW hooks which I bought because they were 90% off and haven't really known what to do with them. I also have some left over 30lb J-braid which I'm sure will do the job fine.