Aardvarking

I'm not sure what you mean by "do they require jigheads", what would the alternative be?

I just saw this extremely interesting video on youtube, testing the abrasion resistance of mono vs fluoro. I had always heard that the big advantage of fluoro is abrasion resistance, and that's why I spent the little bit extra on fluoro leader, so after seeing this I don't think I'll buy it again. Sorry to stoke the coals of the great leader debate, but I think this is fairly significant.

I have narrowed down my selection to the striker plus 5 ($430 new) or the echomap 55dv (600 new, found for 500 on gumtree with warranty still in place). The echomap has the GT-22HW-TM transducer, the striker has the GT-20-TM. What is the advantage of the echomap over the striker plus? I would ideally like to decide by the end of today, as I need the sounder by the weekend and postage will take a few days.

I've caught an octopus on lures. It was really weird, because it attached its suckers to a rock so I thought I had a snag. I left the rod for a couple of minutes to see if the snag would undo itself and I pulled out on octopus, must have been on there the whole time. I also caught a squid on a soft plastic. Funny thing was it didn't get hooked, it just latched on to the lure and refused to let go, even when I pulled it out of the water.

The price is 400 down from 500. I can also get the cv for the same price, but from what I've read the Downvu is a bit better than the Clearvu, with the ability to actually scan under the boat. The maps on it do look pretty good from what I've seen.

Actually I just found the Garmin Echomap 45dv with CHIRP on sale, seems like the absolutely perfect depth sounder for me. The sale only lasts until the end of the day, I might do a bit more research but I'm pretty much ready to pull the trigger on it.

Only thing I'm concerned about with the Echomap, which generally looks pretty good, is that it has the clearvu instead of the downvu on the older models. Garmin says it's an upgrade, but it's pretty common knowledge it was just because of a lawsuit not allowing them to scan directly down, so I'm not sure which is better in practice.

I'm still tossing up between the Garmin Striker 4dv plus ($230), or whether I should invest a little bit more and get the Garmin Echomap 45cv ($400). I was also considering the Raymarine Dragonfly 4 Pro, but have seen some negative reviews and think it's better to stick with Garmin.

That sounds good to me. With lures 4-8lb is perfect for smaller estuary fish (flathead, bream whiting) and 15lb is good for jewfish on lures. I'd use around the 20lb leader mark for jewies, but it depends where you're fishing. 10lb leader might be a tad heavy for bream imo, but it good for flathead. You might need slightly heavier mainline for fish like kings, but if you're good at playing the fish 15lb is manageable as long as there's not too much structure they can wrap you around.

Having an all purpose rod for bream, trevally, snapper and kings isn't necessarily the best idea. Where would you be fishing, and what style fishing would it be? I would have entirely different advice for beach fishing vs land based lure flicking for example. If you want to have one multi purpose rod for every situation and every fish you will never be happy, so it's a good idea to narrow down what you want to do with the rod before deciding how to rig it.

I had a look at the bottom side of the kayak, I realised that the only scupper holes are located on the bottom most part of the bottom, which means that method is out. What you posted seems like a great solution, I'm just worried about signal loss with an in hull mount. Is there any significant difference in performance of in hull vs in the water?

I'm not 100% sure which year my hobie is, as it was my dad's. It is definitely an older model, maybe around 2007 or 2008. It doesn't have the lowrance transducer slot, but it does have some scupper holes on the bottom, I'll try take a photo of them when I get home.

Thing is, for me my kayak is my boat, so I use it for pretty much everything, flicking lures, jigging, live baiting etc. The main reason I want a sounder is to find holes and structure on the bottom for dropping live baits, and seeing fish activity is always nice of course. My dad installed a Navman depth sounder onto our boat when we still had it (that depth sounder doesn't work anymore) and it was awesome, made our fishing so much easier. I'd be using the kayak in pretty similar areas, so I don't see why it wouldn't be equally useful. I'm not gonna go overboard, I'm thinking more and more I'll just go with the $200 garmin striker 4.

1. With j hooks or suicide hooks I find it's best to cover most of the hook in the bait, but you have to leave at least a little bit of the hook point out of the bait, otherwise how does the fish get hooked? Which circle hooks you need to leave most of the hook open, as the fish needs to have a fairly bare hook in their mouth when they run for it to work. It's advised to only have one entrance and exit point with circles. 2. Yes, bream love them. Other fish might too, but mostly bream. 3. You are right about the J hook vs circle. Jerk with Js, let circles hook the fish themselves. 6/0 is a good size for live baits for big fish, e.g. jewfish kingfish. You can even go up to about 10/0 for live baiting. For stuff like bream and flathead, that is far too big, try maybe size 1 or 2 for bream, 1/0-3/0 for flathead.

I have done a bit of research, gotten my head a bit around what I do and don't need in a sounder. I have narrowed down my search to the Raymarine Dragonfly 4 Pro, Garmin striker 4+ or Garmin echoMAP CHIRP 45cv. I know that Hobies are designed with Lowrances in mind, but the contour mapping is something I really want, and the cheapest Lowrance with that feature is way out of my budget. Has anyone had any experience with these models, or whether they could be installed easily in a Hobie? As a bit of a different option I was thinking of the Deeper Smart Sonar Pro as it looks pretty easy to use and packed with features. The only thing I'm concerned about there is the 4 hour battery life, because when I go out I'm normally out for 6 or 7 hours. Also thanks for the link Regan, I'll give it a read.

None at the moment, I'll have to install one with the sounder.

I'm looking to buy a fish finder to put onto my Hobie Mirage, but I have no idea where to start looking. I tried doing some research, but I have no clue what I'm reading in terms of what I do and don't need. I'd be fishing mostly in depths around 1-15m (20m at a push), targeting standard estuary fish (bream, flathead, jewfish etc.) in places like Sydney Harbour and Middle Harbour. I'm really just worried about getting accurate water depths and accurate readings, not too fussed about any bells or whistles. My price range is probably around 150-300, but I would prefer it to be in the lower ranges of that. I'm happy with advice on what to look for in a finder, or suggestions for a finder that will do what I need it to do, cheers.

Does anyone have any experience using waterproof phone cases with salt water? I know that mixing technology and salt water is like mixing cacti and balloons, but I need to be able to use my phone at the end of a kayak session to arrange transport home. I would probably leave the phone in a couple of layers of zip lock bags the whole trip, but it's still a worry that it will get ruined when I pull it out to make a call, or if I flip the kayak. It would be great if someone could recommend a good waterproof case that has been tried and tested with salt water, or perhaps give a word of warning to never bring my phone with me in the kayak if applicable.

I have found this to be fairly accurate and useful: http://fish-on.com.au/what-the-fish/

I agree, I use willyweather for wind, rain and temperature. I use http://www.tides4fishing.com/au/new-south-wales/sydney for tides, moon cycle etc.

Yep, it's by far the best knot for that too, due to its slim profile. Maybe do a few more wraps for a knot that needs to stay there forever, and really make sure it's solid, because even though it's a good knot it's an easy one to botch.

And here I was, all proud of my 83cm pb... Great fish, and great post by Hooked-Up, that's some really helpful info.

I'm also curious. It is worth doing to a baitrunner 4000D? It is spooled with 30lb braid and I'm using it for kings and jews. I am kind of regretting getting the 4000 as I feel the 6000 would have been a bit better suited, so I thought upgrading the washers could be a way to make it act a bit more like the larger model.

In terms of lure 2-3" grubz work well. For bait peeled prawns or pilchard chunks are ideal.

Thanks for the tip mate. I know I got all my fish casting north off the rock groyne, so that is definitely some sound advice.