MainframeJames

Yes! That's the one alright.

Hi Raiders, I wasn't able to get a picture but I caught what looked like a giant toadfish this morning. 10:30am off the rocks at Terrigal on a rising tide. 43cm and quite hefty. I looked up toadfish and they supposedly only get about 14cm so it must have been something else. It took a 4cm cream colour paddle tail SP.

Please share

+1 I've had decent luck with bream the last week or so. They haven't touched lures but they've smashed live/fresh worms, prawns, and squid. This is on 20lb fluoro and even then it's been hard to keep bait on the hook at times. Picked up some tarwhine, whiting and even an estuary ray on the same setup, so maybe try some live bait if the SPs aren't working out.

Hi Raiders, I have a bag full of live sea worms that need to find their way onto hooks. If you're on the Central Coast and interested in fishing tonight let me know.

I agree. I find it slips through the rings smoothly and winds without issues.

Whether or not they warp or melt depends on what the materials are and how/if they react to one another. Most tackle shops sell trays labelled "worm proof" and I believe these are safe to store any type of SP in. However, I still wouldn't mix and match. I have a similar method to many mentioned where I keep them in the original packaging, they almost always come in Ziploc style bags anyway.

I used to catch an awful lot of bass on beetle spins during the day. You can pretty much turn any soft plastic on a jig head into a beetle spin by adding the spinner. Heavier jig heads can get you deeper if you need. Try different colours and patterns. The spoons on the spinners can also be gold or silver, smooth or dimpled. Different ones work better on different days. Rule of thumb we had better luck with gold spinners on really sunny days and silver ones had an advantage on more cloudy/shady days. Not a huge difference, maybe 10-20%. Bass are ambush predators so the trick is learning to spot where they are likely to hide. If you can get a bait in front of them they tend to be pretty greedy. Our secret weapon when all else failed was drifting worms under a float just above the bottom. You can get a very natural presentation this way. My PB 3kg bass was caught this way, and my brother's PB 2.5kg.

West Gosford a shop has a couple bargain bins toward the back. Everything marked down to half price or so. One of the employees said they'd give another half off the marked prices, which they did. Not a huge amount of selection but I picked up some Sunline Super PE for a ridiculous price. If you pop in you might get the same offer.

Hi Raiders, I've been looking around and came across a Zebco Dock Demon. Further investigation shows that there are a few of these tiny/micro rods floating around. In a similar vein, there are "pen" rods that are telescopic and exceedingly small. One of the obvious aspects of something like this is the portability, which got me thinking about being able to take one bushwalking, or even in my backpack "just in case" you know? Another interesting and seemingly counter-intuitive aspect is that some of them seem nigh-indestructible. I have broken a telescoping rod fighting a shark before, so the idea of an unbreakable rod that is still tiny and super portable is very intriguing to me. The downside is that on a tiny rod, even a very big fish doesn't feel that big, so I wonder if it would be worth the trade-off? Anyone have experience with these?

I have a 6ft and 8ft. I find the 8ft not quite big enough for the beach and not quite small enough for a boat or near obstacles (like bridges). The 6ft is dreamy for boat and crowded spots, obviously can't do much at the beach, but unless I'm attempting beaches I don't bother with the 8 ft. And when I do bother with the 8ft, I wish it were longer. Both are 2pc rods, and there's a difference in portability. Maybe get a nice rod for the fishing you do/like the most and get a cheap one in the other length? I reckon a cheap rod is less frustrating than a struggle. Interested to hear what you decide.

Last weekend I hooked something very big on a prawn at Punt Bridge about 12:30am. It came in like it was swimming toward me but when it tried to go past and realised it was attached to something it turned and ran like crazy. Snapped off my 10kg braid in about 20 seconds. Didn't think my drag was too heavy, maybe just a rub on it. In any case, a lot of excitement and still wondering what I might have hooked.

Is silver rope a brand? Sorry for the noob question.

Thanks for all the info guys, much appreciated.

Thanks for all the replies everyone, very helpful.

I've always been pretty bad at setting hooks. Probably something I will improve with experience. Maybe circles would be an option for a less attended line while I'm spinning. I can get a bit bored just watching static rods, so maybe I'd get the best of both worlds that way. For other hooks, they all seem to be pretty much variations on the theme of J. Some have barbs, some have longer shanks, etc. Anyone have particular favourites or specific features/attributes that stand out as extra effective or desirable?

Rookie effort, currently 3rd for the day.

Hi Raiders, I have seen a lot of talk about how circle hooks are great for fish hooking themselves in the corner of the mouth. For me, this seems ideal no matter what kind of fish or whether you want to keep them or release them. But of course, if circle hooks were the be-all end-all then everyone would only use circles and shops wouldn't have endless rows of other hooks. This brings me to the questions: First, if circle hooks are so great, why doesn't everyone use them? What don't they work for? What are they actually designed to be ideal for? Second, are there any other designs of hook that would work to ideally cover the situations where a circle hook would be weak?

If I had to guess, these "highways" of blue bottles are probably riding a current? A current would be carrying along lots of other things, so maybe that's why there would be so much action around them. What sparked my question was seeing the jellies under the Hawkesbury train bridge on my commute. Not sure what kind they would be, maybe pinks?

Wouldn't mind a copy of that link as well. Cheers!

Hi Raiders, sometimes I see a few or a lot of jellyfish about. Is there any information their presence/numbers provides? For example, if there are a lot of jellies will the fish be elsewhere?

Thanks mate!

Would it hold for all species that if there's a minimum size limit you can't use small ones for bait? Poddies, for instance, are very small mullet, right?

Hi Raiders, I've been reading through threads about catching live bait and I see a lot of negative press for sweep and diamondfish and pretty much anything else that isnt a slimy or yakka. I think the obvious assumption I can make is that other types of fish don't make good live bait, but I find myself curious as to why. I would very much appreciate some commentary or insight about this. For the purposes of this question I'm ignoring worms, prawns, nippers, etc. 1. For live bait, is the preference roughly slimies > yakkas > poddies? 2. Why is this so, outside of the assumption that it's because they work the best? (It doesn't matter why they work so much as knowing that they do, but enquiring minds and so forth...)

I have a couple of those soft cooler bags for cold shopping and about a dozen of the little lunchbox sized reusable ice blocks. I put a couple ice blocks in the bag and throw it in my backpack. Not as good as a slurry but definitely keeps things cool at a minimum of weight and bulk, backpack would make it very manageable to carry even if you catch quite a lot of fish. (I wouldn't know, I don't catch many fish yet.)