adkel53

I've had this problem in the past too and have tried all the things suggested above without success. Try using smaller plastics or even blades so that they take the whole lot into that cavernous mouth rather than just grabbing the tail behind the hook. Then be careful not to let them thrash around with their head up when landing them. I have had fish take a plastic three times on the one retrieve and get them right up near the boat only for them to open their mouth and let the plastic go. Very frustrating!

Just back from 5 days at lake Jindabyne over Easter. The water is high at around 84% and the lake looks very "fishy" after the recent rains up there. Look can be deceptive though! I had spent three rainy days up there early in April when the rain kept us off the water (i'm not that keen!) and the fish were non existent when we did get out. I was hoping that the rain may have stirred the fish into action and set off with expectations high. It took until my 4th trolling session, covering many parts of the lake and a variety of previously successful techniques, until I landed a lovely 52 cm brown early on Easter Saturday. It took a Savage shrimp patterned hardbody in an olive colour and had a fresh yabby and some digested others in its gut. That was it until Tuesday morning. I contemplating just rolling over and going back to sleep when the iphone alarm sang its song at 5.00 am. However, I struggled out and was on the water by 5.40 just as the faintest glimmer of light touched the eastern hilltops. Trips to Jindabyne are not a common thing for me so I try to take advantage of every opportunity to fish this wonderful lake with its stunning scenery. A quick troll around the bay in front of Discovery Park and the sailing club drew a blank so in came the lures on off to the east Jindabyne area I went. After about 20 fruitless minutes my thoughts were of that warm bed! Just then I was awakened from my day (morning?) dreams by not one but two screaming reels! Thinking the fish had tangled the other line I set about retrieving it only to see a second fish bouncing out the back. Double hookup - you little ripper. Both fish were eventually landed and they were almost identical twins, being rainbows of 42 cm. Over the next half an hour I landed two more - one at 43 cm and the second at 35 cm. No more action over the next hour so off the water by 9 am and off for home by 11. It seems that the fishing in Jindabyne has been pretty tough recently and even the locals are struggling. I met an older local (while "scrumping" crab apples from trees outside his house from which to make crab apple jelly) who was most excited by my catch. It turned out to be an emotional meeting as he had just returned from the shops clutching two copies The Snowy Times. With trembling fingers he opened one up and showed my wife and I an article titled The Anthony Pringle Memorial Fishing Competition which featured a photo of a youngish looking man. Then he said "that's my son". He volunteered the details of his untimely death at just 45 last September from a heart attack as tears streamed down his face. My wife asked him was he a good fisherman and the reply was "he said he was" !! We chatted a little more and bade him farewell as he turned and slowly walked back inside obviously still wracked with grief. Next time I go to Jindabyne I'll be taking him a jar of my crab apple jelly. Life is precious.

Has anyone had experience with the Navionics platinum card in the Elite 7 HDI model from Lowrance? Thinking of upgrading from the Navionics Gold it was supplied with to get a better picture of bottom features, contours etc.

Can't separate the original Lion King and Phantom of the Opera as the best two musicals I have seen. Those hyenas - just spectacular!!

Photos added.

Those small plastic squids from Yamashita (white or purple/silver/blue) rigged with a barrel sinker in them and a straight shanked hook (O'Shaughnessy work well) and trolled at 5-7 knots really get the bonnies going. Cheap as chips too. The rats will also take them. Also less fish lost after hook-up with the single hook in my experience.

This could end up a bit long but hey – one only catches his first marlin once! I have just spent 4 days at Port Stephens with the owners of Reel Magic and another of their fishing accomplices. I’ve had at least 6 trips hunting marlin on Reel Magic and until Saturday we had seen one fish that took a swipe at a skipped bonito (one that I had caught and was intending to upsize), missing and peeling away never to be seen again. After a late start on Saturday and several hours of towing various lures around out near the shelf things had not changed. I was beginning to think I have marlin antibodies as the boys seem to catch plenty when I’m back on dry land. They know the ropes. A couple of years back they got 12 in two days when I was unable to accompany them due to family commitments. Sunday was a blowout so we prepared for a big day on Monday. Passing Tomaree Headland at around 8.am we headed east, east and east some more until we were about 40 km offshore. We found deep blue water of 23 degrees and set the blue marlin spread, heading still east. Not 5 minutes had passed before a free jumper bounded around some 500 metres behind us, immediately raising the adrenalin level of all onboard. We couldn’t interest him/her in our lures so continued on eastwards, seeing two more free jumpers within the hour. Alas, no interest from them either but the anticipation of a strike at any time rose. Ending up in 24 degree water at over 12000 metres depth, we headed southwards and back in towards The Carpark, arriving empty handed about 3.30 and observing a lady angler hooked up to a feisty marlin. Excitement rose as we skipped some slimies around amongst the clustered boats. We stopped to jig for some live slimies and as the skip baits sank one was taken by a marlin. We had a fish one and it was jumping not more than 20 metres away with our bait in its chops and plenty of slack line between us and it. Some quick rod work saw the line tighten and the fish power off into the depths. With me on the rod by now, we manoeuvred around the other boats until in the clear and a harness was strapped on ready for the fight. Just then another boat approached within 200 metres from the side, right over my fish. I just hoped the fish would stay deep, even though I wanted to see it careering over the surface again, until the boat got the message and moved away. Eventually it did - round 1 to me! The tug –o –war lasted 45 minutes until the fish popped up – tail wrapped and coming in backwards. No aerial acrobatics at the boat from this one. A tag went into an almost spent fish and we swam it alongside for quite a while before releasing it after some tail beats were detected. I just hope it was sufficiently resuscitated to survive as I have no desire to ever kill one of these marvellous fish. Mission accomplished - a TKO. We stayed around for a while longer, seeing three more fish being fought on other boats and another free jumper before heading in. Tuesday saw us north of The Carpark by 8.15 am, skipping slimies around some good shows of baitfish. Upon stopping to jig some slimies, we had a hook-up just like the one the evening before. Alas, this one ended differently when an incorrectly finished wind on leader parted and the fish was last seen bounding away with our bait attached. The most meticulous fisherman I know had stuffed up. Much swearing and cursing emanated from said person, along with a few self inflicted uppercuts. He hates losing fish, especially when human error comes into play. It is even worse when it his error. He’ll be over it by this time next year! We fished on, alternating between slow trolled live slimies and dead skip baits. No further action on our boat but we did see three boats fighting fish, another free jumper and a free swimmer. They say good things come to those that wait. It has been a long wait with many miles of water covered. But boy, was that wait worthwhile!! Thanks Dale and Greg for inviting me to fish with you. It is always a pleasure, even when the fish aren’t co-operating. Relatively few of us get the chance to fish in the deep blue yonder, and I for one feel privileged to be able to do so every now and then. No pictures yet, but I’ll add a couple when I get them, along with some video footage. Thanks for reading. Kel

Zmans rock!! Great range of styles and colours. The 3'' Minnowz are now my go to lizard lures, especially in shallow/clear water. Any number of the natural or clear coloured ones seem to be effective. I like to fish where there are small tailor (them being big flathead tucker) and hence the resistance of Zmans to having their tales snipped of is a huge advantage.

Clifton Gardens. Balmoral boatshed. Roseville Marina. Rose Bay Marina.

Keep practicing with the plastic ones. I also lost my brass pair but have found the plastic ones work just as well (assuming they are in good condition).

The little red "float" at the top of the net section lifts the net into the "witches hat" position in the water. Just ensure that you have enough rope attached to you float (red 1 or 2 litre tomato sauce bottles are good, as are laundry detergent bottles) so that the nets cannot float and drift way with the tide.

While I sympathise with your loss, it pales into insignificance when compared to my regular fishing mate's loss at Nelson bay last week. He, his wife, 2 adult sons and their partners had hired a boat from the marina for a days fishing while having a short holiday there. It was registered to carry 6 adults, so reasonably large. As they were quietly motoring along just outside the breakwall/harbour a tiller steered boat came blasting out, heading directly at them. The driver heard their shouts just in time to veer away from a direct hit amidships but still struck them a glancing blow with enough force to overturn their hire boat and land them all in the water. Fortunately no major injuries were sustained but they lost 5 iphones, three sets of car keys, 4 fishing outfits (including two Shimano Calcutta reels and a brand new Stradic CI4+) and assorted lures, hooks etc. All up about $7000 worth. Their hopes of receiving any compensation are minimal as the 18 year old local lad driving the other boat is unemployed. He has been charged and if found guilty will most likely have to pay a fine to the state government and be allowed to pay it over time. His victims will in all likelihood get nothing as he will have no assets to claim against. The law is an ass!!

"why dont you ask Robert Borsak and Robert Brown why they do what they do. instead of winge about it" I've tried - twice. Not even an acknowledgement of my emails which were polite and in no way abusive or even critical of them. They lost me long ago.

Nice fish there. I don't mean to be a killjoy but can I respectfully suggest that you invest in a pair of suitable gloves so that you can put your thumb in the mouth and get a jaw grip of fish that are to be released. Supporting themwith the other hand while you gently swim them boatside will greatly improve their chances of survival when compared to holding them around the gill area.

Some lovely sentiments in the replies to my post. I know that my mate would do the same for me if our circumstances were reversed. I'm off to help him with his vegie garden on Wednesday. Thank you all.

2013 has been a shocker for a long standing friend and his family. When I moved here in the mid 1980s I joined the local cricket club and quickly became friends with two of the players. We had children of similar ages and more followed. Our families became very close, spending much time together. One of my two mates is a fisho and still a regular fishing companion. The other is not and moved to Newcastle to work some 10 years ago. In April this year, just after he retired from work, his wife and our friend died tragically in a cycling accident. It rocked us all to the core and the memories of our dear friend Julie, who grew up in a fishing family, are constantly with us. Over the past 5 weeks our mate has come down to stay so that we could take him fishing on three occasions. Our first attempt saw us blown off Botany Bay by 50 km winds and on the second occasion we didn't even leave home because of the wind and rain. On Monday this week the planets aligned and we were out on the bay bright and early fishing the run-up tide for lizards in some shallow water. After about two and a half hours we only had a good sized bream (my friend's first plastic caught fish) to show for our efforts. A new tactic was called for so we headed out towards the mouth of the bay to fish some deeper water. The move paid off and we each landed three nice duskies in the 44-50 cm range before the nor-easterly got the better of us and we headed back in. A quick stop off at a favourite drop off resulted in me hooking and landing this old girl. (Please excuse the finger blocking out my face - not deliberate!) She was quickly measured (74 cm) before being returned to help re-populate the bay. We had a terrific morning out - three long term mates together doing something we had never done as a group. It won't be our last trip together as two of us do what we can to ease the pain of a mate who has lost his partner of over 40 years. A shared interest in golf and vegetable growing will also play their parts in helping him through this difficult time. Tight lines all. Kel

Water temp ranged from 20 to 21 degrees and it was very clear out in the bay. bretto101 great report !! what size jigs were you using We used 1/4 oz jigs in water between 1 and 2 metres. Kel

I spent Monday morning on Botany Bay with a mate chasing lizards on plastics. At some stages visibility had dropped to about a kilometre and we could only see the closest shoreline. It was an eerie feeling all morning after an intensely red sunrise due to the smoke. The plight of those directly affected by these horrendous fires and those volunteering to try and protect life and property crossed my mind more than once during the morning. Please give generously to the appeals which will follow. We fished the run-up tide for about 4 hours , landing 12 lizards ranging in size from 38 to 63 cm - most were in the 45-50 cm range. I also landed a decent blurter - going to put that one in the smoker today. We used various plastics, but the stand out was a 4" Gulp jerkshad in the nuclear chicken colour. A top morning out with a great friend as company. He kicked my bum this trip, christening a new Shimano Stradic 2500 Ci4+ in style. A top reel. Tight lines, Kel

Noticed this brand in large chain store the other day. Considerably cheaper than the other brands of braid on offer there (Fireline and Stealth Braid - both from Berkley). Has anyone been using Rovex Viper braid? Any feedback re breaking strain vs diameter, castability, durability etc. Thinking of trying some on an overhead used for trolling bonito and other surface fish.

Unfortunately, plenty of red-necked fishermen too. What Matt said about cleaning up (and keeping clean) popular fishing locations is the way forward in reducing conflict between residents and (often) visiting fishers. Regulating the anti-social behaviour and noise that some make is a different matter. That is a matter for the law.

No worries Ian. I've seen them in their nests in Tasmania and along the Great Ocean Road. Very cute (and fat) little birds - hence their desirability as food for some. Each to their own!!

"Mutton Birds" - correctly known as Short-tailed Shearwaters. They have a fascinating life history and undertake one of the longest migrations known in the bird kingdom - some 30,000 km each year. Currently they are around in huge numbers as they are returning to their breeding grounds as part of this migration. Read about them here: http://www.parks.tas.gov.au/?base=5100 Well worth a read and it might give you a different perspective on these amazing birds! Or This Youtube clip tells their story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SS5iWyWEAJk

Similar area!

This morning I had the pleasure of taking my longest standing fishing mate (and the one who is responsible for my addiction!) out to target lizards on Botany Bay. He is visiting Sydney from Nowra for the week. He landed the first fish not too long after we began - a nice eater of 45 cm. I landed another of 48 cm over the next 90 or so minutes. Things were pretty slow so a decision was taken to move to another of my favourite areas. Another 43 to me and a couple of missed hits to Colin were the result as we moved along the relatively shallow shoreline in about 1.2 metres of clear water. I had a solid take, a head shake and a fish that began to swim off to one side quite strongly - always a sign of a reasonable fish. As it turned out, she was a bit more than just reasonable. We got a glimpse of her in the shallow water early in the fight and quickly realised she was a very big fish. I loosened the drag a little and went to work, eventually bringing her to the boat in the shallows near the shore we were rapidly being blown into. Fortunately we had raised the motor because she dived under the boat and swam off towards the (slightly) deeper water again, necessitating thrusting the rod tip into the water and working the line around and under the bow. Eventually she came in again and I guided her carefully into the waiting net. She went 88cm on the tape measure - a true crocodile. After a few happy snaps and a hand shake between mates she was revived in the water and we watched her power off towards the deeper water. I often use 10 Berkley Vanish as a leader but today I had opted to use 17lb Vanish. Good decision - the end of the leader was quite frayed and snapped when I put a little pressure on it after her release. I was using 4lb Fireline and a clear-coloured 3" Zmann Minnowz lure on a 1/4 ox TT jighead for those who like to know these things. A 2-4 kg Pflueger rod and Daiwa Caldia 2500 completed the setup. The next two hours produced only 1 more 45 cm fish and a couple more missed hits in the increasingly windy conditions. A morning to savour. Sharing it with a long-term friend made it just that little bit sweeter! Tight lines all, Kel

Funny about that Rod. I could swear I've seen that fish before somewhere!! Thanks for putting the photo of your pb yellowfin up. A red letter day to be sure. Arthur