Berrero

+1 on the recommendation of sending it in for service. Reasonably priced and they will do a complete tear down, clean and then quote for replacement parts Did this exact thing for my ci4 2500, had a similar issue and turned out one of the bearings was damaged Also recommend a drag washer upgrade while you are at it, they only charge $10 or so for it and the felt -> carbon drag washer upgrade was a huge difference for me

I've heard they're delicious but lots of effort to gut and clean, lots of bones, but as good as any white fish gets apparently

Hey raiders, I've been eyeing off the vanford reels and zodias rods for a while now for a new flatty setup - the 2500 and 2-4kg I was thinking of finally purchasing it in the next week or so as a birthday present but as I started looking around I realised that it was a 2020 release and I had been eyeing them off for a bit longer than I had originally thought.. I'm still happy to get the setup but just thought I'd ask a few things here first, such as if you have it would you recommend, should I wait out another 6 months for any better releases in the new year, have you got a different flatty setup that you would recommend?, etc It would be replacing my Stradic ci4 2500 and td zero 2-5kg so it's more like a sidestep rather than huge upgrade or anything, but my current setup is definitely starting to wear - the reel especially - have taken a lot of falls with that rod and reel in hand 🤣🤣 I take good care of the internals of all my reels, just lots of exterior damage, bail arm bent out of and back into place a few times, etc Thanks for any advice, with such a big purchase I just thought I'd reach out beforehand just in case

Congrats mate, they go like the bloody clappers once they are hooked If only they were easier to target..! I have a mate who usually chases pelagics and big jewies etc who purposefully targets them on 6lb with a float and bread because of how much they fight

Where about in Sydney are you based? May be able to give you a few starting spots.... 🙊🙊

All other advice above is great. One small thing I might mention - and would have saved me a lot of time when I was first learning soft plastics - is that you need to find the fish. Soft plastics are different to bait in the sense that you will very rarely attract fish into an area by fishing soft plastics, where as soaking a bait would start to draw them in. Perhaps the small creeks look like bream heaven but maybe that spot isn't holding many bream? I spent so much time when learning fishing spots that looked fishy only to end up with no fish after multiple trips to the same spot. There may very well be bream holding at this spot you mention but perhaps spending the next few trips fishing up / downstream a bit might be more productive if you were able to find a more active spot. Just my 2c, and stick with it.. it definitely gets better!!

Thanks for all your advice gang. Fairly versed in land-based fishing but a noob when it comes to boats. From memory the trailer wasn't the correct one for the boat and was just a place holder in the meantime. And you are all very correct, best boat i have ever fished in by a long shot. Ridiculously stable and so much room - could comfortably fit 8 or so camping chairs which fit perfectly between the crossbeam seat things. Definitely my favourite for drifting.. plonked in a camp chair beer in holder rod in hand happy days @frankS would be bringing it with me each time I used it I think. Unless very bulky and heavy he may let me keep it on the boat. @zmk1962 thanks mate, wasn't sure how the petrol to electric equivalencies were. Mainly see the elec motors on the small bass/ bream boats and wasn't sure if they could only really work on smaller vessels.

Flippin' awesome, thanks

Hey raiders, Bit of a random question, if in the wrong section feel free to move! I have a friend who is happy to let me use his boat pretty much whenever I like. Have a good time and manage to catch fish but the thing is it's one of those old flat barge boats they used to link up to make bridges for vehicles back in the war (or so I've been told), extremely roomy and comfortable to fish in (camping chairs fit perfectly in it!), but it's very noisy to move around. An electric motor would be ideal and I'd be happy to pay for it, but having never owned a boat unsure if you could even use one on a boat like this that isn't very manoeuvrable? Or would it just need a big one? Just thought I should check if I should even bother before I start doing some looking around for one. Thanks in advance

Looks like it beats the existing FR record by 10cm posted 16 years ago. I did a bit of googling yesterday to try and see what the Aus record for them were but couldn't find anything, only the ANSA record of 1.7kg. By all means feel free to point me in the right direction, very eager to find out how far off mine was. DPI lists them growing to 75cm/8kg+ but they also say flathead are still found up to 1.5mtr so maybe take that with a pinch of salt.

bless the mighty brag mat

Caught on 6lb braid & leader cooks river using 2.5" slimswimz size 2, 1/12 jig

Didn't think of that - I'm on it! Just don't anyone start calling me the mullet whisperer smh lol

Thanks mate, me either, thought they capped around 40-45cm mark. Both me and my mate pegged him at 3kg+ easy.

Been fishing the Cooks land based a fair bit lately and have been cleaning up. Planning on writing a full report in the next week or so with all my catches but feel like today's outing needed its own report. Went down to the Cooks river today to target one of my usual spots with my ultralight setup. On the walk from the car I noticed a few schools of quite big mullet just cruising around doing their thing. After about 20 minutes they started feeding however and knew that this was my chance to try. I had a 2.5" plastic on a size 2 jig, I knew it was hard to get mullet to take a plastic but thought this was probably my best chance - if ever. Had 6 or 8 casts out with nothing but then all hell broke loose. I had heard they can pull like a train but to be honest I wasn't really ready for it. Lots of long powerful runs, came close to spooling me a few times but managed to thumb the spool a bit harder once I could see the backing and luckily nothing got pulled. A good 10-15 min fight to bring him in and a quick trip to the car by my mate to fetch the net and it was all done and dusted. Came in at 62cm. Sounds a bit awkward to say but he's now my biggest fish caught on a lure - and it's a mullet of all things 🙈 🙈 🙈 (previously was 60cm trevally & flathead, both also on 6lb) Considered keeping him to stock up the freezer with some strip baits but decided to just release him in the end. Swam off strong. Gear: 2.5" slimswimz motor oil size 2 1/12 jighead 1000 stradic ci4+ spooled with 6lb braid 6lb fc leader TD zero 1-3kg 7ft6 Tight lines!

Such a tragedy, so sorry to hear about your run of bad luck Just out of curiosity; what do you think caused it to snap in the first place? Casting error / wind knot on casting / striking too hard on a carbon rod?

have been eager to try fishing with live prawns for a while now but they are notoriously hard to track down.. anyone have any leads for some live prawns for bait around the Sydney region? or any other 'exotics' Tia raiders

interesting setup, has me curious.. is that just a double hook you usually slide on in place of a treble?

Not a surface master by any means, but generally rule of thumb is overcast & slight chop is best conditions only to be trumped by fishing in the dark ofcourse

when land-based paternosters generally lay flat along the ground, just a heads up

I think this last lot is Daiwa tournament evo8, usually spend $80+ per spool on braid, it's something I've never skimped on. On the comment of it breaking when tying knots - it was 6 or 8lb braid that it would happen on, nothing big like 20lb+, I pull all of my knots very tight but in these cases I was tightening them so much trying to stop them coming undone that the actual line was breaking. I don't think I've ever lost a fish to the FG coming undone either. The knot doesn't actually fail as a whole, the half hitches just start coming undone, the knot integrity doesn't seem to be affected when this happens as the usual trim & tighten I do does the trick. Just wondering if there was something I could do to avoid having to do this all together

I usually alternate something like 8 or 10 half hitches - started with the 4 or so but have been upping the count to try and make it 'tighter'. Cut tag end flush with braid and most of the time I'll throw a couple more alternating half hitches to cover the tag end. Where the leader usually pokes out is a few half hitches up the line, resulting in a 2-3mm tag end sticking out. Furthermore I think I've only ever had two or three FG knots actually come undone. It's regular habit for me to check the knot periodically during a session now, usually catch it in the act before it actually gives way. Yep that's what I've been doing, have even put so much tension on the half hitches some times where it would snap the braid I was using. The half hitches are definitely tight as hell when I finish the knot, as well as the FG part being extremely tight.. leading me to believe it is some other factor such as the bail arm

Hey Raiders, Took the time & effort to learn the notorious FG knot about a year or so ago. They became really easy once I got the hang of it and it has been my go-to braid to leader knot since. One thing I have noticed however - and something that has given me dramas the whole time I've used it now that I think about it - is the FC tag end either poking through the bank of half hitches or the half hitches coming loose, sliding a bit down the braided line allowing the FC tag to work its way out. My knots usually hold well for a little while at least but notice after the 3rd or 4th session that the tag has popped out or half hitches have started to come undone. I try my hardest to tighten the half hitches as hard as I can and yet it still seems to happen. It's usually a quick fix - trim the FC tag as short as possible and attempt to tighten the half hitches again. Most of the time this works and seems to hold OK but it has just always boggled me how it has continually happened since I began using it. The 'FG' part of the knot seems to always hold fine, never had any issues bearing down on it & getting it to bite in, it's just the damn FC tag end that always gives me dramas.. I tried using the Rizzuto finish and seems to give me the same problems. The only idea I have so far is that I usually tie a longer leader than normal (I change lures OFTEN and don't want to use any clips) - I'm thinking maybe as the knot goes through the bail arm roller it is bending it roughly 90 degrees and thinking maybe that's where the tag end is working its way out. It's not like I'm running with 3-4 rod lengths, probably between 1 & 1.5 rod lengths. Knot is usually either just above the bail arm when casting or just wound on to the top of the spool. I have tried other knots (double uni, slim beauty, etc) but the two light rods I use have absolutely TINY guide holes and can cause dramas with knots getting stuck while casting & wind knots because of it.. Lost plenty of lures to knot catching / wind knots while casting and lure snapping off & sent flying into yonder. Hoping there is something small I'm missing or a tip one of you have that could be saving me a lot of hassle!! Or is this just something that happens with the FG and something I should get used to? Thanks & tight lines

Yep - went to 3 all up. First doctor said to just rest, second doctor literally laughed at me when I told her what happened and started googling fish bites, third doctor put me on antibiotics and it cleared up fine. Mine started spreading up the hand as well - knew the severity of it when it was happening, just had to weed through the f'wit doctors to get one that actually helped. Unfortunately this was the middle of covid and I ran a fever from it, so covid test had to come first in and could only then go to the doctor once I was cleared 3 days later which only made it worse. Getting better slowly over time just still painful to move. Thanks for the congratulations

out of the few hundred flatties I've caught and bare hand released over the last two years or so, of course it was a 30cm one that did me in. the little ones are so fiesty. this pic was a little over a week after getting hit from memory