JamoDamo

Who doesn't!

G'day Fishraiders! Another day another fishing session and guess what! I caught my first legitimate mullet on soft plastics! Now I had foul hooked 20cm models and a beast 40cm model but nothing could prepare me for the fight that was to come. After putting up my recent bream on soft plastics topic up I decided to downsize my leader to 4lb and utilising light jigheads ie 1/16th's and 1/20 hidden weights with grubz and small baitfish profiles. Recently landed my first fish on a hidden weight and of course it had to be a flathead.. Got another very nice flattie on a hidden weight smothered in s factor.. that fish measured in at around 55cm and on 4lb I was worried about how the hell am I going to land the bloody thing as it was thrashing about and making long and powerful runs... luckily I made the smart choice of bring my landing net with me and plop! Flattie in the net, it had been fighting for a while so I put her back in before a photo as I didn't want to have it die on me. Gotta love quick after school/work sessions hey! Went down to a local spot 5-10 minutes walk from home on a dropping tide to give the 4lb another bash.. couple good bites here and there but no hookups... saw a big mullet swipe my lure before the pb one, was pretty skitzed out seeing that go for a grub! I move to a small mudflat section of the spot and bounce a lure over 40-50cm of water in broad daylight hoping for a flattie to smack my lure on drop. A little nip at the tail and smack! The rod loads up I set the hook and my rod starts going crazy! That wonderful sound of drag starts to shred off my spool. I watch this thing absolutely smoke me on 4lb. I watch the flame green 8lb braid cut through the water as this fish goes for another blistering run up the flat... I finally have some control and start to guide its head towards me moving the rod over to my left and slowly coaxing it in. Flash! I see a huge silver flash arise from the murky water first thought is.. is this a huge bream or baby jew or hell.. what is that?... a mullet?! It starts doing tuna circles and here I am trying my best to keep this fish from cutting me off on the oyster encrusted rocks. I finally get it into a little cove and grab it! What. Just. Happened?! I pull this absolute barrel of a mullet measuring 46cm up and onto the platform and what can I say I was absolutely stoked! Screaming with joy I hear my voice echo up the river. I couldn't believe just two weeks after a pb whiting at the same spot that I had just landed Bully mullet.. On a plastic?! Hell I remember thinking to myself about catching a mullet on soft plastics on the same day and guess what? I had done it! Unfortunately for me I was having a solo session and had no one to help me take some glory shots.. However I tried my best to get some good photos and the mullet turned into some future mulloway bait. I quick brain spike and it was over. It was out of its misery and I had some fresh jew bait! Ecstatic with excitement I call @SaltyGreek and tell him about the mullet... He was pretty surprised when I told him and I said i've got some fresh jew bait! I got a couple more hits from big mullet but no further hookups but hell i'm stoked! I later cut up some small strips and use them for bait. Caught a tiddler flatty and got a 1.3m longfin eel on a mullet strip.. on 4lb! It snapped off and that concluded my session for the day right at dark! Heres some photos of my captures! Heres a flatty I kept for Grandma: Was around the 43cm mark Also would anyone know of any tackle shops in the Sydney south area that would be hiring? I'm dead keen on a getting a job in the industry would be proper stoked to work in something like that! If so please let me know! Cheers Raiders! JamoDamo

I went out and got a 55cm flatty on a hidden weight and 4lb! Skitzyyyy. I think i'm going to try other spots this one doesn't seem to hold many if any..

I'm gonna go try all these tips these arvo down at my bream creek. I've gotten a couple bream in this spot on plastics but no big models only mid-high 20's and yes i'll look for signs of crushed up mussels etc

G'day Raiders, I've gotten semi decent with soft plastics fishing ... but bream are still my continued target species... I've been fishing 2" mister twister grubs on 1/16th size 2 jigheads and hidden weight 2.5" zman grubz and the traditional head weight jigheads with a little bit of success. I fish in this creek full of logs, snags and overhangs looks absolutely deadly for bream however i've only caught one there and it was barely legal! I've been using s factor scent on most of the plastics i've been using couple with 6lb leader and lightly weight plastics and to no avail. I've been fishing structure eg along mangrove edges, in and under tree overhangs and deep into snags and skip casting in skinny water situations but still little sucess! I've been switching presentations, retrieves, leaders down from 6lb and targeting areas where bream would be patrolling along the mangrove edges and I don't know where i'm going wrong.. any feedback/suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Cheers guys! James

Spot on, if one presentation doesn't work change it up fish can be very picky sometimes!

I'm no expert on kings.. but these are what I have seen people using for kingies. I usually fish finesse for bream and flatties so can't really help you there but i'm sure both would work well the 10" plastics and the minnowz

Sluggo's, slapstix, zman jerkshad xxl as far as I know. There would without a doubt be more

Thanks Ash. As the onset of winter begin to come more apparent i'm keen to get into some blackfish later on still obsessed with catching them even if they are difficult!

Cheers man. Plastics fishing has made me an overall better fisho and I hope to improve further into the future. Lets hope the next big one is a jew on plastics! Cheers Dirvin. Yeah they went hard and gave me plenty of good fun! Too good! Love the outdoors and fishing can't get enough of it would rather fish than play a game anyday of the week!

it was nothing short of amazing and man a new pb! Couldn't be more stoked! Now time to get ready for winter.. Planning to catch some big blackfish with a setup Royce gave me for free. Thanks man my pleasure! Poor bugger would've gone hard on 2-4kg gear on 8lb.. I wish Sure is! Wouldn't have it any other way. Cheers man! I had to make this report a good one looks like the effort paid off! Yeah can't beat school holidays One bizarre incident that will never leave my memory that's for sure! Hopefully next one I get is actually alive.. Thats awesome to hear! I'm sure persistence will pay off in the long run! My advise is small flicky hops letting the lure flutter back down. The double hop works well too, if a retrieve doesn't yield results don't be afraid to switch it up a bit.. and watch your line for bites! Cheers Ryder! Thank you Yowie

Yeah.. with time i'll get better

Thanks a million! Yeah i've been fishing dawn till dusk.. I'm just a tad keen!!! Couldn't spend it any other way in my opinion. Would rather fish and be outside.. I hate games with a passion hahah

Cheers man! Nah it became crab pot bait... didn't really want to get sick it was fairly old. I gutted it and found prawns, mullet and a handful of silver biddy. Cheers mate! Always good fun getting into a few.. I've been teaching my mates how to fish plastics effectively... got myself a couple apprentices hahaha although @SaltyGreekwill always dominate... the bloke has some incredible skill and luck with plastics... He makes me look like i'm the new kid on the block hahaha..... Cheers KB!!! Dreading it to say the least but hell i've only got 18 months to go... Looking forward to getting out of the place and getting into the workplace! Cheers mate happy to provide the goods hahaha Yeah... it really does show how elitist human are to pretty much any other species on our planet... especially sharks. In my opinion all nets should be banned we are only making the problem worse especially commercial industrial fishing ie huge trawlers... They sure do go hard. I got absolutely smoked by the thing.. Awesome catch on a plastic too good!

Sorry if the formatting is a bit off! I tried my best hahaha

G'day Ladies and Gentlemen of fishraider! Long time no see! Another successful school holidays absolutely choccas full of fishing! I've fished every single day of the school holidays without fail landing a fair few fish every single session with relative ease. The fishing in the georges has been absolutely on fire lately the fish have been all too eager to hop on my lures namely soft plastics absolutely slaying the fish! There's been big whiting, medium sized dusky flathead and a sparse few pickings comprised of bream the occasional flounder and big flathead. Overall its been absolutely on fire! Today I was rewarded with my pb whiting on plastics coming in at a chunky 41cm, the fight was incredible lots of long powerful runs keeping me absolutely powerless trying to drag the bloody thing in. At first I thought it was a mullet that i'd foul hooked from just because of the incredible fight but hell was I surprised when I saw this absolute tank of a whiting come up to the surface on 8lb leader. It was caught on a colour that I usually for some odd reason don't use ; a motor oil grub in the 2.5" size. All I did in my retrieve was these small little flicky hops back to the bank, the bites were weird it felt like little taps accustomed to a small bream. It finally slurped it down.. I set the hook hard and off the whiting went. Anyways heres the glory photos of my capture ; Unfortunately it woofed the lure down far and it was bleeding hard so I hard to dispatch this amazing specimen of a fish but hey she tasted good! Was pretty devastated to see she was full of roe... My mainstay has been flathead and bream on plastics usually on zmans and old faithful squidgies. My pb fish on plastics was smashed this holidays going from a measly two-three fish to a staggering 7! Slim swimz and grubz 2.5" accounting for most of my catches along with squidgy prawn wrigglers 65mm in bloodworm, cloud 9 and cracked pepper matched with 1/12th size 1 jigheads. I got a stonka 60cm flatty not too long ago on the squidgy prawn bloodworm wriggler 65mm at one of my local spots released as usual. This thing had some major go for a flathead it had me running up and down the bank trying to keep it out of structure and rocks during the fight. I was lucky to get this one in as he had woofed this lure down deep right to the start of his stomach opening. Luckily I was able to do some quick surgery with pliers getting the hook out with no bleeding surprisingly. Couple quick glory shots and she went back in. Here's some photos ; She swam off back into the drink to go and harass some more poddy mullet. Heres some more flathead and bream pics ; And here were are for hands down the most bizarre thing i've ever seen. Well where do I begin.. I was going for a quick flick at my local when I happened to see a big jewfish hung up in the shark nets by its neck. I was like, well... thats just a tad off. Anyways I run down chuck my gear and rods on the sand next to my mate whilst I wade out into the water with my lip grips to go and see if I can get the thing in for a photo... Well turns out this thing was every bit of 90cm and 7-8kg hung up by its neck in the net. I swiftly begin to entangle the thing out of net (by this point it was long gone by at least a day or so still relatively fresh) I then clip to lip grips into the fishes mouth and try flinging it over the net.. no good its too bloody heavy to heave it over a net towering over me by at least a metre... so I do the extra mile and begin to tow the thing along the net for 60m with water up to my chest. I get it to the other side of the net my feet sliced up by oysters and heave the fish over the net slumping over into the net. I also found a good whiting popper along the net for free (scoreeeee). I carry it down to the other side and man this thing was HEAVY. I took it over to the beach and proceeded to get some glory shots and bragging rights for the camera roll. Heres some photos: Well thats all for now guys see ya next report!!! Cheers, JamoDamo

Hey raiders, So i've got myself another salty fighter hahaha, I bought it around january 10th this year and up until now its been amazing. I noticed today and for the last couple sessions that my leader has been getting ridiculously chaffed when there was no reason for it to be chaffed. I scoured through the runners looking for the problem and aha! I found it. Turns out the rod tips runner had been chipped making the ceramic insert of the guide useless... Well a quick google search and I learnt how to replace the rod tip. I practiced on two old graphite lure rods that had broken beforehand and I accidently put too much heat on one and burnt through the blank pretty much disintegrating it (mind you they were all unusable as they were snapped and broken). I got a lighter burnt the glue away and pulled the runner off. I then noticed that the rod tip had a slight 93-4 degree angle not be 90 degrees straight with the rod. Could I have broken the tip pulling off the runner or was the blank just made that way? I replaced the runner with hot glue and its now back to normal just a bit slanted... which is making me a tad very worried... Heres a photo what do you think? Will this effect its casting performance or fighting a fish as it tosses or turns? I'm just very worried it will snap or do you guys think it will be fine. Ive been doing quite well on plastics lately i've caught at least 25 fish on plastics in the last week or so of fishing every single day/arvo after school/holidays now. Keen to hear the input from you guys! Cheers! JamoDamo If it doesn't work out I do have a savage manic 7ft 2-4kg turning up bargain at the moment $80 for a $250 setup

I might possibly buy another new one off dinga just to kill the problem and then put them on bait rods ahhaahahaha

I bought another one not too long ago!!! Man it is so weird getting used to the taper of my old rod but I just knew I had to get another one!! I'm having a bit of trouble with play in the handle knob and handle itself making me feel like bumps and knicks which is pretty annoying I am just trying to trouble shoot at this point

Yeah it how I started and now its my main type of fishing, theres plenty of budget lure rods out there you just need to go in store and look at what you want to get, if you decide lures aren't for you you can always turn the rod into a bait outfit

Well, my salty fighter had a good run caught me plenty of fish and then disaster struck... I stepped on the runner causing shock to go through the blank completely wrecking it. Went to load it up a bit after I got it repaired (Dodgy job) it snapped at the repair site.... I was absolutely heartbroken my favourite rod that caught me many a fish had now decided to snap on me... Luckily for me I saw the okuma z series and got it as a backup/second lure rod before my fighter snapped on me and low and behold it turned up and became my new rod. Its a composite blank but it gets the job done just fine. I've been using it a fair bit lately catching plenty of fish on it compromised of flatties, bream and foul hooked mullet (accidentally). I've had it for around 4 weeks now and have caught around 15 odd fish on it in my spontaneous sessions when I had time down at the local spot. Its a much stiffer action to my fighter which took a bit of getting used to but it works just fine but now the reel has started to play up, i'm not sure if I am just getting picky and overthinking it but the reel handle where it attaches to the reel itself has become wiggly even when fully tightning it wiggling and just getting on my nerves... Does anyone know if there anything I can do about this?

I want to catch something big on them

Hey guys, I thought as I have no idea what these are that I might ask all of you on fishraider what these rods are. I found three of these two piece yellow shakespeare rods in a throw out my mate tipped me off to look at, I was intrigued and just had to take them home and catch something on them. I estimate they are probably from either the 70's-80's around that time period. They have a soft parabolic action and the reels have around 8lb tortue on them. I can't wait to give them a go and see if I can catch something good on them. The reels click and the drag is very loud by they all work just fine and are in good condition with a bit of rust but they work pretty well. Here are some photos:

Man I feel your pain, similar thing happened to me while fishing lures for bread and butter species and hooked up to and lost a 80cm plus flathead right at the bloody bank like literally right there for the taking right at my feet. I wanted to cry I was so upset...

4-5" zman minnowz, opening night, midnight oil and pearl blue glimmer are stand out colours. Use 1/4 and 3/8th jigheads in a 4/0-5/0 size and hop across the bottom near holes Zman swimmerz I have heard are good too. You can use soft vibes and bream sized vibes for jewfish and others. You will get them on 3" but up and above for an increased hook up rate