XD351
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Posts posted by XD351
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23 minutes ago, Little_Flatty said:
I will add that if I want to take a feed, I’ll be intentional about it and bring ice packs, a cooler and a knife. I always have ice packs (or ice like @XD351’s idea) and a cheap backpack cooler on the ready with a knife and clean garbage bag to hold fish) don’t like the idea of turning my backpack cooler fishy). That way it’s not actually a lot of effort.
If I don’t have ice, knife and a cooler with me, all fish go back, doesn’t matter if it’s a trophy or a delicacy.
I use one of these hard coolers as a tackle bag , that goes over my shoulder , the buckets fit inside one another and I use some rod wraps to tie the rod and net together . I gave up on the soft cooler after I had a bag of pillies leak into one - no way of recovering one from that - it was a bin job ! If something does leak into this cooler I can take the plastic tub out and wash it .
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Some use a combined stink / hand bait bag - probably makes it easier to manage when worming solo.
You can watch all the videos you want , ask on forums like this etc, etc but the only ways I know of to learn is to either go worming and keep trying until you succeed or find someone that can show you ( either way you still have to go and do it ). I tried the first method until I got fed up and gave up , my back wouldn’t tolerate such shenanigans these days so I use other baits or lures . -
A trick I have used in the past is to take two buckets and a frozen 1.25lt bottle of water with me , one bucket has the berley mix in it and the other is to keep the fish in . 1/3 fill this bucket with salt water and put the frozen bottle of water in the centre of the bucket , as I catch fish I brain spike and bleed them then put them in the bucket head down around the bottle . It doesn’t take long for that bottle to cool the water down and at the end of the session the fish are filleted and skinned . It sounds like a lot of effort but believe me it is worth it ! Also don’t bleed them in the water you are fishing in , do it over the bucket you are keeping them in . An old timer taught me this when I was a kid - he said it will turn them off if they smell the blood .
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Nice work Mike !
I carved a few when I was a kid - mostly based on nilsmasters.I found the hardest part with running a through wire set up was getting the slot cut dead centre .
I used to tank test them in the pool to check the action and make sure they tracked straight, you might be able to make use of the canals at meadowbank for this ( at high tide ) as the bridge over these canals will get you nice and high above the water making it easier to see the lure as you retrieve it and you can use the sides of the canal as a guide for checking how the lure tracks .
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50 minutes ago, bessell1955 said:
It appears that the Rivercraft stirring up the water bought the fish on the bite.
Yes -it’s a tip I picked up off a YouTube channel that fishes the river all the time
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1 hour ago, zmk1962 said:
Ahhem (he clears his throat )….
Cheers Zoran
I should have known 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Actually these are first fish I have ever caught on a sabiki- usually I just get a giant tangle and throw the damned thing away 🤣🤣🤣
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G’day Raiders,
I had a couple of hours to burn today after work and decided to lob down to Rydalmere wharf for a flick with some plastics and do a bit of walking .
I started out just down river from the wharf and thought I might work my way down to Silverwater bridge . I chose a 3inch gobblers curl tail in uv croc bait colour , rigged weedless with a 00 ball sinker for a weight . My first impressions of the water was it looked dead and I wasn’t hopeful of getting anything. I worked my way down to silver water bridge punching out casts anywhere there was a gap in the mangroves and didn’t get a touch ! You can usually rely on at least one small flathead having a go at your lure but it just wasn’t happening. Anyhow once I reached the bridge I began fanning casts out prospecting but only got a few small bumps which I believe were toads.
Just when I started to give up hope along came the rivercat which really stirred up the bottom and I got the bream straight away and two casts later the flathead- all released. I kept fishing there for around half an hour but it had shut back down so i trudged back to the car and was off home .Nothing to write home about but better than watching tv!
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2 hours ago, kantong said:
nice one mate, good sized flattie.
How good is the mullet, looks like a few salted fillets to chase some bigger fish might be on the agenda!
They’re great bait !
I don’t salt any bait whatsoever , I vac seal them whole and 3 in a bag for the smaller ones , the big ones are bagged singular.-
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12 minutes ago, Larkin said:
Nice tip XD
i never thought about putting attractant on the sabiki.
going to try this when the yakkas are hard to catchEvery so often the two brain cells I have left work in unison and I come up with things like this 🤣🤣🤣
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I forgot to add that I applied some scent to the sabiki jig’s little fly things and the mullet went nuts over it . The way I fished it was to clip a bubble float to the end and use it like a casting weight, this helped to keep the rug from tangling when casting and meant I could fish it horizontally. A very slow retrieve seemed to work best . You could probably tie up a multi hook dropper rig with small hooks and use bread or worms for bait and fish it using the bubble float technique.
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4 hours ago, Larkin said:
Plenty of bait there for future fishing XD!
Im about due for a bait run too.
Yep and they only cost me a few slices of bread and a few ml of petrol . If I can find a spot where I can fish off the shore I wouldn’t need to take my boat - that would be convenient but then again if I have my boat there I can fish for bass all the way back to the ramp - oh the decisions I have to make 🤣🤣🤣
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G’day Raiders,
Went for a fish on Friday , fished ( drifting) the run out tide in the area bounded by flint and steel, Juno point and the mouth of Cowan . Biggest flathead nudged 60cm, caught on a spikes cyclops rig baited with a strip of freshwater mullet and was released. I ended up with 3 flathead to 40cm ( bait was half pilly and garfish tails on a running sinker rig )and one at 50( cyclops rig and half a garfish as bait ). I only photographed the big one as I wasn’t in the mood to play with my phone . Also got a couple of small mulloway and a few under size flathead . There was a big school of something busting up at flint and steel , don’t know what they were but I’m certain they weren’t chopper tailor .
The freshwater mullet from Penrith - some caught on earth worms and a few on a sabiki jig - so I have now caught a mullet on a lure 🤣You could have a ball fishing for them with fly gear !
A mate went out today for a few flathead and a gummy shark, I think he was fishing east of flint and steel though .
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Just a quick heads up for anyone going to the Hawkesbury- be careful as there is still lots of debris from the recent floods floating around , this log was dragged ashore by marine rescue.
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8 hours ago, Mike Sydney said:
hahahaha I told you don’t give that donut boyz tag oxygen we can’t have that sticking
@XD351 that moniker was below the belt, I’d been sulking about it all day, muttering to myself, snapping at the kids… 😂
I’m devastated 😭
The Donut Boyz have broken up 😮
Well ,if it were one of those boy bands you would be looking at a name change and a solo career- maybe Mikey Mike and the flattie bunch 🤣🤣🤣
But on a more serious note , if you are thinking outside of the box ,mixing it up, experimenting with new lures and techniques or just fishing a new location expect lots of donut days - it takes time scope out new ground or to prove theories and to fine tune a technique.
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“The Donut Boyz “
Better get out and have another crack before that monicker sticks🤣🤣🤣🤣
Happens to all of us !
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I always thought of it like this - fish don’t have eyelids so can’t squint or close their eyes. On bright days fish the shadows or deeper water . Dusk and Dawn transitions benefit predators whose eyes can adjust quickly - mulloway ,tailor and sharks are a couple that come to mind.some fish like trout use the light to silhouette the prey they are hunting on the surface - not enough light and they can’t see it , too much and they are blinded by it so they switch to prey that lives under the surface like small baitfish and mudeyes .
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If I told you that if you carry a couple of green marbles in your left trouser pocket you will become a great fisher person because those marbles will offset the the imbalance in your soul created by the offset of the North Pole would you believe me ?
I wouldn’t either !
Ok some thoughts:If your book or app says not to fish this time or that day and you listen to it you are not going to catch anything because you didn’t go fishing - was the book or app right? You will never know !
With the exception or family , work , health or extreme weather events etc - never let anyone or anything tell you when you should or shouldn’t fish !
Start a fishing diary or even better diaries ( smaller one for each location) this way you can keep track of days where you caught fish and those where you didn’t and the little details that are so important to unlocking the success you seek - time of day, weather conditions, tide, moon phase ( also rise and set time for this ), water temp , recent weather events like floods or heavy rain , big swells if you are rock , beach or ocean fishing and the basic things like bait and rig used .
Finally either try fishing a location for a period and work out what species live there and with the assistance of your location diary that you have been vigilant in keeping up to date ,work out the best time , tide , bait and technique works to catch the fish that live there or pick a species and work out where they are most like to be caught and on what bait , lure or rig .I get a laugh sometimes when I ask people I see fishing “ what are you going for or trying to catch ?” Usual reply is whatever comes along ! It’s a bit like waiting for a train at a disused train station - you can hope all you want but it ain’t ever coming !
So to summarise:Target a location and learn the species or Target a species and learn the location
(you need to do some basic research on the species you want to catch with either of these options)
Fish as often as your life allows and keep a diary or diaries.
Never let the days where you don’t catch anything get you down or cause you to stop believing in yourself- these days ( donut days ) happen to everyone and are more often than not the ones that teach you the most - learn from them , never regret or fear them !
And finally - ask questions , lots of questions- there are no stupid questions but it is nice when those questions follow a common theme like for example trying to catch a bream on a lure , so rather than asking that today and asking about catching kingfish the next day and trying to catch trout the next day after that - stick with one thing until you achieve your goal .-
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7 hours ago, DerekD said:
Can't slip anything past you.
To be fair, my lure journey essentially started with soft plastics and I grew outwards from there. This was a trip back into my lure fishing roots to solve a problem I was having with the bass at Manly dam. My go to is spinners there and they are very effective but I wanted to start catching some of the ones in the deeper water. The challenge is there is a lot of weeds and other snags so I wanted a weedless rig that I could fish through clutter. I figured a floating plastic lure about 40cm above the bottom might do the trick. Still working on it.
I have seen plastics rigged with a small foam ball sitting where a jig head would be , I have also seen an orange ear plug used to do the same thing , also works on the beach to keep your bait off the bottom and away from sand crabs .
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The Texas rig is better in tight structure and for vertical work as the sinker against the hook gives more control of the lure - both when casting and retrieving , the Carolina is better for shallow weed beds and soft silt bottom - you can adjust the leader length to suit which helps to keep the lure above the weed or from disappearing into the bottom silt - even better with buoyant plastics like Zman . Never used the drop shot as I never seen a use for it - maybe teabagging or similar to the Carolina ?
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I do the same as green hornet says - I generally run at least a metre of heavier leader - 20lb in my case then use 10 or 16lb trace to the hook .
one thing you have to be careful with is the sinker running up the line and getting hung up on the leader knot - mainly a problem when fishing straight up and down . I just feather the line as it comes of the reel to keep the swivel against the swivel or cast up current as far as the water is deep ( cast 20m in 20m of water ) then flip the bail and let the rig sink - it will sink in an arc keeping tension on the line so the sinker stays on the swivel .-
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The demarcation line between clean and dirty water is where I will be concentrating along with deep holes .
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These are taken at lunchtime today 23/4/24
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I think a lot of lure fishing newbies get a little swept away with the hype about this knot being better than that knot and for x amount of reasons . I think of it this way ( yours is probably different ) but if you use an FG knot which takes a bit of time to learn , time to tie and is a known strong knot then use a weaker knot to tie your lure on then isn’t all that effort wasted ? If you are sitting on the bank fumbling around trying to tie a knot like the FG you are not fishing - if your lure isn’t in the water then you can’t catch anything . This point was driven home to me in the comments on a YouTube video I watched recently, the guy uses an improved albright to connect his leader and he copped a bit of an ear bashing by the FG fraternity. His reply was simple and to the point - the knot I tie my lure on is the weakest point , I can tie this knot blindfolded, it goes out through the guides ok and it has never let me down . I think that for a mug angler like me this reasoning will be good enough .
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2 hours ago, DrRaymondSnapper said:
You guys must be the last 2 Tigers fans left. I thought that they were extinct.
We are still here- hiding in shame , eating off wooden spoons and waiting for the next messiah! Either that or for another team to steal the wooden spoon off us !
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First topwater flathead
in Saltwater Fishing Reports
Posted
Nice flattie on your diy lures Mike! Gotta be stoked with that !