XD351

I had a look at the Wilson catalogue and there is no mention of a low mount rod in the live fibre series so you could be flogging a dead horse there . Cutting the butt off will change the characteristics of the rod but not as much as cutting the tip down - you will lose a little bit of butt power as you are moving your grip towards the tip and you won’t end up with a 12ft rod - more like 11ft something .The tip section will be longer than the butt section which will make the rod tip more vulnerable to breakage as it won’t have the heavier butt section to protect it when the rod is in two pieces . At around 250 bucks it is an expensive way to get a rod for an alvey ! The stripper guide will more than likely be in the wrong spot , maybe too small and could allow the line to flog against the blank during casting - killing your casting distance. This was one of the crucial checks i made when i used to build my own rods ( long time ago )- find the spine , set up the butt section according to reel type then tape on some guides and head for the local footy field for some casting tests .Once the optimal stripper guide placement was established i could then work out the guide spacing for the rest . Is there a particular reason for wanting the live fibre ? I own a few Wilson rods - all low mount : MT8144- has fuji guides and seat and i use this for jewies . MT6144- has cheap guides and needs a new stripper guide and is now retired as i bought an Alvey rock and beach 62 to replace it ( spend $40 to buy the stuff to replace one cheap guide on a rod that cost $100 or spend $150 and get a new rod with fuji guides - new one it was !) . The Alvey is a slightly heavier blank in the butt section but similar in the tip section , i would have been happier if it had a fuji seat on it but you can’t win them all !

I would check with the National parks website ( Kuringai chase national park) before camping in jerusalem bay as it was prohibited when we used to hike in and fish for jewfish there , we got pulled up by a ranger in a boat one morning but fortunately for us it was summer and we used to sleep on the rocks and didn’t have a tent or sleeping bags so he couldn’t prove we camped there. If you cross the creek or sand bar at the end of the bay try to do it at low tide , we waded / swam across the creek one night at high tide completely oblivious to the sharks that frequent there ! You can also hike down to flint and steel point ( end of west head rd ) and access the little beaches either side - the one on the west side has pit toilet but please don’t swim on any of these beaches especially the one on the eastern side of flint and steel - sharks frequent these as well . Please be aware that it is now summer and total fire bans will be in place a lot of the time and you really need to be ultra careful entering the park as you can get trapped in there a fire breaks out . There are walking tracks all through the park and the National park website should put you on to some maps. Strange that ! I was only thinking about doing an overnight trip to Jerusalem in my boat a day or so ago ! HTH!

Pretty much the same rig i was taught to use by the old guys fishing off luna park wharf 40yrs ago but they used mince meat for bait - probably because it was cheap and readily available . I went from handline to rod then back again - you can’t beat the feel you get with a handline and i noticed that when using a rod the yakkas always seemed to stay a little deeper and wider - maybe they could see the silhouette of the rod ?

Next time you go to buy Mustad hooks take a look on the packet and see where they are made now ! I have always found that the suicide and 9555b hooks i used to use ( always Mustad) had eyes that would break if i tried to open them , must be something to do with the tempering process . I think that with the hooks that are designed for the user to make up gangs they leave the eye are softer so it can bend a little

This was common back when Black bass fishing was all the rage - even after Jack Erskine re worked the drags on the reels they still couldn’t get enough drag pressure to stop the bigger bass ! I have seen photos of one guy with blisters on both thumbs that he got trying to stop a bulldozer heading back to its snag ! These days the drags are much better than what they had in the 80s and 90s !

It will sink mate . If you are fishing off a wharf you will need to tie a rope onto it anyway so just tie it off so the bucket sits near the surface . You could try drilling the holes in the middle third or even 3/4 of the way up from the bottom of the bucket and that way when you put it into the water the top section will trap air and make it float ( provided your lid is airtight ) and when you lift it out of the water it will drian down to the bottom section leaving some water in there for your bait to swim in . There are other ways to make it float like an inner tube that fits around the bucket ( something off a wheelbarrow would be close to the right size ) or you could hack up a kids pool paddle board ( cut a hole in it that the bucket fits into and trim the outside so you end up with a donut shape ) we used to do these things to out nipper sieve so it floated . One tip is if you catch a slimy mackerel never put it in the same bait tank as a yakka or poddy mullet , the slime on them gets into the water and chokes the other bait .

If you have access to a drill and 6mm ( or there about ) drill bit just drill a heap of holes around the top third of your bucket ( use a bucket with a sealing lid ) or even better one of the plano bucket top tackle box units as you can cut the bottom out of one storage section to access the contents of the bucket with the unit fitted to the bucket and they have lids on the compartments that clip shut solidly , tie a rope to it and dangle the whole lot in the water . The holes in the top third allow some water to drain out when you lift it out of the water making it lighter but doesn’t let the livies bang around as there is still some water in the bucket and they allow some water flow through the bucket . One thing that kills livies is temperature rise - if you use an aerator it can warm the water up , i always wrap an old towel around my bait bucket if it is not in the water and keep the towel damp so it keeps the temperature in the bucket down- evaporation does this . I use a white bucket as it makes the livies light up as they try to match the colour of their surroundings . The other good thing about the plano unit is the spare compartment can be used to store any dead or dying baits and keep them fresh without contaminating the water where the live ones are - this kills them real quick !

Most of the time i just use the same rag i clean the boat with but if they get really dirty or the rag won’t remove all of the scales from them i use one of those green scourer pads and they are also good for scrubbing the bait board down as well - just watch out for the epoxy on the fore grip binding as it will scratch it if you hit it with a scourer ! Use hot soapy water only !

I often park my truck in there to have a snooze but this is usually varies between 2 and 6 am during the week but I haven’t seen any suspicious activities -that i can remember anyway , Can’t say what it is like on a weekend though . I would give the guys at Drummoyne bait and tackle or Ottos at Drummoyne a call as they are local to that ramp and may know of any problems there .

I suffer from that constant wind issue too ! But mine always blows from the south and a foul wind she be 🤢☠️☠️☠️

I have often looked down from the lookout above phegans bay and you can see the sand and weed patches - this screams out big flathead to me !

I’m to blame ! Well maybe my boat is i dunno ! I booked my boat in for a service a couple of weeks back and it started raining the afternoon that i took the cover off it and hasn’t stopped since ! Back in 2007 i moved up to lake macquarie and all was going well until my boat turned up - within a week most of the central coast was declared a disaster zone from the massive storms that hit the region , no power for a week and the lake flooded but I didn’t dare mention that my boat had arrived a few days earlier - they might have burned me at the stake 😂

You could also try the fishing club at the pub in Umina . When i fish that area it is usually drifting for flathead either side of the channel marker at half tide rocks . You really have to have your mind focused on your surroundings there on a weekend as it gets very busy ! You can fish the little beach opposite half tide rocks , an hour either side of high or low tide preferably on the neap tides and you want your bait to trot across the bottom . just north of that spot is the novotel and the channel swings to the east as you travel upstream to get around a decent sized sand bank , fishing here at night on the run up tide with nippers will yield some bream ,flatties and whiting ,try fishing the edges of the banks where it drops into deeper water at first as the fish will stack up here until they feel there is enough water over the bank to get up there and feed . You need to pack light and fish light here and chucking a lure around is also an option - obviously you want water over the flat so the last of the run in and most of the run out would be my preferred time with a lure. The flathead push right up over the sand flat as the tide rises to hunt , you can go there at low tide and look for the lays where the flathead have buried themselves into the sand . One good thing about being new to the area is you have a lot of exploring to do !

Great idea ! I lost the handle on a new winch on its second trip and i now keep a spare in the back of my car . I don’t know if it fell off driving to park my car or some mongrel knocked it off and i also keep spare shackles for the trailer chain for this reason ! Fortunately for me i had a wheel brace that had the right size socket to fit the winch -bloody slow going but it got the boat on the trailer ! I still want to try a battery drill in low gear with a socket in the chuck to wind the winch over - lazy bugger i am !

If the reels were mine i would s end them to Shimano or a certified Shimano service agent -that way you will get genuine parts ( quality) and someone who knows what they are doing and what to look for . I have bought bearings off many ebay sellers for various things and it is a lottery as to what you will get but usually they are crap . I know one thing for sure I wouldn’t be a happy camper if i hooked a good Marlin , fought it for a couple of hours only to lose it because the reel that old mate up the road who also fixes mowers, only charged a box of grog and “promised me he knows what he is doing “ butchered something or used cheap junk parts causing it to lock up . Seriously - $50 labour a reel once a year isn’t that expensive when you look at what it cost you for everything else !

Yep she is a big girl ! Its a fantastic thing those fishos do ! Never seen one over 90 and a pb of 84 but I don’t usually target big flathead ( legal to 45 does me and fits on a plate better 🤤 ) but i do have an urge that is becoming more irresistible to go out and stalk the flats for one ! I was listening to a podcast today about how one group of people are trying to rebuild and re seed the oyster reefs that used to abound in the estuary systems in Nsw . This will give many benefits to the eco system and anglers in the future , a lot of fishos might be surprised at some of the things going on in the background - unfortunately many fishos don’t even know about them .

If you do a YouTube search for Fishing the Hawkesbury bruce schumacher you will find a series of videos - all be it old that show you some of the better spots in the system from spencer down stream. You can also download an app called navionics for your phone or ipad that will give you a marine chart showing depths and contours , this will allow you to check out any likely spots like deep holes , rock bars and areas that cause a disturbance in the flow of the river - it also give you tides and i think moorings as well . See below: this is a screen shot of the app i use - i have no ties to it i just think it is a useful app for fishing .

It wouldn’t surprise me if they did ! There is of course one way to find out - put a bait in there and see what eats it ! Pretty much all of the creeks that run into the Hawkesbury have carp in them and bass . Take a look at the Windsor bait and tackle YouTube channel , Aaron ( the host and owner of the now unfortunately closed tackle store ) has spent many years fishing all of these creeks for bass and carp .

The first numbers would indicate to me it is a 6 wrap blank , 110 inches long and the last two letters could be TH for threadline - can you show us a picture of the butt set up ? The T could also be to indicate the taper with the last unit being a 4 which could indicate the taper say from 1 to 4 or the rated line breaking strain in kg so 4kg .

You can’t fish inside homebush bay or any of the creeks that run into the river on the south side - this is a regulation implemented by the government. There is also ban on fishing anywhere inside the Olympic precinct that is a council regulation but as far as i know you can fish the southern shore from the mouth of homebush bay up stream . The mob that run that precinct even have a dedicated email address so people can dob in a fisho and they call the rangers to issue them with a fine . Easiest way is to give that whole section a miss and fish the northern shore . I have seen some YouTube videos where the security on cockatoo island has tried to move on someone fishing from a boat - stating it is government property but iirc it now comes under national parks so you can fish around it now . At least he didn’t fine you !

Rippa catch mate ! Hope you didn’t throw the squid heads away - fantastic jew bait !

Below is a screen shot of the depth contours inside broken bay and the white is set at 9 meters and the blue is shallower . If you look at the channel on the north side near middle head and on the side closest to the northern shore and follow it towards lion island you will see there is a shallower section jutting out and running to the south - this is where the gummies were sitting . Why ? I don’t know but Flounder are usually here as well . You are looking at around 2 meters depth change so not a lot but i think it is enough to create a funnel for the current to run into . Fish anywhere around that drop off and you are in with a chance of flathead and flounder but i never seem to do real well drifting up the guts of that channel - usually banjos and shovels etc in there . It can be hard fishing there during the week as the trawlers work this area pretty hard .

Nice catch! I caught a couple in Summer 2018/ 2019 in broken bay just inside lion island where I typically get a lot of flounder . I had never caught one before but had a ball fighting them ! I didn’t keep them as i already had enough flathead to keep me happy but if i get another one it will be coming home with me ! That was a bit of a strange day actually ! The flatties were really spread out and that is why i drifted out so far also the flounder were nowhere to be seen , on the way back to the ramp i decided to do a drift from flint and steel to juno and my first bait ( garfish fillet) was dropped just inside flint and steel and no sooner had it settled and BANG! Up came 84cm of flathead ! and as quickly as i could i sent her back down ! I went home with a big smile that day and a feed !

Nice fish ! It takes a while for the water in the lake to warm up - its a massive , deep lake with a small entrance .

Nice catch and great report ! I haven’t fished there for probably 30yrs ! I was hunting leather jacket back then , i know of a few fishos on YouTube who still fish there usually for trevalley and rat kings - a YouTube search will find their channels .