Cameron

As usual, plenty of thoughtful and informed responses from Fishraiders, both pro and anti! Thank you, one and all. As fitting carpet is not a life and death matter, I think I might leave it for the time being, unless of course I have a big fall on something slippery. My new sunnies deserve a trial too to counter the glare from the white deck. Then if I do decide to put the carpet down I will have to decide whether to glue or use press studs/velcro. Then again I might even spend the money I saved from not putting carpet down on a decent deck wash system, instead of the bypass from the live bait tank that I have at present. Then yet again, I do like the feel of carpet on my bare feet. All these decision are making my head ache!

There are two distinct stages of seasickness. The first is when you feel so bad that you begin to worry that you are going to die. You know when the second stage has kicked in when you start to worry that you are not going to die. Some of the world's most renowned seamen are said to have suffered from it. Apparently Lord Nelson did it really tough, but I imagine that when the cannon balls started flying over his head, it became the lesser of his worries. I have never beaten it completely, but I have found that my resistance to it has increased with the frequency of my trips offshore

My boat is an Allison 189 and comes standard with a patterned floor in the cockpit area. Although patterned, it can get slippery at time and being white, reflects quite a deal of light in full sun. I was thinking of putting down waterproof carpet to overcome these problems, but on consideration was wondering whether I might be creating new problems. Just a few questions for those blokes who currently have carpet under foot in their boats. Is it possible to clean it thoroughly by hosing it out or is special attention required in order to keep it looking reasonable? Is fish blood and other gunk that accumulates on the floor during a days fishing easy to remove? Should I glue it to the floor or is there some other method of securing it that will enable it to be removed when necessary? Should it be secured to the floor at all? How well does it wear? Are there some varieties that are better than others? What are the pros & cons of carpet in boats?

That far down does surprise me too, although something new comes along most days. My son and I have encountered them up the back of Middle Harbour past Roseville Bridge.

Joe, This is a pretty old reel (probably 25 years old). The blue Shakespeares were great reels in their day and many are still doing good service. Do you think Shakespeare would help me out with something that old?

My little blue Shakespeare 2400 is not a well reel at the moment and needs to see a reel doctor. Hopefully spare parts will not be required, because I imagine that they will not be available, given the age of the reel. However as it is a wonderful bit of gear when working correctly, I would like to get it back to health again As I am in the Gladesville area, I thought that I might take it down to Otto's, after I have a bit of a fiddle with it myself. Any other suggestions for places to take it?

It does make sense to be able to pull the bucket back off the boat to empty out the scraps at the end of an outing. Bending over to put your hand in amongst it is not a lot of fun. Mine has an arrangement whereby you pull out a rod that goes through the bracket and the burley bucket, secured at one end by a cotter pin. Pulling it off and refitting it is a breeze.

Maybe the carp are more active during the daytime. As I live pretty close to the Lane Cove, I might just get the canoe out one afternoon with my son and see what gives. Last time I took him down there he was very small and he was chased by a goose while he was trying to feed the ducks. Now that he is nearly 2 metres tall and 100kg in weight, I think the boot might be on the other foot. We might even give the carp a scare.

Joe, When I was a kid I lived in Coogee and regularly fished all round that area. On a couple of occasions a bunch of the braver souls amongst us paddled out to the island on our inflatable surf mats. Its a lot further than it looks from the beach, let me tell you! There used to be a bunch of professional fishermen who line fished from boats launched from the northern end of the beach and did pretty well around the island, particularly on snapper and kingfish. Even today there is a small boat fishing club that operates from Gordons Bay, the next bay north from Coogee, whose members regularly fish that area.

There are two kinds, although around Sydney the black drummer is much more common than the silver one. The black drummer is much darker in colour than a blackfish and lacks the vertical bars. It is also much thicker for its length. If there was a fish rugby team blackfish would play in the backs, but drummer would play in the front row.

Bashir, Its good to hear that there are some "blackfish off the rocks" fans on the list. I prefer it to any other form of fishing; you might say I'm addicted. It can be quite frustrating learning how in the early stages. You can show someone the basics in half an hour but it takes a couple of years of regular practice to become any good at it. The fish are pretty frustrating too at times. Some days they will wolf down a lump of weed as big as a lettuce, next day it is a tiny little piece you can hardly get on your hook. One day they are right up under the float, next day they are 3 or 4 metres deep. And on other days the drummer wipe you out time after time! They are a great fish for someone who does not like getting up too early in the morning. You can catch a good bag without having to get up at the crack of dawn. If there is nothing doing early on with other varieties of fish, you can still come home with a decent feed. What sort of gear do you use? I have two rods, an old yellow Sportex that is ultra slow in action, plus a Sneider "Mag Bream" that doubles as a light beach rod. Plus a couple of Alvey blackfish reels. I hope that between us we have been able to assist someone else to catch the bug.

Reeso, There is a bit of a knack to it, but it is not difficult. When you pull a piece of cabbage off the rocks, try to get one that still has the little root attached. You don't need a huge bit, just enough to cover the length of the hook and maybe a cm or so below. Some bits are quite narrow like streamers and these are the ones I prefer. Push the hook through the bottom end of the leaf and then tie a couple of half hitches around the top root section, but above the eye of the hook ie don't tie the cabbage to the shank of the hook. The root section gives you something to put your hitch around. I prefer No8 hooks for blackfish on the rocks. There are chemically sharpened ones in green, but ordinary sneck pattern work just as well. Make sure your float is properly weighted so there is not much showing above the water. It is better to have the weight on the float rather than on the line. I prefer fixed floats, but plenty of people use running ones. Be prepared to vary your depth under the float if the fish aren't coming to the party. Also give yourself a leader of a generous length; up to a metre is fine. Some blokes like to use small shot on the line. I prefer a single ball sinker (00 size) sitting on a size 14 swivel, then the leader. Fluorocarbon is becoming popular for leaders, although any decent mono in around 6lb is fine.

Matrix, From the sound of your report, your fishing mate the other afternoon at Iron Cove was my son Rhys, who is a pretty mean hand at soft plastics. If the bloke you were fishing with was nearly 2 metres tall, the odds are that it was him, because he told me about your trevally when he came home. If anyone was going to reach your fish it was him, given that he has a reach as long as two normal blokes!

What engine comes with it? They are a big heavy deepV hull that needs plenty of grunt to get onto the plane and it would be a shame to have an underpowered one.

I have always been in the habit of making my own blackfish floats, as I do most of my blackfishing from the rocks and consider the store bought ones either unsuitable in design or ridiculously expensive. However I have just got to the end of my current supply of canes for the stems and have been unable to locate any more. I could use very thin dowel or welding rods, but I would prefer to use cane if I can get hold of some. Has anyone sighted these for sale around the stores recently?

Clifton Gardens also produces John Dory at times too, so it is well worth having a live bait out. While it is a long time since I fished it, it used to produce slimy mackerel in huge numbers

Some years ago there was an article in one of the fishing magazines about such a device that used compressed air to hurl a lead and bait out off the beach. It was reputed to have a range of some 400 metres. You would need to be using a pretty solid bait, otherwise it would be torn off in the first few metres by the rapid acceleration generated. From memory a fellow of Chinese origin designed and built it.

It has been years since I have done any serious spinning and beach fishing with an overhead reel and recently I have decided to get back into it again. Call me old fashioned if you like, but I find fishing with a decent overhead reel a more satisfying experience than using an egg beater. By spinning I mean hurling lures of a serious size using a two handed 10 foot (or longer) size rod, not using a single handed baitcaster. Back in the old days, mono was all there was, but now we have braid, gelspun etc which has real advantages in certain situations. However I am not so sure that it has any advantages for what I want to do. I use braid on my baitcasters and have encountered the odd problem with backlash. The thought of getting a backlash in braid from a spool spinning at a million miles an hour from hurling a half by quarter sized lure at the horizon does not even bear thinking about. Maybe I should spool up with mono and get the hand of it all over again before thinking of braid. Or maybe I should just stick with mono and be done with it. Any thoughts?

Mark, It is heartening to hear about experiences like yours. Were you dealing with the parent company in the USA or the Australian distributor? I had a similar experience not long ago when my favourite fishing hat developed a huge hole in the crown. It was all of 10 years old! When I looked at the label, I noticed that it had a "lifetime guarantee". Ever the optimist, I shot off an email to the manufacturer in Canada, together with a photo of me wearing the hat with my hair sticking up through the crown. Not a pretty sight. No argument at all; a lifetime guarantee is what it said and that is what I got. My new "Tilley" hat arrived shortly afterwards for the cost of the freight. Apparently a Tilley hat that belongs to the bloke who looks after the elephants at an American zoo has been through the digestive system of an elephant three times and is still going strong. They are not a cheap hat, but they truly are a great product. Now what do you think Pflueger might say if I was to tell them about the trouble that I am currently having with my 42 year old Pflueger Sea King overhead?

Bluecod is spot on with his choice of gear in my view. Just make sure you put a couple of swivels in your rig when using the Alvey as line twist can be a problem otherwise. When on the beach if you can get the change of light to coincide with a change of tide, you maximise your chances. Also teach yourself or get someone to teach you how to catch beachworms. Can be tricky to begin with, but they will make a world of difference to your success rate on whiting and bream. Picking the right spot on the beach takes practice and observation, but where you get a rapid change in depth like a drop off from a sandbank or the edge of a rip is generally a good bet. When you can see the waves break, stop breaking and then break again is indicative of a parallel gutter. Follow one of those along the beach when you see them, lobbing a bait in as you go. Don't be afraid to move along if nothing is happening in one spot as the fish may be congregating in another part of the gutter. You also can do well right in close against the rocks at the end of a beach.

Trev, I have recently rebuilt an old split cane flyrod and received quite a deal of online assistance from a fellow I met via the internet, one Peter McKean from Launceston who makes them as a hobby in between working as a vet. Peter's rods are bought by some of the best fly fishermen in Tasmania, so he is not just an enthusiastic amateur. I will get in touch with him to see if he would be happy to offer you some advice. He uses A thread rather than silk, by the way.

My son has been shopping recently for a new threadline reel to go on his new custom made Purglas blank 3.5 metre rod. It was made by Allen Glover and is a lovely bit of work. Obviously the products of manufacturers such as Daiwa, Shimano and Penn are right up there in consideration, but we have come across a couple of other likely contenders, namely Pflueger and Tica. They seem to be priced cheaper than what looks like their Shimano, Daiwa or Penn equivalents. The Pflueger brand is well know to me as I have an old overhead Pflueger Sea King given to me for my 16th birthday some 42 years ago. It is a beautiful bit of gear, made like a Swiss watch in the USA and would withstand a direct hit from a guided missile. However times have changed a bit since then now that everything seems to be made in China or nearby. What he needs is something that holds at least 300 metres of 8 - 10kg that will get a lot of use throwing lures, in the price range $200 - $300. Is it correct that Tica used to make reels for Daiwa? Any thoughts?

I have a collection of Fishing World that dates back to 1976 and constitutes a major fire hazard at our place. What I need is an index for it because I find that I regularly look back through them to find bits of information that I know are in there somewhere, but I'm not quite sure where!

I know that we are getting off the topic here, but that big ledge at Avoca has had a litter problem for a long time. If anything is going to give us fishos a bad name, it is performances like that. If we want to influence public opinion on matters to do with fisheries management, then we do not do ourselves any good in the public eye by creating the impression that we are a bunch of uncaring slobs. While fish gut is normally cleaned up by the seagulls, it can at least be thrown back in the water so that the fish get an equal shot at it. It is plastic bags, fishing line and newspaper used to wrap bait that seem to be the main problem. Some people also seem to have a problem with unwanted fish such as cockies as well. Rather than throw them back in, they want to leave them to die on the rocks!

I have two old Daiwa GS-6 spinning reels that have metal bodies, presumably some form of aluminium alloy. Both are showing signs of corrosion, with the paint bubbling in places. While I imagine that it would be next to impossible to match the existing paint, is there any way that the corrosion can be arrested and prevented from recurring? I imagine that the corrosion would need to be removed, the raw metal primed and then repainted. Are there any off the shelf products available that would be suitable for such a job?