g.t.

Good work on the light gear Josh. I know what you mean about getting used to the rats. There seem to be some better quality fish being reported lately. Oh yeah... and great ink shot!

Awesome effort. Sounds like there's some better quality fish on the bite at the moment. Can't wait to get out there.

OMFG!!! That's one massive (and weird looking) kingy! Bloody well done

Congrats on what is hopefully the first of many The addiction only gets worse

Great work on the flatties! You're making me hungry just reading about it!

Hi Kirkby, I have the same rod as Josh, and would have to agree with all his comments. I'm also very pleased with mine and haven't once regretted my purchase. They're pretty light weight, but extremely gutsy, and I reckon they look pretty sexy as well. It sounds like you'll have a pretty deadly combo there, but just make sure you get some good advise on setting your drag pressure properly if you're not 100% sure already, particularly if you're planning on pushing your gear to the limits of 10kg+ drag. Also, 10kg may not sound like a huge amount of weight, but in terms of drag, it's pretty massive. There are some pretty big dudes out there who would struggle to stay in boat fishing those sorts of drags so be careful! Best of luck with it! Hope you hook a sea monster! Geoff.

Good luck Roberta. You're a legend! ... and well deserving of all the support Can't wait to hear the results and no doubt read your report of the tournament!

Damnit... I love my Monster Mesh That's what I was about to recommend, but perhaps not flash enough for a $1K reel! It's an enviable problem to have

Greetings Raiders. Just a quick report from last Sunday 22/3. Headed out with my mate (and boat co-owner) Matt for a long awaited kingy session. Both of us have struggled over the last month and a half to have spare time to get the boat out on the weekend. Anyway, put the boat in at Tunks, and thankfully the engine kicked over straight away, despite not having been used for weeks and weeks. Good start to the day! The plan was to have a quick flick for squid on the way to catching yakkas. Our squidding was a bit of a half-hearted effort, and we were rewarded appropriately for our lack of effort! Zilch! I really need to take the advice from Slinky's squid fishing articles and spend a full day chasing them. Hopefully I'll work them out a bit better... Anyway off we went to my current preferred yakka spot, and filled the bait tank relatively easily. Normally I like "Mars Bar sized" yakkas, but these were more "Milky Way sized"... There seem to be a lot more baby yakkas around this year, but the kings don't seem to mind them when fished light. Continuing on a bit of a lazy theme, we went straight to a reliable and popular harbour marker to throw out a few of the yakkas in hope of some kingies. It wasn't long before I hooked up, and pulled in a small but fiesty 60cm rat. Pretty soon after my mate Matt had knotched a couple up himself... The next fish was also caught by Matt, but not a kingy. It was the first rainbow runner to be caught on our boat. Great looking fish in real life, and fantastic they're become more prevalent in the harbour. Next rat was mine, quickly followed by another of the same size.. Once again around the 60cm mark... We started to run low on livies so I decided to start flicking a 9" Bozo in the hope to draw some strikes on the surface. I've started to have some good success on plastics and poppers on the surface this season, but Matt was yet to catch one in this fashion. I gave him a 7" white Gulp to rig up, and after some persistence and some exciting follows, strikes and near hook ups, Matt hooked and landed his first kingy on plastics... It was great watch, and he was absolutely stoked. It really is a great way to fish... So visual! Here's the result.... The only legal kingy of the day at 68cm, but certainly a memorable one for Matt. Can't wait to get out there again this weekend. I keep meaning to head out and grab a Fishraider sticker from GoFish Pete, but if you recognise me out on the harbour, feel free to say gday! Cheers, Geoff.

Congrats on a great fish! All these top flatty reports are inspiring me to go and catch some poddies!

Great little spot down there isn't it! It was one of my regular spots before I got my boat. I was never sure how clean the fish were down there and used to throw a lot of legals back. I've heard that LCR can be pretty dodgy water quality wise...

Great looking lizard there. What sort of rod is that? Looks nice!

Congrats on a great looking new rig. Does this mean you'll be changing your name to "NowIvegottaboat"?

Yikes ! Your lucky to still have your thumb attached! They don't call them choppers for nothing! Great report though. They're whopper greenbacks!

That's one helluva schmick looking combo... Looks like it was inspired by a light sabre! I'm very envious. I wish I could join in, but my equipment's not flash enough to compete in yours and GregL's "rod" measuring contest!

Hi guys and gals, Hoping someone can give me some advice and point me in the right direction. I've recently purchased an Eagle FishElite 642c iGPS, combo sounder and gps unit. I haven't installed it yet so I haven't seen the detail of the background map that is built in, but I believe the detail is very basic. As much as I'd love one, I'm really hoping to avoid having to spend $300-400 on a Navionics gold or equivalent. Are there any good (preferably cheap!) alternatives? Or can you buy smaller sections of maps? I mainly fish in Sydney Harbour so a map covering that would be a good start. Thanks in advance!

I agree with Hodgey's advice... For small/ light plastics, nothing beats an eggbeater spooled with braid in the 4-6lb range. You'll love it once you change. It is different though, and as Hodgey recommends, learn a couple of braid to mono knots. Double uni is an easy one to start with. Other topics to search are how to spool and "back" your braid properly and how to avoid wind knots. Any good tackle store like site sponsor Go Fish will point you in the right direction if you need someone to demo to you in person. Good luck! You won't look back...

I read the blurb and it sounds really good. I wish I could get maps that cheap for my Eagle sounder/ gps. Let us know if it's any good!

I generally don't leave them for any longer than 10-20 mins, and usually only for a few minutes. Particularly the smaller clear plastic traps (like your alvey one I suspect.. mine is made by SureCatch I think), as after a while they seem to find their way back out again. The bigger net traps can be left a bit longer. In fact, I'll stand back a safe distance and wait for the tell tale splashing inside the trap, signaling there are a poddies inside. At this point I usually make a bit of a "Steve Irwin" inspired dash towards the trap and quickly pick it up while carefully covering the openings with my hands so they don't escape. From my observations, poddies seem to really just follow each other. So once you get one in the trap, many more will follow. When resetting the trap, I'll often leave a poddie in the trap to swim about and attract its buddies to join the party. I should probably point out that this definitely isn't the only way to catch poddies, but it's just how I've had success. I hope it works for you too!

You sure can, but let me start by saying you're on fire at the moment! That's a tasty looking bag of fish you've got there. Well done

Thanks for a great report, but if you don't mind me asking, where have you been catching the dolphin fish? (no need to give away spot X) Offshore or Inshore? ... It's just that your boat looks relatively small (as is mine) and I always thought you had to travel a fair distance offshore to get amongst them (out to the FADS etc). Cheers, Geoff.

Hi diver, The most important tip I could offer for catching poddies would be in regard to the depth that you place your trap. Despite what I've read in a number of different places, I always have most success when I place the trap at a depth where the opening(s) of the trap are approximately half in/ half out of the water. I find the poddies swim into the trap much more readily if the opening of the trap is near the surface of the water. Other things I would suggest are keeping a reasonable distance from the trap once it is placed. I find they can be easily spooked, and once left alone they are much more likely to swim into the trap. This requires staying about 10 metres or more from the trap (i.e. not hovering over it). Also, I tend to have less success when wind is up and the water is choppy. With regard to bait/ burley, I assume you're using bread? A couple of thing to note here are to not overload the trap with bread; a small amount is ample. And with burley, don't feed the poddies. Solid pieces of bread will distract the poddies from the trap. Mix up some bread and water into a "milky" consistency, and flick it around the trap so they are attracted to the trap, but not being fed. Good luck, and feel free to ask questions if you'd like anything clarified!

I've never tried for squid as far up as Hunters Hill. I'll have to give it a go... Is it a reliable spot for you?

Hi guys. On this topic, has anyone tried the okuma solterra overheads? I saw them advertised in a fishing mag recently, and they looked interesting and versatile. I've been impressed with the "better" end of the okuma spinning reel range recently, and wondered if this overhead may be worth a look.

One of the site sponsors Pete from Go-fish Dural in renowned for helping out Raiders with price, and some of the best (and honest) advise going around. Do yourself a favour and head out there! I used to think online auction sites (no need to name) used to be worth a look, but a some friends have been burnt. Also, with the AU dollar not buying what it did a year ago, the overseas sellers aren't able to sell as cheap on these auctions sites as they used to.