Steve0

There were a few close calls with live fur seals that caused a fright - when you are almost on top of one don't see one behind a rock, its loud panicked bark gets you every time. Here's a seal that washed up on the beach at Eden. Lead poisoning seemed a possibility, but the fragrance deterred a close inspection. A call to Council saw it buried before it stunk out the town. Unfortunately, not at the end of the beach, more suited for worming. It's the wildlife in remote locations down that section of the coast that keeps doughnut days interesting. One memorable experience was watching a Sea Eagle take a dead Salmon I tossed for it (gill hooked - dead if released) then a Swamp Harrier and Sea Eagle seeming to staying in my general vicinity watching releases as the kms passed along the beach. Eventually, they took exception to each other and locked talons, dropping from high going around in circles until they pulled out about 15m away from me, just in time to miss the sand.

Moments later, the Dolphins hit the Salmon and they moved to my side of the sandbar. A long way down an incredibly steep hill, but the fishing was good I have no idea what this may have been. It looks like it's purpose was winching, but rocks below would not have suited. A Leopard Seal on it's holiday in the sun. It was very lean but very much alive.

Because I'm having problems stirring up enthusiasm to fish in filthy water around the city, I have few current photos here, but a stack of photos around Eden. Cast in the surfers direction (too far to hit). A good location for Salmon and Tailor, but Kings gave me no thinking time before they hit bottom. Had I held them off the bottom, the cunje covered rock is an overhang. The spectacular gutters along the beach generally produced better fishing. I didn't have anything to take a photo on the day a large Bronzie was relaxing in a gutter in almost flat conditions. Natures garden above a Tailor hotspot Shallow water trapped hundreds of jellyfish My last session at Eden. That's a totally empty beach as far as can be seen. Behind it stretches about 1/3 as far in the opposite direction, also empty. Not long after, lightning suggested I find a location away from the carbon stick until it passed. Waiting patiently for Luderick cleaning time

A diary is a great tool. You may not ever read what you wrote but, the writing focuses your thoughts, helping you analyse how well your plan went on the day.

I'm sure you'll be delighted with it.

Mostly I fish office hours. There are a lot of fish to be caught during the day. I doubt any fish bite more in the middle of the day. Change of light just seems to fire them up. My best ever session on Luderick was during a solar eclipse. They were biting OK beforehand but from when the light started fading until the eclipse passed, they were on the weed before the lead settled the float in the water.

You can edit in a bit more about the drag system if it falls short. Saragosa has dual drag; Spheros has front drag.

I tie FG at home (only if line or leader is damaged at the end of the last session). In the field I keep moving and prefer a knot I can tie standing with rod leaning on one shoulder (but do use anything convenient as a rest). The reason for short leader is that mainline is lighter than leader. I explore some fairly daunting structure and cunje is a lure magnet. Unless lucky enough that the hook tears through, snag = lost lure. Up to five per session. Any fuzzy braid is discarded when a new leader is tied. Other than that, my rod tip doesn't get much opportunity to leave a salt crust due to evaporation. However, I plan to keep salt crust in mind in future.

I'm fairly certain you answered your own question.

Flouro is traditionally used as leader. It's a fraction tougher than mono (e.g. for scraping across rock), but there's not a lot in it. I don't subscribe to the theory that invisibility to fish matters (but for some species, feel makes them hesitant). Mono is generally more flexible and stretches (more forgiving), but I doubt that makes much difference in the length used for leader. How much leader to tie is a 'piece of string' question. From a boat (or rocks) chasing huge fish, a long wind-on leader stops the fish's tail and scales abrading the line (FG knot is THE thin knot, so easily the best choice). For other fishing, I recommend a length that avoids your leader knot passing through guides during casting. So, use a little less leader than you would hang from the rod tip during a cast. This is a balance between running through guides and the need to re-tie a new leader as lures are lost, or the section close to the hook is nibbled by pest fish, or a little leader abraded by structure. Others may have different thoughts. The FG leader knot is the best knot for resulting thickness and strength, but it can be a frustrating knot until you learn it. I suggest you start easy. Here's are two fairly easy knots for you to try (OK for joins between any combination of braid, mono, flouro). Lefty Kreh and Yucatan. Here's another fairly easy knot: I have no doubt someone else will post an FG knot. There are many different ways to tie it, different people think different ways are 'the easiest'. In the long term, it's a knot you may need. The FG knot works like a finger trap. Tie is slightly wrong and the braid losing grip on the leader. It's a knot you need to practice a few times to gain confidence, before you tie it in the field.

Official advice - https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/recreational/fishing-skills/fishing-in-sydney-harbour . I'm not keen on eating a lot of fish caught around cities, at all. People don't seem to care what they toss into waterways.

The poor man's Stella, the Saragosa has IPX8 water protection. I had no problems with my (at least) annually serviced Shimano Saragosa 5000, tossing mostly 40g lures fishing an average 3 days per week for about 8 years, including a couple of washes in breaking waves after accidentally dropping my rod. Before that, I wore out two unsealed reels in about 12 months (bathed neither of those in surf). To give you some idea how hard I fished, the crank handle on one unsealed reel wore halfway through in six months. Fine sand does a lot of damage! Gears were OK. Bottom line: make sure you get a well sealed reel for serious beach fishing. Shimano offer a lower priced Spheros, at a slightly lower price than Saragosa but has the same sealing and would suit someone who beach fishes less frequently than I did. Unfortunately, the Shimano reel sealing is limited to 5000 and up reels and up and not every Shimano reel has it. The feature to look for is X-shield. X-protect is a lower level of protection for lighter reels. Review from a comprehensive tester: https://www.alanhawk.com/reviews/spswa/ Edit: added review of Saragosa https://www.alanhawk.com/reviews/sgwa.html

Nice Trev and well done keeping your cool to land it after the disaster. The sensation you described as buried, is likely being amongst weed. When lucky, braid will saw its way through weed. Sometimes you may need to back off pressure and allow the fish time to swim out. You discovered one of the disadvantages of modern rods. Fibreglass (and composite) are more forgiving, but you trade off feel to get it.

The tail is a good guide, but some species may confuse people. For example: https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/1005 Chasing the difference between Sole and Flounder, I ran across this https://sciencing.com/difference-between-sole-flounder-5841071.html Note that information is not from an Aussie .edu or .gov. Assuming that the advice is universally correct, left body side up would make it a Flounder.

Just for those people, I am giving away location X. Salmon are on the chew in Coles.