Steve0

Saragosa is a good choice for beach fishing and that's an amazing result for it's first cast.

@kbraggy I was re-reading some ARTICLES and remembered your post. While the following relates to Forster, the general information may help you. Arpie knows her fishing!

Adding a little to another good article: When on the chew, Tailor will bite anything including, swivels, rings, leader knots and the bubbles your line creates moving through the surface. To reduce the swearing, cast near the edge of the school, rather than across the middle. If you don't have vision of the school, start casting wide. If that fails, cast closer next time, working your way in. Inspect your mono or leader occasionally for tooth marks (fine shreds of line curling off - easily recognised when you see it). You can get away with light damage on heavy leaders (if using a leader and risking a bitten leader knot), but need to check occasionally it is not severely damaged. Large fish are generally a little mushy for my taste. I prefer to keep around 30-35cm and only keep one or two from a session (one night in the fridge, but two is still OK). I also retain legal size deep-hooked fish. For me, the deep hooked big ones are neighbor fish (MIL lives too far away). Freezing is possible, but the result is not the same as fresh. Don't keep it frozen for a long time. Avoid fully thawing before it hits the heat. Something like half thawed is enough. Lures don't need to be in pristine condition. Despite the condition of this one it kept catching until lost. The tooth scratches tell you where Tailor attack. Note also the bent eye at the back of the lure. Large Tailor (or maybe it was Salmon) put a lot of stress on the back end of lures. To reduce the chance of losing a trophy fish, avoid cheap lures or refit them with quality hook and ring. Note the single hook, which is safer from you and does not reduce the hookup rate. 3X ensures no straightening. Unfortunately, you cannot judge how well made all components of a lure are made by external appearance. This was a refitted mid-price lure I thought was OK. The photo makes the manufacturing shortcoming very obvious. Judging from other fights, the fish was around 50cm. It used backwash from rocks to do that damage. It had done a reasonable amount of work before the stresses of the wire opened the lead enough for the wire to slide out. Don't scrimp on rings. Poor quality rings use metal that lack elasticity and gradually stretch open (or stretch all the way during a tough fight). EDIT: Tailor gut makes great bait. I've caught Gummy, Salmon and Flathead on separate occasions in the time it takes to clean a few fish. In the case of Flathead, three in a row one day on a single piece of Tailor gut.

Goo article, worth a bump. Adding a bit: From land, an alternative to backing off pressure when you anticipate a leap is to heap on the pressure as it reaches the surface, pulling the fish forward (far easier said than done). Also, keep your rod tip low and to one side of you rather hold it upright. I suspect they try to keep away from large moving objects. From a kayak, I found it more reliable to get above them and don't try to land them quickly (first Salmon session in a yak, five spat lures in a row before trying that). My guess is ditto from a boat. If fishing C&R and don't want a photo, bring it to the edge then back off pressure when wave recedes, leaving it giving head shakes with no line pressure. Frequently, it will toss the lure and catch the next wave 'home'. If you do handle them and are using lures with trebles, be mindful it is not a lot of fun having one point of a treble in the Salmon and another in your flesh (fortunately for me, not past the barb). When skinning your fillets, aim to leave 1-2mm flesh attached to the skin. Doing that removed the wider section of the bloodline, leaving the rest more easily removed with a 'V'' cut. For eating, generally a fish recipe that includes milk will mellow down the strong taste. Korma curry works well for fussier eaters. Boil in salt water, flake and use the flakes is another alternative the reduces the strong flavour. Fish cakes are another option but, I can't say I fully enjoyed using it that way. Salmon have and incredible stomach capacity.

@DerekD @zmk1962 Thanks. I've been trying to write it up for about 10 years but it always grows, gets complex and ends up in the electronic trash. Even what follows cost many edits. However, here's a little more: My development happened without a lot of guidance. As as kid, I occasionally fished with a family friend. She was a AAA fishoholic and taught me structure (without using words - monkey see, monkey do method). later in life, after chasing Flathead, I understood he basics of tossing lures (simple: toss in a likely spot; wind it in) so, read a few articles, chatted with a tackle shop owner then went out and chased fish, learning my own way of doing things. Summing up a lot of experience in a few words, to catch Salmon, you need to understand two things. One is structure. The other is the harder part. Salmon (and Tailor) are Pelagic species. Pelagic are not territorial and move to where it suits them, when it suits them. You need to be fishing the structure when the fish are there. The way to do that is to keep moving until you find fish. Maybe three things. They need food. Mostly that comes in the form of smaller species. Assuming you are somewhere with good looking structure, if you're not getting action after a few casts in each direction, move to the next likely location. Some days I covered 10km, Staying while fish took the lure, releasing a few fish here and there for some impressive tallies. Other days, I would hook up, land and release and run to catch a moving school. Other days it was heaven on earth. You found them quickly and they stayed in the same area until you were worn out. There is plenty of advice about reading beaches, but I will try to add a bit. Sandbars, gutters and rips are structure. Salmon move through that type of structure. They are there to themselves safer from predators and because waves are stirring up microorganisms that are the start of the food chain for fish. They'll generally try to conserve energy by spending time where they find shelter from strong currents. If there are isolated rocks, sometimes lone or small numbers of Salmon sit in a rip out of the current and pick off what passes. One of my many favored locations was here In the above alignment of rocks created a natural deeper path that fish would follow. Cunje on rocks to the left made casting lures without loss very difficult, but worth the risk on a quiet day when the beach gutters and rocks to the right weren't producing Salmon or Tailor. Storms are your friend. They move sand about and create structure. After a long period of flat seas, an intense low will see the swell build for a couple of days. When the swell levels down again, it will have moved sand out from exposed beaches (depending on swell direction). Gentler swells when the waves recede bring it back, building sandbars and these lead to gutter formation. The swells gradually push sandbars towards beaches, narrowing gutters and increasing rip speed. With that happening to beaches, not two days are identical. I am finding it difficult to find more words to explain the variable sand depth, how different gutters formed, angles of current, changing swell direction, angles of casting, etc. You can't beat experience. To learn it, you need to read the water/structure and fish it. Start wide and gradually take you lure closer to the unforgiving structure. At time, you may find you get results passing your lure beside a rock. At other times, you may need to drop your lure just short of a rock, letting it drop down the side of a hole then retrieving. Rocks ensure fishy structure most of the time is a reason I spend more time casting around rock gardens when I find them. However, conditions vary and fish are not always there. Why choose lures? It is easier to prospect gutters and structure when on the move. Tossing bait to the left in the above photo would be impossible. Another location example that demonstrates the value of risking lures near rocks (I don't recall losing a lure there): A few days before the photo was taken I had a session in a wide gutter that was the stuff of legend and some more good hauls in subsequent days. Above, the gutter is almost closed and the rip is obvious. Standing on a rock about 1.5m higher than the water (copping a lot of spray). I started catching fish approximately at the right hand edge, casting just beyond the foaming wave and hooking up as the lure crossed the outer edge of the gutter. The hits stopped so I started casting increasingly left, finding fish most of he way near the only just visible rocks on the inside of the gutter. Trying to land them anywhere was a lot of fun negotiating rocks. Salmon are clean fighters and don't deliberately brick you, so tighten the drag so they don't run a lot and steer them past (occasionally you may need to haul them across a rock). Emphasizing how sand structure changes, the next photo is the same rock I was standing on in the previous photo taken on another date. It is about 50m from the rock to water. I always aim for a firm drag pressure, fast release and 'next', without skull-dragging. Not enough pressure and they'll run crazy, possibly finding a rock and they seem to spit the lure easier on a light drag setting. You can use an assist hook to reduce lure spits, but there is a risk the assist hook will lodge in a gill, which seems to be a death sentence for the fish. It is amazing how a Salmon can straighten a hook. I always swapped treble hooks and standard rings for 3X single hooks and strong rings. You get the same hookup rate. 3X hooks generally have a longer point and the barb is a fraction wider, which reduces the lure spit rate a little (maybe about 5% better). Rod tip low and to the side, helps reduce spat lures. If you are able to anticipate the jump, pulling the fish hard towards you as they start to jump, reduces spat lures (in other words, don't give them time to get airborne, shaking their head). I trialed circle hooks on my lures for a while. They eliminate deep hooking. Just like using them with bait, you need to resist the urge to lift the rod tip when the fish hits the lure. Fish may drop the lure a few times, but when you feel the weight, the fish will be hooked. Occasionally, there were hits with the hook not holding (less frequently than you may think, but I mostly dealt with very hungry fish in large numbers and never found it frustrating. The occasional failure to hook was offset by the circle hook holding better. After trialling, I went back to 3X J hooks (easier to find) and forget the brand/pattern of the circle hook. Far from cheap; strong in relation to size. Rod and reel choice is about trade-offs. What I use will not suit someone many. Most people I encountered walking beaches used very light rods and fine line to get their light lure out amongst the fish. My outfit is heavier than most. I was always chasing a little extra distance without trading off line strong enough to land a legal Kingfish (legal Kings bested me 100% with a quick dart into the bricks but I did get some that went close to legal). I won't go into rod details, other than to say, low end carbon rod, stiff butt, said to handle bait/lure up to 80g but loses lure casting guts somewhere between 50 and 60g. I use 20lb Berkley Whiplash Pro on advice from a tackle store owner years ago. I had it wound on in store, so always had the perfect fill and no waste. It never failed due to a random weak point and is less prone to loops than the expensive lines tried previously. I use 40lb leader, which is good for getting fish across structure. Flouro, for toughness, not for Harry Potterish, 'cloak of invisibility' (they don't care if you tie direct to ropey yellow braid). I only tie enough leader for a cast length from the tip. My leader knot is designed for ease of tying standing (avoiding the wind-blown fine grains of sand when you sit). The knot is my modified version from one seen on YouTube years ago. I can no longer find it. This photo of my 10'6" rod may help explain the variable sand depth mentioned above. That was as a result of a single 'blow'. I may edit in more detail or re-write later. Here is a photo of a small school. Phone cameras are not very good at colour. Salmon schools appear brown; Tailor schools appear light grey. Here is a massive school (just beyond the break). They were out of range. Not long after the photo, Dolphin attacked, which drove them into the gutter. Sometimes, you may not see a school but will see fish in the wave as it peaks before breaking.

Background: I specialised chasing Salmon from far South Coast shore with lure for about 10 years, averaging three session per week (I assume similar behavior along the coast, but may be wrong). In those years I encountered many schools in many different conditions, releasing many thousands of Salmon. All on metal lure (because I want a long cast available when a school sits out wide). Mostly fish encountered were 45cm+ (large breeders), but at times there were small fish about (I enjoyed catching those, too). From the clip above the lure in the photo, you should deduce that I tried swapping lures. I didn't perceive any difference made by colour, shape or expense (other than very cheap lures have rubbish fittings). No comment on your use of SP, other than, Salmon have a significantly large lateral line. I suspect they rely far more on vibration to detect prey than look or feel. That said, I have experienced fish following my lure almost onto beaching themself before either taking it or turning away. Moving to your problem, sometimes Salmon are just not in the mood. You can try a variety of speeds and actions and nothing will work. Perhaps they are finding and feasting on an ample supply of zooplankton, which are part of their reported diet? At times you may trigger an aggression response if you run a gambit of retrieve methods. One of my favorites was very fast single crank of the reel handle and very short pause, alternating. It worked more often than anything else, but not a lot (I doubt there's a method I didn't try). Surface skipping the lure also stirred action occasionally (rod tip high - you'll need to experiment retrieve speed and tip action to work out how - not easy with 40g of streamlined lead). Scaling up your problem, some days, I would see a procession of Salmon on the move single-file close past rocks I was on, seemingly with a sense of purpose. They never seemed to be in the mood to chase a lure. After a number of frustrating sessions tossing metal a huge stationary schools, I learned to not waste time. After a few varied retrieve methods, spread across different locations in the school I move on. Later in the day or on another day, that may or may not change. However, around sunset Salmon usually move close in and start taking anything, any action. They will take lures late into a moonlit night (indicating good contrast vision).

Sadly, there is no usable shed here. Just a space below the house and a room you can't stand in beneath the carport. Both are rust havens Most of our old stuff is inside. I refer to it as dead people's stuff.

Mike, heed that advice. I will stress there are two parts to the advice. 1) close your bail arm by hand 2) pull line and ensure it is tight (and stays tight) when retrieving. Tasline was my nemesis. Ensuring tight line before retrieval kept it under control. I also give a quick glance for loose wraps on the spool or across the reel face before casting. It is probably fairer to say Sunline (and other quality braids) are less forgiving of loose wraps of line than say it is prone to wind knots, but that's easier to say when typing at a keyboard than picking out wind knots! Unfortunately, line loops aren't the only reason for wind knots. It may be a combination of factors in rod/reel/guides/spool lip angle/uneven line lay. So, if ensuring no loose loops are forming, you may need to start thinking about other reasons.

Lure or bait?

How deep it was immersed is also relevant. If you can find an IP rating for your Freams, you have some guidance. See the IP rating table in this link.

If you have a full moon, Salmon will keep chasing metal well into the night.

I suspect I agree with what you are not saying. Lures are designed more by marketers to catch fishos than they are by fishos to catch fish. Fish live in a different environment to humans and need to perceive the world differently. On any day, I suspect silhouette, which translates to darkness/lightness rather than colour or maker's name may make a difference. The unknown variable is whether a fish is near enough to become interested as you retrieve. Who can be sure? if a house-mortgage lure works for someone, I am not going to advise them not to use it. Whatever gives you confidence.

I enjoy fishing in clean surroundings. January used to piss me off down the South Coast. Most of the year I did my take three for the sea, carrying out at bit more when the tide bought a bit of extra plastic in but it usually took some effort to find it. In January I had to stay home or go insane and end up in a fight. Bait bags by the score, dirty nappies left on the sand, empty cans, whole fish stuck in a plastic bag but left behind, tangles of line, etc. Once I hauled a full jerrycan of diesel quite a way along the sane then about 500m through then bush to my car, but that had obviously been washed off a trawled. Here's an example after a long weekend recovery straight out from the national park stairs (where the lazy people fish). From memory, the blue bag contained another small salmon. . The end of another long weekend produced this lot. It was spread all over the place but they left a bucket for my convenience. The smell wasn't too bad so the bait was left for the gulls to clean up. The sand without the plastic about is an amazing environment to fish.

Shimano self-service is relatively easy. Youtube usually has instructional videos. If you DIY, make sure you lay all the parts out in logical order as you deconstruct, so you aren't left guessing where thing go. Take careful notice of any gear alignment instructions when you put it back together. IMPORTANT: Do not mix types of reel grease. Stick with one brand. Mix the wrong types of grease and the mix will solidify. It's lesson you won't forget

Look for coin sized covers on opposite sides of the motor (wrong machine but it will give you the idea). If they don't exist, it is likely to be brushless. You should be able to check if you search manual/parts diagram. In pdf format, just search for 'brush'. If it is brushless, you probably need a new one. Mine Makita is 36V (2X18v batteries) and I consider that OK for doing all the edges with a metal blade and some slashing with the cord trimmer at the back on one pair of batteries. What you buy would depend on what you need to use it for.

I use Makita, not Ryobi and replaced brushes in my SDS drill recently. Brushes are much the same for most things that use them. The process to swap them over is fairly easy (but fiddly). Take off the brush covers (either they'll screw all the way screw past a locking position they should come out but it may take some fenangling), remove the existing brush, taking care to check it orientation. Look for a wear indicator marker on the carbon block. Brushes tend to wear on one side more than the other. If it is worn to or past the indicator, reverse the orientation when you put it back. Do it on both sides. Assuming brushes are your problem, that should keep you going until you get another set. Next problem is to find the manual (use Ryobi and the model plus 'manual' in a web search). Download it (when you find one you can download). You may find a parts diagram. If not, back the the internet and search for parts list/ parts diagram, etc. Find the part number. Search eBay for the part number. You'll probably get a generic equivalent that lists your Ryobi part number. You may even be able to find brushes to fit Ryobi {model number} without the hunt for the part number. If ebay fails, AliExpress may have them.

Edit: Forgot to say I enjoyed the videos. In it's dying days as a conventional cargo wharf, I used to fish Woolloomooloo wharf from the roadway that ran through the center (large warehouses each side; roof across the top: hotmix roadway up the middle sitting lower the warehouses; no water in sight). It was fairly run down. There was an occasional hole through the wall at the side of the road, with a straight drop to water. Fishing gear consisted line wrapped around a large can and pudding mix moulded on a hook, but no sinker. You'd toss the bait through a hole, lower until it touched bottom then pull out line so you had fairly taught line running part way across the road to you can, which had room to move. All you had to do then was wait for the alarm sound - can scraping across the roadway - as a fish took line. You needed to be onto the can fairly quickly or the fish would wrap you around a pier. For the same reason, you did not let fish run. The action wasn't fast and furious but the Bream were always large. I have no idea how the wharf was reconstructed or if a road is still there, but presume everything was modernised, so doing anything similar would now be impossible.

The way I read the NPWS site, Multi-parks covers it: Sydney Harbour NP - covered by Multi-parks pass (or $8 daily) BUT Chowder Bay area - covered for four hours only but you can stay longer if you pay a daily fee on site Georges Head - no entry fee. The question becomes, how do you manage to get to Geoges Head without having to park where a fee is payable?

I never fished Narrabeen but can give you a general lesson. Gutters change all the time. There may be nothing there one day. A massive low will create a big swell and resulting waves scour away sand. In calmer weather, sand slowly takes a return journey. Initially banks may be very wide but sand gradually gets pushed across the bank, creeping the bank closer to shore. Park a deck chair on the beach, you may get lucky but go the the same location some time later when the sand structure changes you'll be fishing a desert. Hence, there is no X spot along any beach, except where water movement is channeled by rocks. At times it can be difficult to read a beach. The best way to start learning is to look down from a high observation point at low tide. You need to be looking for changes in white water and colour variations that indicate deeper water. The part @Houdini is calling the rip is named a drain below. We say 'rip' but drain is a good way to think about happening. Water comes across banks and the lack of depth and following waves prevent the water delivered returning the same way. A current forms that moves along until it finds a weak point in the bank and water drains back to sea that way (hence, dangerous for swimming). Fish may enter almost anywhere hunting for a feed (some come across the bank and some swim against the rip). As water is driving across the bank it disturbs microorganisms. These are the start of the food chain. Fish may patrol the bank looking for a feed, but not always. My motto was 'no fish in nine casts (3 straight, 3 left and 3 right), keep moving. Fish may also hang about outside the rip. If you walk out on a bank, you sometimes catch fish that way. Having looked and learnt at low tide, gradually it becomes easier to read the water as you walk a beach near high tide. However, early in your learning, make a mental not of potential locations and fish them around dusk (IMO more productive than dawn). BTW If you burley (I don't), you need to understand the path it takes. .

So, should we reply to the survey questioning how the decision was made, saying that they did not release scientific data to explain the decision? I do not target groper but am willing to add negative voice to the survey responding to emotional decisions made by Ministers when they should be giving facts that justify the change.

Probably any specialised kayak seller (as opposed to chain store) would be happy to install your sounder. Especially, if you buy the sounder from them (or bought the yak from them). However, the hardest part of installing the sounder is getting past the thought of drilling a hole in your kayak. Without previous experience, mine went on without any problem. With DIY in mind, I sent you a PM (personal message). If nothing else, think carefully about placement of the head unit. Another problem you'll face with a FF in a kayak is light reflection off the screen. I solved it using a plastic ice cream container, cut down to fit, so the screen was in shade . It also kept salt spray away from the head unit. Long story short, my sounder gave trouble and I never caught a fish I put down to the sounder rather than reading water. For me, it may have been useful on open water but I fished near the shoreline. I uninstalled.

Thanks @mrsswordfisherman I didn't see that. My link was not intended to go to the survey, but to the NEWSCAST article, which contained background information (FWIW) as well as a link to the survey.

That's a Bream that you won't forget in a hurry! Well caught.

For those who don"t subscribe, NEWSCAST includes details of the Groper ban. In case that link fails: