Le Pasha

The Stella 10000 does have more drag (i think something like 65lb vs 49lb in the 20000). The reason for that is because then 10000 has less line capacity than the 20000. So, extra drag comes with a loss of capacity. BUT, who will ever really lock up on and take on 65lb of drag..... Anyway, both the Stella and the Dogifght are awesome reels, I dont think you will go wrong with either, however when I am trying to pick a reel, I always look at what the charter boys are using, and there gear gets the biggest workout. The guys on Nomad Charters who are catching the biggest GT's (40-70kg) and Dogtooth (50kg-110kg) are using STELLA'S. They have pics and vids on their website..... Daniel

Yock, thats an awesome effort on your own. Solo marlin fishing is a bit of an art, would never try first time myself!! Awesome thrill catching a marlin solo on your own boat though!! Good luck with it!! Cheers, Daniel

Hey mate that sounds like it might have been 'True Blue'?

Hey Clifford was there much action on the radio with the Broken Bay Invitational on mate? Cheers, Daniel

Hey Rabs, I still call it for a stripe. I think the give away in your photo wichh indicates that it is definately a stripe is the high dorsal fin. You dont see blues with a dorsal fin that high. Another thing that on your fish that shows iits a stripe is the longer lower jaw, as opposed to a blue which would have a shorter lower jaw. I would call it for a 70-80kg stripe - but who really cares about weight when its your first, well done and congratulations You are right that juvenile blues and stripes are difficult to tell aparty sometimes, but that fish there is definately a stripe Cheers, Daniel

Rabs, good luck finding another sprocket! All of the popular 'old style' Pakulas are getting pretty hard to find these days........... Can I have a guess, was it LUMO? If you cant find a pakula then you can just buy a zacatak. Exactly same lures, same lure maker of the pakulas, but now pakula has the dojo range, hence the split. Also, the Dojo sprockets are different to the old style, so be wary Cheers, Daniel

Hey Cruisecraft, nice fish mate, however it is not a blue. Definatley a striped marlin you got there, doesn't really make a difference since its your first. Well done, and nice to see it swim away Cheers, Daniel

How much are you willing to pay?

Black Pete or Owner sabikis are the ones I buy for slimies, however anything similar works, they eat anything

Looks like Sunday could be the only days fishing for interclub 2008 if this weather doesn't fix itself. If they called Saturday off then we are screwed http://www.seabreeze.com.au/graphs/nsw4.asp

Trolling the canyons all the way from Sydney to Port on Sunday, taking the boat up for the Interclub

Who is fishing the Interclub this year? Taking the boat up next Sunday, will be moored at d'albora. Should be good fun.... Daniel

Hey boys, I am looking to get some breathable polo shirts made up for the boat, however not sure where to go to get them made. Does anyone know any reputable screen printers, who do high quality work, or can anyone recommend someone?? Cheers, Daniel

Hey mate the All Tackle Black Marlin record is 654.08KG - Cairns '73 All Tackle Australian Blue Record is 452.2kg, angler was Melanie Kisbee Aussie SBT record is 153kg of St Helens Aussie YFT record is 124kg of Bermi Kingfish Aussie Record is 42kg of Pt Augusta Snapper Aussie Record is 16.2kg Mulloway is 34kg These are of GFAA so probably the most reliable

Hey Steve generally the slimy schools that are on the shelf are bigger than your inshore slimies, so I prefer to use the Black Pete Super Jigs in size 3/0, or size 6. The weight is dependant on the current etc. but make sure you have something heavy enough to get you down to the school. Tackle is personal preferences, whether you are more comfortable using overheads or threeadlines. Get something with a high retrieve rate so you aren't there cranking all day. Personally I like overheads and I use a small Avet with 50lb braid on a Rapala Jig Stick, also doubles as a kingy outfit. One thing that I have started to use which is awesome and has helped alot is YGK Jigman Braid, which changes colour every ten metres - mark the bait on the sounder, say its 40m down, drop down your jig, and using the colour changes your jig should drop straight into the hot spot. On a hot day at port be prepared to lose countless jigs, as the marlin will come up and snap at your slimies, pain in the ass lol Livebaiting for marlin is a whole different game, plenty of stuff to learn, and as you say the succes rate is so much better than lures. Hope this helps, Daniel

Wow thats expensive!! Have a look at this, the 'cheaper option'. Retails for about AU$1200. It is the Blue Heaven L120 Jig Reel.

You boys took out champion boat T&R didnt you? Well done, great effort to tag 5 billfish.. Daniel

Hey Dave I think it was a blue also. Of all the species of marlin, it is typical for blues to fight down deep throughout the whole fight, you will hook them and not see them for hours. I also agree that excessive drag pressure may have been a likely cause of breakage, with half your spool out, with the addition of water pressure. But since it was a clean cut it may have been perhaps another fish passing over the line, same thing happened to us a few months ago and that was something we considered. Although blues are not renowned for travelling in packs so who knows really. A nick in the line is another thing that obviously comes to head. I specifically check my lines before we go out, as its a bitch when you lose fish from tackle failure. One thing you got to really watch out for is after cubing season there are often plenty of nicks on the line due to birds etc. With blues there really isnt time to stuff around. Everyone has to know their job, and do it, because before you know it half your spool is gone! Clear the lines, back off the drag on a running fish, and remember you can always increase it back up to strike once the fish has stopped running. The key is get on the chase as quickly as possible. Once they go deep you really have to use the boat to try and plane the fish up, or else you could be there for a very very long time - even if it means paying out a bit of line, once the fish is on the surface you can back up on it easily (or chase with the pointy end on a trailerboat) and recover a lot of line, more easily. All sounds easy in theory, but Blues come as a bit of a shock to the system the first time!!! Good luck Dave, Daniel

Thanks Dave, should be another good day for those who are out for day 2 of the Bill Heyward. Nice dollies taken as well and I think there was a 190kg blue weighed. Not bad for a usually quiet tourny. Cheers, Daniel

Gday boys, got out today in awesome conditions with Silvo (Bentstik) and a couple of the other boys out of Botany to give the beakies a go for the first time this season! We were met by beautiful cobalt blue water straight out of the heads and some nice 23.5 degree water. Dropped the lures in at 50 fathoms and within 10 minutes of trolling we had a little black come up on our short rigger for a look, he tailed the Mcgoo lure for a while had a go at it and stripped 100 metres of line before he dropped it. Promising start to the day and after putting the spread back in, 5 minutes later what looked like the same fish came back for another sniff on the short rigger, again he went after it and stripped some more line off before he dropped it Thats what you get with marlin fishing on lures I guess. Anyway dropped the spread back in and continued SE out of Botany to the canyons, water temp hovering around 23.8 degrees with a bit of bird life, however there was no bait on the sounder (didn't see any all day). After we rounded the canyons we headed north up the shelf line towards Browns, where we found the temp at 24-24.2 degrees with a couple of nice breaks. At around 1:30pm a few miles west of browns we had a bigger black come up again on the short rigger (McGoo lure was the star today) and engulf the 8 inch lure. The fish took a bloody long first run on 24kg before we started to back up on it, emptying more than half the spool. Put on a good show for us early on in the fight with some sweet acrobatics, before settling down deeper. We had her at the boat for a lot of the fight, but she was a very stubborn fish and would not come up easily, eventually we drove off her a little bit and planed her up and by this stage she was buggered. Danny was on the rod and the tag was in after 45 minutes and the hook was out before we swam her for a few minutes (she was not looking good for a while) but a couple of kicks and she was off. We measured her at around 210 short length which puts her at approximately 100kg. Nice fish. Sydney seems to be fishing well with around 25 marlin being tagged/captured during the Bill Heyward tournament and there is still tomorrow. Blues, stripes and blacks which are sitting on the shelf and just inside. No bait but there are plenty of fish around with boats dropping fish on double hook ups, and one boat having three up at once!. Anyway top day out, awesome conditions, good to get the first beaky for the season for our first trip Here are some pics enjoy...

Hey boys just back from overseas so I didnt get my forms in on time so wont be fishing the tourney. However we will be out on Saturday lets hope the fish are on, at least the weather looks good!! Cheers, Daniel

I have a Bravia 40 inch Full HD and the quality of normal dvd's on the PS3 which upscales to 1080P is excellent. Only bettered by the Blu Ray movies which are amazing, both in picture and in sound quality.

You will still have that one 30W lol, Murphy's Law, it will always get hit Anyway, 4x50W and you are set, just put them on the riggers and corners and run the 30W on the shoddy. Unlucky mate, did you get a look at the fish at all....sounds like a blue, would have been one hell of a first fish!! Get all the gear in quick because before you know it you are spooled and onboard a trailer boat chase it with the pointy end... Cheers, Daniel

Hey Clifford had a chat to Fishlexic about this already, when you have lost 2/3 you are better off backing your drag off rather than going to sunset, or you will lose the fish. Have a read of this: it is off the online BTL CD from Peter Pakula- Let’s think of the spool of a game reel as a wheel, say a bicycle wheel, with an outside rim and a hub. The wheel turns easily by pushing the outside rim with the palm of the hand, but trying to turn the wheel with one finger pushing a spoke close to the hub is much more difficult. This is no different when we use the same principal on a game reel spool. The drag is set using a full spool of line . As it is close to the outside rim of the spool it takes far less force to turn the spool than it would take to turn the spool where the line is closer to the hub of the spool, remembering the drag setting, that is friction on the spool, remains constant. To show this clearly we will look at various results obtained using a Shimano Tiagra 20 with 8kg Stren High Impact Tournament Line. The test was done on a full spool, at two-thirds full, one-third full and right at the bottom of the spool. Note the measurements in millimeters are taken on the line capacity of the reel, not the diameter of the spool. The spool of the reel is 28mm. It is normal for game reels to be filled with line leaving a space for either leaders or novices who can’t level the line effectively. This is to prevent the line or leader getting jammed between the spool and reel housing. In this case full spool diameter was 4mm less than the spool diameter that is 24mm, which is about normal. The drag was then set at 3kg at normal drag setting speed. Though please note that in the following, the scales were pulled slowly. Full Spool: Pull is at 24mm, 2kg drag Two-Thirds Full: 16mm, 4kg drag One-Third Full: 8mm, 6kg drag Just on empty: 0mm, 7kg with just the line ticking off very slowly. At any speed the inertia breaks the line. Note that in the original setup the drag was set at 3kg which is a little high for 8kg. This is apparent now that with just a few turns of line left on the spool, the line will break very easily with the slightest increase in speed. The understanding of taking the reel, line and rod to their limits can only be understood by exercises and experiments such as this. So basically sunset when you only have 1/3rd of your spool left will create excessive drag on the line, and subsequently you will usually snap off, thats why you must cater for the amount of line out, and back off your drag, even though sunset seems like the logical thing to do when you are about to be spooled. Cheers, hope this helps Daniel

You cant claim a record if you tag a fish, it has to be weighed! From memory the tag poles they use are about 12ft, they prefer to get the fish in quick, tag it, and set the baits quickly, as fishing time there is far more limited (most boats dont set their baits until well after midday.) Cheers, Daniel