monch

That is a HUGE 'turd fish' congrats on the pb hahah

Great work man, gives me the itch to go down there for a flick Btw, what weight jig heads are you using? Monch

Hey Roberta, i tried out the quick snaps, not sure if they were the decoy brand or not but they looked just like your ones and were quite expensive as well. Tried them out and was happy with them but then i lost a pencil lure on the cast with it That really gave me some doubts and i haven't tried them since. By the way, which size ones do you use? I didn't want to go too small cause they looked flimsy, didn't want too big cause they had a larger gap and seemed bulky for the smaller lures. Monch

Well done, i am yet to bag a legal bream with soft plastics and gymea is my local haunt. Keep at it, then you can teach me the finer points of it Monch

My god... mackerel on plastics... that woulda been a whole world of fun. How did you manage not to get busted off, get lucky with lip hookups or wire leaders? And 21kg spanish, that's huge

Nice haul mate, unlucky about getting the slightly smaller elbow slappers...I would've been happy with the 40cm whiting, they are elbow slappers nonetheless. What bait did you get them on? And with the pirtek challenge, they encourage catch and release but its not a rule. Particularly because its not like a serious bream competition but moreso a social/family fishing trip for charity, they would not have rules like that which to me seem abit harsh. Monch

Tried to start fishing at 6am for the whole of the run-out tide but was too tired and slept in lol, ended up fishing at 10am. The wind was way stronger than expected and there was stringy floating weed everywhere, fouling my plastics on 90% of casts and ruining an otherwise spectacular day. Ended up hooking 6 flatties all legal size, dropping 3 right infront of me and keeping 2, the largest at smack bang 50cm. Not in much contention of winning but at least its a PB for me Monch

Hard to believe that none of you experienced anglers could have come back with no fish on the board. Despite that, it seems you have done better than others there and even the professional guides so that is an accomplishment. Just goes to show that fishing can be really hit and miss at times, i'm surprised you guys still came back with a head full of hair (Jewhunter doesn't count). Regardless, it was a spectacularly written report, had me on the edge of my seat. Such is the level of reporting from Slinky that i was eagerly scanning the next lines with the hope you guys nailed some fish. Oh well, better luck next time. Monch

Congrats on the capture Hodgey, what a ripper Was it 10lb fluoro that managed to stay connected on this monster? Haha, i sure hope i have not jinxed you Hodgey, after all you did give me some pointers There is still enough time between now and the day of the challenge for you to get your luck back... even though there is no such thing as luck when you are out flattie hunting... its more like a delayed certainty Monch

Still trying to work that out, the plan is to hop from one to the other until I find the fish.

Nice, another 40cm+ bream, nice streak you got going there Did you get him on the sand flats or in deeper water? And yikes, spooled in 15 secs, seems like you hooked onto something bigger than an 80cm kingy. Haven't had 1st hand experience with getting spooled like that. There are a few people that have caught kingys of that size on the gear you are using though. Kingys seem to have the power to spool you but generally try to bust you off rather than plot a course for New Zealand. Would have been an exciting 14 secs and a terrifying 1 second to that fight.

Unless it was a very big mack tuna, don't know what else would spool you like that.. unless your talking about the spotted and spanish varieties, but that would be a big surprise. Question is, what was your mate doing, "jigging" with 4lb line?

Hope its ok to post these links:

I still haven't worked out if that affects the squidding much. I have gotten squid in all conditions, some that people have theorised does not help the squidding. I have fished in light rain, heavy winds, murky water after hard rains, etc, all of these are meant to put the squid off, maybe i was just lucky. I do like fishing in pleasant conditions though, and because i like it, i fish more often in pleasant conditions and catch more squid. Have you seen japanese squidding videos? you can learn a whole new approach to squidding from them. The japanese like to target relatively shallow water with flashy jigs and jig them fairly erratically and quick. This technique has worked for me many times when the slow hops have not worked.

Yes standing on the groynes, although i sometimes call them breakwalls incase people don't understand the term groyne. Casting diagonally back towards shore on the run-out tide and casting diagonally away from shore on the run-in tide. If your interested in targetting flathead on soft plastics you will do well to read Hodgey's topics as well as information submitted by others on fishraider, just use the search function and get ready for a wealth of information. You can also search up videos on youtube if your a visual learner. Monch

Great result, will be a day to remember that's for sure. Just wondering, what is all that stuff hanging out of the marlin's mouth in the last picture? Is it the innards of the fish?

Jig size i definitely prefer the smaller jigs, 1.8 or smaller, colours... i haven't worked out any particular winners, watever you feel like, just change colours if you aren't getting follows or hits. If i wasn't getting hits or follows, first thing i would change is my retrieve, followed by jig size/weight and then colour. I have gotten squid at all times of the day, from morning, midday to night. However at night i find there is usually too many people so i prefer to go at late arvo/early evening if i am specifically targetting them. My approach at night is different to during the day however, when there is more light, the squid like to be in the slightly deeper water, at night however, they move right up to the <1.5m shallows so target your casts accordingly. If you pay attention you can see the squid that sometimes venture into the lighted up area at night, usually small candy bar sized arrows but sometimes large 20cm+ calamari and arrows. The larger ones like to hunt around the lit up areas but they stick around the edges in the shadows. Now that the nets are down, bigger squid as well as the small ones are inside the actual baths against the weedy shoreline. Lately i have been getting them all there, along the dropoff next to the weed. Even though they are in close at night time, make longer casts and bring the lure back towards your target area.

Went for a quick flick at kurnell landbased to practice for the Pirtek challenge. Went for about 1.5hrs at 6pm, so about 1hr into the first of the run out tide. Managed 3 just under flatties which took a blue and white 5" jerkshad. The greedy buggers all managed to get the whole thing down their gobs but luckily still managed to lip hook them otherwise i would've needed to make some leader changes. Also hooked a big squid around 25cm hood. Would've stayed longer but it was getting dark and the wind was howling. A few days ago i used the same approach and hooked 4 flatties and dropped 2 at around 45cm. Also hooked around high tide but was in the middle of the day. Will only be a matter of time before i get some larger specimens. All thanks to the helpful info from Hodgey and Slinky.

Nice to see another advocate of catch and release. I was never a huge fan of eating fish but seeing as how I am able to occasionally catch fresh and great tasting seafood by myself, i have started to acquire a taste for fish. Nonetheless my fishing career and knowledge has been raised by the likes of the ABT, fishing shows and fishraider which have all shown me the benefits of catch and release. I don't kill fish for the sake of it and i will not criticise anyone who bags out on fish within the legal limits. If i manage to catch any amount of fish that is superfluous to my needs then i will try to release them. Older fish i will try to release as well, firstly because they don't taste as great and secondly because they are the breeders which restock the fish populations. If not for those reasons, i'm also lazy to gut, clean and prepare a whole bunch of fish that i don't want to eat. If i caught a very large bream or flattie i would definitely take the camera out, get a few good shots and try to release them, no second thoughts. With big kings and jews though... i am not equipped to get the real bigguns so haven't really contemplated the thought.

Didn't know and couldn't find any normal trions in 2-4kg range with 2 piece which was why i was looking at the trion tournament.

Had a look and feel of the Starlo Stix pro 7'10" 2-5kg and also the trion tournament, both feel good. The starlo stix is longer and thus whippier in the tip, could help with casting distance but does anyone have any first hand experience with the rod?

wow........ that puts anyone else's story to shame.. Won't bother telling the story of how a random little kid stepped on my rod and slightly bent one of the guides

Mate you can get plenty of squid during the day, its not necessarily a night only proposition. Rock up to any of the wharves at port hacking and cast in the areas with a mixed sandy/weedy bottom and you should get some.

Sounds like the trion is the go then. The reason I didn't purchase it in the first place was because the guy in the tackle shop said he liked the trions but not the trion tournaments, said they felt less solid. Then as i was still contemplating the purchase, some1 brought in a snapped trion tournament wanting an exchange So yeh i went with the Gladi ator spin rod. It seems like a fairly good rod the few times i have used it but the ferrule comes loose every few casts which is why i am going back to the shop to exchange it.

Hi raiders, which 2 piece rod would you choose for landbased topwater, soft plastics, and light metals? Berkley Dropshot Gen 3 6'10" 2-4kg 2 piece Pflueger Trion Tournament 7'2" 2-5kg 2 piece Shimano Rack Raider 7'6" 2-4kg 2 piece Shimano Rack Raider 6'8" 2-5kg 2 piece Shimano Starlo Stix 7'10" 2-5kg 2 piece Any reviews? Heard that the Rack raiders were abit "stiff" not sure what that was in regard to and whether that makes them less appealing than the other rods.