monch

Hi Jewgaffer, i am not experienced enough with knots (or fishing for that matter) to be able to comment on your views of which knot is superior. From what little experience i have, i have found the slim beauty to be well... slim, which allows me to have longer leaders that i can wind onto the reel and still cast out nearly unimpeded. From the general consensus on the internet, and from my own experience, i find it to be a fairly strong knot that i can tie well enough and also have confidence in it, which is why i use it. I generally use 2m leaders and as i fish fairly shallow water (probably <5m, more often <3m) landbased, most of the braid is out of the water. I know a lot of people use <1m leaders and they catch more fish than me so i really don't know if it helps all that much. Based on theory though, i would like to have no visible braid in the water, but that is just too expensive to have to throw away long lengths of leaders all the time. On my heavier outfit which i use for livebaiting, generally with a float, i put around a 3.5m leader on it. My purpose of doing so is to use the braid to leader knot as a stopper knot for the float (which is otherwise free running). This allows my livie to have freedom to swim anywhere between 0-3.5m deep, and therefore in most of the water column for the areas i fish. Essentially what i am doing is letting the livie free swim but having a float as a bite indicator and a general indicator of where my livie is. What it also does is keep all of the braid out of the water, which is not my main intention but is an added bonus i guess. Oh and the extra stretch i believe helps for bigger fish that go hard. So there you go, those are my views, i don't know for sure if it helps me catch fish cause i don't catch fish, i only try to catch fish . I just like to think that it helps me catch fish.

This is the video i was referring to, when he describes the 2 lines, the 'fly line' (shock tippet) would be equivalent to your leader material (which is thicker) and the 'charteruse monofilament' (class tippet) would be equivalent to your braid (which is thinner). An important point that he raises in the last step of tightening the knot, is to tighten the braid side via the standing ie main line and not the tag end. If you pull on the tag end too much before you pull on the standing part, the top layer of the braid (ie the "4 wraps up') will dig into the lower layer of wraps and lock them all in place, before they are stacked nicely. Shaune, i think a double overhand knot is the same as a 2 wrap uni, i always referred to it as a double overhand knot anyway though. Myocard, do try all the different knots and suggestions here, but remember you have to practice with each one, especially some of the more difficult ones, to be able to compare them fairly.

I double the braid over, thread it through the "2 loops" that you mention and do 5 or so wraps down, the equal amount up and pass the tag end through the 1st braid wrap. Your extra step of wrapping over the mono leader itself with the braid could have some advantages of making it more smooth (although i think it is smooth enough)... don't know how it will cause the slipping. Are you tightening the mono leader down enough? Admins, can i post a link to a youtube video? I think it provides a very clear and easy to follow instruction on 1 way of tying the slim beauty.

Slim beauty is a great knot. As the name suggests it is slim, has good knot strength and is not too hard to tie after some practice. The albright has an inherent risk of slipping whereas the slim beauty does not. The two look similar and similar in how you tie them. Look it up on youtube. If you want to get real technical, you can learn those complicated PR, FG knots etc that they use for heavy duty popping etc

Great mixed bag there, enough for a big feed + stocked up on quality baits. Wish the pelagics would show up further up the estuary so i could have a shot at them.

Its already been done, saw something on IFish that was a keychain thing that u can attach to your car/boat keys etc and if it drops into the water, an orange balloon inflates and the whole lot floats to the surface. Supposedly works with objects up to 2kg in weight or so.

Uni works fine for me, tried the improved albright for a while, noticed it slipped a few times when i was pulling stuff outta snags. Apparently didn't tie it well enough even though i take a lot of care with my knots. Can't be bothered with a knot that has an inherent risk of slipping (albright) so i now use a double uni knot for lighter stuff and slim beauty for the heavier lines.

I have had some small hits and follows from very small fish, 5-20cm varieties but have not seen any decent sized fish yet. I have been trying to find weed patches but they are few and far between on that stretch of water, particularly landbased. I went once to the area around the south of Darook park, what i think is Hungry point just before some building sitting near the waters edge with a blue tarp on the top and a small private wharf and there was weed galore, being low tide, i thought it would be suicidal to cast into such thick weed with the lures. Tried around the rocky shoreline rather than off the sand but didn't see any fish activity or get any follows. Do you reckon it would be worth a try at high tide?

I have been experimenting with bridle rigging livies with rubber bands infront of they eyes. Seems to work well, lets you cast further, lets them live longer and meant to help with hooking the fish after a strike. However it is a more complicated process and you have to be prepared to put in the extra effort and especially practice doing it fast. Yakkas are fine with the process and i can bridle them fast enough to ensure their survival, however slimies are harder and lose their slime on your hands and seem to die after a few mins. Be sure to swim the livie close by after bridling to "revive it" abit from its increased time out of the water and prepare it for the traumatic experience of being cast. Look up the adventure bound video of bridling live baits on youtube.

Good to hear you are having some luck on those whiting at gunnamatta bay. I have been trying the flats fruitlessly for many trips. Wading out up to knee high water around low tides to reach the slightly deeper spots with less boat traffic and swimmers. No luck so far, haven't even gotten a good strike yet. Been working the few small weed patches at the start of the dropoffs next to the sand flats... water that is around what i guess to be 30cm - 1.3m. Been using small 5cm pencils and 3-4cm poppers. Whereabouts are you getting the whiting if you don't mind me asking?

It seems you have provided a question to your own question. From your statement, my only guess is to try with more live baits and lures...

Very nice boat indeed and a very good livebait tank. Simple separator so the squid don't kill the other livies nice.

Was fishing at gunnamatta bay on the sand flats this morning, and some dude and kids were pumping yabbies on the spot. I had pumped my yabbies elsewhere and brought them there and these guys were pumping in a protected zone and catching whiting. I meanwhile got a big fat zero.

Is luring bream in the shallow weed beds/sand flats with poppers, soft plastics etc a low light only proposition? Or is it still possible late morning/late afternoon? Any weed beds worth mentioning in the Port hacking/George's river that are accessible from shore?

If you are getting more cuttles than squid then your jig is resting on the bottom most of the time. Cuttles seem to ambush their prey when it is right on the sea bed but squid seem to prefer to attack during the sink. Where i fish there is not usually much current but sometimes i wait up to 1 minute to ensure the jig hits the bottom before i start retrieving. During the day i like to keep the squid jig right near the bottom, in lower light conditions i will give more erratic retrieves mid water. The best advice would be to experiment, mix it up and see what works.

If there are large ones in the area, i am confident in getting some of them, but small ones make better live baits. Also large jigs catch large squid but small jigs catch ALL squid.

I've done some weight modifications yes, but what i'm looking for is not only a slower sinking jig but a jig that is of an even smaller physical size which also sinks slower.

Mind fowarding a pm to me as well? Those mars bars size arrows seem to have trouble getting hooked on even the 1.8 size squid jigs.

Squid when you pull them out of the water have all manner of mottly patterns etc on their skin. They are able to change their patterns at will and even after death their skin seems to have a mind of its own and you can see the little dots changing colour... looks like there are waves of colour pulsing through their skin. The colour doesn't really change much, mostly different shades of a red-brown colour. Sometimes if you handle the squid roughly its skin can get torn abit which makes the squid look quite ragged in appearance. This however is not the pink tinge on the actual flesh or tubes of the squid which make it shite. If you want to check whether your squid has been in the fridge too long, try and peel off some of the skin and see if it is pink underneath. You will know what this pink looks like if you accidentally leave some squid out in the sun during a fishing session.

Congratulations, sounds like an awesome session. That is EXACTLY what i want to hear, kings appearing in the hacking YAHOO. Time for some early weekday morning sessions. Btw, mind telling which wharf it was at

Anyone know shops that stock Pflueger trions? I've been looking around in southern sydney and can't find one. It would be nice if someone could PM me details

Wow what a great encounter and a great catch. Never would have thought that a kingy would show up at 1pm with sun blaring down in shallow waters upriver. Lucky catch . I'm pretty sure your next one won't be due to luck though. I'm guessing you are searching up everything there is to know about kings on fishraider right now Hope your next kingy is of legal size, and I hope i can get my first one this summer as well !

Great ideas from all which i have read about on fishraider previously but have not yet brought on board. I did bring a plastic sieve with me, but with no bicycle tube attached around it yet. Pumped at dead low tide on sand flats and hadn't gotten used to the pumping action yet, did not have good posture that's for sure. Would have wanted to pump where i was fishing but its not allowed in Gunnamatta bay so didn't do it. Have read that stirred up stand itself is burley for whiting. Looks like i'll have to get down to maianbar and slog it out with more nippers. Btw robust, i finally got down to hungry point and checked out the area. Threw some poppers around as well but didn't see any fish activity. Plenty of crabs in the rock crevices though. Tide was very low and weed lined the sand flats. I think it will fish better from a boat where you can get past the wall of weed. Hodgey - i've read your posts and it seems like you are endorsing bushy's products haha, i will have a look at the bushy poppers next time. Your post about continuous spray coming from the popper for whiting had me thrashing my little popper through the water like i was going for GTs... only on a smaller scale.

Went pumping for nippers yesterday for 2hrs on the arvo low tide, only managed 20 nippers, 1 small crab and 1 small white worm with red legs. Back-breaking work -_-. Woke up bright and early at 4am to fish the low tide at gunnamatta flats for whiting. At 5am, tide just started to run in. Water was still very cold because the sun was only just rising so didn't want to wade in just yet. Casted poppers and pencils to prospect the area, had 1 or 2 enquiries but no hookups. Abit later i waded in knee deep and cast the nippers gently in close. Ended up with about 6 undersize whiting for 20+ baits, the largest going a mere 20cm . Those nippers are too fragile for the hordes of undersized whiting, need a bigger fish to come along and just swallow it whole. The small crab worked a treat, didn't die when i baited it up, got large hits as soon as i casted it out and most importantly, didn't get picked off the hook...must get some more of those. Any tips to find the larger whiting, or do i just have to work through the smaller ones by sacrificing baits? Any tips to get whiting to hit lures? I tried a 5cm pencil walking the dog fast and slow, 3.5cm popper walking/popping fast but in very small movements, plain constant popping, flat out retrieves, tried a 3.5cm strike pro blade as well which seemed to get the most attention out of the lures. I was using the back-most tow point to get the lure to face down and vibrate horizontally across the bottom rather than hopping vertically. Constant medium pace retrieve seemed to get alot of attention but only 1 hook up.

Nice fish! looks to me like a cross between a sampson and an amberjack . Juvenile sampsons have blotches on their body and have a higher body profile (not as slim?) than kings and ambers. Your fish looks to have the body shape of a sampson, but not the colours of a sampson... Did the fish have dark blotches before it died? And with kings, they always have gas left in the tank when u least expect it. That is the reason why they are renowned fighters with that never say die attitude. When you think the battle is won, you'll get pinged!