jimnicdusty

Hi Yarraone, I will be there with the young fella again, can't wait we have been catching a lot of carp, since the fishing season opened, so it should be a good day comp is on Sunday 1st of Nov - not sure exactly what time it starts Jim

not to sure what the weight is called ,they look like a sinker cut in half at the back of the popper it is actually just the wire twisted back onto the sinker.if you want a swivel just add one to the wire before you twist it.

This it is out of one piece of wood. This is just an experiment as it is my first one and the wood I have used is not recommended, I recon 1 decent GT and they would tear this thing to shreds! Apparently you need some sort of hard wood. People have mentioned Drift Wood (whatever that is) or some sort of maple would be a better option. When i get some time ill post a full step by step process. At this stage im still experimenting and dont want to advise incase im doing the wrong thing...... I have since added some eyelets to this and gave it a test down at the boat ramp and was really quite supprised at the action. Lots of bloops and pops. It is a little on the light side so i think once i use some hard wood I will overcome this problem. PS: I know the paint job is a bit retro but Im waiting for some real hobby airbrush paint to arrive in the mail. I used a combination of kids water paint and house paint for this one Ill keep you all updated! hi BillyD your popper looks good fish should love it. that timber you are useing looks like pine,it will handle big fish no worries. I make my own poppers out of pine and they work well and i have caught some big GTs on them and if they get smashed to bits that doesent matter they there not exspensive to make it also makes a good talking point when you show them to people all smashed up. just put good stainless wire all the way through the popper (i use 2.4 stainless steel filler rods) and add 200-300lb heavy class split rings and strong hooks to the wire then if the timber does split or get chewed to bits you have the wire to keep you connected to the fish. if you add a sinker to the back of the popper it helps in casting and sits the tail down in the water and will stop it from tumbling when you wind it in. i have used hard wood but its to heavy and when you add a sinker, wire,split rings and hooks there is just to much weight.

its a fireworm http://images.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=...sa%3DG%26um%3D1

good luck Jim

it looks like a fire worm, dont touch it thay have a nasty sting if thoes hairs get stuck in you.

HI tossered fished it for a few days in May during our coral sea trip ( search coral sea trip report) caught a few trout / red throat emperor / spangled emperor and a few other fish but it was slow compared to other trips. what boat are you going on? Jim

I was in coles tonight doing the shopping and while the was buying stuff from the deli i was looking at the fish (haveing a bit of a laugh at the sh*t they sell) and they had those leatherjackets for $7.99 kg. some one must enjoy them for a feed.

thats a good spanish mack, i am having some that i caught on a recent trip for tea tonight hopefully its tasty. Jim

great report, looks like you had a ball catching all those fish, 29 species thats a top effort. what time of the year did you go? cheers jim

thats crazy now i want to catch one

what moses said

We World Jig rod getting a test on a wahoo wahoo filets and a small yellow fin Corination trout Coral trout Red emperor Longtom Blue maori cod Blackfin cod

thanks for everyones replys cheers jim i will post a few more pics in a couple of days

the GTs only take a few minutes to land on the gear i was using .you need to use heavy spin gear to get them away from the reef. I was using a shimano GT special ,stella 18000 sw with 130lb braid and 15kg drag so its hook up and hold on and give it every thing you've got.

the lunatic patting the shark was Clate . The shark was pretty docile there it had just gone through 30 min fight pulling full drag on tiagra 80 so it was fairly worn out. THANKS FOR EVERYONES REPLYS

Me and my dad with a double hookup and the result My dad and the T-curve 400 over head jig rod getting a workout The 38kg wahoo that worked over my dad in the above pic a few wahoo pics will change pics in a few days can't post any more because i have used all my pic space

the big GT was about 45kg the smaller one in the pics weighed 22kg. all GT's were released and the big wahoo that my dad caught weighed 38 kg most of the other wahoo weighed 24kg to 28kg we kept 8 and all the other ones were released.

Hi sk i only lost 5 lures a couple of the boys lost 7 or 8 my recomendation would be to change all the hooks and splitrings on all your lures because nearly every lure that dident have them changed had the hooks eather pulled of the lure due to inadequate split rings or the hooks were straightend. The only lure that dident dident need any thing changed was river2sea killer vibe. I changed all my split rings and hooks before i left for the trip. split rings were decoy 200,250and 300lb and the hooks i used were singles owner sj41 11/0 heavy jig hooks run back to back on the belly and a single on the tail.

Here is a few more photos of the Wahoooooooooooo That afternoon we headed into Surprise reef as we couldn't get Wreck reef due to the strong winds predicted the next day. That day we got onto a couple more GT's and went and snorkled with the fishes - what a great experience that was. Spent the last couple of days chasing reef fish for a feed before we headed home. Have already started planning for next years trip as this will be a yearly trip. Can post a few more photos if you are interested. Cheers Jim Would like to thank my ever patient for typing out my post

That night I put out shark baits again and what a night on the sharks it was... The first shark of the night that we hooked swam back in on the main line and bit us off Round 2 was more sucessful, it was the first tiger shark for the trip. After a 30 minute fight tiger shark number 1 was released. We put out another bait straight away and within 10 minutes we were on again. This one took longer to get to the boat and was a fair bit bigger then the first - it was estimated to be about 300kgs. This is one of the shark baits. These are the tiger sharks Half an hour later I caught a white tipped reef shark between 150 and 200 kgs, the deckies said it was the biggest reef shark he had ever seen. The next day the boys caught a few dog tooth tuna, yellow fin tuna and baracuda. About 7pm we cruised from Samurez reef to Frederick reef and arrived about 9am. Frederick reef didn't fish as well due to lack of current. We did catch a few reef fish though. The next day we headed out to Calder bank which is a sea mount that goes from 2200m beneath the surface and rises to within 40m of the surface. This turned out to be the one of the most memorable days fishing any of us had ever had. When we got their we all dropped down baits and everyone was bitten off from sharks. A few of us put on wire trace and spent the next hour and half catching shark after shark. Then it was decided that we would go for a troll. Within 10 minutes we hooked the first wahoo on an old Diawa Sealine that had to be retired as we burnt out the drag washers. As we didn't get it to the boat quick enough the sharks got that fish. It is specatular sight watching a pack of sharks eat a wahoo on the surface which happened numerous times throughout the day. For the next 5 hours we caught wahoo after wahoo ranging from 24 kgs to 38 kgs. All up we landed 26 Wahoo that day, 3 heads, lost just as many fish and we lost and damaged alot of lures. Continued in part 3.... post was edited as text was lost when downloading

Part 1 Where do i start. What a trip, it was the trip of a lifetime. It started with months of planning and many hours looking at maps of where we wanted to go, research on the types of fish we would catch, what they ate, what rigs, knots and lures we would use. We also spent hours in the shed making our own poppers and finally I settled on the below collection. So on the saturday we arrived at the marina to load all our gear onto the Eastern Voyager which will be our home for the 10 days. Left the marina at 3pm, cruised until 7am to reach Tiawan reef where we spent our first day chasing GT's on poppers. We jumped in one of the dory's and went and fished a reef break. Where I caught my first GT for the trip. Then I caught another 1. While I was hooked upto the 3rd one my brother in law stalled the boat so I had to take over the motor as we were nearly on top of the breakers. So he took over the rod and caught the biggest GT for the trip and it hurt him afterwards - gee those GT's pull hard !! For the rest of the day we did some bait fishing, caught some coral trout, sweetlip and a few other reef fish. That night we put out a shark bait and caught a 250 - 300 kg hammerhead. After a 45 min battle we had it boatside, all the boys were watching and cheering me on but the hopeless buggers didn't get a decent photo. I was a bit dissapointed and this is the best photo there was. At about midnight we left Taiwan reef and cruised to Samurez reef and arrived there about 9am. This day became known as Job fish day, we caught over 50 job fish that day and a heap of other reef fish too. See next post for part 2

We are leaving for our 10 day Wreck Reef trip tomorrow so i will post some picturs and a report when i get back. cheers Jim

Thanks to every one that inquired about the trip we filled the spots. cheers Jim