slinkymalinky

Little Slinky will be with me for the Kingie Social too. Cheers, Slinkymalinky

I should be able to get my hands on some commercial packs of Cling Wrap and Foil. Cheers, Slinky I'll be there by the way!!

I was flying solo today as "someone" (BrettP) had to do something called work??? go figure. Managed to get an absolute boat load of squid (I even donated some to Kiwi Dan, and Iv'e still managed to stash more than enough for the next trip in the freezer) and ran out to Dobroyd at first light. I learned a new dance today when within 3 minutes of my baits hitting the water, the squid strip got hit and came up solid, then the live squid went off. I was riverdancing around the boat like a madman... MC Hammer had nothing on me. You should have seen the moves!! 5 minutes in... two on the deck and guess what.... 65 and 67cm.... hooray, sashimi for dinner. I called Kiwi Dan over and he arrived just in time to see me boat another smaller model. I know Kiwi scored but not sure how many. Then just like that, they switched off so toddled further up the harbour where there was a plague of rats (and 50' charter boats running through the middle of the anchored boats to get a crew of seasick patrons inconveniently onto the kings). I got tapped a couple of times but didn't hook up and since all the fish were ratties (one guy out there had caught about 25 and not one made 65cm) I headed back to Dobroyd. Got my downrigged squid beheaded by a good hit (how do they miss the hooks???) but nothing else. As a last gasp as the rain clouds decided to open up, I sat up in middle harbour and proved yet again, that Kings know which is the lightest outfit you have. I floated small bits of squid down to the bottom scroing a nice bream before a kingy decided to ignore my 30lb and 50lb outfits and snaffle the bream outfit. Short and sweet! Got totally bricked! Cheers, Slinky

Hey Kingies... is there a GPS mark for the reef out the front that you're willing to let us know please? Cheers, Slinky

I'm worried that fishing for me is not so much a hobby or even an obsession as much as a disease... is it just me or are there others with these symptoms? Symptoms: - I own over 50 outfits - I have a rod rack in my bedroom - I have NEVER entered a tackle shop and then left without spending money - I am at my most creative when rationalizing to myself why I need a new item of tackle (I don't have a 9wt, 3 piece fly rod and you never know when I might have a last minute meeting in Cape York that I'll need to get to by light plane with a luggage restriction which prevents me taking my 2 piece 9wt....) - I 'high-grade' my tackle all the time... if someone comes out with a better circle hook, I'll buy them and leave all my perfectly good, chemically sharpened older hooks in the 'redundant' pile. (BrettP is inheriting a reel load of Fireline from one of my reels so I can upgrade to some new Platypus Jigging Braid I got my hands on!) - I When I'm not fishing, I often find excuses to reorganize all my gear (move things from one tackle box to another, set up new tackle boxes... eg. the 'for keeping in the car' tackle box, the 'for if I ever go ice-fishing tackle box' etc. - I know most of the tackle shop staff in Sydney by their first name - I own more packets of Gulp, squid jigs, spools of leader material, boxes of hooks, lures, etc than I could conceivably use in 2 lifetimes - Mrs Slinky constantly tells me I could open a tackle shop (although Little Slinky, bless her, always says I don't have enough fishing gear) - I've been known after long periods without fishing to spend an hour staking around the back yard casting at buckets, trees, bits of bark, etc... while telling myself it's to improve my casting. - I own tackle for forms of fishing that in all likelihood I'll never do (I've got a Marlin lure big enough for 1000lb Blues.... an interesting prospect in a 4.8m tinnie) - The only time my car gets washed is when it's been in for a service.... my boat gets washed thoroughly every time it's been out Is it just me??? Heeeelp! Slinky

OK... so I've had a crack the last two days and thought I did ok by getting most answers but geez... you guys can get the quiz done faster than I can even read the clues! I'll have to work on my speed big time to get anywhere near Mrsswordfisherman. I'm not even in the same league. Next time I go to a trivia night for someones fundraiser, I know where to look for a team!! Cheers, Slinky

G'day Stumpy, I'll try to listen more carefully to my radio this time and try to give you a yell.... just look for the Brad Pitt look-alike (aka fat 40 year old boof head) in the Freedom Sport with the E-Tec. I may have BrettP with me.... if not Little Slinky will be showing me up again. See you out there. Slinky

Hey Dan, I'm going to go out Saturday instead of tomorrow.... weather looks ordinary. I'll give you a call or a text on Saturday morning. Cheers, Slinky

Found in the North too... my wive caught one on a 40g raider on a charter trip with Carpentaria Seafaris in Cape York. At the time I was fighting a longtail tuna also hooked on a 40g raider from the school blowing up all around the boat. And wasn't Mrs Slinky p*%%#d. lol. Cheers, Slinky

I agree with Kiwi.... I bleed them immediately then drop them in a slurry of ice and saltwater in my esky and they taste fine. The flesh is a bit soft so I wouldn't have it as Sashimi but they're good babecued or grilled and they taste a whole lot better than most people say. I think that's because a lot of people eat them after leaving them lying around in the sun for an hour or two on the beach or the bottom of the boat. They're fantastic smoked too!! Cheers, Slinky

The Yamashita's you're talking about have as usual, mostly japanese all over the box... but the word Glow is on there with it... They have a naturals range that is in the same looking box but aren't glow jigs so make sure you pick up the right ones. I haven't tried mine out at the spit yet but I've heard the same report from a few people... Just hit em with a light and drop them down. Cheers, Slinky

Couldn't agree more with the Arrows comment... popped a little one in the tank with 3 or 4 Yakkas on Saturday. Where the Yakkas are happy to swim with calimari in the same tank... they went ape droppings with the arrow in there. cheers, Slinky

Awesome effort from all involved. I was using another site until about mid year when I discovered Fishraider... Once you go Raider, you never go back (or was that something else??). The great thing about it beyond the massive and meticulous organisation, is the members who really are a community.... I see them on the water, fish with them, share stories with them and get massive amounts of very generous information, hints and ideas that make fishing more fun. Love your work and dedication Raider crew!! Cheers, Slinky

Just because I have too much time on my hands thought I'd start an on-line brawl by asking which is the toughest fish (pound for pound) that swims.... My opinion (and it's bound to raise eyebrows) is Frigate Mackerel. I reckon if they grew to 20kg they'd be terrifying. Cheers, Slinky

Hey Kirby, I've been fishing with a Saltist 40 (high speed) this Summer. It's a fantastic reel... really tough and a pleasure to use. I did a couple of amateur tests and the drag maxes out at around 12-14kg at full lock-up and is still smooth at that sort of pressure, so fishing 80lb is ok but you won't be able to really red-line it. If you're wanting a super reel to really hammer 80lb with I'd lash out on a Saltiga Expedition or the like. I reckon you'll get the best out of the Saltist fishing 50 or 60lb braid.... if you can bust it with the drag on the Saltist I'll be amazed.... fantastic reel but like everything, it has its limits. There might be a few Raiders who have some of the Shimano models available at the same sort of price who can give a direct comparison... I'm not one of those (it has to be Daiwa, or Has to be Shimano types.... whatever does the job well!!) Cheers, SLinky

I knew I wouldn't be the only one but unsealed milk bottles in the freezer, full of berley, sounds like a short cut to a divorce...

I'd offer you a ride Tan but I'll have BrettP on board with me. If you get out my callsign is Slinky on VHF Cheers, Slinky

Not 100% sure yet but I may be able to wangle a day on the Harbour chasing Kings on Friday. Anyone else going to be out there (the weather forecast isn't great at the moment but it seems to change hour to hour). Cheers, Slinky

What are you fishing for Fisherboy? Slinky

As well as fishing mono, if you can see them hanging on but not hooking up it must be because you haven't buried the hooks into them. I can only suggest trying (as odd as it sounds) fishing a slightly heavier outfit and if your rod is really soft, a slightly faster taper model. If the rod action is too slow and drag is set too light with ultra light line you may not be able to 'break the grip' of the squid enough to move the jig and set the hooks. BrettP and I use mono straight to the jigs. I fish 10lb Platypus Super 100 on a 7' 4-6kg Strudwick. Brett uses a slightly shorter rod of about 6' and I think about the same breaking strain line. We have no trouble getting lots of hits from squid so there is no need to go lighter (I fished for a while with 4lb with no noticeable increase in squid). We haven't missed out on catching a fair number of squid once this season. The added advantage is if you get your jig snagged up (and if it doesn't happen occasionally you're not fishing close enough to Squid country), you've got a much better chance of getting it back. At $15-$20 for good jigs, I don't like losing them. Cheers, Slinky

The Mother Theresa Award for this week has to go to the Flightmanager crew... hosting new Raiders, helping out stranded boaties (obviously they didn't have an E-Tec on the back of their boat) and nursing the sick. Glad you had an interesting day out and found a few fish at least. Hope to see you all out on the Harbour soon... get yourself a Kingy or two Lisa... they're heaps of fun and there are plenty around at the moment. Tight lines, Slinky

The last couple of times I've been out I tried a new way to berley up livies that doesn't involve thumping the berley pot. I bought a couple of cylindrical screw-top plastic containers. After each trip out I mince up any left over bait, chook pellets, bread, a dab of tuna oil, basically any old stuff. I mix in water and mush it up to a wet slop (I do this outside or else I'd end up divorced). Then I put it in the containers and freeze it. When I'm at the bait spot I just pop the berley brick out of its container into my berley pot and as it melts slowly, it dispenses a fine unbroken stream of berley with no effort. The screw top containers are air tight so there's no chance of a marriage limiting freezer spill, and they double as a freezer brick in my bait esky before I use them. I'm sure about a million other people probably do this but I love it (and so does Little Slinky who gets to play with mushed up bait) Cheers, Tony

Different strokes for different folks! Get a 27meg or VHF set for inshore marine applications... talk to Coastguard about it and be aware that if you get a VHF set, you need an operators license (big $$$ fines if you get sprung using VHF without one...something a lot of people don't know about) which you can get from Coastguard (requires doing a 1 day training seminar and sitting an exam). Cheers, Slinky

Don't know about from the wharf but there's a heap of Yakkas under the bridge itself at the moment. Cheers, Slinky

Had a family day out today with Mrs Slinky, Jessica Slinky and my little fishing buddy, Gemma Slinky on board. For a little girl, Gemma sure is tenacious. My Little 6yo has been single minded about catching a king for the last 3 trips. She fished with BrettP and I for 10 hours on Saturday with not one complaint or sign of boredom and was back out there today. No 'kiddy' fisher this one... she's a real raider. Persistance has paid off... today she landed her first Kingy. A 55cm model that took a live yakka. All I had to do was get the rod out of the holder for her and keep one hand gently on the rod, and one firmly on the back of her, in case either looked like going over the side. 5 minutes of pump and wind and the smile says it all! Then to back it up, she nailed a PB Bream at 34cm, up in Middle Harbour... in between yelling out to every boat that passed within 30m that she'd caught a king! A gaggle of kayakers got a full run-down. Oh... and I got a 55cm flattie that snaffled the first yakka set for a king within 10 seconds of it hitting bottom.