Pukka

It's a 7ft 2-4kg Okuma Celilo Andrew. We got a couple thru the Aus Open Sponsorship. Joe 32920[/snapback] Thanks Joe. If only you also got a couple of those bream through the Open... 32923[/snapback] Ya I spoke to Mick last night and we said the same thing. The 'biggy' actually came from a similar area to where we fished on the final day of the Open. Mick lost a very good fish here on the day which may have put us in the money, but then as I've already mentioned, everyone has their 'big fish lost' stories in every comp'. Joe

It's a 7ft 2-4kg Okuma Celilo Andrew. We got a couple thru the Aus Open Sponsorship. Joe

... oh and welcome to the site Pukka

Hi Mulletman All the lures you have pictured are designed primarily for bass, not bream. That's not to say they wouldn't work, but I think a lot of those lures would be too big for our average yellowfin. Surface poppers around 30 to 45cm's in length are the go for bream, the most popular of which has to be the River2Sea Buggi Pop. In addition to the lures mentioned here already, Taylor Made 'fizzers', Smak skywalkers and Heddons Teeny Torpedo's all work well for bream. As a general rule, I like to use darker coloured surface lures on overcast days and more natural looking ones on bright days, but bream aren't as fussy as Bass in that regard, and will virtually have a 'schlurrp' at anything if they think it's food. Pukka p.s. Just noticed Mick had already mentioned the Taylor Made fizzers

Hey Matt, great t'hear you're settlin' in. Hope you get the chance to wet a line more often mate, I've been looking forward to your Mangrove Jack, Jungle Perch, Sooty Grunter and Barra' reports! Joe

Ivan, I'll let you know the spot on the 11th of April.. that's one day after the Hawkesbury ABT finishes :D Joe

Tony was kind enough to send me a few packs of Bug Ants in time for the Australian Open and I can testify the bream absolutely loved them! Thanks Tony, can't wait to for more to arrive! Joe

Hey Andrew, I lost 1 to snags and 2 to fish. I got blown big time by one fish.. it was like trying to stop a train! Thanks Mate, Joe

Cheers Ken The two pictures are of two separate fish, by the way. The one on the left went 38 and the one on the right went 39. Joe

Hey All, Went for a quick rack session this morning. Had quite a good time up unitl the wind started howling it's t*ts off! Ended up with around 12 bream, with 2 fish going 38 and 39cm to th'fork. All fish were caught on Ecogear SX-40 and SX-48's... My lure collection has now been reduced by 3 SX-48's!! Ouch!! Pukka p.s. excuse the pic's... self timers, wind and racks don't mix!

Thx Chris, I missed the earlier post. Pukk'

In where Mick?? Joe

Thanks for the good news Mick joe

Great stuff Tyrone, you must've had fun! Joe

Nice going Rick and Mick, sounds like you had a good'n fellas, well done on the 36-er and the EP! Joe

Hi CCF and welcome to Fishraider It's hard to say what retrieve is the correct one for any lure as different retrieves work in a number of different situations. The bass minnow, for example, can be retrieved in the way Pedro describes, (which is probably the most popular method and is a good starting point), but then I know a few very capable breamers who like a 'whip, whip, stop' style retrieve. Either way will work, it's really a matter of fishing hard, casting heaps and working out what best works for you on any given day in the spots you're fishing. Pukka

Hi Strewth, I can't remember having any problems with any of my SX-40's or 48's out of the box, but the towing eyelet on these lures is admittedly very sensitive and only needs the slightest knock or bend to change the lure's action. The tangling trebles is something which occurs a lot on any short bodied lure and is esily avoided by stopping the line with your finger at the end of the cast, just before the lure hits the water. The sudden stop normally throws both trebles backwards so they don't tangle. If you continue to have problems with any Ecogear hard body from the box, drop TonyS a private message, (he's the distibutor for Ecogear products in Australia), and I'm sure he'll do his very best to sort out the problem for you. Pukka

Use marine grease GM, oil won't do it. Glad you sorted it Pukk'

GM it's a common problem and one I had a few months back. The metal the pedestal is made of is quite soft and the base of the tube flares out over time making it very hard to get out. I got a lot of tips from the guys on here, but the tip that did the trick was from RichP, who said to use a car jack. If you're game to try it, make sure you put the jack on a large thick square piece of wood to protect the flooring and a smaller block of wood under the seat to protect that. Pukk' P.S. Just remembered you're referring to a new boat, so the 'flaring' of the pedestal tube shouldn't be there. I think it might be worth giving the dealer you bought the boat from a call and asking him for a solution, that way he's made aware of the problem at the same time.

Phew, just got back. Well, how 'bout GregL and Patrick's bag? I saw him emptying the fish into the weigh bag and my jaw dropped It was a cracker of a 5 bag and I think someone said it was a record of some sort. Well done to the both of you! Mick and me had a tough day today, after yesterdays swarms of fish we only managed to muster 6 or 7 legal's, fortunately one of those was a half decent fish and that upped our weight tally and placing a little from yesterday. We can't complain though, as I know a lot of people did it pretty tough out there in the conditions. Fingers crossed we can find 1.. 2... 3... or 4 stonkers tomorrow, 'cause I think we'll need 'em! Thanks for the words of encouragement guys, for the moment we're 1 place above Tim Morgan, so it's not all bad Joe p.s. Swoff' Paul Taylor is Windy Matt

Day 1 has been and gone, I feel b*ggered already and there's still 2 days to go! I haven't checked the official standings yet, but before we left the weigh-in, there were already a couple of very big bags of fish bought in. Andrew Cowling had a 5 bag of bream for a little over 4 kilos, Wade Eaton also had a 4 kilo plus bag that contained some absolute horses. However, I got the impression from then on down the leader board, it's pretty close, but like I said, I haven't seen the final placings for the day yet. Me and MickC had a great day's fishing, pulling heaps of fish - we even had a couple of double hook-ups which is a great buzz during a comp'. We had our 5 fish limit by about 8.30 and upgraded all of them by the finish, but unfortunately we just couldn't find the Mr Big that was gonna help our bag along. We ended up with a respectable 2.67kg total for the day and we'll be trying our very best to improve on that tomorrow.. as the ol' saying goes.. "it ain't over 'til the fat lady has done her business". Pukka

Since buying two Cerates I seem to have written a fair bit about them in recent posts. To cut a long post short they are without doubt, the smoothest reel I have ever used, even my Luvias and Twinpower feel 'rough' compared to them. that's not to say that the Luvias and T'power aren't great reels, but they don't compare to the Certates. 1500 size Daiwa's are a little bigger than 1000 size Shimano's and in some cases are slighlty heavier too. However, for me, the advantages the Daiwa's have in terms of bail arm, drag and gearing performance, far outweigh their size limitation. Joe

Jeez Brent, I bet it was a shock hooking that thing! Great flatty mate. Joe

Nice fish'n pics Don The fish in the top pic is a real fat b*gger! joe

Hey Tyrone, Epix's have a pretty long warranty on them, 5 years from memory. Don't open the reel yourself, just take it back and they should fix it free of charge or give you a new one if it's too badly gone. Pukk'