Warpig

Unless it's a good one...I've bought a Teeny sinking line for $50, and have recently seen SA lines for the same price.

They're fine if you're after something a step up from the cheaper kits around. Don't pay more than $340.

You missed the application date: it was October 28.

Only been hooked once, and it turned out better than most of these examples. Somewhere on Cape Yorke in 2000 I landed a 2.5 kg queeny and got it into the boat. As usual, it went psycho and (being a small boat) managed to flop around and pin me on the heel with rear treble of the HB minnow I was using. Mrs queeny was on the front treble and still going psycho. In the end she flapped enough to pull two hooks on the treble RIGHT THROUGH, taking a bunch of me with it. I considered using the piece of heel for bream bait, but had to get back to the ramp in a hurry to wash the inside of the boat out before the crocs found us...

Talking about voltages reminded me: we once made up a rod lathe using an old windscreen wiper motor on a a plywood stand. Depending on what motor you find, you'll get at least a couple of choices of speed. A very easy way to do this, especiually if you have an old 12 V battey lying around that can hold a bit of a charge. I agree with the others: 240 VAC can be a bit of a liability.

I bought a worm drive model car gearbox from Dicksmith for five bucks, and geared it down a further 2:1 with some old record player gears I had lying around to give 14:1. It's a bit noisy and uses batteries, but gets the job done well.

The theory goes that you need at least some mono to allow the line load to grip the spool. If you don't use any, the braid will spin in the spool core when a decent amount of drag is applied. I haven't tested this (never had a full spool of braid available), but have sucessfully used only a couple of layers of mono as backing with no problems. All the best from 'pig.

WAHOO!

As far as I'm concerned, this depends on how the grip ages. If it stilll looks and feels OK after a while, I just leave it as is. If it starts to feel a bit uncomfortable and rough, I'll give it a quick go over with P1200 wet-and-dry. This works very wekk and makes the grip look new, too. I recommend sticking to P1200, or maybe P1000 max., unless you want to end up with matchstick grips. The little holes where the filler used to be when you bought the rod (it always seem to fall out after a little while...) shit me. The glue and cork dust is a good idea, although which glue to use will take some thought. I never tried beeswax.

Western Australia...

I bought the Loomis #8. The rod is very nice, although the line that comes with the set sucks a bit (very soft surface drags on the runners and reduces casting distance. Armour all improves things a great deal, but washes off after a few hours). Be aware that the reels have no drag, which shouldn't be a problem for the fish you mention. I've only caught small fish so far, and the set up has way too much power for anything less than 1 kg++ fish. It would be a mighty lot of rod for trout! I primarily bought the #8 for bonito, queenfish and giant / golden trevally. The #6 might be a better idea for estuarine stuff. I'll buy a Sage sometime down the track in this size for this purpose, when I become a bit more proficient. $400 is a bit much: I got the set for $350 a couple of months ago. I'm pleased with it apart from the iffy reel and line, and if I had the chance to buy it again, would not have bought any of the alternatives (some of which have better reels, but lesser rods).

Yep: SPs are the best thing out. You keep asking yourself why anyone would use anything else. Then you go and buy a bloody flyrod, and the whole process starts again...

Yep, tried that one. Got chucked out by the security guard, and we were on the rocks around the bottom of the jetty. Apparently the million dollar views of the locals are disturbed by blokes fishing on that side of the bay (in the middle of the night? What are they taking in their view with night-vision goggles or something?), so they get straight on the phone to the guards to complain. Might be worth a try if you go late enough (say, 3 am) or on a weeknight, but we got the boot at about midnight on a Friday. It is an EXCELLENT looking spot, and we managed to get one 30 cm+ bream out before the enforced exodus. Later from Pig

I've heard pretty lousy bycatch anecdotes over the years too, so iain's post finally piqued me into doing a bit of a literature search. The most interesting article I found is: Gray CA, Kennelly SJ, Hodgson KE (2003) Low levels of bycatch from estuarine prawn seining in New South Wales, Australia. Fisheries Research 64 (2003) 37–54 Most University libraries should hold this journal if you can't get a look at the online version, which is here if you have access: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journalde...ion#description This crowd put observers on prawn trawlers on the Richmond, Manning, Wallamba and Shoalhaven Rivers between September 1998 and June 1999. Their data showed that prawn catch-to-bycatch ratios by weight for each estuary ranged from 1:0.07 to 1:0.52, which is WAY, WAY, WAY lower than I would have thought, and have heard anecdotally. To cite the authors: "The relatively low levels of observed bycatches in the seine fishery were attributed to a combination of the small size of nets (40m headline length) and the relatively short time (3–15 min) it took to operate each individual seine. The latter also led to observations that bycaught fish were in particularly good condition when discarded. The data indicate that discarding in this fishery probably has minimal impact on other interacting finfish fisheries in the region." The worst bycatch ratio they cite in the article (from someone else's work) is 1:3.5 from Botany Bay in 1990/1991. The authors don't appear to have been sponsored by commercial interests, and they were from NSW Fisheries. Their experimental design seems to be excellent. Anyway, my aim in writing this was to show you the data the government is working with when they make the rules. All the best from the Pig.

I'll back you on that one. We're often parked at Tunks ramp until well after dark, but haven't had any trouble yet. Thanks for the warning by the way, Jewhunter.

It's like a magazine, only on a DVD, with all that implies (meaning lots of advertising!). I think a lot of people would be put off with the ads, but I read them in magazines anyway as they're often at least a little bit informative. You should be able to get one at newsagents, and it's $10. All you need to know about it is here: http://www.fishingdvd.com.au/ I guess this post is a bit of a free ad for the DVD (and thus for the ads in the DVD...): if an administrator wants to axe it, I'll understand!

I've got an ancient Darwin Dart that has caught more bonito, kings and sambos than I can count, all from the shore. It still comes along as an absolutely last ditch desperation lure. It has been to Jervis bay probably 20 times, twice around Australia and another once to WA. It is priceless and irreplaceable. Another gaining the same status is a tiny Heddon Zara Puppy that has virtually no paint left between the tooth holes. I'm looking for a replacement so I can retire it, but this pattern (along with the Darwin dart) seems to have become no longer available.

Fishing World is quite tolerable Modern fishing is readable when you're at the newsagent and desperate Flylife is great, but too trout oriented for me Trailerboat has some really good moments The new FishingDVD magazine thing is ad-heavy, but I really enjoyed volume 2 nonetheless: if you're patient with advertising I recommend it.

Cape Palmerston and Cape Hillsborough NPs are fine, as long as you like PLENTY of people! From memory Palmerston was the better of the two, as it required a bit of deep sand driving to get there, which cuts the crowds down a bit. There are very few free camping spots near the water S of Cairns. Look on your map for a NP S. of Bundaberg on the coast (forget the name), and have a look on the mainland coast inside Fraser Island. Some magic spots there, but don't forget the Aeroguard!

Extremely offensive. I flyfish: how dare this woman insinuate that I'm NOT a yobbo!

We've done lots of night time bream fishing with SPs, but most successfully when there are lights on the water (eg marinas or strong moonlight). The scented SPs seem to work better, especially Gulps, Tanks etc. , but we don't use the unscented types often after dark.

Easy from my perspective: TRINIDAD. I'll never get over the uncomfortable feeling of that little right angle between bail roller and spool when a decent fish is on. This is, however, a personal preference: I use spinning reels only when I CAN'T use an overhead. I've had way, way fewer problems with the good old revolving spool, and they feel way better when a fish is on. Still, you're looking at top gear in either category, so I doubt whether you'll be disappointed!

I thought of this post last night when I was putting 12 V through the trailer harness so I could detect a leak-to-earth at the tail lights and found the fault sooner than I expected... nice big fat spark when I closed the circuit, but no bang. I traced the leak with the ohmmeter after that little exercise in idiocy...

Yep: nothin' new there! Still, it beats the hell out of fishing from the shore: at least you can move. I remember when we used to do a lot of land-based game it was an UNUSUAL day when the pilchard-tossers didn't crowd you out as soon as they saw you bringing in a bonito, as if standing 20 m away would make any difference...

In my case the choice was easy. Taking the boat to very out-of-the-way places meant we needed something that was very lightweight and that I can fix myself if it stuffs up. A carburetted four-stroke would be OK, but would be so much heavier than the two-stroke it would still come up second. The good old oil burner was the clear choice. Fuel injected four-strokes you can keep, thanks very much. Having the electronics self-destruct in a car is just a bloody pest...offshore in the Gulf of Carpentaria it would be life-threatening.