Mickybee

top shelf mate, congrats on a great fish

gday mate, factors for choosing a rod you probably could consider the weight of lures being thrown - no use throwing 250gm lures on a rod rated to 150gm as that is suicide for the rod the pe rating of your line- you dont want to run pe5 through a rod rated to pe8 or 10 or your line will and lure will go bye byes the max drag rating of the rod at certain angles depending on whether you want to high stick it to gain line or hit it with manipulation of different angles of 45 or less the length minimum 7 foot for casting distance i have a smith gtk 70jp with a stella 8000 running saltiga pe5, the rod is a 20lb pe5 rod that can really take some stick its rated to 7kg drag at 45 degree and 4.5kg at 90 degrees, doesnt sound like a lot but it is quite a fair bit for the smaller models...have seen videos of guys at the local tackle shop reeling in 30kg gt's in exmouth on that rod with a saltiga 4500z the 20000 stella would be a touch too big for that kind of rod though.. some alternatives depending on your budget could be a saltiga muramura 20kg drag pe5-8 smith komodo dragon rated to some phenominal amount of drag and pe 10-12 or something other smith rods you can check out on their website along with ripple fisher rods a custom could also be built up dependng on how much time you have until you leave try to get a rod with a large stripper guide like a minimum 30 as it allows the line to run through it a lot quicker

looks like im using a nitro and branzino when i get back to sydney, dont worry mate ill take care of her for you while your working and theres the slight possibility of it making a special one way trip to perth

Hey guys, Just got back from a week in Exmouth.. Caught plenty!! First day was a bit windy to get out early so we went through the marina after mangrove jack and to my surprise caught barracuda and baby finger mark bream. The weather picked up a little so we headed out about 11ish and started trolling to our first mark. Nothing on the troll but then we flicked some plastics in 20 odd metres and the school macks started hitting the deck. After an hour or so of that we headed out to Muiron islands to check it out and have a sus for GT's. Second day the weather was great, so we headed straight out to a different point, trolled on the way out and picked up some mack tuna, schoolies again and a spaniard. Got to our spot and started bashing the bottom. What we caught was some good reef species such as rankin cod,red emporer, spangled emporer, red wrass, sweet lip and then the bronzies and tigers hit everything that wasnt a trevally or nor wester. We got sharked no less than 20 times that day and lost a hell of a lot of lead. On the way back in we threw out the skirts and within 15 metres MARLIN, 80 kilo black in the boat 20 minutes later. High 5's all round a few snaps and off it went. Half hour later another hit but no hook up. Third day was straight out to Muirons for no luck on the GT's, went back to the same spot as day before although the wind chopped the water up pretty bad and got hold of some reef species again on the bottom until we ran short of lead. Fourth day we tried to raise some sailies but again had no luck so we bounced the bottom and caught trevally, rankins, wrass, emporers and a pearl perch Fifth day i was pretty hung over that day, so i decided to stay in, smart move as the other boys didnt have too good of a day Sixth day, hit Muirons up again with oh wait, no luck. couldnt find the GT's which sorta annoyed us all as we threw poppers and stickbaits at them well over 500 times that morning. Started trolling quite wide and found some skip jacks busting up, we all got out our spin rods and threw metal slices at them and bang quadripple hook up, all four were boated and returned and we chased them for about an hour and landed 20 oddish with many times running round the boat passing rods to others in better positions, they were just so thick. Last day which was yesterday we didnt have a lot of time on our side so we decided to try to get some macks in close and then try for some billfish. Ten minutes after throwing out the minnows we hook up, 7 kilo spaniard in the boat, 15 minutes later off one goes, then another, the other and the other, all 4 of us are on to spaniards no smaller than 8kg, biggest in the hook up went 14 kilo. Was an unreal experience and a great trip, would recommend going there and will be heading back every chance i get. Only problem is the amount of tackle you lose. I will post some pics up soon, need to resize them..

thanks for the heads up mate....i am lucky that my brother in law does interstate removals, i had him throw them on the train and are in perth.. the excess baggage prices are ridiculous.. we are gonna do the 14 hour drive from perth to exmouth cos we are going to save over a thousand between the four of us in excess weight.. 8 more sleeps

the tyrnos is the medium 10-15kg not the heavy, and the innovator is the nitro crankbait 6'6 baitcaster 2-4kg, hopefully she works on the queenies up there swapped the smith for the gtk70jp model, a lot more low down grunt than the other one... 10 more sleeps, can't wait

hey guys, heading to exmouth in a fortnights time to chase some sportsfish such as gt's, queenies, sailies and spanish macks this is my collection of gear thats going up with me hopefully i catch some fish to justify all this and the reels are stella 8000 stradic 4000 sustain 2500 tyrnos 30 alphas r edition has any one else got this problem?? or is it just me??

salmon in the georges river?? ive picked up a few dirty pike throughout the georges but never even thought of a salmon let alone catch one good work mate, keep it up, hopefully next time it is a jew

bad news mate.. i work for a big plumbing company that has gone from 85 blokes in november down to 45 and soon to be less. it really is quiet out there for all trades. not many people want to spend money on a house or building at the moment.sorry to hear the news mate. best of luck with finding a new start

that bass was massive..200+casts for that tiny thing haha..lots of silhouettes in the water trailing the lures that were bigger than that one but still fun to test out some new gear and a new type of fishing thanks for the day johnno..think it will be the last rdo fishing trip for me though..ill be trying to learn the waters of west oz shortly..

nice work in such little time.. good effort champ.

top fish.well done

they did, he played well all tournament except for that thing. must be a queenslander thing to keep the ball alive near the in goal with no one in support, maybe he can do a justin hodges and disappear for a season or so, so the blues might be able to bring to origin trophy home haha.. well done to the kiwi's..

the aussies played hopelessly. way too confident. some calls went their way that shouldnt and vice versa. over paid panzies and a special well done to billy slater who tried to run down the sideline and threw the ball to benji marshall 5 metres out with ten minutes to go.. wat a d***head.

spewing.. bad luck.. sounds all too familiar

good going on the blades. they are working a treat this season from flatties to jews. good mixed bag. well done

great effort mate. good fish and glad to see it in your hands and not bust you off. congrats

sounds eventful. there is nothing worse than those unsavoury characters who dont move so u can get your trailer in to the water. scum bastards need to find a different spot to smoke cones of an afternoon behind closed doors and stop getting in peoples way. oatley bay is the worst for it. they even wait for you to say thankyou and apologise for being an inconvenience when they eventually figure out wat you need to do. sounds like an excellent day out for you and your daughter. good quality time together doing something you like. well done nice report

the twin power is a nice reel. i have a stradic 1000 myself and ive seen it pull in johnno's 66cm flathead without a drama when he owned it. 3kg of drag is quite a lot for those sort of fish in shallow water. the two big differences between the stradic and twin power is the two bearings and the line wrapping. twin power has a better wrap. but in deeper water id prob go the 2500 just to be safe in case something a little bigger has a dig at your lure or plastic. thats my two bob and its not gospel and it is your choice. the daiwa's are a slight bit bigger compared to shimano in size if you compare them side by side also.which ever you choose you shouldn't be disappointed either sol'advantage.twinpower or stradic

nice reds there mate.. looks tasty.. good sized tailor too

what is johnno doing to his outboard in that photo??nice bass also.very nice work

depends on what size you are looking into..have you a comparison to another reel?? like a certate or luvias and what do you plan on targeting??

great fish.that thing is on the roids. well done mate.good start to the season.

"What do you mean you dont have a net Mick?". haha should have seen your face. took long enough to get it in. had the motor kicked over ready to chase it haha(just kidding). was a bit stressful trying to get those grippers in as it wasnt very tired.