jewgaffer

hi davo, i grew up in cowra on the banks of the lachlan, fished the lachlan every other day and quite a few times a year fished the willandra billabong near hilston. the moon and sun relationship as i read it on your link does indeed coincide with frenzy times in freshwater fishing when i think back on it. that article in your link shows a good comparison as to the moods of humans, animals and fish in conditions due to the atmosphere which i can relate to and fully agree with. being a lad at the time and being so close the the river, i fed the chooks and set the crayfish traps and checked them after school. we used to supply yellow belly and cod to the local cafes the garden of roses and the golden key. i remember playing them on solid rods or dragging fish in on springers and lines which my family had set overnite . my father and mentors were adamant it was first and foremost barometric and it was always, the moon's just right every nice evening on the river when there were a zillion insects hovering over the water and in the surrounds. i sooned learned as a youth down here in the city it was far more challenging to study and target the organ grinders, the jewies and have the monkeys as the secondary catch to them. i followed the moon phases but coudn't get a constant factor. the barometer, the tides, rain wind and location became my bible for jewfish. after all the moon is the controller and on reading your link i am now certain that if fishos synchronize the sun and the moon's interaction and the barometric pressure with fishing times, the success rate will improve out of sight, "if we only had time, only had time"......... i feel strongly about your guiding others to this link and your thoughts behind it and i'm glad it works so well with your trout as catching those in numbers is more than an art. i'll try to be be there when it all coincides and will take notes over time. thanks and cheers. the link you passed on will be extremely helpful to fishos i enjoyed these wise words at the end of the article on the link too. But always remember ... the BEST time to go huntin' ... is whenever you can! jewgaffer fish on

Hi everyone are you using circle hooks for jewies and either went ok or had a bad day ? like to hear from everyone as i have the time right now and i really want to clear a few things up jewgaffer fish on PLEASE AMEND THE WORD "CAUGHT", AS SHOWN ON THE POLL TO - DO YOU YOURSELF "USE" OR WOULD RATHER "USE" CIRCLE HOOKS WHEN FISHING FOR JEWFISH AND THEN VOTE "YES" OR "NO". PLEASE REPLY GIVING YOUR OPINION ON USING OR NOT USING CIRCLE HOOKS FOR JEWIES, CHEERS AND THANKS. REPLIES ARE WELCOME. CHEERS

strike me lucky big-banana are they aplenty right now in this ongoer of a southerly influence even tho she jumped up real good to 1020mb? didn't get a post back to humesy that jewies fire up in quick southerly changes but only when it builds more blowy. remember years ago in summer when the atmosphere was thriving. you could rely on a southerly for relief almost every afternoon then back to normal the following morning, just a little cooler with the bait being active again and better general fishing. steady southerlys day upon day makes it challenging. baitfish huddle under jetties and they tighten up when big southerlys settles. it is a good time to thro a c/net in the tweed and shoot off back down to ballina to put somthing rare on the jewie menu but in real deep that is when deep sea is a bonanza and trawlers take a lot of risk but it can be up to putty for fishing at big southerly times but blackfish seem to fire ok. maybe due to their close in habits and churned up vegetation? thanks jewgaffer fish on

i'm getting there jimmy. the thesis is starting to get me into action mode. we will combine all in practice and put the results into fishing reports and the menu into the library with copy rights otherwise the answer will be a pineapple. with kind regards jewgaffer fish on

there you go amateurdave that's another example of what i was talking about. just imagine what would have happened if your dad drove over to the southern side to shelter under the span during your little fish frenzy off the wharf and thru the 8/0s in there on livies..... dave i also fish on in that type of rain and it's always a boomer. thanks jewgaffer fish on

sorry i missed this question AmateurDave. i can only give you an opinon on why it got warmer yesterday. as to that sudden temperature rise being a successful time for fishing, from my experience a bad low that remains steady causes fish to shutdown and never has been a good time to fish in rivers regardless of temperature fluctuations in ballina divers have been known to find estuary cod deep inside their burrows in the rocky shorelines and notice that they are dormant when a low pressure system remains steady. i don't know why it got warmer yesterday during this present low but i do know that a sudden warm day in a low can often lead to storms. i also know that a sudden a drop in temperature, during lows and rain, generally leads to long periods of steady rain which eases as the barometer starts rising again. hope this helps dave regards jewgaffer fish on

hi and many thanks every blue moon i get a real good one in southetly shelter in the hacking. but far more often get zilch jewies down there after many hours of thinking as to your question do i having any special thoughts on those waters - yep sure do but they are too rude to post cheers jewgaffer fish on

sheer genius. jimmy c you have the gift of very fine style and expression indeed and an analytical mind there is nothing in your posting that anyone can disagree with no matter what their qualifications are this is worthy of a high honours degree plus an automatic PHD with out even going thru the motions. tell you what i'll send your post over to a mate capt butch (foster) of yeahright charters in n.c. i'll bet this'll finish up in finn talk if that's o.k. by you. heaps of applause we can talk on the water putting everything into practice..keep touch and i'll answer your questions when i am no longer agape coz it's sure painful after the first 20 minutes. keep in touch will ya kind regards jimmy me truly thinks it's a thesis of sheer brilliance. we'll go on the water and burley them in with the power of the mind! and then some.... we won't even need hairtail repellent - i'll save that for sat's social night jewgaffer fish on

hi dave. yes barometric pressure works exactly the same for fishing in the northern hemisphere as it does in the southern hemisphere.. Barometric pressure readings are the the key to when to fish and when not to fish, when to expect results and when you need to work your butt off to catch them by using downriggers etc., at anchor on live or dead baits or jigs etc. plus whatever mechanical means you can think of for suspending your baits at the depth of comfort zone of the particular species you are targetting a classic example of this is the number of home made downriggers that have been in used for ice fishing in canada for centuries for locating the depth where fish would be either active or at least able to digest their food. in some of parts of canada, the use of downriggers is a must as the catching of fish and the marketting of fish is essential to food supply. dave there was no way i could write just a few words on this very important topic. i had to give substance to what i said. unfortunately this day and age, fishing on normal fishing days when the barometer is reading steady at 1016 millibars the results will be only fair and will only good or excellent depending on the fisho himself. i know many others as well as myself will relate to that fact. but it is an absolute fact that fishing on the very day the pressure fluctuates from that reading or any other reading, and particularly during sudden drenching rain, can get brilliant results provided that the pressure on the day and sometimes the day before for that matter does not begin and continue to drop into a gloomy low below say 1006 millibars. you will never be able to determine that before your barometer indicator needle stops so you just have to fish on and hope. thus once again - sudden rises in barometric pressure from any readings are the key to having brilliant fishing results. and again sudden falls in barometric pressure can be quite often more brilliant than rises if you out there on the day as davemmm so wisely said when airing his own experiences and that, believe me you can count on. except as i repeat when it in falls into the gloom and into a big low below 1006 millibars which is exactly what we have been experiencing lately and even today. i hope i am going to the the hairtail social if someone has room as i won't be able to get the mustang there myself, launch and retrieve it and park the trailer as i am still recovering from a fall resulting in a broken back in two vertebra and a back reconstruction and now i i am still thawing out from all the night fishing i did before the big floods. by the way i won't be putting the wire on, just 8-10's as contrary to nature big animals often come from nowhere in these paultry conditions and to tell you the truth me and the boys have competitions as to who can throw the biggest hairtail the furtherest. hope this helps. jewgaffer fish on

an awesome link for members to rely on and at least there's mathematics in that ! but bom wouldn't know what we're up to when we simply go boating on the "right curves". glad you keep records and logs heaps of applause and thanks a lot you and your crew for comparing notes on my painful hawkesbury hands lord help em if all our logbook blokes ever fish together up there kind regards and may logic and common sense always win jewgaffer fish on inhlanzi fish on

this is getting more interesting, andrew seems you are a reader and a thinker as well. i've got to type this out on one finger so i'll try to answer your excellent questions and explain as best as i can and i hope you yourself and other interested fishos get the drift of my thoughts as they go from my head to this sore finger. when you were keen enough to go out yesterday andrew to the right places the pinnackle and the reefs off box hd, the cliff faces, then flint and juno for only a few hardy trevs- the trend around at the moment- during the fall from a steady 1014 the fishing should have been hot but only during the beginning of the fluctuation to 1004 which occured from 9pm onwards - in retrospect i can now say "at the beginning" but i couldn't say that in advance. had keen fishos like yourself known that it was going to fall to an acceptable level and then continue to fall into a big low you wouldn't have gone fishing at all. you would have known you would experience very little feeding activity. as the pressure starts to go down fish sense when it is going to continue to fall into an extreme low and binge feed accordingly. fishing yesterday was poor (despite your perfectly assessed locations) as an example of how weather effects fish - bass store food and hibernate like polar bears in winter and rarely come on again until spring. temperature prediction is reliable being so slow to fluctuate there is no way known to forecast what the barometric pressure is going to do - (if only fish could speak !) it is used to assist in part of the make up of weather forecasts, which are often wrong or don't happen as stated. i.e. coastal warnings, rain and winds. cold southerly busters are aweful for us boaties but prime time for jewies. they often wake shutdown baitfish etc from there sleep as they open their mouths and inhale reems of them into their stomaches. at ballina fishing park where i stay with the owners a few times every year, and when almost every other variety of the fish stocks in the park's man made football field size ponds are in shutdown mode, particularly in cold miserable southerly busters, the large numbers of jewies go ballistic not long afterwards and almost everyday like clockwork, irrespective of weather or moons. i also get good reults in northerlys, n/easterlys, easterlys and n/westerlys, westerlys in that order. you can have summer barometric readings in winter and vice versa. fortunately for us fishos barometric pressure fluctations can happen more often than it remains steady. however barometric pressure is not the only reason fishos fail to catch fish. there can be many other factors but fortunatley they can be diarised and averaged out. my preferred scenario is to be on the water during any fluctuations except lows going down into the extreme low areas which you won't know about until you see it on your barometer when it steadies. hope this heps explain the jewie riddle just a little more. ps i have included this reply below in answer to a question from the talented fisho bobfish. bob i launch at brooklyn but should be able to pick you up at barranjoey as we head out to box hd. if you get there early there would be quite a few big yakkas around the wharf as you wait. so you know what to do. i reckon those yakka schools will be only safe if they stay right there once we get rid of this el mino or mini mino 3 week shutdown or whatever it is. the only fish hardy enough apart from outside deep sea fish and pelagics in these conditions to feed and not shut down are the yakkas and the winter trevs at hawkes the hacking hds and botany hds. all the river table fish except blackfish have been few and far between and even as i write, the low pressure system is dropping further into gloom. and did you see that y/f in a recent post caught in close wow!. the good thing is that it's a huge sign of a coming winter frenzy of pelagics etc in close. i won't reply to that post as they're out of my class. excellent catch fellows! but look out box hd when she clears here we come i am expecting blizzards more rain even snow for quite a few days due to the exreme low barometric pressure and then this sudden and eery high temperature today cheers jewgather fish on:1fishing1:

hi give flat rock a go on local fresh squid . walk thru the gate at brooklyn ramp well before daylight to midday from mid- end next week - weather etc no good yet . beat the others there and hang on to your hat and your rod jewgaffer fish on

rick on your livies you seem to have the fish on back the front. the squid rig sounds fine except i myself secure the head to the tube by putting the bottom hook thru the top of the tube and back thru the head to keep the head intact. if your sliding hook has the barb facing back to your rod the jewie can spit out without hook up. the head hook simply must face the tail of a livie . i allow the bottom hook to simply float free alongside the livie if i determine it's not going to foul hook him or i secure it with a light elastic band to have him struggle that little bit more. i also trim the tail fin to stop him swimming to safety on the surface and the bottom one to stop him hiding in cover on the river bed etc . they're not stupid and they don't want to be swallowed whole by their biggest nightmare, a jewfish, and that's for sure. also you will get more jewie hook ups and more solid ones on the bigger hooks 8-10/0s including soapies. hope this helps jewgaffer fish on

i may be able to help a bit on this one. i use yankee fenwicks and quarrow fly/spin rods and i have had a couple of custom rods made over the years. recently a friend whose judgement i respect recommended a saratoga nibble tip rod 2-4kg a $14 el cheapo from melbourne with 3 spare nibble tips, light medium and "heavy" , a super lively heavy at that. i thought he was joking till i bait fished with him. strike me lucky. everything got hooked at one tug of the tip. i even had tiddler size fish eyeballed together on my tandem hooks the blanks memory action flicks and shakes the rod tips around and the rods hooked fish up nearly every time and far more often than other rods spread around the boat they were all on the backbone and a rod tinkerer mate of mine tested the blank by bending the rod to the hilt. the secondary spine was just as strong when he bent it the other way round. he ordered one too. for a lousy $14 the quality was excellent, guides, reel seat all excellent and top class wrappings and finish. i bought 4 and gifted 4 to a far better soft plastics and fly bloke than me. the number of others that tried them bought extra ones too and it spread on from there and all this at only $14.00 a pop. i'll buy a few more for Christmas and get a gold watch in return so it just goes to prove that you don't always get what you pay for at all. hope this helps jewgaffer fish on

How good's this for a reply plus location help too! Heaps of applause jewgaffer fish on another excellent reply and a map with it too! heaps of applause jewgaffer fish on

hey what time does this joint close ? jewgaffer fish on

tell you what pete i tweeked back into typing mode when you mentioned malacoota, the barometer did all the deciding there and for wonboyn and lakes entrance too. seemed to be more dependable in that area or something. shirl and i used to stay at wonboyn in that little angler cabin place opposite the only shop, the p.o. / general store in wonboyn. we stayed there every year for a few years. you had fishos from albury and wagga, even broken hill and cowra that's how good it was. they had fish photos everywhere and huge freezers. if the barometer was wrong the fish would not be there. one bad day we took the kids up to eden to greet the tall ships , i think that was in 1985 or 1986. at the right time wonboyn and malacoota and that little creek in between you could only into get to by boat on the top after you got out over the bar at wonboyn, would have been the best spot on the coast. there were fish everywhere in the lake and the river and a million gutters along disaster bay absolutely loaded with salmon. we used to troll kingfish from wonboyn to quarantine and back every day and it was not uncommon to have a drag burnt burnt out by something you would never stop or see. i hope they sell a million barometers as they're worth their wait in gold. the ones i reckon are pretty good for permanent outside boat mounting, are corrosion free canadian marine model trintecs which i myself use. for the benefit of everybody i think that the sponsors could look into bringing trintecs in from canada as i don't think they have an agent over here. regards and thanks jewgaffer fish on

hey roosterman 50lb braid is fine, 20lbs can be bad economics in deep water up there and with a good rod your thunnus will do the drag bit real nice. if fishos want more sporty play they can still use a sensitive fast action rod around 25lb with decent silicone guides to handle the braid but it's better for them to buy good qual suitably sized reels and lines in the first place you won't get the number of breakoffs that we read about on forums with your stuff steve that's for sure. hope to see you. you'll see a centre console with a high maroon bimini that looks like something returning from the gulf. its pretty hard to go along quitely in this boat. It doesn't look like you're going on a picnic. i kept a low profile in the old yalta but this boat worries me. shirl loves it but she loves purple hair anyway. i had better plans for the funny posting you refer to. it was going more subtly written than that. i really wanted it a bit more on the unobviously twisted side for delayed reaction but pressed the wrong button and posted it too quick. i was doodling away and choking in laughter reading it to shirl and it just went straight into the fishing chat forum before i had a chance to stop it. i think you proved my point that they can't be serious about getting good fish using cheap lightweight junk. cripes it's late. shirl's not home from bingo yet. she must have had a punch up with the numbers caller bloke again. cheers steve jewgaffer fish on

i find that the correct way is having the new spool of line turned the right way up with the label on the top so that it feeds out anti clockwise. your eggbeater spools line in the opposite way, clockwise. sometimes the label finishes up on the wrong side in the factory due to volume and qual control so it pays to allow for that. what i do to test that possibilty is to use a longer rod for the eggbeater, spool on a few meters and drop the rod tip down to the floor feeding line back out as i go. If it starts to twist i turn the new spool upside down, test it again and it shoud be ok. if it's not the, line is not worth using as either the memory is wrong or it's a second or if it's a cheap and nasty anyway. what i do then is place the new spool of line in a bucket of cold water and particularly so with braid and then spoil it on . it goes on tight and spools on terrific when wet and i highly recommend this method every time on either mono or braid. i use a uni or whatever i fancy to start the line on the reel, but i always put on a half hitch at each end of the spool to avoid any direct strain on the knot. i never tie braid directly on to the spool. i always using a mono backing and to judge that i get 200 metres only of braid on to a full spool i spool the braid on 1st to a spare reel, then the mono and then spool it all back onto the main reel and presto it finishes up with the correct amount of braid on and a perfectly full spool ! oh by the way i use a longer rod to spool up as well to save being drenched with fine sprays of water from a fast moving spool in a bucket of water. jewgaffer. fish on.

cripes stew i was going to ask you if i could come along as your apprentice so that you could help me out

Facts and tips on the effects of Barometric Pressure and fishing. For anglers who like to thoroughly read, test and decide for themselves on articles written about fishing. I originally wrote this article as a freebee to assist in the marketing of a shipment of 2 man mini bass/bream boats from the United States. Not that I am a fishing guru whose opinions are keenly sought, this thesis is based on my own experiences. This is my own original work and not a copy of someone else's work. "Balmy nights" You'll find predators such as jewfish boiling just below the surface, hunting everything that moves and bait fish skipping erratically over the water on balmy nights. You'll see neighbours out late walking poodles, 80 year olds strolling around holding hands and people window shopping at midnight even in winter, but couldn't tell you exactly why. Balmy nights have a nice outdoor feeling about them. Land based fishos will see many of the rat population coming out on balmy nights. The same "atmosphere" applies to marine life. You'll find bottom dwellers in frenzy higher up in the water column and there will be more activity in the shallows. Balmy nights are absolutely great barometric pressure (atmospheric pressure) nights for bait fish and naturally for the predator fish you are really targetting. Barometric pressure dropping or rising suddenly from 1016 milibars (normal pressure) brings on fish activity in the shallows and feeding frenzies occur at intermediate and lower depths as well during sudden fluctuations. Normal barometric pressure is 1016 millibars and that means normal weather and normal fishing. However you can turn those normal fishing days into great fishing days by varying your bait presentations, moving around and positioning yourself downwind whenever possible and fishing back against the breeze, having rods in the current side and in the eddy side. You should experiment with larger livies, and in the case of jewfish, larger hooks such as 8/0-10/0 live bait hooks and also try a tougher bait like squid to hold general fish interest without baiting you. The mere presence of smaller fish nibbling away at a large squid strip in jewfish territory, in itself will almost certainly attract the attention of jewfish, which are extremely territorial and fearless snatchers and grabbers and the fish you are really targetting. The secret for getting your best fishing results is to fish on the days of sudden barometer fluctations up to 10 millibars above or below the previous day's reading, including fast unexpected further rises and sudden falls in readings which were very high in the first place It's those sudden fluctuations from any readings with the exception of lows going into extreme lows which bring fish into feeding frenzy. However it's best to stay at home during times of foul weather when the barometric pressure is very low and reads constant around 1000 milibars and below. I believe, as I edit my full version for Fishraider, there's more of the same to come, this time with a sharper temperature drop and blizzards are on the cards, which, being the result of a low pressure system, means a general shutdown of fish. During this coming low pressure system, I'll bet you will find a large number depressed fishos and boat bargains. Rising pressure during extreme lows means the bad weather is over and the skies are clearing but wait about 12 hours or a couple of fresh tides for that rising pressure to dig in before fishing again and you'll strike the up and coming feeding frenzy. However there is no need to wait if you are targetting fish which are natural deep water bottom dwellers or deep sea fish whose swim bladders are not badly affected by extreme lows which are recovering well enough. Freshwater fish are the worst affected by extreme low pressure readings and seem to disappear completely. Gun country anglers will most certainly relate to that fact having themselved had first hand experiences of absolutely aweful fishing during low barometric pressure periods when freshwater fishing is a complete waste of time . Sudden fluctuations bring on feeding frenzy and the shallows are the best places to look for and guage the activity first. You should use stealth and hit and run tactics in close or around moored boats, structures etc to get the best results. Neglected moored boats are highly habitated F.A.D's to fish around and not only do they house baitfish and bream, they are a haven for visiting kingfish and bonito. (e.g. Pittwater and the Spit area) Flash storms and showers when the Barometric Pressure is above say 1006mb and rising whether coming out of a low pressure system or not, or falling rapidly except falls not steadying but continuing to fall into an extreme low, are the times of fish feeding frenzy and the time to fish is at the start of the Barometric Pressure fluctuation! Be sure to fish on those days and with wet weather gear and you will get top results for certain ! The point where the pressure stops falling when it starts to fall is always an unknown factor as it may well fall into a low earlier than forecast and the very start of the fall into a low may not produce, the fish having already stocked up to allow for those oncoming conditions. High pressure systems, remaining steady around 1030 milibars, are generally great for boating and excellent beach and outdoor days. However those constant high pressure days are often really poor and very challenging for good fishing results. Many weekend fishermen who didn't catch a single table size fish on the nicest of days will certainly relate to that fact. During very low pressure fish go into deep water due to pressure on their swim bladders and actually hibernate or shut down completly or at the best may strike only within their own comfort zone of water depth which is more of a territorial thing rather than the need to feed. In summary barometric pressure remaining steady at 1016 milibars or fluctuating steadily on the day to a reading within say 8 milibars above or below 1016 milibars (normal) means great fishing. However it is an absolute fact that balmy nights and/or sudden fast fluctuations in barometric pressure from almost any previous reading really do bring on the liveliest action and you will get brilliant fishing results, provided of course you study your barometer indication and get your boat out on the water at the time of those fast fluctuations and not a day late as the pressure may then remain steady for a day or more and you have missed that particular fish feeding frenzy! Regards jewgaffer

thanks a million flattieman for your input into fish ladders for bass etc. i reckon those chopper tailor would even eliminate the cane toad problem. good you found some info in my stuff that was helpful to you personally. it is common for fishos to catch flathead but targetting them as you do and being good at it another ball game. i spent many years as did my dad putting the jewie riddle together and many years with commercial fisho friends who run the fishing park at ballina and i have the opportunity to go up there a few times a year i read some pretty down to earth posts where fishos feel like giving up on jewies and i can understand that years of fishing and inside info like seeing the habits of fingerlings, soapies and schoolies in a fishing park sure helps locate jewies in the right water. but after all you've still got to catch them regards jewgaffer fish on

hi jewie friends i start off this new topic a few pararaphs below so please read on. Just as you are, i am waiting for the big lows and this southerly influence to pass and get out there fishing the turned over sands and the structures after all the storms and big seas. sorry i can't tell you where the jewies are, i don't know, but i may well know where they might be. for better results we all have to determine what changes there are to the sea bed and if necessary locate new thoroughfares where the jewies will choose to frequent. that's all we have to do. sounds easy? as some of you are probably aware jewies hide in ambush along narrow paths where the best cover is and they return to those same paths fairly regularly. i am still getting over a back op from last year and hobbling a bit and my fingers are chill affected a bit, it appears, from all the night fishing i got into over the winter. otherwise i can handle everything on the boat fairly well. i need 2 deckies, maybe take a 3rd along for company, good blokes who know what they're doing . don't have to be jewie encyclopaedias, my wife shirl reckons one's enough in the family, just capable boaties and keen fishos. i need a bit of launch retreive and trailer help and a bit of awareness around the deck and a bit of astute rod vigilance in a 6-8 rod spread. i'll do the bait presentations and rigs no problems, and smoking's o.k. my deckie helpers, taren pt julius and my supurb chiro kevin ivins who, by his fine rod action, appears to be manipulating a football team every time as he hooks up a jewie, are in winter hibernation, and the kingy professor, downrigger dave the owner of maroota sands is lost in the sand somewhere. no bream rods, no line less than 50, no pre made bait jigs. i'll show how the 4 hook per jig bait rigs are best done using tubing trace if we're onto tailer, on short nz p/nosta loops. need 8 hours on the hawks day only for best results . my boat's a centre console open boat, 17 s/s rod holders 10 for working rod positions and 7 on the console for spare rods. it's a 15' mustang with 2 stern seats at the console and circular bow seating, a 5 seater plus electric winch. the other boat is a little 12 1/2 foot eagle ray tri hull the little brother with identical twin hulls and pods to the eagle rays they use for sea rescue in noosa but i use that sometimes as a 2 or 3 man boat on the hawks and 3 can stand on one side no probs below is the new topic :- New inventions.Heavy ideas for jewies & kingfish.On test soon. i enjoy reading all these articles popping up in other places about all these fabulous lightweight 4-6 kilo rods, and smooth 6 kilo spinning reels supposedly being the ideal choice for fishos as gear that can handle the strongest of all estuary fighting fish, the kingfish and the jewies. on ebay this type of light tackle is showing up nice in photos with lightweight flourocarbon lines and sounding like the real goods. it's for sure and certain even if the rods and reels are the top of the line in this line class, using this type of gear on kingfish or jewfish is similiar to using disposable tissues for cleat ties. old timers wouldn't even think of targetting jewfish without using at least something strong like an alvey and 50lb line and would only recommend at least that to their own younger kindred. on ebay fishos are paying $50 u.s. for 2 X 15 lb super duper reels from hong kong or singapore and $58 u.s. for postage. i don't think i've been had with my big penn ss's, ticas, pfluegers, and alvies and i've had them quite a while anyway. these other reels are looking the goods in descriptions and photos on ebay but in quality are about as tasty as the pronto pups you used to buy in luna park. i am really beginning to enjoy the plethora of the big one that got away stories and i enjoy the bust ups just as much. i keep seeing those same thing happening and those type of reels seizing up in all the wrong places and on typical deepwater critters in the hawkesbury. i have seen fishos using 7W fly rods and floating fly lines with 8/0s and 10/0s and big luminous plastic squid like flies in the bait grounds at the walker side in the lea close to lion. must be some sort of a fishing revolution starting up? yet the extreme opposite is getting popular in places like the mouth of botany bay, mouth of bate bay, and in the calmest part navigatable at the back of barranjoey. you see game gear fit for the other side of the continental shelf engaged in a full scale war against nature in leather jacket havens. you see blackfish and trout type gear with chromium plated pocket watch size spinning reels and rods bent heavily right to end of the butt from golf ball size sinkers in the middle of flint & steel reef. mayby i'm doing it all wrong using such big spinning reels, 725 alveys and 80lb braid. am i missing out on some new fish species evolving but has not completely formed yet ? it has got me thinking. i am going to try out and test a special hybrid tackle system at the other side of this equation of using this so called light and sporty jewie and kingfish gear. this is what i am going to test out and i reckon it will still work properly. i welcome your comments on my proposed jewie test rig which will be about half way in between the latest trendy gear and hopefully not superceded by something else more rediculous at this moment of writing. i am going a to fish a lot heavier with much stiffer bait feeding before the above mentioned trend has a chance to hijack the thinking of young anglers. i'll be happy to see the usual jetty mutes perservering with rays, bream and butterfish on this other so called sports fishing gear. i'll run 4 patternoster rigs directly off 80 lb leader onto heavy guage 150 lb stiff solid steel rod standing out from the leader about 2 feet at 90 degrees. an 8lb cannon downrigger bomb will be attached directly to the bottom of the leader, to act as a very heavy drop shot sinker, and suspend it about 1500mm above the bottom. the downriggers themselves won't be used on this occasion. i'll bait up with 2 x livies and 2 x 12 inch plastic tsumami squid pattern lures rigged on 7/0s and 8/0s will be stuffed with pilchards with the tails hanging out of them tightly wrapped in bait mate and attached to the 150 lb steel rods as mentioned above. the livies will be able to struggle forwards a little and when the weight of the cannon ball downrigger sinker becomes too heavy for that tug-of-war performance to continue, they simply swim backwards again. the livies may feel slightly distressed but i will provide relief for further discomfort by rigging them up hook free thus allowing the 7/0s and 8/0s to gently flutter along next to them as they swim backwards to ease the load of continually pulling the 8lb cannon downrigger bomb back and around in a forwards direction. it will be interesting to see the results of these test rigs with all this lead and metal dangling all over the place on the sea bed and we'll soon know whether our jewies have become cunning enough to only take baits on ultra light gear as they've been made out to do. i value your opinions and your comments are very welcome as i have nothing much else to do but finish this and make up a decent supply of spare leader rigs at moments when my hands aren't too bad . and thanks to all those members who took the time to give me such good advice on my hand and finger problems. regards jewgaffer fish on

another intelligent and a well learned reply and many thanks yep there sure is a bit of wrist pain in both wrists and new pains equally in the mid tops of both hands when i do the test. the numbness in thumbs and fingers doesn't vary and the pinkies didn't vary but weren't affected to a noticable degree initially. i take your advice seriously and i am most grateful for your time i've already had a top nurse in response and now i've got near enough to a g.p. in the house. glad i posted my question to this community and i'm starting to feel much better because of that. regards jewgaffer fish on

thanks dave this is getting interesting. i wonder if they're going to have a second ladder in the salt side so that the bass can get back to the fresh and if so can how would they stop the chopper tailor from skipping over the ladder and into the fresh ? i reckon choppers would cause a bit of havoc and a mass exodus of local frogs to the top of bulli. regards jewgaffer fish on