jewgaffer

H Boattart Alvey Reels have a small distribution come service centre in Padstow, from Cronulla it's an easy drive to get there via Alfords Point Bridge. The service centre is run by an old school Alvey expert by the name of John who has spent a lifetime with the company and knows his Alvey Reels like the back of his hand. John will service your Alvey and attend to any problems you may have on the spot. Alvey's are very user friendly and not much can go wrong with them. It would be a good idea to learn the best way to service your model Alvey from John and he will explain how the drag works and how to adjust it. This is the address for Alvey Reels in Sydney:- Alvey Reels Unit 3/3 Jayelem Crs Padstow NSW 2211 (02) 9792 1999 (Alvey's building is among other small units directly down the bottom of Jayelem Crescent - i.e drive in alongside the last building on your left. Hope this helps Cheers jewgaffer

Hi Andrew it's great to see you have relocated to waterfront on Brisbane waters very happy for you both and if the coming baby is a boy I reckon Byron would be a good name for him lol oh well least it would go well with his surname You have some great jewfish territory in Brisbane Waters although the narrowness of the entrance to the main river at Juno Point is the key to jewfish schools entering the main river at night with schools of resident jew congregating with the new arrivals at breeding time for the purposes of selective breeding one would imagine and naturally there would be some big old mulloway accompaning the residents and the incoming schools as well. I was sent a you tube video when I first started to learn the computer and there must have been a hundred jew in the one school between Juno and the entrance to Patonga. They were just swimming around looking at the camera (I'll send you the link to the video so you will know what you are likely to be dealing with when you do strike a big school in breeding mode. The narrow part of Paddy's Channel just off the Killarney side is also a good place to wait for the schools intercepting bait fish etcas they move thru the channel with the run out tide. The northern side of the Rip Bridge has also been a top performer over the years and there is over 100 feet of water some 300 metres back from the first quarter of the bridge (north side) which will suit you perfectly when launching at Woy Woy or the twin boat ramps up from from Tascott if more convenient for you. So it would predominantly be the run in tide for Juno with the new water coming in and the run out tide for the rip bridge and either tide for the 100 foot jewfish hole on the Gosford side of the Rip Bridge where you can fish either night or day the first red marker denotes the area of the hole . I hope to fish with you again when I've had my hips done in the meantime I'll put you in touch with a good friend of mine who lives waterfront not far from where you are who is as keen as mustard and would be very good company for anyone to fish with and knows Brisbane Waters like the back of his hand. You'll find plenty of bait fish at Little Box Head lining up the corner of the point and the little beach, anchoring about 100 yards out and it would always be a good idea to send a couple of jew rods out the back baited with the live bait of the day. The way this year has been firing in general you will probably strike Taraglon there shortly too. For arrow squid you could follow the trawler route between Walker Point and along the submerged rocks in close betrween Darkes Corner and the inside of Lion Island. For green eye squid fish along the section where the submerged rock is a little way into Pittwater being just up past the upper and lower pill boxes at West Head. You'll see what appears to be a third pill box which is on the square rock virtually right on ground level. Hope this helps and it would be a good idea to motor back in before dark until you get used to the area Andrew and Geoff and I will be looking forward to coming up in the not so distant future. Cheers jewgaffer

Happy Birthday to my Greek mate Leonidis aka Snyder144 Leon it's time you grabbed George, Mulloway Mark and Taren Pt Gulius and came up to see Shirley and I again I'll try and line up Leonie to be there at the same time as Leon and Leonie sounds like a top combo to me and you two really fired at the last get together we had By the way enjoy your presents Leon and I hope you get another one of those hi class Quantum reels as the price is sure to sky rocket just like the Fin - Nors for that sought of quality following the introductory bargain prices on the China mades. Cheers jewgaffer

Hi Andrew as you know from the jewfish sessions we've had together I am very fussy about not touching a jew rod at all until I know the fish is well and truly hooked. I graduated a long time ago into using near locked up drag on small and medium size baits as jew will virtually play tug of war while pulling the bait free just as they do whilst dragging octopus free from the structure they are clinging to. Also your live bait sprends all of its exposure time stuggling against the rod, the line bloom and the current etc and hence a struggling livie will always draw attention to itself and look easy pickings for any predator to put out of its misery or if only to clean up their environment lol. The only time I ever use loose drag or a baitrunner reel is when I use larger live bait. In which case the golden rule when you detect the line movement is to let out more line, wait for the run to pause while the jew who attacks and crushes the backbone from below and then turns the bait around for the head take For example the use of two hooks will pull the leader line and the bottom hook's shank and the leader between the two hooks down onto the body of the bait and right out of the way so as not to impede the head take. In this case wait 10 seconds for the jew to swim off (as normal) after swallowing the bait and then strike. Graduating up to 80lb braid and 60lb leader gives you heeps of leverage, confidence and control Best regards Byron

Happy Birthday Mike Keep up the good fishing mate Cheers jewgaffer

Nice work Gary much better than those turds the Port Jacksons that we struck off Lion Island that day ay Still the take home jew made the trip worthwhile Keep up the good work mate we must have another jew session on the Hawkesbury one day. Cheers jewgaffer

Top effort on the better size kingfish Peter and nice to see our mate Pick-a-box Syd out there doing what he does best. Congratulations to your both we will be seeing metre plus fish from you soon. There are ledges off those National Park cliffs and the temperature must be just night as there are still quite a few kingfish coming into Botany Bay and more than likely having a quick sprint into south west arm in the Hacking coming in with the early morning run in tide for a quick bust up of the baitfish. If you ever get a chance launch in Botany Bay and have a go for the larger specimums around the corner lining up the Malabar golf course site screen as there are ledges there where you can get mature kingfish 24/7 in these types of conditions regardless of season- these fish are the ledge dwellers that make yellow rock so attracive to landbased game fisheremen and the area would suit Johnny Dogtooth for his downrigging - good onya long time no see Johnny look forward to doing another jew session with you and Cungee George this time on the Hawkesbury when I get these hip problems of mine attented to. Didn't see your last pm until recently Peter and sorry to the sad news about your mum. Cheers & best regards Byron

Hi Raiders, I have some questions on boat fuel that I'm concerned about myself and I know that the right answers to my questions will be of assistance to other members who own a boat and for whatever reason are not in a position to actually go out on the water and run the boat's outboard motor under load as often as they should. My questions below relate to fuel maintenance and the risks involved in using stale fuel and I would like to hear your opinion on this and look forward to your advice. I believe there is an additive that can be used when the tank is initially filled up with fresh petrol petrol?? Are any of you experienced with this and is an additive effective in preventing the components of the petrol (and the 2 stroke oil when premixed during the run in period) from breaking down and damaging the outboard ? My inbulit tank hols around 40 liters and at the moment it would have around 30 litres in it plus added 2 stroke oil to increase the ratio together with the oil injected oil to 25/1 for the 10 hour run in period As some of you may know I purchased a brand new 60hp Mercury bigfoot motor in July of last year from Huett Marine to replace an underpowered 35hp Evinrude in my side console boat but apart from running the motor on the water for about an hour or so (with added premix oil in the inbult tank to make "the run in mix" 25/1) for the first 10 hours run in time, I have not taken my boat out for several months whilst waiting to have my hip joints replaced, an operation which was scheduled to take place in August of last year but had to be postponed due to my picking up a golden staph type bug in my local hospital where I was admitted and kept in for 6 weeks prior to the proposed hip joint replacement surgery to be performed at another hospital. I was admitted to my local hospital because of unbearable pains in the buttocks and legs which resulted in extreme pain on movement and an inability to put weight on my legs due to time delay and the eventual deterioration of both hip joints. Thought I'd elaborate a little as I haven't been as active on the site as often as I would like to be. Below are some comments from a boating company in Victoria on the dangers of using stale fuel highlighting the seriousness of running stale fuel in an outboard motor. I have harped on about fresh fuel and good quality oil (for 2 strokes) for a very long time. Unfortunately, we all have a bit of a mindset when it comes to petrol. We don't want to toss it out because it costs "so much". Our perception (probably as a universe!) is that petrol is very expensive. BUT, people will pay $1 per litre or much more for BOTTLED WATER, $2+ for a litre of Skinny milk, $24 MINIMUM for 3/4 (50mls less) of a litre of Bourbon and so on it goes... Sure, we don't use as much of these other products as we do fuel but it is a moderating thought. The mental mindset of not discarding your boat fuel based on what it cost is what costs people much much more when their engine shits itself. Stale fuel is a VERY bad thing but people generally do not understand that. They often think its the mechanics "excuse" for why their marine engine died. They need to understand the fuel lifespan and usage constraints. If you need to lay your boat up for a few months and particularly if it has an underfloor tank which has a lot of fuel in it, then apply a fuel conditioner whilst the fuel is fresh and it should still be usable when out of hibernation. But over and above that, fuel management is the key. .................................................................................................................... An engine can run very easily when it is "free running", ie: no load. Unfortunately, a no load "all ok" is often reported and followed by a "won't run under load" scenario. First up, I would change the fuel (is it 12 months old too??) and try again. Fuel dies after about 8 weeks (faster in warmer climates than Melb). Stale fuel is the number 1 killer of marine engines. Then I would be looking at the fuel system for blocked jets (as mentioned) and then looking at the ignition system. I believe there is a fuel additive available that keeps petrol fresh when added to new petrol ?? Have any of you had outboard motor problems caused by the use of stale petrol ? - I think the last thing I would do is to run my 10 months old fuel in my brand new Mercury Motor so I had best have it drained out then make sure that I run the motor regularly. Should a certain amount of fuel be left in the tank to lubricate the carburetter?? I would appreciate as much advice that I can get on the subject of stale fuel and how you go about your fuel management. Cheers jewgaffer

Good effort on the Jewfish Simmo2. very well done! I am sure you'll continue to do well if you keep on hitting those same hook up spots repeatedely. You are more than likely doing this already but do make a note of your hook up times and record the conditions on the day as jewfish have repetitive habits as to where they hole up in mass and also as to where they return to when hunting for their food. Yesterday was the change in conditions you are always looking for being being quite a balmy day outside and also developing into a really nice night to be out on the water with the north westerly bring in a little bit of warmth with it following the cold snap. This type of change normally brings in good results on incoming jewfish schools particularly breeding size schools coming into the Hawkesbury river via Juno Pt which between you and I has always been the key to night fishing in the Hawkesbury. I feel more raiders should meet up as a convoy of friends and fish Juno Pt at night exclusively and on a regular basis right into winter. I use to do this myself and we would often have three or four boats in close proximity to one and other and sometimes if only to monitor the arrival of newcomers mixing with resident jew. The residents are presently around 60 - 70cms and have been prolific in Sydney estuaries for a couple of years now. Basil aka Groper is quite right, going on recent reports from the Hacking which is better known for jewfish schools coming in and going out with the tide as opposed to the fish residing within the system such as throughout the Hawkesbury, Parramatta River and the Georges River. Breeding size jewfish beween 7 and 12 12kilos which are generally accompanied by larger specimums have been cught at the two bridges and the upper Georges particularly around the Picnic Point area and of late people I know who are associated with a tackle shop have had good success on soft plastics around Moorebank and Chipping Norton. Sydney Harbour proper is presently producing schhol jewfish during either tide at night ( Middle Harbour is not fishing like it used to at this time of year for jew and Dory due to the condition of the water because of a run off problem. Apart from the shortage of breeding size jewfish in upper Middle Harbour it looks like the autumn schools have come into our estuaries. Sorry for the long post but I hought I would give you a bit more incentive for your landbased fishing by posting a detailed reply. Simmo Nice effort once again and if you ever need a couple of reliable landbased spots on the Hawkesbury which after all is the river which produces the bigger fish, don't hesitate to send me a pm. Cheers jewgaffer

Congratulations on winning the largest kayak caught blackfish in the Forster comp Roberta It's great to see that our favourite little lady hasn't lost her touch A big hello to Keith for me ay Cheers jewgaffer

Top outside session Groper, Cungee George, Ali and company I am sure you and George would be taking gps marks for your ongoing snapper sessions as that is the only reliable way to do it apart from fishing known snapper grounds and using binoculars to seek out bird activity for your general trolling etc, along with sounding out structure and determining regular patterns for your bait gathering and squid sessions. From what I've heard so far from George this Ali is certainly worth his weight in gold and if he is not already a member getting him to join up and participate in the site would certainly be sound advice as it is obvious that he is a pretty good fisherman who enjoys good company and is quite willing to share his knowledge with others. Basil that was a top session overall and when George told me you would be launching at Bellambi on Monday in line with the first day of a dramatic change in the weather, I knew you would be in for a top day. Off topic a little but I can't wait to do a serious night session at Juno Point with George and yourself and hopefully that can take place before my hips are replaced and I must say another boat or two accompanying us would be a real asset to the overall result - not that my giving out Juno as the Hawksebury change of tide venue at night for those jewfish schools that come into the river and go back out with the tide would make any significant increase to the number of boats anchored off Juno and Walker point for that matter hoping to strike the incoming schools that come into the mouth of the river as the run in tide starts to pick up and intermingle with the resident jewfish at this time of the year which has always been regarded as being the peak breeding period for Hawkesbury jewfish, remembering that the narrowness of the mouth of the river has always favoured the Juno pt side where the schools enter the system. It would have to be an overnighter i.e. prepare for a two tide session i.e. approx 16 hours of fishing - Flint and steel is currently producing waves of just about all estuary species in the early am and at prime times during the day but believe me Juno is the key to jewfish schools coming into the Hawkesbury in good numbers particularly when the weather churns up a bit- so better results on Juno jewfish often go hand in hand with an uncomfortable session- but believe me although it's been a few years since I spent a full night session at Juno Point exclusively Juno is the key to incoming jewfish schools in the Hawksebury. Cheers jewgaffer

Hi Mr KingSpooled I rather like your idea of using an overhead reel and rod combo such as that particular model Diawa reel matched up with a rod such as the top of the line Ugly Stik 12 foot platinum model for your landbased work. I usually run a combination of overheads, non casting Alveys and spinning reels in my side console boat which are matched up with U.S. model Ugly Stik Tiger Rods and also their sensitive 25lb U.S.Bigwater models for that little bit of sporty fun that goes hand in hand with using larger baits on 80lb braid main line and 60lb leader. In saying 60lb leader my friends and I dropped down from 80lb leader due to the fact that the 80lb was too thick in guage in the readily available brands such as Jingkai, Black Magic and Shogun and the baits were not being hit by jew when one would think they should have been given the same attention as the outfits that used 60lb instead of 80 or even 100lb which is often used by others fishing around rocks, wrecks and structure etc When talking jew rods in my opinion everyone should include overheads in their rod and reel supply due to the size of the bait and the size of the fish that they a likely to encounter. I use a couple of 9 and 10 foot U.S. model Bigwater rods as boat rods but I generally use these as range finders on non casting 725 Alveys and Diawa overhead reels which can be spooled up with several hundred metres of braid line to allow the livie to swim off directed into the current whilst holding the running snapper lead in my hand and allowing it to catch up later by dropping it into the water as the bait drifts towards a distant pylon or structure to cover an area where the boat may be anchored well back from etc. As to using circle hooks on jewfish we tried doing that up in Ballina when they first started using them to "gently" catch and release Tuna a big brother thing to protect Tuna Stocks. Our catch rates were well down on others who opted to use octopus hooks or standard J hooks. The reason that circle hooks are a big no no for jewfish is simply that jewfish have a hollow cavity mouth and a circle hook can be dislodged from the front of the mouth of a jewfish far too easily and as such is not really going to be a confidence booster for anyone aware of these shortcomings at the start of a jewfish session. After trying to straighten the points on the circle hooks unsuccessfully we ended up vowing never to use them on any species and using circle hooks on any specimum has now become a confidence thing to my Ballina friends as well. It would be a good idea to use fluro carbon monofilament line from the water level down and just drop the bait over the back of the boat into the current and let it float off as I described above - that way you wont have the problem of the braid to flurocarbon knot catching in the guides and after all fluro carbon leader negates line visilbilty and has become very popular and is certainly a big enough seller to warrant the benefits of using it. As to hook size on your two hook rig, your 6/0 5/0 combination is fine but don't be afraid to use 7/0 or 8/0 for the bottom hook and 10/0 for the top hook i.e. the first hook tied which becomes the tail hook for larger baits and holds the shank of the bottom hook and the connecting leader between the hooks down onto the body of a live bait so as to provide a head taker such as a jewfish enough room to swallow the bait without running into an upright shank and a leader line which is otherwise angled directly back to the rod tip and particularly so that you can have your bait swimming away from you in situations other than when trolling or drifting while letting out line and pausing your bait periodically. Hope this information is of some help to you. Cheers jewgaffer By the way Mr KingSpooled I notice you live in the south west and if you would like to send my friends Johnny Doi aka fisher doi and Joey aka Joco on Fishraider a pm and arrange with Joey to bring Johnny up to my place in Campbelltown for a visit one Saturday I would be able to go through quite a lot of jewfish catching methods with you and the others at the same time. Johnny and Joey have fished together landbased in the past and attended a reunion of old friends at my place in Campbelltown late last year but haven't had a chance to come up and catch up on our fishing as we had planned and have a few sessions in my boat which being a side console can fish 4 people no problems but as far as getting up to my place for a get together on fishing for jewfish Johnny Doi does not have a car licence at the moment.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my Fishraider friends a very happy Christmas and a great festive season. A big thank you to our Administrators Donna & Stewy for calling in and seeing me over quite a few very enjoyable hours on Christmas Eve. Much appreciated, unforgettable the highlight being the medical advice given me by the learned Donna not to mention Donna helping out and dressing me for my trip from bed out onto the Pergola The daily treatments from Mon-Frid often cause me tiredness and it's always a relief when the weekend comes around As to my prognosis which I wll share with you- I'm still waiting to have both hips replaced as I was forced to go into hospital earlier than expected due to continually suffering severe buttock and leg pains at rest which were unmanageable at home under the medications prescribed. Upon admission for Pain Management it was discovered I had double pneumonea which required a stay in intensive care to stabilise the condition. I then picked up one of the new superbugs known as the pseudo-amonis virus which is a life threatening super bug multi resistant to antibioticss- The Doctors believe that this particular super bug was picked up in the hospital itself due to an unused canula being left in for too long, that's life I suppose. However a serum was sent up formulated by the Liverpool Hospital pathology team and the mixture nullified this particular golden Staff type infection and along with my own resilience saved my life according to the medical team. In the meantime and after being subject to a variety of tests a small tumour was noticed on the right lung and I am now 20 treatments into a radical 30 treatment course of Nuclear radiation to shrink and literally zap the tumour into ineffectiveness. Once I am given the all clear on my lung I will then be able to have my hips replaced so friends at this stage I still have a little in front of me to cope with in the way of total hip joint replacent to the left leg followed in turn by total hip joint replacement to the right leg. Raiders I hope to be out fishing with assistance with my boat of course once my radiation therapy has ended, so anyone who is interested in tagging along with myself and my Ballina mate Jim Bowers who is staying with Shirl and myself for a while yet and returning in February after the spanyiard and black marlin season peaks up north who would like to call in for a chat don't hesitate to pm or call me on 0413210048 Cheers jewgaffer

Nice effort in the Cooks River fellas, you only have to leave it up to Stewy these days and you'll catch plenty of fish .. Congratualtions on catching your personal Trevally Johnno, it would have gone off like a rocket on the light gear too By the way John that's a very good locking set up you have there in the trophy.... Cheers jewgaffer

Congratulations Hodgey on reaching 3000 posts Top effort Ian and great dedication Cheers jewgaffer

Good effort Paul, nice to see the young ones going out and enjoying themselves like that and getting into some good fish with their Dad Cheers jewgaffer

Nice effort on catching a flathead on a lure young Mitch there's no slowing down now mate you'll have to have more sessions with your Dad and remember flathead are a sort after fish and grow to well over a metre long no problems... Cheers jewgaffer

Nice session on the Blackfish Peter and full credit to Rickster for his keenness in travelling and fishing for blackfish and sharing some of his better performing spots Shirley and I like eating blackfish but we've always had to buy them unfortunately.. I've spoken with Rickster, he hails from up my way so when I get back into it Pete we must have a go in some of the blackfish spots in the Hawkesbuy where we would have a chance of getting a jew or two just leaving the jew rods out on the other side of the boat... Cheers jewgaffer

That's a helluva good landbased result on lures A Dawg going on these sort of results, I'm not surprised that cranky old Julius made you his offsider down at the bridge that time as he's pretty fussy about who he talks to leave alone who he fishes with... Cheers jewgaffer

Excellent result on the flathead Hodgey..... Tuross and Narooma have always been among the best places on the coastline for flathead and going on your results lately it certainly appears that the better size flathead are in pretty good numbers at the moment .. going on the results on the bream up here throughout winter and even lately it's surprising that bream have become so scarce down your way and when you look at both areas it certainly speaks volumes for the standard of fishing in Sydney at the moment.... Cheers jewgaffer

Top session in the yaks boys! it's good to see you yak fishos teaming up and fishing together.. Keep up the good work Cheers jewgaffer

Hi Wen I hope the new boat is going well for you and I think you've made the right decision going for the Lowrance Elite 5 model sounder...I was quite surprised to find out that the HDS5's have been outselling the equivalent Furunos by 5-1 ie the Furuno 620 and also the Lowrance HDS equivant of the big selling Furono 585, the deep sea model ...I reckon the Elite 5 is a retail "sitter" aimed to attract the estuary off shore market and gives general fishos that don't require a sounder that better covers the deeper fathoms off shore the best of everything including the $300 card in the one package.. Cheers jewgaffer

Include me in the cuttle fish quest Basil I wouldn't mind a walk on walk off session off the Hacking plus a couple of snapper for a change...I hope you are back from casuality by now but as I said to George, I'm pretty sure those symptoms you experienced are typical of what's going around this winter..I was so crook with this particular winter bug myself that at one stage I thought if I take another breath I would die... my older son copped the same symptoms and his mother has been running nursing him like a baby and I reckon I'm the one that's terminal not him but Shirley didn't give birth to me did she.. Keep your chin up mate we'll tee George up and get out and do that snapper session as soon as I hire a stretcher Cheers jewgaffer

Many Happy Returns for today Peter I hope today brings you everything you wish for mate you wouldn't think it was three years now since we that session in Middle Harbour..Now that you've reached 62 and are as fit as a fiddle it's time to dust off those jew rods old mate and give Narrabeen one helluva good work over Best regards Peter and I hope you have a very special day today with your family and friends jewgaffer

Nice result Roberta .. good to hear that Keith is progressing along much better... It was bad luck you didn't bring a blackfish rod along... after seeing all those blackfish all gathered around together you must have been dribbling ... Where are these modifications happening to the poles Roberta, can you still fish in around Barclays ok? By the way I like the sound of these lightweight Lux rods and their sensitivity and strength at 1-3kilos, they seem to have a pretty good reputation as a good quality light weight rod... it's always a pleasure to use well balanced light weight rods and they soon become favourites while the next best gathers dust... what are these Lux rods worth Roberta, are they made in Japan are they? Cheers jewgaffer