DerekD

Welcome aboard Stu. Looking forward to our next fishing expedition - TOMORROW!! Bring it on. Derek

Hi @big Neil It was a pleasure to see you add to your life experiences. Maybe it is the Dutch background and maybe it is just our family but one way or another we've grown up around, on or in the water. I have fond memories of sailing with my grandfather on the Dutch canals on his sailing boat Freya. Glad to be able to share this experience with you. Derek

Hi again. From that perspective I'm in complete agreement. Also if I'm at risk of hooking a salmon or king (happens on some of the sandflats I fish) then I'd rather have it happen on the Bender as the hooks look stronger.

Hi @frankS Firstly, happy new year. Secondly, I hope 2023 is a good year from you. I don't think your claim is a fair one and specifically when it comes to bream fishing in Sydney and the surrounds. In the far north of Australia where everything has teeth and it is a fish eat fish world then your statement could be substantiated but down here I think you would struggle. Historically there have been some simple but extremely effective lures (Halco twisty, halco smith jig or even something like the feather lures come to mind) but they are not designed for a niche market. For the bream competitions the bent minnow and the cranka crab have been game changers. A number of competitions have been won by people using the cranka crab and more and more teams are keeping them in the tackle box. The bent minnow allows you to work both topwater and get down a foot or two when you work out how to fish these. I can include lots of links regarding the cranka crab but don't have the time to find the specific ones I want at the moment. I will include include this nice little video on the OSP I mentor several people each year in light lure fishing and in the last few years I've added a topwater component to the lessons. Fishraider @Niall got me more seriously into this in a season when the kingfish were just a lot of work to catch with this excellent article: Once they understand there can be degrees of being subtle with these lures I've managed to convert several people to the use of bent minnows. In one session one of the people hooked up something big on a bent minnow which unfortunately pulled the hook during the fight. Not long after he hooked and landed a 33cm bream. Looking at the comparable bends in the rod I would have called that first fish as a bream (it fought like a bream and not a tailor or whiting) in the high 30s or low 40s. He then bought a few and took them up to the central coast where in one session he hooked about 10 bream and most being legal. Yes you can do as well or better with beach worms or yabbies but the challenge is not the same as with lure fishing. Still not convinced. Happy to meet up with you for a session in Sydney. I'll bring the bent minnow and you can bring as many sticks and t-shirts as you want and the loser buys lunch. If it goes a draw or you win then I'm buying lunch and putting an additional part to this post. Regards, Derek PS. Off for a fish now that the tide is coming up. Will be using the bent minnow and some other topwater lures. PPS. Had a couple of hits and lost a bream in the mid 30s at my feet on the topwater. PPPS. Think I found the video I was looking for. The gentleman in this video also fishes comps and from memory he stayed away from the Cranka initially as he thought they were a bit of a gimmick until he realised how effective they were from the results of other teams. Due to the money involved in bream comps they are usually way ahead of the curve when working out what does and doesn't work.

Hi @R E G I C Y C L E, Firstly, happy new year and I hope 2023 is an awesome one for you. Secondly, I've been enjoying the posts that you have been putting up recently and I'm looking forward to seeing more of these. Yes you are right about the Berkley Bender being half the price of the OSP but I find the trebles of the OSP just a little bit finer and sharper and really sticky (if you rub up against them they want to stick to you). I own both but my go to are the OSP versions. I was introduced to the OSP version a year or two back by another Fishraider and both of us feel the hang time of the OSP is just that little bit better. I think upgrading the trebles on the Bender is an option but I think you want finer sharper hooks so that swipe by the fish is likely to result up a hook up - problem is that the finer hooks are likely to be lighter impacting on the buoyancy and thus hang time of the lure. When using the super sharp hooks as come standard with the OSP bent minnow the ensuing fight often results in a secondary hook up somewhere else on the fishes body. I'm prepared to spend the $33 on the OSP version if it gets me more hook ups. I've only lost 2 to tailor and essentially it was clip failure (which I do suggest upgrading). Half a clip came back on one of those occasions with the line still attached. Just my thoughts. Derek PS. If you can get down to the inner west of Sydney in the coming months happy to take you out fishing topwater with these lures and other similar ones. Last few days I've caught several tailor, a legal whiting and a small bream. Prior to this the topwater action has been pretty quiet. We can also look into the Bender vs OSP question.

Hi Mate, First hope you have an awesome start to 2023. Before I start, I think you will get a good education out of all 3 options. The courses should be based on the same text books and be structured in a similar way. You will find some lecturers will resonate better with you than others but that is a luck of the draw thing. As each person's experience at university will be totally different depending on what they want to get out of it and what they put into it I just want to give you some things to think about. I started my mechanical engineering course from 1989 and graduated in May of 1995. I got hit pretty hard by the HSC scaling system and could only get into the Kingswood campus of the University of Western Sydney but it was set up so I could transfer across to the Broadway campus of the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) after the first year. Back then it was set up as a sandwich course which meant you studied for 5 months and then worked in industry in blocks of 22 weeks and then went back to studying. By the end of it you needed 144 weeks of working experience but this was dropped to 90 weeks while I was there. The benefits of this was that you could see how the theory correlated to actually working in industry. You could get long term sponsorship with one company or try multiple industries to see what you liked. You earned some money. You could do an additional subject or two while working. You could come out with multiple references (in my case this included Sydney Water and John Holland) and potentially walk into a job on completion. Downsides were that I had to work my backside off and didn't have time for the social activities which most people enjoy at University. In fact it wasn't till I was three years in that I found out there was an engineering social club which died for lack of members. My course also took 6 years to complete standard. I did come out with second class honours (credit average). If it comes down to what institution you want on your degree then I'd be aiming at the big 3 (University of Sydney, University of NSW and the University of Technology, Sydney). The other things I'd consider how hard will it be for you to get there each day (I'd drive to the train station and then train in). What sort of of extra curricular options are there for you - part of what you should get out of university is the soft skills (I've just grabbed one example at random but worth reading: https://online.maryville.edu/blog/soft-skills/). If you can take lead in some of the groups at your selected uni this does look good on your CV in lieu of practical work experience. Part of what you will also get is contacts - if you build up a good circle of friends you may find them helping you in industry down the track either directly or through their contacts. Some of these Universities will have partner programs with industry which makes it easier to line up work experience. My company brings in several students each year from one university and several of them have gone on to get a position at my company. Practical learnings to get through the course. Unless you are super smart and have awesome time management skills and no social life you will struggle to get through the amount of information and assignments which is going to be thrown at you. I ended up with a close circle of friends that helped me complete the course - while I might have done it on my own I certainly would not have done as well as I had without them. At the HSC level you are competing against the rest of the state but at University you are competing against the system 51% is still a pass and will still allow you to work in industry. i fought for every mark to end up with the result I got. For the assignments I checked with the others before submitting. If I really couldn't complete (time restraints or understanding) then I copied and made sure I resolved any issues before getting to the exams. I helped my friends wherever I was able to - we played to each others strengths. Prior to exams we often had study sessions at someone's place (including food) to review likely questions and made sure everyone was up to speed. Get your hands on past exam papers and ideally with worked solutions - the problems will usually be similar with just numbers changing (and not even that at times - had one open book exam where some of the students were laughing as the lecturer had recycled a past exam paper with nothing changed so all they did was copy out the original answers - I wasn't one of those students). Happy to try and answer any further questions you might have but remember it has been over 2 decades since I was at university. Regards. Derek PS. Very little of the subjects I learned at university got directly used in my work. For example, we learned about pump selection and pump curves and pressure drops but all I do now is call the pump supplier and tell them what I'm pumping, how much I need to pump and at what pressure. I need to know enough to talk to the experts in their field but not to know every detail. University taught me how to think logically and gave me opportunities to work with others to solve problems. In fact our team worked so well together we got to represent our university in the Warman Design and Build competition. https://warmandesignandbuild.org.au/

Hi Joss, Welcome aboard. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your posts - especially after seeing how well you and Ed fish together. Regards, Derek PS. Looking forward to taking the two of you out for some topwater bream and whiting.

Not too bad at the moment. At one stage now that she was able to put a face to the name, Joss said she'd seen me fishing before - McMahon's point with the fly rod chasing black fish. She comes across as very observant too.

It is not often I get blown away when watching someone else fishing but, at times, it happens – Wednesday evening this week was one of those times. My original plan was to try some photography concepts with a friend, a prime lens and the Christmas lights in the Mosman area. Unfortunately, my muse had eaten something which had disagreed with her and was unwell for most of the day. Looking at the time and the wind I decided to head down to Sydney harbour to try for some kings. Getting down at one of my favourite locations I found two people already fishing. They’d set up neatly in one of the corners so there was still plenty of room for me to fish. I asked them how the fishing was going and they said they’d already had a few. He was fishing bait and she was fishing soft plastics. While setting up I watched her cast and was impressed at how efficient her technique was. It is the first thing I usually modify when mentoring people so I’ve a tendency to watch other people doing so. When chatting while fishing they introduced themselves as Ed and Joss and I replied that my name is Derek. They had gotten into fishing about 3 years ago and had struggled initially to get information to help their skills grow. At one stage I mentioned Fishraider and then suddenly a couple of things clicked into place for them. They realised that I was that “Derek” and they were also very familiar with @Pickles. Turns out they’ve read a lot of our posts and Bob and myself were two people they wanted to meet one day. Joss was very complimentary (how to win friends and influence people) on the details that went into my articles. I mentioned part of the reason they were so detailed is that I wanted to help the information hungry fishing person that really wanted to understand the core concepts of aspects of fishing I feel I’m pretty good at. The reason I was so blown away by these two is how well they fish together. Ed uses baits as he does really well on them and probably didn’t feel the need to make the transition to lures. Joss said she didn’t like handling baits and the related smell and mess so she concentrated on lures and got really good at the plastics. So much so that during one session she got 31 salmon in about an hour up at the Central coast. Ed kindly takes the fish off the hooks for her. They kind of vibe of each other’s techniques. His bait acts like a burley bringing additional fish into the area for her to catch. Her lures often fire up the fish which increases his catch rate and gives him the opportunity to switch to lures when the fish are playing. They have invested some money into their gear (including Shimano and Daiwa) and it is all stuff I’d happily recommend to others when mentoring. More importantly they have learned to fish this gear in a way that plays to their respective fishing strengths. They head out 2 to 3 times a week and research locations to find new places to try. At one stage Joss mentioned she’d often try different things to see what worked. I suspect their dedication and intelligence were driving factors in how they had gotten so good in such a relatively short period of time. I see people with decades of fishing behind them that just got in the habit of doing what they’d always done cause it worked but then seemed to be missing the growth aspect of fishing. It was a pleasure to chat to them as we bounced around several topics, they had my sort of humour and were pretty quick to laugh. During the conversations they landed several salmon, a flathead in the mid forties and an almost legal snapper. I was impressed at the quantity of good fish they were pulling in. All were released as they were fishing for the pleasure of it. It is really difficult to point out potential areas for improvements to people that do as well as these two – if not done with a bit of humility it can almost come across as arrogance. Watching them I did realise there were some aspects where their skillset could be added to. I went into teach mode and showed them how plastics could be made to walk the dog sub-surface. Ed had never seen anyone move a plastic that way. Joss was almost there already with her retrieves (which already worked really well for her). I went into the basics of shore based jigging (at least the way I do it) as it is something neither had had much experience with. I also mentioned I fish topwater for bream and whiting which it turns out is something that Joss struggled with. She conveniently had a larger sugapen which I tied on my outfit and then used to show how tightly it could be made to walk the dog – irritatingly (from my perspective as they distract from the lesson) several salmon had a go at the lure. We then tied the sugapen on her outfit and then I showed her that it came down technique rather than gear. She gave it a try but realised what I was showing her was a bit like patting your head and rubbing your tummy at the same time. My counter was that I’m doubly disadvantaged at coordination as I have the male gene and the engineering gene and am extremely painful to watch on the dance floor but if I could do it then she could too (in time). Over the lesson several more salmon had a go at the lure and then suddenly she hooked up. I think another couple of sessions out and she will nail the retrieve. I also spent a bit of time with Ed showing him how to walk the dog sub-surface with plastics. Took a little while to find the cadence but after a few aha moments I think he got it. A few more people showed up at which point the three of us decided it was time to go. Joss and Ed, firstly, it was a pleasure to meet you and fish with you. Secondly, I hope you do end up becoming members on Fishraider. Thirdly, I hope I lived up to your expectations of me based on all of my articles you’ve read and we will have to see if you can meet with Pickles too down the track. Regards, Derek PS. I ended up with one tailor but had fun so didn’t really care.

If you can't find it then give me a call. I've got a friend who goes to it. It specialises in the ISO fishing from what I remember. I also got a few of the super small jig heads and plastics online and through ebay. BTW the yellowtail also have a larger cousin (around 30cm) which will definitely take plastics - cowanyoung (horse mackeral).

They will take lures and it is a specialised method for which some niche fishing shops in Sydney will have the gear. There is an excellent video on YouTube from Shroom where he goes head to head using a Sabiki and specific yellowtail lures (Ajing).

Friendly competition... Is that what it was called? Argy bargy, shouting, run ups before taking the shot, arguments over position, faking out injuries, claims of cheating, blaming the umpire, yellow cards, red cards.... Oh wait... That was the world cup soccer.... I always enjoy catching up with Ben. Our fishing interests (read topwater) overlap and any learnings get raised for further discussion. Benny, recently won several fishing competitions which resulted in him getting a nice new rod, a nice new Shimano reel and an assortment of lures. Me on the other hand, got introduced to a rod (the 7 foot 8 inches 4 piece 2-8lb Crucis) by @Little_Flatty which so got my attention that I had to buy one. I then matched with a Shimano Nasci 1000 reel and some stupidly skinny but amazingly strong braid by YKG. It is 12 pound rated and is PE 0.5. To put that in context the Berkley X5 4lb (really breaks closer to 14lb on a test bed) I usually use is PE 0.6. Both of us want to extend our casting range on the flats and getting out a sugapen in 70mm and trying our best casts was a good way of doing a comparison. By swapping outfits we could see how it averaged out with our slightly differing casting styles. My new rod loads up differently and I have had to change my technique to get the most out of it. I can feel the extra line tension through my index finger when I nail it. It was interesting to see that my best cast with my own outfit wasn't that much further than my best cast with Benny's outfit. It was a really enjoyable fishing session and one I hope to repeat many more times over the summer.

.... well spotted. I put a disclaimer in that I'm not responsible for any gear someone decides buy after fishing with me. I can only show someone the door, they still have to step through it. Be interested to see what you end up with if you and your dad take me up on the offer for the topwater lure session...

Not sure how much boating or kayaking experience you've had but have you read these:

I've not seen that design before. The expansion ones could split the holes they sat in over time. Your ones should be fine.

Once a year is usually more than enough even with a lot of trips out. I went several years without and realised it was getting harder to use and it really hit home when I tried someone else's drive. That is when I started researching servicing. Hasn't been an issue since. Careful about not over-tightening the allen screws as you can split the plastic (not admitting to anything here Those are the side clips. The ones I'm talking a about are right underneath the butt cr@ck where the part you sit on meets the back support. There are two velcro flaps and they are hiding underneath these. They stop the seat from sliding around. If you get the cushion then they lock under the same velcro flaps.

Looks good. It has the seat that some people don't find overly comfortable. You can still get a blow up seat accessory which you could slip under the velcro tabs. Suspect the grease in the drive may have dried out. It is probably the V2 drive with the bushes rather than roller bearings. See this for future reference but I use Inox MX6 grease as it is water resistant and the colour doesn't stain as much https://slhobie.com.au/how-to-service-a-hobie-miragedrive/ One warning - can you please get a photograph of the lock in location into the hull for the seat. Original design used an expanding plug system but this would damage the hull. They changed the design to a quick quarter turn type system (which I think the 2013 series had changed to). You can get adapter kits. The expander plug system looks like this The new twist lock adapters look like this but you need to glue a matching insert into the holes.

Depends on the charter but most seem to be chasing flathead and similar species. I did go on one with @Pickles and @big Neil and we did get into trag jew and some other nice stuff. Gear sounds right for what I've done before unless you get into some really big kings.

Thanks for that Pete. Normally I mentor 3-5 people each year. This year I think has been about 15 give or take. Considering a session is usually 5 to 8 hours at a minimum to cover the basics and some people have had two or more sessions with me it certainly adds up over time. On a positive, as I usually stay in regular contact with at least half the people I help my circle of fishing friends has grown. PS. Even if there was a badge like that there are several other people that come straight to mind that would also be deserving of that honour.

Hi All, @wazatherfisherman's bream batterer's do have real chip action. I gave one a try late last week. After a discussion with Waza I decided to use a Gamakatsu large eye hook for my first trial. I wanted something black (no reflective shine) and with a large gape to allow the point to be exposed. This was my first attempt at rigging it up. The tide on the day was too low to effectively fish the place I had in mind but I still gave it a cast or two. They catch the light beautifully, cast a good distance, being soft also bounce off structure if you misjudge the cast and have a slow sink rate. I tried another location and cast underneath the ferry wharf. This time I saw two bream (estimated mid thirty cm) race out quickly for a very close look before changing their minds. I was doing this unscented to set a base line for their effectiveness. This concept has potential. More experimentation to be done. Thanks for helping with this Waza. Derek

Hi @Mr.Wang, That was an awesome report. I really enjoyed the fishing session with you and seeing the growth in your technique and confidence. It was a shame Ryan was unable to join us but hopefully you can guide him using what you have learned so far. Losing the flathead wasn't necessarily you as we don't know how lightly it was hooked up. The good thing with them is I've known them to go for a lure again even after the first missed hook up. I was pretty confident we'd get a second chance at it. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your reports as you get out there more often. Regards, Derek PS. Thanks for treating me to a lovely lunch.

Hi @Marke, These are the TT bullet head jigheads I match them with (I struggle to get consistency with darter jigheads so don't use them). If we catch up then I'll show you the retrieve I use to get the sweeping motion shown in the video. You need to throw in the pause to give the fish a chance to hit it.

BTW the grease in drive dries out over time. You can service them yourself and there are a few videos out there about how to do it. I've got a 2010 Revolution with the most basic seat possible. I don't mind it but most of my mates got the blow up cushion for it. Worth getting a slightly later model for the more comfortable seat. Just check for cracks in places such as where the drives sit or where the seat locks into the body. Elastics get weak over time too. Can also be fixed. Check that you get smooth movement with the rudder up/down and the left right cables. Does the drive move smoothly. The cables can be too tight or too loose (easily adjusted). Are the fin rods bent?

Hi @robthefisherman It was a pleasure spending Sunday with you and considering we were at it from about 7am to 4pm it was a solid day too. My own journey into lure fishing began with a small white grub off a sailboat moored at Balmoral beach, Mosman in the early 2000s. The silver trevally I hooked that day has been a catalyst for my fishing and others due to the trickle down effect. I was more engaged in fishing and the joy in my hobby increased exponentially. There was a point during the day at which I turned to you and the smile on your face was gold. You got it. You were hooked. It also made all the teaching we went through worthwhile - the lunch you treated me to was a lovely bonus though. You've reached a point at which your skills are good enough that you will grow without needing me and what you get out of it will be proportional to what you put into it. Looking forward to seeing how your fishing journey progresses in 2023. Regards, Derek PS. that video of you casting makes it look bloody effortless now.

Hi @Marke the Berkley Power bait smelt colour also works pretty well as it flashes in the water. I do best in the 3 inch size at this time of year.