DerekD

We often have room to let them run and wear themselves out. The fights can be 5 to 15 minutes depending on how hard you want to go but you are grinning all the way. Couldn't afford to do that with fish such as a mangrove jack close to structure. Best kingfish to date on the 2-4kg outfit was 70cm but on the kayak in the harbour with that outfit I think I have a good chance on an 80cm or better specimen. If you get the chance look at Youtube channel Sandflats Fishing Australia. He is doing what I suspect you want to be doing and he is also using the gear I'm suggesting. I use 4lb Berkley X5 on a lot of my outfits but it is tested to break at around 14lb on a test rig. I usually use 8lb leader but will go to 10lb leader if we have a lot of pelagics around. Don't need it during the fight but it helps during the endgame fishing shore based when they get close to structure.

Two piece doesn't appear to affect the performance. Nice thing about this outfit is I have no issue chasing pelagics such as salmon and kingfish on it. I've setup several people I've been mentoring on this rod (matched with a Sedona 2500 reel) and haven't had any complaints yet. I use the same rod for most of my fishing but upgraded the reel from the Sedona to the Stradic as a get out of Covid isolation present to myself and it is a sweet outfit. Are you anywhere near the lower north shore of Sydney. Can arrange a try before you buy. Based on your species list I suspect you are in Queensland somewhere.

Hi Mike, Not sure at what point someone becomes an expert... I was given a freshwater 7 weight fly rod with reel and line as a present over a decade ago. To learn how to use it I got a lesson with a now deceased Sydney fly fishing guide. He covered the history, the gear and general theory of fly fishing. In the second half of the lesson we went into several casts. I felt particularly uncoordinated on the day but the lesson was worth every dollar it cost me. Later on I picked up a 9 weight saltwater outfit for chasing fish from the kayak. A few years ago I added a 7 weight saltwater outfit to the collection. All rods were 9 foot. I can't quite shoot a full fly line but I'm getting closer. With my friend's outfit the other week I was about 6 feet short of doing so. I think I could have done it on the day but as it was his outfit I wanted him to be the first to do so with it. Coincidentally, to help my friend see where he was going wrong we filmed him and then me during that same session. This is me - you can judge if I pass as competent. 😀 https://youtu.be/FlsMQo5wRaE Now I've hopefully established some of my credentials, technique is more important than brute strength and the people I've helped improve dramatically once they understand that. It is like pushing a kid on a swing. If you get the timing right it only takes a bit of effort each time to build up momentum. My starting suggestion would be a 7 weight for what you have said but in this case I'd suggest a different approach. Look at the Redington Crosswater 890-4 (8 weight, 9 foot, 4 piece outfit) which is the one shown in the video. I tracked it down for my friend when it was on special for under $200. It comes with rod, reel, line and carry case. The rod is impressive for the price and the line just flies. Unfortunately, it will more likely be around $300 at the moment due to the world wide shipping issues. Why this and not something lighter. Unless you want to get several outfits this will be a better all round outfit for Sydney harbour. Just by changing out the leader and tippet we can chase several different species ranging from what you mentioned to the pelagics such as tailor, salmon, kingfish, bonito. Happy to give you a lesson at a local park to see where you are at. I might also be able to drag along my mate so you can see and feel the outfit I'm suggesting. Regards, Derek

ArrowZ Estuary Ultralight. AAS-270UL Specs: 7 foot 0. 3-10lb line rating 3-14gram lure rating. Usually around $139 but can be found for around $100 with a bit of patience. Short butt which means that it can be worked rod tip down without hitting on the meat of the forearm.

Hi Rlac. I enjoyed the report and welcome to Fishraider. Got a lot of respect for you giving it a go and taking the time to work things out for yourself. Looking forward to hearing more of your adventures. Regards, Derek

There was a bit of advice in this topic a few years back.

How did you know? Are you psychic? Am I being monitored?

What @volitan said. You can catch them but it can be really hard work. I did find the size of the fish to be larger on average in the winters. If I had to. Live baits and fresh squid on a downrigger at places like long reef. Cover ground. Use the fishfinder. Look for structure and bait holding on the structure. Similar applies to the harbour. They are moving around and will often do circuits. You have to find one of those circuits and then put the right bait in front of them. Give each spot say 30 minutes. Then shift to another likely spot. If you hook up in a location then give that location another 20 to 40 minutes for them to come back. Also worth reaching out to @Pickles for some advice as he does it slightly differently from what I understand. He seems to use a berley trail method a lot of the time but I haven't been fortunate enough to get out with him on his boat yet to see him in action. Did get out with him on a charter which was an awesome day. Just a warning too - we went out from Pittwater this week. Struggled to find livies (actually couldn't) but also came across big schools of leather jackets which ate through the braid.

Overachiever!! Ha ha ha. Well done. Did you make your parents happy and did you keep it this time?

Hi @AlbertW Just realised this morning why you are probably losing so many lures. If we'd covered bass fishing you'd probably be having less issues. Not sure if you will get anymore sessions over there but if you do... Most of what I taught you is rod tip down due to the wind and the nature of the areas we normally fish in Sydney. In shallow water at distance try starting with having the rod tip high (say, way above your head). This will create a slight upward trajectory on the lure and keep it above the snags. As you wind the lure closer and closer you can gradually lower the rod tip as the lift becomes less important. This method allows you to fish shallow waters of say 50cm to 1m deep. A lot is by feel - if you start feeling bumps against rocks or similar then lift the rod tip higher and or wind a little faster. With the Celta spinners we try and wind it back as slow as possible without hitting the bottom. It is a balancing exercise and this is what we would have been doing for bass. Hope this helps. Derek

Hi Albert. I'm really proud of you on multiple levels. The effort you put in to learn how to cast more effectively from our first lesson, That you think about what I'm trying to teach you about lure fishing and come back with well thought out questions That you give everything I been teaching you a go (even when I push you that little bit further). That you used what I said for this trip and then did the research That you persisted for the trout and rescued the lure. That you didn't get downhearted and learned just as much from what wasn't quite working That you weren't afraid to ask for a little guidance. That you caught and released that beautiful fish. Well done and looking forward to seeing your fishing knowledge grow even further. Derek

I second what @noelmmentioned. Another aspect is that with heavier braid you lose casting distance. I've seen several meters difference in casting distance when the people I was mentoring were using 8lb or 10lb braid versus the 4lb braid I was using on like for like lures. Braid overtests most times anyway and the 4lb I use was more like 12lb actual breaking strain. They were probably using the equivalent of 20lb breaking strain. While lure fishing is not necessarily about casting distance it is about covering new ground and with lighter line you get that advantage. The other thing I've noticed is that when you get significantly heavier on the leader it can impact on the movement of the lure.

Shouldn't be a problem. Unless you are trying to skulldrag a fish you'd be surprised at how big a fish you can land with light drag and a bit of patience. So what if it takes a bit longer to land - it is not like you are picking up huge fish every second cast so you may as well enjoy the fight when you are fortunate enough to hook a good fish. I'm kind of with Isaac on the 2500 but I do own 2x 1000 reels. One was a present as a thank you from someone I spent a lot of time mentoring and the other I bought as I wanted to set it up with 3lb fluoro all the way through. I use them in the inner harbour for topwater bream and whiting but would feel confident hooking pelagics on them too. BTW have you looked at the Shimano website at the various specs for comparison?

Raider is a little heavier and just enough to be noticeable.

Hi DF, I mentor several people on light gear each year and I've put most of them onto the ArrowZ range or alternatively the Raider Bream Finesse 762 (2-4kg 3-12gram lure weight). I own three ArrowZ in lighter ranges. Estuary Super Ultralight, Bream Surface and the Estuary Ultralight. The frustrating thing with the Frogley website is that you have to jump around to see the various options. So you may not be aware of the full range available to you in what you are asking. I put pretty well all of them onto the Estuary Ultralight as it is the most forgiving in the range with 3-10lb line and 3-14gram lure weight. In my case I've matched it with either the Sedona or the Stradic (post Covid present to myself). It is a sweet outfit. I'm a big fan of the short butt which allows me to work the plastics without hitting on the meat of my forearm. Where are you based? If anywhere near the lower North Shore can show you what they are like.

Not Terrrigal but I think technique is more important than the water clarity. As for a master class in squidding have a look at this one:

Hi Richard, I enjoyed catching up with you over the weekend. Hopefully all the tips made sense and give you something to practice until the big schools of pelagics turn up again. So after using some of my gear is there any more on your shopping list in the foreseeable future? Regards, Derek

Hi GG. With this retrieve I can get the Nemesis plastics (wriggle tail) darting from left to right when rigged straight. The built in drag of the paddle tail on the other hand makes it really hard to get this darting action. I think it is less critical to rig some of the others types of plastics straight but if it only takes me 10 seconds longer to rig them straight I'll put the effort in to do so. Once you've rigged them also take a little bit of time to see how they swim. If you can get access to a swimming pool or somewhere there is super clear water it is a great way to see the differences in behaviour of the final rigged lure. When mentoring people I will take the time to show how different lures behave as part of the learning process. I want people to imagine what the lures look like when seen by a fish. Came across a couple of underwater videos showing fish reacting to different lures which has been interesting viewing.

Very good question. I use a hard body lure called an OSP bent minnow and the movement is very much a dying baitfish as per the video below. Very effective on top water when pauses are thrown in. With a plastic you generally need a jig head which will force the plastic to sink (wormhooks are an exception to this) so it is a little harder to hold in the water column. My big thrill is chasing the pelagics on bream gear in the summer when the baitfish schools are around so I recommend rigging the minnow type (match the hatch) lures as straight as possible. The spinning of the plastic in the "poorly rigged video" to me doesn't look right. With the well rigged plastic we can get that darting from side to side which I believe catches the attention of the predators and fires them up to chase. Furthermore, the more they can't catch it the more they want it. Throwing in the pause gives them the chance to hit it which they will often do. For the people I taught that retrieve to the majority of the hits were on that deliberate pause. Our hook up rates on pelagics went up dramatically when we rigged the plastics as straight as we could and then switched to that darting retrieve. Be interesting to try side by side with someone fishing a straight rigged minnow against a poorly rig minnow.

Hi Albert, My pleasure. Glad to see a huge amount of growth in your technique since our first lesson. I'm impressed at how dramatically your casting has improved. To be continued.... Derek

Hi Neil. Here is the messed up and beautiful thing. Exactly the same rod action is used with all the topwater lures. About all we vary is the aggressiveness of the twitching, how many twitches we use and the length of the pauses. The twitches of the rod tip have to be tight (say 5 to 8cm maximum) and in a direct line away from the lure. Most of the action comes from a vigorous but tight shake my arm rather than flicking my wrist. The sub-surface plastic is a different retrieve.

There are "no fishing" signs at the wharf area. Most people go to the point near little Manly beach where there is 7 hour parking. Most of the rest of the Manly peninsula is 2 hour parking.

Hi all, Many videos I've seen of people working lures are done with a GoPro or similar. While these cameras are fantastic at what they do it is difficult to see what is happening at the working end of the action - specifically the lure. I've got some nice telephoto camera gear and have been playing around with Topwater fishing lures so as to demonstrate the action we can get out of them. Don't think there is just one way of working some of these lures. A recentish fishing session with @Niall opened my eyes to another way of working the MMD splash prawn which is what I have tried to show here. MMD splash prawn worked gently: https://youtu.be/uIAUF8Lam5w OSP Bent Minnow (played back at half speed): https://youtu.be/X10dJQ1A_Xk Gladiator Smash Popper: https://youtu.be/qSh4VfYxvTQ For those that haven't seen the action that can be achieved with a Sugapen have a look at this: https://youtu.be/WY9CBQ61pDQ On a side note: This is the action you can achieve with a soft plastic minnow with the right jighead and good technique: https://youtu.be/WjGS6SjfDUs To do well in this sort of fishing it is understanding the action you are trying to achieve which will help to increase your catch rate. Often it is not till you see someone else doing it slightly differently that you realise you may have overlooked an opportunity. Hopefully this inspires a few more to get into this. Please note that the season seems to be be getting quieter but it is a visually spectacular way to fish in the Summer months. Regards. Derek

Tintin - the two detectives in the series are called Thomson and ThomPson. The characters are doubles rather actual twins but for the sake of the guess the band sketch. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomson_and_Thompson I take it you are familiar with the band the Thompson twins though.... Hold me now was a pretty big hit of theirs. Apparently the band name came from the Tintin characters.

The Thompson Twins