DerekD

I don't know if others have experienced the same thing but I have kept cabbage weed in a ziplock bag in the fridge and found it to be fine a week later (at which point it gets used up - never lasts long enough to see how long it actually survives). The only moisture that was in the bag was what was on the weed as I collected it in the first place.

Hi Spoz, Can I get a little bit of clarification, when you say what sets a cheap rod apart from an expensive rod are you talking about the rod or are you really asking about a "rod and reel combination"? When you say you want to take the wife fishing I assume you don't actually have a few spare reels sitting around to match up with a rod you want to buy for her. I'd like to make a few points which I think you should think about before you purchase anything. While others may argue with me I feel the biggest noticable difference between a cheap outfit and a better one will actually be the reel. The cheapest outfits generally have a really rough drag. From past experience you can land some surprisingly large fish if you have a smooth drag, have it set so it allows line to be taken off before the line breaking point is reached and use a "lift the rod then wind down" technique when fighting the fish. I have had beginners hooking and landing kingfish before on one of my cheap ($69) rod and reel outfits with 6lb line. The reel had and still has a smooth drag. Fibreglass rods are generally considered to be more forgiving to taking knocks than a graphite rod and will have more bend in them (I believe one of the demonstrations with the Ugly stick is to bend the tip back on itself). Graphite rods are generally more sensitive and responsive. To spread the line load across the rod I look for a reasonable amount of guides per length on the rod. A general rule I use for guides is 1 guide for every foot of rod length + one extra. On a seven foot rod I'll look for a minimum of 8 guides. Make sure that the rod and reel combo feels balanced. No use in putting a huge reel on a light rod. It won't look or feel right. Some people like a floppy tip as it is more forgiving when fighting soft mouthed fish like whiting. These days I prefer a stiffer tip as I do a lot of light soft plastic fishing but I use the same rod for bait fishing too. I get more fun out of my 2 - 4 kg outfits then probably most of my other rods combined. I can use them for fresh water or salt water. I get more hits on the light gear and while pretty well anyone can muscle a fish on overly heavy line I think it is more challenging and as a result more enjoyable managing the same on lighter gear. Another thing to consider is how many regular fisherman are likely to hook the fish of a lifetime every time they go out - the heavy gear generally does not help. Most people I see out by the water have overly heavy outfits and can't work out why they are not catching a thing while I am pulling in fish right alongside them. Hope the above helps, Regards, Derek

One of my good mates fishes with red leader material using the argument that it is the first colour that disappears underwater. Myself, I prefer to use fluorocarbon with my argument being that if it is clear and difficult to see in the air then it must be harder to see in the reduced visibility of water. Now I am well aware that due to wave length red is the first colour that gets knocked out of the visible spectrum as you get deeper. What had always puzzled me is at what point it does so and what it actually looks like at that depth. With a bit of further research it turns out that the depth at which it does so is between 15 and 30 feet (say 5 and 10m). I do some of my light soft plastics fishing in the 1 - 3 metre range so there is no benefit for using red leader material there. Out of scientific curiosity I was wondering if anyone had ever dived under water to see how red compares to clear leader material at a variety of depths. What were the results. Is the red material really not visible or does it go dark? While I would like to test this myself, due to pressure equalisation problems, I can generally only go down to 5 or 6 metres free diving. Are there any divers out there who would be able to test this? PS. I usually catch more fish but I spend more time at it and I would like to think my technique is slightly better so I can't use that as a selection criteria.

Been wanting to get out to Long reef for a long time after hearing about the big kings out there. While my boat would theoretically get out there with the low freeboard and the safety requirements it is not something I would really consider. With three mates we rented a boat a little more suited to that sort of trip last Monday (had to take it off to make it a 4 day long Australia day weekend). After collecting the boat we did a little bit of unsuccesful fishing inside the harbour before collecting our fourth fishing buddy. Made our way past North head and did a little bit of trolling with the X-rap magnums but didn't hook up. Once we had cleared North head we made more or less straight for long reef trolling a couple of skirts. First hook up was a nice bonito. Second hook up was also a bonito. Starting to look promising. Just to the south of the long reef we slowed down and put down a variety of lures. Things started to get a little interesting on the North side of Long reef when we started to hook up on "would you believe it" more bonito. We then started flicking about metals and x-rap slash baits to pick up even more. We had found the mother load. That was the story for the rest of the morning. Every time it was quiet we would troll the slash baits till they got hit and we would then flick the lures around. It was interesting watching the sounder and then estimating when we would hook up. We had a few quadruple hook ups and we had a ball. We picked up one small king. At one stage as it was getting a bit warm we thought about a quick swim over the side. About two minutes later I looked into the distance and realised there was something strange on the surface about 50m away from us. I then realised it was a small shark. Cool... but it put an end to the idea of a swim. About midday we made our way back to North head where we managed a frigate mackeral and a fair few more bonito. By the end of the day I think we hand landed about 60 bonito between us. Great fun on the lighter 10lb gear. Just wish i had had my bream rod with me. Love to try them on the 4lb gear. Great day had by all. Sorry no photos available at the moment. Derek

Was up there a few weeks ago. On the day I didn't do too well on the fishing (got my first carp on corn and my first on fly in the nearby rivers) but as the intent was to also do a bit of water skiing i had a great time. As for the fishing there was a tournament a week or so before I got up there and they landed in the region of 300 odd bass. Mostly on live yabbies. Another thing I have heard of people doing is finding the schools and dropping vibes or similar down on top of them. Saw a few people catching yellowbelly too. Talked to a friend today who lives up there and he saw a fair amount of people cleaning bass at the end of the day last weekend. So in short they are biting, especially as the weather warms up.

I suspect cuttlefish are easier to keep alive than squid. I chase both when looking for bait and put them both in the same esky and change out the water reasonably often. Even if I catch the cuttlefish before the squid I always find that the squid die on me at some point and the cuttlefish are still alive at the end of the day. Not really a problem in my case as I use the squid as strip bait and put down whole cuttlefish. I don't aerate the water so that could be a contributing factor in killing off the squid.

I think Achilles2 raises a good point about barometric pressure. I hear a lot of stories about it and have never worried about it as I figured if I wait for perfect conditions then I would rarely get out. Here is the question. Why would it put fish off the bite? I have heard of expected tide levels being different from expected due to low or high barometric pressure but in the scheme of things it would be only a few inches here and there. Air pressure is at sea level is 101.3kPa or 1 Bar which is more or less equivalent to 10m of water column. The air pressure changes of a few inches would have negligible changes on the pressure within the water column and that could be easily compensated for by the fish moving up or down very slightly in the water column to match. The sum result of air pressure changes should be negligable for the fish. Remember that most fish will move up and down through the water column throughout the day. On top of that for saltwater fishes the water pressure due to daily tidal movement would be more noticeable than the air pressure changes. I can understand temperature having a far greater effect on the feeding patterns of fish. Thinking about it now it may be that the pressure changes and the related movement of the water body may affects the thermocline in the water and it is the related temperature fluctuations that put the fish off their food. The other possible reason for putting fish off their food is the wind resulting from air moving from a high pressure zone to a low pressure zone havng a turn over effect on the water bodies. Does anyone have a theory on why the pressure changes put the fish off?

Hi again Boofhead, There is another reason for the odometer distance to be out from the GPS information. The odometer measures the distance your wheels travel whereas the GPS may take a best fit approach. To explain further, when Payatz did the test distance if he swerved from side to side his car may have travelled more distance than the point to point distance of the test trip. When you did your test I suspect it was not a dead straight road. The GPS may take a location say every 2 seconds and it may join the dots in a straight line and work out the distance. The small diferences may add up over time. When commercial GPS units came out I understand there was a deliberate error included in them so that they could not be used for military purposes. Depending on how big these tolerances are these days the total of the deliberate errors could add up. Having said that I would still trust a GPS over the instumentation in the car. Regards, Derek

Hi Boofhead, I took the theoretical route and made the assumption that the timer in the spedometer was working correctly which was the best that I could do at the time. You wondered why your test results were out. The velocity (speed) is a function of distance divided by time. I explained why the distance could be out which explains the problem with the odometer. The other variable time is probably a result of the timer in the instrumentation being not quite as precise as you would like. I suspect they don't have quartz movement or an atomic clock in the spedometer. I must say that I am impressed that you took the time to test out a theory and then reported your findings. You have the makings of a scientist. Whereas I am only an engineer (would you have guessed?). For Payatz to test it properly he would need to also time the trip with a reliable stopwatch and then have the velocity consistent through the trip. 60km per hour would be a good speed (1 km each minute, thus 5km = five minutes). Alternatively he could do as you did and use a GPS and skip the whole calculations business. Derek

I just want to make sure that I understand the facts first. If I read your statement correctly then: You travelled a set distance of 5000m. When you completed it your odometer stated you had covered 4700m (i.e. 300m short). If this is the case then: When your odometer reads 5000m you have covered an actual distance of 5319m. (5000m / 4700m x 5000m = 5319m) Or to put it non mathamatical terms. The odometer is linked to the revolutions and diameter of the wheel but in this case each revolution of the wheel takes you a little bit further than it should have been calibrated for. This will affect the speed of the car in a similar way. The speedometer is using the same distance data and (assuming the timing function is working properly) while you may read 100km per hour because each revolution of the wheel is taking you a little further than it was calibrated for you are actually going further and thus faster than you think. How much? The correction factor is: 5319m (actual distance) / 5000m (distance on odometer) = 1.0638 Thus 100km per hour on spedometer = 100km per hour x 1.0638 = 106.38 km per hour actual. So at 100km per hour on the dial you are speeding. One possible cause of this problem is that at some stage someone put some larger diameter wheels on the car than it came with originally.

I've found the problem with getting more expensive jigs like the Yo-Zuri's is that I get kind of attached to them. It is that bad that I have gone free diving for at least three of them when I lost them. Got two of them back though. Was far quicker and cheaper than a trip back to the shop. I find in Sydney harbour a size 2.5 in pink or orange is a good all round lure. I have also done very well with a green yo-zuri in 3.0. Gets some really good casting distance. With the 1.8gm Yamashita's try tying one on to a 60cm 10lb leader and then have a small ball sinker on the other end of the leader and a small swivel. The ball sinker helps it get down to the bottom quicker and then the 60cm line allows the slow sink rate of the squid jig to take over for the last 30cm or so.

I believe that it was on the Tropfest DVD with the theme 8 from a few years back.

One more thing. When I have my working length of line worked out I pull the full length of line through my fingers. The friction and heat straightens the line and it minimises tangles when you dump the line at your feet as you pull your fish up and it makes casting a bit easier.

If I want the bait to look like it is drifting down the column I shift the sinker away from the hook so the weight gets the bait down quickly but then the longer line lets it drift once it is at the right depth. If I want a better feel for when they hit the bait then I move the sinker closer to the bait. Sometimes we do better on smaller pieces of mince as they can take it in one bite. You can also seed the area with a few peices of mince before you put your bait down. They will hit it harder. Sometimes I will put the mince ball in a ziplock bag with some flour. It coats the mince so it stays a bit better on the hook and acts as a secondary burley. Try different hook sizes till you find one that works for you. Once you get the hang of it it becomes rather easy and it becomes fun chasing the bait. We actually had a kingfish hit one of our handlines while we were going for yellowtail. Obviously didn't land that one. Just watch out for "happy moments" (also referred to as the black trevally and I think rabbitfish) which we sometimes catch when chasing yellowtail.

I have found that I struggled with bait jigs in your more heavily fished bait locations such as jetties. In areas such as those I switch back to the tried and tested bait of mince. I use a 4 to 6lb mono or fluorcarbon. A small hook (about 14 or 12 or a bit larger) and a split shot sinker which I can run up and down the line to suit the conditions. The good thing about the mince is that you can bury the hook in it but as it is soft when they bite down on it the hook is easily exposed. You can also use the same mince to burley the fish up. It is cheap too. The problem with mince is that in this health concious climate we live in I have trouble finding the coarse grade (covers the hooks better) slightly fatty mince I prefer. I buy a few dollars worth of the hamburger mince and roll it up into golfball sized clumps and freeze them individually. One clump is usually more than sufficent for most expeditions. I have the line on a small cork holder which I can then fit in my pocket once I have sufficient line out and this stops me getting tangled up all the time. You fish it by sight and feel. Once hooked you pull them in as fast as reasonably possible. It might not seem as effective as having 6 hooks out but consider that you spend 6 times as long baiting up for that one fish that might shake all the other 5 baits off the jig (unless you use squid or fish skin).

Thanks for that HottyScotty. Coincidently I went to my local tackleshop that afternoon and mentioned it to them and believe it or not just that afternoon someone had come in and demonstrated the knot in your link to the guys in the shop. I looked at it and recognized it straight away. It seems it has turned up in one of the recent fishing magazines.

I have a chance to go out to 12 mile reef and Browns this weekend and I want to set the gear up so I give myself and the people I am with the best chance to land some of the big fish I hear that are being caught out there. Most of the gear is 15kg mono but I will be bringing my 50lb braid outfit too. For my light fishing I use the uni to uni knot which is easy to do and has served me well over the years but since the fish out there are going to really be pushing the gear I am changing my method for this trip. I have Geoff Wilson's book on knots and rigs and I plan to plait a double in the mono outfits and use the Tony Jones knot recommended in the book to join the fluorocarbon leader to the double. From what I have read this is the best way to retain full strength in the mono and as the Fluorcarbon is 80lb I can afford the loss in knot strength there. I was thinking of tieing the leader to the hook using the uni knot unless there is a knot which retains better strength. My usual preferred method for joining the braid to the leader is to tie the braid to a heavy duty swivel with a triple palomar and then running the leader from the swivel. The triple palomar should retain close to 100% of the braid line strength. This time however I want to be able to wind the leader up through the runners and I won't be doing that with a swivel and at this stage I don't feel like getting into wind on leaders. The book mentions (and I can do) the bimini twist but I have heard there is still some loss in knot strength in the braid. The book does not mention plaiting a double from braid (superlines). I want to know if anyone has bothered plaiting a double with braid and what their experience with it is? Alternatively which joining knots would they recommend which can be wound through the runners and which will still retain most of the line strengths.

Just above the eyes and just behind where the tentacles meet the head.

I would agree on the above choice of line strengths but would suggest a different viewpoint on the leader length. Personally I'd suggest a leader of 60 to 80cm for two reasons. Firstly with a shorter leader you don't have the joining knot passing through the runners (yet you still have enough length to change out lures a fair few times). The second and more important problem with the longer leader is that when you snag up in a snaggy area most times the line will break at the joining knot when you try and get it back. You essentially loose 2m of leader material everytime you snag up. While I have no problems paying for another roll of Fluorocarbon leader I don't want to get a replacement roll twice as often. You can try both leader lengths and see what works best for you. Also depends on how often you are likely to get snagged up. I use Crystal Fireline in 4lb so I don't worry so much about the fish seeing my mainline with the shorter leader.

Once you start to get a lot more squid you will find a fair few of them hooked on top off the head. This had me puzzled for a while until I worked out it was probably a result of the way they grab the squid jig. Curious if anyone else has experienced this.

I have experienced this problem before and as a few people have commented the squid will usually grab the jig from the side and thus avoid the tines. My usual trick is to wait till I feel the load of a squid (or if I can see it grab the jig) and then give the jig a fast but short jerk. When squid are a little nervous they will release the jig surprisingly quickly. The short sharp jerk does not give them time to release it before the tines set and yet it will not rip it out of their tentacles. I have a very good success rate with this technique. This system has the added advantage in that the shock usually gets them to ink which means there is less to worry about when they get within shooting distance. They do hammer the cloth of the jigs a bit. If you are lucky enough to hold on to your favourite jig for a few seasons you will be surprised at how cut up the cloth looks at the end of that time.

Any guesses on the target species.....??? My money is on flathead. Easily accessable for most people. Easy to catch and there is enough of a size variation that a clear winner could be picked. How long are the brag mats??

Minor correction there. As long as it is not a commercial vessel you should only need a boat licence if you are travelling faster than 10 knots. 10, 20, 30, 225 horsepower shouldn't matter just the travelling speed. Having said that it is still better to have a very good understanding of the rules involved in boating and once you have that getting a boat licence is only a little step further.

If you use lures that weigh less than 3 gramme and wind it up without tension (not in direct contact with the lure) then it will birdsnest more often. If you use 5 gramme lures and stay more or less in contact with the lure then you will rarely have this problem. If you see a loop on your spool that is trying to lift up and away from the spool then take care of it as soon as possible because when you cast that loose section of loop will be where it has the best chance of birdnesting. The splitting thing is not something I have come across in the Fireline but if the fusing of the line was not done properly (bad batch) then that is how I would expect it to behave. As for leaders I use 6 and 8 lb nitlon Fluoro most often but I also keep some 4lb and 10lb handy. I use a uni to uni knot (8 turns in fireline and 4 - 5 in Fluro). Just check the knot by pulling tight between your hands before fishing. The Fireline frays and sometimes I have to redo it one or two or at the worst three times (rarely) before it holds to my satisfaction.

Raii, I am going to assume that you have not had a lot of experience with Fireline so if you know a lot of the information below then don't worry about it. With a smooth drag you will be able to land most reasonable fish on 4lb Fireline. To date on the 4lb Fireline I have landed Ozzie Salmon (56cm), Flathead (75 cm and I think an 80cm one but I didn't have anything to measure it with), snapper 51cm, kingfish (70cm and I think I could do a 75cm and possibly an 80cm kingfish with some time and a bit of room). As the others pointed out you get a better casting distance on 4lb than 6lb and you can use lighter lures. The line overtests and I would be impressed if you could snap the 4lb stuff by gently loading it between your fingers till it breaks (probably cut yourself first). Would suggest that you go into the store and feel the difference between the 4lb and the 6lb. I love the 4lb but once I start going into heavier braids I would look at woven braids rather than fused braids. I find Fireline gets a little stiffer in the heavier ranges. I do keep some 6 pound braid on a spare spool when squiding in areas I am likely to get snagged up as I can pull my jigs free of the weed. If you do get the Fireline then value wise just get the 125 yard spool and use mono (I use 8lb) as backing so that the Fireline is just short of the lip and comes off the spool easily. You can then just change out or end to end the Fireline every season. The only time I have seen my backing in three years of fishing with it is when I hooked up a really unobservant kayaker. After tightening up the drag and then a chase we managed to get him to the boat and get my line and lure back but I was unsure of best way to clean my catch. One other note. Fireline gets a little fluffy after extended use and if you don't wind it on the spool with a little tension you will get a birdsnest coming off once in a while. Unlike nylon it takes a little effort to get it to bind up so I keep a pin in my takle box so I can open up and untangle the birdsnest. Hope this helps. Regards, Derek