NickN

The Silver Fox has always been a great producer for Flathead. I doubt it will go out of fashion any time soon. I used the Silver Fox up around the reefs at Cairns and absolutely nailed everything.

I have a few different stories for you. I have been to Cairns 3 times. All times I have flown Qantas. First time up QF told me they wouldn't accept my rods as oversized luggage as the length was too long. I paid to have them sent up on Australian Air Express and just collected them at Cairns. When I picked them up the guy at AAE asked why I freighted them when I could have just checked them in as Oversize. I told him what QF had said and he said it was a load of bollocks. On the way home from that trip I went straight to oversize baggage after checking in and they accepted my rod bag no questions asked. It appeared Qantas shunted me to AAE to make a few extra bucks out of me (they part own AAE with Australia Post). I have also flown Jetstar (JQ) and Virgin Blue (DJ) and they have both accepted the rods as well. I even flew Gulf Air to the middle east a while back and they treated my gear with the greatest of care. When I explained how fragile the rods could be they got a guy to collect them in person and walk them down to the aircraft. Unfortunately Gulf Air do not operate from Sydney any longer. I use a Jarvis Walker rod tube. It has a PVC tube covered with canvas with a zipper at one end. It is really sturdy and I normally wrap the tops of my rods in bubble wrap so that when they go in the tube they are firmly secured and cannot move around.

Feedback sounds positive guys. I am going to focus more on rods, reels, lines, lures etc and then maybe finish up with some techniques. My hope is to educate people on the type of gear available and hopefully dispell common rumours and myths.

Hands up how many of you guys out there on the forums are curious about soft plastics fishing but don't know where... or how to get started. That may even go for some of you who have dabbled but not quite had the success you had hoped for due to lack of knowledge/skills or not knowing how to use ther fishing gear you have. Reason for these questions.... I was hoping to guage the level of member interest in putting together a complete series of informative tutorials and if necessary, some get-togethers to help get as many people as possible started and help those out who want to improve what they already know. This is not going to be aimed at turning anybody into a pro level soft plastics tournament hero, just give people a good level of competency and understanding so that any outing with soft plastics can be a fun and successful one with no stories of broken leader knots and stories of how the use of wrong technique or gear cost a good fish. Look forward to your replies. Nick

I have always been curious, do Mako's make for good eating? Actually do sharks in general make for good eating?

I remember cutting my teeth on SP's at IC what would have been nearly 6 years ago now. Lure of the day was an Atomic paddletail in pumpkin/chartreuse. Outfit was a Daiwa Procaster-X and a Daiwa Regal-Z. Shows you how far things have come since then!!!! I might head back down there when the tides are good havent been there in years. Good to see the old stomping grounds are coughing up nice fish for you Blood Knot, stick to IC and you will have plenty of great catches. My PB bream came from Rodd Point on an SX-40.

When he jumped in the rod was just a metre or two in front of him and the shark wasn't exactly Jaws. I would have kept swimming for the outfit.

Look what we have spwaned, a flathead junkie! Great to see you guys are really getting into the craze they are fun to catch, taste great and will keep your lines tight all summer long. Drop me a line next time your out and I'll show you some other great places near there that produce regular quality fish.

I gave up a fishing session yesterday to catch up on sleep, bugger! Great catch mate thats a well conditioned fish. Hopefully that spot might give up a few more jewies over the summer.

Roberta, I have had flathead hit surface lures in the past but nothing on an absolute regular basis. If I were you I would try fishing those Squidgy 100mm fish unweighted, in 1m of water you will get plenty of takers and the weight of the lure will give you plenty of casting distance.

Just out of curiosity, isn't the Steez strictly freshwater only? If it is being used in the salt that may be a reason for the reel seizing up.

Well done mate! I personally don't mind the old Sambo for a feed. Gotta bleed them straight away and prepare them properly but done with a nice crust of sea salt and pepper and fresh lemon slices they come up a treat.

The lakes above Parramatta normally fish ok as well on fly. Dont be afraid to walk through parramatta park and fish the banks right up to Westmead.

Good work mate! Now you will have a new toy to play with this summer which should produce many bass.

Hey Mario, Apart from being good for Sydney's water supply, you'll be happy to know that rainwater is perfectly fine for washing your boat and flushing your motor. The salinity of rainwater is less or equal to that of drinking water which is absolutely minute so nothing to worry about.

ritchie, no problems at all mate I enjoyed the company and it was fun seeing you get into the plastics craze. I think once you have a couple of productive sessions you will really be ready to forget about that stuff they call bait! I have some photos for you so PM me your email address and i'll shoot them over to you.

Don't despair mate, all those canals and creeks and structure on the Gold Coast will have you foaming at the mouth! Those blades will see plenty of action up there, and a few mangrove jack thrown in for good measure!

Roberta I am coming up to Forster for the weekend of the 17th October and now you have me drooling at how good the flattie action may be!

Thanks to everyone for making me feel so welcome today. I really enjoyed myself and I am eagerly anticipating the next get together. To make things simple and make the thread dial-up friendly I have added a link below to the images from today. All you have to do is click an image to enlarge it. The images have been reduced in size to make them easy to view. If anybody would like an original full quality copy of any image just PM me with the images you want and an email address and I will email them to you. Keep in mind each image is between 6MB and 10MB each so make sure your email is able to accept large files. http://picasaweb.google.com/aroundsydneyph...y/BackToTheBay# Well done to everybody who caught fish to weigh in it was a tough day with that wind and a slow bite.

Something to keep in mind is that even lines such as Fireline which start off stiffer than others will become quite soft after some use and will end up the same as the braid.

Aaron, great choice with your knots you took the high road and put the time into the Bimini, well done. Always good comfort knowing you have the best knots connecting you to the fish. I hope the extra time spent with the knots is rewarding for you. Nick

Disaster Averted!!!! Here's the story.... Camera stopped working today, battery symbol on the camera body was flashing. At the time the battery had a full charge. I am thinking to myself the battery has just shat itself (12,000+ shutter rotations and many charges in its life) so I fork out $92.00 for a new genuine battery. Camera still not working. In the car and rush into Pyrmont to Pentax headquarters. Guys there plug it into the computer and determine the camera itself has packed it in. Now in 2+ years of being a Pentax owner not a single hiccup. State my case to the manager and how important Sunday is and how I don't want to let anybody down. They replaced the camera body, battery, charger on the spot and I walked out with a new camera body. I'd just like to thank the folks at C R Kennedy (Pentax) for their help, it's nice to know that they support their users with quality service and outstanding camera products. Nick.

I might duck around to the Cooks as well at some point.

Anybody know what my chances are fishing plastics off the rock groynes around Ramsgate?

Spider Hitch ....... eek!!!! I can highly recommend NOT using that one. If you really need a double then a bimini is fast and easy and much stronger. As for the braid to leader knot, I can highly recommend the Slim Beauty. It ties fast, and is tapered so that there is no catching on guides during casting and it does tend to hold better than a double uni or albright. If you spend some time practising and being meticulous with your knot tying each one will come out perfect and you will have a huge amount of confidence with your fishing. One other thing to keep in mind is to always use a quality leader material. I normally stick with Yamatoyo or Frog Hair. The Frog Hair is a little on the expensive side but a pleasure to use.