The dunk while wading

[faker]

Caught 2 flathead today while wading on sandflats in sydney harbour but reel got dunked when i was fixing up a lure.

Specimen 43 and 42cm

Also caught 27 CM flounder

Sent freams reel to maintenance to daiwa on way home

Edited November 11, 2023 by faker

[Little_Flatty]

Good set of results there @faker. Shame about the reel.

If you're finding the coordination of managing your rod while handling fish in the water, you can get a variety of belt mounted rod holders like this. I have one on every single tackle belt I use.

There are more intricate contraptions, particularly for fly fishing, but these are much cheaper and do the job. Google 'belt mounted rod holder' and you'll find them. 😎

When you catch a fish, hold the leader, flip the bail (to avoid any catastrophic rod situations) and pop the rod in the rod holder. Then you can do what you need to do with the fish.

[faker]

1 minute ago, Little_Flatty said:

Good set of results there @faker. Shame about the reel.

If you're finding the coordination of managing your rod while handling fish in the water, you can get a variety of belt mounted rod holders like this. I have one on every single tackle belt I use.

There are more intricate contraptions, particularly for fly fishing, but these are much cheaper and do the job. Google 'belt mounted rod holder' and you'll find them. 😎

When you catch a fish, hold the leader, flip the bail (to avoid any catastrophic rod situations) and pop the rod in the rod holder. Then you can do what you need to do with the fish.

what tackle belt do you use?

[Little_Flatty]

1 hour ago, faker said:

what tackle belt do you use?

Any old waist pack will do, doesn’t need to be fishing specific. Just needs enough space for one or two small tackle trays, a roll of leader and some scissors. I like my scissors on a zinger hanging off the belt so I don’t lose them.

[bessell1955]

Hey and the dunking takes milliseconds!  Hope all works out in the end.

 

[big Neil]

That's a good result. You seem to be getting fish regularly. Hope that your reel comes back as good as new.   bn

[faker]

On 11/12/2023 at 10:52 AM, big Neil said:

That's a good result. You seem to be getting fish regularly. Hope that your reel comes back as good as new.   bn

welp have to pay 120 to get it back as good as new but it is a $220 reel.

I bought a cheapo reel for wading next time daiwa exceler with my Rz 2500 for wading next time. luckily got it for $50

[Little_Flatty]

4 hours ago, faker said:

welp have to pay 120 to get it back as good as new but it is a $220 reel.

I bought a cheapo reel for wading next time daiwa exceler with my Rz 2500 for wading next time. luckily got it for $50

Might as well get it fixed, better for your wallet comparatively and also better for the environment to not have a useless hunk of metal on landfill.

You got a good deal for an exceler! Still, cheap or not, there’s no substitute for being careful.

Lately I’ve been seeing lots of photos of fly fishos posing with their catch, fly reels proudly dunked under water. Now, I get that quality fly reels are probably alvey-like in indestructiblility, but I still think that’s just showing off (and probably still stretching one’s luck).

[Ledge]

I don’t understand the level of concern about dunking the reel. I’ve accidentally dunked my Stradic a couple of times over the years (the metal one, not the plastic version) and it still works like new. Always rinse it in fresh water when I get home. I reckon rinse it in fresh water and then you’re good to go! $120 to repair a $220 reel that’s probably going to be fine anyway seems like madness. 

[Pickles]

Great idea @faker (wouldn’t work on Kingies as the rod holder would “knock your nuts off”). But not likely to encounter Kingies wading the shallows for Flatties and if you did the line would break before you knew what it was, but I like the idea.👍

[Little_Flatty]

44 minutes ago, Pickles said:

Great idea @faker (wouldn’t work on Kingies as the rod holder would “knock your nuts off”). But not likely to encounter Kingies wading the shallows for Flatties and if you did the line would break before you knew what it was, but I like the idea.👍

Kingies are a strong possibility at the Clontarf flats Bob😎

But of course you’d have to make sure the fish was well played out and it makes sense to flip the bail before handling the fish. I was most worried about snapping the rod tip. I didn’t think about the damage to the crown o’ jewels which of course is a real possibility with a strong fish 🤣

For me, I just hold the rod handle under my arm while doing whatever I need to do. I keep holder is for my net

[faker]

1 hour ago, Pickles said:

Great idea @faker (wouldn’t work on Kingies as the rod holder would “knock your nuts off”). But not likely to encounter Kingies wading the shallows for Flatties and if you did the line would break before you knew what it was, but I like the idea.👍

@Little_FlattyClontarf is a pain in the butt to fish because you can only fish those sand flats at a very specific tide and only early in morning when no one is in water. the middle half of runout tide and casting towards the drop off works best for flatties. on incoming tide bream and whiting but you could probably be lazy and just use blades from the embankments.

Unfortunately alot of places, I personally fish has conditions on when they can be fished safely.

This unfortunate incident occurred when i was messing around willoghby bay. but i kinda of want to try fish shell cove sandflats at one point