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Hi all, This is my first post about fly fishing as I have only recently been introduced to it and taken a liking, so by all means please comment with your thoughts. I am interested in both fresh and salt water fly fishing but am limitted by my gear at the moment. I have a 7wt rod topped off with 8lbs fluoro that I intened to use for a salt water set up. So after a few days of practicing my cast spread across the last fortnight I decided the trip I already had planned to the yorks would be the perfect chance to wet a fly for the first time. The beach we were staying at has a low water level for about 150 meters so I put on a pair of waders and started covering some ground. I worked my fly in all sorts of spots of differing depths and structures but the fish were very thin. I recall only seeing one sizable fish but quite a bit of small bait jumping around at times. The afternoon tide was a bit dodge at this beach and as the sun started to go down so did my hopes. I was about to call it quits as I lost visibility but then one of my mates kindly offered to run and grab me a head torch so I decided to give it another few minutes... and luckly I did. After turning my light on and walking back out it was about 5 minutes before I got my first bite and I was hook up. After a short struggle and alot of splashing around I landed a small tommy roughly 15-20cm long. Not a monster but you always remember your first . I was a little surprised that I didnt see or catch more fish as I know its a quiet area that doesnt see to much pressure. I was hoping that some of you could offer me some advice or tips (e.g do people use burley?) for future trips, or even if someone would be keen to head out some time with the fly rods. Keen to hear some feedback, Cheers, H.

Certainly some colours in the sky during last nights sunset here in Sheffield.. cheers Adrian Rainbow as a shower of rain passed by at sunset' Unusual glow in the clouds.. Red & orange colours as the sun set below a smoke filled horizon..

Don't start another goddamn worm species debate... Anchovy will crack the shits

I would personally look at the Daiwa LT range of Reels. for around that $150 price point you can get an Daiwa Exceler LT. Nice and smooth, light, look good and have nice drag systems on them. I mainly have higher end gear now. I lost the drag knob while out fishing a few weeks ago while up yorkes. so i needed a reel to get me by Picked up the exceler i was quite impressed by it. At the end of the day it is what feels comfortable and right for you. everybody is different and like different things best to try out a whole range of reels on your rod as Bratko mentioned and see what feels good.

Thing is lofty, I could show you a picture of a massive x fish on a certain reel, yet still Not rate it as highly as another reel I've used purely based on user friendliness and a certain level of luck being needed to land a decent fish. I've just had a quick scroll through my phone gallery, was going to upload photos but it is a bit much work... any way. BG 8kg snapper + others 75cm snook 25lb murray cod + others Surf salmon to 45 cm and trolled fish to 8lb Big Callop Aird Mulloway to 80 something cm + many many more Big redfin plus many more Big carp 52cm Waitpinga salmon Rainbow trout KG whiting to 50ish cm Many cast salmon to 52cm Bream to 42cm Seido Big carp galore Heaps of school Mulloway to 70cm Redfin big and small Big 3lb plus rainbow trout Kg whiting and pan snapper Symetre Lots of yellowfin whiting including 40 + cm fish Big carp to 3ft long Rainbow trout to 6lb Redfin Bream to 35cm Now all those reels have caught good fish, but I would recommend the symetre ahead of the Aird and seido purely as it is just as capable and has been a finer reel to use, and hence has been used in more finesse applications. The BG by contrast is a beast of a reel in its' build, but that's why I tend to use it on bigger targets even if it isn't that much larger than the others. It just isn't as good to use and I don't need that full aluminum construction etc etc on fish that I Chase on flick sticks; just as I don't think underpants will by his description. Bloody long type up but I hope I got the message across.

Try the beaches at West Lakes. Tirana Reserve for one has mullet often. Simple paternosta rig with two hooks and a basic mince and semolina mix. Just a light sinker with berley cage or attach a berley cage to the sinker. Bread in the berley cage is all you need. No need to cast far either. Simple fishing.

This is for rivers and still water scenarios I do 99% of my mullet fish from an elevated position, like a jetty. I Berley them up to the surface so I can watch them eat the bait I use them for livies, so I want to get 20 really quick. Small 3mm squares of chicken or prawn on a size 12 long shank hook. And I use a "Flatty Flicker" or just hold the hook upside down really firmly and 9 times out of 10, the mullet will wriggle off the hook, so I dont have to touch them and mess with their slime coat. I wouldnt catch many at all without a bread crumb and canned cat food berley - I mix it with water in a bucket so its just sloppy - And add a 1/4 of a teaspoon at a time, once I've got the school to my feet. I try to time my bait landing just after the half teaspoon of berley hits the water. I keep it unweighted so it sinks at the same rate as the berley. If there is no wind - I dont use a float but if the wind gets up, the float is mainly there to add casting distance and stop my unweighted bait being dragged around by the wind. I have found a gently sinking bait is much more effective in an active berley trail - A static bait sitting under a float, can be all but ignored, while a moving bait will be doing all the damage - So I keep my bait moving by raising it up and letting it sink. The mullet I chase love a moving bait. Even pulsing it back like a soft plastic, can help get the schools attention. They seems really keyed into movement and when one chases it, it fires up the school and they compete much harder for the bait. Finding a spot where they naturally hang out is also very important to my methods - If I get things right - I can have the school at my feet in under 2 mins - some days it seems like they were watching the first spoon of berley flying through the air

i catch the fish so my wife can bloody scale it ☺

Check out the Aird X range 11 ball bearing and for the price ($104 - $118) are great value I have 2 @2500 1@3000 and 1@4000 of these reels and love em. The 4000 has caught tuna no issues the 3000 snapper and mulloway up to around the metre size and the 2500's are my whiting, bream reels. I also have 3 BG's a 4000, 4500, and a 5000 which are on my heavier tuna outfits and all of them have caught tuna up to 33kg and Ive found them faultless. I got the 5000 for $95 delivered from USA I got lucky one day looking at amazon and couldnt believe the price so I bought it and havent looked back since buying the others locally because I think for the money again you cant go past them. Why buy a Saltist which is more than twice the price when you are basically getting the same reel in a BG Now I own some higher end reels but hate spending money when I dont have too so thats why these 2 models have turned my crank, I cant see the point of spending big bucks when you can get great smooth well made reels for more than half the price. Now I admit Im a Daiwa man but I also know that Shimano make great reels too its just a holden/ford thing once you love one brand you tend to stick to it but whatever brand you buy dont be fooled into thinking you have to spend mega bucks to get get a reel that works well and does the job with no issues, isnt that really what we all want. cheers snapps

Hi all, Over the weekend I purchased a small sounder unit for my kayak and installed it with the help of fellow member Jimbojames. I have had my kayak for two years but decided to add a bit of gear so I bought a Lowrance Elite 4X sounder. The plan was to install it and then try to produce an informative report of how to install your own sounder to your yak if anyone is interested. So my kayak is a Scorpio Terrapin with specs 270cm length, 79cm width and weight of 20kg. It is very stable and helps me to get out on the waters of the Onk and Coorong, etc. Firstly, always plan before you start to drill holes in the kayak. For example, I sat in my kayak first and Jimbo and I mucked around with the exact placement of the sounder unit as you should be able to comfortably reach the sounder from your seat and it should be clear of things such as a rod holder, etc. My sounder is mounted on the right hand side, just before the storage hatch. Once the location has been pinpointed, mark the holes to be drilled with pen/pencil for where the screws will be inserted to hold the unit in place. With the help of an aluminium plate glued to the inside of the kayak, the sounder can be mounted flat and stable. The screws were Selley-ed around holes to completely fill the drilled holes. Then once the Selleys had set, we mounted the sounder and transducer bracket like so. So with the sounder in place and the transducer unit set up, the wiring was left to do. The sounder required a 12V battery and that was placed inside a plastic tupperware container and sits inside the front storage hatch. The terminals are wired up to a series of cables running to the sounder unit via the use of two rubber grommets; one on the plastic battery casing and one in the top of the kayak to connect with the unit. This is to make it watertight. The wiring stays inside the kayak and all that was left was to secure the mountain of transducer cable, easily done using a few cable ties. The sounder is fitted out of the way, easily accessible and when finished fishing and being transported, the unit and transducer can be removed so it doesn't rattle around and possibly damage things. I am yet to test it out on the water but planning on hitting West Lakes Sunday to give it a run. Also would like to thank Jimbojames for all his help and experience, a tidy job and I'm really happy with it. Now to go catch some fish!

Yup in be mounting mine in the hull. Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

I use a 5wt for trout, and 8wt for salt. A 7 will be fine, you may find it hard to cast a heavy fly tho. Not sure if your using a tapered leader then tippet. - ( another leader) that might help with your casting. Snook is a good target to start off with. Abundant and agressive. Personally i would do a few lesson with an instructor. I have a number if you want it. Theres more to just casting. Line management etc. Il meet you for a trout session in the hills if your keen. Got comfortable waders ?

Well here's all my light weight trout reels that I use on my Daiwa Presso ULS 1-3kg rods 6' & 6'6'' & Okuma Celilo ULS 1-3kg 6'6'' & 6' rods. Well balanced set ups, reels all filled with a .18 4lb clear mono line.. Very happy with them.. Daiwa Ageas 2004H also have a MX2004H Gekkabijin reel which is much the same as the Ageas This little Crest reel is set up on a Daiwa presso 5'6'' rod for trout fishing small tight creeks & streams Daiwa Revros 1003 & I also have two 2004H ones. Okuma Ceymar C-10 (small reel) Okuma Helios SX20 cheers Adrian

No worries - And heres a vid by a professional bait collector, on trouble shooting pump problems and how to make a replacement plunger out of silicone and old gumboots - He talks about dings in the metal tubing - bent plunger rods - and lubing your pump every 15-20 pumps with vegetable oil

I sometimes fish amongst the snags on the Murray and in the mangrove creeks in the salt so I have my transducer cable protected by a short section of aluminium channel that I got from Bunnings. It is secured with 2 stainless steel screws (3mm by memory) with nyloc nuts. You can see the two screws above the water stain line. The self adhesive clip is as others have stated i.e. various types at Jaycar and if you clean the ali prior to sticking them on then they will not come off. If you need stainless steel screws, washers or nyloc nuts that Bunnings don't stock or you don't require a full packet of them then, go to United Fasteners i.e. if you only need 3 or so they normally will not even charge you. Steve

They are awesome reels micky, a mate has one and I can't fault it. Very good choice. For a given size, the lt series from daiwa is a bit smaller than the equivalent sizing in an 'equivalent' reel. That is to say, a 3000 daiwa lt may be the same size as a 2500 normal daiwa reel, or something to that effect.

All good, but get someone else to do the cleaning....problem solvered. . No need to scale fish over 3kg. Just skin or cook with scales on as they come off simple as with the skin & keep the moisture in. .

It’s still going strong mate. I ended up selling the old Lowrance unit to a mate and all the wiring still worked fine. It didn’t get too much splash and I always cleaned the unit with freshwater after each use. Once I began fishing the river a bit more I upgraded units to a Garmin Echomap 45DV with downscan to find all the hidden logs etc. Cannot fault it. So long as you give the unit a wash and dry it out properly, it’ll be fine. Stainless screws all still holding great.

it may be the tow eye is slightly cocked to one side if the lure is spinning clockwise try pulling the eye to left ever so gently & with a very minisule adjustment with a small pair of pliers retry lure & the reverse if the lure is spinning anticlockwise. also i would tie a loop knot rather than a blood knot it gives the lure a little more freedom of movement thru the water.

From a low jetty youl have the opportunity for snook, Blue lines on a medium tide. Rocks/break water around metro ? I use simms g3 waders. Worth the dollars spent. Pm me when your ready.

It is nice to sit in your backyard watching those colours form.

Yeah finding Tommies metro is not as easy it used to be land based. Hickory sawdust is the favourite here when we do.

Regards HBt.

Ok some will know I posted in a couple more places about this reel. Seeing it is my birthday I went into tackleworld and checked the Abu Garcia reel again compared it to shimano and diawa. I am no expert in everything what did I learn the Abu Garcia spool was too shallow . Comparing diawa and shimano the assistant didn't like the shimano handle over the diawa handle . I didn't like the look of the bail arm on the shimano purchased the diawa LT exceler 2500.Looks great spooled with 5 lb braid . Handle for a change will be on the left . Now those who don't know me this will be an extra upgrade after my brain injury this difference could be a help be harder once or twice or five minutes . I'll put up a crappy picture handle now on .

Thanks fellas. Collected 20 this arvo. Was going to try them in the morning. Are there any suitable land based spots on the coffin Bay township side of the bay? Haven't seen a sole fishing off the shore.