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I like to fish very minimalistic. I only have the wading bag, rod/reel, spare spool ready to go, little box of lures, water, scent, fish oil, a couple of rags, one to wrap the keepers in and keep soaking in water and one to wipe my hands/grab the fish, pocket knife, scissors. The FG knot gadget, spool of .28mm leader. If I have to tie a new leader, I generally walk to solid ground sit down and do it.. Me ,wading shoes in summer, waders in winter, fags and some decent weather.... If I get some keepers its a bonus, but if not, theres always small stuff about and I do enjoy the experience of it all... Im only after a couple, for a feed and tend to let most go.. Mike

Originally Posted by yellow door 1 I prefer to believe that observing superstitions, bizarre rituals and voodoo curses are the key to catching fish Claiming out loud, that one particular angler enjoys the company of horses, is a powerful fish catching technique in my local waters. Taking a Swig of "Bream Juice" (diet coke) works well for one angler I know. Repeating the mantra "Cmoooooooonnnnnnn Snapaaahhhh" in the most irritating singing voice you can muster is a guarantee. Another angler I know does special wrist exercises in the morning before every session. Arrogantly naming a location after yourself guarantees action Pulling up the electric and driving off to a new location with out letting your mate finish his retrieve shows you mean business - and the fish at the next spot respect that. If someone suggests a change of location, the only answer to give is "I dont care, I'll catch 'em anywhere" Buying a new rod, reel or boat gets you connected to something good the first time you use it. Never, ever wear any Orange clothing - the bream hate it and so do the Ladies you wave to on the river. Some people fish better with a hang-over and others dont - trial and error over an extended peiod of time is the only way to sort this out. Once you work out, what works for you - stick to it These are just a few truths I have gleaned over the years - they may have no place in tournament angling but then again.....maybe the last time you blanked in a comp was because you were wearing "Orange" undies and you didnt have any "Bream Juice" on board

The first go was not as good as I made some spacers that didn't allow enough airflow into the back of the fan. But my good mate solved that when he jammed the lid down and broke the fan. So then I could use the old fan housing as a spacer and put some holes into it to allow better flow. The fan is just a simple Jaycar one with the most CFM you can buy. 12 volt I just clip it onto the batteries powering the fridge, the only draw 300 milli amps from memory. Even at 40 deg I can put 8 litres of water in there in the afternoon/night after fishing and the whole lot is frozen solid by morning. This was really important when catching heaps of fish to cool them down quick for freezing and having ice for the next day. Keeps the quality of the fish when frozen quickly.

This video clip is from a few weeks ago when I headed over to the Meander River in the search of some wild brown trout.. cheers Adrian

I've hit the Port a couple of times in the last 2 weeks and small ST's schools are everywhere and hitting the plastics hard... I've only had one i needed to operate on to get my plastic back tho. Maybe you are just been unlucky.

Yeah my old floats were a bit big - and there isnt a beast that crawls, walks, flys or swims, that can resist my berley mix

Also twisted up some berley cages this arvo

If anything, sink the lure on a semi slack line rather than an overly slack line. It sounds like they are using the excess slack to choke the lure. It can be somewhat unavoidable at times, if you're chasing the trouties, maybe it is worth changing to a shorter jig head or wider gape hook also. If it really bothers you, maybe just fish tighter to the rocks. It's tricky and can be hard to get around at times, but if it seems to be an unusual trend, the above may make a difference.

The answer is some fish will die if they are under sized and being thrown back or for those who play the game of catch and release only which has never made any sense why people need to do that. Some lures are expensive and digging them out wouldn't do much in keeping the fish alive same with baited hooks or break offs with hooks stuck in the mouth now the fish can no longer feed. So what's new or different..nothing much this has been going on like this in my 50 years fishing

You wet the bread crumbs down so they can be moulded into a dough - that dough will survive being cast out and getting to the bottom. Then it will dissolve, get washed out by current out or be pecked out by fish but yeah, you want the burley to fall out eventually - you just have to get the right dampness of the mix - so it falls out on the bottom and not while being cast. I had the mix in this vid about perfect before I added the corn - then it got a bit rubbery - so you have to watch how much moisture goes in or it will clump and not be released

A simple test to know what the lure action is like with clips is to attach the clip to the lure,pick up the lure by the clip and sway the lure from side to side like a swimming action.In 99% of the time they work out fine to use,some of the small clips virtually weigh nothing but can be 10kg breaking strain,give it a shot and most likely you'll move on and forget about re-tying knots.

I second this yes clips work but I’ve always found direct tie to pure results in better strike rate I also hate the little clips and I find them fidly and can tie quicker

Lure > Decoy 00 clip is what i use then blood knot to tie the clip to my fluro. Traditional swivels are WAY to bulky for smaller lures. People say clips are even rubbish and use a loop knot, Yes loop knot will probably give you a little bit more movement but i'm happy to sacrifice that for being lazy.

Common explanations include: When top-heavy ships of earlier eras would sink, precious little other than the bananas they’d carried would be found floating on the surface, thereby leaving some to conclude conveyance of the fruit itself had led to these naval mishaps. Spiders, snakes, and other poisonous vermin living among bananas carried in the hold would, on long haul trips, expand their horizons by infesting other parts of the ship. Because the speediest sailing ships were used to get bananas to their destinations before they could spoil, those attempting to fish from them never caught anything while trolling. Fisherman became ill after eating the fruit. Other fruits would spoil more quickly when bananas were being shipped along with them, causing folks to deem bananas “bad luck.” (Actually, it wouldn’t have been ill fate that resulted in the spoilage of other foodstuffs, but instead the ethylene gas emitted by bananas as they ripen.) Crew member injured by slipping on discarded banana peels. Fisherman misses landing the big one due to a case of “the runs” caused by bananas he’d ingested. Banana oil rubs off onto the hands of fisherman, thereby “spooking” the fish. Early anglers in Hawaii would embark upon lengthy fishing trips in dugout canoes provisioned with (along with other food items) bananas. The farther they went, the fewer the fish, causing some of them to mistake correlation for causation.

I have a question regarding tides in Gulf St Vincent. I’ve been spending a bit of time down south these last couple of months (Wirrina) and seeing as how fishing from a boat (well, tinny) is still very new to me, I’m checking the weather reports regularly to see how windy it’s expected to be on my days off. What I haven’t been paying much attention to is the tide. Contrary to my user name (my mates would have you believe I do sweet FA), I don’t have a tonne of spare time and so as long as it’s not windy, I’m gonna try get out on the water. As I’m becoming a bit more familiar with the tinny and how to fish from it, I’ve started to look at tide times. When I check the wind on Weatherzone, it shows me conditions at Parawa. That’s a bit inland but seems to be pretty accurate for the Rapid Bay area. However, the tides given from Parawa are WAY different to what’s happening at Rapid Bay. It seems they’re the Victor Harbour tides. So, I’ve been checking the tide times of various area and I see some interesting readings. High tide for Monday afternoon are Outer Harbour : 6.08pm Brighton : 6.28pm Second Valley : 6.35pm That makes sense. The high tide sweeps into the gulf from the west and curls thru in a clockwise direction. But when I look around the corner of the Fleurieu Peninsula to what’s happening at Victor. I would have expected to see a high tide hit at around 7pm but no!! It’s a LOW tide there at 7.34pm. This brings me to my question (finally ). Does anyone know where I would find a map, a video, an animation etc that shows tidal movement in and around our gulf? I’ve done a good bit of googling but can’t seem to find anything simple likes that. ST.

The mad scientist

Great footage Adrian. Good to get the rain too but you'd think the rain gods could hold off while you're fishing If I have my wet weather gear on, I don't mind fishing in the rain - so long as it's not windy lol Some nice trout entertainment for you and a nice 520g amongst them - always to get a bigger one. Nice ending to the video too with the still shots.

Potentially. So many other people paint great lures for callop and cod. In saying that Callop lure blanks are readily available as they are similiar types bass fishos use in the states... plus stencils are easy to come by for them too so they make them easyto paint... So if i get some interest i might. Just dont want to be stuck with them and waste $$$

I fish the same lures and same areas a bit and havent had the problem so as mentioned you might just be unlucky, the bigger the school the more competition so the little fish are probably really competing for food and are more aggressive than usual. Perhaps try a plastic thats bigger or has a thicker body, like the squidgy prawn imitation, or a longer flick bait.

Hi guys, I need some help. The last few times I've been out have been soft plastic sessions along North Haven, outer harbour. Im breaking my drought and managing to entice a few ST's which I am stoked about, however, every one basically dies in the process. They are swallowing the hooks, and are suffering serious damage in Gill areas. They come to the surface already bleeding heavily, and most hook themselves on the drop, so I don't think it is an issue of striking too hard, and it's not a handling issue. I'm using 2"/2.5" curl tails and flick baits with jig heads of 1/12 or 1/16. Am I doing something wrong here? Im normally C&R, and it's making me not want to go out again if I'm just killing undersize fish. Any tips or advice would be great. Thanks guys!

I'm in a dilemma and looking for some guidance. My main reason to try and get this right is so the surface lure is performing correctly and not maybe spinning around or upside down etc. I've looked through youtube videos etc to what really is the better way to attach a surface lure to the leader - knot or swivel. I've just started targeting YFW (2 sessions without luck) and read/seen some use a loop knot as it allows to lure to move more natural. Then other people might use a Uni knot and say it works well also .... and the list goes on. Others might say to use a swivel as it makes no difference in lure action and also easy to swap lures. The way I'm thinking for rigging is (depending on any pros/cons) .... 1) Lure > Swivel > mono Leader > Uni Knot > Braid = easy to change Lure, but swivel may effect Lure performance 2) Lure > 'x' Knot > Mono Leader > Uni Knot > Braid = awkward to change Lure as another knot needs to be tied, but if it provides correct performance I'll suck it up 3) Lure > 'x' Knot > Mono Leader > Swivel > Braid = would need additional Lures pre-made with Leader for ease of changing Lures. But again, could the swivel effect performance. I'm probably over thinking this, but wondered if anyone has had experience with surface lures and can tell if there is any difference using a certain knot against using a swivel.

And that's the code I want to crack. Not to say the 2 sessions so far weren't fun wading in the shallows and enjoying just being there - but it needs the next level up with the surface lures Sort of similar to the Salmon luring I do, but at the same time very much different. Thanks Territory Lad for taking the time to put that detailed info/suggestions up from your experiences - it certainly has helped me.

I just came back in from the garage from taking the swivel clip off the line and re-tying to just a clip (size 0) then saw your post - may have to go back out and change back lol He makes sense but I'll see how it goes with just a clip between lure and leader.

Thanks Adrian. Clips/swivels certainly save time in the changing over, just hoping they don't make a huge difference in surface luring compared to having them.

Thanks mate.... Ill try both methods, Knots and crimps and see what happens.. I fished Point Lowly and kept getting snapped off with 30lb braid/40lb Leader.. So Im going heavy and heading back there soon.. Im determined to find whats out there.

summer from hell!!! Everyone pays one way or another. Our house insurance premium went up 20% in late 2019 after the Townsville floods, even though we are 5 hours drive away, because we share the first 2 digits of their postcode

Yeah .... mainly when I cook Asian dishes --- rate it highly

Cracker report. Sure looks like a fun place to fish.

Great write up mate, top read. I've always been keen to chase sooties, this just fuels the fire.

I used to often fish for mulloway at night off Middleton beach and catch a few from time to time.. check the beach out during the day to find the gutters that;s worth fishing during the night,, cheers Adrian

Wouldn't want to cop one of them to the head! Did your cars get damaged?

@Aussie Dave yeah im hoping to do the SWR trip this year/season sharks don't bother me, i seem to catch my fair share of toothies, i did purchase a shark shield this year and adapted it to run off my 17.5 Ah kayak battery, after talking to minni in portland about near misses and it has also been heavily discussed in vyak at times, but yeah it all about the release, how to release them with no injuries to them or myself a lot of my fishing is done with circle hooks so it's a matter or cutting the line as close as possible to the hook count your fingers after it's done lol

Carps, we have 100% tuna oil, was fortunate enough to stitch up a deal & secured 400litres from Port Lincoln recently, when its gone its gone, don't be fooled by labels suggesting the same coz it simply is not available. If you see "Tuna Oil" in bottles & it has distinct layers of different colours in it, beware coz "Oils ain't Oils" most are blends. You could be about to pay $15 or more a litre for Vegetable oil, Canola oil or whatever else they can find cheap to fill the bottle.Even Neptune branded Tuna oil, which has for years been 100% is now no longer Tuna oil, at least they tell you that though, it's now called Fish oil.Similar story to the "Cockle" thing, somebody else is prepared to pay a whole lot more for the raw product than what the fishos will, so, nil supply to the tackle trade. The health food companies are paying in some cases $30 per litre to sell you fish oil over the counter, Omega 3 at its best.Finatic