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Hi Doobie, sorry I'm a bit late for the party. I buy the long life gents too, and have found them to be fantastic. I keep them in the fridge set at 4 degrees, and they have lasted for several months. When fishing I'll often leave them out of the esky yet have had no issues with the ones bought from a local tackle shop. The only time I have had them go bad was from a BCF store purchase, and I suspect the product was old as the substrate was dryish. Recently I've started "flavouring" maggots with tuna oil and other stuff, I use a separate container so as not to contaminate all of them. The one's I purchase are Sheldon's brand, won't even bother trying any others. Recently my son and I caught 68 tommies in a 90 minute session, using 3 maggots to a hook and catching up to 5 fish between rebaiting.

Yep, going from memory so may be a little off on the numbers, got a 6ft green short butt 4kgish rated one for my little fella for about $70 on special because he likes green and Im an awesome dad.... Also because I wanted a new light outfit to play with. With 2000 daiwa excellor LT and some expensive super fine 6kg braid it is actually a bit of a beast and I've loved it so far used as arounder everything rod. I'd honestly give it a crack on snaps in the boat if given the oppurtunity.

My old man is a head torch aficionado, problem is his hearing isn't what it used to be, fishing at night you try and talk to him and next second he shines the bloody torch in your face, drives me insane.

I actually got into the whole flashlight thing , with the new batteries and led technology. Trust me there is no way that thing has 8000 lumens, The lights with that sort of output only do it for short periods of time on turbo mode because they get too hot and have an automatic shutdown .They step down to a lower brightness.As far as I know there is no headtorch with this out put.Hand held yes.I have one handheld that has a beam range of 1 km and it is only the same size of a coke can If shone in someones face on stobe mode it can cause temporary blindness, they are used for self defence.. Some of the best headlamps these days are very compact and lightweight, A brilliant brand is Nitecore for headlamps,lightweight reasonably cheap and very good quality. There are even websites dedicated to the whole flashlight thing,pretty geeky I know but collecting them can get addictive. Here is a brief clip of a nitecore TM06S handheld, just one of the many brilliant lights available.

Haha - trust me, I understand your pain. I would have to be the most considerate head torch user known to man. I always ask for permission from fellow anglers before turning it on and I'm extremely mindful of where the beam is pointing. The guys I fish with are veteran head torch users, so the "rookie errors", alot of people make, do not occur in my circle. I have introduced alot of people to the joys of head torches but after a few years I started giving safety briefings before handing them out. For instance - If I was going camping with a new crew I'd always buy some cheapies from bunnings. (Mainly so they would stop asking to borrow mine) Watching a newb use one for the first time, is a night mare. Direct blasts to your eyes - Shining them over the water at inopportune times and "over use" are the major crimes. But on the head of a considerate gentleman - A head torch is a weapon that has greatly increased my catches - my head torch has been responsible for unlocking angling secrets that would never have been discovered otherwise. - this fish would not have been caught if I hadn't "Head Torched" the area the night before

Thankfully I'll have a hand torch then

Better late than never Heavy D One of mine was from BCF and the other from Fishing Wholesalers. That said, generally I have found both their maggots to last quite well, but when buying 2 in a row, it annoyed me. More than likely 'older' stock, but it pushed me back into breeding my own. I've seen info on flavouring with tuna oil but as yet have not tried it - maybe due to not needing too or maybe it 'may' shorten their lives. That sounds like a great session you had in 90 minutes and I hope you got your son to do the cleaning/filleting - all in the name of practice

Those old Greeks/Italians have a lot of fishing knowledge I reckon. There's one particular Italian on my local jetty who can out fish anyone and yet the rest of us have the same rig set up and bait etc. When he uses a float, the rest of us are sure his float doesn't move - but he sees something and he has a fish lol. But the thing is, some fish like smelly bait, some like a well presented bait, some like a tasty bait and some don't give a crap and will take anything

p.s/ dropped 3 jewies on sebiles tonight - so the maggots an sleep easy for the next few nights

Yeah - some of my "steepest learning curves" in fishing, have come from chatting with old Greek fisherman on piers and rock walls. 2 of the most pivotal moments occurred, when I thought my "space age" gear would slaughter the catch rates of the old fella's who had set up before me But nothing could have been further from the truth...... And thats when I developed a healthy distrust for the tackle industry and articles written by "corporate shills" They tell you the reason you arent catching, is because you arent using this rod - that reel - this brand of fluorocarbon leader - and "Jumbajatsaring" hooks When the real reason is........... - you arent using the same baits and techniques as "Costa" and "Thanasis" On both occasions - they were using super heavy gear - (one on bream and the other on gars) - both species know for being wary of heavy leaders - but even with the rope they were using - they were slaying me on catch rates per hour. To stop this story before is turns into a saga - the bait on the end of your hook is 90 times more important than the gear your own - and knowing the distance and depth fish are most comfortable feeding at - is information no amount of fancy gear can over come. So when I said that "young stinking maggots, full of meat", might be the ultimate bait - it reminded me of these pivotal moments, where the tackle industry has told me fresh clean maggots are the only ones that will be eaten - but maybe thats because "Maggot sellers" cant consistently provide those juicy young fellas - so they tell everyone the young big ones dont catch fish, But when I think about it - in the spots I fish maggots in - none of them have wasted away in a fridge feeding on bran for 30 days - they were born on the carcasses of dead pigeons, seagulls, old bait, dead sting rays and rats. And when they crawled off the carcass, looking for a spot to turn into flys - they either fell off the rock wall - fell off the bridge - fell off the dead possum wedged in a tree ...... but they did it ll with gut full of rancid meat The ones that hit the water would have stunk of all sorts of filth - the ones that have spent 30 days in the fridge, surrounded by bran, would have an unfamiliar odour that imight be ignored for 10 mins before being eaten. But I need to stress this point - something that smells slightly weird - will be ignored in the presence of something a fish is used to - it might get eaten later, but it will be the last things to get eaten. This knowledge stems from many years of keeping goldfish - the first time they saw a piece of corn or maggots - they completely ignored them. But after a week of feeding them, they will fight each other to the death to get one - so if you dont have time to muck around under a bridge known for its pigeons. Breed your maggots on pigeon meat - and the only thing better than pigeon meat - is pigeon meat that came from pigeons that lived on that bridge A live pulsating mussel from 20km away is less effective from the one growing at your feet

I had the red grips one. Can't remember what weight it is. But it handled my 99cm snapper no worries also used it for whiting and squid. very multi purpose.

I've got the black overhead erito model with a little Calcutta 200B on it. Fantastic rod. Use it for whiting and trolling for salmon. Have heard great things about the spinning versions as well.

I dont own one - but do like how they feel. All of the other Gomoku stuff I have is excellent quality - great jigs!

Yes I have a Storm Gomoku 1-3,6ft and I love it handles metre mullys ,80cm king fish and had caught large snapps by the previous owner .

I think cleaned out maggots are better, but as you say, there is probably argument that maggots with meat still in their stomachs are good as well. But when putting the meat filled maggot on hooks and their juices come out, I reckon our finger would tend to smell pretty bad pretty quickly. Anyway, the clean ones still have a good juices for the Gar to suck on - no rudeness intended lol.

Hi yellow door, there are 2 different types of beams some lighs are throwers and some are flooders.What you want is a thrower , it is the way the reflector is designed, a thrower has a deep recessed cone that is designed to punch a high intensity pinpoint beam a long way, with an intense hot spot.Whereas a flooder has a shallow cone that floods a wider area brightly but not as far and direct.Many manufactures give you an option in what sort of light you are after, anything over 5000k is whitish blue or cool white as its known,whereas2700 3000k is your :warm: colour , a more yellowish natural light. judging by what you are saying ideal for you would be a 2700 to 3000 k thrower or adjustable beam.

Fish with a head torch near me, trust me i want to kill you.

Just got some feed back from a bloke whose been using a similar unit for 5 years without problem I must have been too rough with mine and dislodged the wiring by pulling to hard on the light to get it out of a bag - (the soldering job on the wiring was dodgy though) so If you look after these lights - they could be a real option. not saying there arent better lights out there - just saying these might be a legitimate option based on intended use

Yeah I use my head torch to spot fish at night so they need to be super bright, with a single handed focus-able beam. My main gripe with the Led Lenser I bought is it doesnt focus all the way down to a really tight spot like the old ones used to. I've bought these cheap lights before and I've experienced the problems you mentioned. Thats why I splurged on the Led Lenser. I dont expect the ebay one to last too long but I was just too curious about the 13,000 lumens they offered - and for $20 I am no longer wondering (p.s. I dont think its quite 13.000 lumens)

A good comparison YD1 and naturally we tend to think the more expensive the item is the better it is - but results can show different. For $20 on sale you can't complain with that.

I have now returned to breeding my own gents for 1 pure reason - twice now, I have purchased a container of long life gents and both within a 2 weeks were 3/4 dead. Each was purchased from a different tackle shop and I'm not sure how 'old' the stock was or for what ever reason, but at $6 a tub for something that should 'last' for say 2 months, I was annoyed. I used to use fish frames/head but agree the smell is pretty bad, and to also get the gents out from within the heads was difficult also. Tip: use disposable gloves to help protect hands from absorbing the smell Now, instead of fish remains, I use a couple of chicken thighs. I find the smell is not as bad, but is still smelly. Someone also mentioned to me recently, just like kelp as mentioned, to bury the 'food' within some sheets of newspaper under dry sand in a bucket. I tried this about 3 weeks ago (with sand in bottom of bucket, then the 'ingredients', then more sand) and confirm there is no smell in the air during the process - unless you stick your nose real close. But did notice some blowies still hanging around the bucket, a couple which even laid some babies on top of the sand. I didn't have any gents rise to the top of the sand, probably because I put plenty of sand to making sure to cover it right up. The bonus is, the gents are much bigger than purchased ones. Personally I wouldn't bother going to the trouble of making a maggot trap bucket - too much hassle.

a good method to breed maggots to eliminate the smell is after the blow wrap the blown fish or meat in 5 or six layers of news paper place in the bottom of a bucket then fill the bucket with clean dry beach sand, when you see wriggle tracks on the top of the sand it is time to sieve the sand you will have clean white maggots , I the pour boiling water over the left over news paper to kill any remaining maggots then bury it deep in the garden makes good fertiliser

reel? is there anything other than an alvey? not for me for a surf rod anyway....

I have just set my self up with a 700c alvey and a 12 foot alvey rod to match ,may not be everyones choice but i figure they make the reels so why not get one of there rods ,i also have a couple of 500c reels on a 9 foot rod that i use for smaller stuff of the beach ,i cant be bothered with trying to cast a overhead ,tried to many birdsnests ,just practice i suppose but as pauly said more parts to bugger up alveys are tough as and easy to look after ,even got one in my boat .