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Well I finally caught my 10.000th Tasmanian wild trout since we moved here back in March 2000.. it's a milestone I never gave a thought to until the start of this trout season when I was going through my end of season reports when I noticed I only needed 129 trout to reach 10,000 trout here in Tassie.. So yesterday and only needing another seven trout I reached it, actually caught & released fourteen all up.. cheers Adrian

Hi all here is a quick video I put together of my most productive carp fishing session this year Cheers LL

Chasebait "Flick Prawns" have hooked me lately. I use them in shallow drains and shallow drop-offs on flats. They drift horizontally, life-like, and I've caught flatties, estuary cod and pikey bream on them with more or less a "do-nothing" retrieve. However, they are snag-prone, even if rigged weedless, and are not cheap. Good old gold bombers continue to catch barra for me night (Tinaroo) and day (shallow drains in the Hinchinbrook mangroves), but YellowDoor's Sebile Magic Swimmers need some more time on the field up here. They look sooooh good in the water.

Hi Guys, it's a bit quiet out there so I thought I would post the second instalment of my DIY tackle.... as you've heard me say before I get a lot of success with using Bread Punch on the hook, all my bread punches cost me nothing so here's how you can make some for your own tackle box. Firstly obtain some empty bullet casings of different sizes and cut the open ends off with a fine blade hacksaw, get some wooden dowel or any suitable solid tube and make the ends fit the bullet casings snugly. I glue mine in with Araldite but make sure the glue doesn't comeup past the flat face of the dowel (it will taint the bread as it is a 2 part chemical) also VERY IMPORTANT have the flat face-off the wood a 5-7mm shy of the end of the brass tube ( see bottom punch.) This is because when you push this (and it is only a mini biscuit cutter after all) into the bread it will automatically compress the bread and that will stay on the hook for longer. You can put two different diameter casings on each end which gives you options for punch size... the size variants are endless (I have used a leather punch on occasions too!)... Lastly as an optional finish, varnish the handle and you're ready to go. Last week Mr. Crabtree and myself wanted to get some carp for crab bait and we are also going to try and catch some small sharks with them too, so we thought if we could catch 10 - 15 carp around the 1/2-3/4kg size and freeze them, next time we go to "Yorks" we can play around. So we fished exclusively with bread punch on 12 hooks and got 15 fish quite quickly. I always buy the cheapest, freshest white, thick sliced bread, I get two or three slices and flatten it between fingers and thumb ( you can use a rolling pin) and discard the crusts... 10 seconds in the microwave also makes the flattened bread a bit rubbery ... just what you want. Then like a biscuit cutter, 'punch' the flattened bread and put the hook into the middle of the bread whilst still in the punch and lever it out. If you have never fished punch before ( it does work best with a float) you will be surprised how well compressed bread will stay on a hook, once you have a bite though, you will have to check to make sure you still have bait on. I reckon one day, I caught about 40 fish on two slices of bread, can't get any cheaper than that.... any questions please don't hesitate to ask!

Tried a tiny stream around the Lobey area this morning. The wheather was pretty average. only 11 degrees in the hills, wasn't expecting much activity. A bow n arrow cast into a murky twig infected hole and this juvenile could not resist. simple grub i tied years ago. Spotted this guy high on a bank, snuck behind him and made a short cast Trecked a few km's, with hardly any sightings.. Overall a quiet morning. When i arrived back in the Barossa it was 18 degrees and the sun was shining..

I often watch fishing show on tv and youtube and one that i really like (although in it's last season)is big angry fish, one of the guys has been developing these scoots (as he calls them) basically they are saltwater flys tied onto a sp jighead, these are nothing new they've been around as long as i can remember in on form or another, i bought some tinsel, thread and glue some time ago but kept forgetting to make them until i was watching an episode the other day were they went scoot fishing (no bait). I pulled out the gear i had bought and some craft supplies i had got from my daughter and proceeded to make a few test ones. These are what I've made and thought i would share, and ask if anyone has done anything similar for saltwater use?

Shoe goo

These are the fastach clips I use, they are available with or without swivel I use the ones without a swivel to lessen the added weight even when I have removed the split ring. Notice they are rounded where the lure attaches which allows the lure to move freely. They are available in 5 sizes from 15 - 100lb, I use all sizes depending what lure I'm using for what species, I have used the 100lb when trolling for Tuna with no loss of action to the lure

I remove the split ring and either tie straight to the lure or more often than not I will use a small Mustad fastach clip that way I can change lures fast without having to re-tie. I've found that removing the split ring & adding a clip hasn't affected lure action even in small light lures i.e. Yellowfin 3-5g lures, I like the Mustad fastach clips because they are rounded & allow the lure to move freely. I mainly use the Mustad fastach clips in 25lb this may seem way overkill but the smaller ones in 15lb are to small for my eyes & fingers so I only use that size when I have to. the 25lb ones are still small and light & I know their strong cause I also use them with my salmon lures Yorky

I will give it a go and post a pic here when I do it. I bent up some heavy 316 stainless rod to make my own gaff, using heat and a piece of water pipe as a sleeve-lever. I have some SS chain and thinner rod I can cut to make the "crook" to weld under the gaff hook. Thanks for sharing the idea! All the net closures and license buybacks from NSW up to the Cape have certainly been a boon to rec .fishers in many ways -- but they have released the inshore bull shark/pig-eye shark pups from a major source of mortality. They were a significant gillnet bycatch and sold as "flake" (fillets) in the local market. Now folk are being sharked like crazy by "bull sharks" offshore. Tagged bulls (acoustic tags) have gone from Botany Bay to Townsville, and from Cairns/Townsville back down to NSW. I even saw a shark get "sharked". Anglers in sthn WA eat little "bronzies", but Qlders scorn shark. If we ate some little bulls caught in the creeks we might dent the population a bit. Here are some bits I "got back"

What I did forget to mention, is that you don't want the bread to dry out, so keep it in a small flattish container, they sell them in the supermarkets, with the blue (or whatever colour) clamps on each side, then if it's sunny keep them in the shade.

There is a fish called Black snapper it looks more like a large bream,they are usually caught in the Pacific and Indian oceans.Every now and then strange things do show up in our gulf such as elephant shark at Price and on one occasion a massive sun fish crusing the shallows of the upper reaches of the spencer gulf.

You don't need corrupting... us poms were brought up MATCH FISHING.... sometimes hundreds of anglers in a match, light lines, small hooks, burley/ground bait essential and small hooks. when we all invaded here, we kept to the same methods but because the fish had never been caught before you could go heavier with line , bigger with hooks and simpler ground bait, I remember my first match on the Torrens I fished 2lb line 14 hook and small straight wagglers... I got smashed up about 10 times, didn't take me long to wise up, I can tell you. At intervals I will let the guys know how to make bank sticks, keep nets, plummets, cage feeders, bite indicators for use with bite alarms, disgorgers, bread punches, sit on tackle boxes, tackle box carrier, rod tube holder and what ever else I find in my tackle box that I have made! All the best mate...

Hot glue did the trick - thanks for all the tips fellas

Thanks Doobie - if what I try fails - I definitely wont be stuck for options I'll give the sticks a bit of a rough up aswell

I've used this. $5 from BigW and waterproof. https://www.bigw.com.au/product/stuk-epoxy-glue-24ml/p/28881/ It holds the foam, wood and metal, to do this.

Some size too and they certainly put a nice bend in the rod. Thanks for putting the video up.

If Sikaflex doesn't work nothing will.

Nice video.. they are some good fun! I might have to get back down there for a session myself, been years.

Thanks Rod - I've got both of those options at work - I'll give them a crack on monday - might rough up the plastic with 40 grit first

Sikaflex Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That is quite an achievement Adrian. Very well done mate, very well done!

G'day I've glued acoustic foam to concrete with liquid nails which lasted 20 years until the foam broke down. The plastic straws on the other hand, hmmm, nothin much sticks to shiny smooth plastic. Liquid nails might be worth a go. I have made a few floats using polystyrene foam and wall plug spaghetti, glued with hot melt. That worked ok Cheers Rod

Top stuff Adrian, brilliant fishing and enviable determination in tallying every fish; I know I wouldn't have had the patience! Hopefully there's still plenty of trout seasons left in you yet.

Congratulations Adrian ... a huge milestone. It's taken a number of years to achieve since your move to Tassie, but some very memorable sessions in all that time. Congrats again.

@AquaticResearch1 old mate from the Sandflat Fishing Australia youtube channel has the same view as yourself mate. Its quite interesting to see everyone's point of view. I think like all things its a personal preference really. @Softy seems to be a common theme. Your either in one camp or the other. Thanks mate. Appreciate everyone's input on this by the way

I've been using clips for years.... Die hards reckon they affect hook up rates, but i'm not sold on it. I use 00 Decoy clips for my smaller fishing Bream/Trout etc and the Fastach clips for when using bigger lures for chasing Callop/Cod/Mullies.

Personally, if it has a split ring, I don't bother tying a loop and instead use a uni knot. I find the split ring gives the lure enough freedom of movement that an extra loop of mono doesn't make a massive difference. However, if the ring is cruddy, I'll ditch it. Keeping in mind that with small lures, it may seriously effect the weighting and not let them dive as steep, as early, or to their full potential depth. Horses for courses though, if you want or require that extra freedom for a certain style of fishing, by all means ditch the ring and tie a loop knot right to the tow point.

@Yorky I actually bought a pack of those a while back, in the 25lb size purely switching between Squid Jigs and baited rigs when out in the boat with my mates. Havent been out since, so havent had the chance to test them. Im heading over to Yorkes middle of next week, I might take them with me to see if I like them for flicking HBs or not. @piratepom I think at a minimum ill be removing the split rings from all my HBs moving forward. Might have a play over the remainder of Spring and then Summer to see what I prefer in terms of straight loop knot or snaps. You'll laugh PP, 5 minutes after I lost the new S/Rap I got a guide wrap and watched a brand new DC sail off into the distance. I took that as a signal it was time to go home Good times

I very rarely use clips. If there is a split ring I remove it. Loop knot to the tow point. The only thing that can fail is your loop knot and that has never happened (hope i haven't just jinxed myself!) Sorry to hear about your lure.

I've been using a quick change lure clip that you twist you lure on, i started using a similar one for squid jigs until i came across these that i now use The lures work very well on them but find the thicker wired lures and big jigheads 5/0+ can be difficult to get on, then everthing I've read and watched on vids tend to say fish with big eyes can easily spook using clips (understandable imo) i am by no means an expert or experienced for that matter but if i use a fluoro leader so the fish can't see it why add a clip that the fish can? But i do use the clips whenever i intend multiple lure changes, i also have a couple of fluoro leaders with a good quality split ring tied at one end for my offshore lures. I have also asked the guys in my local kayaking forum about the use of clips and lures, the responce was the majority said no clips, and loop knot to the lure however this was more in responce to fishing for pelagics. Another thing to consider about split rings is they damage the line so it should be checked often for wear at the loop or knot.

Hi TL. In a word NO but having said that I have used clips for most of my bream fishing so not sure if my catch rate has been hindered by them. Only notice a decline in my bream captures if I havent put on the right lure . Regards HBt

@Territory Lad I haven’t noticed any decline in strikes or hookups for the species I fish for but I don’t fish for Bream so can’t answer regarding them Yorky

Because I like to be able to change hbs easily I use a clip to the split ring and then a loop knot to the clip. Works well for me though you do need to check the clip after each fish landed to ensure that the clip is still closed properly. Regards, HBt.

always take em off, tie or clip the go straight to nose or bib loop

As a keen COARSE/FRESHWATER angler I find I can't get some of my prefered tackle in Australia so I have to buy it online from the UK or make it myself, so as promised I will share some of my favourites over time in this set of posts... FLOATS... I am addicted to making floats, I love giving them away to people who fish like I do and HATE losing them. Most of my floats are wagglers, straight or bodied, as you can see from the photo they are all slightly different depending on what they are for, or where I am fishing, some can be used in saltwater for Gar and Tommies etc as well as in freshwater. The bodies are made from balsa wood which I turn on a small lathe, but you can also easily whittle then to shape with a sharp knife or stick them in a drill chuck, I always finish with fine sandpaper and fine wire wool. Carefully one end needs to be drilled to accept the stem, which I make from peacock quill or even better native reed stem (I always use the type of reeds that have the fluffy top and the stems are like mini bamboo, there's masses on most river banks (must be dry and brown not green) Always cut at a node so the tube is buoyant. I superglue this into the balsa body. At the other end I glue in a short piece of bamboo skewer ready to have a safety pin eye whipped on and the whipping superglued. To strengthen the main shaft, as you can see from the photo I do some decorative whipping nearly to the top, this does strengthen it considerably, we are now ready to apply a base white top (cheapest way is to get some flat white acrylic paint, a sample pot from Bunnings is ideal) The florescent top is just a can of that Hi Vis stuff they spray on the road to mark where they are going to dig holes etc. I shake it well and spray some on a bit of paper or the like a use a small brush and paint over the flat white base down to almost the end of the white.. it dries very quickly! Now all you need to do is varnish the whole thing, any varnish will do as they are not exposed to the weather much, I use a stain varnish (walnut) as this gives me an attractive brown effect. As you can see all the floats are different, it's good to experiment and see what suits the type of fishing you want to do, they are so cheap to make and work much better than bought ones. Hope you like that.... have a go, it's great to catch a fish on home crafted gear as I did today a 17+lb carp... any questions please don't hesitate to ask, and if you ever meet me on the bank please ask for a FREE float I will be only too willing to let you have one.

Sharks are a menace up here when floating out pillies for mackerel. If they eat the pillie you think you've hooked the mother-of-all-macks, but mostly they eat the mackerel after you hook up. I gaff the hooks on those littlies I do get boatside and let the shark bend them open to release. Not easy, and not good for the shark. Yours is a good idea, but more clutter for the tinny on top of the net and gaff (both of which seem to leap up and play trip-n-tangle when stumbling around fighting a decent fish). I reckon weld up a "crook" onto the bottom of gaff hook. Bottom of the hook gape so it does not foul the line when missing the gaff shot, and facing in an opposing direction to help "push" the hook(s) out.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-16/gippsland-lakes-commercial-fishing-ban/11606266 It proves what can be done with a little Government determination. Obviously not everyone is happy but the majority are the winners. Perhaps our mob could take a leaf out of their book? The compo packages seem generous enough, wouldn't have thought that to many pros were making big money in the area. (not sure why the link isnt blue?)

Yeah I sometimes question my sanity, with the lengths I will go to to work something trivial out - especially when its already been worked out before - by 100's of other people - and its not even that important in the first place But I'd be lying if I said I had not lost sleep wondering how to breed maggots better under the parameters I have set

I have used plastics and hardbodies. What gets to me is being told only use motor oil when I ask what do you use when that stops working their answer it’s you it doesn’t stop working . I’m afraid I found it did stop working so I adapted and tried different Zman colours was using grubs . Stopped changed to Zman slim swims . Then I went back to hardbodies been using double clutches for years I find these great cast pretty well . One thing I look for in hardbodies is distance when casting and lures with red eyes ( I have lures with and without red eyes). Sometimes distance doesn’t matter but if the fish won’t hit any lure nothing helps . from me try anything and everything you can

Hi all wondering what the biggest Redfin Perch is that has been caught in SA waters. I managed a Pb pushing 40cms on the weekend, not huge but a cracker fish for a freshwater novice like me. Whats your biggest? Cheers LL

46 Cm from memory

Found a photo of the big girl. She may have seen even better days previously, judging by the size of her head, but what a beast it was.

3 Reddies in a sesh over 40 thats some fine angling there Braids

Mine to this day is 44.5cm Between two of us we caught easily 70 Reddies...... Got 3 Fish in 3 casts they went 42.5cm, 43.5cm then this one at 44.5cm Was an epic day......

Hi Salmon Fisher and welcome. Congratulations for you and your mate on retiring - so much more freedom and more time for fishing I can't answer your Q's, as I don't own a boat etc, but I'm sure - well hopefully - someone can put you onto some nice spots for those KG's. As far as Salmon Trout is concerned, I reckon you could throw some metals around while your anchored in different spot - many are around at the moment. Throw a lure out the back on your way out and maybe some bigger Salmon come to play. Good Luck and if you get some good outings, we'd love to hear about it and even see some photos if you can.

There are a few soft plastic techniques that I've read a bit about and had a go with in Europe but don't seem to have taken off here at all. From all the guides, tutorials, fishing shows and in-store tackles for Australia the sole plastics techniques I can see are free-lining and jig-head. So I thought I would write up a piece for this new section and see what people think, have you heard of these techniques and rigs, have you tried them and what sort of success have you had. Apologies for the quality of my phone pictures, it doesn't do well in indoor lighting. Plenty of high quality pictures and videos by other people on Google if your interested! First up is the "Carolina Rig" and "Texas Rig:. Otherwise known as a running sinker rig with a soft plastics instead of bait. The key with both of these rigs is the worm hook allowing to to be setup in weedless configuration. The Carolina Rig below has the sinker running on the mainline above a swivel with a short trace to the unweighted plastic. Also a selection of soft plastics that would typically be used with this kind of rig. They are also very commonly rigged with a "worm bait" which is just a soft-plastic stickbait without any tail. My worm hooks are a bit large for some of these baits, need to find a good wide gape worm hook in the smaller sizes. The advantage of the Carolina rig is that as you bounce the sinker over the bottom kicking up puffs and getting attention the soft plastic is unweighted and should suspend weightlessly overhead on the stop, looking like a spooked bait item kicked off the bottom. I would suspect this would be a good rig for flathead allowing the bait to waft just over bottom with small movements getting attention. Being weedless it can be thrown straight into weed beds and other structure and slowly bounced out without risking too many snags. Being a sliding rig this also allows high sensitivity for bites and also stopped the fish feeling any suspicious weight when it attacks the lure. As the weight is above the swivel it should also allow a larger and heavier weight to be used than otherwise as the plastic itself it unweighted and its action should not be affected by the weight down the line. The Texas rig is very similar to the Carolina rig except for the sliding weight being below the swivel. I've got some conical bullet weights for making this rig up which also help reduce snagging. This allow this type of rig to be thrown straight into heavy weed, rocks, timber or other structure without so much worry as there is not much it can catch on. Very similar in this configuration to using a jig-head but the running weight gives the plastic a slightly different action in the water and more sensitivity with the bite. Lastly there is the "drop shot" technique. This is a very popular and successful technique in Europe and North America with freshwater species but I don't see any major reason why it should be equally effective in the salt for some situations. The idea of this technique is to have a hook perpendicular to the main line with the weight below it. It primarily used from boat but can also be cast, although with the drop shot weights detailed below you can't cast too hard without loosing the weight. The finished rig looks like this: In the water the bait sits horizontal with the tension on the line and every small bounce or jerk causes it to flick about in the water looking like a distressed baitfish. When casting and retrieving or on the drift no rod action is really needed as long as the bottom is fairly hard as when the sinker hits and bounces along the bottom it sends jerks up the line giving action to the plastic. The knot used to make the hook sit like that on the line is usually a Palomar knot, except instead of trimming the tag you leave it long as your sinker line. There are a whole range of dropshot hooks on the market overseas but here in Adelaide I've only found the worm hooks and mosquito hooks which work well with this technique, although and straight eye hook could probably do. A selection of plastics and drop shot weights used for this technique: The best plastics are flickbaits and curly tailed grubs. Paddle tails can be used but the speed they need to be retrieved at to get the tail working means you are probably better off with a jighead. Now the dropshot weights are a little unusual, they have a swivel on them but its designed to have a hole and slot. This allows you to just thread it on and pull the line into the slot to grip instead of having to tie them onto the line and allows weights to be changed and removed very easily. Haven't found drop-shot weights anywhere in Adelaide on the shelves but grabs some packets from Fisherman's Paradise in town that he found in an old bag of imported stuff from the States I believe that was stashed out back. However it is possible to make your own. All that is needed is a swivel weight, a pair of pliers and jewelers screwdrivers or similar and wire. First you start off with a standard swivel weight: Then you put a piece of wire or use a flat head jewelers screwdriver to keep open the section at the base of the wire and crush it with your pliers. This creates a hole-and-groove. You can then slot your line through the hole and pull it into the groove to grip. They actually stay on fairly well. If you get snagged they just slide off the line so you can expect to lose a few, however the plus side is if they get snagged they slide off your line rather than loosing part of your rig! You can reduce the loss by tying a simple overhand knot at the bottom so they slide down and get caught on. Overhand knots reduce the breaking strain by about 50% so it will still be sacrificial if you hang up somewhere and have to pull to the break. Because they just grip the line with the slot they can easily be pulled off and reset at any height along the sinker line. With this rig because there is line coming out top and bottom of the hook fluorocarbon is important. The advantages are that the bait can be effectively suspended at a given height above bottom which can be adjusted as needed so you can make it so the sinker bounced through a weedbed with the bait jumping around just over the top of it. It also means that the weight and the plastic are separated, so you can have quite a heavy weight without effecting the action of the plastic if your over deep water or in strong current situations. It works with all sizes of plastics one of the most popular uses in Europe is targeting small perch with tiny plastics rigged like below: One of the biggest advantages is that it means you can have your plastic suspended in the water and just with jiggling the rod tip putting tension on and off the line cause your plastic to jerk around getting attention like a piece of distressed bait without actually moving anywhere. Great for targeting holding schools of fish which may be picky or off the bite as it can just sit there getting attention until they decide to commit. I think it could work well for targeting holding bream, King George whiting schools with something like a gulp sandworm being positioned just above the top of the weedbed, any reefy fish in structure, snook bouncing a baitfish-style over the top of weed or broken bottom and many other. In Europe and North America this is a go-to technique for many fish and often catches a surprise species not being targeted. I would love to get out on a boat chasing snapper sometime with the dying minnow plastic I have from Europe (bottom one below): This sits sideways in the water with a flat profile and looks like a dying fish just keeled over on its side and should work perfectly with the drop shot technique. Above it is a worm-style bait on a drop-shot hook with a stinger. For the larger baits stingers can be useful to prevent short-striking. For all these rigs I've got a rig-roll setup, easy enough to make your own. A cylinder of foam with cuts in it to hold the line. You can see the benefit of being able to slide the sinkers on and off when putting the rig away: I haven't been able to put many hours in so far testing these techniques out, so if you are interested give them a go and let me know it works out! Anyone out there already using these techniques? They are some of the favorites of tournament American Bass anglers and also for European Perch anglers. Drop shot seems to catch all sorts of things very successfully. And if anyone has a boat and planning to go out for snapper and wants a decky I'm really eager to get out and try drop shotting for them as I suspect it would be a very effective technique on the drift or over structure.

I use a 10'6" rod, 50lb main line. Keep in mind I don't fish the beaches along the Coorong very often. Fishing Yorkes or the South East with a live bait, 2 snelled 4/0 to 8/0 hooks.The ring a single dropper paternoster similar to the image below. using 60-80lb trace line. Don't worry about all the poxy beads and stuff shown in the image. from the swivel to the sinker is 3-4 foot, with the loop about 1 foot from the top (swivel). I use a Dropper Loop knot to hang the trave with the hooks from my rig. The hooks are suspended on 15-20 inch of line.I pin the livie through the upper and lower jaw, then another one near the dorsal fin. similar to the bottom left image, depending on the species. different species respond to different pinning.