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Caught this decent Brown in the hills recently. In the Mid 50's. Went all arabattic on me jumping several times. Released well. Caught on own ruff tied fly. 20230314_113820_1.mp4

Regular post readers will know I like to fish the dodge tides for Yellow Fin Whiting . I cover a variety of reasons in detail, in this previous post: . One very good reason, is that you will regularly find better quality fish on the dodge tide. YFW movements and feeding are highly influenced by the tide. Revolving around the largest tide of the day, they tend to have a 24 hour digestive and feeding cycles. So even when the tides do not move much on the dodge, they will still have a need to feed within their cycles. The larger YFW have greater food needs and will gener

The seasons are changing. The temperature is rising. The water is warming. It is all happening a bit earlier this year. Lizards are crawling on the roads. And “Lizards” (flathead) are crawling in the sea. Water birds are gathering, lining up for a feast of baitfish from above. The Flathead are lining up for a feast of baitfish from below. In these ambient temperatures, food is plentiful in the shallows. The ecosystem has had a great kickstart with the rise in temperatures and every thing comes alive and thrives on the sandflats. Temperature is the bigge

A sunny Cup day meant getting out for a fish rather than be stuck home watching the races. . The flats were very crowded on race day. There were hordes and hordes of legal but smaller sizes Yellow Fin Whiting in the 25 to 29cm mark. They were a fish a cast for much of the day. But … Not the kind of horses I wanted to back. With so many little mugs about it was inevitable that the sly and the opportunistic would be out there ready to prey on them. . A sunny day on the sandflats is such a delight. The clear visibility and water clarity makes watching the passing parade

I had a disastrous day last week and could only manage one Yellow Fin Whiting all day. I got the tide and the weather conditions all wrong. I was fortunate to realise the error and managed to back it up the following day by relocating my fishing to a spot better suited to the tide and weather and finished with a bag of 20 large YFW on surface lures. . The sandflats of the upper SA Gulfs are a dynamic environment and ecosystem with many a variable factor that affects fishing. It keeps you thinking. Keeps you on your toes! And we don’t always get it right! One of the most dyn

Here's a couple of photos of what has become a common catch here in Tasmania nowadays, not only that, they are big fish as well.. They now have a bag limit of 5 fish per person & a 10 fish possession (house) limit placed on them which is good, minimum legal size 35 cm.

For the Yellow Fin Whiting Lure fanatics it is time for the withdrawal symptoms to start setting in, as the water temperatures start dropping. Fortunately there is some pain relief, in chasing a few Flathead on lures. Autumn brings a transition for the sandflats lure fisherman. YFW surface lure fishing drops off. Flathead lure fishing picks up. The “Southern Blue Spotted Flathead” becomes more prolific on the sandflats of the Northern SA Gulfs. . And it is the large accumulation of SEAGRASS WRACKS at this time of the year, along with the change in temperature, that starts i

Spring has sprung with a couple of days of warmish weather getting it started. It seemed a good chance to try Lure fishing Yellow Fin Whiting and kick off this season with perhaps a catch or two. The YFW lure box has not seen daylight for awhile. It was time to freshen up the lures by replacing the now well rusted out assist hooks on them. The reels have been greased and oiled up. Trying best to prepare them for a season of abuse and dunking that wading fishing will inevitably deliver them. All prepared I set off for a couple of days in search of my first lure caught YFW fo

I was chasing trout recently, I tied a few ruff wooly buggers the night before. Free style.. and pretty happy with them too.. I also Tied on a brand new 4lb leader. About 12 cast into my session, I felt a real heavy weight load up on my 5 weight Fly Rod. "Wow that's a big trout". It sat on the bottom and held my there about 5 minutes. It was an impossible trying to turn its head. It finally turned, it came too the surface. F+++ me !. It's not a trout.. then there was several heavy runs. A 10 minute battle in the end. I finally got it to surface. I grabbed my trout net off my back. Took o

The weather has been poor so I haven't been fishing much. So what do you do when you're not fishing? Make stuff for fishing! I've been making some small assist hooks to replace the back trebles on lures. I bought some silicone lure skirts of Aliexpress to use for a bit of flash. The cord is cheap 30lb braid. There is no need to use such strong braid, you could use a lot lighter. But I decided to use this braid, because the diameter is easier to handle and tie knots. I measure out 25cms which gives me long enough tag ends to easily tie each hook with a 5 turn s

This was another of my late season spin sessions in a small tannin stream & it was great to come across a freshwater lobster. They were once plentiful in the rivers/streams here in Tasmania but due to very little catch rate restrictions they became scarce in the rivers/streams. Now they are a protected species that carry a $10,000 fine if taken from a river/stream. cheers Adrian (meppstas)

This was my only trip to the Leven River so far this season, it hasn't fished all that well over the past couple of seasons but i thought it was time to give it a go before the season closes. cheers Adrian..

I've started chucking 1/28th's in 9m of water, when conditions allow me to get them down to where the sounder says the fish are. The same plastic will remain untouched (Almost) on 1/4er's or 1/8th's - but a plastic that doesnt plummet, will get smashed on the drop by the unstoppables that make this technique a bit ridiculous on my current tiny jigheads. Sure you can grub heavy heads along the bottom and get hits and land the smaller dumber fish. But on the 1/28th's you barely need any skill at all. Just spot the fish on the sounder and count to 40 as the 1/28th sinks - then hang on

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The long 45 minute walk that was had to reach my starting point in the Mersey River was well it with a mix of brown & rainbow trout being caught & released. It also required a bit of bush bashing once I was there too.. cheers Adrian

This spin session was a tough one, conditions were pretty good, but the trout were hard to find, I still managed to get onto a few wild brown trout thanks to the Mepps March Brown Bug spinner. Thanks for watching, enjoy the musical photo slideshow at the end of the video and stay safe on/in the water.. cheers Adrian (meppstas) A few pics from the spin session.. as always, all the trout were released..

Thought I'd review a few things I've been buying that might help people out. I pay for everything, nothing is sponsored and I have no affiliation with any stores I mention. Rod is USG-SP 461UL 1-3kg 7-18g, a 1 piece but at 4.6 feet that's not an issue. I bought this rod for flats fishing would you believe, mainly bait where I'm towing a tub behind me and casting sinkers. The length means I can turn around and drop the fish straight into the tub, no dicking with a net. This has worked out well. However, the rod continues to surprise me just how versatile it is. I can cast a 7g lure al

This trip was early on in the season, a spin session when the trout went from one lure to another. It turned out to be quite a good spin session as well with some beautifully coloured wild brown trout being caught & released. cheers Adrian (meppstas)

The sandflats north of Adelaide, at the top of both the SA gulfs, hold some unique terrain and ecosystems. At low tide, these sandflats can drain out for over 2 kilometres. The tidal movements are, over 3 meters in St Vincents Gulf and upto 4 metres in the upper Spencers Gulf. The water temperature ranges from 11C to 25C. Typical of shallow, protected water bodies, it is a highly productive ecosystem holding a lot of fish and marine life. It is home, for two of my favourite fishing targets, the “Southern Blue Spotted Flathead” -Platycephalus speculator and the “Yellow Fin Whiting” -Sil

I finally caught my 12,000th Tasmanian trout here in Tassie, it's something I had never planned on doing either thankfully by keeping stats & records of each trip and every trout season paid off. I also won the Angling Club Championship again for the 2022/23 trout season for most trout caught in rivers & streams making it 17 years in a row. cheers Adrian

You can get anything printed on a reel in China These are the same as almost all the other silver sub $50 reels and likely from the same OEM factories with just minor cosmetic changes. One of the clues is the Daiwa air rotor style design. BEARKING Brand LT series Stainless steel bearing 5.5:1 Fishing Reel Drag System 15Kg Max Power Spinning Wheel Fishing Coil - AliExpress Johncoo Anti Corrosion Treatment Spinning Fishing Reel Carbon Washer Drag 10Bb Saltwater Spinning Reel Metal Body - AliExpress MEREDITH VANPES Series Rust Free And Smooth Bearing 5.0:1 Fishing Reel

Hi Rob. As long as you don't drop your pipe and your lighter still works, you should be fine

This trip was to a small river just five minutes from home, this stretch of river was one I used to fish quite often until the record floods back in 2016. That flood really knocked the guts out of this little stream as did another one back in 2022, this trip I wanted to see if the trout had returned in this stretch of river. cheers Adrian (meppstas)

This trip was to the Mersey River on private property, the water was very cold and the level was still on the high side for my liking, good thing was that I did manage to get onto a few trout. The wind became a real pain in the butt as it always does when river fishing.. Thanks for watching.. cheers Adrian..

Honorable mention and if I could have a fourth pick it would be a light or white colored jig. I like to throw this if it is bright or if there are alot of baitfish around. I would include the white with redhead in the same group. I haven't done that well with the red head but have seen my mate clean up fishing next to me with the white and redhead jig. Finally at night I like a glow jig, lots of options here.

Googled earthed a possible redfin hole today - it wasnt smooth sailing trying to find an access point - and that theme continued for the short session. Forgot the Mirage drive - Got my balls wet getting in and discovered I have no idea how to use my new sounder. (Not completely my fault - the stupid thing has a feature where it turns the transducer off for some reason - and I could fix it on the water no matter how many random buttons I pressed)

In this particular system I've caught alot of rainbows this season, which I've never caught here before. Even took one home and ate it. Brined it. Put some fine dining chef skills on it. Still tasted like shit Also I've noticed alot of baby's getting around. In schools. Between 20-50 fish in certain pools. Which is great to see. I've been told our trout eggs don't hatch here in s.a because they don't have the prop substrate (stones) to attach there eggs too.. so I assume there stocked fish. Which is great to see. Or somehow the fish have got lucky.. Thanks for all your comments. C

Season started 5 days early this year

Snapped my testing rig and punched myself in the face - but it got to about 18kg before the wire testing rig snapped - The fishing hook glued into the jighead did not budge

You can buy gadgets like this from Aliexpress for under $50. Fill reel/spool with braid, then add required backing line to get perfect depth of line on your reel Reverse the process winding the line back onto the plastic spool (the backing line will be on the bottom) Use a second plastic spool to wind the line onto (the backing line will now be on top) Place this second spool onto the gadegt Wind onto the reel/spool Worth it when you have multiple reels.

Bought these 2 lures to try out bad weather and my health issues ( don’t ask not nice) hopefully I’ll be trying the shallow Berkeley pro tech Saturday anyone trued either of these

Nice work putting Bob in his place, clearly needed to have a lesson in manners, the upper gulf can be full of them this time of year, I've had up to half a dozen of the buggers between 3 to 7 foot visible circling in the burley (in the boat thankfully) at this same time of off Price. Bronzies around the 5-6 foot mark are 4 out of 5 times exceptional eating in my experience with a head and tail removed trunk of around a metre being ideal for turning into steaks and "fillets", Bob looked a little on the small side (tasty but soft v excellent texture but too much ammonia taste) and let's fa

Caught this brown on fly Monday. Not the longest trout but one of the thickest I've caught. Put up a great fight too. 4lb leader, stonefly nymph.

For all of the Vegemite lovers like me and have been since I was a kid, here's a photo that I took this morning of a jar of Vegemite out of the kitchen cupboard and did a bit of photo shop work on it. I can remember as a kid having Vegemite on toast for breakfast, Vegemite broth with bread in it, then when I was older and a little hungover in the mornings, a Vegemite & tomato sandwich did the trick. I still have a Vegemite broth from time to time too... cheers Adrian

So is a shimano Catana ( I think it’s spelt that way ) looking at the weather I’ll give it a try Friday morning

Warmer water early in the season will certainly bring them into the metro areas earlier. I saw a post from Brighton Tackle claim they had been sighted locally. As I have previously mentioned the ongoing heavy netting of this species over winter in the last few years is having a significant detrimental impact on the overall stock status. Hopefully they are resilient and bounce back.

Could all members add to a list of Scam Stores in this thread. I recently came across this store: https://www.shimanostore.com/spinning-reels-shimano-vanford-2500-hg-spinning-fishing-reel/ It just seemed too good to be true ! A few checks on the web highlighted it as a scam store

Simplest approach would be to grab 3 red-heads, any brand, in size 3.0, as they just catch lots of squid. But if you want to try a few others, here are my recommendations. Size I find 3.0 size jigs the most versatile. They have enough weight to cast well and have a good sink rate for most conditions. If the current is really ripping and you need a heavier jig, you can add a small 2gm sinker, either one specifically made to attach to squid jigs or just a ball sinker to the line. If you find yourself in a shallow area and keep getting snagged, you can put the jig under a float. Y

UV light and then with the lights off and glowing Bottom right is the brightest and works great off the jetties at night.

No worries Des Squid are much easier than Yellowfin whiting At night any jig that glows works well for squid. The brighter the jig the better it seems. I just have a play with my UV light and pick the brightest glow Here is my current selection in my kayak tackle box

Thats a hard one. I rotate jigs every trip and have different favorites each season and also as the season changes. The last 12 months this jig has dominated with 40 of the last 50 squid caught on a size 3 Shimano Sephia clinch flash boost. Color seems to matter as I've run this jig head to head with the same size and style jig in a slightly darker pink and all the squid have gone for the favourite

This was one of my better trips during the trout season while fishing a small tannin stream close to home on private property. This video is the short version.. cheers Adrian

I'm a big fan of Daiwa Bait Junkie soft plastics and prefer them to Zman. They are very soft and flexible which seems to give them a great action in the water. I recently bought some Daiwa Bait Junkie Risky Critters for when the weather and water warms up. I'm going to give them a try on whatever is swimming around the flats, keen to see if YFW will hit them. Only problem with these soft plastics is the price at $11.95 for a pack of 6. Not a huge cost, but I did stumble across a similar styled creature bait on Aliexpress, pack of 8 for $6.23. They are made from the super stretch material and c

Mate invited me down to check out the new joint he just moved into. Sounded great. We were going to have a BBQ, Go watch local footy and have a few beers. That translates to - a few trips to the tip - few loads of furniture from the old place and spending the rest of the day building over head storage in his new car-port

This is just a short 5 minute musical photo slideshow from a few trips to the Mersey River during Autumn.. I hope you enjoy it.. cheers Adrian (meppstas)

All the Pro Lures are fantastic. I have used them and done pretty well on bream with a slow roll. Throw in a pause here and there on the retrieve as well. I favour the prawn coloured ones but black is also a great colour. They do make three versions of that lure; an Extra Shallow, Shallow and Deep. The deep diver works very well during wintertime on deeper structure like poles and rockwalls etc.

Finally I reached the target of 500 trout that I set myself at the start of the 2022/23 trout season. Several times throughout the season I had doubts that I would get close to reaching it due to a lot of lower back problems and many days spent in bed. Thankfully the back more or less settled down and the 30 -40 injections in the lower back once a week helped to keep me out and about as did the 10-12 heat patches on my back each time I headed to a river or stream. After 2-1/2 years I've finally got a appointment to see a spine specialist on 2nd May, so hopefully I'll know where I stand after s

I've had the same problem with several Daiwa reels ( Exceler, Fuego, Legalis ) and had them repaired at a tackle store in Devonport at a cost of $90-00, every one of those reels was due the bail arm not flicking back. The problem with every one of the reels was because the bail trip levers were made of a soft alloy that breaks at it's narrowest point. Even after having them repaired two of them have got the same problems again after three trips to the river while trout fishing. So those reels are now in their original boxes and that's where they're staying. The only Daiwa reel that I've never