Squid Inc.

Yeah after doing my own trial last night - I can see a hole in his method - I had 2 rods spaced with the baits spaced 3m apart - with 2 hooks per rig (25cm apart) - one hook had a piece of ENC and the other  a scrub.

One rod barely got touched but the other one 3m away was getting murdered - So if I'd wanted to make one worm look better than the other - all I'd have to do is use one type of worm on each rod and chuck the worm I wanted to win, 3m to the right😉
 
 

If I'd kept at it - Manually squeezing the water out of the bedding would have left me with fore-arms like Pop-eye.

But laying it on the concrete for half a day got the job done - it wasnt even that warm and it dried much faster than I was expecting - the wind must have helped
 

This was a late afternoon trip to the fast waters of the Meander River and a good one it was with my first double figure catch since the 10th January. A slow start to the spin session that picked up the longer it went on as the Stone Fly & March Brown Bug spinners did their job on the trout. It's amazing how a dozen heat patches on the body gets one through a solid three hours in one of the toughest stretches of water on this river.. Just love chasing trout in fast water, cast and drift up and across the river then with a slow retrieve of the Mepps spinner, a light twitch of the trout rod every so often to make the spinner blade flutter works a treat on them. Don't forget, after every third or forth trout you catch always check the treble hooks to see if they're still in good condition & also make sure they're still sharp. I always sharpen mine after the third or forth trout is caught, even when I've hooked a few and lost them I still run the small sharpening stone over them.
cheers
Adrian 
 
 

I've never done it before so I thought it might be interesting for those who havent either
Worm unboxing - 0.00
Size Comparison between Tigers and African Night Crawlers - 2.10
Current temp in Worm Bins - 2.50
Cheeky tip for Keeping Worms Warmer in Winter - 3.46
 

Hey all,
So what leader knots are you using? I thought mine was an Improved Albright but after some reading into it, it is the Alberto Knot. While i've not really had any issues with knot strength, having the leader tag end pointing forwards thru the guides really chits me.
So what are you using?
Quick pic of one I just tied. 8lb fluro to 15lb braid.
 

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. 
 

With some of my longer trips in WA and NT camping for anything from 2 - 5 weeks keeping ice for esky's on the boat was a pain. Think 40 deg in WA. I was using a 60 litre fridge and a 40 litre engle as a freezer for ice in plastic bottles and to store bait. But if going out on consecutive days the ice would never be frozen. So I had an idea to make a semi-almost blast freezer out of an old Waeco 60 litre that I didn't trust anymore, that coincidentally hasn't let me down now for about 9 years. To get the cold air circulating I thought a small computer fan on the lid would do the job. And it does in spades. It strips away the warm air from the warm stuff you put in there so it can contact the cooling elements. I did a bit of an unscientific trial and it freezes a tray of ice 5 times faster than my fridge. I also cut up a camping closed cell foam mattress for extra insulation to put between the fridge and the bag. The bag is buggered but I tape it together.
 

New footage starts at the 39second mark
 

 

Cheers all. Got some big plans and ideas running through my mind so we'll see how i go...
Tried something different tonight.... Every Lure painter seems to sign there baits with there signature, but i have fat fingers and its hard to sign on small lures so saw another idea on Youtube and decided to give it a go.... Looks really good in my opinion. just adds that special touch...


 
I printed on some waterslide transfer paper and then slide it onto the bait... then cleared over the top of it.... I like it as mentioned adds an special touch to a custom job.... Can only do Black fonts at the moment but once i upgrade will be doing other colours to contrast the lure i am painting.... Got something special planned with this water transfer paper, just waiting on my blanks to come!

Just thought i'd put a thread up of some of the other lures i have painted up at the moment. Originally my main goal was to mainly paint the topwater Lures for YFW and sell them just as an hobby sort of thing. However after watching countless hours of Youtube and reading forums I now know there is alot more i can paint/create and not to pump them out quantity wise. Instead getting creative and painting for Quality and doing it more for myself.
Unfortunately I have painted up most of the blanks I originally had. I have a few hundred dollars worth of blanks, films, stencils and bits and pieces i have purchased being held as  the coronavirus hit most of the areas I purchase my gear from. So am waiting for freight companies to resume there services so i can start painting up new lures..
My main blanks I am planning to paint will be for the upcoming season. So will mainly be Trout, Redfin and Salmon lures. I have a range of Stickbaits, and metals for the Salmon. The Trout and Redfin will be a range of minnows perfect for both dams/lakes and creeks and streams.   I will keep you all up to date with the processes and what I create.  In the mean time here are a couple I have painted over the last month or so ....
 





 

Best thing I ever did was change my line over to Floating Mono-filament line.... Being a floating line it presents the lure excellently, helps track the lure and makes it easier to use. 
The line I use is Sunline fine float PE #0.6. It's not cheap but In my opinion well worth it. As for connection I either use a decoy lure snap on 00 size or tie directly to the lure. 
Lately i have been using the lure clip purely for the fact I have been trying out my custom lures so it's easier to chop and change......
 
On a side note I got a few Lure i can sell to you at a good Strike Hook Price

Hi mate..
I like it.. works well, easy to use and Im yet to have a knot come undone.. Best $45 Ive ever spent.
I started using my hands.. too hard/frustrating, then made a gadget, see pics. It worked ok but tended to put kinks in the line due to having to be tight to work, then did some u tubing and seen this...
It can tie 6lb braid to 8lb leader no probs....
Ive tied 50lb braid to 80lb leader no probs... doesn't kink the line and the knots are tight..
Mike

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

Clips on most lures, but Ive found that tying straight to lure with a tight knot if using sugar pens or similar helps with the walk dog action..
If using straight retrieve, I use clips......
The splash prawns don't like clips.. They keep diving under water.. if tied straight to leader they work a treat...
Blades work well with clips.... 
My opinion, but each to their own..
Mike

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.

This is the 'beast' that catches my attention (not that tiddler fish).... I'll have a 100kg!!

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😉








 

While I'm at it - I thought I'd have a go at some mini floating berley cages

In the wild streams a 400mm fish is a good one, but they get very large and fat in the lowland dams, with fish over 50cm present. The Trophy sooty in the 2014 Tinaroo Barra Bash was 3.965 kg (not measured) when it was still a "kill and weigh" comp, and most of the fish in the 2018 comp were over 400mm and up to 490mm (not weighed, as it is now catch-photograph-and-release). There are far northern streams where you can catch sooties, barra, jungle perch and mangrove jacks in close proximity in the upper reaches, but nowadays crocs are an ever-present risk in those same places.

At 747 metres elevation, Koombooloomba Dam is Australia's highest tropical storage. It is perched in the dense forest on the Great Dividing Range on the headwaters of the mighty Tully-Millstream River and feeds some hydro projects below. The water is very clear, and cold in winter.  Unlike other stocked dams, it lacks bony bream, freshwater mussels, water lilies, and other submerged vegetation.  I guess the lake fauna and flora comprised whatever was in the fast-water streams blocked by the dam wall at the time. It has been stocked with sooty grunter and barra, but the barra do very poorly in the cold, with dead and dopey fish reported each winter.  Lean pickings for fish, and popular wisdom has it that wind-blown insects drive  the food chain. Perhaps sooties were already up there, or the stocked fish have found spawning habitat in the rapids, but whatever the reason there are abundant sooties in there with "cricket score" catches reported and hoards of juveniles visible along the edges.  Few have caught barra in there, and those that do report that lures resembling sooty grunter are the go. 
Sooties need rapids in the hot, wet season to spawn successfully, and recent storms from a much-delayed monsoon had some of us hatching a plan to get upstream to the inflow to  flyfish the spawning aggregations. The day did not start well, with lightning knocking out the power pre-dawn and torrential rain, with the flash and rumble of the dreaded cloud to ground lightning. during the 2 hour drive. Amazingly, the rain ceased  just below Koomby and we were off in the tinny threading and feeling our way up along the old river channel through a dense forest of dead trees and prop-busting stumps.  The plan was to get up to the Tully inflow and walk the bank with flyrods to sight-fish sooties.
At 28% capacity we had just caught the first inflows of clear, tannin-stained water, and there were some cascades and rapids to fish off the rocks. Dan fished the opoosite bank with a blooper-type fly and I used a tiny shrimp-cicada thing tied by an SA mate (Dave) 20 yrs ago. At the first rapids the tiddlers just belted the little cicada if I let it sink deep and I soon had a half-a dozen captures before they wised up. Dan did not get a hit, so switched to a white clouser and moved up into the limpid pool above the cascades. Immediately he raised bigger fish and caught 2 in quick succession.  He was trialling a line-tub worn around his waist to stop the flyline tangling and missed some takes.
On the opposite bank I found what SA Dave calls a "Monty" of a spot. A fish surety. A tiny crystal-clear rivulet running over a sandbank to a deep dead tree. I got belted 3 times on that snag, with the first 2 humping boils at the surface by obviously big, angry, sooties. The third take was on the wrong side of the snags and within milliseconds I had been dusted. Broke the 10 pound flourocarbon leader just below the flyine -- and I had no spares in that department, so a long walk back to the tinny for more. Sooties are smash,grab, and run back to cover specialists.
We decided the big fish were either absent from the rapids, or not biting, so we tried Plan B. Motor down in the boat and find islands or points with horizontal "lay-downs" of dead trees. Not that common, but marvellous habitat for a sooty ambush predator. Again, small fish were eager biters but no sign of the dark-black brutes that inhabit the dam. Back-casts often ended up in the dead forest, too.
So the last plan of the day, before escaping the approaching lightning storms, was to try walking a steep bank with deep water, rock ledges and lay-downs. I thought I would "ground-truth" the presence of bigger fish with a spin rod and little Mohawk deep-diver. Dan went off along the bank and I fished off the boat, testing a deep rock ledge. Some tiddlers on the fly were followed by a decent fish on the lure, which pulled the hooks at the net. So there were big fish there!
Then we started to see sooties patrolling the edges as the shadows fell on the water. I was mucking around with various little Clousers on the tiddlers, by applying "S-factor" scent and testing if Dave's 20 yr old, high-sparkle flies attracted more attention when a grey/brown fish in the 30's came out for a look. I changed to a bigger, ratty, marabou fly and landed a better fish but could not tempt the lurker. Meanwhile Dan raised 2 huge fish on his Clouser from the base of a high dirt cliff with overhanging snag -- another "Monty". We spent the last half-hour of the day together trying to fool those fish, which were joined by a third that emerged swimming along the drop-off from left-field. I don't think they could see us, but we could see them and they would not be fooled by flies, soft-plastics, minnows, or even a very lifelike savage flick prawn, scented or not. Easily 40cm -plus fish, with charcoal backs and big spade-like tails. They showed mild interest, but were rejecting the offerings from afar. I guess they don't get that big by being gullible.
At the ramp we met a 'yakker who fished there regularly, and he told of once stumbling across a hatch of the spent, winged termites that blanketed the water in wind-rows. He told of sight-fishing sooties breaking the surface. Now that would be an experience to go keep going back for.
 
 

Also twisted up some berley cages this arvo

Can also use the scissors as hook puller and clear tube over dowel for tightening sticks