Squid Inc.

Just spent 6 days cruising KI with a couple of old mates.Physically I’m not as capable as I would like to be, I’m one of the people who would of fished hard every minute of the day but now I’m more the deckie and I enjoy helping others to catch fish.On these trips I supply the gear tie the rigs bait the hooks and get a lot of pleasure from it .The fishing was pretty average for ki standards and the weather forecasters were having a bad week.The tuna reports of small schools out from Emu Bay had us doing a fair bit o trolling for no success,so we decided to spend most of our trip fishing in close chasing whiting.Over the next few days the same story kept repeating .We would pull up to a whiting spot that has been productive for us in the past,4 rods go in and 4 rods come up tight double header of small pinky snapper.Pick comes up we move only for this to happen time and time again.In all we only landed about a dozen plump whiting but it was great to see the snapper stocks are on the improve.

A big fat bellied carp at 14kg+ - nicely done.
One less in the system!
 

I'm not into stinky Carp but late last year my mate Matt Gorne talked me into joining him in a metro session. By memory it was my 1st cast and I got this beast i.e. 95.5cm @ 14.36kg.  Was also nice to have bumped into another S&H member while at the garage the other day, sorry mate I've forgotten your name.
PS thanks to doobie for sorting out a previous post
Steve
 

 

 

 
 

Inspired by a frustration of not being able to buy lures in the colours I want (popular = sold out) and also wanting to tweak some designs, and by the need to build something to understand it, I have foolishly picked up yet another hobby.
I was going to start with wooden lures as I'm already set up for those, but the fear of mucking up the paint job on a wooden lure that I've spent hours on I decided to start with blank plastics which are very cheap.
eg. A bent minnow copy is about $2

BTW, it's not a great copy, the Chinese penchant for price ahead of attention to detail means the centre eye is a piss poor screw in so I had to make a new eye, drill a suitable hole and epoxy it in. The surface is not textured like a bent minnow, but I have a solution for that down the track. None of these lures are tuned either.
Anyway, they are good for painting practice. I bought a cheap airbrush, tweaked it a little per youtube and voila I got a semi reasonable result and learned a heap in the process.  I especially learned that the less than optimal epoxy from AMC doesn't flow all that well and despite using a rotisserie and a heat gun it was hard to get a smooth surface.
So here's the early attempts.

Happy with the yabby. The earlier version I realized was more coloured like a cooked yabby

But perhaps fish like cooked ones too 🤣.
Having enough fun that I may invest in a better airbrush.
I've done a bulk order of crankbaits to practice painting on, which I will likely sell at cost if someone is looking for a specific pattern:

 

Howdy Rod... hows the coffee these days?  ... and the BIG-Cat ?
I too put a loop in the end and hook it over the reel handle. Can then do the knot anywhere.
 
As for finishing, I do a couple of half-hitches just to keep the knot tight, then do a couple of locked-half hitches.
 
To do a locked-half -hitch, insted of looping over the line once, loop over twice then thread the loose end under both loops.  Work the line from the fixed end to tighten it then pull tight.  The second loop ends up over a half-hitch, locking it very tight and there is very little chance it will work loose.
A couple of these and you are good to go.
 
dmck

Its like this but you tie a figure 8 loop on your braid and loop that around your reel handle- instead of just wrapping it around
You can get your braid much tighter with a loop
then you just cut the loop off to tie your hitches
 

G'day
I haven't been fishing for well over a year with 2020 being the year from hell for me health wise.   Looks like my fishing days are over barring a miracle.  Anyway, I was recently asked to how to tie and FG knot after they had given on youtube methods.  8 years ago I started on the tuna fishing and wanted to learn the FG knot, I also didn't find any youtube instructional particularly helpful and ended up developing my own method.  Pretty easy, just stick the rod in a rod holder or whatever, secure the braid to something a couple of metres away, this provides a nice tight line with the flex of the rod tip cushioning the process.  Then tie as shown in the video.  I haven't shown finishing of the knot as that's pretty standard, though I would say the common technique of forming half hitches in opposite directions seems wrong to me, being a ropes and knots guy I say this does not work with ropes so why would it work with braid?  Needless to say I tie all the half hitches in the same way.  
Excuse the fumbling, the mono is 200lb which has a mind of it's own, I normally use 100lb ish, braid is 50lb.
Anyway, hopefully somebody finds this useful and maybe they get a smile
Cheers
Rod
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AkMx1NeCmYAF8Q3QNEhY7nSykhLo?e=odQKXd
 

I had a pretty good time up there in July 2019, check my yarn in the interstate fishing reports titled "first time darwin landbased", went up September that year and smashed it again, pretty much all my fish were on SPs. Best spot for me was along the fenced part of the main wharf, seaward side which looks back towards the restaurant/start of the jetty, on the outgoing tide late night to early morning was best for me, you can see where I mean in the pics.
Met up with the dude who grabbed my barra again the second time I was up there and he kept getting smoked on pretty heavy gear night after night with livies rigged on a single 3/0 or 4/0 on about a metre of 60lb to a swivel with a decent (2 or 3oz) ball sinker on the main line which he'd drop to the bottom then lift off the bottom just a bit more than the trace length to try and avoid the endless snags down there. Managed some nice cod, golden snapper, queenies and tarpon too, the epic bust offs were my favourite though 😂
A livie drifted out under a balloon when the conditions are right can be good too I was told.
I suspect this would work anywhere along the wharf, I saw good fish caught all over just go between the pylons if you want any chance of stopping the resident monsters. The locals told me the place for big barra and Jew is up right next to where the no fishing line starts, same rig and method as above but also a 2nd line lobbed 10 to 20m out, no snags down that way but there's a deeper channel for the ships. Same deal all along there really. 
Is a killer jetty and being able to drive up, park and fish basically out of your car is awesome. Should be plenty here to get you onto something decent, make sure you let us know how you go.

I was in Coffin Bay a few days ago and spoke to a bloke who had caught some decent YFW with cockles off the beach at Encounter Bay. No weed on the beach that I could see, but it looked like a magic spot.
 

All good points and no I’m not offended in any way but don’t compare me to that wanker in the USA .My concern is with the decrease in natural predators namely the great white what’s to say in the next 20 years that population doesn’t get out of control.I remember a time when carp weren’t a problem in the Murray river but with the demise of a natural predator with the Murray cod being fished out the rest is history.Although I’m a fisherman my passion is not fish I just love catching them to eat my passion is birds.How long before the fairy penguins are extinct here in SA and the devastation they are causing to the bird life in the coorong we need some sort of balance.We let hunters shoot our national animal the beautiful kangaroo for food and to control their numbers and I think it’s just a matter of time before there is a need to do the same with seals , not in my life time because I’m an old bugger but time will tell.

The thing with that argument is fishing around KI is rated as very good still. I'd be taking anything a pro fisher told me with a bag of salt, and the neighbour fished Vincent area at Xmas and bagged out on most fish including squid. I'm not saying fur seal numbers don't need to be considered but we need to learn to fit within the world instead of thinking it belongs to us entirely. I'd rather the Gov focuses on removing long lines.

Thanks but I'm having a hard time picturing that! I've never used ezyrigs either. Is this close to what you are saying which I found here: http://wp.fishingmonthly.com.au/2019/12/06/mulloway-we-will-fight-them-on-the-beaches/

Ezyrig running on main line, rolling swivel with or without clip pending your preference. 1 foot approx sinker dropper a bit lighter than your main line (sacraficial), 3 foot approx trace with a 4/0 circle or 2 snooded on 40-60lb fluro, maybe a glowbead if your into that (I love em, pretty). For the lure trace of about a metre of 20-40lb fluro attached however you like should do the job.
Good luck.

Well at least they are doing something albeit a drip in the ocean. Its all about perception but in the long run, longlining needs to be banned to stop the rape & pillage - simple as that. This is not restocking IMO. No where near enough being released if this is what they think will help!!. This should have started when the ban came in & many, many, many more thousands. We will see what happens. Is this just a once off or an ongoing project? Who will monitor this....etc. etc.
I have been sounding several pro grounds as I pass them in GSV since the ban & have generally seen plenty of fish schooled up so from my observations, the numbers seem to be good on most grounds. 

Agree with Savage IF
Yes @Jimmy. IF it goes well
but you mention the kingfish, these fingerlings will be enjoyed by the kingfish
i hope nobody took my comment that I’m against it, just need to look at the overall picture of not just snapper stocks but all species and the way everything has been managed is far far from ideal, also not much point in any restocking if the long liners are given full access again after the ban, it is why we now have a ban

Keyword there IF...
These fingerlings will not reach sexual maturity for another 3-4 years.
That's 3-4 years of avoiding predators, nets etc. 
So you're still relying on the 'original' stocks by the time the ban is lifted again.

now, if the 500k worth of fingerlings, becomes 1.5 million in return once they grow and overall biomass increases then doesnt everyone win?

its like the kingfish pens on a larger scale but boosting a fish stock which would be that abundant if not fished for commercially.

I'd actually like to see them do it with flathead like they do in the eastern states.

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Even if only 10% survive (which would be a poor strike rate) thats still 30K more snapper across the two gulfs. If even 10% if those that survived the 1st year or two then reach breeding age, thats 3K additional that can help re-populate stocks.
Regardless of how you cut it, that surely is a positive move in a sector which historically has not seen much love.
Imagine if they make this an annual program over the next 10 years.

It’s a good start but I wonder how many will survive? They are only 6cm at release
also until the government completely ban long lining it will not matter how many fingerlings they release because as soon as the ban lifts in 2023 the pros will just go back to their old ways and smash the snapper again

Thought I better stick in a final shot. Epoxy on. Think I will leave it unpainted.

happy new year to all..., i just checked Strike Hook site and it looks like we (Frank and Pip) have had 18 responses to my post yesterday about the Trustwell anchor Frank designed (and two likes - nice!)
Am new to the site and can't see who or where the 18 responses are?
Anyway, Frank is coming by my house in about an hour because he is curious to see this website etc... I will try to figure out a way to see the 18 comments (?) and Frank might like to leave a message as well... he's very sociable. I did get a couple of details back to front yesterday. The patent lapsed, was not sold - after sixteen years. He manufactured a number of different types of anchors back in the day. The patent he sold was for a reel designed for squid fishing, to solve a problem he used to have when out fishing years ago. Anyway, stay tuned... Pip

Some idiot broke the tip of my Savage Black rod. I've repaired it, so I thought I'd document it.
Damage was right at the very tip

I wanted to reuse the tip if I could, so I had to strip back the epoxy and remove the old rod graphite, a simple scrape with stanley knife exposed the wrap

I unwound that and measured the old tip thickness

No wonder it broke, so bloody thin
Removing the old rod section I was now not worried about damaging it so I used a hot air gun which would damage the resin of the graphite but hopefully not the eyelet but would melt any glue. 


Easy peasy. I put a 1.4mm drill down it to clean out the gunk but was obvious the sleeve was 1.5mm to allow for glue space so I also put a 1.5mm down it
Forgot to take a photo, but the break was pretty clean and the break end on the remainder of the rod was 1.45mm so I decided to glue the tip straight on. I used superglue aka cyanoacrylate  which apparently is commonly used.
To align it I used a bamboo skewer through 3 eyes with tape around it to match each eye diameter, a blurry photo but I think you get the idea

I then bound (wrapped) the eye end to the rod with 80lb braid and used a bit of superglue to hold that in place. I'm probably going to epoxy it as well.
I could have used thinner braid but this stuff I use for assist hooks and I liked the idea of a bright orange tip
The 6'10 rod is more like 6'9 now 😆, but at least it's not a bin job!

 

Zodias is a good rod. Just better options for YFW. Take it out if Bream and Flathead are in a spot.
Yes it was pulling hooks. I have moved to 7" 6" ultra light rods for YFW. 
Longer casts and most importantly more shock absorption when those big ones run hard in close. Rarely pull a hook now.
The 2 standard rods in my wading tub at present are:
Samaki Zing Xtreme SZX-762SFR-SPIN 7'6" 2pce Line 2-6lb  Lure 1-7 gms
Abu Garcia Eradicator Real Finesse ERFS-76LT-TZ  7' 6" 2pce Line 0.6-3lb Lure 0.1gm-12gm (66gms)
Cheers Des