Softy

Just completed a video on how to fillet fish (using Tommy Rough as an example).
Let me know what you think.
If you find it useful, let me know what the subject should be for the next one.
 

I don't mind spending money on lures... But no fish is worth that much!

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

Best thing you can safely do is get straight onto the SA Fishing app and submit a report.  Worth having on your phone for size limit info etc anyway and you can do reports within the app.  You can do this silently, without obviously calling it in. 
Otherwise, ring Fishwatch on 1800 065 522 and report it.  Save the number in your phone.  If they have officers nearby, they'll send them around.  At the very least, they'll know when and where it's happening and you'd hope would increase patrols accordingly.

Need more fisheries officers simple as that. 

It sure will be if Myponga opening is anything to go by. Out north has had a handful open for a while now so it is about time they opened another one down south. 

I keep having to look this up so I thought I'd produce a guide I can refer back to, and maybe it helps others.
Many would know braid labelled strength vs diameter is all over the place in AU, with seemingly no consistency.
The reason for this is the US market decided they would label braid based on the mono equivalent size rather than it's true breaking strength, except they didn't really do that and it's a seemingly meaningless number. In Europe they generally label with the actual breaking strain. Australia seems to have gotten a mishmash.
eg. JBraid x8 0.13mm (from the labels)
EU = 8kg
AU = 3.8kg/8lb
US = 8lb
All of them are made in Japan, same factory, why is the EU one 2x stronger? Because it's not, they are all the same line. Also, 8lb mono would be more like 0.25mm, so it's not even like it's truly a mono equivalent number.
I use Tasline for my Vanford 2000, their 12lb is 0.128mm (yeah right, like they can measure a non round braid to 0.001mm), and they state they expect it to break at 20.6lb or 9.3kg, so at least you get an idea of what it's really intended to hold. I have not had one single wind knot with that 'thin as hell miles casting line', unlike the JBraid that I've had a few with.
Here's the charts I use now, it's Tasline's numbers, they tie up with somewhat similar number to Sufix 832, JBraid and Kairiki - at least a hell of a lot closer than the AU labels.
Test 8 lb 12 lb 15 lb 20 lb 30 lb 40 lb 50 lb 60 lb 80 lb 100 lb Diameter in mm 0.115 0.128 0.163 0.225 0.299 0.317 0.332 0.422 0.48 0.545 PE Rating 0.5 0.6 1 1.7 3 3.5 4 6 8 10 Actual Average Break 14.2 lb 20.6 lb 23.7 lb 34.7 lb 49.0 lb 59.2 lb 78.5 lb 91.6 lb 116.2 lb 138.2 lb  
PE 0.6 ………………………….. 0.128mm PE 0.8 ………………………….. 0.148mm PE 1 …………………………….. 0.165mm PE 1.2 ………………………….. 0.185mm PE 1.5 ………………………….. 0.205mm PE 1.7 ………………………….. 0.218mm PE 2 …………………………….. 0.235mm PE 2.5 ………………………….. 0.260mm PE 3 …………………………….. 0.285mm PE 3.5 ………………………….. 0.310mm PE 4 …………………………….. 0.330mm PE 5 …………………………….. 0.370mm PE 6 …………………………….. 0.405mm PE 7 …………………………….. 0.435mm PE 8 …………………………….. 0.470mm PE 10 …………………………… 0.520mm                                                                                          

Apparently that is Doobie... Tripped over his walking frame again.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

"HI Larry,

I love working these with any current available.
Letting them drift past the front of snags, pilons, pontoons and boat hulls. The key with these lures is watching the line.
They are not like a conventional lure were you feel a sharp tick. What you will find is your line rattling or just starting to take off.

Another technique i have found works great is 'feathering' the lure while on the bottom. Sharp but small and soft lifts and letting it sit on the bottom again.
They key to this is to have the lure falling as much as you can during a retrieve in the strike zone. You will get most fish on the first drop when fishing against structure.

What gives me great confidence is that by taking the lure this way they believe its a mussel.
Feeding bream mussel fouling at my previous employment I watch as the big bream will crash through, grab a mussel and swim off to crush and eat it in peace.
I have found that most of the time both trebles are hooked on each side of their mouth, as they have cradled it in their mouth (marks bream photo is a great example)

I have also found that fishing these lures is areas were mussels don't frequent is almost better then plentiful areas.
A bream would have to be living under a rock to not know what a mussel is. So when a big breeder is upstream and spawned out, recovering on a big lay down and watches a mussel drift past.. they jump at the opportunity for a rich protein snack.

Availability for these lures will improve during next year. Currently my rough wait time is over a month.
However I am keen to reward the guys that have stayed true to this forum in the form of a cue jump

Dowelly"

I have been told of people using that trick to catch bream before and works well apparently.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

Yeah there’s a technique I vaguely recall hearing about that uses whole mussels in the shell. You somehow bore a hole in the  shell to put your hook through
 
its supposed to be a specialist big bream technique. As the little fellas don’t have the jaw crushing power to get through the shell 
 
the bottom of our live well used have a fair bit of mussel shell coughed into it at the end of a session

Believe it or not, I have fished with a partially opened cockle, enough to get a long shank hook into the flesh inside the cockle & caught whiting this way. An old salty suggested I try this......

Apparently that is Doobie... Tripped over his walking frame again.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

Apparently that is Doobie... Tripped over his walking frame again.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

Had a friend (Mark an avid fly fisherman) over from South Australia who loves fly fishing for trout so I took him for a session in the Mersey River. The only problem was Mark forgot to throw his fly fishing vest in my car when I picked him up, the vest had all of his trout flies in it. Thankfully for some reason I took and extra Okuma trout spinning set up with me & a spare vest, Mark had no choice but to become a spin fisher for this trip. Thanks for watching..
cheers
Adrian (meppstas)
 
 

David Speirs MP
Mount Bold Reservoir Reserve is open for business! It’s South Australia’s biggest reservoir (holding over 46 gigalitres of water!) and is surrounded by rugged hill country. Today a 10km network of new trails and a spectacular lookout opened as Stage One of public access to this site was rolled out. There’s much more planned in Stage Two including more trails, water access and fishing!

I've posted a couple of reports of local land based squid fishing and thought I'd give a run down of the rig I use.
So lets get the obvious out of the way, you don't need anything fancy to catch squid, and a handline with a jig will catch you squid. However, if you are land based fishing from popular metro spots, there are some upgrades that will increase your chances.
Rod
Number one item I would suggest is a long rod capable of flinging a jig a long distance. Every man and his dog will be covering the same area with their casts, but if you can cast further and search an area others can't reach, you might just hook into that big squid no one else has been able to tempt. My rod of choice is an 8'9" medium heavy Emeraldas. These are nice quality rods, good blanks, Fuji K guides and a good action for squidding. I've tried a 9' medium NS Black Water and a 8'3" medium light Atomic Arrowz egi rod. The Emeraldas has been the best all round in terms of quality materials, build quality and performance, however I feel the NS Black Water was a better rod in terms of performance (particularly for price), but the build quality lacked a bit (the rod joint was a little too lose). I wouldn't buy an Emeraldas if I was paying the local price of $250 for the entry level model and would opt for the NS Black Water instead. But I bought a rod built for the European market from OS for $165 landed.
Line
After the rod i think the next important part is the line. Again, I'm mainly interested in casting distance, so a quality 8 strand braid is the way to go. I'm using Platypus P8 0.14mm, Australian made and owned, and there is an Ebay seller who usually has it for a good price. When I bought it, the guy chucked in for free a small bottle of Line Butter line conditioner. For leader material I use 15lb Duel HD fluorocarbon. Ideally you would use a lighter mainline and leader for both better distance and sensitivity, but it's a trade off with strength for pull jigs out of snags.
Reel
The reel isn't too critical for squid fishing, it's basically just a winch for dragging in the squid. However you do want a reel that allows line to come off easily for long casts and also lays the line evenly on the spool when retrieving the line. It's hard to go past either Shimano or Daiwa. My reel is an Emeraldas LT 2500 double handle, not necessary, but I paid only $153 including shipping. The drag on the Emeralds is well suited to squid fishing, as it's nice and progressive, so you can easily dial in the drag for different jigs. When whipping the rod up to make the jig hop, ideally you want the drag set so gives a little so when you strike you don't lose the squid from ripping out the jig out or ripping off a tentacle.
Jigs
In my opinion, jigs are the least critical part of the set-up. You can spend a fortune on jigs, but I think it's more important to have a selection of reasonable quality jigs rather than just a couple of expensive jigs. Firstly you will definitely lose jigs to snags. Secondly, if you are not catching anything you might change your luck by changing your jig to a different color. Having several different coloured jigs should increase your chance of success when its slow (but you will also use the same jig 80% of the time and you only need a selection for the remaining 20% of time). I have lots of jigs (again bought cheap from OS or locally from Rui), different colours, different weight/sink rates). I've made a laminated cheat sheet for my tackle bag so I know which jig is which.
Terminal Tackle
Not critical. I like to use a quick change snap with a swivel so I can easily swap jigs. I'm currently using a snap swivel by Rui, but there are many other brands.
Occasionally I add chin sinkers if the current is strong and it's difficult to get the jig down deep. Strong wind can also make it difficult to get the jig down deep because it catches your line. You can use a small 00 ball sinker just above the snap swivel, but I'm currently using Nakajima sinkers which have a simple quick connect.

We've got them on Gulp 6 inch worms with a stinger hook right in the tail

Heres a vid of a Vic blokes getting them on softplastics.

But fishing with stingers is a pain - tying them out in the field takes ages and you never get the accuracy you can get tying them at home on a jig - especially with gulps as you cant pre rig or they will dry out or rust the hooks

I would pre rig 10 plastic mojiko worms before a session - and just tie on a new fully rigged worm, when a fish ripped one in half - but if you got through 10 in a session at least you got some hits😉

If the fish are on fire I wouldnt use stingers but when its tough they can be a savior
 
 

Different presentation with the nedrig. The head having a flat end makes it stand up on its end where as a normal head the plastic lays flat.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

Different presentation with the nedrig. The head having a flat end makes it stand up on its end where as a normal head the plastic lays flat.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk

Gulp camo worms or bloodworm will work. I've caught small ones as by catch on bloodworm TRD Crawz on nedrigs before.