yellow door 1

Yeah when it comes to bait fishing versatility. They are a hard reel to go past Ive got bait runners that are 20 years old. As long as you give the parts a lube every 10 years. They”ll be sweet The new ones are probably built to break a bit quicker than that. But mine haven’t skipped a beat, with no maintenance and moderate to high use, over 2 years

and if you dont go with a bait runner there are ways to get similar results from a standard reel with a rubber band or toothpick

There was a time I had trouble hitting a 300ml bottle in the back yard - But as you say - practice makes perfect If he had asked what the best reel for super accurate short to medium range casting - with weights over 1/8th ounce, my answer would have been different

Dont worry I can hit a crab in the eye, from 40m, with a bait caster But I have run them through all the tests that match the styles of fishing I do and they only win in a few categories. Some of those categories can be a deciding factor depending on where I fish. There was a time when they were the best reel for my needs - but they arent anymore But for the majority of the fishing I do, The draw backs of using them, out weigh the benefits

If you got a lot of lanyards - your gonna need If you got a lot of lanyards. Youre gonna need a lot of hooks Having hooks dotted around the place is handy So is saving yourself a trip to bunnings Heat gun + pvc pipe off cut = hooks for life and if you don’t like screws there’s always double sided tape. But I’ve gotta head to bunnings coz I’m out

Yeah those BGs are tough units - They're the only reel Ive owned to survive my bike slamming it into the ground when it gets blown over in the wind - Ive killed a few that way. I just wedged it into a guard rail - bent the handle back - and its as good as new

The only time I'd consider using an over head reel, is if there was lots of current and I was using heavy mono. And the only reason for that is - over head reels make it easier to detect when your sinker hits the bottom in a raging out going tide. But for everything else - I use threadlines. I've got a soft spot for Shimano bait runners - Having the option to allow fish to pick up baits, with almost no resistance, can be handy on tough bights. It also really handy when there is a sea of undersized pinkies using the resistance from your rod tip, to rip pillies and silver whiting off

Alright I know I’ve banged on enough about jabbers - so here’s the final improvement

Yeah I reckon Ive got most bases covered for now

Glues drying in the Flatty Jabbers

If you have a hammer and a brick- your current one might do the trick

A bloke on facebook just mentioned that flatties have a bad habit of riggling around like maniacs, even if you spike em before they spike you So a single prong wasn’t going to cut it introducing the “double pronged flatty jabber” One spike for the brain and the other to keep their heads in the one spot. Makes unhooking easier and also easier to lift them into the esky just have to sharpen and glue and it’s done

Haha yeah especially as the old wooden boat we fish out of is 2 tonne - has a top speed of 15kms an hour - and manoeuvres like an oil tanker so it would take a lot of things going right to land one

I just had a closer look at the Hookem spike with the bend in the end - I was scratching my head for a sec, until I realised you could give it a twist once inserted and be sure to come in contact with what you're after. Or just give it a half twist once in, then as you pull it out, you should catch anything you missed.

Probably should have looked up the spike lengths of commercial products before cutting - looks like Keithy and Chopper will be Snapper Slayers and only Deagle might be of any use on the Tuna (155mm spike on the hookem tuna spike) A mates brother took a nice one out the front of Port Phillip Bay the other day - but they rarely, if ever, come in to the snapper grounds where we fish, so we should be safe - even if we did hook one - 4000 sized snapper reels might explode before the first run is over

Thanks for all your help mate - much appreciated

Might have to take some head measurements on the next good snapper to see what’s required from a spike without being over kill. I imagine the bigger the fish the harder you push and the more potential damage to a floor I havent trimmed the spike on this one yet

Good onya Gregtech - thanks for the insight I used to have an old spear gun that was spring loaded, so I wondered if it ran on the same tech. Yeah if its pushing a blunt bolt through, I imaging a sharp point would go into just about any thing Its weird to say - but I hadnt even thought about the safety concerns - good point - what ever the spike - these things arent toys. Did you ever find the bolt on that gun not long enough to hit a brain - I'm considering shortening my spikes so they dont go through a fish and into the floor.

Sorry David I missed your reply - Thanks for the feed back - yeah that price was for the gun and the green holding contraption - looks like alot of thought has gone into the product Is it a spring that loads the gun?. My tools will get alot of use on carp which have quite boney heads when they get big - have you ever found the IKEGUN was close to using all its power to break through or does it always do it easy.

Just waiting for the glue to cure before final shaping and spike insertion

Doesnt look like it needs any more power - but if it did - I might know a bloke