yellow door 1

Do your hooks snap? This could be why, Metal fabricator has a simple hack that may improve the life of your hooks

If you cant find any info on sores or bruises on Mulloway - search google for sores and bruises on other fish - "Red spot" seems to crop up a bit on a variety of different species around the world - Any bruising on Species like carp or bass will have been thoroughly discussed and may offer clues to why it happens in Mulloway

If you'll excuse the french - here's an bit of the convo "Some fish just let themselves get run down during spawn time - not eating, just fighting and fucking so open to infection"

I've had a look - and a chat to a fella thats caught more Jewies than me - and our river fish, landed in nets, dont seem to have sores or bruises - But they arent suppossed to spawn in our rivers either. I'm still waiting on a bloke who has 100's of Melbourne river Mulloway photos, to get back to me. But so far, all we can remember, are clean skins (The Bream - which do spawn in our rivers - get beat up and exhibit sores during spawning time - not so much bruises - but their tails get bloody and they will have bloody sores on their bodies aswell )

I'll have a rumage through some old photos and see what I can find

I've got a couple of special dates that I class as my opening days for certain spots - I've already missed April 14th And my May the 5th, looks like its not going to happen either What dates are your season openers. (p.s. circular saw is viewed as and "essential travel" accessory)

Another theory ties back to the Mulloway emitting a scent to attract beach worms - they might be rubbing their slime coat on the sand to leave a stink spot - then going back to suck up the worms. That area is open to infection? Again - I'm not saying thats whats happening - just throwing some possibilities out there that match the location of your photos

Ive watched carp spawn and they are super aggressive bashing into rocks, even beaching themselves for the chance to be the guy that gets his sperm on the eggs the males also relentlessly head butt the females in the guts to get her to release her eggs im not saying that’s what these bruises are as I have seen similar bloody bruised areas on bream around spawn time and carp for that matter - but I’ve heard them also described as fungal in fections

Yeah it was more for my Mental health than anything I go fishing to unwind and relax and theres very little relaxing to be done in some spots. Getting into a blue would ruin the vibe

When it comes to people taking undersized fish - I took the cowards way out and just stopped fishing where other people were - no more crowded piers - no more crowed jetties - no more crowded hot water outlets for me. Melbourne has hotspots where huge amounts of people gather and behave poorly - I just avoid those spots now. In one spot you would have no time to fish, if you confronted every one shoving undersized fish into safeway bags between the rocks. It used to be infuriating and having a word, only stops the problem while you're there. In alot of the spots I fish - I've n

Yeah I’m the same for my most often used but the others get broken down so they take up less space

Yeah a lot of blokes seemed to be concerned that you’d have to take the reels out to get to the one you wanted. so i rigged one up quick to make sure it worked the way I thought it would the finished project will look a bit neater but it will still be made from wood I’ve found and with dodgy work practices

Just did a quick free hand mock up with the jigsaw it wasn’t as pretty as his but once I get my hands on my Circ saw and a straight edge - I’ll be laughing

Yeah I think David Seaman made that one. I got the photo from the penn fishing page I’m a bit worried I won’t be able to match that angle on the cleat with my tools and I’ve only got a jigsaw here at the moment. but I’ll do a rough cut when it's late enough in the morning to use power tools my neighbour usually cranks up his leaf blower at 8:30 every Sunday morning but hes running a bit late today - so I’ll give everyone a sleep in until he starts

They look a bit slicker than my current spare reels storage

P. S I test all my snaps with scales when I buy them and some of the cheap ebay snaps, of the same size, are made from thicker wire, and are much stronger. But also much harder to open with your fingers. so it’s a trade off

My testing of the decoy round snaps came about coz blokes were saying the were opening on 4lb leaders but straight out of the pack - I found they broke very close to what the pack stated so either they deteriorate very quickly after the first use or their design lends it self to opening when wedged between 2 rocks but I sneakily think, the guys opening them up on 4lb didn’t close the snap properly decoy round snap strength test - (bonus test - Norman speed clip)

Yeah tightening is an even bigger problem for my operation (and it has happened with the drill going at 1000 miles and hour) if it’s going to go either way - id rather it loosened

yeah I reckon I’d lose mine if theY didn’t come in a bag

Yeah I’ve used uni’s for 30 years and only found that tip a few years ago i don’t often use it because I like having a sacrificial knot to the lure, that I know will break before my fg’ but if I’m fishing “tiger country” and I want to pull as hard and fast as I can - I’ll double wrap the eye and deal with the consequences later

Yeah running the line through the eye twice before tying will increase the strength of many knots when ive tested them with scales, you get around 10% more strength but being really smooth when tightening knots and ensuring they are heavily coated in spit before tightening is probably more important

Here’s a vid of a guy running the line through the eye twice (using braid but it works with mono aswell)

Running the line through the eye of a hook twice will significantly increase the strength of a uni knot

I should have clamped it all together on the spot and drawn my pencil lines once it was level coz just coz it’s perfectly level on a flat concrete garage floor doesn’t mean it’s going to stay that way when it goes into the house