yellow door 1

But I spose what I'm trying to say is - I think alot about what is taking my livies and never ignore an opportunity to learn something from the corpse of a missed take

but I dont have photo's of the shark runs because they snip my mono leaders before photo's can happen

A "tailor" does waht it says it will

and not leave a mark on it when I tried to set the hooks Call me crazy but I've had runs where sharks dont exist - that feel alot like shark runs - They snip mono leaders the instant the bait runner is flicked into gear - I can still tell the difference between the mark of a deeply lodged Jewie tooth on a savage strike..........and something that snips a 40lb leader when you casually engage the bait runner on a weird slow run, - thats stops and starts as the beasts hoovers up your burley trail. The spacing on the conical Jewie teeth usually gives you a good indication o

Then we get to the baits that have obvious teeth damage - I've watched a 20kg kingy pick up a trev - take it for 30m......

But you will also get livies that come back like this - its usually when you ignore the first few taps - (dismissing them for a nervous live bait getting stalked by a jewie) - but its actually good bream taking chomps out of your live bait - puffer fish are an outside chance for doing this damage - but these bight occasionally convert to 40cm+ bream

But have a geeze at this bulldust - each of these livies was caught with a size 12 hook and chicken thigh bait - putting 20 mullet in a bucket, isnt always easy this way - so when you have some "Head crusher" out there making your baits inedible to other species - thats a justifyed basis for a grudge None of these decapitated mullet took click of bait runner drag while their heads were removed

But I inspect every livie I bring back in - I'm looking for puncture wounds - sucker marks - crushed heads - teeth patterns and general signs of malicious intent - I change quite regularly - because I'm paranoid about lethargic livies not putting out enough signals into the water. ie - I dont want one laying on its side gulping for air - I want a maniac with stamina to panic for at least an hour - but I also dont like huge livies because I use a single hook and want them the be inhaled So heres a few of the signs I look for - heres what those freakin "head Crushers" do - in my mind

Jesus - you have no idea how far back in the archives I had to go to find these pics. But I got into serious livie fishing pretty late in life - I went from mainly dead bait (first 25 years) - to mainly small live bait(3 months) - to bream and other species on lures (10 years) - then serious livie-ing for a bit (2 years) - then back to lures. The main reason I avoided landbased Livebaiting in Melbourne......... - was all the "social media guru's" and well known "under ground" Mulloway guys said it was hard to do. I gave their words more respect than they were due - coz words are

p.s. - the livie above was rigged the same way this one was - so the "Head Crushers" are very good at avoiding hooks

Yeah the photo above is a bit misleading. It shows the head taken off but they quite often come back with the head still on - but crushed - I'll try to find some photos of the crushed heads When we used to fish the bays alot, we'd get a fair few squid taking livies - but a squid take is much more "Lungey" than these clunking "Head Crushers" - Squid also often leave a semi circular bight on the shoulder right near the head. These takes are weird - it just one clunk - then they leave it alone - there are no follow up nudges or nibbles These "Head crushers" live in the rivers ar

Yeah I used to use the spring loaded ones but Id have to take them on and off while casting - and they' get catapulted off if I struck hard and missed a fish. So I decided to take the bell apart and tape it to the rod so it would never fly off. Alot of guys are against bells but I find them invaluable when fishing livies. I tape mine down the rod tip a bit, so they dont ring when the livie blinks - but if my livie starts getting really spooked, they'll give me a heads up. But the real reason I put them on is there is - We have this jerk fish in Melbourne that chomps the h

Hehe - yeah theres been plenty of spare hours for activities over the years

Gotta be careful - might end up with the maggot version of these brutes

Thanks Hunter - I often work the top 2m of water but I had to go deep for this fella

Yeah I'm intrigued to let this batch sit in the bran to see how long they last. Next batch will get the coir treatment - I cant read the fine print on this pack but I imagine the cheaper it is the less likely it is to have additives - but I will check - thanks for the heads up

The maggots get another week off

The thrill ride continues - 44 days after entering the fridge.

Once you know the life cycle - it would be possible to do it off campus. The other day I was thinking about spots like the local park, sand dune, creek or waste land where I could bury a bucket and let the process unfold a long way from the house If a bucket stinks in the forrest and theres noone there to smell it - does it really smell?

Yeah in Melbourne they treat maggots like gold and charge $10 for 100 - (Estimate of number from a bloke on facebook who's bought them). They sell them in those 3cm high - small round take-away food containers. So your tubs would cost $30 over here It seems that price is mirrored by online sellers - so as you are getting them for $6.50 for 300 - the price is definitely right. Once you get your routine down - breeding maggots doesnt seem to be that hard - and if you are a heavy user - its makes cents to get high off your own supply

"Our A1 maggots (Calliphora Stygia) Blow Fly Maggots are packed in peat moss, peat moss gives them an extended life and both last a lot longer refrigerated between 3 to 5 degrees C. These maggots are grown on waste fish products that makes them very appealing to fish such as trout , carp, garfish, bream, tommy ruff ect. There are aproximately 300 maggots per packet. THIS PRICE INCLUDES 1 PACKET OF MAGGOTS packed peat moss delivered anywhere in AUSTRALIA (EXCEPT WA & N.T. )via Australia express post. POSTING DAYS MONDAY & TUESDAY AT A1 WE ALL FISH Sorry no pick ups "

Was just snooping around this mail order bait company - seems like they use both peat moss and bran for storing maggots And they also have these little tools for when your fingers arent working

nice - yeah thats an eye opener. When I saw it - I was thinking something like peat moss - Interesting stuff Thanks

Yeah true that - Thats probably why some of mine have started to pupate while being kept in dry bran after 30 days - thanks heaps for that - what do you reckon the brown substrate they keep them in is.