yellow door 1

Just when you thought this thread couldnt be less interesting - I've done it

Found a couple of tennis balls on the way to work - so I had to give that method a crack.  Good for light pressure of a bit over a kilo and below.

Supposedly you can ramp it up with a bench vice and some vice grips but I only managed a few hundred more grams of pressure with that method.

I reckon you could ramp things up with some threaded rod, nuts and washers but the spring loaded version already provides that service
 

ok so here it is in its final form -

I tried to get away with using a single nut and no springs - but the rig had a tendency to self tighten when too much drag was applied to the spool.

So I made some springs - then some more refined springs -then added a second locking nut and now it actually works like it should
 

Yeah this all stems from me being a tight arse and splitting up 300m spools into three 100m topshots.

If I wasnt measuring it out - the texta between the toes would get a run.

 

Just added a pencil to mine so I can incorporate my line counter

heres some other diy rigs

Yeah I used to have a much better relationship with my tackle shop before the internet - but these days - getting them to make topshots out of ebay braid would be stretching the already strained friendship.

Do they charge for the service? - coz I'd be rocking up with cheap Chinese braid  I got off ebay

After 4 days with out an egg - you stop playing games

Re the photos - thanks - I was trying out my new $45 camera  - it takes a good shot considering my shakey single handed style

The tensioner is done

Spotted a breeding pair of these units by the bins at work today - but I wasnt sure exactly what they were and what the best bait for them would be.

I got on google and finding the best bait for an "Oriental Latrine Fly" was possibly a few steps further than I was willing to go.

But upon further reading, the cat food should be fine.

Chrysomya megacephala, more commonly known as the oriental latrine fly, is a member of the family Calliphoridae (blowflies). It is a warm-weather fly with a greenish-blue metallic box-like body. The fly infests corpses soon after death, making it important to forensic science. This fly is implicated in some public health issues; it can cause accidental myiasis,^[1] and also infects fish and livestock.

Yeah the lack flies is not something I remember complaining about in the past.



 

Yeah my initial concerns of lack of flies at this time of year seem to be coming true. My part of town doesnt have a lot of flies at anytime of year, So when the cooler weather sets in, theres even less.

The cat food doesnt stink yet but I reckon its the lack of flies in my neighborhood thats the real problem. Even in summer you can eat outside and not swish away a fly.

I might take advantage of some large bins near work - actually some restaurant bins with heaps of food scraps in them are what I really need to find my breeders - leave it with me - I'll work it out eventually

and Heres what it looked like on day one

Day 3  - still no eggs to be seen - but I did see a green headed blowfly at work today - might have to take the food to the flies

Now that I've had a few minutes to think about it - I might build myself a line tensioning rig aswell.

When you spool the braid onto to your reel - do you use that tensioning rig? -

The reason I ask is I usually let the line come off the spool like this when transferring to my spinning reels to avoid twist - but that habit comes from the days when I used to use mono where twist is a much bigger issue

Ahhh  - Yeah that part of the process could use a bit of work at my end- I tend to use my fingers to tension the line onto the reel - or if I'm doing big jobs like surf reels - thats when the wet polar fleece glove comes out to play

Heres the one I bought - took a split second to realize the importance of tension to spin the wheel, to get accurate readings but after that it was smooth sailing.

1 hour ago, Rod said:

G'day

Yeah use one of the cheapy version line counter, works well.  Also bought holder for the spools,  had issues with that but fixable

Cheers

Rod

Yeah I just use threaded rod from bunnings to hold the spool. A couple of nuts and some plywood washers and shess done.

But the line counter really rounds out my top shoting kit - no more guess work based on doqdy maths and spool circumferences.

As long as there enough tension to turn that little orange wheel - its pretty accurate

It arrived today and it works

and so it begins - went with a can of cat food.

Day one - no eggs yet - but a few ants got to it - they may have taken them away.

So I've put the can in some water and cat proofed it

yeah 3 to 4 weeks would work for me

1 hour ago, Rybak said:

Bran & Pollard mix only. Did not last long either even when kept in the fridge. Was just not worth the effort.

To a bloke who is on the fence as to whether to dive back into the maggot making game - this isnt the news I was hoping for
 

On 31/03/2019 at 6:11 PM, lofty64 said:

Shake the gents into ,a sawdust mix ,with bran ,tends to clean them and feed them ,then into clean sawdust ,come wood shavings ,with some fresh bran ,lasts for a long time 

Thanks for the tips lofty64

Thanks Rybak - What did you store your maggots in after the breeding was done - Like what bedding material did you put in with them in the tub.

I should add that I did remove the maggots from the incubation bucket and put them in bran filled containers - but having newspaper in the incubation bucket would make the process less juicy.