yellow door 1

Yeah I gave it my first try the other night and was very impressed with the results

I recently went through a rather exhaustive search on what superglue people use to attached ZMANS to jigheads. The glue is to stop fish yanking your plastic off the hook or pulling it off the keeper - or "Getting Pantsed". This is a serious issue when getting 100's of hits that dont hook up, while chasing small snapper. Here's what I learnt 1 - most people have never heard of using superglue with ZMANS 2 - those that had, like loctite gel super glue 3 - Most people use TT Headlock jigheads with ZMANS and claim getting "pantsed" isnt an issue 4 - Some claim getting pansted i

I've never tried squid but I have got them on small squares of limpet, so I can imagine squid working well. My techniques rely on working them into a frenzy and getting them to compete over a small bit of berley with my bait in the middle - so they may be more open to less desirable baits. If I wasnt using burley, I would probably pay more attention to the quality of my bait. If I had to guess - I'd say live sandworm would be the ultimate bait - but they will eat red meat, chicken and dough pretty readily when fished in a burley trail. Hook size and bait size are 2 things I pay seri

Good call on the toughness of the bait - the mullet I chase are very good at taking bait off hooks - So I get a chicken drumsticks, peel back the white flappy skin and there is a outer coating of tough skin underneath (like silverside) - I make sure my baits have a silver side backing. If I use the normal flesh from inside the drumstick they find it much easier to rip off. I spose its a bigger issue for me because I chase small mullet on tiny 3mm by 3mm baits There can be many different sizes within the same school - the ones under 4 inch can be a real pain and waste alot of preciou

This is for rivers and still water scenarios I do 99% of my mullet fish from an elevated position, like a jetty. I Berley them up to the surface so I can watch them eat the bait I use them for livies, so I want to get 20 really quick. Small 3mm squares of chicken or prawn on a size 12 long shank hook. And I use a "Flatty Flicker" or just hold the hook upside down really firmly and 9 times out of 10, the mullet will wriggle off the hook, so I dont have to touch them and mess with their slime coat. I wouldnt catch many at all without a bread crumb and canned cat food berley -

Yeah I'm not really set up for keeping large quantities of fish - it holds up ok in the freezer bags but I tend to give away excess on the odd occasion I have to keep a big fella. So it gets used pretty quick (its only happened twice when I couldnt revive the fish) The one in the photo was 1m long on the dot - but legal size is 60cm and you can keep 5 of them in Vic

Yeah with the Jewies I tend to fillet on the spot - skin when I get home - and freeze what I cant use in the next couple of days. But I only kill the odd one that doesnt swim off after attempts to revive - the Yarra isnt the most pristine river to eat apex predators from But if they are going to die - they dont go to waste - they still taste great but the Government suggests you only eat a max of 400g of fish from Melbourne rivers a week.

I had to google that one

No worries - And heres a vid by a professional bait collector, on trouble shooting pump problems and how to make a replacement plunger out of silicone and old gumboots - He talks about dings in the metal tubing - bent plunger rods - and lubing your pump every 15-20 pumps with vegetable oil

Heres a close up view of how the Alvey bait pumps are put together

Some guys just use a circle cut from a rubber thong to the replace the plunger - just press your bait pump down on the thong and it will leave an imprint - or you can buy a replacement kit. One thing I learnt too late, was turning the wing nut fine tunes the suction the pump delivers

Here you go mate - the BG handled him no worries

Had to do a little road side panel beating - but shes good as new and still kicking

But they're a tough unit - The number one way I break reels is the wind blowing my bike over while the rods are strapped into some paniers on the back. The BG is the only reel to have survived the full weight on my bike slamming it into the ground

I run a Daiwa freams 3000 and a Daiwa BG 3000 on identical rods for Jewies - I run different lures on each so I can quickly cover a spot and move to the next - there is a noticeable difference in the weight when you switch between the out fits. So much so that I weighed them - Its not a huge deal and I normally only notice it when I'm cracking the sooks after a few dud spots - but the difference is real As long as you dont run it side by side with another lighter reel - you might not notice the weight gain.

Using a bait holder style hook can also help stop them scrunching up - it doesnt always work as they are a pretty flimsy bait - and if you cast too hard they will scrunch - but whiting will still eat a scrunched up Yabby

If you want to keep them lively-ish - (they are never particularly lively with a hook in them) - have the hook point exit before the head. But I used to run the hook all the way through and exit in the head like this lure photo - My thought being it it was slight tougher shell in the head and they would stay on the hook a bit better

a few more options

I just went down to have a scaling comp between the store bought and the diy bottle top version Both were good but the store bought version wins by a nose - I think it was due to the pulling action used with the red tool

For those hard to remove scales

Yeah I like the sound of that