yellow door 1

1 hour ago, Softy said:

I actually saw that video on Facebook this morning about hooking it over the eye. Going to give it a try tomorrow.

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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 is still an issue with TT head locks

but the biggest revelation was this method that doesnt require glue and will work with any jighead - even those that arent specifically designed for Zmans.

They run a hook through the zman and pull it over the eye of the hook.

https://m.facebook.com/video_redirect/?src=https%3A%2F%2Fvideo.fsyd3-1.fna.fbcdn.net%2Fv%2Ft42.9040-2%2F53220768_2026084804170678_2193141491113656320_n.mp4%3F_nc_cat%3D109%26efg%3DeyJ2ZW5jb2RlX3RhZyI6InN2ZV9zZCJ9%26_nc_eui2%3DAeFzUhCiWECAqVuxy576_WYjCcdczq_tmVXDc1979xsV6_Lj1AmC4iKAyQMaIo67-UcQwOO2gm8qbSwWSR2IRYrKxlTk0I82OAhWSev7DhtLkw%26_nc_ht%3Dvideo.fsyd3-1.fna%26oh%3Def80a7b29be7264ad2892f2d00276a1f%26oe%3D5C84B305&source=misc&id=579318495873707&refid=52&__tn__=FH-R

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 serious attention to, as yellow eye mullet - especially the little ones I want - have small mouths

 

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 precious seconds dragging my bait around and keeping it out of the mouth of the bigger ones - they're also great at ripping off soft baits

The days when they are so fired up they will take "white flappy" chicken skin are the best - they find it very difficult to rip that off and you can catch heaps of the one bait - but they do show a preference for the flesh over the skin. And a piece of flesh thats been sucked on a few times isnt as attractive as a fresh piece.

Prawn and Live worm are a bit exotic for me to use all the time - but if I have had a tough session recently - I will grab a couple of big prawns from the supermarket just in cases they arent smashing the chicken - but the dirty old chook usually gets me what I need quick enough

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 - I mix it with water in a bucket so its just sloppy - And add a 1/4 of a teaspoon at a time, once I've got the school to my feet. I try to time my bait landing just after the half teaspoon of berley hits the water. I keep it unweighted so it sinks at the same rate as the berley.

If there is no wind - I dont use a float but if the wind gets up, the float is mainly there to add casting distance and stop my unweighted bait being dragged around by the wind.

I have found a gently sinking bait is much more effective in an active berley trail - A static bait sitting under a float, can be all but ignored, while a moving bait will be doing all the damage - So I keep my bait moving by raising it up and letting it sink. The mullet I chase love a moving bait.

Even pulsing it back like a soft plastic, can help get the schools attention. They seems really keyed into movement and when one chases it, it fires up the school and they compete much harder for the bait.

Finding a spot where they naturally hang out is also very important to my methods - If I get things right - I can have the school at my feet in under 2 mins - some days it seems like they were watching the first spoon of berley flying through the air

 

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
 

1 hour ago, lofty64 said:

Good stuff love it ,  Theory and proof  of rods and reels , but with all this stuff is there any fish …..?    

Its great to have everything in line and know what to use and what not to use .

Great stuff and all is good ……..but fish pictures is better than ...TESTING .

 Throw some pictures of fish ,after testing , be cool as cheers 

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
 

For those hard to remove scales

13 hours ago, AquaticResearch1 said:

Absolutely beautiful snapper skin into a hot pan with some turmeric and sweet paprika rubbed into it. Forums an awesome crust which  doesn't overpower the fish itself. Best I had was a smaller fillet from a ~ 40cm fish into butter just before it'd burn, and wow, perfect. 

Yeah I like the sound of that