yellow door 1

If you are handy with tools etc, you can easily make one from timber. Otherwise, if you cant be bothered then just buy one like the one on Anaconda. Can always spray can paint if you dont like the colour.  For $30 bucks each you cant go wrong for portable units & a can of spray paint.  

I would never do it like that. Always snell both hooks along the shank of the hook both the same way & certainly not through the eye of the hook. Just my preferred method that has never failed me. I even snell Size 12 long shank hooks for Gar the same way (not that you need to for Gar). 

I adapted an old Ikea clothes rack. Using velcro cable ties up top. The attached picture is how I have mine set up.
They have them from $25 for a double sided (for rods) and on rollers. So easy to move around and access both sides. https://www.ikea.com/au/en/p/rigga-clothes-rack-white-30231631/ 
You may be able to modify to suit your customised needs.

I haven’t had a snell fail yet 
only possible issue is if you bind it the wrong direction around the hook eye  or your hook eye has particularly sharp edges 
 
i just tie the simple version like Lee Rayner 
 
 

Yeah ali express

Just put them next to a decoy 1.5 - fat wire is strong wire - and for $5 you'd get around 200 clips instead of 13

Also swapped the balls for barrels as I was worried about the balls getting in the way
 
also switched to the hacksaw after someone mentioned health concerns with the grinder and lead fumes
 
the smaller ones are 2 gram and the biggest is 10  - the middle are 7 gram

Couldnt find heavy enough split shot for my weed lees hooks.  So I had to improvise
 

Couldnt find heavy enough split shot for my weed lees hooks.  So I had to improvise
 

Yeah anything that mimics a gar wouldnt be a bad place to start.

But colour shouldnt be a huge deal - the lures we used to chuck for pinkies were a mix of pinks - browns, and pumkin colour and they had no problems hitting those.

I have watched them shadow huge schools of 3 inch sliver bait while diving - I imagine with a mouth that big and cutting teeth that sharp - everything is on the menu.

Plastics this summer from the boat has completely smashed any metal or hb I've tried ! Ya do loose a few to bite offs but your getting heaps more hits etc!!! A few plastics I use are the squidgy poddy mullet around 80mm size , drop bear think that's the name of it , white one with orange throat and a black spot! Anything in pilchard colour should work! Try get the stealth pro bream jig heads coz they have a longer bigger hook so less bite offs! You can change up your retrieve from a slow wind to normal twitches and pause, as most hits are on the pause as its sinking back down just watch your line like a hawk while doin this! Best time has been on the run in tide for me, and also in very shollow water anywhere from Marino to Hallet cove! Oh and ive been using 12 lb fluro carbon leader, sometimes still not thick enough for bite offs!Good luck!

Just a couple of upgrades
 

Just a couple of upgrades
 

I've got a couple of pairs of diawa braid scissors which I got when I brought j-braid and they do a good job.

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Good test YD1.
I've never found any 'good' cutting pliers for braid.  Even the special braid cutters are usually useless.
So I generally stick to a sharp knife - not perfect all the time, but pretty good.

Yeah the Snub nose blue Berkleys are the best I have found -

But having hook removal pliers, that can also cut untensioned braid has become my minimum standard for pliers these days
 
 

Haha we're traveling by road and with a camper trailer. Baggage handlers be damned


I'll check out those Shimano raiders. Cheers

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I swear those handlers use rod tubes to practice their caber tossing😉

Some cushion foam plugs - (far right) are a useful addition

 

 

I swear those handlers use rod tubes to practice their caber tossing😉

Some cushion foam plugs - (far right) are a useful addition

 

 

Shimano Raider travel rods are good value for money. PVC tube is the best option for protecting and storing rods when travelling and is almost baggage handler proof! Bone and Nitro travel rods are better quality but way more expensive.

Excellent article!! They are very impressive catches. I'm itching to give it a try in the mangrove snags up here in FNQ.
How do you work the lure under the float? 
"Popping cork" rigs are used with soft plastic (or bait) in the USA over seagrass beds, and a few folk up here have made their own to fish ultra-snaggy territory. One fellow in Cairns makes his with little "propellers" available at tackle stores, and various rattling beads from craft stores. Here are some of his catches. He says sometimes the fish hit the cork first!
 

VISON versus VIBES
I was fishing the Northern Sandflats yesterday.
The whiting fishing was a bit slow, so I quickly shifted my attention to Flathead.
There was something on my mind. I was curious to know. Which sensory stimulus was most likely to attract a Flathead strike?
.
I lean to vision being the most important sense that a Flathead employs in hunting prey. As all my successful Flathead fishing has relied on placing my offering in a highly visible “Strike Zone” above their eyes …  unconventionally under a float.
Yes I have taken the occasional Flathead, on a bloodworm intended for whiting, while trolling and dragging it along the bottom in sand. And I have caught a few Flathead, bouncing blades and vibe lures, across the sand. Again while targeting whiting. But these have always been incidental catches. Nonetheless, Vibes and movement along the bottom has produced the occasional result.
I have tried fishing the bottom for Flathead with a lot of intent and effort. Using blades as well as an array of soft plastics. Working, bouncing and retrieving my offering across the sand in front of Flathead. Success has been minimal when relying on vibrations and bottom movement. Where as capitalising on their sharp vision by keeping my presentation, above their eyes under a float has been enormously successful.
.
I was keen to explore this further.
I was starting to assume that bounces, shakes and vibrations, meant little and it was all about vision. Flathead had a dysfunctional lateral line. Very little feel for vibrations, jiggles or bounces.
I asked the S. A. Flathead Guru and “Doctor of Yellow Fin Whiting” Bill Goh from Adeliade Uni. His reply:
.
“ the flathead’s lateral line is very pronounced (even hard to get the scales off), and it is orientated closer to the top (dorsal). So when a flathead digs itself in, the lateral line is more exposed.“  https://www.facebook.com/groups/970345633507487/permalink/1095174604357922/
Maybe I had underestimated the effect of vibrations with Flathead. Now there was no option but to have a head to head comparison for the two senses in the one session, using the two different techniques. Floating a soft Plastic below a float (VISION) versus Bouncing, jigging and vibrating a paddle tail plastic along the bottom (VIBES) .
.
THE TEST
Berkley Jerkshad 120mm was in the “VISION” corner, Versus Squidgies Bio Tough Paddle Tail 100mm in the “VIBE” corner.

 
Overcast skies yesterday, I felt would be putting the “Visual” presentation at a disadvantage. From the Flathead’s view looking up, there would not be as strong and contrasting a silhouette against dark clouds.
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The test did not need to be conducted too long. The slender fish like Jerkshad suspended under a float got all the fish! I am sure the most important sense for a Flathead is Vision. Make your offer most visual and obvious for the best results. I chose to use a float to do this.

TERRAIN
Is it all about the Habitat and Terrain?
On the Northern Sand Flats of the upper S.A. Gulfs, the terrain plays a most important role. With the bigger tide movements of the upper Gulfs, I find most Flathead in the faster tidal flow areas. Usually in weed filled channels, broken weed beds with sand patches, and along weed lines. Occasionally slightly reefy patches. But always in a high tidal flow area. The Southern Bluespotted Flathead, (Platycephalus Speculator) seems to love sitting in or around some structure, rather than being buried in an open sandy area, which occasionally happens.
I prefer fishing the run off tide. With the draining run off tide, baitfish get concentrated into these areas of structure. The easiest and most trouble free, snag free, way of covering this terrain, with the best visibility … is under a float.
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This terrain and heavy weed growth restricts the Flathead’s vision to a mainly upward line of sight. Making its hunting heavily reliant on its vision, in this habitat. The terrain and heavy weed growth would also somewhat dampen any of the other stimulating senses.
.
Yesterday I managed 2 Flathead at 61cm and another 3 in the mid 40s. Along with half a dozen whiting in the low 30s.

 
It was a great day. It could have been brilliant if I had not lost a further 2 good fish today. Both bust offs. They get very angry in shallow water! I am still using my ultra light and well worn whiting lure gear and line. Time to step up and gear up seriously to target these guys over Autumn.
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Cheers and Tight lines, Des



 
 

Thanks for the tip Mike - if it can handle kings - it will handle anything👍