yellow door 1

As its bucketing down in Melbourne - I figured I do a walk through of my "Tackle Tip"😉
 

 

As its bucketing down in Melbourne - I figured I do a walk through of my "Tackle Tip"😉
 

 

As its bucketing down in Melbourne - I figured I do a walk through of my "Tackle Tip"😉
 

 

Like doing a piss  

Yeah that last one is a bit suss but would also be pretty handy in some situations

Personally prefer the 2nd photo option whilst the last photo option is a bit of a concern  

Yeah some of the big hook manufacturers encourage you to use a hook only once - my 10c jobs can last 3 sessions being mauled by pinkies and still be needle sharp with no rust
 
 

With rods and reels I tend to stick with Daiwa Shimano Pfluegars and Abu.

I used to spend more but these days I dont like spending over $125 on either a rod or reel - but I will stretch that for some of my light lure set ups. (no more than $200)

My braid and fluoro is Kast King - Super cheap and has passed all my strength and in the field tests. I can top shot my reels with 100m of braid for about $4 with a limp braid, that out performs braids 20 times the price

I use alot of plastic lures these days and most of them are just cheapies off ali express or ebay - I did go through a phase of using ZMans to over come rips and tears on small pinkies but little pinks still rip of a zman single tail. So i just went back to cheapies

Jigs heads are ALi express and abay cheapies for the most part - I just use a diamond file to put a needle point on them and they do the job

Same with weedless hooks and bait hooks - all aliexpress/ebay cheapies - I run them through some pretty rigorous testing with scales and in water longevity test - there are some primo quality hooks out there that are 20 times cheaper.
 
And I tend to tinker around making some of my own stuff like floats weighted weedless hooks and sinkers

I've got a mate who sets an alarm on his phone and watches the water to make sure its gone slack - then he casts - he likes the the exact second the incoming tide starts. He doesnt want to put lures infront of fish that arent ready to feed yet

I'm a bit more relaxed - I'll take any stage of incoming tide.  But I prefer it to happen around dusk.

With lures - I usually put 12 casts in to a spot before moving on to the next.

But with livies - I'll sit it out and a 3- 4 hour session is long enough to let me know if they were going to hit or not.

I really start to focus on the rod tips once darkness begins to fall - thats mainly because I've caught all my livies and I've got nothing better to do - but change of light and the hour or 2 after, are when I do my most intense staring at tips.

I do like weak incoming tides in the most of the spots I fish. Theres always exceptions where the complete opposite is true - like a bottleneck where bait is forced out on an out going tide. But as a general rule - incoming tide at dusk is what I go for

Ahh I see - I was on the wrong track imagining you were casting out into the middle of a river.

Yeah when I fish wharfs for them - first I do recon to find a spot where the biggest schools of bait hang out at night - then I burley all session and set one livie at 1.5m down and the other at 3m.

I like to Burley half a teaspoon at a time, every 5 mins over the session, Helps to build the bait school bigger/ keeps it flashing and darting around / keeps scent in the water and gives me something to do while waiting for a hit.

I even used to experiment with splashing 10 litre buckets of water over a wide area to simulate surface activity. Cant say for sure whether this helped - but on some nights it definitely didnt hurt. Especially when the little pack hunting Jewies were charging through the surface bait schools

Yeah the only attention I pay to moons is how they effect the timing of the tides😉 I'll fish any night as long as the tides are right

 

Back when I lived in Ceduna, a mate and myself targeted the mullies at Bellamore Beach and always on the last couple of hours of a run in tide that would peak just after sunset. Bellamore has huge sandhills where we would park the Hilux on top of the highest one and scan the gutters using binoculars to spot which ones had the fish. We didn't bother with the moon phases and neither did the fish. Bait of choice was whole squid and tommies.
Some evenings were better than others, but never once did we leave the beach without scoring a few fish, not as big as those we caught at the Dog Fence or another secret location that will not be named, but generally they were up around the 15 to 20 kgs. 

When fishing from a boat or wharf I use a running rig,and simply drop it down to the bottom and lift it up a meter.This encourages the bait to keep swimming trying to find cover.Surf fishing is different, I will use large slab baits of salmon or whole squid.I like to hook my livies just in front of the dorsal fin just piercing the skin.when fishing river systems I would use a large foam float, I have seen this work well around west lakes and creek mouths around the port.

Ahh I see - I was on the wrong track imagining you were casting out into the middle of a river.

Yeah when I fish wharfs for them - first I do recon to find a spot where the biggest schools of bait hang out at night - then I burley all session and set one livie at 1.5m down and the other at 3m.

I like to Burley half a teaspoon at a time, every 5 mins over the session, Helps to build the bait school bigger/ keeps it flashing and darting around / keeps scent in the water and gives me something to do while waiting for a hit.

I even used to experiment with splashing 10 litre buckets of water over a wide area to simulate surface activity. Cant say for sure whether this helped - but on some nights it definitely didnt hurt. Especially when the little pack hunting Jewies were charging through the surface bait schools

I've got a mate who sets an alarm on his phone and watches the water to make sure its gone slack - then he casts - he likes the the exact second the incoming tide starts. He doesnt want to put lures infront of fish that arent ready to feed yet

I'm a bit more relaxed - I'll take any stage of incoming tide.  But I prefer it to happen around dusk.

With lures - I usually put 12 casts in to a spot before moving on to the next.

But with livies - I'll sit it out and a 3- 4 hour session is long enough to let me know if they were going to hit or not.

I really start to focus on the rod tips once darkness begins to fall - thats mainly because I've caught all my livies and I've got nothing better to do - but change of light and the hour or 2 after, are when I do my most intense staring at tips.

I do like weak incoming tides in the most of the spots I fish. Theres always exceptions where the complete opposite is true - like a bottleneck where bait is forced out on an out going tide. But as a general rule - incoming tide at dusk is what I go for

One rule I learnt many years ago when fishing for mullies if they are there and hungry they will bite if they they are not there,no matter what moon you will go home empty handed.I have fished the west coast on different tides,moons and times of day and been successful.Salt creek is the same. My biggest mullies(30-40 kilo)have all come from outer harbour end of the port in the last hour of the outgoing tides on live baits(mullet and salmon trout being the best) in the middle of the night.I have kept a diary since the early 80s and I can say looking back the best time of year has been August and the moon phase has played little part.A tip for anyone fishing live baits ,keep them off the bottom,about a meter is fine.Any live bait casted out with a hook shoved in it is going to hide and only become crab bait.Here is a cryptic clue to the best mulloway spot in Adelaide,the deep side of 34...….im to old to sit there on cold nights so I don't mind giving up my fav mullie hole...good luck to anyone giving it a try,remember august is the best time but they do show up all through the winter months.