yellow door 1

Yeah S.A. still has to deal with the the effing disgraceful flows coming out of the Murray to prop up the cotton industry up stream.

I'd hate to see the traditional flows out the Murray mouth  -compared to the trickle is receives due to the mega dams upstream.

And those flows are 100% DECIDED BY POLITICIANS IN BED WITH THE COTTON INDUSTRY - THEY DONT EVEN DISPUTE IT - there are taped phone calls with the deputy director of the DPI which show him so far under the doona -  I cant undertand why he wasnt immediately sacked then put in jail

But he wasnt
 
The problem with politicians being watch dogs over a resource is -  the only resource they want to protect is the "Cash Cow" - so even if it is being exploited in an unsavory manor  - the "cow" must survive - just in a more palatable form. And accusing a fellow politician of taking too much "milk" may land you in hot water later when it comes time for your cup to be filled
 

This just came up in my facebook feed  - those are some pretty scary numbers
 

Yeah dont get me wrong - I'd take everything I have to say with a grain of salt - I never know, with any certainty, what actually happens under the water  - these are just guesses😉

And when it comes to circle hooks - I've had my livies convincingly out-fished by guys using circle hooks and frozen local squid - but I love striking fish too much to ever make the switch to circles - striking fish is a big part of the spectacle for me






 

Jesus - you have no idea how far back in the archives I had to go to find these pics.

But I got into serious livie fishing pretty late in life - I went from mainly dead bait (first 25 years) - to mainly small live bait(3 months) - to bream and other species on lures (10 years) - then serious livie-ing for a bit (2 years) - then back to lures.

The main reason I avoided landbased Livebaiting in Melbourne......... - was all the "social media guru's" and well known "under ground" Mulloway guys said it was hard to do.

I gave their words more respect than they were due - coz words are just words -  and they can occasionally be deliberately misleading😉
(plus I spent a night out with some guru's and froze my arse off, catching nothing and said to myself -this isnt fishing - its just waiting around praying for something to happen.) ( I found very little logic in their approach)

But I ride a push bike, so I can basically cover about 20km from the mouth of both our main rivers in an evening - and I would do recon missions, where I wouldnt cast a lure - quite regularly. (but I would bump into all sorts of Jewie fisherman and have a chat - most pretended to be fishing for bream with surf rods and live mullet 😉)

- admittedly fishing the rivers on boats with a sounder for about 15 of those years, should have been a huge advantage - but we werent even looking for Jewies until the last 3 years. If I had paid attention from the start - this game would have been alot easier to work out

But what I absorbed over that period of time is - if you have a sounder - jewies are quite easy to find - getting them to bight isnt quite so easy😉
 

Jesus - you have no idea how far back in the archives I had to go to find these pics.

But I got into serious livie fishing pretty late in life - I went from mainly dead bait (first 25 years) - to mainly small live bait(3 months) - to bream and other species on lures (10 years) - then serious livie-ing for a bit (2 years) - then back to lures.

The main reason I avoided landbased Livebaiting in Melbourne......... - was all the "social media guru's" and well known "under ground" Mulloway guys said it was hard to do.

I gave their words more respect than they were due - coz words are just words -  and they can occasionally be deliberately misleading😉
(plus I spent a night out with some guru's and froze my arse off, catching nothing and said to myself -this isnt fishing - its just waiting around praying for something to happen.) ( I found very little logic in their approach)

But I ride a push bike, so I can basically cover about 20km from the mouth of both our main rivers in an evening - and I would do recon missions, where I wouldnt cast a lure - quite regularly. (but I would bump into all sorts of Jewie fisherman and have a chat - most pretended to be fishing for bream with surf rods and live mullet 😉)

- admittedly fishing the rivers on boats with a sounder for about 15 of those years, should have been a huge advantage - but we werent even looking for Jewies until the last 3 years. If I had paid attention from the start - this game would have been alot easier to work out

But what I absorbed over that period of time is - if you have a sounder - jewies are quite easy to find - getting them to bight isnt quite so easy😉
 

😁

Yeah the photo above is a bit misleading. It shows the head taken off but they quite often come back with the head still on - but crushed - I'll try to find some photos of the crushed heads

When we used to fish the bays alot, we'd get a fair few squid taking livies - but a squid take is much more "Lungey" than these clunking "Head Crushers" - Squid also often leave a semi circular bight on the shoulder right near the head.  These takes are weird - it just one clunk - then they leave it alone - there are no follow up nudges or nibbles

These "Head crushers" live in the rivers around Melbourne - but because they are estuarine, with big changes in salinity levels, its hard to ID them because there's so many options.

Deep down I think they might be eels - but I have no proof

Yeah I used to use the spring loaded ones but Id have to take them on  and off while casting -  and they' get catapulted off if I struck hard and missed a fish.

So I decided to take the bell apart and tape it to the rod so it would never fly off.

Alot of guys are against bells but I find them invaluable when fishing livies.

I tape mine down the rod tip a bit, so they dont ring when the livie blinks - but if my livie starts getting really spooked, they'll give me a heads up.

But the real reason I put them on is there is - We have this jerk fish in Melbourne that chomps the head of your livies  - sucks the juice out - and leaves the rest without taking Bait-runner drag. But this activity will register on the rod tip like a clunk.

If I know my livie is dead, I'll put a new one on - so the bells let me know if one of these Mystery fish is in the area - If I ever catch one, I'm going to punch it in the balls - coz I've had nights where 6 livies have come back with crushed heads and I didnt even know they had been hit. The bells make that much less likely to happen

Gotta be careful - might end up with the maggot version of these brutes😉
 
 

Gotta be careful - might end up with the maggot version of these brutes😉
 
 

Definitely coir/coconut fibre. The blocks you get from Bunnings etc and soak in a bucket of water, til the expand and fall apart. However be aware that many of these have fertilisers added which you wont want with your maggots.

Nice fish 

The maggots get another week off😉

The maggots get another week off😉

I tried breeding them once and am now officially banned from attempting to do so again at Guru HQ, upon the threat of immediate divorce.
 
My wife is actually a decent looking bird and looks after me pretty well . . . so I reckon I'll leave it to you guys moving forward 😂
 
 

Interesting to see what the tournament pro's carry in tackle supplies
 

Hi Doobie, sorry I'm a bit late for the party. I buy the long life gents too, and have found them to be fantastic. I keep them in the fridge set at 4 degrees, and they have lasted for several months. When fishing I'll often leave them out of the esky yet have had no issues with the ones bought from a local tackle shop. The only time I have had them go bad was from a BCF store purchase, and I suspect the product was old as the substrate was dryish. Recently I've started "flavouring" maggots with tuna oil and other stuff, I use a separate container so as not to contaminate all of them. The one's I purchase are Sheldon's brand, won't even bother trying any others. Recently my son and I caught 68 tommies in a 90 minute session, using 3 maggots to a hook and catching up to 5 fish between rebaiting.
 

Those old Greeks/Italians have a lot of fishing knowledge I reckon.
There's one particular Italian on my local jetty who can out fish anyone and yet the rest of us have the same rig set up and bait etc.  When he uses a float, the rest of us are sure his float doesn't move - but he sees something and he has a fish lol.
But the thing is, some fish like smelly bait, some like a well presented bait, some like a tasty bait and some don't give a crap and will take anything  

Yeah - some of my "steepest learning curves" in fishing, have come from chatting with old Greek fisherman on piers and rock walls.

2 of the most pivotal moments occurred, when I thought my "space age" gear would slaughter the catch rates of the old fella's who had set up before me😉

But nothing could have been further from the truth......

And thats when I developed a healthy distrust for the tackle industry and articles written by "corporate shills"😉

They tell you the reason you arent catching, is because you arent using this rod - that reel - this brand of fluorocarbon leader - and "Jumbajatsaring" hooks🙂

When the real reason is........... - you arent using the same baits and techniques as "Costa" and "Thanasis"😁

On both occasions -  they were using super heavy gear - (one on bream and the other on gars) - both species know for being wary of heavy leaders - but even with the rope they were using - they were slaying me on catch rates per hour.

To stop this story before is turns into a saga - the bait on the end of your hook is 90 times more important than the gear your own - and knowing the distance and depth fish are most comfortable feeding at -  is information no amount of fancy gear can over come🙂.

So when I said that "young stinking maggots, full of meat", might be the ultimate bait - it reminded me of these pivotal moments, where the tackle industry has told me fresh clean maggots are the only ones that will be eaten - but maybe thats because "Maggot sellers" cant consistently provide those juicy young fellas  - so they tell everyone the young big ones dont catch fish,

But when I think about it - in the spots I fish maggots in - none of them have wasted away in a fridge feeding on bran for 30 days - they were born on the carcasses of dead pigeons, seagulls, old bait, dead sting rays and rats.

And when they crawled off the carcass, looking for a spot to turn into flys - they either fell off the rock wall - fell off the bridge - fell off the dead possum wedged in a tree ...... but they did it ll with gut full of rancid meat

The ones that hit the water would have stunk of all sorts of filth - the ones that have spent 30 days in the fridge, surrounded by bran, would have an unfamiliar odour that imight be ignored for 10 mins before being eaten.

But I need to stress this point - something that smells slightly weird -  will be ignored in the presence of something a fish is used to - it might get eaten later, but it will be the last things to get eaten.

This knowledge stems from many years of keeping goldfish - the first time they saw a piece of corn or maggots - they completely ignored them.

But after a week of feeding them, they will fight each other to the death to get one - so if you dont have time to muck around under a bridge known for its pigeons.

Breed your maggots on pigeon meat - and the only thing better than pigeon meat  - is pigeon meat that came from pigeons that lived on that bridge😉

A live pulsating mussel from 20km away is less effective from the one growing at your feet

p.s/ dropped 3 jewies on sebiles tonight - so the maggots an sleep easy for the next few nights

I think cleaned out maggots are better, but as you say, there is probably argument that maggots with meat still in their stomachs are good as well.
But when putting the meat filled maggot on hooks and their juices come out, I reckon our finger would tend to smell pretty bad pretty quickly.
Anyway, the clean ones still have a good juices for the Gar to suck on - no rudeness intended lol.

I'm reluctant to share this Vid, as my camera sucks in low light - but there might be something in it.
White light tends to illuminate the hell out of an area - but yellow light gives a truer representation of the colours you would see in day light - and for what its worth - I find when I'm spot lighting fish - they are much more likely to spook on a white light than a yellow light

 
 

Haha - trust me, I understand your pain.

I would have to be the most considerate head torch user known to man.

I always ask for permission from fellow anglers before turning it on and I'm extremely mindful of where the beam is pointing.

The guys I fish with are veteran head torch users, so the "rookie errors", alot of people make, do not occur in my circle.

I have introduced alot of people to the joys of head torches but after a few years I started giving safety briefings before handing them out😉.

For instance - If I was going camping with a new crew I'd always buy some cheapies from bunnings. (Mainly so they would stop asking to borrow mine😉)

Watching a newb use one for the first time, is a night mare.

Direct blasts to your eyes - Shining them over the water at inopportune times and "over use" are the major crimes.

But on the head of a considerate gentleman - A head torch is a weapon that has greatly increased my catches - my head torch has been responsible for unlocking angling secrets that would never have been discovered otherwise. - this fish would not have been caught if I hadn't "Head Torched" the area the night before 🙂

My old man is a head torch aficionado, problem is his hearing isn't what it used to be, fishing at night you try and talk to him and next second he shines the bloody torch in your face, drives me insane.