imfishn

Cheers for that Kelvin, i might give that a go.

Thanks Kelvin, that's great! did you use a large leather needle for the mono line. My Alvey bag is the heavy duty red one, the nylon/polyester is quite thick, it would be tough to sew i think. Where did you get a large zip to fit the length of the bag? Do you have any photos please that you could share? thank you

Hi all, hoping everyone is enjoying their fishing, there's definitely been some nice spring days to get out for some fishing. I was recently out fishing around Seacliff a few weeks ago, wading around trying for some Garfish and potential whiting. I did get onto a few gar and kgw, and they went straight into the Alvey wading bag. However i did find that when the bigger waves hit, the wading bag would tilt onto it's side and i nearly lost my catch a few times, especially as the water level rose.

I had a thought of trying to have the bag closeable with a zip or Velcro. The zip idea seemed much more difficult and i didn't know whether there was something available on the market and how i would even stitch it on, so i opted for Velcro. I tried to glue it on the inside of the bag with fabric glue, it seemed to hold ok, but the next time fishing it just peeled off in the water. I am wondering if anyone knows of a stronger, waterproof glue that would hold up in saltwater that i could use or any other clever DIY solutions to being able to close/open the wading bag to prevent accidental escapees.

Cheers everyone!

Cheers Des, sounds promising. I am really looking forward to giving them a crack this summer, that's for certain. Didn't get onto any last year.

Amazing insight and information Des, and what a great haul of beautiful fish ...well done  it all sounds very promising for us keen anglers. Do you think this pattern will also carry through to our metro beaches for YFW? 

10 hours ago, MAH said:

Last night I was fishing at Glenelg; when I was leaving, I saw a few decent schools of YFW cruising the shallows. I hadn't seen them schooled up in such numbers this summer.

The other thing that caught my eye was an enormous flatty stalking the schools of YFW. I've never seen such a big flatty in the metro waters. If I wasn't on my way to catch the last tram of the night, I would have stopped and thrown a couple of lures at it.

That's great to hear MAH, I hadn't seen any about at Kingston Park the last few times, heaps of mullet though, schools swimming around in the hundreds.

Nice catch there Des! Some ripper fish...

What are the pheromone skin jigs, I've not heard of them before?

Yes, I agree with that Soobz, they are great jigs and like you said when all the other jigs showed no interest, the flash boost hooked up immediately. I lost mine at Porties , and had to buy another one, be it they are expensive at around $20. I have the orange/ pink colour. If I see them on special I will probably buy another one in different colour.

Do you mind if I ask a question? Do you know if the current bloodworm run affects  gar and squid catches, or is it more whiting, bream etc?

Great! Cheers mate 

Thanks for that yellowdoor1  I have never tried catching them on lures, but it would be worth having this in the tacklebox, when you run out of bait or if they are finicky, i guess! could be good fun to try out. Thanks again

13 hours ago, yellow door 1 said:

Yeah when I asked what lures to use for gars, there were plenty of blokes listing all the lures they have got them on - but very few photos.

Ive mouth hooked one on a little thin metal lure while chasing salmon. But when I burleyed them up and tried lures, they werent effective for me. So I just whipped out the chicken hunks and started landing them quite freely.

If I was going to target them again with lures I'd be using something very similar to this

Hi yellowdoor1, that's a great little soft plastic for gar! can i please ask where you purchased this from. Thanks 

12 hours ago, vogon said:

I don't think I am doing this but will check. I've never had a knot unravel on lighter line though.

How do you put enough tension on the knots when you pull them tight?

Hi Vogon, with the lighter line i used just hand tension, ensuring the line is wet before final tensioning. I think when i did the heavier line i just wrapped the lines around some small dowel rods 5-6 times and pulled as hard as i could. As others have said in the topic, there are probably better, stronger knots, but I learnt this one a while back and it worked fine.

Hi Vogon, I have used the same knots as you, the Albright Knot on all my rods, both for light fishing 4lb to 15lb lines, and also for heavier surf rod up to 50lb braid and leader, and it has held up with no problem, without ever unravelling. I have found it the easiest of the knots to tie Braid to leaders, and like yourself tried the Double Uni and FG but never succeeded.

The only thing I can think of is whether you are perhaps winding/looping the leader over the Braid, rather than the Braid being wound over the leader ( I hope that makes sense ) I think I made that error once and it unravelled on me.

On 20/04/2022 at 8:33 AM, doobie said:

Gar are definitely bigger in Winter and although I have no idea on many of the questions you ask Des, I still always use a float.

On my local jetty at Pt Noarlunga, Gar are mostly caught towards the end of the jetty during warmer months (all on floats).  Although the Gar can be caught in the shallower water as well, but are smaller.

It is also better to have some ripple on the water and depths of hook will vary depending where the Gar may be holding on the day.

Over the weedy spots you'll generally have more success too.

Burley is always well worth using to 'bring in' the Gar.  You can make up all sorts of concoctions but I just use cheap chicken pellets mixed with some tuna oil. The pellets slowly break down. Or they can be soaked night before to soften quicker.  I also use old bread (processed up) mixed with tuna oil bit of curry.  (some people use canola oil cat tuna tins mixed into burley).

Have a good burley stream going but don't overfeed them - once they come in, lighten off the burley to a tickle.

I only use 1 hook as 2 hooks can cause too many tangles with Gar.  Most ppl use a hook size 10/12 long shank. Long shank is good for hook retrieval although I use 'Diiachi' size 12/14 small medium shank.

During Winter, the deeper depths of the jetty don't produce as many Gar (on a float), but successful catches are caught towards the shallows on a float.  There is no need to use a sinker/cork as the float/leader is enough due to shallower water depth.  If fishing toward the end of the jetty, then as Rybak mentions, a sinker/cork combo would be useful.

Gents are a great bait with 'long life' available mostly everywhere and about 350 gents in a container.  Keep in the fridge (I put container in a zip lock also - just in case of a couple escapees), where they become docile.  I take out once a week a give a little water spray and let them move around for a bit then back in the fridge - seems to keep them even longer.

Sometimes Gar will not touch a gent, so other baits such as a slither of chicken, slither of red meat or slither of Gar flesh can work also.  A couple of very successful fishos on the jetty use dough - their little secret ingredients work very well.

And, always best to have wind at your back for better casting and current in same direction - to keep the float 'out there'.

When Gar are finicky to take a bait, it is worth trying different methods to excite them into 'attacking'.

That can be slight jerks of your rod to give that slight movement of the bait - or a very slow retrieve, stop, slow retrieve - or jerk, slow retrieve, stop, slow retrieve - anything else you can try to excite them etc.   

If wind/current is in your favor, you can also try just the hook without a float/sinker/cork etc.

Many a time you will see them in schools and all around your bait, but no matter what you do, they will not commit.  When you throw in a little burley, they will take that, but not your bait.    If nothing works to hook them, just enjoy the day on the water

Also, if you intend to return any Gar (undersize, too thin etc), always handle them with care due to their very delicate scale.

Using a wet hand (or wet cloth) whilst holding them will help reduce loss of scales.

For the keepers, hold Gar around head/gills and with other hand, grip and run hand down the flesh - this will take off much of the scales and easier to clean at home.   Also, run your thumb down the stomach towards the bum which will push out most innards - point towards water and not yourself   Acts as a bit of burley too.

Gar is one of the tastiest you will enjoy - I rate them better than KGW.  And once you start bringing some home, you'll soon get the hang of butterflying them (although single fillets are ok, they can be a bit small at times).

Hope that helps and look forward to your catches  

 

Great information for everyone there Doobie

5 hours ago, MAH said:

Monday night I decided to head out for a fish, so I packed my squid outfit and a soft plastics outfit for some tommies. I packed it into my bicycle bags and headed off to Glenelg jetty. Got to Glenelg about 7pm and fished for squid till last light, then switched over to soft plastics for tommies. No joy with the squid but plenty of tommies about for a feed and to stock up on bait for crab nets.

The jetty was pretty empty with only two other people, which was surprising because the conditions were excellent. Then about 10.30pm the wind started to pick up with increasingly strong gusts. Just after 11pm a really big gust came through and I turned to see my bicycle being blown over. All my gear was secure in the bike bags, except my box of squid jigs, which went over the edge of the jetty. There was no moon, so quite dark but with a torch I could see the box of jigs partially floating and heading out to see. Well, 10 quality jigs and the lure box sinking to the bottom was not something I was happy about, and I quickly said to myself "F*** it!", stripped off to my boxer shorts, climbed the railing and took the plunge into the inky brine. One of the other fishos shone a torch on the lure box and I swam out to get it, then back along the jetty and underneath to the opposite side to climb the ladder.

By this stage my heart my heart was pounding pretty hard, not from jumping in (I was a regular jetty jumper as a kid), not from the swim, but from the thoughts racing through my head. With no moon, it was bloody dark down in the water and the fear of the unknown lurking below certainly put me on edge as I swam back to the ladder.

Would I do it again? F*** yeah! I'm not letting $150+ of jigs and lure box get away that easy.

Very courageous man indeed, well done on getting your lures back.

Great information you have shared there MAH. Thank you 

Nice selection of jigs there