TENNANT

The only scent Ive tested then not used again was the clear liquid "stimulate".

When that "Mark Berg" infomercial came out - talking about pheromones etc - I had to get some
My test was on hoards of tiny bream in clear shallows. I was watching them from a bridge. They were happy to peck away at my unscented lure but when I put the stimulate on, they were actually backing off it when I dead sticked the lure. 
I gave it a couple of hours, targeting different schools then never used it again. By the end of that session I was thinking they should explore this recipe for possible uses as a shark repellent
That was the first generation of ultra bite though. The clear stuff in the little rectangular plastic squeeze bottle.

Im aware some people liked it - but watching bream after bream back off it, made me think the Yarra bream didnt
 

S factor works fine for me .if your unsure try whatever lure or plastic your using without it.then try the same lure with whichever scent you wish to use . see the difference 

Ive always used the pro cure bloody tuna. Seems to have made a difference for me. I'm sure there are better/worse ones out there.

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I like the "pro cure" range of prey specific scents - I dont think they are made from Aussie ingrediants - they used to just put little sticker with the Aussie names for baits over the top of the USA names.

Some successful Victorian tournament anglers use it without any sponsorship deals or financial ties clouding the waters.

But after re-reading Dr Ben Diggles' history of Squidgey scent - I'll be giving it another crack.

I wasnt fully aware of the amount of testing and trials it went through - I just remember guys jokingly refer to it as Chicken Fat
 
 

S-Factor, Pro Cure, Sax Scent, Berkley Gulp Gel and Slime are all scents I have used. A big thing for me is the UV factor on all of them plus the scent. Depending on what style of fishing or what target species depends on what scent I’ve used but all seem to do a little bit of something, even if it is a confidence thing.

This year I have been fishing a lot for tommies on soft plastics. I fish mainly from Glenelg jetty and if you asked any of the regulars what they use, they all have S-factor in their pocket. Many have tried other scents but all come back to S-factor. 
Over the summer, it wasn't uncommon for a new angler to be fishing the exact same spot, with the same lures etc. and not catching a thing. One of the regulars will chat to them, ask if they are using scent, and then dab some S-factor on their lure. Then a few casts later they hook up.
Sure, you can catch fish with out S-factor, but it certainly helps. I think for beginners it's fantastic, because it helps them catch a few fish and they start to get a feel for how the fish strike and the lure and can start to develop better technique particularly when to strike.

Seems to help I reckon, squid definitely like it too, had a tube pop open in a ziplock with my floats and the buggers were mauling my bobber while I was trying to catch some reefies from the rocks last summer, squid sometimes eat floats I know but this was ridiculous.

Ive used it and it hasnt hurt cath rates

Heres a brief history of the development of the scent by Dr Ben Diggles -

"Of the 21 different products that I trialled, 19 did nothing and around 15 actually repelled the fish (i.e. they were less likely to take objects introduced into the tanks afterwards). "
Ben D 16-04-2008, 09:16 PM Great to see some debate on lure attractants. Its clear from some of the replies here that there is a need for a fair bit of education on the matter. Basically I spend a lot of my time working in aquaculture dealing with sick fish which will not take their medicine, because the medicine tastes bad. Over the years we have tried various methods of masking the taste of some of the medications, and in doing so I have become quite well acquainted with how taste and smell receptors in fish work and what compounds trigger them. After trialling various fish attractants which are available off the shelf in the recreational fishing market, in the laboratory with aussie fish (aussie bass, bream, mulloway, snapper and barra, as well as others), I was not impressed. Of the 21 different products that I trialled, 19 did nothing and around 15 actually repelled the fish (i.e. they were less likely to take objects introduced into the tanks afterwards). All of the repellents were based on smelly fish oil derivatives of one sort or another. Other stuff that didn’t work fell off the test substrate used so fast I reckon the fish didn’t get a chance to taste it at all.

From this problem S-factor was developed. Over a period of 18 months in the laboratory testing hundreds of synthetic compounds and carriers on bream, snapper, barra, aussie bass and mulloway, I developed an attractant which is a balanced mixture of compounds designed to work in synergy while slowly releasing from the lure and triggering the taste receptors of aussie fish – in other words, they enjoy the taste and anything coated with the compound rings the dinner bell. To give an example of how effective this can be, I have coated soft plastics, hard plastics and even small pebbles with the attractant and thrown them into the testing tanks. The fish (all species) happily eat the coated items and in many cases the treated item comes out the back door 2 days later. Uncoated items which are otherwise identical are spat out within one or two seconds. This is the basic science behind the S-factor attractant that has been acquired by squidgy in their pro range.

So if the debate is on whether s-factor “works”, its a no brainer. There is scientifically rigorous laboratory data which says it does, and this is was backed up by a large amount of field testing by the squidgy team. I admit some of their results while using it have been remarkable. Bushy was originally a skeptic (he’d tried lots of the commercially available attractants in the past and saw no real effect), but he reported back that he had some days where he caught and released over 200 bream, all on lures using s-factor, when others were struggling to get a fish. I must say when I use it I notice I get more bites and the fish hold onto the lure longer, and/or come back to hit the lure repeatedly until they get hooked up. This means I catch more fish, but based on my past performances I’m not likely to hit a 200 bream day in a hurry. So to me this suggests that other factors come into play – s-factor will not manufacture fish when they’re not around, and angler skill will always play a role, but an effective attractant like S-factor on the lure sure will provide average anglers with a much better chance of hooking fish which they otherwise would never know were there.

Of course, no product is perfect, and like all products in the tackle industry there is continual development to make them better, that is why I asked those anglers who think S-factor is rubbish, please indicate why you think this is so. You may be surprised how closely tackle manufacturers monitor these forums.

The usual array of shallow water species are seen. A lot of Garfish, many skipping Juvenile prawns on the surface. Quite a number of Squid on occasions come in very shallow.
But they also can in the daytime as well when the will take a Sugapen ! 
Depending on the area, Flounder and Flathead.
And on some lucky nights, the awesome sight of Mulloway herding mullet into the shallows and smashing the panicking school. Creating bedlam and a great commotion. Never been able to hook one on these occasions. I usually ill equipped for them. But have had them hooked in the quieter nights on YFW gear!

As a lure that bounces across the bottom there is always going to be a bit of wear and tear on them.
They do have a diminishing catch rate as they loose their paint and extra feeler bits.
 
On the Reel question ... I use the Vanford 2500
The bigger spool provides a bit better cast. Also and importantly, the larger diameter provides me with a better retrieval speed for the lures.

@Soobz I have only been using lures for YFW for the last 5 years. So I can't make the 10 year comparison.
However I know the impact of the increased professional catch, having fished YFW with bait for 19 years.
It is clear the YFW stocks are in great decline due to increased professional fishing pressure. I have fished a variety of areas, they are all in decline.
On the lure front, I have been on an obsessive 5 year learning curve.
We need to be aware that fish do learn. And the same lures used repetitively in the same area will have diminishing returns.
I will put up another post on lures.
Meanwhile have a read here: https://activeanglingnz.com/2015/09/17/do-fish-learn-to-avoid-baits-lures/
Cheers, Des
 

JOIN A FOOD CHAIN
No, No! … Don’t get a job at “Maccas” … but find the Yellow Fin Whiting’s favourite “Maccas” ! Their food chain.
 
Recently I have been getting consistent results when targeting Large Yellow Fin Whiting.
It was after I studied the YFW diet, by regularly inspecting the gut contents of fish caught in different locations. Developing an understanding of their food preferences, movements, behaviour and the habitat in each location. Subsequently I have been fishing these habitats with the food preferences for that location. Fish in their “Macca’s” !
 
Large YFW’s Morphology and Diet
Larger YFW are built differently, behave differently and feed differently, to their smaller mates.
The morphology of the bigger YFW enable them to predate on a number of alternative food sources.
Bigger means stronger, faster, and most importantly they have a bigger mouth to swallow their prey.
Prey that is much, much larger than the worms they were weaned on. Not that they will pass up an available worm!
The bigger YFW are aggressive predators. No longer the docile benthic grazer of worms, nippers and cockles, that it was when it was smaller. They can now chase down prey. They can grasp it, rip it, immobilise it, and swallow it whole.
 
The different sizes/ages of YFW practice what biologist refer to as Resource (food) partitioning.
Which means the big ones don’t steal the young one’s food. They don’t all compete for the same food resources.
Larger YFW move on to aggressively feed on a lot of Crabs, Prawns, and Minnows.
Regularly inspecting and recording their gut contents and the areas they were caught in, provides a great insight into their diets.
And a good indication of the likely habitats in which to find the larger YFW. And more importantly what lures to use where.
There is also a degree of “Habitat partioning” with the YFW.
In summer I find, a lot more of the larger YFW remain in the upper gulfs. It holds their preferred food.
Whilst most of the smaller ones move on to southern gulf areas that hold more worms and small cockles.
 
The Habitats & Food Chain
Through out the upper regions of the two gulfs, the samphire beds are the start of a series of very productive areas to find large YFW
Haswell’s Mud Crab (Helograpsus haswellianus) are abundant here. They feed on the film of diatoms and algal slime which coats the surface of the mud flats. Through the warmer months the crabs spawn. Their abundant zoea are then fed on by the juvenile Prawns.
In that warmer half of the year, Juvenile prawns thrive in the, food rich, high salinity and higher water temperatures of the upper gulfs . Post-larval and juvenile prawns settle into the shallow environments of the upper gulfs for the warmer months. Before eventually moving on to deeper waters as they mature. The juvenile Prawn and Haswell’s Crab populations are the primary reason why the upper gulfs hold more large YFW.
 
So often I find the large YFW with their stomachs bursting full of small mud crabs, along with juvenile prawns.
And these YFW are often taken in low water in the outgoing tide. On the higher tides, the Prawns will move in to feed on the crab spawn and larvae. The big YFW are not far behind, hunting down prawns. But they also hang back in the very shallow water of the littoral zone, as the tide drops. Waiting for the small mud crabs to emerge from their mud holes, that are under and around the samphire beds. Then the YFW feast. The big YFW are unbelievably aggressive in the shallow out flowing water, during these frenzied feeding periods. Water flowing out, off the Samphire beds, often through mangrove creeks, will hold large YFW that have spent the high tide feasting on prawns and crabs.

   - Haswells Crabs in the YFW guts
 

   - Prawns upto 100mm found in YFW guts.
 
I have managed a couple of YFW with the Cranka Crab. But no luck using the soft plastic crabs. But the stand out success in this area, has to be the stickbait surface lures that mimics the movement of fleeing prawns in this habitat. Sugapen 95 is the most successful for me.

   - A few YFW taken on Sugapen 95 Col# MB16
 
The next promising area, are the sandflats. Which lie adjacent to the mangroves and samphire beds. The organic rich tidal flows, coming off the samphire beds provides the food source for many detritivores living in the sand flats. Large YFW particularly love lingering over the sand flats that hold Clickers. The smaller tides when water covers the area for a longer period, is a particularly good time to find them feeding here. Big YFW love big Clickers. The Ecogear ZX 43, a sub surface lure, on retrieval, has an action that mimics the movement of a fleeing Clicker or prawn, across the sandy bottom. It is irresistible to a large YFW when presented in these sand flat areas. Again SP imitations of clickers have had disappointing results for me.

   - A few YFW taken on the Ecogear ZX43 Col#402 (UV)
 
The sand flats finally meet the weed line. The ribbon weed beds hold and offer protection for a number of the YFW prey. Prawns will retreat with the tide and shelter in the weed beds. Likewise, it provides a safe haven for Minnows that shelter from predators here. Along with Flathead laying in ambush, big YFW are always patrolling the weed line looking for prey, should they stray out of their shelter. The Stick-bait surface lures, worked along the surface areas of the weed line, provides the top water action here.
And Soft plastic Minnows worked along the bottom of the sand flats - weed line edges, will also find you catching the larger YFW along with a few big Flathead.

   - A Few YFW along with some Flathead taken on Gulp Soft Plastic Minnows and Shads
 
To find big YFW, find the habitat that holds their preferred food.
To catch Big YFW on lures, use the lures that imitate their preferred food.
“Match the Hatch” and Increase your catch!
 

   - When you crack the Food Chain, catches of 10 or more 40cm plus YFW are a regular possibility in your bag.
 

   -  A Few sessions with 7 to 10 40cm Plus YFW in the bag
 
Tight Lines!
Cheers, Des
 

Fished the dodge tide on Saturday. 

Unfortunately the wind and air pressure conspired to negate what little water movement there was. Rather than accentuate it which is what I was expecting. 
Nonetheless got 16 from 32 to 40cm. Sunday was a blow out !
 


 
 

Ive never used a real one - just vice grips or free hand for flasher style rigs on 1/0 to 5/0.

I have heard its difficult to find a vice that handles both tiny fly hooks and large saltwater hooks.

Im all about diy and multi use items - so the vice grips are great for uncomplicated flies like flashers.

but none of the tools are completely necessary for flashers - please excuse the overly cropped footage - But you'll get the idea of a free hand attempt
 
 

I was comparing it to two other guys and its not from getting lucky, the flasher rigs work. Even the pro Snapper fishermen I know use them. It made a difference for me and that's just my personal experience. Not sure how else you would like me to put it?? lol

The cloth is way tougher on expensive ones, when using cheap ones I've had the cloth come off just casting and retrieving (though a jag stripped of cloth can work fine) and no cloth at all on the good old oita in red/yellow with white belly, one of my all time faves, also as my wife says "never pay full price"
Rubbish durability is the biggest issue with cheapies in my experience, had a few just fail, never an issue for better quality ones and for me at the small difference in initial outlay which I make up in time it's an easy decision to go the more expensive jag.
Each to their own I guess.

Yeah the drag rating says that but I can assure you that the Penn has all the stopping power you'll ever need on a 7kg outfit you'd probably be good up to about 30lb, drag ratings are marketing as much as anything, though the Daiwa ATD is nice and a bit smoother than the penn HT100 (I fish them side by side often) 12kg is what you'd run for tuna and complete overkill.
The weight is relevant for balance and on the old ugly stik is a heavy rod with heavy components so should balance up nicely with the extra weight, if it's one of the new carbon ones different story.
The Penn is also bulletproof that extra 300g odd of weight is basically structural strength.
At the end of the day it's your decision and you should always get what you feel comfortable with and the Daiwa would be a decent choice, I just thought I'd explain my thought process a bit so you could see where I was coming from.

Thanks, I checked out the Penn Spinfisher SSM range. The 650 SSM has a max drag of only 4kg and weighs 680 grams (about the same as my Saragosa 10000) At the top of the range, the 950 SSM only has a max drag of 7kg but weighs 978 grams. The Daiwa Laguna LT 6000-c has a max drag of 12kg and only weighs 375 grams. I think I will probably get the Laguna.

I've only given them an in shop spin but they do seem nice, I also note that they have the quality drag system found on the higher end reels which is nice.
I do have an exceller which is pretty similar and my only complaint is a bit of body twist under heavy load which my higher end reels don't have, not much but noticeable, I suspect the Laguna will be basically the same.
At the price point though that or a Shimano will be good safe value.
HOWEVER, even though I'm a real (reel?) Daiwa fanboy, at that $100 mark especially matched on an ugly stick for some all round dirty work, I'd be going a Penn Spinfisher SSM everyday.

Sports fishing scene are about to have a sale, same with Tackleworld, and Reelndeal are in the middle of one so I'd be  heading  to  those. Have a look at Venom rods at SFS, can't remember what I got but does whiting to tuna they reckon.

Thanks for the advice, I  will be using the rod for any heavier work,  I  have 2500 and 3000 reels for the lighter fishing. So a good allrounder if there is such a thing is what I  need.
 
 

I have a Terez TZS69M and a Saragosa 10000 which is too heavy for the rod (the balance point is at the reel seat). May be OK with a longer rod like the TZS70M. As @gregtech said, take the reel to a tackle store and match it up.

My son has just bought a new whiting rod: an Abu Garcia Veritas 3-6kgs that he has put a 4000 reel on. While the reel is a little big it allows for bycatch. These rods might be worth looking at as they are not overly expensive and seem to get good reviews. Good luck with your quest. Regards, HBt.