doobie

There was far too much passing the flicker around on the weekend for my liking - we did a flatty drift and there were 3 blokes constantly hooked up on micro flatties. This was causing a queue for the flicker - that will not happen again😉

Upgraded the flatty flickers to Stainless Steel from an old pie warmer tray I found.

The coat hanger ones are good (left in the first photo)- but they arent as robust as a bit of thicker stainless.

Had to sharpen 7 pencils from scratch - One took 50 manual turns with a sharpener - bugger that.

Its an ancient technique and I stuffed up the footage a bit - but you get the gist
 
 

Unfortunately no matter how far I step it up - these boys will be hard to beat - Heres Daves Paella - the boy can cook

Yeah you couldnt complain about the amount filling. I remember him buying a scallop fish pie from a bakery 20 years ago - He was gutted when there wasnt a single scallop in there. They had sold out the day before and he was so pumped to finally get his hands on one

I think they way he makes his pies today, may be a reaction to that😉

Yeah the colours on the Pizza got a bit washed out when I look at it on my Iphone - the crust is a bit more golden on my laptop. Still could have done with a few more mins in the oven

But I'd happily chow down on either

Just asked the other mate what he did and he made whiting squid and scallop pie - I've got to step up my game

How late am I to the party? Well, I figure I won't be the only one so others who are yet to discover the Sephia Flash Boost squid jigs, check them out. Tried one out yesterday, and even in the murky atm Seacliff area (some kind of shore works pumping sand into the cove) and a shit tide it still caught squid when the other lures did diddly squat.
Video doesn't do them justice but:
 
 

My mates went for a scallop dive the next day after our Sunday Whiting and Squid Sesh

One of the boys came up with this home made Scallop, Whiting and Squid Pizza. Its got my mouth watering.

Corten steel edging. Loads of different suppliers.

I have two raised beds and 5 ground level beds.
The raised beds are great for things like lettuce, spring onions etc.
The ground level beds a good for tomatoes, cucumbers, beans etc.

Having multiple beds means I can rotate different crops in different beds, particularly important with tomatoes. Everything is irrigated and I run it off a B-hyve irrigation controller; which is wifi enabled, so if I'm away fishing for several days and the weather changes, I can login via my phone and increase or decrease the watering as needed.

For most of my adult life I lived in the CBD in townhouses so I didn't have a garden. Six years ago I moved to just south of the city, renovated the existing house with a bulldozer and started afresh. One of the key aspects was a big veggie garden and 2x 20 thousand liter rainwater tanks (there is no storm water runoff from the site into the local waterways).
I'm not worried about the price of lettuces!

And when I'm not growing vegies, we go foraging for food.

Also used to run a bit of corn out the front

 

 

Some mighty fine looking dishes there Mah - my back yard doesnt get the right amount of sun for good growing conditions.

But before I worked from home, the office had a long strip of land in the carpark, that I claimed for my self as a veggie patch. 

It would produce literally 1000's of cherry tomatoes over summer- also had an assortment of herbs in there so it was a handy resource. We had a few green thumbs at work so I was never short of advice or food to feed them

You definitely savor the flavour of the stuff you grow yourself👍

 
 

I like to make spaghetti vongole (cockles). I'm sure there are plenty of places to collect the small mud cockles, but I've found them abundant at Port Vincent and Stansbury.
This year I'm going to give pickling a try with squid

I was mainly a crumbed and fried man for many years and still go that way often (Probably due to my tartare and seafood sauce addiction), whiting, snapper, gar squid & sometimes tommies with crabs for mum was the go, occasionally baked snapper, but over the years I've branched out into all sorts. 
Crabs, crays, squid various fish and even some purely to me bait stuff like cockles, baitfish (I catch the odd pilchard, surprisingly delicious) scallops, and mussels because my missus likes them.... pretty much everything is on the menu these days.
Curries of various types, pizza, pastas, sashimi (often), grilled, baked, fried various ways, it turns out seafood is delicious almost everyway if you look after it with a few exceptions. 
So yeah my favourite for years was crumbed as a vehicle for sauce but now I would say my favourite way to do seafood is probably to experiment and try new things, so variety is what I like.

Depends.
Tommies and garfish I sprinkle salt and pepper, then dust in flour, before frying quickly in a lightly oiled fry pan.
YFW I like to crumb in panko crumbs before shallow frying.
Crab, I like to make serve with spaghetti.
I also like to make tommies into fish cakes.
In summer, when I catch most of my fish, I have loads of home grown tomatoes, cucumber, basil, chillies etc. for the salads. I get a lot of satisfaction from serving a meal that is mainly made from what I've grown and caught.

Been cooking up a few whiting fillets recently and its got me thinking.

Im all about shallow or deep frying - either dusted with flour, herbs and spices or batter made from the same ingredients.

I have been accused of overpowering the taste of the fish in the past - but thats how I like it - and I can still taste the fish underneath it all

The main flavours I use are, italian herb mix and garlic powder mixed in with the flour. 

If Im feeling saucey I'll drizzle over some sweet chilli sauce over the fillets right at the end, so the sauce caramelizes but doesnt burn. Finish with a squeeze of lemon - a bit of salt and add a dollop of tomatoe sauce and Im in heaven.

The photos arent the best but the taste makes up for it😉

 

Obviously bleed and get straight on ice when you catch one.
Knock the fillets off ribs and all no need to scale, then cut the ribs away completely, like straight down pin bones and all, that part is just packed with bones, good berley though, or crab bait but not worth even trying to save to eat in fact it can mess with the next bit.
The fillet you have left will be almost diamond shaped, skin from the tail end, start it with the knife but once started you should be able to just pull the skin off, it will also pull away any pin bones you missed making a mess if you tried to get greedy and "save" the rib section at 45cm minimum it's a big fish, accept the small loss as part of nature's design.
You should have a perfect fillet. Do not wash under water! At no stage do you want the meat to get wet Most fillets are better to some extent without getting wet, even with seawater but snook more than most I've found can really just go to crap, just clean off any bit of blood or scale with paper towel and lay out on paper towel if not eating immediately.
If you've done it right you'll have a perfect slab of delicious boneless, skinless flesh you can cut and cook anyway you like, with practice you'll be able to do it quicker than it takes to read this post.
Might do a video if I can get out again sometime soonish and remember to do it.
 

Just crazy prices.
Saw whole Gar at $50 p/kg the other day, so maybe around $60-70 p/kg fillets.
Like you say Wert, 'you can't afford to not go fishing'.
 

This is a sign the world has gone mad if anything is.
Don't get me wrong, I quite enjoy the old snook, both catching and, when fresh, on the chew (just accept you're losing the entire rib section then skin for A grade fillets, mmmmm), but $20kg for whole fish would be near on $40kg for fillets which is crazy talk.
Tommies, mullet, bloody STs(!) etc are a similar sort of price & don't even start me on the real crazy stuff like cockles and pillies. This is bait people! Not $20 per kg food!
No-one on here actually buys seafood of course so I guess what I'm getting at is, now more than ever, YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO NOT GO FISHING! So let your bosses/missuses/etc know how things are and get out there when you can and start saving a fortune!

Bit of an old topic. But with smaller fish like tommies and whiting I don't bother to gut them. Cut straight down at an angle behind the pectoral fin to the backbone. Then slide knife alone the backbone to the tail. Fillet off and remove the stomach bones. I have a mate that does your method but I cannot tell the difference between his and mine regarding the size of the fillet and/or retained weight.
Your method is perfect for bigger fish like Snapper, Spanish Mackeral, Wahoo and Mahi Mahi etc because they have quite pronounced backbones and if you don't do your method you loose a lot of fillet. I still don't gut them though, just bleed and into the esky.

This article will hopefully be of some help to those of you who chase trout in the rivers & streams there in South Aust, the tactics I use here in Tasmania are the same that I taught myself when I started trout fishing there in the Finness, Light, Torrens, Okanparinga & Sturt Rivers as well as Sixth Creek plus a few other small streams. The only difference to back then when I first started trout fishing (mid1960's) is the tackle is way better now days..
cheers
Adrian
Adrian's Trout Kit plus...
I was asked sometime ago if I could run through my trout kit from head to toe, such as specific clothing, waders, boots, glasses, camera, drinks, snacks, rod, reel, tackle and whatever else I have for trout fishing the rivers here in Tasmania. I was also asked about some memorable moments plus a few other things that may be of interest, it's something I've never thought about really, probably something I've just taken for granted. So let's start off with the waders & boots etc...
* The Wading gear: Seeing as I only fish rivers/streams & creeks for trout my first pair of waders were the Hornes waist waders with the Blundstone boots. They were a tough long lasting set of waders, but they were very heavy, the boots had no grip on the slippery, rocky river bottoms, after six trout seasons of using them it was time for a change. A friend told me to go for a pair of breathable waders and wading boots, so that's what I did. My first pair was a cheap ($120-00) unbranded set that I bought online, they came from China, that pair didn't get me through the first season, the neoprene foot leaked as did the welded seams. I needed a pair that would last a lot longer than that because I average 90 trips a year during the nine months of each trout season, each trip varies from 3 to 5 hours of wading a river. After quite a lot of researching some of the more expensive brands I went for the Redington, Compass & Bassdash breathable waders with the neoprene stocking feet, the reason I went for those waders was because they're all quality lightweight waders that I knew would get me through many trout seasons. They did and ten years on I'm still using those waders, actually I am now on my third pair. A friend of mine gave me a brand new pair of the cheap unbranded waders which I now use in the small streams & creeks, I do this to save the wear and tear on the more expensive waders.

Remember, always safety first when fishing a river, even more so when it's a fast water.
** The wading boots, I went for were the Korkers with the interchangeable soles, sticky rubber, felt & studded felt. The soles I use on the majority of my river trips are the studded felt soles, they have excellent grip in the larger rivers that are very rocky and slippery. The plain rubber & felt soles are ideal from small streams & creeks that have small gravelly bottoms with the odd rocky sections in them, so that's my wading set up. When buying a pair of wading boots you must order them one size larger than your normal shoe size to allow for the thickness of the neoprene stocking foot, eg: your shoe size 10, wading boot size 11. The main reason I went for a quality wading boot with an interchangeable sole is because of the amount of kilometres I walk to get to & from a river which can be 2 kms to 6 kms a trip, that's not counting the distance spent in a river fishing for trout.
** Clothing: I'm a believer of wearing clothing that blends in with the surroundings one's fishing in. Most of the rivers/streams & creeks I fish have fairly dense foliage on both sides of them, so the majority of my clothing is dark green & khaki coloured items. If I'm heading to the more open larger rivers and the grass covered river banks have dried off then I'll wear a beige coloured outfit. When chasing trout in clear waters on sunny days a dark colour will stand out in an open river, that will spook a trout in no time at all. If possible stay as close to the side of the river that has dense foliage on it. I have seen a trout sitting in clear open water and a small wagtail had flown over, the small shadow of that small bird was enough to spook it. Actually I prefer fishing in dull heavy overcast humid weather conditions with very light drizzle, one can wear the dark or lighter colours in these conditions. 

Spin fishing the Mersey River in full wading gear.
** Fishing vests: I have a few of these, both in green/khaki, camouflage and light brown/beige, all have plenty of pockets for the many small lure boxes I carry. They are short vests as well, there's nothing worse than wearing a long vest and getting them wet when fishing in waist deep water. Not only that, the pockets that hold the lure boxes in a long vest fill up with water, this I found out from experience.
** Rods: The rods I use are Okuma Celilo Finesse ULS 1-3 kg, 6', 6'6'' & 7' lengths, these are a beautiful light weight well balanced spin rods, perfect for what I require when chasing trout in the rivers and streams. I can fish for 4 to 5 hours covering anything from 1.5 kms to 3 kms without getting tired in the shoulders which is a real benefit when spin fishing rivers, how many casts and retrieves I would have over that time & distance would be in the high hundreds I would imagine.

Okuma Celilo Finnese 6'6'' ULS 1-3kg trout rod, Okuma Helios HSX-20 spinning reel, a well balanced set up.

One of the rewards of small stream fishing.
** Reels: All reels used are Okuma spinning reels, the models are as follows: Okuma ITX-1000, Okuma Inspira ISX-20B, Okuma Helios HSX-20, Epixor EXPT-20 & Okuma Ceymar C-10 spinning reels, these spinning reels are nice lightweight spinning reels that are well suited to the Okuma Celilo Finesse ULS 1-3kg (2-6lb) spin rods.
** Fishing lines: There's only one brand I use and have done so for many years, it's the Australian made & owned Platypus line which has come a long way since I first used it back in the 60's. The Super 100 UHT & Pulse Mono 4lb/6lb monofilament are the main ones I use in the clear & brown colour. The other Platypus line used is the Pretest Premium Grade 4lb monofilament, the 6lb leader is the Platypus Stealth FC 100% fluorocarbon line.
 

A nice mix of lures used for the larger rivers.
** Lures: It's Mepps, Mepps & more Mepps inline spinners that I have in my small lures boxes, they range from the smallest & lightest starting with the #00 (0.9gms) Steamepps (black, gold, silver blades) #00 (1.5gm) Black Fury (black, gold, copper blades), Aglia ( Plain, Mouche Noire, Aglia Mouche Rouge in black, gold, copper blades), Bug spinners (Stone Fly, March Brown, White Miller & Cherry), Comet (silver, gold blades). These small lightweight spinners are ideal for shallow small streams/rivers as well as some of the larger rivers I fish. Next are the size #0 (2.5gm) & #1 (3.5gm) inline spinners same models & blade colours as above but with a few different models included such as the Aglia Fluo tiger, rainbo, brown & phospho colours, Aglia Furia, Aglia TW & TW Streamer. So as you can see I do carry a large variety of Mepps inline spinners, all of which I have caught trout on. I also carry several small hard body lures that get used on the trout when they are not in the mood to take the Mepps inline spinners which isn't all that often because 98% of my trout are caught on the Mepps spinners. The hard body lures are mostly in the 30mm to 60mm size, floating & suspending models, Pontoon 21, Daiwa, Atomic Hardz, Goldy minnow, & Rapala lure are just some of hard bodies I have on hand. I also carry a few Ghost & Switchblade lures as well, there's nothing better than having a good mix of lures when trout fishing rivers & streams.

A good mix of lures etc that I use in the rivers/streams.
** Other items that I have with me when trout fishing the rivers: One of the main items is a landing net, the ones I used are all wooden framed with a soft plastic mesh that doesn't damage the fish. The good thing about using a wooden landing net is that it floats and I have mine attached to my vest with a two meter alligator strap. That way if I drop it while fast water fishing it floats and I just pull it back in with the strap. Other items I carry in the vest are: Small plastic containers with snap swivels, anti-kinks in it in case for some reason the main line breaks, you'll need them for replacement of the lost anti-kink set up. Small sharpening stone to keep the lure hooks sharps at all times, a small pair of pointed nose pliers that are used to pull a treble hook from a finger or hand, accidents do happen when handling a fish, it's quite easy to have the lure fly from the fish and lob in the finger or hand when it tosses the spinner/lure. Also one can get a hook in the hand when trying to take hold of a fish that's playing up in the net, the pliers are ideal for when you need to remove the hook. The pliers are also used for setting the treble hooks off center, I'm not a fan of straight trebles.

My fishing vest set up.
 
Digital scales are essential if you wish to weigh your catch as I do, I weigh the fish in the net then deduct the weight of the net from the total weight which gives you the fish weight. That way one's not handling, damaging or stressing the fish, if you are keeping the fish then it doesn't matter. A set of forceps is a must for removing hooks from the mouth or throat of the fish, it's much easier and less damaging to the fish than using bulky pliers. Another item that you should carry is a good fold up pocket knife, handy for gutting a fish if you intend on keeping it. A Boomerang duo zinger that has a line cutter attached to it for cutting fishing line. Another item I carry is a small first aid kit, it's compact and only carries a dozen or so small to large band aids, hay fever tablets and a dozen Panamax- Panadol tablets in case of headache or some other pain that may occur. A pair of polarised sunglasses is a must when fishing, they take the glare off the water and one can see the river bottom as well as the fish. My snacks I carry in my waders pocket are usually three Cadbury's chocolate Freddo frogs or a couple of small Mars bars, my drink is a can of Pepsi Max that I have once back at the car. My fishing camera is a Canon SX620HS compact camera a small reliable quality camera that takes a great photo & video, it's a must have when fishing to take a photo of what maybe your catch of a lifetime.

The Canon SX620IS camera, it's small & packed with plenty of punch.
 
** As for some of my most memorable moments, well this has really got me thinking as there's been quite a few over my 56 years of trout fishing, hopefully I can remember most of them. There's two that always come to mind, the first time I went trout fishing to the Finniss River at Yundi in my home State of South Australia back in 1966. My rod was a 6' solid fibreglass one, the spinning reel I can't remember what brand it was, the lure was a brand new Mepps #1 silver Black Fury that I bought from Adelaide Fishing Tackle, silver was the only colour available back then. On that first trip trout fishing in the Finniss River I caught my first trout on the Mepps Black Fury, a trout that weighed 3 lbs, from that day on I was hooked on trout fishing. Another memorable moment was when I used to do a lot of salt water fishing in South Australia when I caught a 36 lb snapper (gutted weight) during a night time fishing trip in my boat back in 1973. I have a lot of very good memorable moments of my fishing adventures when I lived in South Australia, too many to mention in this article.
Here's a few memorable moments since we made the move to Tasmania back in March 2000. I remember the first trip I had on opening day was to the Dasher River and being keen to get an early start I was at the river just as the sun rose. It was a very frosty morning, in fact it was so cold as I retrieved the spinner the water that came off the line onto the rod eyelets froze up and made it impossible to retrieve the spinner, I have never fished at first light in August since that day. From there I went down to Lake Barrington where I caught my first trout of the 2000-01 trout season on a Mepps gold #1 Black Fury spinner, it was a 1.5kg brown trout.
On the last day of the 2017/18 trout season I caught a PB brown trout in a river, it went 3.85 kgs (8lbs 8ozs) and was caught in the River Leven at Gunns Plains. On the 3rd November 2019 I caught my 10,000th Tasmanian trout, something I never thought of achieving. Another winner on the Leven River was back in 2009 when I won the World Grasshopper Championship in the Carnival of the Grasshopper, I captained the two man team that day, I also won the Lord of the River for most trout caught as well as the heaviest fish. It was back in 2006 when I joined the Ulverstone Angling Club and to my surprise the first season with them I won the Vic Whitehouse Memorial Trophy for most trout caught in rivers and streams with 437 trout being caught. Since that time I have gone on to hold the Vic Whitehouse Memorial Trophy for the past 16 years (2006-2022) in a row. So there you have it, these are just a few of many memorable moments I've had over many years of fishing. Hopefully before it comes to a time when I have to call it a day, I can add a few more memorable moments to it.

My PB wild brown trout, 8lb 8ozs, it was released back into the river as are all of the trout I catch.
One other thing and this isn't a most memorable moment, it's just a little something extra for you to take in if you're just starting to fish the rivers. The more often you fish a river you'll get learn a lot more about it, like pockets of flat water behind rocks in the river, narrow flat waters close to the river banks, they are all fish holding areas, so you won't bypass them like you may have done to start with, you will flick a lure into them. You'll also get to know where it's safe enough to wade, where it's safe to cross the river, most of all, remember safety must come first, it must be a priority when fishing any river. No fish is worth drowning for, so please do not take any risks while fishing in any river, stay safe & tight lines. If and when you do catch a trout, remember to always wet your hands before handling the fish that way you don't remove it's protective slimy coating. I know a lot will keep a trout for a feed and that's fine, if you're not keeping it and just want to take a photo of yourself and the fish, be careful how you hold it. Don't take a vice like grip behind it's gills because that's where the heart & liver are and you will damage them, the fish will swim off, but it will more than likely die soon after it's release. Handle the fish as short a time as possible, even more so in hot weather when river trout are under stress due to warmer water temps. If you really don't need a selfie holding a fish, take a photo of it in the landing net and release it ASAP.

The anti kink set ups I use when spin fishing for trout with Mepps inline spinners.

A beautifully coloured Mersey River wild rainbow trout.
cheers
Adrian

Good luck for the new season.
And as they say, you're going to need a bigger display unit  

Thanks doobie, I hope I have as good a 2022/23 trout season too as I'm going for 17 years in a row for most trout caught in rivers and streams..
cheers
Adrian

Always nice to go back over some fishing footage - especially when some nice trout were on the bite.