Yorky

This video clip is from the trip I reported on a few days ago, another beautiful stretch of water in a small tannin stream...
cheers
Adrian
 
 

Hi all wondering what the biggest Redfin Perch is that has been caught in SA waters.
I managed a Pb pushing 40cms on the weekend, not huge but a cracker fish for a freshwater novice like me.
Whats your biggest?
Cheers LL
 
 

Here's the video clip of the spin session I had when catching my first trout of the new season..
cheers
Adrian
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sagaOhZ1I0k&t=13s
 

Well, thought it was time to go through the hundreds of photos I've taken during the 2018/19 trout season and make up another photo book.. With so many to pick from hopefully I've picked out some of the best, thought there were plenty of others that I still would have liked to have used but had to draw the line somewhere.  As it was this book has 98 pages to it and I'm reasonably satisfied with how it came out.. so here's a few photos of the book..           This is my 16th book I've made so far of which two have gone to France & two to Goowla..   Only 5 weeks to the start of the next season.. 3rd August.. Yippeeeee!!!!
cheers
Adrian

Front cover









 


The last page..

Back cover..
 
 

Interesting test mate but I have a theory you get what you pay for.
I use a $100 LEDLenser I bought about five years ago and I love it coz it is bright enough and has long battery life.
Mate of mine bought a cheapie mega bright head light on ebay so bright you could grow tomatoes.
Batteries went flat in two hours and could only be recharged not replaced.
Having said that Jarvis Walker do decent lights for around $20.

I have found that "meat" bred gents tended to explode when putting them on the hook ?. They were definitely larger & fatter than the bought ones but looked unappetizing on the hook. I don't breed them anymore as I cannot be bothered. I too buy the long life gents now & found they do last quite some time, so for the amount they cost, more cost effective for me. I just keep the unused gents in the fridge until next time. 

Don't use any Decoy Snaps any more.
I have lost some trophy fish with these snaps opening up ... whatever the reason.
I now only use snaps that ... DON'T OPEN UP. 
Mustad "Fastach"


Or "Norman Clips"

 
Daiwa also offer a "non clip" Clip I think called super 8. I have not yet tried them.
 
You DON'T need to trust a "clip". There are better options available.
Cheers, Des
 

I would personally look at the Daiwa LT range of Reels. for around that $150 price point you can get an Daiwa Exceler LT. Nice and smooth, light, look good and have nice drag systems on them. I mainly have higher end gear now.  I lost the drag knob while out fishing a few weeks ago while up yorkes. so i needed a reel to get me by Picked up the exceler i was quite impressed by it. 
At the end of the day it is what feels comfortable and right for you. everybody is different and like different things best to try out a whole range of reels on your rod as Bratko mentioned and see what feels good. 

Thing is lofty, I could show you a picture of a massive x fish on a certain reel, yet still Not rate it as highly as another reel I've used purely based on user friendliness and a certain level of luck being needed to land a decent fish.
 
I've just had a quick scroll through my phone gallery, was going to upload photos but it is a bit much work... any way. 
 
BG
8kg snapper + others
75cm snook
25lb murray cod + others
Surf salmon to 45 cm and trolled fish to 8lb 
Big Callop
 
Aird
Mulloway to 80 something cm + many many more
Big redfin plus many more
Big carp
52cm Waitpinga salmon
Rainbow trout
KG whiting to 50ish cm
Many cast salmon to 52cm
Bream to 42cm
 
Seido 
Big carp galore
Heaps of school Mulloway to 70cm
Redfin big and small
Big 3lb plus rainbow trout
Kg whiting and pan snapper 
 
Symetre 
Lots of yellowfin whiting including 40 + cm fish
Big carp to 3ft long
Rainbow trout to 6lb
Redfin 
Bream to 35cm 

Now all those reels have caught good fish, but I would recommend the symetre ahead of the Aird and seido purely as it is just as  capable and has been a finer reel to use, and hence has been used in more finesse applications. The BG by contrast is a beast of a reel in its' build, but that's why I tend to use it on bigger targets even if it isn't that much larger than the others. It just isn't as good to use and I don't need that full aluminum construction etc etc on fish that I Chase on flick sticks; just as I don't think underpants will by his description.
 
Bloody long type up but I hope I got the message across.  

I actually upgraded from the "SS" to the "S" last year but this wasn't due to hook failure it was because I was dropping a few fish, I have found the "S" size better
Cheers
Yorky

I actually upgraded from the "SS" to the "S" last year but this wasn't due to hook failure it was because I was dropping a few fish, I have found the "S" size better
Cheers
Yorky

Decided to dust off the sage x this morning (no dust on it),  and wet some flies, as the wheathers not appropriate for the boat. 
Probly 12 or so fish landed, alot of smaller fish that where all fun. All in great condition with fat bellys. And this 38cm horse, spotted from a high bank. Nothing better when it all goes too plan. 

Over the last 12-18 months I've got right into my wading and thought I'd have a crack at making my own tub. After a bit of looking around at other set ups, I figured it was best to just dive in and see what happened. 
The basic idea was I wanted to be able to carry more than one rod, be mobile amd be organised. After a trip to the hardware store and the local boating store, I had all the parts I needed. Within an afternoon it was done! 

Generic UV stablised create, electrical conduit for axels, marker bouys / poly floats for wheels and all secured with S/Steel bolts, washers and nylocks. 
Below is a selection of on the job photos.

Overall it works really well. The rod holders allow me to carry multiple rods all rigged differently. This does two things, (1) when I get a season ending wind knot, I just bench the rod and grab another. No lost time not fishing! (2) It speeds up my apprenticeship as I can run multiple options simultaneously and figure out what works in different scenarios.
Only issue I have found is having the reels face inwards takes up a fair amount of room inside the tub and ironically, the reels get wetter inside the tub than outside. This is because when I land a fish, drops of water fall off the net which I dump in the tub during hook removal etc. I tried facing them "backwards" and outside the tub, seems to solve the problem.
1st planned upgrade is a small esky, big enough to fit a YFW in the 30-35cm range!!
TL

I was up at Liena a few days ago to check the area out since they built the new bridge there after losing the old wooden bridge back in 2016..
Took a couple of photos to compare it to what is it was before the June 2016 floods.. certainly has changed and not for the better either.. will take many years to come back I feel.. though the small shrubs will come back fairly quick.. I'm really glad I take my camera with me on every trip to a river, good to look back on many areas on this river to what they were and what they are today.. plus I have photos of all the original old wood bridges that were on the Mersey before being washed away,, they're all gone and are all new concrete bridges....
cheers
Adrian

Before the record floods.. looking downstream..

And the view today...

Looking upstream from the old bridge..

And the view from it now,,

Went for a walk to take this photo of the new bridge.. I doubt this one with get washed away if we ever have another massive flood..
 

Hi Jay,
 
Do you have any affiliation to any other groups that might have a stake? Your responses seem familiar, like I've heard them before?
I tend to agree with you there about jumping the gun, in reality nothing has changed... yet. There's still no representation of rec fishers.
If you're so knowledgable about the history of the Marine Parks issue you should also know that SAFA and RecFishCentral were created in response to the betrayal felt from recFishSA at the time.
 
So you agree with robbing the South Australian economy of economic activity as the recs taking their boats out to get their own crabs has a significantly higher economic return than just selling the crabs to interstate and overseas markets. If you feel this passionate about local South Australian locals that can't get their own crabs do you then support a ban on any exports of these crabs to interstate and overseas markets? It'd be great all South Aussies would have fresh cheap quality seafood, at the current prices they can only afford crappy Mekong Delta fish.
There's the issue right there, you might be able to fish multiple times a week but most rec fishers are lucky to get on the water once a month so one feed is not really enough, this needs to be doubled.
But the average size of a SA SBT is 8 to 10kg, even down the South East. an 8kg SBT will give you about 4.5kg of meat, how much a kilo is that one fish once you tow your boat to the launch and do the massive k's to access the fish? $100/kg
I agree that no-one needs two barrels, a split limit like Snapper is best.
Come on mate, are you serious?
Maybe it's that the people you socialise with are not actually rec fishers, the fishermen with better boats and technology are the commercial fishermen, if that's the angle you're coming from, yes you would of course be very happy with the non-representation that RecFishSA provides us.
I'm glad you have travelled the world and seen what is at stake if we can't get any decent fisheries management, PIRSA's 'optimal utilisation' method of destroying a fishery and then waiting decades for it to recover is extremelly dangerous.
Painters and Dockers style representation is exactly what we're missing, there is absolutely no representation of rec fishers, we should be parking all our fishing cars/boats in North Terrace, you know that thing called democracy French farmer style.
Unfortunatelly RecFishSA doesn't represent rec fishers to PIRSA they represent PIRSA to rec fishers and this is why they have to go as they are supposed to be representing the rec fishers to PIRSA.
 
Dave

well said AD,no matter what the future it has to be better than the past or our hobby is doomed
                                                                   cheers b

Hi Jay,
I notice that you seem to be very anti SAFA/RecFishCentral, is this because you are happy with the status quo?
I'm assuming as this is a rec fishing site that you are here as a rec fisher, do you believe RecFishSA has and is doing a good job of representing rec fishers?
Were you happy with RecFishSA's representation in the following issues;
Marine Parks. Blue Swimmer Crab bag limits. Blue Swimmer Crab commercial season opening at the beginning of December just to make sure there was no metro crabs left by Christmas for recs. KGW bag and possession limits. The amount of noise they are currently making RE. cutting the Southern Bluefin Tuna bag in half. I'm interested if you feel RecFishSA represented you strongly enough on the above issues?
 
A bit about myself, I'm not aligned with SAFA or RecFishCentral, I'm just a passionate Rec Fisher and believe me I hold them to account too (check the dark side), I have no allegiance to SAFA, RecFishCentral or RecFishSA.
I think SAFA and RecFishCentral at least have whats best for rec fishers in mind in what they are doing, I've been scrutinising them for about 18 months now and have not seen them put a foot out of place. I disagree with their assumption that because they did a deal with the Libs the Libs are going to do anything about the peoples resource being privatised and it all being moved to a pro resource, I believe that is against Liberal ideology but they are confident that they have a deal with government so until such time as we have a Rec Fishing Council that fails to make a difference or not I'm reserving my judgement.
RecFishSA, well, they have proven to be unable to represent rec fishers on the above issues, I've talked to Danny Simpson and given him the benefit of the doubt as these could be reflective of previous personnel of RecFishSA and asked him to prove to me that RecFishSA under him is better but the crickets I'm hearing over the SBT issue seems to be giving me the answer.
So we have a situation of no representation under RecFishSA or to try something different. A wise man once said that continuing to do the same thing expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity, are we insane?
 
Dave

Beautiful morning here today with clear skies and full sun.. noticed the mist rolling off Black Bluff early so grabbed a couple of photos before heading off again this afternoon chasing Fungi at O'Neil's Creek..
Pretty dismal day in the rainforest as the fungi was like finding hen's teeth..  I did manage to come across three different fungi and that was it, nothing to rave  about either.
The first one was at the base of a tree, the second was a funny looking yellow one that was among some rotting leaves,. The last was a small cluster that I spotted on a small branch near some ferns..
Still it was nice being in the rainforest sucking in the crystal clear air..
cheers
Adrian


Mist rolling off Black Bluff this morning..

Tannin water at O'Neil's Creek..

First fungi spotted..

followed by this strange looking fungi, two little ones close by as well..

Then I spotted some more a the small branch..


Close up on the little fungi.. some were as small as a pin head & the largest a little bigger than a match head..

Just took this one out of interest of some Spagnum moss that was in the middle of the path..
 

One always knows when Winter is here good & proper once you see snow on Black Bluff, even more so when it's on Mt Roland here in Sheffield..


View of Black Bluff from the back deck..

Snow capped Mt Roland here, Claude Road, Sheffield..
cheers
Adrian

Cheers all. Well One week done and dusted. I have learnt alot in the week and am enjoying the experience so far. Only downside is driving into leaving town but its something i'll get use to.
 

With this year nearly halfway through, I thought it be time to revisit some fishing goals I had set for this year. I was wondering if any other S&H members had any fishing goals for this year they’ve ticked off or aim to in the next 6-7 months?
Personally I’ve had a good year so far with a lot of new PBs and new species ticked off including first SBTs and samsonfish, PB snapper, kingfish, flathead, callop and cod etc.




 
For the rest of the year I have a couple more goals to tick off. Mainly a salmon over 4kg, new PB kingfish (>5kg), new PB bream (>42.5cm) and hopefully come summertime I can get into some yellowfin whiting on poppers. 
Anyone else have a couple of fish to tick off this year?

Thanks mate..... 
There was purely two reasons why I wanted to be apart of the Fishing industry....
To help others with the knowledge i have obtained over the years and giving customers other techniques or ideas when things weren't working out for them. 
Nothing more satisfying then helping a customer with achieving there personal fishing goals and having them achieving them an hour or 2 later and being grateful for taking time to help them out the best way you can. 
The second is learning from customers that come in store. Fishing is a wonderful sport where you learn new things everytime and i have learnt alot from customers and i am grateful for that.
 
I was never in it for sponsorship or competition or to big note myself as I loved my job day in and out but it isnt a job that is for someone that hasnt set themselves up. Casual hours and minimum wage doesn't help me purchase a house and setup my future. 
Who knows what might happen later on in life but definitely see myself back in the industry in the future in some form....
 
Thanks for your kind words mate...

So as some of you know I worked at Fishing Wholesalers for the last 2 and a bit years. 
However my last day was on Saturday. I know there are alot of members on here that i have put onto this site that i wasn't able to let know of my resignation as it happened so quick. 
So i thank you for being great customers to me. 
I am no longer in the fishing industry anymore. I might return to it in a few years time if things go right
However you will now find me in the electrical industry as a storeman in town.
Now to enjoy fishing like i use to without the pressures of the industry
Expect more reports me in the near future!
The bug is back!

@Territory Lad
see attached link
Daiwa TD minnow
Yorky

@Territory Lad
Compleat Angler Moonta still have some in 95mm but 2 colours only.
Golden Shiner & Ghost Herring
88253400
Cheers
Yorky