Rollas

I have done the crossing a couple of times and only once had it blow up which made the return trip a bit long. If I had been closer to Edithburgh I would havd headed there and stayed until it blew over but I was 1/3rd across already.I think that any wind as long as its under 15knots would be ok for you in a 23fter. Although how much boating experience would also play a huge part as well. Its not a trip for something to go wrong. In the middle of the shipping lanes, big waves and not a lot of assistance.Do a couple of runs down the coast from Nth Haven to Wirrina and Cape Jervis. See how the boat goes in handling as well as fuel use and then make a call on it. A few members from here go over so when your ready just ask if anyone is going on that date and if they would tag with you for safety.Cheers

Best way to order the bearings is to measure the Internal Diameter, Outside Diameter and height of the Bush or Bearing, then send that to the bearing company. It does not have to be specific to Daiwa or Shimano.Cheers

4THA,Circles snelled work the same as normal suicide hooks. Its the fact that the pull from the drag is supposed to hook them up in the corner of the mouth is not always perfect especially when they are in feeding mode. When this happens its every fish for themselves and if there is food to be eaten then the biggies will come in and inhale it and swallow it as quickly as possible. If your bait is small enough for this to happen and the circles you use are small as well then yes they will get gut hooked. If you upgrade the circle size and just pin it out side the head you reduce the gut hooking in those situations. So I change rigs once they go from shy to ravenous by going single bigger hook that is not buried in the bait.Cheers

4THA,Circles snelled work the same as normal suicide hooks. Its the fact that the pull from the drag is supposed to hook them up in the corner of the mouth is not always perfect especially when they are in feeding mode. When this happens its every fish for themselves and if there is food to be eaten then the biggies will come in and inhale it and swallow it as quickly as possible. If your bait is small enough for this to happen and the circles you use are small as well then yes they will get gut hooked. If you upgrade the circle size and just pin it out side the head you reduce the gut hooking in those situations. So I change rigs once they go from shy to ravenous by going single bigger hook that is not buried in the bait.Cheers

Understanding. I understand that the White was mouthing every little piece of the stern while there was no fish being handed out and that why would the shark waste the energy to jump up and get her when there is enough food to keep it happy in the water. Deluded is a great word for Valerie in that video. Valerie is now a leading voice in conservation campaigns and is used as a hired gun for providing expert testimonials that the media love to use. She would be in bed with PEW, The Marine Conservation Society and many others that are trying to now lock out anglers and blame them for the degradation of the areas. I respect what she has done but do not agree with everything she wants.Fishie your right about all those seagoing adventurers of the old days on Channel 7.

I run a leader about 8-10ft tied with a surgeon knot and a hawaiin snap connected to a 3ft rig with double circles snelled to the end and the ezy on the leader. When the leader is to short I find the braid starts to wrap as described. Depends on the conditions though because if it's reedy I use a paternoster with a single line with double snelled circles again.Moggys rig is the go.

I run a leader about 8-10ft tied with a surgeon knot and a hawaiin snap connected to a 3ft rig with double circles snelled to the end and the ezy on the leader. When the leader is to short I find the braid starts to wrap as described. Depends on the conditions though because if it's reedy I use a paternoster with a single line with double snelled circles again.Moggys rig is the go.

Give me a shout J.W, I have the gear your after.

Give me a shout J.W, I have the gear your after.

Lures,Take lots.Look at the gear you will use to cast them and go appropiate weights and sizes for it. I was using the xraps in the 12cm size with upgraded hooks and rings and they worked a treat. Found that going smaller when the fish were quiter was the best option. Halco Lazer Pros, Halco scorpions Bombers, Tilsan Bass and Barra, Classic Barra etc etc If you look at getting say 5 lures in different sizes and different depths then you get a good collection. So get 5 shallow running in 10cm, 5 in Medium and 5 in deep. Get 5 in 12 cm, 5 in 15 cm and so on. Then get a Plano/Shimano/Boss standard tray and fill it with a range of jig heads from Bream size to Snapper/Mulloway size and everything in between. Shads and Stickbaits are the bomb, Curly grubs are good but I get better results on the others. Snap backs are one of the better ones for up there. But any of your normal Berkley, Tsunami and Bozo's etc etc will do. I have gone through two packs of stickbaits fishing off Cooktown jetty when the mackies are around because no livebait and they wouldnt hit anything that rattled. If you want some more help just let me know, I am preparing to head up there again shortly and I am organising my gear for a variety of situations, from fly to game. Hope the fish come out to play!Cheers

Get some Cal's Grease as well from Jack Erskines, I find they are better when greased.

As has been said, you get what you pay for with hooks.When you are using braid there is a lot more pressure put on the hooks and they will straighten or bend and snap even with only a couple of kilo's of drag.Gama's, Owner's, Black Magiks and Mustad's are good in my book. Try it for yourself, tie some line to a couple and hook it up to a set of scales and see what pressure you need to break or bend them.

I got my wife to make me some..after a comment about all my fishing gear not getting used I hit back with the sewing maching taking up space in the tackle room...

No problems Brett, I didnt know there was a private group set up, must have missed the memo..Ryan is what I was talking about as you know so to be able to get his assistance in something like this would be a great coup. I have some contacts in the marine industry in W.A so I might have a crack myself.Cheers and thanks for your efforts.

Might be an idea UHF to list the sponsors that have joined and list what they are offering as a donation for SART to keep the transperancey. Perhaps a newsletter every quarter to advise club members of such happenings may be the way?As there is no forum or such on the SART site maybe we could just create a private group on Strikehook?West Australia is currently doing a tagging program running sonic tags in the areas surrounding Perth where they have placed accoustic recievers to track the movements of the migrating fish and also the survival rate of the tagged fish. Perhaps SARDI may be interested in also conducting some research of their own in the gulfs? We would be well equiped to manage and facilitate such a project and SARDI would well equiped to assist?

Really a baitcaster is going to help when your in the creeks making casts to the snags. But if you have one then take it. Personally I would not run a baitcaster with less than 30lbs braid. your bream gear, as light as I would go. The bigger fish are not lways going bunta so catching little trevs and Queenies is great fun on this type of gear.Stepping up from that is where I run the baitcaster and 2500 - 3000 size spin with 30lb. I have custom GUSA sticks for the spin in 7' and a mag bass G loomis for the baitcaster in IMX at around 5'8 This knocks over everything from small Macks to Longtail tuna. Good for live baiting off the jetties as well or jigging plastics, casting lures etc etc.For the bigger stuff a good 4000 - 4500 size spin loaded with 40 - 50lb braid with a good 7ft rod, again I have a custom GUSA and a HB60 Loomis running a Trinidad 16N for when the fish size is getting into the double digits. Its not so much the fight of the fish when your using heavy line but more the getting it in before it gets sharked.For the back breaking stuff its a little difficult, because you will probably be fishing the rocks or jetties so big shovels, rays and cod are pretty common as well as Grey suits so anything with 60 - 80lb is good. What I use is a TLD 25 spooled with 80lb braid and its been kitted with a drag and spring/washer upgrade to get 25+kg of drag out of it. That is matched to a Loomis 24kg stand up stick. I also use this for ballooning livies out on the jetties and on the boat out at the reef. Or a 200lb handline with gloves..Live bait is the number one priority. You learn to throw the cast net well and you will have prawns, herring and all other types of livies at your disposal.Now Lures....well I could go all day here. How much room have you got?Cheers

Really a baitcaster is going to help when your in the creeks making casts to the snags. But if you have one then take it. Personally I would not run a baitcaster with less than 30lbs braid. your bream gear, as light as I would go. The bigger fish are not lways going bunta so catching little trevs and Queenies is great fun on this type of gear.Stepping up from that is where I run the baitcaster and 2500 - 3000 size spin with 30lb. I have custom GUSA sticks for the spin in 7' and a mag bass G loomis for the baitcaster in IMX at around 5'8 This knocks over everything from small Macks to Longtail tuna. Good for live baiting off the jetties as well or jigging plastics, casting lures etc etc.For the bigger stuff a good 4000 - 4500 size spin loaded with 40 - 50lb braid with a good 7ft rod, again I have a custom GUSA and a HB60 Loomis running a Trinidad 16N for when the fish size is getting into the double digits. Its not so much the fight of the fish when your using heavy line but more the getting it in before it gets sharked.For the back breaking stuff its a little difficult, because you will probably be fishing the rocks or jetties so big shovels, rays and cod are pretty common as well as Grey suits so anything with 60 - 80lb is good. What I use is a TLD 25 spooled with 80lb braid and its been kitted with a drag and spring/washer upgrade to get 25+kg of drag out of it. That is matched to a Loomis 24kg stand up stick. I also use this for ballooning livies out on the jetties and on the boat out at the reef. Or a 200lb handline with gloves..Live bait is the number one priority. You learn to throw the cast net well and you will have prawns, herring and all other types of livies at your disposal.Now Lures....well I could go all day here. How much room have you got?Cheers

I thought it was quite a unique idea. If you can convince the lure manufacturers to supply pics and details each time a new lure is release then they get "advertising" and we get an A - Z on lures (Australian and or International?) Update and management would be a nightmare.....Woody I have a couple of ides like that but more on what you own and what to use for a given situation. Cheers

Not always but most times tuna will push a bait school upwind or into the waves. If you "do" see a school of jumping Tuna go upwind 500 meters or so in a line with the school and turn the motor off and drift down to them. Even if you cant see them jumping, cast the sluggs out and count to 10 and wind like hell. Any quality 2500 reel with good braid on it on a good plastics rod will do. Thats if you "see" them...

Don't let fear hold you back Fishie, I am sure you have got plenty of other pics scanned in your p.c waiting to show the world.How about some of the area back then as well?As for the Pygmy LJ's, I guess these are the patches I am seeing on the sounder out in the Gulf. I find they move around a fair bit so they are not just hanging off the bottom sitting in the current against structure. Every time I turn around and go back over a patch it might take me two or three go's to find them again. So anchoring on them is not an option.

Handline with 20lb mono...

Fishing is not just about catching fish its also about understanding another species and their habitat. Its an outdoors adventure and a science lesson all in one. Addictive as all hell. Always something new to learn. The more people that do it in your circle of friends the better I have found.

Fishing is not just about catching fish its also about understanding another species and their habitat. Its an outdoors adventure and a science lesson all in one. Addictive as all hell. Always something new to learn. The more people that do it in your circle of friends the better I have found.

Fishing is not just about catching fish its also about understanding another species and their habitat. Its an outdoors adventure and a science lesson all in one. Addictive as all hell. Always something new to learn. The more people that do it in your circle of friends the better I have found.

Whiting - Calcutta 50 on a IMX CB560 or close to that running 20lb braid.Snapps Offshore - Trinidad narrow 16 on a HB60 30 - 50 running 50lb braidSnapps Inshore - 5500C Abu on a 5'6 4 - 6kg Abu Morrum graphite running 20lb braid.I like to swap around a bit though but always seem to pick up these ones on the run out the door.UHR - I sometimes switch my spool over to low stretch test mono when fishing the comps for 8kg. On the saltiga 4500. We use it for switch baiting little sails and marlin and I have a lot of fun with it but I always go back to braid when I am back here.