Wahoo

Hi All

I also work in Healthcare and would like to reiterate everything Kelvin said. It's important to take notice of the daily announcements regarding social distancing and the relevant restrictions. Things are changing daily and sometimes quite rapidly.

Just an example of what's happening in the regions, I received an email this week informing me that Stansbury Caravan Parks are cancelling all of their Easter bookings and closing both parks to all except permanent residents until 31st May. 

Fish locally and sensibly and consider that while you may want to travel, there's a lot of worried people out there who may not want folks from the city (who they may perceive as having a virus) visiting them.

Hunter69, my sympathies at the loss of your mate, one of my dogs passed away 10 days ago. It's never easy when they go.

Stay safe everybody

Wahoo

96

Typical, I paid regular price for the Inkbird ITB 6x  just recently and now it's on sale! Story of my life. I bought the Arrosto gas smoker from BBQ galore, basically a Hark with different badge, just over a year ago, family so impressed with ribs, lamb, goat & brisket they convinced me to get on offset smoker as well. Yet to try the Tommies, got a swag in the freezer waiting for me to get the time.

After reading all of the comments posted lately it seems to me that there's a perception that because things didn't go the way some people wanted them to then RecfishSA didn't fight on their behalf and just rolled over and let PIRSA do what they want. Were you there? Were you in the room during these negotiations? I was in the room at the bag & boat limit discussions and had to sign a confidentiality agreement to be there, as did everybody in the room. All I can say is that RFSA fought their arses off to prevent the KGW bag limit reduction as did I and just about everybody else that was present. PIRSA went ahead and reduced them anyway. 

The Libs have stated that RFSA will be part of the new recreational fishing council, personally, if I were part of RFSA I would be thinking long and hard about whether I wanted the continued grief and hand it all over for someone else to cop it all. 'Coz make no mistake, the new team will cop it just as much as the old team when things don't go our way, and there will be things that go against our collective wishes, that's the nature of the beast. Having just potentially burned my bridges with the above disclosure I may well not be accepted anyway were I to be dumb enough to put my hand up. Why dumb? because I'm too thin skinned to cop the online abuse when things go awry.

No offence to anybody is intended, if any is taken I apologize in advance.

Go for your lives, I won't be back online 'til next Wednesday. 

Cheers

Wahoo

As Hugo said. Corroboree billabong and Shady Camp freshwater side both good day trip options (read leave Darwin around 0400 stop for bacon & egg rolls at Corroboree hotel). Just to whet your appetite this one went 86cm from Shady Camp freshwater in September 2010.

Wahoo

I'm with Moggy. Squid tubes for food, heads for bait. Any Tommies that evade the smoker or being turned into roll mops go in the bait freezer, butterflied Tommy is great bait and if it gets thawed then into the burley. We have a dedicated chest freezer for bait/burley

Certainly helps if the wife fishes. A few years back mine convinced me that I should spend $300 on a new whiting rig, it's more than paid for itself over the years and the reel is now needing some TLC. If you buy Pfleuger make sure it's salt water and braid compatible, mine now needs a new spool, lucky it came with a spare carbon fibre one which is about to be pressed into service.

Of course by convincing me that I needed an expensive combo then shortly after, SHE needed one as well,.

Now, I think she needs to convince me to get a new Snapper outfit!!!!!!!!

As others have mentioned, chook pellets from local fodder store.

2 * 1.5litre water bottles frozen for use in esky with salt water, chills down effectively & doesn't dilute the salt water.

We have a small chest freezer dedicated to storage of bait & burley so:

Squid, tubes get eaten, heads & wings (if not used for food) go into the bait, guts into burley

Any Tommies that don't make it to the plate or the smoker go into the bait bag.

Guts, frames, heads, minced and into burley bag.

Any bait not used goes into the burley bag, chopped up fine, mixed with Tuna oil and frozen into logs to fit the burley pot.

I keep a tub of chook pellets soaking in Tuna oil, great Gar burley.

Household loose change goes into a pot and pays for Cockles & Gents and sometimes rammp fees.

By the time we go away for a week or so at Stansbury, all we have to buy is fuel.

Saw the pics on Adelaide Now but didn't read the story, big suckers those European (Wels?) Catfish. Seen Jeremy Wade trying to get one that big but not succeeding in the episodes I've see.

_{The missus & I use either size 4 Owner Mutu Light Circle or a 1/0 KL Circle, both essentially the same size!. The oldies still like to use a size 4 longshank, can't say our catch rates are much different but the circles work better for me as my rod spends a lot of time in the holder while I'm rebaiting, unhooking fish etc for the fair one and doing all the other little chores the skipper has to do. Plus I get sidetracked catching squid or chucking a SP around.}

Hi Langley

The others have answered your question so I'll give you a quick update. Just got back from 9 days in Stansbury during which time I only managed to put the boat in the water twice due to the incessant 25knot winds. However, there are large blueys on the spit as well as squid, plenty of KGW if you move around and there are some really nice Gar (30-35cm) around as well. As usual, Tommies abound and their size is up in the 20-25cm range. The missus nearly got spooled by an unseen oogly on 6lb braid, main suspect was the grey doormat seen on the bottom shortly before her whiting bait took off for Port Giles! Shitties are around and are a PITA in the shallows.

Have Fun

Wahoo

Try slicing thinly and then beating the crap out of them, less effort and the fibres separate better, done that way it only takes a very short cook on high heat. I've also had them put on the barbie plate whole and take thin slices off the edges as they cook, no tenderising, works well but time consuming.

If anyone wants to give something slightly different a try, a few years back I scored a Kahawai in NZ of about 3-4kg. Was put straight on ice and later that night filleted , blood line cut out and we had it as sashimi. Swore there & then that I'd never cook another one.

Just a shameless plug, you can find me on Pg 76 with the sneaky bream article!

 

TT

Well done Connor, nice article. Good to see you took up the advice of 4THA and others when they said you should write for a magazine. You young fellows are the future of Rec Fishing in this state, are we seeing the future of Rec Fishing Journalism as well?

Well done young man.

Wahoo

I've also posted this in the other thread under industry news:

RFSA and DRFC have collaborated on a response to CSCC, attached is the response on DRFC letterhead and the RFSA response has also been sent to council to reinforce rec fisher concerns.

Cheers All

Wahoo

140725 sg CSCC West Lakes Closure Letter v2.pdf

RFSA and DRFC have collaborated on a response to CSCC, attached is the response on DRFC letterhead and the RFSA response has also been sent to council to reinforce rec fisher concerns.

Cheers All

Wahoo

140725 sg CSCC West Lakes Closure Letter v2.pdf

Done

Hi DelI'd prefer not to voice an opinion, I have a bias toward PADI, but only because I know the CEO in the states and the Australian VP in charge of training. Both PADI & SSI run good training programs and also run good audit trails to ensure standards are kept up.Enjoy your course

Can't help with locations.Just wanted to say that whatever you do, get some formal training. I've been a professional/military diver, life support technician and hyperbaric chamber supervisor for my entire working life, currently working at the RAH Hyperbaric Unit. I'm getting tired of reading fatality reports of people with inadequate training drowning in shallow water while snorkelling.Just a friendly word of caution as part of my community safet role.CheersWahoo

@ Crusher: Wahoo, do you think its more sound association rather then dive days? They associated the dive boat, the motor noise and vibration rather then the actually day/date. Then from that they may be aware that a free feed is on its way, rather then the fact they think 'hey its Thursday the dive boats coming... free feed WOOHOO.."Hi Crusher. Sorry about the delay in answering, I'm at Stansbury & have been fishing last 2 days. I find here that going back to where I dumped my left over burley etc certainly helps. To your question. The researcher on the GBR project is adamant that the sharks start congregating a few hours before any boats arrive. They've been at it so long that it's become part of a modified behavioral pattern. These findings are part of behavioral research on Tiger Sharks which he found were coming to the same reef at the same time of year every year. He discovered that the Tigers know when it's Turtle breeding season and rather than killing turtles they wait for the ones that die post egg laying to get washed off the reef on the next high tide.CheersWahoo

@ Bjorn: I was actually thinking of going fishing the same time each day over a period of time, berleying up and wondered if the fish would learn to expect a feed. Would be interesting to try out. Bjorn. Fish on the GBR know when to expect dive boats that feed them. Especially sharks, There's one reef in the Coral Sea that's had transceivers dropped around the reef and the reef sharks have been tagged with acoustic tags. When they looked at the results they noticed that the sharks are normally spread all over the area, on diving days the sharks congregate at the dive location before the boat arrives.CheersWahoo

Should work well, seen plenty of Squid following KGs to the surface with evil intent. many moons ago, before the days of digital cameras the Mother in Law asked me to help her with a fish she couldn't control. turned out to be a 38cm KG with an enormous squid wrapped around it, judicious use of the landing net saw us with 2 meals for the price of one.

We use an old galvanised dustbin. Bolted on some legs, cut a hole in the bottom, drilled some holes in the sides to accomodate rods to put racks on. We've got 2 racks and can take a decent feed of Tommy/ST/Mullet fillets. We fit a tray with the sawdust/chips on it over the hole in the base, put a burner under it to get things smoking then turn it off & keep an eye on it, if we need more smoke we'll fire it up again. Experiment with different brine mixes to get the flavour you like.

With you on that one URH. Can't think of any RAN ships that would have a draft that exceeds that of a fully laden container vessel or those cruise ships that berth at OH. USN has warships that would be too large, but being nuclear powered they probably wouldn't be allowed in anyway

What rockfish says about the swamp lizards is spot on. Launching into the freshwater side of the barrage at Shady Camp we counted over 20 crocs around the ramp, basically its all clients get in the boat for launching scenario. While fishing it was just wall to wall crocs, the banks are just lined with them, not helped by the guide spraying the deckwash on the water to attract some of the larger ones boatside.