keenfisho

Last Wednesday you say...........f$&@I tried to sneak off work early last Wednesday to hit our northern flats but got caught up with customers all arvoCongrats again Des well done, will see you out there soon

What a day of perfect weather Wednesday was.What better to do than spend the day wading on the sandflats in glorious sunshine. You could not get nicer conditions. Crystal clear water, barely a breath of wind, the water like glass and the warm winter sunshine on your back. So nice it would not matter if I did not catch a thing.Just as well! I could not find any Yellow Fin Whiting. I was surprised as I had seen plenty of feeding marks in the shallows near the mangroves where they were feeding at the top of the tide. No fish yet, but I was having a marvellous day in magnificent conditions. I moved over to another large sandy area and what do I run into but some Yellow Fin Whiting. In these conditions they are seen clearly. You stand perfectly still. Minimise as much movement as possible. You know if you can see fish right on the extremities of your vision, then rest assured, they have seen you long before you saw them! Quality polaroids are a must.First cast a nice 35cm fish came in with the usual tenacious tussle these little fish are capable of. The second fish was caught as I cast back over the school that chased the first one in. They are competitive, chasing the one with the bait and hook in its mouth! In beautiful conditions, Sight fishing Yellow Fin Whiting is such a delight. It goes something like this;You cast out beyond the school and retrieve your bait past them. Tempting them to take it. "Ooops!" I startled them the cast landed right in the middle of them. They scattered! No bite!"Aaaahhh!" perfect cast. You just allowed enough for that light breeze that can drift your light tackle across.It's a slow steady retrieve past the fish ... "Take it, take it, taaaaaake iiitt! " you scream and plead at the fish as you drag the bait past its nose!"Yes! Yes! Yes! Go ooonnnh! Take it a bit harder. Hit it harder now." you coax the fish.You strike. "Yes! gotch ya! Gotch Ya, Ya buggah! Trying to pinch my bait! and get away?"You reel it in. It pulls hard. Some drag comes off. It is feisty. You can see it has got some size to it. It is in close within reach then it darts through your legs. You raise your rod, directing it away from your boots and lift it up, some solid weight to it, as you try to grab it against the belly of your waders and then the lip hook pulls! Damn! I should have used the landing net. The cycle starts all over again, but you are still smiling. You are hooked on this, not the fish.It sounds like and is simple fun in glorious conditions. When the water is crystal clear, sun shining through the water, with perfect visibility, your gear needs adjusting to suit these conditions. I get rid of my heavier running sinker that is usually up the line above the swivel and replace it with a small 0 or 00 ball sinker that slides down against the long shank hook. I always only ever fish for YFW with the 1 hook. A size 4 Gamakatsu long shank at the end of a metre length of Flurocarbon. This now resembles a jig head for soft plastics. Except the weight is removable and adjustable. Very light but all the weight is concentrated near the hook which allows for a good cast with a flicky soft plastic rod. It creates very little splash, so it wont spook the fish. The clearer the water the easier they spook.Well it was a bit of a procession so I tried to mix things up a bit. I got the poppers out! Yup the previous week I went out did the round of stores and bought a collection of poppers. After seeing this video clip;http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NWJCxIl1wSkI thought these must be the ants pants. They can out fish bait! The conditions were perfect, weed free. I tried these 4 poppers and managed a fish on each. Yes my first, second, third & fourth Yellow Fin Whiting ever on poppers.Frankly I was not impressed. It took on average, about 12 to 15+ casts per strike. Maybe my technique is no good? I checked to make sure, in case the fish had moved on. After every popper fish I changed back to my bait rig. In every case I had a fish within 3 casts of the bait, at the most! So a nice bit of video editing makes it look like non stop action instead of a tedious 4 hour session. Poppers have certainly caught a lot of fisherman me included.I don't see why you would use your thumbnail to put a screw in the wall, when you can use a screwdriver or a power drill! Just my take on it.However the Gulp soft plastic sandworms in the "bloody" red colour worked well, as always. It took the bigger fish. A 40cm, a 39 and a few 37-38cm were the better fish.The fish I kept are from 33cm to 40cm. I would have released another 20 odd fish in the 29-32 range. there were plenty of YFW about on a heavenly day!Cheers, Des

http://www.fiveaa.com.au/audio_pollution-in-gulf-st-vincent_107318?s=29

The mullies are around already! Just not in big numbers I've heard it's been good at 42 lately, so I went last night after work and got this one, went 23lb, 100cm long, I was chuffed!!

test only

Made a call for ya mate as it was a while ago for me. 20 cents a yard of PP at SFS, so 200yd = $40.Got One Stepney, Sufix 832 was 30cents a yard.SFS sell spools of PP 150yds for $30. but all depends on how much your reel spool holds. Best buy it from the bulk spool as you only pay for the amount you need/use.

Had a couple of pm asking which site I use for checking water temp;http://oceancurrent.imos.org.au/Adelaide/2013081704.htmlYou can zoom into the maps for further detail.Cheers, Des

Noting a few recent posts enquiring after Yellow Fin Whiting, I thought I would put up some general info regarding a species I have obsessed over for a while, along with a part log for this winter so far.Yellow Fin Whiting are available all year round.There are independent resident populations in the St Vincent Gulf, Spencer Gulf and in WA from Albany through to Shark Bay.The is no migration between populations.Yellow Fin Whiting follow the COLD WATER. At various times of the year you will find them in the part of the gulf that have their natural habitat, but were the water is COLDEST. So I track them all year round, up and down the gulf following the water temperature.By the start of April they would have disappeared from the Adelaide beaches and moved north. This catch was at the end of April in a "middle" part of the gulf. Flathead are a nice by catch, but disappear along with the baitfish when the water gets too cold. However Yellow Fin whiting are still found in the cool water shallows. I manage regular catches through May and June. But it is the Bloodworm runs that really concentrate their numbers into the shallows. And it is then that the better size fish are more abundant. This catch was in the middle of the July bloodworm run.Another bag at the end of JulyThis bag in the middle of the August Bloodworm runAnd I recently managed to find a day with light winds! Which resulted in this bag.Now it is not just us recreational fishers that get stuck into the Yellow Fin Whiting in winter. The graph below from a study in 2000 shows the large majority of the professional catch taken in winter months.Cheers Des

Great news for the LB fishos at St Kilda.Biggest hassle is now the white bucket brigade of death will be hammering both sides for undersized fish to turn into fish cakes.And they get real nasty when you tell them to throw them back too.That's okay.....my kung fu is strong. LMAOSteve

Morning Hookers! Today I have some exciting news; the St Kilda - Chapman's Creek aquatic reserve has been lifted for land based fishing as of midnight last night. The reserve has been there for approximately 25 years and this morning Minister Gago, Lisa Vlahos (Member for Taylor) and Susan Close (Member for Port Adelaide) came down to announce that it has now been opened. What this means is that it is now legal for people to fish and crab, land based, on the right hand side of the St Kilda break wall and all along the water front of the right hand side.Some things to be aware of:Bait digging and fishing (other than land based) are still prohibited as are collecting or removing any bottom dwelling organism other than Blue Swimmer Crabs which may be taken by rake/hand/hoop net. A full fact sheet is available from St Kilda Tackle & Tucker or available here.Get out there and get stuck into them. I personally reckon the Flathead fishing will be great in some of the little channels and troughs that form on turn of the tides.Edit: There was supposed to be a pic to go with this, but it doesn't seem to like me today.

I have been testing the waters with an Aquaponics setup . I first heard or read about the concept on the computer and done some research into the idea and funnily enough it coincided with a possible purchase of some fingerlings . In my research i also decided that i did not want to have to pay for the power that a pump and aerator can consume in there continuous demand being on 24/7 . So solar power was going to have to be the way to go . First things first i had to source out a water proof container , that was large enough to raise some fingerlings to a decent size . Back into some research i found some IBC's , as they are called on Gum Tree for just over a $100 , a bit more hunting around and i found out i can get some cheaper if i went second hand and cleaned them out myself .This was not such a good idea as after i had spent over 8 hours cleaning them i would of been better of buying them clean . I then went and bought solar powered Water feature pump that i quickly found out just wont cut it with the little solar panel and tiny battery , so i had a tinker and asked around for some bits . Got a car battery from my Father in-law and i had a house solar panel that was earmarked for the Mully Magnet but i thought it would be better of , and more productive powering the Aquaponics . Next thing to do was to source some media and put things together . I dug the tank into the ground a touch so the grow bed was at a good height , had a few dramas with what was strong enough to hold the grow bed in place but ended up going with what was mentioned on youtube (what i should of done in the first place) . Then i filled it with 250kg of cleaned media and turned the pump on . I had researched up on the Bell Siphon but with the flow i had i had to tune the pipe lengths to get it to cycle properly . Had a few issues with it not starting and then starting and not stopping . Got this sorted but the had to figure out why my pump kept turning of . The pump unit i have has a control unit that has two settings , one for solar power and one for battery power . I first had removed the original battery and wired the solar panel and car battery to the terminals but with it in battery mode it didn't work properly , so i then rewired the solar panel and car battery into the solar power inlet and put the original battery back in . This has finally worked with the settings on the unit on solar power mode .After all this i finally have the system working 24/7 just on a solar panel and car battery and entirely off the grid . wooo whoo . Next thing was to source some gold fish to condition the water before i put my fingerlings in and i maneged to get 20 of Gum Tree for $100 . Then me and the wife went up to Bunnigs to get some plants . And now i have a complete set up that , at the moment , seems to be working no problems .

Just got back from a little three day trip down to Port Vincent with a mate, we ventured around abit but fish were pretty scarce compared to summer which was somewhat expected. In all though got on to a few things and was some fun on some light gear! and enjoyed the scenery/weather. Heres a few clips I managed to get whilst fishing.

I am disgusted nobody has mentioned Malcolm Douglas. Rex Hunt? iFish? River Monsters? Pfffffffffffttt! :vomit: Have a look at the crap these shows spruik you need - sunnies, buffs, latest lures, plotters, GPS, braid blah blah. Malcolm - shorts, shirt hat, bare hands and a piece of wood if he is lucky. RIP

been getting a megaload of bream the last few days down the coorong. Averaging 10- 15 a session. Here is the best for this year at 48.5cm ( lost a few suspected as being bigger and many around the 40cm mark ) Last year i managed a 52cm and am yet to beat it.Bit of a horse hey ? Only problem is my mate caught this one and not me !!! took him to my secret spot and he beats my PB for this year by a cm .. oh well. This is the photo of him and his monster bream.

Older version definitely a lot better

Older version definitely a lot better

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dh125kwsLFAbloody crazy the lengths the Japanese go to with their fish

Took my mate and his father-in-law fishing today. They were quite keen to get a suitable outfit each and first stop was Fishering Wholesalers. I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by Mark in the store and he put us onto the goods. I picked out a pair of Daiwa Airds for my mate and Mark matched them to a Daiwa Seabass rod. I haven't used these before but they were similar to my seajiggers and did the job great today. We grabbed some braid and Mark spooled both reels. We left with a pair of great landbased rods and a few odds and ends, very happy with the service.Headed to a spot down south and soon we were set up and fishing. After 2 hours of catching baby ST I was getting a bit worried. We caught 2 decent mullet but they both shook off the hooks as we lifted them from the water. The keeper bag was empty and I considered moving spots. Another bait change and suddenly I was onto a better fish. It turned out to be a 42cm mullie. We put out a few more pilchard cubes and suddenly the school moved infront of us. We pulled in a 60cm fish and another just undersized before getting a double, then a triple hookup. Most of the fish fought great on the light gear and braid and we had a heap of fun. Ended up with a few keepers and released another 7 or 8 undersized.

Onk bream caught on fly-

Here is another nominationThis is just one of a few reports lately, gets my vote cause the reports have got me back out chasing reddies :cheer: http://www.strikehook.com/forum/23-freshwater-fishing/250230-more-redfin

hi fellas I went for a flick with fellow member snake as we regularly do , and I got lucky with a 43.5cm bream on plastics . I thought 8t was going to be another small mully but to my surprise landed the biggest bream I've caught so far with lures .ill post the pic up as soon as I figure out how to in my phone .

Yep steaming is the way to go.The best part about about steaming is you dont get water absorbtion.Meat comes out firmer and in my option with a better flavour due to not having the meat soaking up the water while the water is recovering back to full boil.In my days as a chef I never boiled any of my shellfish but i was spoilt by having a commercial steaming oven to use (even for my private catches)

After a few days sitting at home with cold and flu, i finally got out today. With still not 100% of my normal strength, i went to Outer Harbour about 11am for a quick fish. A week without fishing feels like a month so i forced myself to get into action. After about an hour fishing, i was served with two rays and managed to land one. The first one got busted. First time ever, i won the fight with a ray. Cut the line and let it swim. After the fight, i was really exhausted and decided to go home. Manage to catch three blueys so the trip not really stuff all :cheer: .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggoUMITPXRE