keenfisho

I'll post up excess down the track, certainly will be doing some 'no longer available' Daiwa RPM brown craw inspired, but anything else people can no longer buy but have a desire for would be a good challenge. One of my aims is to paint up our own local SA bait fish so trying to match a design is good practice.

Looking good mate, let me know on the crank baits, I can never have enough lure candy

Looking good mate, let me know on the crank baits, I can never have enough lure candy

Inspired by a frustration of not being able to buy lures in the colours I want (popular = sold out) and also wanting to tweak some designs, and by the need to build something to understand it, I have foolishly picked up yet another hobby.
I was going to start with wooden lures as I'm already set up for those, but the fear of mucking up the paint job on a wooden lure that I've spent hours on I decided to start with blank plastics which are very cheap.
eg. A bent minnow copy is about $2

BTW, it's not a great copy, the Chinese penchant for price ahead of attention to detail means the centre eye is a piss poor screw in so I had to make a new eye, drill a suitable hole and epoxy it in. The surface is not textured like a bent minnow, but I have a solution for that down the track. None of these lures are tuned either.
Anyway, they are good for painting practice. I bought a cheap airbrush, tweaked it a little per youtube and voila I got a semi reasonable result and learned a heap in the process.  I especially learned that the less than optimal epoxy from AMC doesn't flow all that well and despite using a rotisserie and a heat gun it was hard to get a smooth surface.
So here's the early attempts.

Happy with the yabby. The earlier version I realized was more coloured like a cooked yabby

But perhaps fish like cooked ones too 🤣.
Having enough fun that I may invest in a better airbrush.
I've done a bulk order of crankbaits to practice painting on, which I will likely sell at cost if someone is looking for a specific pattern:

 

Mr Fish
Don't have as much as I thought. But if they are OK I'll use them.
The jig heads are 1/8 ounce.
 

Just more food for the hungry new zealand fur seal.On kangaroo island alone there is estimated 100,000 of them and studies have shown that they can consume around 500 ton per day of fish stocks,not to mention the penguin and pelican population that have been decimated by these cute little cuddly creatures.On a recent trip to Vincent we counted 11 of them on the breakwater and after talking to the local pro squid fishers they have put a huge dent in the local stocks.As their numbers continue to grow and a government that does not have the balls to take on the greenies we can expect to see less and less fish stocks in both of our Gulfs.And as usual the rec fisherman will be blamed.

Got up early this morning to try for a squid or two off the Smoky Bay jetty only to find that it was burning.
Ratbags playing with fireworks last night must have started the fire and it had been smouldering for hours. I rang 000 and the local CFA unit responded very fast, but the damage meant that burnt planks had to be removed making the jetty a safety hazard. Who knows when it will be repaired.
 

Agree with Savage IF
Yes @Jimmy. IF it goes well
but you mention the kingfish, these fingerlings will be enjoyed by the kingfish
i hope nobody took my comment that I’m against it, just need to look at the overall picture of not just snapper stocks but all species and the way everything has been managed is far far from ideal, also not much point in any restocking if the long liners are given full access again after the ban, it is why we now have a ban

It’s a good start but I wonder how many will survive? They are only 6cm at release
also until the government completely ban long lining it will not matter how many fingerlings they release because as soon as the ban lifts in 2023 the pros will just go back to their old ways and smash the snapper again

Agree with Savage IF
Yes @Jimmy. IF it goes well
but you mention the kingfish, these fingerlings will be enjoyed by the kingfish
i hope nobody took my comment that I’m against it, just need to look at the overall picture of not just snapper stocks but all species and the way everything has been managed is far far from ideal, also not much point in any restocking if the long liners are given full access again after the ban, it is why we now have a ban

It’s a good start but I wonder how many will survive? They are only 6cm at release
also until the government completely ban long lining it will not matter how many fingerlings they release because as soon as the ban lifts in 2023 the pros will just go back to their old ways and smash the snapper again

Well at least they are doing something albeit a drip in the ocean. Its all about perception but in the long run, longlining needs to be banned to stop the rape & pillage - simple as that. This is not restocking IMO. No where near enough being released if this is what they think will help!!. This should have started when the ban came in & many, many, many more thousands. We will see what happens. Is this just a once off or an ongoing project? Who will monitor this....etc. etc.
I have been sounding several pro grounds as I pass them in GSV since the ban & have generally seen plenty of fish schooled up so from my observations, the numbers seem to be good on most grounds. 

It's nice to hear we've acted swiftly to get the first step sorted with the fingerlings (just over 12 months) 👏. expected this to be released just as the ban finished 😆
Hopefully our government can take a leaf out of the Vic book (in banning all commercial net fishing of Port Phillip Bay) and do something similar here in our gulfs and passages. Perhaps going one step further and ban long lining in these zones also.
I don't have an issue with charters with in these zones, but maybe put a stricter limit especially to the larger snapper above 80cm. Maybe 2 fish max per boat above 80cm as well as a minimum 25% cut to their limits.
Your paying to go on a charter for the experience as well as catching some fish to take home for a feed (not a month worth of food so to speak).
That's my 2 cents. 

It’s a good start but I wonder how many will survive? They are only 6cm at release
also until the government completely ban long lining it will not matter how many fingerlings they release because as soon as the ban lifts in 2023 the pros will just go back to their old ways and smash the snapper again

Agree with Savage IF
Yes @Jimmy. IF it goes well
but you mention the kingfish, these fingerlings will be enjoyed by the kingfish
i hope nobody took my comment that I’m against it, just need to look at the overall picture of not just snapper stocks but all species and the way everything has been managed is far far from ideal, also not much point in any restocking if the long liners are given full access again after the ban, it is why we now have a ban

now, if the 500k worth of fingerlings, becomes 1.5 million in return once they grow and overall biomass increases then doesnt everyone win?

its like the kingfish pens on a larger scale but boosting a fish stock which would be that abundant if not fished for commercially.

I'd actually like to see them do it with flathead like they do in the eastern states.

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Even if only 10% survive (which would be a poor strike rate) thats still 30K more snapper across the two gulfs. If even 10% if those that survived the 1st year or two then reach breeding age, thats 3K additional that can help re-populate stocks.
Regardless of how you cut it, that surely is a positive move in a sector which historically has not seen much love.
Imagine if they make this an annual program over the next 10 years.

It’s a good start but I wonder how many will survive? They are only 6cm at release
also until the government completely ban long lining it will not matter how many fingerlings they release because as soon as the ban lifts in 2023 the pros will just go back to their old ways and smash the snapper again

Saw this a few years ago and at the time thought they would be amazing on bream and yfw, I’ve never got off my arse and tried it though 😂

Saw this a few years ago and at the time thought they would be amazing on bream and yfw, I’ve never got off my arse and tried it though 😂

This is fascinating.
 

Thought I better stick in a final shot. Epoxy on. Think I will leave it unpainted.

😶  I have them both 🙄 No extra bits & spares with the MGX. But very little diff in their performance. Touch of weight you possibly wont feel. 
Keep an eye out for a Sydney retailer on ebay who has them on special often. Reliable supplier as well.
Cheers, Des

Some idiot broke the tip of my Savage Black rod. I've repaired it, so I thought I'd document it.
Damage was right at the very tip

I wanted to reuse the tip if I could, so I had to strip back the epoxy and remove the old rod graphite, a simple scrape with stanley knife exposed the wrap

I unwound that and measured the old tip thickness

No wonder it broke, so bloody thin
Removing the old rod section I was now not worried about damaging it so I used a hot air gun which would damage the resin of the graphite but hopefully not the eyelet but would melt any glue. 


Easy peasy. I put a 1.4mm drill down it to clean out the gunk but was obvious the sleeve was 1.5mm to allow for glue space so I also put a 1.5mm down it
Forgot to take a photo, but the break was pretty clean and the break end on the remainder of the rod was 1.45mm so I decided to glue the tip straight on. I used superglue aka cyanoacrylate  which apparently is commonly used.
To align it I used a bamboo skewer through 3 eyes with tape around it to match each eye diameter, a blurry photo but I think you get the idea

I then bound (wrapped) the eye end to the rod with 80lb braid and used a bit of superglue to hold that in place. I'm probably going to epoxy it as well.
I could have used thinner braid but this stuff I use for assist hooks and I liked the idea of a bright orange tip
The 6'10 rod is more like 6'9 now 😆, but at least it's not a bin job!