Knackers

In my last post I thought the fact and sarcasm were easily discernable

Ummmmm. They occur naturally around southern australia. We just clubbed too many of them until SFA were left. Then the whites declined because we killed them and they didn't have that many seals to eat. Because seals breed quicker than whites they are increasing in numbers. We are now thinking about releasing tigers on land/beaches where the seal colonys are as a control measure.

There are a lot of them placed in secret locations.Just not by PIRSA or the government. :whistle:

I think anything that increases the amount of food in the gulfs would be far more beneficial to fish stocks than a couple of old tyres tied together. Lets get more crabs and prawns in the gulf, maybe limit pilchard/sardine fishing and try to restore some of the seagrass meadows that we have lost off metro Adelaide. If we take for example the two most arguably popular catches off of metro Adelaide are KGW and Snapper. My reading suggests their stomach contents has very little resident reef species but lots of crabs, molluscs, prawns, invertebrates. I suppose if you could put in a lot of reef sy

It might just be me but I find that they start to die after 2 days with an aerator. Coffin Bay cockles or mud cockles might be more tolerant but Goolwa Cockles come from highly oxygenated water. I've lost a few batches that I wanted to eat that became bait instead. I'm trying to keep all of them alive for days rather than just de-sand them. The spray keeps the water cool as well. A lot of evaporation occurs which is why I continually top them up with fresh salt water.

I've just put the cockles in to the broth and pulled the pot off heat after 10 minutes on a gentle boil. Every cockle has opened. Very tasty. But if you cook them too long they get chewy. I've either got to get them out of the shells for polite company or leave them in their shells for neanderthals who like to stick their hands into a soup bowl for what is theirs. I'll be splitting this up and freezing it into meals.I've cooked many of these chowders. If you've been around enough you could say you are just poaching seafood in milk. But experiment away. I've put in blue cheese instead of milk t

So I just dumped those in. Here are some photos of Coffin Bay cocklesSoy, bacon, garlic, ginger fried cocklesMy wife cooking a cockle pastaAnd the pasta

Once I put all that in I let it reduce a bit to concentrate the flavours. Maybe for a half hour. Tasting is good. Do not worrry so much about salt as when the live cockles open they will add their own. STOP. I forget to say I add finely chopped spuds, 4 in this case, into the bacon and onion mix and stir for about five minutes. This is important as the spuds and starch are the thickening agent for the chowder.Then these still live cockles that I collected on Monday night go into the broth

Add milk and stock and cream. I use somewhere between 1 - 2 litres of milk and the corresponding amount of chicken stock. I use chicken stock as I find that seafood stock reminds me of an old unhyghenic fish shop. I've tried to make my own but to me seafood is either fresh or it is fertiliser.I put the stock in as a powder and add the water later, that is why the tide is out.

The chowder recipe. For my 4 litre batch.2 onions fine chopped. About 300 grams of bacon chopped the same. Cook until the onion goes clear.

So what I have found that works is to have a setup that squirts the water back in from a height that allows for evaporation for cooling and a good size tub or esky that doesn't create a deep sand layer at the bottom. I have eaten cockles five days in a row using this. I do love cockles. Here are my Shark Bay cocklesAnd the result

Just cooking myself 4 litres of cockle chowder. I thouht I'd share an easy recipe that you can adapt for any seafood.I just saw the desanding cockle thread and thought I should add the way I do it before discussing the recipe. It does involve equipment and some prep but I have kept cockles alive for at least a week using this.I collect my cockles and put them into a 20 litre water jerry. I generally get another 40 litres of salt water in other jerries. Put cockles into a tub or 50-60 litre esky. Then I assemble a spare cheap bilge pump connected to a battery with a charger attached. Garden hos

So is a chow a yellowtail scad?http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/fisheries/recreational-fishing/catch-limits-and-closed-seasons/marine-and-estuarine-scale-fish/yellowtail-scad

I've only caught chow on a few occasions. From memory out in the steamer channel and at the Grange Tyre reef.You don't seem to see them around much. Any info on them? Google is not much help.

Maybe this is not about your wife at all? Nothing wrong after years of (ab)using your wrists needing some lighter gear :silly:

I'd have to ask - what is it for? If you are casting big baits and big sinkers you're probably stuck with 5120 or 6120. Lures?

It looks like a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

Looks pretty good to me

I have owned the 4000, 6500 and 8000 Baitrunner Ds (lost the 4000 this year on the FWC). I've been an overhead guy all my life and I love these reels in the boat and off the beach. In the boat I always hang on to the rod so the baitrunner feature rarely gets used unless I have to do something else - this is where it is a really handy feature.

4000 size spinnergood quality 15 - 20 lb braid 7 ft 6-8 kg spinning rod.top shot 50m of 6 lb braid for the smaller stuff

Mate,Some people say that you should have no light showing and even no generators. Whilst I think that this is a bit extreme it cannot hurt. The dudes that recommend such measures seem to catch a lot of fish though. What I do is not to shine any light directly onto the water. I often sit on my chair next to my rod reading my kindle with the light or a book with my headlamp.When you could get onto the wharf at outer harbour we used to use tilley lamps suspended just above the water and a fine mesh net to catch live pillies and squid. These would go sraight down underneath the light to catch mul

Thanks. Will do.

I see dead people

When I find snook trolling I always go back and find the school on the sounder. Then berley up with bits of pilly and catch them on bait. Much more fun.