ShimsMan

Beautiful reel! is that a silky oak spool I see? luxe!That said, how are the bearings?

Wishing, the knot in the pic works well with thicker lines i've found.Anything thinner than about 15lb mono and i finish the knot off by putting the tag end through the loop instead. Also, make sure you pull all 4 lines to tighten, then just the main lines to seat it; you'll need to pull it almost hard enough to snap the knot if you wanna trim real close!

The knot being tied well is certainly important' date=' what type of knot you use is up to you and personal for some...I've tried the double blood, uni to uni, slim beauty, improved albright and bristol and settled on the bristol as my favourite; It's very strong, easy to tie (even with cold hands at night,) and has a nice low profile that slips through the guides almost effortlessly!Pic for reference:[img']http://i.imgur.com/MyHC2z7.jpg[/img]Dab some superglue on the finished knot and make sure the leader is long enough to wrap around the spool 4-6 times and you're golden!

http://youtu.be/8XX2c1gFnDUVery impressive stuff in country similar to our coast line!

unless the bend is affecting your casts or fighting fish i'd leave it to be honest.You don't want to weaken the resin by trying to reset it with heat, the directionality of the rod comes from the weave of the cloth and rod blanks are often bent opposite the spine slightly to start with, if it were bent in the opposite direction of the spine or laterally i'd start worrying then.If you really must, leaving the rod in the sun with the bend facing up might correct it somewhat; heat gun will possibly cook the resin if you're not very very careful and will weaken the rod if it gets a hot spot (rods are baked in an oven to set them for a reason, not spot heated with a gun.)if it's a very pricey rod and you absolutely have to have it straight as a die, give ross or rob a call and see if anything can be done.

Yeah projoe's pretty much on the money. Unfortunately you generally won't get a single piece replaced like that, usually if it's under warranty they will replace the entire rod. The Jewels have been replaced by the new range of Catana's which are really nice rods. The Catana Nano's are the same price range and in my opinion, better quality rods than the Jewels.

Hi Savagelip,We are still working on our baitworm culture research, unfortunately setbacks get thrown at us and these things take time to get around/over.We are currently on hold awaiting the outcome of a request to change details of our next 'chunk' of research funds.We are hoping to get back into the full swing of things by mid next year, the plans are still the same just the timeframe that has shifted.Latest news is that we have had talks with an industry partner interested in culturing our worms as part of a waste mitigation initiative on their abalone farm.All is still good on the baitworm culture front just not going as fast as we would have hoped.Sam

Hey guys, not sure if any of you know about this You Tube channelReally is a great watch, i have sat for ages watching this guy in the UK make everything from sinkers to soft plastics, and i cant believe how easy he makes it look.Well worth a look if you are handy and doing this sort of stuff Click Here

Catching a bag or 2 … or 6! of Yellow Fin Whiting has not been a problem recently. There are always plenty around in the right places.However I have struggled to land many of the better size fish. I have had my share of bites, even plenty hook ups, although I was not happy with the hook up rate. And lastly and most frustratingly staying hooked up. I have had some big blistering runs, from big bruising YFW on light tackle in the shallows. Only to find my hooks pulled. Yes they are definitely YFW and not Flathead. You can tell by the distinct differences in their head shakes. The Flathead thrash and swing their heads from side to side whereas YFW tug their heads downwards trying to get back down to the sand. And on occasions I have seen their tell tale silver flash. They are nearly always hooked on the longest cast when you do not get much of a chance to see colour. I have never landed the best of the Yellow Fin Whiting that I have hooked.Well I can find them. I can get them to bite, although with a poor hook up rate and when hooked up my hooks would pull once we were into a fight. I had to have a rethink about what I was doing.
 
I paid a visit to a congenial veteran of the tackle industry, Trevor Rea at Gotcha Tackle on Magill Rd Stepney. Trevor has extensive experience as a land based fisho with many an unbelievable tale. There has been plenty of tales of monster size YFW, but Trevor is the only person I know that can look me in the eye and tell me he has caught a 55cm YFW. Albeit a while back. And a mate of his has had 60+ cm fish, whilst fishing along side him. When he digs up photos, which I am urging him to do I will scan & post them up. Well you cant buy that experience and it soon became apparent.
 
Trevor listened intently to my problem, then quietly walked down along a display shelf, returning with a packet in hand saying “This is what you need. Give up the long shank hooks” In his hand was a packet of Gamakatsu #4 octopus hooks. He looked at me and said “stop thinking Yellow Fin Whiting and start thinking Bream” Big Yellow Fin Whiting behave more like Bream than whiting. The penny dropped. I have always inspected the stomach contents of the fish I catch. I find the bigger YFW always have, apart from worms, crabs, nippers, prawns, whitebait, and even a baby octopus. Below a pic of stomach contents from a previous catch.
 

 
Exactly the type of food you expect a Bream to eat. So they could be expected to attack your bait in a similar manner to bream. I once had a huge YFW attack and hang onto for a while a whole pilchard on 3/0 hooks intended for Flathead. I described my current trusted and very reliable rig (below) to Trevor.
 

 
He said “you are assuming it attacks the worm from the bottom” Well yes! He was challenging my hard and fast assumptions. Great! I was getting a fresh look at what I was doing. This is the rig he suggested and assured me from his own experience, of changing his own technique, that my hook up rate would double. This is his suggested rig;
 

 
I have tried this rig out in my last 2 sessions. On the first session it was very windy and the big YFW that normally hang around the shallow nipper beds are not around in these conditions. I did finish with a bag of YF between 30-34cm It was interesting to note all the bigger YF took the top hook and I doubled my hook up rate. It was only small YF and Puffers that took the bottom hook. Yesterday the weather was looking good and I headed out with great anticipation. It was on the first 2 casts that I found a couple of 31cm YF. From then on I tried to avoid them. There was an easy bag of fish for the taking, in the 29-33cm range but my focus were the bigger specimens. So I focussed on areas that hold less but larger fish. The rig works well! I did not lose a single good fish today and probably only missed one great bite. I kept 15 fish 31-40cm.
 

 
The best sizes were; 2 @40cm, 2@38cm and 2@36cm
 

 
Taking up the whole shelf of the fridge while chilling down before filleting.
 

 
I thought I was doing pretty well, but there is always room for improvement. Listen, review and have a rethink. Well it is satisfying to have changed my rigs with great results.Now a 50+ cm Yellow Fin Whiting can realistically go onto my bucket list! Cheers, Des

Just got this from this Australian Government Page ( or this link http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/35.%20Aboriginal%20Hunting,%20Fishing%20and%20Gathering%20Rights%3A%20Current%20Australian%20Legislation/-0 )South Australia 954. Fisheries Generally. Under the Fisheries Act 1971 (SA), Aboriginal people are subject to the same restrictions as to the numbers of fish caught, the size of fish caught and the methods of catching fish as are all other citizens. Aboriginal people require a permit to catch fish for sale. The Aboriginal Legal Services have received few if any complaints relating to prosecutions under the Act. Discussions have taken place between the South Australian Government and the Point Pearce Aboriginal Community over requests to close the stretch of water between Point Pearce and Wardang Island to trawlers engaged in net fishing, and to exempt Aboriginal people from commercial licence fees.interesting cheers 4THA

here is another clip from the day i'm sorting out how to edit vids so bare with the poor quality till I learn it all that bit better http://youtu.be/wdbgjf3--eEcheers 4THA

Finally got around to re-doing some of my old fishing footage into watchable HD video. First up is a video from back in 2008 during the Drought when we come across a huge school of 4-5kg Carp. The days were 47C+ and this footage was taken at Walkers Flat on the mighty Murray River, hope you enjoy itcheers chuckhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiTwmAElxow

compleat angler I reckon shimsy

Got it from Sharron at Compleat Angler. "Frill Neck Caps" is the brand but have another for the missus which is identical named "adapt a cap" and seen another version at local tackle store for around $20.They really are a must in those conditions. I'd forgotten it last Friday and got burnt especially from the reflection off the water.Cheers.

Thanks guys, can't wait to see more footage from the kogan!One question:Where did flaps get his headgear? I've been using a military shemagh but wouldn't mind one of those too!

headed out for a fish with Squid Flaps yesterday and packed my new Kogan HD video camera cant afford a go pro at tha minute but its on the cards XMAS hopefullyi'm pretty chuffed with the quality for the price I paid http://youtu.be/eFgV2v3IJ8Echeers for a top day on tha water Squiddo some good yarns and shenanigans as tha norm 4THA

Thanks Ugly4life,I didn't even know some of these cams existed! Must plan a trip to Port Elliot, Knights beach looks awesome!

Okay, all fixed! Also, if anyone knows any more cams feel free to post them and I will add them to the list.

Hey everyone,Thought we could do with some more good info threads on S&H, so it's time to post one! I'll be focusing on smaller, tastier, land based species: Tommies, Mullet, Salmon Trout and Garfish mainly. This is a guide for Land based fishing from wharves, jetties and breakwalls etc. and is mostly for the newbies, but hopefully some of our forum members can get something out of it too!Let's get it started!It all starts with the rigs, it pays to keep things simple but versatile if possible, So I use 2 hook paternoster rigs; made from quality terminal tackle:Attention to detail helps a lot in rigging for smaller or spooky species in clear water, in this case; good quality fluorocarbon and very sharp hooks are the main areas I spend money on. I use mono for main line and terminate it with a small snap swivel so rigs can be changed without any tying.To make my rigs, I tie a surgeon's loop in the line and 2 dropper loops using a dropper loop pegboard (pictured in the video.)The rig is a regular double paternoster except that I cut one of the “legs” off each dropper so that it's no longer a loop, then tie on the hooks with a blood knot.At the sinker end I leave about 50cm and tie on a snap swivel so that sinkers can be changed as needed. When you're fishing over rough ground, you can take the sinker off and use a clip on float; but I fish the bottom for these species 95% of the time, so the float is an afterthought.The sinkers pictured are 1/4oz(7g), 3/8oz(10.5g) and 3/4oz(21g) with 3/8 being the most often used; I wouldn't recommend anything heavier than 3/4oz, as this style of fishing seldom requires much of a cast, if at all. Hooks are Daiichi suicide size 10, short shank; any smaller and you're going to end up with more gut-hooked fish!http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5sLQH_N3BM Bait is maggots most of the time for me, I've noticed long life ones are often a bit more lively and worth the extra dollar or so over the bran packaged ones. with the maggots, I thread on enough so that I can only see the barb of the hook, they last ages this way and you can fish for longer without re-baiting.Worms are a bit too expensive for me and I personally only use them when chasing whiting, though you can harvest your own if you're time rich and can get the technique down.Pilchards are a great universal bait, but as far as smaller species go, I use fresh frozen (not brined) pilchard cubes unweighted on a fluoro trace and 4/0 suicide hook for Salmon Trout and it works very well for me.Mince is a great bait for mullet, regular beef mince thickened very slightly with wheat bran or breadcrumbs and some curry powder, garlic, aniseed or 5 spice mix added in works well; squash it into a ball shape on the hook and gently cast or drop it in and you're good to go.Lots of other baits can be used for these species: cockles, prawn, squid etc but these are my “go to” baits and they get me good results.Burley is a must for these smaller species and can make the difference between going hungry and home made fish 'n' chips on most days. A mix of pellets and small burley log in a plastic burley bucket just below the surface of the water works very well for me and the fish normally show up within the hour, depending on the tide. Arguably the best burley I've used is from Arthur at betta price tackle, so that's where I get mine!First thing I do when I get to a jetty, breakwall etc is always to get the burley bucket in the water and tied off; then set up and get some bait in the water within about 15 metres downdrift of the burley bucket. Most of the time I'm aiming for tommies, sometimes gar if there's weedbeds around; occasionally I'll drift out the unweighted pilchard cube for salmon trout instead of the maggots. Tommies are my main target a lot of the time as they're not size restricted, so they're great for use as bait and burley and make good live baits.As soon as the first usable fish is pulled up, it goes either on a squid jag or is used as a livebait (depending on what jetty I'm at.)Tommies make decent livebaits but squid love them, so if I'm at a squidding jetty it goes onto the squid jig instead. I rig my livebaits using this technique:4/0 hooks are used and the mouth hook is only threaded on the line instead of tied, the end hook snelled; this ensures that the fish can swim freely and can be adjusted for any size fish. until recently I was using a single lip hook, but I missed out on a lot of good Snook as a result (they seem to love striking at the belly of livebaits instead of the head.)For chasing landbased snapper or big salmon, I kill the first fish and use it whole on a pulley rig with the same 2 hook config as above, using up to 6/0 circle hooks if the bait is big enough.So that's my usual game plan for a day's fishing. I hope there were some helpful bits in there!Thanks for reading,Shimsman.

Hey everyone,Thought we could do with some more good info threads on S&H, so it's time to post one! I'll be focusing on smaller, tastier, land based species: Tommies, Mullet, Salmon Trout and Garfish mainly. This is a guide for Land based fishing from wharves, jetties and breakwalls etc. and is mostly for the newbies, but hopefully some of our forum members can get something out of it too!Let's get it started!It all starts with the rigs, it pays to keep things simple but versatile if possible, So I use 2 hook paternoster rigs; made from quality terminal tackle:Attention to detail helps a lot in rigging for smaller or spooky species in clear water, in this case; good quality fluorocarbon and very sharp hooks are the main areas I spend money on. I use mono for main line and terminate it with a small snap swivel so rigs can be changed without any tying.To make my rigs, I tie a surgeon's loop in the line and 2 dropper loops using a dropper loop pegboard (pictured in the video.)The rig is a regular double paternoster except that I cut one of the “legs” off each dropper so that it's no longer a loop, then tie on the hooks with a blood knot.At the sinker end I leave about 50cm and tie on a snap swivel so that sinkers can be changed as needed. When you're fishing over rough ground, you can take the sinker off and use a clip on float; but I fish the bottom for these species 95% of the time, so the float is an afterthought.The sinkers pictured are 1/4oz(7g), 3/8oz(10.5g) and 3/4oz(21g) with 3/8 being the most often used; I wouldn't recommend anything heavier than 3/4oz, as this style of fishing seldom requires much of a cast, if at all. Hooks are Daiichi suicide size 10, short shank; any smaller and you're going to end up with more gut-hooked fish!http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5sLQH_N3BM Bait is maggots most of the time for me, I've noticed long life ones are often a bit more lively and worth the extra dollar or so over the bran packaged ones. with the maggots, I thread on enough so that I can only see the barb of the hook, they last ages this way and you can fish for longer without re-baiting.Worms are a bit too expensive for me and I personally only use them when chasing whiting, though you can harvest your own if you're time rich and can get the technique down.Pilchards are a great universal bait, but as far as smaller species go, I use fresh frozen (not brined) pilchard cubes unweighted on a fluoro trace and 4/0 suicide hook for Salmon Trout and it works very well for me.Mince is a great bait for mullet, regular beef mince thickened very slightly with wheat bran or breadcrumbs and some curry powder, garlic, aniseed or 5 spice mix added in works well; squash it into a ball shape on the hook and gently cast or drop it in and you're good to go.Lots of other baits can be used for these species: cockles, prawn, squid etc but these are my “go to” baits and they get me good results.Burley is a must for these smaller species and can make the difference between going hungry and home made fish 'n' chips on most days. A mix of pellets and small burley log in a plastic burley bucket just below the surface of the water works very well for me and the fish normally show up within the hour, depending on the tide. Arguably the best burley I've used is from Arthur at betta price tackle, so that's where I get mine!First thing I do when I get to a jetty, breakwall etc is always to get the burley bucket in the water and tied off; then set up and get some bait in the water within about 15 metres downdrift of the burley bucket. Most of the time I'm aiming for tommies, sometimes gar if there's weedbeds around; occasionally I'll drift out the unweighted pilchard cube for salmon trout instead of the maggots. Tommies are my main target a lot of the time as they're not size restricted, so they're great for use as bait and burley and make good live baits.As soon as the first usable fish is pulled up, it goes either on a squid jag or is used as a livebait (depending on what jetty I'm at.)Tommies make decent livebaits but squid love them, so if I'm at a squidding jetty it goes onto the squid jig instead. I rig my livebaits using this technique:4/0 hooks are used and the mouth hook is only threaded on the line instead of tied, the end hook snelled; this ensures that the fish can swim freely and can be adjusted for any size fish. until recently I was using a single lip hook, but I missed out on a lot of good Snook as a result (they seem to love striking at the belly of livebaits instead of the head.)For chasing landbased snapper or big salmon, I kill the first fish and use it whole on a pulley rig with the same 2 hook config as above, using up to 6/0 circle hooks if the bait is big enough.So that's my usual game plan for a day's fishing. I hope there were some helpful bits in there!Thanks for reading,Shimsman.

Hey everyone,Thought we could do with some more good info threads on S&H, so it's time to post one! I'll be focusing on smaller, tastier, land based species: Tommies, Mullet, Salmon Trout and Garfish mainly. This is a guide for Land based fishing from wharves, jetties and breakwalls etc. and is mostly for the newbies, but hopefully some of our forum members can get something out of it too!Let's get it started!It all starts with the rigs, it pays to keep things simple but versatile if possible, So I use 2 hook paternoster rigs; made from quality terminal tackle:Attention to detail helps a lot in rigging for smaller or spooky species in clear water, in this case; good quality fluorocarbon and very sharp hooks are the main areas I spend money on. I use mono for main line and terminate it with a small snap swivel so rigs can be changed without any tying.To make my rigs, I tie a surgeon's loop in the line and 2 dropper loops using a dropper loop pegboard (pictured in the video.)The rig is a regular double paternoster except that I cut one of the “legs” off each dropper so that it's no longer a loop, then tie on the hooks with a blood knot.At the sinker end I leave about 50cm and tie on a snap swivel so that sinkers can be changed as needed. When you're fishing over rough ground, you can take the sinker off and use a clip on float; but I fish the bottom for these species 95% of the time, so the float is an afterthought.The sinkers pictured are 1/4oz(7g), 3/8oz(10.5g) and 3/4oz(21g) with 3/8 being the most often used; I wouldn't recommend anything heavier than 3/4oz, as this style of fishing seldom requires much of a cast, if at all. Hooks are Daiichi suicide size 10, short shank; any smaller and you're going to end up with more gut-hooked fish!http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5sLQH_N3BM Bait is maggots most of the time for me, I've noticed long life ones are often a bit more lively and worth the extra dollar or so over the bran packaged ones. with the maggots, I thread on enough so that I can only see the barb of the hook, they last ages this way and you can fish for longer without re-baiting.Worms are a bit too expensive for me and I personally only use them when chasing whiting, though you can harvest your own if you're time rich and can get the technique down.Pilchards are a great universal bait, but as far as smaller species go, I use fresh frozen (not brined) pilchard cubes unweighted on a fluoro trace and 4/0 suicide hook for Salmon Trout and it works very well for me.Mince is a great bait for mullet, regular beef mince thickened very slightly with wheat bran or breadcrumbs and some curry powder, garlic, aniseed or 5 spice mix added in works well; squash it into a ball shape on the hook and gently cast or drop it in and you're good to go.Lots of other baits can be used for these species: cockles, prawn, squid etc but these are my “go to” baits and they get me good results.Burley is a must for these smaller species and can make the difference between going hungry and home made fish 'n' chips on most days. A mix of pellets and small burley log in a plastic burley bucket just below the surface of the water works very well for me and the fish normally show up within the hour, depending on the tide. Arguably the best burley I've used is from Arthur at betta price tackle, so that's where I get mine!First thing I do when I get to a jetty, breakwall etc is always to get the burley bucket in the water and tied off; then set up and get some bait in the water within about 15 metres downdrift of the burley bucket. Most of the time I'm aiming for tommies, sometimes gar if there's weedbeds around; occasionally I'll drift out the unweighted pilchard cube for salmon trout instead of the maggots. Tommies are my main target a lot of the time as they're not size restricted, so they're great for use as bait and burley and make good live baits.As soon as the first usable fish is pulled up, it goes either on a squid jag or is used as a livebait (depending on what jetty I'm at.)Tommies make decent livebaits but squid love them, so if I'm at a squidding jetty it goes onto the squid jig instead. I rig my livebaits using this technique:4/0 hooks are used and the mouth hook is only threaded on the line instead of tied, the end hook snelled; this ensures that the fish can swim freely and can be adjusted for any size fish. until recently I was using a single lip hook, but I missed out on a lot of good Snook as a result (they seem to love striking at the belly of livebaits instead of the head.)For chasing landbased snapper or big salmon, I kill the first fish and use it whole on a pulley rig with the same 2 hook config as above, using up to 6/0 circle hooks if the bait is big enough.So that's my usual game plan for a day's fishing. I hope there were some helpful bits in there!Thanks for reading,Shimsman.