ShimsMan

Hey everyone,In light of the squid comp, I think we should celebrate squid as a species; they're amazing creatures and an accessible species for all types of anglers (except freshies!)Some things i have always wondered about them though: despite being colourblind, how is it that some jigs will work and some won't? is it the action of a quality jig that entices those big squid, or maybe the size of the jig and how it's worked by the angler?Apparently squid of all types are very sensitive to polarization of light and mostly use their vision to hunt and communicate, so would the new hi tech UV activated jigs being sold by the Japs be worth your cash; or just a Kmart special 3 pack of no name jigs?Feel free to chime in with what you think, share your fave gear, rigs, knowledge of squid, recipes... anything!Here's my fave imitation jig of all time: yamshita 2.5 redhead; good length of 12lb fluoro leader and worked a little higher above the weed than most people would seems to lure out the bigger, ballsier squid for me; got some real monsters on this little jig!

Heya ausea,I own a live fibre 10'5" and it's a nice rod, are you looking for one for spinning reels or an alvey?They have a 13' 2 piece rod that's rated up to 15kg Here that looks nice, could probably cast 3oz without worries; although a certain someone might have to chime in and correct me on that!Good luck mate, they're worth every dollar those wilson rods! Might have to sell mine soon as i don't get down south often enough to use it; i'd offer it to you, but it's only got a cast weight of about 70g or so and won't be up to the task.

I use to tie a mean little gent pattern fly, use to sell em by the gross size 10 mustard 8260 limmerick hook tie in about 12 mm of some flashy polar flash for the tailthen tie in some white chinelle (me spilling up duuf crick this morn)i used a black 8/0 thread & finnished it with a little black tie off headjust used superglue to hold it altogether.if the gar were being akward about taking it on a slow retrieve I would put just a tiny little spot of tuna oil on the arse end, that got em in every time.also did aglow version but the material is no longer availaible.hope this helps.

Whiting nuggets or old fish frames works well for me, although the nuggets do tend to attract more tommies, gar and general bait thieves. Just get yourself a berley bucket and tie it to cord wrapped around a hand reel, that way you can keep it all neat when not in use.I have heard of tuna oil soaked weetbix as a successful mullet and gar surface berley, most cereals are great for smaller species!

Hi everyone,It's about time we had a competition on Strike & Hook. We have 7 WildBait lures to give away as a prize to the best fishing report.The WildBait lures include:[ul] [li]Stalker 6 GT 2m[/li] [li]Stalker 5 VBG 1.5m[/li] [li]Minnow 7 BRT 2m[/li] [li]Minnow 5 RO 1.5m[/li] [li]Minnow 4 CC 1m[/li] [li]Attack 4 PC 1.5m[/li] [li]Attack 3 GF 1m[/li][/ul]WildBait lures are great for fresh water fishing in South Australia I've caught trout and reddies on them myself with others using them for cod, yellow belly, carp, bass, they've had great success in the salt too with bream and flatty's. The winner will also receive a lure box to keep the lures organised ;)You can check out the WildBait site at www.wildbait.com and like their Facebook page for heaps of fishy pics and updates > WildBait Facebook PageIf you read a great report please suggest it in this thread as a contender. Unfortunately the mods aren't eligible to enter. When we get to the end of the month 5 reports will be chosen as final contenders who will then be voted on by all of the forum members including mods.The competition will be open to reports posted from the 1st of February 2013 until the 28th of February 2013.There will also be a competition run on Facebook for another 7 lures and a lure box, you can enter both competitions but can only win once.Get out fishing and reporting, good luck

A loss of 60% to 70% seems excessive. I use droppers a fair bit and use a heavier leader to compensate. (eg. 8lb braid and 15lb mono for the trace).I use 4 turns and lubricate and pull slow and get about 70% knot strength (30% loss).Otherwise if you are worried, use 3 way swivels or go up in trace strength.

Hi Baitworms, welcome to the forum! I love the initiative and couldn't think of a better control groups than the SA fishing forums!I started out fishing with baitworms and they're probably my fave bait for catching anything that swims!I did stop buying them months back due to the expense and sometimes rarity of them, $8-10 for 4 or 5 worms is just too expensive for someone who fishes mainly for food, especially when a block of pilchards can be had for a good price.All that said, i would love to give your baitworms a go and give all the feedback you want; if you guys can make a large enough scale of farming to be competitive, it looks like i might buy them up again someday.Feel free to PM me if you want to collect contact details etc.

Use the albrights as first option, put a few extra twists in the line for the double uni.....look at a "minimum" of 6 twists in the leader and 8 twists in the braid.Tie a leader on, tie the end of the leader to a small bucket, put one and a half litres (measured) of water in the bucket (that's 3lb) and slowly lift the bucket while holding only the braid (dont lift with the rod or you risk snapping it).All should be well, if it lets go, let us know if the leader snapped, if the braid snapped, or if the knot simply slipped through.

sorry guys meant a 67cm snapper

Hey guys n gals,Been doing a little research, particularly into catching flatties and sweep etc and settled on a DIY spinner lure and made it from a nice shiny stainless teaspoon. The beads can be swapped out for any type, and the lure can be set up for any bait by changing the hook size. In the pic, I'm only using wire for visibility, I actually used an 80LB polyester thread for the short line and 10lb fluoro on the long line on the finished lure, the thread gives much better action than when I tested it with 40lb mono, but you could use 20lb mono and it'd probably work well too. I used the thread because I have it for my leatherworking.Here's how it's done:1. Cut the head off the spoon with boltcutters, hacksaw, leatherjacket or whatever. Keep both parts.2. Drill a ~3mm hole at the end where the handle was, or both if you want to have the option of using it as an inline as well.3. De burr the hole(s) using a bigger drill or a countersink, stainless burrs up like crazy when drilled and WILL damage your line otherwise.4. Sand and file the cut off end of the spoon head so that it's smooth like the tip of the spoon, again, this is for keeping the line from getting caught etc.5. Tie the main line of the lure together with the 2 swivels and beads, don't forget to thread the spoon on after the first bead,(thread the thick end on, the one you cut the handle off) then put on the second bead and tie the second swivel as close as you possibly can.6. Snell a hook, then tie the line onto the lower swivel, make it no longer than about 100-125mm max.7. Bait up, fish and enjoy! I tested mine in the bathtub and it doesn't need too much speed; you should be able to work it by jerking and pausing, or even just a medium speed straight retrieve.Remember that spoon handle I told you to keep? cut it a little shorter and stick it in a vice; then use heavy pliers to twist it into a spiral. A couple holes, split rings and a treble and you now have 2 lures from 1 spoon! Pics, so that it makes sense

Hey guys n gals,Been doing a little research, particularly into catching flatties and sweep etc and settled on a DIY spinner lure and made it from a nice shiny stainless teaspoon. The beads can be swapped out for any type, and the lure can be set up for any bait by changing the hook size. In the pic, I'm only using wire for visibility, I actually used an 80LB polyester thread for the short line and 10lb fluoro on the long line on the finished lure, the thread gives much better action than when I tested it with 40lb mono, but you could use 20lb mono and it'd probably work well too. I used the thread because I have it for my leatherworking.Here's how it's done:1. Cut the head off the spoon with boltcutters, hacksaw, leatherjacket or whatever. Keep both parts.2. Drill a ~3mm hole at the end where the handle was, or both if you want to have the option of using it as an inline as well.3. De burr the hole(s) using a bigger drill or a countersink, stainless burrs up like crazy when drilled and WILL damage your line otherwise.4. Sand and file the cut off end of the spoon head so that it's smooth like the tip of the spoon, again, this is for keeping the line from getting caught etc.5. Tie the main line of the lure together with the 2 swivels and beads, don't forget to thread the spoon on after the first bead,(thread the thick end on, the one you cut the handle off) then put on the second bead and tie the second swivel as close as you possibly can.6. Snell a hook, then tie the line onto the lower swivel, make it no longer than about 100-125mm max.7. Bait up, fish and enjoy! I tested mine in the bathtub and it doesn't need too much speed; you should be able to work it by jerking and pausing, or even just a medium speed straight retrieve.Remember that spoon handle I told you to keep? cut it a little shorter and stick it in a vice; then use heavy pliers to twist it into a spiral. A couple holes, split rings and a treble and you now have 2 lures from 1 spoon! Pics, so that it makes sense

I'll leave the catching fish part up to you ugly! :whistle: Seriously though, I hope this does land a nice flattie, will be trying some inlets and maybe going down second valley way to give it a run!Also fishunter, I did try twisting up the handle, but my pliers weren't up to it as the metal was too tick. Time to put some locking pliers on the list of tools to get...

Hey guys n gals,Been doing a little research, particularly into catching flatties and sweep etc and settled on a DIY spinner lure and made it from a nice shiny stainless teaspoon. The beads can be swapped out for any type, and the lure can be set up for any bait by changing the hook size. In the pic, I'm only using wire for visibility, I actually used an 80LB polyester thread for the short line and 10lb fluoro on the long line on the finished lure, the thread gives much better action than when I tested it with 40lb mono, but you could use 20lb mono and it'd probably work well too. I used the thread because I have it for my leatherworking.Here's how it's done:1. Cut the head off the spoon with boltcutters, hacksaw, leatherjacket or whatever. Keep both parts.2. Drill a ~3mm hole at the end where the handle was, or both if you want to have the option of using it as an inline as well.3. De burr the hole(s) using a bigger drill or a countersink, stainless burrs up like crazy when drilled and WILL damage your line otherwise.4. Sand and file the cut off end of the spoon head so that it's smooth like the tip of the spoon, again, this is for keeping the line from getting caught etc.5. Tie the main line of the lure together with the 2 swivels and beads, don't forget to thread the spoon on after the first bead,(thread the thick end on, the one you cut the handle off) then put on the second bead and tie the second swivel as close as you possibly can.6. Snell a hook, then tie the line onto the lower swivel, make it no longer than about 100-125mm max.7. Bait up, fish and enjoy! I tested mine in the bathtub and it doesn't need too much speed; you should be able to work it by jerking and pausing, or even just a medium speed straight retrieve.Remember that spoon handle I told you to keep? cut it a little shorter and stick it in a vice; then use heavy pliers to twist it into a spiral. A couple holes, split rings and a treble and you now have 2 lures from 1 spoon! Pics, so that it makes sense

Hey guys n gals,Since Christmas came and went, I've had a bunch of champagne corks and decided to put them to use, been wanting to make these rigs for a while now and finally got around to working it out!Did some buoyancy tests and it seems a 1.5oz sinker works quite well, so i started off with one of them and attached 2 swivels for attaching the pre-snelled neptune no.10 limerick hooks I had lying around. after a minute or so thinking i found a way of attaching the cork, i used a no.2 harness stitching needle and pliers to thread the line through the cork and terminated it with lumo beads and a swivel, done!I wouldn't suggest using a regular needle to thread the line through the cork, they're mostly not long or strong enough as even mine snapped on making the third rig! If you want a more versatile rig, you could use a feeder sinker instead, use fluoro or add more hooks if you feel like it, the cork should suspend baits up to about 2oz! I terminate all my rigs with a surgeon's loop for quick changing, so of course it's optional too.Without further ado, here's a pic of the general rig idea as i made it, feel free to try it out and improve it as you need!Cheers,ShimsMan

Hey guys n gals,Since Christmas came and went, I've had a bunch of champagne corks and decided to put them to use, been wanting to make these rigs for a while now and finally got around to working it out!Did some buoyancy tests and it seems a 1.5oz sinker works quite well, so i started off with one of them and attached 2 swivels for attaching the pre-snelled neptune no.10 limerick hooks I had lying around. after a minute or so thinking i found a way of attaching the cork, i used a no.2 harness stitching needle and pliers to thread the line through the cork and terminated it with lumo beads and a swivel, done!I wouldn't suggest using a regular needle to thread the line through the cork, they're mostly not long or strong enough as even mine snapped on making the third rig! If you want a more versatile rig, you could use a feeder sinker instead, use fluoro or add more hooks if you feel like it, the cork should suspend baits up to about 2oz! I terminate all my rigs with a surgeon's loop for quick changing, so of course it's optional too.Without further ado, here's a pic of the general rig idea as i made it, feel free to try it out and improve it as you need!Cheers,ShimsMan

Disregard that first link, here's the new chart! Will cost about $5 to get it done in color and laminated at officeworks. New PIRSA chart 2013

Disregard that first link, here's the new chart! Will cost about $5 to get it done in color and laminated at officeworks. New PIRSA chart 2013

Disregard that first link, here's the new chart! Will cost about $5 to get it done in color and laminated at officeworks. New PIRSA chart 2013

Disregard that first link, here's the new chart! Will cost about $5 to get it done in color and laminated at officeworks. New PIRSA chart 2013

Update on the Kmart tackle situation:Bought the JW bullseye 6'10" rod and the Fin Noir FP2000. Put it all together and i must say i'm very impressed with this combo! the FP is a nice little reel for the money at $49 and the rod a steal at $35, it balances beautifully too, right on the front grip.On the docs that come with the rod, JW recommends the FP4500 with this rod, but it would probably have inferior balance compared to this combo, and would look out of place on this 2-4kg rod; also the FP2000 has plenty of drag as it is!Hope this helps next time anyone looks in there for a new rig!

oh with the k mart sinkers if u get the triangle ones with the swivel attached to them be careful when casting the swivel has a tendancy to detach so ur sinker ends up flying off and all ur left with is half a swivel.

G"day shimms man,I have the live fibre trophy 10/6 and its superb,albeit a 1 pce, but they do do a 2 piece version.Also Alvey themselves do a range of rods, the 600 would be ideal for what you are looking to do.Although if you have the extra dosh the live fibre is a superior blank and i highly recomend it.With the reel being the 500 size 10 to 11 foot is about the length youd be looking at, over this a 600 to 650 size reel is more compatible,cheers link to the Alvey rods http://www.alvey.com.au/default.asp?contentID=417And the live fibre trophy 10/6, beautiful rod, be the same as the one LF speaks about. http://www.bcf.com.au/online-store/products/Live-Fibre-Champion-Trophy-Estuary-Rod-10-6-4-6kg-2P.aspx?pid=112100&utm_source=getprice&utm_medium=cpc#Description