Busterboy

If anybody is looking for an alternative to smoking snook (personally, I do believe I could never get sick of smoked snook) . . . here is a delectable alternative that we whip out every now and again

I'm not a fly fisherman myself but those crazy Charlie flies look like they'd get a few Gold bars

1..Coarse beef mince stiffened up with semolina and a sprinkling of curry powder,a tip with this is make it up the day before and leave it in the fridge UNCOVERED  overnight,this dries it out and stiffens it up even more.
2..Finely  Diced kangaroo meat,you get it from the refrigerated pet food section of supermarkets, get it out its packaging  and also sprinkle a good dose of curry powder over it.
These fine pieces hold well on a small hook and are excellent.
3...The no 1 bait for mullet is seaweed worms,they go nuts for them,if you can obtain them its well worth the effort.
Any of these baits on a paternosta  rig with a burley spring loaded with  chicken pellets soaked and mashed to a stiff consistency, laced with a bit of tuna oil and you cant go too far wrong.
cheers

Had a chat to the ranger as well. If you are on the "beach" no worries even though it is in the prohibited area. They only get uptight about the dunes. He seemed happy to be fairly subjective about what constitutes the high water mark. Believe it or not the dunes are now artificially stabilised. They have planted a heap of grass in there. The mouth used to wander up and down beach, regardless of vegetation, and now they keep it in the same spot by choosing which barrages to open. Goolwa to scour the northern side and tauwicherrie (sp) to move it south. I remember 20 years ago it was a lot closer to the shacks on younghusband peninsula than it is now. The only reason the Murray Darling Basin dudes care about the dunes near the mouth is to stop them moving and drifting inwards. In times of drought without releases the dunes could move and link up with hindmarsh island etc.

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.

I thought I had all of them but I didn't have the Edithburgh one. Well Done.Here's another one i use to see if the weathers okhttp://www.swellnet.com.au/surfcams/southportand another... http://www.coastalwatch.com/camera/cameras_large.aspx?cam=6800&state=SA&t=2:58:26 PM&camName=SeafordHere's some of mine you might like to put in the Freshwater section.http://goolwawharf.alexandrina.com.au/cgi-bin/guestimage.htmlhttp://www.riverlandviews.com/rivviews/Waikerie_Cam.htmlDon't know about this one but... http://www.bay.tv/waitpinga-webcam,1024Anyone got anymore??

I thought I had all of them but I didn't have the Edithburgh one. Well Done.Here's another one i use to see if the weathers okhttp://www.swellnet.com.au/surfcams/southportand another... http://www.coastalwatch.com/camera/cameras_large.aspx?cam=6800&state=SA&t=2:58:26 PM&camName=SeafordHere's some of mine you might like to put in the Freshwater section.http://goolwawharf.alexandrina.com.au/cgi-bin/guestimage.htmlhttp://www.riverlandviews.com/rivviews/Waikerie_Cam.htmlDon't know about this one but... http://www.bay.tv/waitpinga-webcam,1024Anyone got anymore??

Busterboy,Mate I fish from my boat and kayak and the Salmon I caught on these flies were caught in the Port River. For Salmon trout I use a Rio 5wt full sinking line and also a Rio Aqualux line which is an Intermediate. Both are used in different situations depending on the depth the fish are holding in. I don't use a floating line very often as you can use the intermediate line in a similar fashion, you just cast it out and start stripping it as soon as it lands. That way it doesn't sink too far below the surface but when you need to you can let it sink so it can be used kind of like two different lines in one.There are plenty of land based spots to try, Westlakes, in front of the Birkenhead Tavern and the Wheat silos. Hope that helps you out.Cheers Dazz

Very well done. Where were you? Victor?

Certainly was scotty.Tried a silver lure on the normal rod but there was weed everywhere and the wind dropped out so I had a go at the fly rod (casting as far as I was, if not further, with the spinner rod)and the second cast Bang!Did a couple of tail walks for me too:)Not had a fish pull line out of my hand before. Was quite exhilarating I must say.

Went down to St. Kilda to try the 8w rod and did very well

Went down to St. Kilda to try the 8w rod and did very well

I totally agree with MarsOne. I went to the Fly fishing day, tried it for the first time, liked it, and now I have 2 rods, a 4W & a 6W I've caught trout in dams and on the river and at the moment it's the only fishing I do. :)Try this site for a good view of many questions you may have.http://www.sexyloops.com/beginners/index.shtml