Rod

G'day
I haven't been fishing for well over a year with 2020 being the year from hell for me health wise.   Looks like my fishing days are over barring a miracle.  Anyway, I was recently asked to how to tie and FG knot after they had given on youtube methods.  8 years ago I started on the tuna fishing and wanted to learn the FG knot, I also didn't find any youtube instructional particularly helpful and ended up developing my own method.  Pretty easy, just stick the rod in a rod holder or whatever, secure the braid to something a couple of metres away, this provides a nice tight line with the flex of the rod tip cushioning the process.  Then tie as shown in the video.  I haven't shown finishing of the knot as that's pretty standard, though I would say the common technique of forming half hitches in opposite directions seems wrong to me, being a ropes and knots guy I say this does not work with ropes so why would it work with braid?  Needless to say I tie all the half hitches in the same way.  
Excuse the fumbling, the mono is 200lb which has a mind of it's own, I normally use 100lb ish, braid is 50lb.
Anyway, hopefully somebody finds this useful and maybe they get a smile
Cheers
Rod
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AkMx1NeCmYAF8Q3QNEhY7nSykhLo?e=odQKXd
 

GPS babel converts anything to anything gps (nearly) and is free.
Mind you I haven't used it for a while so check it out 
Cheers
Rod

G'day
I haven't been fishing for well over a year with 2020 being the year from hell for me health wise.   Looks like my fishing days are over barring a miracle.  Anyway, I was recently asked to how to tie and FG knot after they had given on youtube methods.  8 years ago I started on the tuna fishing and wanted to learn the FG knot, I also didn't find any youtube instructional particularly helpful and ended up developing my own method.  Pretty easy, just stick the rod in a rod holder or whatever, secure the braid to something a couple of metres away, this provides a nice tight line with the flex of the rod tip cushioning the process.  Then tie as shown in the video.  I haven't shown finishing of the knot as that's pretty standard, though I would say the common technique of forming half hitches in opposite directions seems wrong to me, being a ropes and knots guy I say this does not work with ropes so why would it work with braid?  Needless to say I tie all the half hitches in the same way.  
Excuse the fumbling, the mono is 200lb which has a mind of it's own, I normally use 100lb ish, braid is 50lb.
Anyway, hopefully somebody finds this useful and maybe they get a smile
Cheers
Rod
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AkMx1NeCmYAF8Q3QNEhY7nSykhLo?e=odQKXd
 

Howdy Rod... hows the coffee these days?  ... and the BIG-Cat ?
I too put a loop in the end and hook it over the reel handle. Can then do the knot anywhere.
 
As for finishing, I do a couple of half-hitches just to keep the knot tight, then do a couple of locked-half hitches.
 
To do a locked-half -hitch, insted of looping over the line once, loop over twice then thread the loose end under both loops.  Work the line from the fixed end to tighten it then pull tight.  The second loop ends up over a half-hitch, locking it very tight and there is very little chance it will work loose.
A couple of these and you are good to go.
 
dmck

I do alternating hitches, as I had problems with them coming undone when doing them all on the one side.

But I think the problem was not enough tension on the hitches during tightening with a slippery braid like fireline

By the time I switched to alternating hitches, my braid had changed and so had my tying technique.

Finding a tying technique when I could apply alot of force to tightening my hitches was the most influencial factor in them not coming undone - followed closely by using a grippy-ier braid than Fireline.

G'day
Thanks Doobie and good luck with knot (with correctly tied half hitches 🙂
YD1, that's a great idea using just the rod, more options is good for changing circumstances
Cheers
Rod

G'day
Thanks Doobie and good luck with knot (with correctly tied half hitches 🙂
YD1, that's a great idea using just the rod, more options is good for changing circumstances
Cheers
Rod

Its like this but you tie a figure 8 loop on your braid and loop that around your reel handle- instead of just wrapping it around
You can get your braid much tighter with a loop
then you just cut the loop off to tie your hitches
 

There is a similar method where you tie a loop in your braid - run it through the rod and clip that loop back onto the handle of your reel.  
 
The tension is supplied by your bent rod tip. Just don’t add to much tension so it snaps your tip
 
it’s always handy to have a method that doesn’t rely on extra props.
I tie them 2 different ways  - one way on land that relies on a rod holder. 
 
but I have a different method that requires no extra props, that I use out in the field where there are no props😉

Sorry to hear on the health side of things Rod and hoping that miracle comes along for you.
Me too with the half hitches the wrong way lol - seems weird !
I've always found it hard to do the FG knot, but I'm going to give it another crack seeing your video - thanks Rod  

I noticed another post using a similar technique with a jig just after I posted this, there is a difference so maybe still usefull for someone
Cheers
Rod

G'day
I haven't been fishing for well over a year with 2020 being the year from hell for me health wise.   Looks like my fishing days are over barring a miracle.  Anyway, I was recently asked to how to tie and FG knot after they had given on youtube methods.  8 years ago I started on the tuna fishing and wanted to learn the FG knot, I also didn't find any youtube instructional particularly helpful and ended up developing my own method.  Pretty easy, just stick the rod in a rod holder or whatever, secure the braid to something a couple of metres away, this provides a nice tight line with the flex of the rod tip cushioning the process.  Then tie as shown in the video.  I haven't shown finishing of the knot as that's pretty standard, though I would say the common technique of forming half hitches in opposite directions seems wrong to me, being a ropes and knots guy I say this does not work with ropes so why would it work with braid?  Needless to say I tie all the half hitches in the same way.  
Excuse the fumbling, the mono is 200lb which has a mind of it's own, I normally use 100lb ish, braid is 50lb.
Anyway, hopefully somebody finds this useful and maybe they get a smile
Cheers
Rod
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AkMx1NeCmYAF8Q3QNEhY7nSykhLo?e=odQKXd
 

G'day
I haven't been fishing for well over a year with 2020 being the year from hell for me health wise.   Looks like my fishing days are over barring a miracle.  Anyway, I was recently asked to how to tie and FG knot after they had given on youtube methods.  8 years ago I started on the tuna fishing and wanted to learn the FG knot, I also didn't find any youtube instructional particularly helpful and ended up developing my own method.  Pretty easy, just stick the rod in a rod holder or whatever, secure the braid to something a couple of metres away, this provides a nice tight line with the flex of the rod tip cushioning the process.  Then tie as shown in the video.  I haven't shown finishing of the knot as that's pretty standard, though I would say the common technique of forming half hitches in opposite directions seems wrong to me, being a ropes and knots guy I say this does not work with ropes so why would it work with braid?  Needless to say I tie all the half hitches in the same way.  
Excuse the fumbling, the mono is 200lb which has a mind of it's own, I normally use 100lb ish, braid is 50lb.
Anyway, hopefully somebody finds this useful and maybe they get a smile
Cheers
Rod
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AkMx1NeCmYAF8Q3QNEhY7nSykhLo?e=odQKXd
 

G'day
I haven't been fishing for well over a year with 2020 being the year from hell for me health wise.   Looks like my fishing days are over barring a miracle.  Anyway, I was recently asked to how to tie and FG knot after they had given on youtube methods.  8 years ago I started on the tuna fishing and wanted to learn the FG knot, I also didn't find any youtube instructional particularly helpful and ended up developing my own method.  Pretty easy, just stick the rod in a rod holder or whatever, secure the braid to something a couple of metres away, this provides a nice tight line with the flex of the rod tip cushioning the process.  Then tie as shown in the video.  I haven't shown finishing of the knot as that's pretty standard, though I would say the common technique of forming half hitches in opposite directions seems wrong to me, being a ropes and knots guy I say this does not work with ropes so why would it work with braid?  Needless to say I tie all the half hitches in the same way.  
Excuse the fumbling, the mono is 200lb which has a mind of it's own, I normally use 100lb ish, braid is 50lb.
Anyway, hopefully somebody finds this useful and maybe they get a smile
Cheers
Rod
https://1drv.ms/v/s!AkMx1NeCmYAF8Q3QNEhY7nSykhLo?e=odQKXd
 

I noticed another post using a similar technique with a jig just after I posted this, there is a difference so maybe still usefull for someone
Cheers
Rod

Thought I’d share a couple of pix shot with the drone from one of my favourite areas to fish. The West Coast 😎
 
 

PIRSA have been running a campaign on this for a while now
https://www.pir.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/348155/2019_Asian_Paddle_crab_factsheet.pdf
https://www.pir.sa.gov.au/alerts_news_events/news/ministerial_releases/keep_watch_for_asian_paddle_crab_and_report_it
 

They've certainly had some shocking weather conditions to put up with and it's not much better today either.
No I'm not a contender Rod as it's only for the top fly fishermen from countries around the world, besides that I spin fish for trout and only fish the rivers.. It's not cheap to enter either I couldn't afford it any way.. here's the costing without the travel expenses etc..
** Registration Fees Registration Fees Quantity Price P/P Total Amount Team (competitors, reserve, captain, manager) AUD $ 2250...                           
**  Accompanying persons/guests AUD $ 1500 Additional charges for Single room occupancy AUD $ 400  An official confirmation receipt will be sent once application and entry fees are received.
cheers
Adrian

Had a quick google/news search and found this.  The article is a year old and newest I found so hopefully it hasn't been more of an issue.  Only 5 crabs found from 2010 to 2018.  
Cheers
Rod
https://www.busseltonmail.com.au/story/5795813/fisheries-urge-crabbers-to-look-out-for-non-native-pest-species/
 

That's about as bad as it gets.  Were you going to compete Adrian?  Looks different scenario to your MO
Cheers
Rod

Just a quick post about fishing reports from tackle dealers . Not strike and hooks report I like them very general and great information.
l will say firstly  after I told a couple of bait fishers at west lakes who were chasing mulleway. I have landed them years ago on minnow style lures in the Pat . I did mention a few weeks or couple of months ago mulleway broke my trebles off . So I read this weeks fishing report that mulleway are taking minnow lures in west lakes . I’m not certain they are or my big mouth got the talk going lol.
And as a side note a worker at that dealer suggested I not use a mat black double clutch because I’m not fishing at night . And what colour double clutch did the mulleway take the treble off of mat black and last weeks 32 cm bream fell to a black lure . Funny what works lol 

As some might know, I had a fishing float made up of some dowel with a foam indicator as my main float rig.  It did it's job very well although sometimes a tangle would occur which was always easy to undo.  However, after re-spooling my reel with lighter mono, I kept getting more and more tangles - some to the point of cutting the line and re-rigging.
I decided to try something else and didn't really want to buy the stand shop float.  So a bit of look around on Google I saw a guy make some cork floats that looked quite good.   Problem was I didn't have any wine corks except 'champagne' corks courtesy of the missus.
Being the cheap skate person I am lol, I FB'd my neighborhood for some and received a few - and free  
Problem was that the rest of the materials for the way I wanted to make the floats was a bit expensive   But if I want to make more then the cheaper each one will become, plus the satisfaction of making my own.
Here's what I did ....
First - drilled holes through the cork and with some wood glue put a 6mm piece of dowel through it and let dry overnight.

 
Second - put a couple bits of wood together with a hole to place the dowel to keep in place whilst sanding.
I used 60 grit at first and down to 120 grit to get a smooth finish.  This one is a champagne cork.

 
A few different shapes and was also careful on a few not take away the wine 'emblem' on the cork so to give a bit of a different look.

 
Then I cut some safety pins keeping the end ring part that will help attach a bit of weight for buoyancy and leader.   I originally used some standard sewing cotton (black) but felt it may not hold overtime, so used some braid on the rest.   Put some wood glue over it all to strengthen and let dry overnight.

 
The fifth step was to give some primer to the ends ready for some enamel paint.  I used Gesso craft priming paint and let that dry for 3 hours.

Then the other end and again let dry for 3 hours.

 
Then some black gloss enamel paint on the bottom of the float.  Two coats given and will give a little extra to the braid/ring.

 
The eighth step was giving two coating with a vibrant yellow enamel.

 
Not too bad bad so far and could left without further painting, but decided to add a little decoration before giving three coats of Spar Marine vanish, by dipping the floats straight into the tin.  Let them dry well and light sand before next coating.  Pat the bottom tips to soak up the excess drips.

 
Turned out reasonably ok for my first effort although a little 'rough around the edges' lol
Took a bit of time and few dollars but 🤷‍♂️

Thanks Rod - I've got both of those options at work - I'll give them a crack on monday - might rough up the plastic with 40 grit first

G'day
I've glued acoustic foam to concrete with liquid nails which lasted 20 years until the foam broke down.  The plastic straws on the other hand, hmmm, nothin much sticks to shiny smooth plastic.  Liquid nails might be worth a go.  I have made a few floats using polystyrene foam and wall plug spaghetti, glued with hot melt.  That worked ok
Cheers
Rod