plankton

Thanks Doobie. Did you fish Southport? Any action?

So you can drive down and park in the spots above the toilets?

I know the road going along the Onk is closed for work (Weatherald Terrace), but does anyone know if there is access across the footbridge? I was thinking I might be able to park on one of the streets above and take the footpath down to the bridge and do a bit of salmon fishing. Thanks.

They did not.

If everyone else is headed north, I'm going south. Haven't been out for awhile, but hitting up Goolwa Beach for an overnight. Hopefully the mullys, gummies and salmon come out to play!

I've only ever seem them at the now defunct Angler's Choice in Christies. I got mine from the UK when I was ordering a bunch of other stuff.

Find a school feeding on the surface and throw 5-6" surface lures like a pencil popper or a spook at them. Best fun you'll ever have!

Most of the bits in that kit are unnecessary IMO. I always try to keep rigs as simple as possible. For my pulley rigs I use a bait clip, two beads, a smaller swivel and a big one as the pulley, and of course a hook (just one though). Dedicated pulley swivels are fine, but for me a big stainless steel swivel is better and more streamlined, extra stuff just picks up weed or provides one more spot for something to fail. They do have a good price on IMP clips though. Thanks Underpants

The Daiwa rods are great value, I have a Seabass as well and love it, but they're more like $150. Go in and see Southie, there are a few other Daiwa models that would be perfect and in your price range.

Depends on what you're looking to target. The Shimano rod is pretty light and would be good for mullet or yfw. The other two are much heavier and more like salmon/mulloway rods. I'm not familiar with that reel, but it's always good to match them to the rod. Take it to the shop and try it on each of the rods you're interested in and see how they balance.

All that can really be done is to put a new tip guide on the end, and depending on where it's snapped it's going to change the action of the rod and stiffen it up a bit. Alternatively you could contact Shimano and see if you can get a new top section. Most tackle shops could replace the tip for you, and it's not hard to do yourself either. Good luck.

I've never had it happen, or heard of it happening to anyone else. Wind knots are usually caused when there's a loose loop of line on the spool. These often happen when the bail is flipped over before retrieving line. The way the line goes onto a baitcaster you could still end up with some loose line if you're not careful, so I suppose it is a possibility.

Also, have a look around online, I know that pro bass guys in the US often fish pretty light with baitcast setups. Not something I've ever done, but I've seen video and it's fairly impressive. If memory serves they use pretty whippy rods and a fast, snapping cast technique.

The medium action rod is a good start. A reel with mag control is a good idea as well. I personally don't like using much less than 10lb braid on baitcasters, and I also prefer proper braid (rather than a fused line like Fireline, which I prefer for spinning reels). I assume you're using some sort of sp with your jigheads. What size, as that can make a big difference in the overall casting weight and could affect your braid choice?

What would you like to know?

To get the bait out you really need to work the rod up and down a lot. Without the heavy sinker it will pull out and you'll lose tension in the line. I've had the 8oz pull a few times and have considered getting some 10oz ones made up.

I've tried a few times targeting sharks off the beach, although no luck yet. My rod is a fairly stiff model from the US, 11' and rated to throw 8-12oz. The reel is a Daiwa SL-X50SHA loaded with 40lb mono and a bunch of 50lb braid as backing. I also run a 80lb mono shock leader. Here's one of the slide rigs, 18/0 Mustad circle, 150lb nylon coated 7x7 wire, double barrel crimps with heat shrink and tape. The sinkers were made up for me by the fine folks at Let's Go Fishin, 8oz with grip wires. I use whole fish baits, salmon or mullet usually, trim the fins/tail and feed the hook

Moon up is when the moon is exactly halfway through it's path overhead, so if you look at the time for moon rise and set it is the time exactly in the middle. An hour either side of this time is meant to be best. Moon down is similar, but when the moon is on the other side of the Earth, directly below us. You can also use sites like this, http://www.tides4fishing.com/au/south-australia/port-noarlunga If you scroll down to the solunar section it gives you details, but the information is also integrated into some of the tide graphs and tables. A very good site (that I learned about o

The tides are at their highest and lowest around the new and full moon, which means there's more water movement. This will often result in increased fish activity. There is also the solunar theory that says that effect of the pull of the moon in certain positions on a fish will affect it's feeding. Moon up and down (directly above or below) are prime times while moon rise and set are secondary times. Here is SA around the quarter moon we get dodge tides which means almost no movement. All of this stuff can be helpful when planning a fishing trip. When a few of these variables occur

Slim Beauty is my favourite for tying light braid to fluoro.

I've used similar type gloves with great results, they stay warm even when wet. I had to retire mine when the rubber coating went weird. The only difference was that I only cut the pointer finger on the right glove and the thumb on the left, the only two I really need to be free. I also had two pairs, one set with the fingers cut and the other unmodified so I could mix and match. Another option that I've been using the last few seasons is a simple pair of knit wool gloves, don't even have to cut the fingers.

The splashdown sinkers won't accept larger hooks, I believe a 5/0 Gamakatsu is about the biggest they will take. That is the smallest hook I'll use chasing mulloway and sharks off the beach, usually it's more like a an 8/0. They also look like there's too much going on with them, too many moving parts, on the beach I like to keep things simple. Both the IMPs and the Gemini clips will not usually release accidentally when using an overhead thump cast or a pendulum if you keep things smooth. I usually use an OTG cast which makes things a bit trickier as everything is laid out on the sand, bu

The Fishing Guru used to sell clips similar to the Geminis, I bought a few off him, last time I looked he did not seem to have them though.

You always want a fair bit of the hook point exposed with any hook, but even more so with a circle otherwise it won't work. So the bait is usually more on the shank part of the hook and when baiting up the bait sits to one side of the Gemini clip's hook (if that makes sense). The Gemini clips release 100% of the time when they hit the water (sometimes before if you're sloppy) I've never had the bait get in the way. Previously I've used Breakaway IMP clips which have a little levers that flip to release the bait, and you did have to be more careful how the bait was sitting as sometimes it d

A forum member PM'ed me about pulley rigs, but I couldn't figure out how to post images in a PM, so thought I'd just throw a new topic up. Here's a whole rig, I always use 80lb mono for the sinker trace, and for mullys often the hook trace is the same, but sometimes 60 or even 100 or wire if the toothies are around. The hook trace must be a bit shorter than the sinker trace. This is a closeup of the Gemini clip, the swivel that acts as the pulley, and the beads on either side that protect your knots. I use a big swivel because the eye is thicker and doesn't beat up the mono a