Brankim

If it's legal, and there is a demand, I will buy vacuum sealer, and personally guarantee, the absolute finest quality bait available! Frozen live and preservative free. The prawns are one of the very few frozen baits y.f.w will happily and consistently take when peeled.

Does anyone know what's involved in being able to sell bait? I work on a prawn boat, and have access to really top quality small prawns and calamari which I can buy for wholesale price, and don't dip my bait in the preservative we dip all the prawns in (which fish really don't like) I'm just wondering if there is a license I need, and if so, is it the same license to catch and sell blood, beach and tube worms? And if it's legal to sell bait, how many people would be interested in buying undipped 8-22g prawns and under 10cm calamari for bait in metro area @ $18 a kg for both in 1kg packs? Snap frozen at -45 degrees?

Abu do make awesome rods! The American bass guys rate them right up there with best! If it all looks good, I'd b jumping right on it! But that's just me.

That was with 6lb fins braid, not sure if others are susceptible to this problem or not... Threw some good metal lures away though that I bought in South Africa. Expensive lesson!

No good for bait casters with the anti tangle breaking system they have to prevent over winds, as I found with my shimmano cronarch.

Seems to be, because the braid makes more resistance coming off the spool, it tends to kick in abit for no apparent reason while casting, and if your using light leader, and casting something with a bit of weight to it, with a decent cast, you end up throwing a fair bit of tackle away! Very frustrating! More advanced reels, don't always mean better reels in some cases!

Some good things come out of South Africa

Hi Plankton,

I had a play on the weekend with this:

http://www.bigcatch.co.za/shop/blue-marlin/rod-bm-bronzie-t53-13-8ft/

I was practicing over grass with 9oz and the thing hardly even bent :-) The UK rods are certainly nice (think Rolls Royce) but the South Africans have a good range of great casting rods at decent prices. Freight does add to the cost but as far as heavy or long distance rods go, we are pretty limited here in Australia. South African rods such as Kingfisher and Blue Marlin are good value for money.

Regards,

SB

Graphite all the way!! Esp with braid! You just can't beat the directness and feel! You also don't have to take 10 windes before you get enough tension to finally strike when you're getting a bite, or try to hit so hard that you almost fall over backwards when you miss easier to guide the fish one handed with the rod... True enjoyment to have so much feel of what the fish is doing, instead of using half your energy just to hold those heavy, wobbly polls trying desperately to keep a good bend.

Allows you to simply hold on and enjoy the fight. Chalk and cheese to me! No two ways about it

Kim's pb

Our wedding photographer showed us one of those took 7 people to make! I won't give it away though awesome effect!

Short and quick pump and winds is the way for tuna! Short rods too. Once u turn their head, you goad just keep it turned!

I fish very light now, even started using 1lb braid with 2lb leader for yfw. Haven't broken 1 off yet. But 99% of my fishing is land based. And no big blue things to smash me up like over there! You should give 5lb a go on those whiting, I guarantee you it will make a huge difference! Any lighter is just asking for trouble! Even siglon FC sun line 6lb! It's about same diameter as most 5lb brands! Good all rounder to for abrasion, stretch and memory. Knots pull-up nice and tight too, some braids for some reason don't tie very well? Don't know what it is that causes that. But it is annoying!

I realise u need the abrasion resistance. It really does make a difference to success going lighter though! I'm still trying to find spots, by trial and error mostly. So I need results before I can work on my best chance of actually landing everything that I hook.

Sorry, abit off topic but I used a slim beauty knot for 30lb braid to 20lb Fluro up to 40 lb. holds well! Tried 6lb braid to 12 lb leader with both slim and uni.... Just doesn't work! Wouldn't pull tight... Had to do 6-8-12 too many knots!

I got a 2-4kg t-curve it's hard to fish with anything else after!! Just wish they made a nano t-curve! Been thinking of buying a nano tech of some description.... Hard to change when u get attached to 1 rod!

I used to fish heavy, got a shimano Trinidad wide spool with mono on it (only coz it would cost a fortune to fill with braid) on an Ian miller live fibre 8-10 kg surf rod... Well it was a surf rod, till I cut 60cm off the butt at the shop I purchased it. No offence, but I don't really get the whole long butt thing over here?? 20-30cm for me is perfect! Butt sits against lower abdomen, and pump and wind. They almost refused to let me have it after I asked if they had a hacksaw and started measuring where to cut :)

... Anyway, after nothing but stingrays and eagle rays and doggies, and after being spooled a few times while trying to catch live bait or anything else to pass the time with my old team Diana Tierra 4-8lb (by genuine he'd shaking bumping) sum things... I just lost interest in my stop anything weapon.

I haven't really known any good spots to try it though. I'm still learning.

My biggest stick I fish with is my Tierra 8-17 lb with Tierra 3000. Also 30 lb braid, normally don't go heavier than 40lb leader.

Got my pb snapper on 20lb. Graphite is amazing!! Unless u highstick them..... Heartbreak in learning experience!!

Gets annoying, if u leave the tail abit longer do it doesn't come undone, gets stuck in the guides.

Shorter, keeps coming undone, then it gets stuck in the guides also.

But I'll admit, there aren't too many other options for thick to thin.

Not sure y the pic keeps coming out upside down... Don't know what it's called, but had the most fun with this popper! Explosive hits!! I've found you can really fire them up with surface noise! I normally use the first few casts just to make as much splashing and disturbance as I can to try imitate other salmon attacking bait.

Then slow it down abit, normally does the trick. When shutdown though, I've found long pauses work to. They often just sit looking at it for ages waiting for it to make the slightest movement and eventually can't help themselves. But I have had days that as fast as I could possibly wind, they were still catching it! Even jumping out of the water to get it as it skipped.

It does have it's applications! Only having some fun... For thin braid to thick leader, I have had problems with the slim beauty and back to back uni knot. But for light tackle, up to 8 lb... It's very unnecessary. Slim beauty is definitely tops for me! Ure a very serious bunch...

I do know that half hitches do come undone sometimes after going through the gides over and over again. Even clove hitch on nylon tends to slip eventually.

It would be abit hard doing it that way when ure wading in the water too.

Just looks like that old saying about not being able to tie nots, so tying lots

Slim beauty casts very well as the tail from the mono is in the middle of the knot.

Back 2 back uni is good enough when fishing shorter leaders where knot isn't wound through the eyes.

No offence, but that FG knot looks ridiculously complicated!

Slim beauty I use is uni with 3-5wraps for braid side and 5 times around raid with mono up, then straight back down between braid and mono where both strands meet the uni knot.

The Most important part is plenty of spit on the knots to stop friction when pulled tight, and slowly pulled tight! Esp with lighter leaders!!!

The thinner the braid, the more wraps I do for the uni knot.

Slim beauty!! Bimini is mainly for competition fishing. Bimini though is( when done perfectly and joined to leader exactly in the middle of loop so strands are even) one of the few 99-100% strength knots there are.

In practical applications though, it has the drawback of making too much resistance going through the eyes of the rod for casting!

Also I have found that while the Bimini end is ultra strong, the end the leader is attached is much weaker, sort of defeats the object. When mine did part, was always in this place.

Nice mate! Glad u got 1

U did better than us. We were the 1's fishing when u were walking back.

Missed a couple, but no hookups.

Water was very dirty... That's my excuse

Haven't had much luck on either just bread or just worm, but both together seems to do the job!

Soy and linseed bread I've found is the best.

They also seem to like it if u don't squash the bread into a dough. Just enough to make it sink very slowly.

I hold my rod and every few minutes very slowly lift it up off the bottom as high as I can, and let it sink back down again.

I get a lot of fish taking it while it's moving! But again , as slowly as possible!

Same way I use my squidgies for bream in winter.

Also get most fish quite close to the edges. Look for the big bubbles, I'm sure that's them feeding in the mud... Or farting

Not sure y more people don't fish for them?

Awesome fun on light gear! And excellent angling practice!

Thanks m8! Sounds good, but might have to try some sweet talking... Got our wedding coming up we ment to b organising. But I will try my best and get back to u b4 the end of the week. If not, definitely sometime in the near future!