Zorgs

BTW I've successfully stored them in the fridge for weeks (most will tell you don't put them in the fridge and you've got 24-48hrs to use them. )
I'm also skeptical as to whether some are garden worms passed off as sea weed worms.

I'm always scratching my good sunnies so have been using polarised safety glasses for everyday work etc and for land based fishing. They're good for cheap sunnies that don't mind scratching or losing but the plastic type lense is not as good as a nice clear glass type. Some of the cheaper ones also have distortions on the lense. However the amount of times I bash my head on a tree with the sunnies acting as a helmet I'm resigned to budget stuff haha.

Foot step on the back of the Hiace!

Like Underpants says, tiger worms are quite simple to set up and continue to to good numbers/product.  But tiger worms will die very quickly if using in salt water.  I was desperate once and purchased tiger worms from a store to use in salt water - never again ... expensive and were dead quickly.
I wont buy tube/beach worms at all, just far too expensive for a couple of them.   Best to practice, practice and practice sourcing your own from the beaches.
Even seaweed worms are easy to get, just find very old seaweed sitting high on the sands and start scrounging through the weed to find them - excellent bait.

Check out the Aird X range 11 ball bearing and for the price ($104 - $118) are great value I have 2 @2500 1@3000 and 1@4000 of these reels and love em. The 4000 has caught tuna no issues the 3000 snapper and mulloway up to around the metre size and the 2500's are my whiting, bream reels.
I also have 3 BG's a 4000, 4500, and a 5000 which are on my heavier tuna outfits and all of them have caught tuna up to 33kg and Ive found them faultless. I got the 5000 for $95 delivered from USA I got lucky one day looking at amazon and couldnt believe the price so I bought it and havent looked back since buying the others locally because I think for the money again you cant go past them. Why buy a Saltist which is more than twice the price when you are basically getting the same reel in a BG
Now I own some higher end reels but hate spending money when I dont have too so thats why these 2 models have turned my crank, I cant see the point of spending big bucks when you can get great smooth well made reels for more than half the price.
Now I admit Im a Daiwa man but I also know that Shimano make great reels too its just a holden/ford thing once you love one brand you tend to stick to it but whatever brand you buy dont be fooled into thinking you have to spend mega bucks to get get a reel that works well and does the job with no issues, isnt that really what we all want.
cheers
snapps

The salmon are getting caught so it's time to start the Strike Hook 2017 Salmon Comp!!!
 
SPOTTERS is on board once again offering an awesome prize pack including: Spotters cap, sun shade, sunglasses strap and a pair of awesome SPOTTERS FURY (Gloss Black) with Halide lens.
 
Please check out www.spotters.com.au for the full range of SPOTTERS sunglasses and their cool merchandise.
 
Just write up a salmon report during July and August to be entered into the comp. Put lots of details in the write up and get us excited about your salmon chasing adventures.
 
The competition starts July 1st 2017 and end on August 31st 2017.
 
At the end of August the mods will select the best salmon report and a winner will be announced.
 
Please note this comp is only open to fishos in SA.
 
Get out chasing those salmon and write up your reports! Good Luck!
 

I know we are 'supposed' to tie HBs and SPs via a loop knot to get that 'right' action but I pretty well use snaps exclusively. Mainly 'casue i'm too lazy and as you note, it's a pain to re-tie for each lure change.
 
Id assume if the fish were behaving fussy, that extra presentation might help, such as finesse drifting SPs for finicky bream (I rarely fish for bream).
 
I certainly believe flatties don't care, similarly for yfw, when they are on the bite. yfw can be fussy and i spose tying via your loop not could help. However i usually get impatient and will go off chasing ST instead!
 
I use Black Magic snap swivels (mostly 2-3kg), roll the snap off for lure snaps and save the swivel for rig tying.
 

 
 
There are much smaller clips available but i find some are hard to use and i've had too many smashed and pulled open by 40+ cm salmon!

more fungi from a trip to Loongana and a very small cluster of them inside of a hollow  retaining wall block at home.. note the slug in there with them. I didn't notice it until I trimmed the photo..
cheers
Adrian
 


One lonely fungi at Loongana..
 



Small fungi at home..

I regularly arrive home with donuts after fishing and highly recommend cooking them in shortening. Stays solid at room temp and doesn't go rancid as quickly as those healthier oils. 
 
At least those trans fats and donut sugars give me a high after a disappointing session.  

I regularly arrive home with donuts after fishing and highly recommend cooking them in shortening. Stays solid at room temp and doesn't go rancid as quickly as those healthier oils. 
 
At least those trans fats and donut sugars give me a high after a disappointing session.  

I regularly arrive home with donuts after fishing and highly recommend cooking them in shortening. Stays solid at room temp and doesn't go rancid as quickly as those healthier oils. 
 
At least those trans fats and donut sugars give me a high after a disappointing session.  

I regularly arrive home with donuts after fishing and highly recommend cooking them in shortening. Stays solid at room temp and doesn't go rancid as quickly as those healthier oils. 
 
At least those trans fats and donut sugars give me a high after a disappointing session.  

I regularly arrive home with donuts after fishing and highly recommend cooking them in shortening. Stays solid at room temp and doesn't go rancid as quickly as those healthier oils. 
 
At least those trans fats and donut sugars give me a high after a disappointing session.  

So,

I get home from work with some holidays booked and keen as to get away for some time to unwind with the only problem being where to go, tossed around hooking up the boat for a river trip but when in I walked in to the shed and seen the surf rods that haven't had a run in close on 8 months my mind was made up a over nighter to Goolwa .


Thursday morning with last few items throwen in I hit the road at 6.30am. Pulling in to the beach car park around 8.00 am, I set about dropping my tyre pressures via the strawn's. It really drives me nuts seeing 4wd still running road pressures chewing up the beach for no reason. Anyway after a easy drive to the mouth, I spent some time watching the dredge working and at the unbelievable numbers of seals around . I picked out a nice little hole set up camp and had the rods in by 10
 
With the 1st rod loaded with a st fillet

 
2nd rod with a pilly and a popper

 
The first bite came around 1pm and  soon had a beautiful salmon on the beach ,bled and in the esky .

 
A long wait till the next bite around 5.30 and was surprised to have caught my 1st salmon on a popper

 
After missing a huge hit on a whole squid head, the cold and poor footy game I decided to  pack it in around 9.30pm and climbed in the swag.
 
Friday morning rolled around still bloodly cold but great conditions I had the rods back in by 6.30am. I fished hard again all day changing bait every 20mins till the next bite around 1pm again, this fish didn't fight very well the reason eviedent with a trace and hook coming out through the gills. I don't know how long fishing line needs to be in the water for the growth on the line to get to that stage but it couldn't have been pleasent


 
Come 3pm and I packed up for the drive home , with 20 hrs of fishing for 3 fish not the best, it was great to get away and enjoy some great weather and camping.
 
A quick pic of tea, fresh salmon patties yum yum

Joy and her mum came over for the w/end, so I decided to prepare something different for her mum. And she loved it. I could not eat all mine (recovering slowly from being sick) but they devoured theirs
.   
 

 

 
Cheers

130cm on a livie on k-mart gear in the lake

I hadn’t had a surf fishing trip for 5years, not since our last lads KI trip and before the young fella came along. The whole concept was beginning to feel like a nostalgic part of the past.  The idea for a KI salmon trip this season was optimistically discussed but fruitlessly realised. Not quite, but almost out of sheer desperation, brought a lower Yorkes fallback plan.
 
We had visited Yorkes numerous times but not for a few years, basing ourselves in the quaint Corney Point. This gives good access to the beaches of Berry Bay, Gleeson’s Landing, The Dust Hole, numerous rock fishing options and sheltered wading around Corny Point. All providing shelter from prevailing S-SW winds
The objective of this trip was to break in my mate’s new Seajigger, which had been unused and collecting dust since its purchase months ago.  More specifically; to have a solid crack at some surf salmon, possibly some rock fishing, wading and maybe even a lazy mullet session. Tinker had provided some options past Edithburgh, if the weather turned and blew from the NW.
 
Two weekends were chosen, to be selected at the last minute pending weather, in June, rather than later, hopefully to pick up any straggling mullet.  The first fell through and then the second looked doomed after my entire family succumbed to some nasty flu like virus. It was touch and go for a while but with some begging, we finally had a trip, only with a later departure of Friday evening rather than Thursday, returning Sunday night.
 
 
Friday
 
Even with express packing we didn’t leave until 1830 for a relatively uneventful drive other than a quick detour at Pt Wakefield when my mates ‘dinner’ of chips & iced coffee needed to break free . Onwards in the dark, we turned into Minlaton to be pulled over by the local constabulary. I'd noticed they eyeballed my mates old VN as we passed the servo, assuming likely bogan occupants up to no good . Any way mate blew zero, rego & licence check all good and he wished us good fishing!
 
 
Saturday
 
Plan was to pick a gutter in Berry Bay for a salmon surf session on the rising tide. After a lazy breakfast we were off. North Berry had 6 blokes fishing one gutter   but the entire beach south was clear with a sweet looking gutter smack in the middle. Luckily there is access near the middle as well as the southern end, so not too much walking. Closer inspection the gutter looked promisingly. It was deep in close but also had a fair swell cranking a current up the beach plus some solid sets of waves rolling in.
 
For my standard salmon surf fishing session I usually bring two outfits; one for bait (Penn Prevail  1202MH, Penn Slammer 560, 30lb braid) and the other for flicking lures (9ft Samaki Allure,  Slammer 260, 15lb braid).  This time I opted for 3 outfits, the two mentioned and one heavier (Beach Basher, 850ssm & 30lb mono) for anything bigger (shark, ray, mully)
 
I dropped my gear on a flat rock and grabbed the lure stick. I ran a 20lb mono leader via a FG knot to a snap swivel, perfect for 20-40g metals and the occasional large soft plastic. Starting with a 20g Raider into the promising water, then switched to a 28g Lock casting jig and was immediately impressed with the added distance. Nevertheless, without a touch and my usual lacking patience, I rigged up for bait.
 
I run a pretty standard paternoster rig, consisting of:
Snap swivel on main line 30lb or 40lb double paternoster twisted droppers (I buy these as they are tricky time consuming to tie) Loop on top and snap swivel to the sinker. Loop if the sinkers are molded with swivels, but I find snap swivel easier regardless. 2 snelled 4/0s on one dropper, baited with a whole salted pillie & tail tied on with a bit of bait thread. Surf popper on the other Star sinker to conditions. 3-6oz , breakaways if conditions are rough. I started with a 4oz star.
 
Swivels at both ends  minimise line twist, as the rig gets knocked around in the current plus facilitate easier rig & sinker changes. Twisted droppers hold the popper and bait more perpendicular than the simpler dropper loop rig, so are less likely tangled. Surf beaches regularly hold sand crabs which can quickly demolish pilchard baits. The popper will stay there and bob around enticingly when the bait is all gone .....Funnily enough, I had yet to catch anything on popper!
 
 
Back to the fishing......
 
The 4oz was holding well but with unpredictable wave action I decided to hold my rod with rather than place it in the rod holder. I could feel the telltale picking of crabs after a matter of minutes, checking bait to see it half demolished. Re-baited and back out. Tap, tap, lift and I’m on. Unsure what it was, certainly didn’t feel like a salmon? A bit of work out of the side rip revealed a nice mid-30cm Blue Spot and on the surf popper too! A double first for me: 1st flathead in the surf and 1st fish on a surf popper !
 

 
Just about to cast out again and my mate’s seajigger is finally getting a bend as he’s working a decent fish, some 80m up the beach.  I left my rod in the holder to give him a hand, landing a solid 60+cm salmon . No pics as my camera & phone were in my bag and the fish was released.
 
Those two fish were about it . The swell was getting uncomfortable where we were, pushing us up into the rocks at the base of the cliffs. Being a little concerned of getting trapped in the rising tide we packed and moved down the coast to the beach south of Pt Annie.
 
We targeted a nice hole, butting up the rocky point, with a few added reefy bits to keep us honest . Similar approach, baits out to the taps of smaller fish then wack, the distinctive tussle of my first salmon.  It proves difficult to land with the steep beach and side rip but is eventually up in a wave surge. Easily my biggest salmon for a number of years in the 50-55cm range, released.
 

 
Next couple of casts yielded snags; the loss of a sinker then a whole rig . Then I noticed a loop in my spool so pulled the line out only to get a massive mess as it blew down the beach, tangling with seaweed and inventing its own wind knots . I crack the s**ts, cut out 20m of line and switch to flicking lures! 
 
Metals weren’t getting any hits so I tried a SP (5in Jerk, ShadZTT Headlock 1/2oz, 5/0XH).
 

 
It cast surprisingly well but proved tricky working it between the big sets of waves. Finally one lift it gets slammed. I lose a bit of line then have similar trouble landing it as before. Another reasonable fish a bit bigger , and my 1st surf salmon on SP !
 

 
Around the same time my mate is bowled over in the backwash then receives the next wave right over the top and down the waders . He’s drenched and luckily we are sheltered from the breeze and the water’s not super cold anyway.
 
Again,  not much after those 2 fish , so we headed back up the coast for a bit of rock fishing.  With nothing noteworthy (smallish wrasee, sweep, tommies etc) we called it a day.
 
Mate had a hot shower and into dry clothes, I clean the flattie. We share the 1 beer .....ive been experimenting bottling homebrew in sodawater bottles which works well...... so 1 beer is really 4x330ml (great one to tell the missus "I'll just have one beer" ) ! We um & ah about wading the early morning low tide and decide it will be too dark and cold. Then seal its fate by downing a bottle of red and decide to have a lazy mullet session instead.
 
Sunday
After half packing the shack, we head to our pre-chosen mullet spot in close to Corney Pt. I tried to drop an onion bag of burley with ½ a house brick but even here the waves from the swell prove too much and smashed it into the rocks. Big baits out for any passing rays yield nothing other than snags on the only bit of rock around! Finally the mullet show in the last couple of hours rising tide and become increasingly aggressive with a few double headers. Most are only average but a few around 30cm. They loved slivers of deer heart I had been conscientiously saving for a mullet session.
 

 
Just as the novelty was wearing my mate hooks something far larger to reveal a lovely flattie, his PB at 55cm.
 

 
We decided to leave on a high, pack and hit the road for home.
 
Even though there was nothing spectacular always great to get away and focus on just fishing. A beautiful part of the world and just enought of a tease to come back for the salmon schools next trip.

Never caught them before.....just a matter of digging and pulling them out? Surely it can't be that easy, nothing fishing normally is!

Sounds like you would have taken a lichen to each other.

Sounds like you would have taken a lichen to each other.

Sounds like you would have taken a lichen to each other.

With two months still to go before the trout season opens I go for walks in the rain forests looking for & photographing the variety of Fungi that grows in them. They only last a few days so it's a matter of being there at the right time.. Here's a few photos that I took last week.... 







 
 
 

Wow some killer pics guys had an awesome run on the mullies during feb march in the port but all around the 65cm mark had a cracker day when i landed a fish a cast totalling about 20 fish around the 65cm mark not huge but fun on plastics posted about it back the but seeing how we are bragging lol! All the other pics give a bit to much away.

That's a nice fish adamibinfishin, it's been a dream of mine to fish the FWC and get into fish like that.
 
Here's my biggest so far, my first ever mully actually, caught on my first trip to Salt Creek a few years ago, she went 85cm, unfortunately the picture isn't great,
 

 
Here's my biggest lure caught from the Onk, 65cm, tagged and released,