benno573

and bleed them upon capture if they are of size. greatly improves the eating quality.

you'll find fibreglass rods more difficult to use if you are planning on throwing plastics. a graphite rod would be a better option here as they generally cast better, are lighter and impart a better action on the lure. fibreglass rods are excellent for bait fishing. on the flip side, graphite rods are more fragile and susceptible to damage if not packed securely or used properly. fibreglass rods generally certainly have a better "bash" factor and may be a better option, especially if the kids start to imitate some of the more athletic moves of the jedi... other option would be to get a couple of cheaper sticks from kmart for the kids to use (cheap combo about $20-$30) and grab something a little more serious for dad to use. the raider rod series are great value for money, a 2-4kg weight would be perfect for what you have described, will throw baits, plastics and troll lures from the yak no worries. there are often some good priced shimano combos in BCF catalogs, especially in the lead up to Xmas. I have bother raider series rods and a couple of ugly sticks, both have their place in my collection. haven't fished the gippsland lakes myself, hope you get amongst a few!

I use a hark 2-door gas smoker which is exactly the same as the aldi one and smoke pretty much any meat. Not overly expensive in the grand scheme and very simple to use and use well. Smoking fresh fish - in all honesty you don't really need to brine it if it is fresh, especially if you are able to wash the fillets in salt water. it does develop a stronger, saltier flavour if you do brine it but I personally prefer to let the fish itself shine on through with a lick of smoke flavour. Different story altogether if fish has been frozen or has been rinsed in fresh water. Standard basic brine I use is 1:1:16 salt, brown sugar, water. I add soy for chicken, sometimes a dash of fresh citrus juice for different seafoods, maple syrup when i am making maple bacon, dash of red wine for beef, apple juice for a pork... it's a bit of a choose your own adventure thing. Specifically for fish, I always leave the skin on my fish (scales off of course) and smoke it skin side down at about 120 degrees C for approximately 45min - 1 hour, depending on the size of the fillet. As far as wood goes, i use a lot of aussie natives in all my smoking, some of my favs are ironbark, wattle, banksia, any kind of gum but the best i have found for fish is definitely wattle. Apple wood also works well for a sweeter, softer smoke flavour. Definitely soak the chips prior to putting them in to really get the smoke going. Best fish I have found to smoke are tailor, mackeral, trevally, kingfish and dart. Also have worked out how to smoke oysters, mussels, prawns, squid and the best of all - scallops. Here's a report I did a while back. http://www.australianfishing.com.au/forum/topic/47933-aus-day-smoking/ Cheers Benno

Hmmm... tides are better this weekend for a leave work and head up kind of arrangement. I think I’m a goer, will just have to confirm no other commitments!

Geez... you wouldn’t want to hit a speed bump hard at that! My ideology stems from a guy at moreton in a brand new Range Rover who wouldn’t let his tyres down at all coz he had nitrogen in them. And the apparent expectation that I would tow him up the track out of my way to the resort. I towed him out of my way and then left him to work it out. I don’t know what his problem was really. I was running a ~78% nitrogen blend in mine at the time, no issues.

Sounds like a dud root @Drop Bear... hope it gets sorted for you. I’m a maybe at this stage, depending on final dates. Will likely take my own truck, potential for passengers if required. @Sparksie or @Old Scaley can have first dibs if interested. I am fully equipped and capable of recovering pootrols, however, refuse to help anyone up the beach with 40lb in their tyres...

@Angus I know, I had similar visions... Good luck throwing that about on your 1-3kg bream gear!!

40-60cm bream lures... so that’s where. I’ve been going wrong, using lures that are way too small!!!

The park at west end near the bbq shelters works well on an incoming tide. Easy to catch something, mostly catties but you also get the occasional bream, little/river jew or threadfin there, as well as bull sharks.

The aquaculture farms in question pump water in from the logan. If the disease was present in the "wild", various "micro" organisms can carry it including copepods and alike, very easy to be carried from the river into the farm where it would spread extremely quickly. The disease was confirmed in the wild population hence the shutdown of movement and harvesting of Crustacea in the Albert/logan system. it could potentially have been in the river for year/s before it made it into the farms as well. the other options are possible, however less likely than contaminated prawns being introduced into the river.

Well there's a revelation... As if we didn't all know that already.

Thanks to all involved with organizing and catering, was good to get out and amongst it and meet some people who I have spoken to or about many times but had never met. it was kind of fun doing the trivia bit, glad most people got involved. I must say... Watching a group of fishos stare blankly at me when I pronounced a Latin name of a fish was quite entertaining... well done to @DropBear for taking it out.

@kmcrosby78 all good. Firing on all 4 burners. Just need a bottle. let me know if you need me to pick the bottle up.

Ok, so it's about everyone except you then. I love pies and sausage rolls!

I have just remembered... I have a bbq we bought to take to Bathurst with us sitting in the garden shed. Basic, but should do the job. I'll pull it out and make sure it works. Don't have a spare gas bottle at the moment though.

This just in... I may be able to attend after all... as I am unsure I'll go for the non-catered option at this time. @kmcrosby78 - left or right handed? Surely you could just change the handle around on any spin combo? Have a cheap-ish combo or two lying around if you need one... Braid only on my reels though? Surely this is an opportunity for a savvy rod company to bring a few of their rods along to make people fall in love with them...?

Well if it was caught in a net that's only half points... Unless you butterfly filleted it?

Only if you could take it home and eat it... High in carbon which I've heard it good for digestion...

I have caught two rods in my time. One of them was cleaned up and continues its life cleaning up whiting. One taken with @ellicat and the other trolling in Coochin creek. Other weird stuff a couple of caps (without heads in them), a shopping basket and a burst kids inflatable boat. A juvenile qld groper in a crab pot in the Bris river was a bit out there as well.

I have a 9ft 6" rod that I use for casting big metals (up to 150g) from the stones. i have stood side-by-side with people using 13 and 14ft rods and large sinkers at tallebugera and mine clearly outcast them - was hilarious when I was the only person on the rock groin who could cast to the school of tailor sitting out the front, the local ethnic population was not impressed, even less so when I started tossing the fish back after I had a feed! It is not so much the length of the rod that is important, it is more to do with the construction of the rod, the line used and the technique of the caster. A longer sloppy rod will not have the same "whip" and produce the same momentum in the lure as a shorter rod of a stiffer / more springy construction. I use 20lb braid spooled on a 4000 size reel and it will launch a 70g slug about 120m if I give it some. I rarely have to go much further than that but I do have a few 90g-150g slugs that will go a bit further although the cuts on the fingers start to get to you after a while... Make sure you fill your spool properly and don't let the line cut in on itself. After a decent fight it generally takes 3-4 casts before you get back up to max distance due to the line being more tightly packed. tip - for distance, use the lightest best quality line you can and really work on your casting technique - the old addage of "put your back into it" really applies. Also really work on your release point, launching at approx 30-45 degrees will give you the best distance providing your line comes off the reel nice and easy (lower if wind in your face, higher if wind over your shoulder). Some people get right into it and use silicon spray to lube their guides and alike to cut down resistance, i don't bother with that. Apparently if you can master overheads they go further... I'm very good at making epic birds nests so I don't bother too much with them. A well spooled spinning reel is more than enough for me. I wouldn't bother with a 16ft rod. sounds a lot like far too much hard work for me.

looks like a good session there guys, well done!

Will be out and about down around the pin tomorrow, will drop in and say gudday, especially if there is a feed of muddies on the table... :kiss:

mate my fuel gauge reads half by the time I get out to the cape... just always make sure i have another 20 or 40L in reserve to make sure I get home! If you said your boat used 10L/hr on average (which it probably doesn\'t), it\'s about 12-13nm from the port boat ramp to the outer measured mile marker. In good weather you will be doing 15-18kn no worries meaning you will be out there in under 1 hr, maybe burning 8-9L in the process. With 55L on board you have oodles and oodles to do some running around, maybe throw a few molotofs about, play with your flame thrower for a bit and then shoot home. Probably a good idea to do a consumption run - one way is to get a stopwatch on the boat, drive it around for an hour flat out and then fill the tank back up, work out how much it used in an hour. Try it in smooth water, rough water, with 2 people, with 4 people, at different speeds etc. You get an average that way. Other way to do it is L/km or L/nm - if you have a GPS drop a track and then get the distance of that track, work out how much fuel was used to cover that distance. For my trip on sunday I will have enough fuel on board for 6 hours running time at full noise, allowing 2hrs out, 1 hr moving about out there, 2 hrs back, with 1 hr to spare. This is based on the average consumption of 17L/hr then adding a 2L/hr saftey margain just to be sure. When planning longer trips it is good to know your average consumption.

shortie wrote: I agree whole heartedly with this. I don't drink when skippering, it is my responsibility to ensure those on board come home safely. I have been out in the boat before and noticed an interesting smell coming from nearby boats as blokes chuff up on the water... I'd rather be landbased than out with blokes like that. You wouldn't get into a car with a bloke who is pissed or high... Probably worse on a boat!!!

rayke1938 wrote: This is a fair point. Most non-boaters have no idea of the costs of a trip. Also, totally agree on the giving a couple of hints, you should have seen kreel the first time I took him out, useless. With a few quick tips from me, he has progressed to slightly less useless! in all seriousness, no-one can get onto a boat from the first time and be an expert, skippers need to be patient as well as informative. Everyone has a good time this way!!!