fishingnut

Red hot in paradise ! Still up there with one of my favourite dams that one! All the bass look in great condition it would have been great fun getting the on spinner baits they just seem to hit like freight trains. Very envious Dino ! Casting arm is getting itchy again, I’ll be on the sidelines a good while yet,
 
cheers 

Good to see you back Kurt. 

it’s that time again to beat your compatriots to the tackle store and grab a few jigs before “the colours that really work” are gone.
i’ve started catching them around the Rous in my favorite GPS marked spot “Big Daddy”.
I have invested in a vacuum sealer for this winters snapper baits (my Mrs is complaining the freezer is full of squid already and there is no room to store the loaves of bread)!😬
Anyway back to the squid. I went out last week and got 27 (between me and my deckhand), although hard to call him a deckie, more of a mate who likes a free charter.
Ive found them biting (cuddling) the jigs in all sorts of tides, and of course having a spare rod dangling a surface jig for the mate who is also hungry to double up on a few catches. I’m still not 100% an angel to keep ink out of the boat, it was like a black slaughter house last week and took a while to clean post-trip (picture the deckie sitting at home with a beer while i’m doing this).
It’s been all tiger action so far, but getting heaps each trip.
Eating-wise, i’ve experimented quite a bit and found chilling them for 6 hours is easier to get the skin off, pineapple great to soften them up overnight soak and although flash frying is great for 20 seconds, the following is the best recipe by far.  So enjoy, please share your tips and orange 3.5 jigs for me out perform anything else during the day.
olive oil, add garlic and chili flakes, then add squid in thin strips, cook 2-4 mins until changes colour, add pasata, cook on low 4 mins, add grated lemon rind and parsley, serve with spaghetti, adding breadcrumbs/olive oil splash/pepper/parsley on top... with cold beer
 
 

Hi Kat I’m often asked how to differentiate fish species on the sounder.
I guess it comes with experience and learning your  specific sounder and changing its setup as to what your chasing.
I’m very lucky to have 2 boats the small one has a Lowrance HDS 7 even though this unit has down and side imaging I like to use the standard sonar ,but in saying that , I often overlay the down image over the top of the std sonar image  this tends  to give a little dimension to the bottom structure in sonar mode.
ie Feeding Bass show as a series of thin  red lines , almost zig zagging all over the place in a horizontal plain.
Non feeding Bass show as just your plan ordinary fish red arch or a Inverted v shape. When they are like this sometimes they are very had to catch as they are not active.
i always change my sounder to freshwater mode and shallow water mode in the dams.
The Threadfin have huge swim bladders and more often than not are found in packs of about 6 or sometimes more close to the bottom - so look for huge big red arches approx a metre off the bottom in groups of about 4 or more.
Mulloway are similar -big red arches but are often up off the bottom but usually in the bottom 1/2 of the water column .They will often rise higher if there’s bait in the water.
I have a larger boat with  Furuno FCV 588  -even though this sounder does not have down or side imaging  its a very good instrument and is my preferred sounder over an old lowrance unit also in the boat.
When I fish for Spanish mackerel I look for big red flatter type arches stacked vertically one on top of each other usually found near big schools of bait or around structure like reef edges . When in Accufish mode , It puts a circle and measurement like this “  ⭕️ 1200 “Around each individual fish ,and I’ve  then set it to buzz an alarm if it detects fish ranging from 750 to 1800mm . This is very effective locating Spanish mackerel .
When I go fishing for snapper offshore say in 80m of water it shows snapper as red arches and pearl perch as blue blobs.
A good sounder is a very handy tool,  but spending a lot of time setting it up adjusting filters etc and learning how to use and interpret what your looking at will pay big dividends long term .
I hope this has helped a little .
Regards
Neil
 

Had a smashing time up at Lake Baroon this morning. Started off playing with the spanglies using a kokada black bat then moved down the dam for some trolling on crazydeeps, some bait fishing, some slow blatt fishing and some spinnerbait casting.All up managed 86 bass and heaps of spanglies, even got a double hookup on the one lure.Also managed to get a stumpy.Bass come in 2 sizes around 40cm and 25cm.Missed out on catching one of the few hundred bass I have tagged there, maybe next time.
Dino

Just a quick tip and reminder for everyone here, while ducking outside to check on the battery chargers in the boat i for what ever reason decided to give the wheel a quick wiggle, well one of my wheel bearing were loose as a goose ! A quick tap with a rubber mallet released the bearing buddy and revealed a horrible brown mess (water and grease). A quick tidy up with a whole heap of rags revealed the bearing was still OK and good to go, a guick repack and tighten and im back on the road again.Just goes to show what I thought was good trailer bearings nearly bit me in the bum big time so just goes to show its never too late to give your nuts a wiggle and make sure there up to the task.
Cheers 

bloody hell I dont walk that far in my holidays ! hopefully the ranger can have a chat to him and move him on the sooner the better 

Thanks for the meet up at the gate ray, Cant say i have seen that person before fishing the bank but i have seen a asian fella fishing down past the island  before, always on the move and fishing a very long rod seems to be throwing a spinner bait, No idea where there getting in but i was a land owner and seen some one fishing my property it wouldnt be a particularly nice greeting!

Thanks for the meet up at the gate ray, Cant say i have seen that person before fishing the bank but i have seen a asian fella fishing down past the island  before, always on the move and fishing a very long rod seems to be throwing a spinner bait, No idea where there getting in but i was a land owner and seen some one fishing my property it wouldnt be a particularly nice greeting!

The quads and boars one ray I have if it’s available, pop ii inwith the boxes mate 

Do people still have DVD players? 

Big eye blue tipped little black fish 

Big eye blue tipped little black fish 

Big eye blue tipped little black fish 

I think that generation of Daiwa is the best aesthetically. The reel four can get a bit loud but man... they look the good and the drag clicker is LOUD.

Big eye blue tipped little black fish 

Luvias box ray does that anything in it other than paper work ? Little clip bag with some spares at all ?

Beautiful reel @fishingnut

I do have a few bc outfits but I would say these two are possibly my favourite. Both recently  serviced by Duncan at https://m.facebook.com/pages/category/Fishing-Store/D-H-Reel-Repairs-347434902127288/ ready for a season of casting at jacks and toga and some Barra, both have upgraded (as with all my reels) with carbontex drag washers. 

I do have a few bc outfits but I would say these two are possibly my favourite. Both recently  serviced by Duncan at https://m.facebook.com/pages/category/Fishing-Store/D-H-Reel-Repairs-347434902127288/ ready for a season of casting at jacks and toga and some Barra, both have upgraded (as with all my reels) with carbontex drag washers. 

I do have a few bc outfits but I would say these two are possibly my favourite. Both recently  serviced by Duncan at https://m.facebook.com/pages/category/Fishing-Store/D-H-Reel-Repairs-347434902127288/ ready for a season of casting at jacks and toga and some Barra, both have upgraded (as with all my reels) with carbontex drag washers. 

I do have a few bc outfits but I would say these two are possibly my favourite. Both recently  serviced by Duncan at https://m.facebook.com/pages/category/Fishing-Store/D-H-Reel-Repairs-347434902127288/ ready for a season of casting at jacks and toga and some Barra, both have upgraded (as with all my reels) with carbontex drag washers. 

I do have a few bc outfits but I would say these two are possibly my favourite. Both recently  serviced by Duncan at https://m.facebook.com/pages/category/Fishing-Store/D-H-Reel-Repairs-347434902127288/ ready for a season of casting at jacks and toga and some Barra, both have upgraded (as with all my reels) with carbontex drag washers. 

That’s only half of it 

Just screwed some rubber coated hooks in to beams under the house. Keeps the up off the floor.