Andrew_P

Trion for sale 3-6kg @Emerald

put a wanted ad on FB marketplace
or, if you are happy with a substitute, Pflueger is owned by Pure Fishing who also own Penn, Berkley and Abu Garcia. So you could look for a rod with similar specs from these companies. Abu Garcia Rayrex has a SP702 for around $100.
Rayrex II Spinning - Abu Garcia Fishing (abugarcia-fishing.com.au)
I rate the Abu Garcia salty stage line of rods for feel and components; likely made in the same factory as the previous generations of Pflueger....(Chyna)
My guess is those were build on IM6 (intermediate modulus) blanks which are widely available; any decent custom rod builder could access a similar blank and components (cork grips? fuji alconite guides?) and build you a reasonable replica, even better if you drop the old rod off to him/her to plan the build off

Trion for sale 3-6kg @Emerald

Hi all,
Over the past few weeks I've been doing a bit of fishing in the river, unfortunately none has been too successful though. The first session was a couple weekends ago. 
I got to the spot early in the morning at a relatively low tide and started cast netting. Bait was scarce but I had plenty of deadbait, so after getting a few herring I started fishing. It remained quiet for the next couple of hours though, but I did manage to catch about thirty bait sized prawns and a couple more herring (caught some catfish and toadfish on lines). As the tide was getting closer to the high, one of my rods eventually went off. It didn't take long to realize I was on a big stingray though, and after about 15 minutes a 20KG specimen was next to the jetty, which I cut off to annoy someone else. I continued fishing all throughout the day, but didn't catch anything noteworthy, apart from a bream, and more catfish/pike eels/stingray. 
Stats:
Tide: 4:50AM, .5M, Low, 10:40AM, 2.1M, High, 4:50PM, .5M, Low. 
Moon Phase: New Moon, 1%
Bait Caught and Used: Live prawns, herring, deadbaits. 
Fish Caught: Lots of trash fish, one bream. 
Tackle Used: Abu Garcia Nexus on Shimano Sedona 6000, Okuma Coronado CDX with Silstar Crystal Powertip, Kmart Rod and Shimano Baitrunner OC 8000. 30 pound braid, 50 pound trace, 6/o circle hooks, size 4 star sinkers. 
Air Pressure: 1019
Humidity: 72%
Overall Success Rate: 30%, pretty crap fishing
I was up at Yeppoon for a week after that, but when I got back I went fishing on Monday at a spot a while away from my home. Upon arriving, I was disappointed to catch no bait whatsoever, so it was lucky I decided to bring some backup dead prawns along. While I was cast netting, one of my rods did go off, and I landed a fat catty, and upon getting back to netting a second rod went off. This time it was clearly a better fish, and I was pleased to see a legal size squire on the end of my line. I decided to keep this, and shortly after, having only caught one scat in the cast net, I relocated spots as I was out of bait. 
At the next spot, bait was also very minimal, but I did manage to catch a pike eel. No one else caught any bait or fish for the whole day. 
Stats:
Tide: 6:00AM, 1.7M, High, 12:00PM, .6M, Low, 6:40PM, 2.5M, High. 
Moon Phase: 78% moon.
Bait Caught and Used: Dead prawns, scat strip. 
Fish Caught: Snapper, catfish, pike eel. 
Tackle Used: Abu Garcia Nexus on Shimano Sedona 6000, Okuma Coronado CDX with Silstar Crystal Powertip, Kmart Rod and Shimano Baitrunner OC 8000. 30 pound braid, 50 pound trace, 6/o circle hooks, size 4 star sinkers. 
Air Pressure: 1018
Humidity: 64%
Overall Success Rate: 20% - pretty crap session
After that, upon hearing a decent report, I decided to try a spot that was a bit more local to me. After getting a lift there, I was there early, but unluckily for me there was not a lot of livebait around making fishing to start with a bit of a struggle. Apart from a small catty, it wasn't looking good. 
Eventually, another fisho rocked up and showed me a better spot to catch livies. He then proceeded to catch a couple of small soapy jewfish, which were good to see, on mullet and bony bream. My rod remained untouched, but I persisted throughout the day praying something would happen. Eventually around lunchtime I had to call it quits as my grandparents were arriving, so I got the bus home. Apparently someone lost a large thready a while after I left and a couple more soapies were caught. 
Stats:
Tide: 7:30AM, 1.7M, High, 1:30PM, .3M, Low. 
Moon Phase: 87.5%
Bait Caught and Used: Live mullet, bony bream, dead prawns. 
Fish Caught: Catfish, others caught jewfish and nearly threadfin. 
Tackle Used: Kmart Rod and Shimano Baitrunner OC 8000. 30 pound braid, 50 pound trace, 6/o circle hooks, size 4 star sinkers. 
Air Pressure: 1016
Humidity: 74%
Overall Success Rate: 30% - crap day for me but good to see some solid fish caught. 
The next day, I was back at it at that same spot hopeful I'd be able to land a fish. I can't remember all of the details that well, but I know I had a couple more rods and was better equipped to go cast netting. This was one element of the day which was successful, as I managed a couple schools of mullet and bony bream early on. 
Unfortunately for me, the day proved to be quiet yet again, with no substantial catches for me. Oh well, that's fishing. 
Stats:
Tide: 8:30AM, 1.8M, High, 2:40PM, .2M, Low. 
Moon Phase: 95%
Bait Caught and Used: Live mullet and bonies. 
Fish Caught: Nothing good. 
Tackle Used: Shimano Stradic and Raider rod, Shimano Symetre and Sentire Rod, Kmart Rod and Shimano Baitrunner 8000OC, 15, 20, and 30 pound braid mainlines, 50 pound trace, size 3 snapper sinkers. 
Air Pressure: 1015
Humidity: 64%
Overall Success Rate: 20%, bad fishing. 
I gave the fishing a miss that Thursday, but on Friday I was back at it at a slightly different spot with my mate. We both got there around 6, and were straight into cast netting. A mix of prawns, mullet, bony bream, and herring were landed, and I also had a bit of deadbait, but the fish didn't seem to be playing the game. This trend continued throughout the rising tide, with only a couple catfish being landed, and a few more small fish biting. 
Upon the rising tide, a rather large live herring I had sent out had a bit of a bite, but eventually the fish dropped it. I was thinking either pike eel or jewie, based on the way the fish played with the bait before running and dropping it. It seemed like nothing was going to change, and a bit before two I headed home for the day, leaving my mate with the livies (he only got catfish). 
Stats:
Tide: 4:30AM, .1M, Low, 10:15AM, 2.1M, High, 4:30PM, .1M, Low. 
Moon Phase: 100%, Full Moon. 
Bait Caught and Used: Live mullet, herring, bony bream, prawns. 
Fish Caught: Catfish
Tackle Used: Shimano Stradic and Raider rod, Shimano Symetre and Sentire Rod, Kmart Rod and Shimano Baitrunner 8000OC, 15, 20, and 30 pound braid mainlines, 50 pound trace, size 3 snapper sinkers. 
Air Pressure: 1008
Humidity: 92%
Overall Success Rate: 15%, quiet day. 
After that, I was back at the spot where the jewies had been landed the previous days. A few other fishos came to join me as well, but I was there first and had managed to catch a few nice livebaits. Things were looking promising, but after everyone had soaked a few livies for a while and nothing had happened hopes went down. 
After a time, I hooked up to something with a lot of weight. We were hoping it would wake up and prove to be a decent fish, but unfortunately a big rotten pike eel surfaced. This was probably one of the biggest eels I've ever seen, and after that was dealt with we got back to fishing.
To sum up a long day, I caught a few catties, perch, and a lot more bait, but no prize fish showed themselves. Around 5 I called it quits, disappointed with the days fishing. 
Stats:
Tide: 5:00AM, .1M, Low, 11:00AM, 2.2M, High, 5:15Pm, .1M, Low
Moon Phase: Full Moon
Bait Caught and Used: Live mullet and bony bream
Fish Caught: Catfish, perch, eels. 
Tackle Used: Shimano Stradic and Raider rod, Shimano Symetre and Sentire Rod, Kmart Rod and Shimano Baitrunner 8000OC, 15, 20, and 30 pound braid mainlines, 50 pound trace, size 3 snapper sinkers. 
Air Pressure: 1008
Humidity: 92%
Overall Success Rate: 10%, crap day. 
Seeing as though nothing was going my way in the salt, I decided to try for some bass up the river. It was a tight schedule, as my Dad had to be home to take my sister somewhere early in the morning, but a 4AM start saw us at the spot by around half past five. Upon getting into the car, I was greeted by a big old huntsman, which gave me a pretty good fright. Once we arrived at the spot without further issue I was pretty relieved... 
As we walked down to the river, I was hopeful of a first cast bass, and although this was not the case, it was only a couple of casts before I had a missed hit, same with my Dad. After three missed hits we repositioned slightly, where my Dad caught the first bass of the morning, a nice little model. 
We continued to wind our way along the bank, and after my Dad caught another fish, I wasn't feeling too hopeful... But then, boof! I was on, and although it was only little it was still fun. After I dehooked it, my Dad caught the best fish of the morning, a solid 35CM model. We continued fishing until about 7:30AM, but then called it quits as we really needed to get home. We ended up catching 7 bass from 10 bust ups, using surface for everything. 
Stats:
Tide: 8:00AM, Low tide, 0.1M
Moon Phase: Full Moon
Lures Used: Jackall and Duo International Cicadas, I tried an RMG Scorpion 35 for the last part of the session. 
Fish Caught: 7 * bass
Tackle Used: Shimano Stradic 3000 with Shimano Raider, Abu Garcia Veritas 2-4KG with 2500 Diawa Tierra. 15 and 8 pound braid, ten pound fluoro leader. 
Air Pressure: 1017
Humidity: 71%
Overall Success Rate: 90% - not much size but good to do the plan for once. 
The next day was the last day of school holidays, and @Thorbjorn Hale and I decided to go for an arvo session at a new spot for both of us (Where Thorbjorn saw someone catch a big thready). We got there around midday, and it wasn't long before we got onto a couple of prawns and herring for livebait. This was pretty promising, because not many other spots in the river have had a lot of bait recently. 
A while later one of my rods was getting some interest. I started winding in, and the fish was swimming towards us. After the initial run, we decided it was a ray, and ten minutes later we were proved right, when a 20KG or so model surfaced. After breaking one dilly, we managed to get it up and release it, happy that we had gotten our first catch. 
We continued to catch more livebait and fish, but the bite was a bit quiet. The next couple of hours flew by, until we started catching a couple of fish again. I believe Thorbs caught a catfish and eel, and I caught a couple catties. As the sun started to go down, I caught some puttynose perch in the cast net. These were sent out, and Thorbs landed a big stingray on one, which we released. It is also worth noting while I was cast netting about 4 hours after we lost it, I pulled in Thorbs dilly that had broken off from the rope when we were trying to get the first big stingray in. I left at about 5:30PM, and I think Thorbjorn gave it a few more hours that night, but only managed some rays/catties. Anyways, it was still a fun session at what seems like a great spot, just a shame there weren't many fish around!
Stats:
Tide: 11:50AM, 2.5M, High, 6:15Pm, .5M, Low. 
Moon Phase: 93%
Bait Caught and Used: Live herring, puttynose perch, mullet, prawns, chicken breast. 
Fish Caught: Catfish, eels, stingrays. 
Tackle Used: Abu Garcia Nexus on Shimano Sedona 6000, Okuma Coronado CDX with Silstar Crystal Powertip, Kmart Rod and Shimano Baitrunner OC 8000. 30 pound braid, 50 pound trace, 6/o circle hooks, size 4 star sinkers. 
Air Pressure: 1017
Humidity: 68%
Overall Success Rate: 60% - productive arvo sussing out a new spot. 
Anyways, the most recent session was this morning, on the kayak. My Dad and I decided we would have a crack catching a thready/jew on a lure, so at about 12:45AM we launched into the river near a bridge. It wasn't long before we were drifting by some structure, me flicking a Zerek Pyra lure and my dad jigging a vibe. This spot proved to be no good, so a slight change saw us flicking in some light pools.
Everything looked fishy, and after flicking my surface lure around the jetty, I saw some bait jumping on the surface. This was the first time this happened for the night, so I casted my lure right in, and a small tailor came and smashed it, dropping off at the side of the kayak. Cool, we thought, but there was no more surface action at this spot so we moved on to the next set of wharfs. This also proved unsuccessful, and after pulling up on a jetty to stretch the legs, we shot off to another ferry terminal.
There wasn't much illumination at this one, so twenty minutes later we were at a third terminal, that looked much fishier. We casted here for about 30 minutes, but with no luck we made our way back to the first terminal we fished, casting our lure up onto a shallow mudbank with lots of mullet activity. A few final casts saw us with no fish, so we left, off the water by about 3:15AM and back in bed by four, feeling a bit disappointed with our dud session. 
Stats:
Tide: 12:00AM, .7M, Low, 5:30AM, 1.3M, High. 
Moon Phase: 47%. 
Lures Used: Zerek Pyra and soft vibe. 
Fish Caught: One small tailor. 
Tackle Used: Shimano Stradic 3000 on Raider and Shimano Symetre 4000 on Sentire Rod, 15 and 20 pound braid mainlines with 30 pound leader. 
Air Pressure: 1018
Humidity: 66%
Overall Success Rate: 50%- good to try something new. 
Thanks for reading this report. Hope you enjoyed. School is starting to get busy now but I'm hoping my luck will change soon after all those bad sessions. Sorry no photos. 
Cheers Hamish

Amazeing!

Amazeing!

I popped an ad up in FB Marketplace @Angry51, so you can see some pics of the wrap there 😄 
The price is a bit inflated, it was built to order, the buyer is OK with me advertising it for a week or two 🙂 
URL : (1) Marketplace – Custom Build 6'6' PE8 Rod - Jig / reef | Facebook
 

For anyone that hasn't read that story, take the time. It's worth it 👍

I'll be a lil quiet 4 ay bit.
have just about completed the PE8 custom build, but now have a 7'6" PE2-3 ordered, and a 6' Barra PE2-3 baitcaster, and a PE8 GT chaser with buyer chasing quote, (saw my PE8 custom build and got excited) ... will post pic of PE8 CB when I can, did a Maze pattern ... they always fuss me , not hard at all, just have to always be on top of where you are ................. might need @Ed., @Andrew_P, and @Angry51 all up here to help if this keeps up!  Oh, and AUS-BNE-FISHO, ... Hamish, you might need to keep the Barra numbers down in the dam too 😉 , and Angry .... the Chooks will need feeding 😄 
Seriously though, I've got a few repairs for a local Prossie mum (widow), handing on rods to her son in WA that I'm gonna surpass her expectations with, plus 2 customs booked, a spekky to build and 2 more customs being quoted (he saw the PE8 CB and then got excited) .... so I'm gonna be busy phor ay while ... putting tags on everything to keep track of it all .... 
hope I can post pics soon

All, 
Little update,
Boat is on the container ship heading for Brisbane, should be on the docks @ the P.O.B sometime Monday morning the 18th of September..
Regards Josh ><>
 

rule of thumb for rod ratings is that optimum fishing is in the middle of the range. i.e. if you have a 2-4kg set up fish 3kg line (8lb) but it will fish 2kg and 4kg if you need it to. i prefer to choose my lighter rods/ blanks on the lure weight it is designed for. heavy rods i will go the middle of the line rating
setting your drag at ~1/3rd of the breaking strain is a hangover from IGFA game fishing days where they were fishing tested mono lines. this allowed them to up the drag to 1/2 or even 3/4 of the breaking strain of the line if they needed to. you should set your drag at whatever seems right for the fish you are chasing - light if its bream so you dont pull the hooks, heavy for fish like jacks you will be pulling out of the structure. most people i fish with dont measure their drags using scales but set it and adjust depending upon the species they are chasing. remember your reels are designed to give fish drag if they run so you dont snap the line. if you set the drag in the correct range you shouldnt need to adjust mid fight. if you do need to adjust go easy until you are gaining ground on the fish. and remember to back it off before you cast again!

Probably not. Especially with sharks around you will be lucky to land one. 20lb minimum, 30lb is good, some people use 50lb

rule of thumb for rod ratings is that optimum fishing is in the middle of the range. i.e. if you have a 2-4kg set up fish 3kg line (8lb) but it will fish 2kg and 4kg if you need it to. i prefer to choose my lighter rods/ blanks on the lure weight it is designed for. heavy rods i will go the middle of the line rating
setting your drag at ~1/3rd of the breaking strain is a hangover from IGFA game fishing days where they were fishing tested mono lines. this allowed them to up the drag to 1/2 or even 3/4 of the breaking strain of the line if they needed to. you should set your drag at whatever seems right for the fish you are chasing - light if its bream so you dont pull the hooks, heavy for fish like jacks you will be pulling out of the structure. most people i fish with dont measure their drags using scales but set it and adjust depending upon the species they are chasing. remember your reels are designed to give fish drag if they run so you dont snap the line. if you set the drag in the correct range you shouldnt need to adjust mid fight. if you do need to adjust go easy until you are gaining ground on the fish. and remember to back it off before you cast again!

rule of thumb for rod ratings is that optimum fishing is in the middle of the range. i.e. if you have a 2-4kg set up fish 3kg line (8lb) but it will fish 2kg and 4kg if you need it to. i prefer to choose my lighter rods/ blanks on the lure weight it is designed for. heavy rods i will go the middle of the line rating
setting your drag at ~1/3rd of the breaking strain is a hangover from IGFA game fishing days where they were fishing tested mono lines. this allowed them to up the drag to 1/2 or even 3/4 of the breaking strain of the line if they needed to. you should set your drag at whatever seems right for the fish you are chasing - light if its bream so you dont pull the hooks, heavy for fish like jacks you will be pulling out of the structure. most people i fish with dont measure their drags using scales but set it and adjust depending upon the species they are chasing. remember your reels are designed to give fish drag if they run so you dont snap the line. if you set the drag in the correct range you shouldnt need to adjust mid fight. if you do need to adjust go easy until you are gaining ground on the fish. and remember to back it off before you cast again!

Probably not. Especially with sharks around you will be lucky to land one. 20lb minimum, 30lb is good, some people use 50lb

Probably not. Especially with sharks around you will be lucky to land one. 20lb minimum, 30lb is good, some people use 50lb

Probably not. Especially with sharks around you will be lucky to land one. 20lb minimum, 30lb is good, some people use 50lb

put a wanted ad on FB marketplace
or, if you are happy with a substitute, Pflueger is owned by Pure Fishing who also own Penn, Berkley and Abu Garcia. So you could look for a rod with similar specs from these companies. Abu Garcia Rayrex has a SP702 for around $100.
Rayrex II Spinning - Abu Garcia Fishing (abugarcia-fishing.com.au)
I rate the Abu Garcia salty stage line of rods for feel and components; likely made in the same factory as the previous generations of Pflueger....(Chyna)
My guess is those were build on IM6 (intermediate modulus) blanks which are widely available; any decent custom rod builder could access a similar blank and components (cork grips? fuji alconite guides?) and build you a reasonable replica, even better if you drop the old rod off to him/her to plan the build off

put a wanted ad on FB marketplace
or, if you are happy with a substitute, Pflueger is owned by Pure Fishing who also own Penn, Berkley and Abu Garcia. So you could look for a rod with similar specs from these companies. Abu Garcia Rayrex has a SP702 for around $100.
Rayrex II Spinning - Abu Garcia Fishing (abugarcia-fishing.com.au)
I rate the Abu Garcia salty stage line of rods for feel and components; likely made in the same factory as the previous generations of Pflueger....(Chyna)
My guess is those were build on IM6 (intermediate modulus) blanks which are widely available; any decent custom rod builder could access a similar blank and components (cork grips? fuji alconite guides?) and build you a reasonable replica, even better if you drop the old rod off to him/her to plan the build off

Went out to the fads on friday, just took some time to write a report.  Got to the ramp at about 5:40 and headed out to get some livies.  picked up about 12 in about 30 minutes so headed out, on the way out we ran over a huge bomby and put a mark on it (Foreshadowing) and continuted out to the Fad 6.  after bludging out way through the swell we finally had it in sight, and what do you know there is a massive school of mahi mahi.  The rush to put out a live bait resulted in a circle hook through my thumb that was not fun to pull out as it went well past the barb in but we carried on. after about 1 hour of not catching we hooked one on a subiki on a 2-4kg bream raider.  then it was just fish after fish.  we boated about 9 or 10 and kept 5 for a good feed.  on the way back in we stopped back the the big bomby we ran over, dropped a squidtrex down on it (about 50 or so metres) and after a few drifts and a couple coral trout (undersize), i hit a brick wall, about 25 metres down on a fast jig up, it took off, peeling line and heading to the bottom, i put the hurt on it with my saltiga and grappler combo and got it to the surface where it took off about 100-150 metres across the surface; after about 10-15 minutes dad gaffed the mighty cobia, it ended up going just over a metre and 8kg.  we decided to take it but relised that we had taken a bit to much fish so off to my mates house to drop off 2 dollies, (gave them to this mate because he and his family really apreciates fish and respects it).  got some really nice fillets of them, all of the dollies were 60-70cm
cheers (I'll add photos when its working again)

all rods sold. 

Got some good weather today , so a friend and I headed out about 60km in search of some red fish.We’ saw  plenty of whales dolphins, sharks, turtles and sea snakes on the way out. We  pulled up on an old mark that I found years ago  in 12m of water and float lined some big flesh baits of hussar and iodine bream down on 40lb braid  . First drop I pulled a nice trout then it went a bit slow , we moved a little and  found some really fired up fish  that wanted to see the inside my ice box  .Ended up with a great box of fish , mainly common trout , with a few RTE’s , red emperor , and  venus tuskfish thrown in . On the way home we went over a rock that looked like it had Spanish mackerel  all over it  , so we spun around , and trolled a yakka over it - next thing you know I’ve  got a 15 kg Spanish in the kill tank and off we go again . .Fish are now well iced down ,  I’ll fillet ,skin and cryovac them down tomorrow once they harden up  and my old body recovers.I’m going to try some of those deep fried trout skin chips , I’ll post the verdict on those in a few days.
 
 

Nice Neil! Hamish - it looks like a Dark-tailed sea perch Lutjanus lemniscatus
https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/5c649b84-7c35-4dca-a46e-1030b10aaa6b
they have orange/yellow markings on each scale around the head
Not very common and grow to about 55cm max. I've eaten one and it was delicious!

i'm not sure Brian but this may be a little clue...

i'm not sure Brian but this may be a little clue...