Junky

They exist in the rapids in freshwater creeks outside of Cairns. I stood on one. Holy hell, what an experience. Big toe. I thought it was a piece of glass at first. Took a good half hr for the pain to set in. I had to go to hospital and get injected with something to numb the pain. Can't remember what it was but it gave me instant relief, that is after 2hrs of wanting to cut my foot off. Horrible little fish. Give me a happy moment any day over a bullrout.

I've never set drags with scales. I go completely by feel, and adjust accordingly during the fight. I tend to run heavier drag closer to the bottom and once turned and on the way up I will back the drag off slightly as the fish nears the boat. If sharks are around then it's the old, lock it up and skull them in. Problem with that is you face the issue of terminal tackle failure, like straightening hooks or busting swivels. I've never free spooled on the reef to let fish get away from sharks. I think this is because, you don't really know when the shark is going to hit the fish. I have free spooled in timber chasing barra. Works well. Just have to be careful not to put weight on the fish when you retrieve the line and weave the boat around the sticks, otherwise you will lose the fish.

I wouldn't top shot the braid, I'd back it with 80lb. Just platt the end of the braid to make your double and use a 10m+ wind on. Heaps of tigers, small hammers and whalers at Fraser.

Same, but I go a step further and stuff squid jackets full of the minced up fish/oil, and then freeze.

You've made the right decision. Garmin are very nice units. Keep an eye on the new panoptix PS70 live sonar. Made for 1000ft, apparently. Panoptix PS70

I drove past there last night and @Old Scaley is already lined up at the gate waiting. Awesome catches BTW. Nearly as good as a day on the water.

No better way to test a new reel than on some kingies I do realise you didn't hook up to the king, but you could have.

I use Gosen on my 20 and 30lb. Diawa Saltiga 12 on my heavy rods. Both are trouble free for me.

I've never had much luck with either brand and I fished them hard. Put on a gulp, powerbait, squidgy a or slider grub... Bang, fish on. Also, plastic manufacturers do not listen to anglers sometimes. I had an unbeatable color, from a well known brand that still exists to this day and has a massive selection available, that absolutely brained the big snapper. Lo and behold, that color was discontinued. Why? They were always sold out. Probably worked to well. I've tried all other colours in the exact brand and style that I fancied and basically halved the catch rate, and the overall size of the fish. Very frustrating imo. The color will never return I'm told.

Tom pipers savoury mince. Add cheese and tobasco, salt and pepper.

Grab a pair of pointy nose pliers, and keep them on you when lure fishing. You need to slightly, emphasis on slightly, bend the little metal ring to the left or right on the nose of the lure. This is the ring that you would attach a split ring to. Start with a slight adjustment to the left and swim the lure. If it's worse, go back the other way. If it's getting better, make another adjustment the same way. You will eventually have it swimming dead straight, however it may take several adjustments to achieve. It's not uncommon to have to tune a lure to swim correctly.

Ideally up Karumba way... Minimum 6kg baitcaster or 7kg spin, or both. Never really into fly but I reckon you'll have fun on the smaller barra and you may also get a few jacks as well.

Also keep in mind that a crook battery can kill a good battery in a parallel setup.

Is this only happening at night, or is this when it's noticed? Have you swapped over the power supplies to each fridge, checking to see that the same power supply is failing, or the same fridge is failing? Have you thoroughly checked all the connections between the fridges and the batteries? Sounds to me like a poor connection. Disclaimer.... This is assuming your batteries are in top order, your engine is putting out approx 14v when underway, and your solar is connected up correctly with an anchor light and some lights music to calm the night. There are no sound systems cranking out Metallica till all hours, television, stern lights on and the deck flood lights ablaze.

It will be fine. We used to do Fraser every year and those motors would only get flushed on the final day as we were leaving.

Winner. Sorry Im late.

Great read as usual Hamish. Sharks are a great way of clean the cobwebs from reel drag systems. Bit of sweetwater thrown in as well. Good to see you're mixing up your fishing. It's amazing where bass get to in the creeks around SEQ. Got to say mate, your father is a dead set champion of a bloke. Fearless too. You'll learn lots from that man.

Have a good day to all at AFO. Hope Santa coughed up some beauties for you. I myself am proud to say that I am having my first dry Christmas/New year break in about 30 odd years. Here's to many more...

Yes, my fingers are crossed. The outlook was to good to be true last Wed/Thurs. Glad I went when I did. Was gonna hold off. TBC, hopefully.

Negative. It is a plant based food though. There is also a metal band with the same name, however spelt slightly different.

Hey stevo. Left from inskip. Wanted max fuel without carrying jerry's. Intent was to go wide. Weather had other plans though. Freezer is getting hammered. Few fillets left but it's been so long so I have been a little piggy. Forecast was for a great week, and then it wasn't. Owell, still have a few more days yet.

You peel me. You cook me. You eat my outside You throw my inside away. What am I?

Well the stars finally aligned. Got out last Thursday 21th. D.I. 2 POB's. Conditions were good, but very bumpy on top of a meter swell, light S.E winds, that increased in the afternoon. Bugger all current. Up to 2kph, so target species would be hard to entice. No run, no fun. Mixed bag. Target was red fish but no sized fish onboard. All fish tank models or just unders. Could see them down there though. Night time bite me thinks. Got a nice snap, bit under 70cm, with about 10 caught all day. We only kept one though. Others were up to 50cm. Rounded up a few blue bone in the mix. Then I got onto a nice scaffolder cod, which came home for tea. I forgot how good they are on the chew. Pearlies are everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Haven't seen it like that for a long time. I hope it's a reflection of the closed season. Hard to dig though for sized fish but managed 5. They are extremely thick in numbers. Every reef I stopped at had an abundance. I stopped fishing because I didn't want to keep catching unders. Had enough in the esky anyway. I did see some Spanish swim though mid water, and I did put out some lures, with no luck. My go to qantas deep diver is broken, and that lure is a Spanish lollipop. They weren't playing the game either. Plastics and vibes were very quiet, as were the trolling lures. Pillies mullet and squid were dynamite for the reefies, as to be expected. I say this quietly, no sharks??? Had a pod of 20odd dolphins hanging around at times but a good 2k speed run to the next reef saw them tire off and leave us alone. Maybe that's why the sharks were absent. Drew at Gardiner's fisheries in rainbow Beach supplied the A grade bait yet again, and the shop has been extended which is good to see. Get your bait the day before if you're going out before 7am.. Hopefully this weather comes good for Jan 1st. Cheers.

I'm with Bob. It's easier to have a shed full of different rods filled with various size lines. 10lb. 20lb. 30lb. 50lb. 100+lb. I have those sizes in spin and overhead, as well as bait casters spooled up to 30lb. Oh, and I cannot forget the old handline in the side pocket spooled with 120lb mono for "justin".

I'm in for southside..