Ed.

The Bait runner/live liners are a different sort of reel to the one you purchased, on mine there is a secondary brake which once you cast your line in and if there is too much current, what will happen is that you will have to loosen up the drag so it doesn't run out but that also means that if you have a fish bite your bait then you will have to tighten up the drag before you strike or hold the spool. It also allows you to set it so the bait stays stationary with almost no drag on the line and when a fish bites and goes for a run it won't detect the drag, then when you turn the handle it goes to the main drag and you can fight the fish with the set fighting drag.

The drag is just a brake clutch that you can adjust when fishing so if you tighten it up it makes the it harder for a fish to pull line of your spool when it makes a run, example if you hook a bream and it goes for a run towards some structure and you want to stop it before it gets there, so you would tighten up the drag a bit. be aware that if the drag you have set exceeds the line capacity of the line , once the stretch in the line is at maximum then the line will snap, so you always need to be aware of how much you tighten the drag.

10lb if the advert is correct

That is another reason I like live liners/bait feeder style reels, lets say you wound up too much line and are about to cast, I would just engage the secondary drag, let out some line, flick it back and good to go with the correct length of line I wanted. The drag is basically a clutch that can be tightened, the more you tighten up the drag washer , the harder it is for the fish to pull line off.

Hi Kat, so this is the combo you bought: It's 702 inches long, 2-4kg line class can cast 5-17 gram lures, it is a size 30 reel and holds 180m of 10lb line which is what it is spooled with and can do 6.4kg drag.

Pretty much what Breaming with Bro said, but if you are fishing those areas there will be other species to consider which will turn up there as well, such as Stingrays and Mullaway so you might want to go heavier depending on the size that are around where you fish, same goes for Trevally as all these species can grow to XXL sizes. The smallest size reel I have is a 2500 size sitting with a 4-8kg rod which is filled with 17lb braid but I don't target the smaller species though. If I did I would respool down to about 10lb, purely because Trevally and the others frequent the same sort of areas, or else put on 6lb leaders and 6lb mainline which would be better though and I would just take my chances if a bigger species hooked up. I really don't want to buy another smaller reel! so I will just make do with the 2500 setup I have. Should point out that Mullaway and Trevally can be dirty fighters and will reef you the first chance they get, so a heavier line might be preferable. If the area is very sandy then that might not be an issue. Lots of ways to skin a cat as the saying goes but for Bream, Whiting and Flathead a 1000 sized reel would be more fun but get what you would be more comfortable with. Just my 2 cents worth.

Kat, just out of curiosity, what species of fish are you intending to purchase this reel for? The other thing is, that you might want to choose a specific reel and match it up to a suitable rod that you like, in other word don't get a combo. As they rarely are any good, they are put together for the cheapest price possible. Having said that, I went to my local BCF store about a week ago and their stock of reels and rods were very minimal, trouble getting stock out of China.

About the only reel I know of that are quite water resistant are the Penn Spinfishers VI as they have a rating of IPX5 so salt spray and light dunking shouldn't cause any problems, unfortunately the smallest size is a 2500 but they are a quite strong and solid reel and you can lightly hose them down after fishing, I have the 2500LL, 4500LL and 6500LL sized ones (sold off the 8500LL one). They are also pricier than your budget with the cheapest price I have found is from Dinga Fishing, and if you sign up (free) they give free postage and a $10 or $20 discount on your very first order. For most light estuary fishing the Penn 2500 size is still overkill in price, weight and has 6.5Kg of drag. So if you wanted to go lighter and cheaper you would have to look at Daiwa, Shimano, Abu and many other brands as there are a stack of 1000-2000 sized reels that would be better suited for light fishing .

I had back pain for a long time to the point of having trouble standing straight or walking and kept going to the chiro, which helped a little bit but didn't cure it, then I got messaged and that worked wonders, so unless you have some sort of physical injury to your spine or twisted vertebra it might be of benefit to you to get a couple of massages. Tell them what your main problems are and they will concentrate on those areas.

Gummy and School sharks are sold down south in Vic as "Flake". I have eaten other shark meat and definitely not as nice, every time I go to Victoria, I always have a feed of Flake from the fish shops. Wobbegong isn't too bad either.

Yes, but if you don't do something we will end up being the dumping ground for all overseas crap if we aren't already. What I have noticed is that 3 out of 8 of my E-Bay transactions have some sort of issue.

I would fight it just on principle, I am currently in a dispute with an E-Bay seller for a couple of Tapered BSP threading taps. The seller listed tapered taps in the listing and sent me straight threaded taps. When I contacted them, they didn't even know the difference between the two. I sent them pictures several times and even showing the difference between the two types using a vernier, and they still can't see the difference. Near enough is good enough for them, but not for me. So I will go through E-Bay if they give me any more grief. The total price was only less than $11 for both but the part that annoyed me was waiting several months for it to arrive and then them not knowing the difference and making me jump through hoops to prove it. There are some good sellers on E-bay and they work to rectify any problems, I also ordered a different tap from another seller and that one sent me a cabinet door handle, when I told them, they apologized and did a complete refund within hours. So some sellers are better than others.

Well back to reality today, came home this afternoon without doing anymore fishing since the first day, been blowing a gale up there and raining off and on for the last couple of days, bucketed down several times during the night and day over the weekend. Looks like it will continue blowing for the next week or so up there, but still we had a relaxing time so made the most of it. Now just have to lose some weight and go back to the gym!

Thanks, but been there, done that, got the cholesterol in my arteries to prove it. Had that vanilla slice after we came back from fishing on the first Saturday.

Had fun on that LARC, the trip was only about 1 hour as all the longer trips were booked out, but still a nice trip across the sand and water. Tomorrow the weather will change so probably just go to the museum and maybe a trip to the pub (for research purposes of course or lunch which ever comes first).

Went down to the beach this morning and lazed on the sand, going off this afternoon to do a quick tour on a L.A.R.C 'cause tomorrow it is supposed to be raining. Ahh life is tough but taking one for the team. Don't know about the fishing though, haven't come across anyone who has caught anything worthwhile here so not instilling any enthusiasm or motivation. Don't know about any crocs here, there is no reason there wouldn't be here as we are far enough north but nobody has seen one so maybe not.

We going to drop in to there yesterday as we went past on the way to "coffee and cake" at the Getaway Cafe, but fortunately they were closed, I say fortunately because Liquors are my other vice! and it may cost me a small fortune by the time I leave. Most likely I will be paying a visit there before we leave here! That Cafe has a really nice garden.

The missus and I reached the 1770 Ausfish Meet and Greet and had dinner at the local tavern that evening, met a fellow Ausfisher and the three of us headed out the next morning towards Lady Musgrave Island, only managed to get about 10 Nautical miles out as the seas were nasty, the swell was a only a couple of meters high but coming in at about 5 seconds apart, so as we started to plane we had to ease off as we would become airborne and crash in the bottom of the next trough. At one stage both my anchors nearly came out of the holders, so we tried to get some bait and failed, so trolled for an hour or so and no success, we then decided to call it quits and started to head back in at a very sedate speed as the swell picked us up and increase our speed so had to back off, then back up on the plane and back off, repeat, repeat, and repeat. Chewed up a heap of petrol, about 50l for 24 nautical miles, at that rate we would probably have no reserve for the trip back even if we made it to the Island. Looks like the windy conditions will be with us for our entire trip so we are just doing the tourist thing and spreading our cash within the local economy, I may have even put on a few Kg's with all the coffee and cheese cake I have consumed since arriving here! Some of the local cafes have some real nice cheese cakes, did I mention I like cheese cake! Anyway it looks like I can give up on the idea of boat fishing until I get back home, the weather forecast is predicting the same weather for the rest of the trip. Might throw a line in off the rocks on the inside of the inlet if I can get motivated enough, not on the ocean side though which is what the pictures show. Those pics are from about 80m up.

You could use the Marine ply and give it a coat of waxed polyester resin or vinylester resin on both sides, that would greatly increase the life of the board. Ideally you should add a layer of fiberglass first, if you added a layer of glass to both sides it would also stiffen the board, If water can't get to the ply it can't rot! The ply would also add a level of sound deadening. Having said that, the ally sheet is simpler than above as it is just cut and fit.

I have a similar situation, I bought a Daiwa PMF 55 about 40 years ago and it was the first reel I ever bought and "state of the art" at that time, and cost more than a weeks wages, so I still have it for "sentimental reasons" and occasionally use it nowadays just for giggles. There is slop in the handles (single Dawg and no anti reverse bearings in those days) and it only has about 5.5kg of drag after modification. I changed the frame to a 57 size and also the Teflon washers to carbon based ones. Caught Trevally up to 20-25lb and lots of other fish. The only way I might be able to get more drag out of it would be mill out the main gear a bit and fit in larger washers. However at the end of the day it isn't worth it, as the cost and effort doing so out ways the tiny benefit gained (about 0.5 to 0.7kg extra from original) , there are much better reels out there at a quarter of the cost of what I paid, and designed with 3 times the drag pressure.

Here is some info regarding the Drag washers from the web. You could try the Dura drag washers but again I don't think that you will gain any significant drag increase. Lapping or sanding the metal drag washers generally only improves the smoothness of the drag only in other words when the drag is up tight and the line is still being pulled off, it will prevent the drag from shuddering or jerking. If you have any grease on your HT-100 washers it might help if you remove it, but that's about it, your reel is only designed to put out so much drag and that's it. If you had Felt washers you could get better results by switching to carbon washers, but different brand of carbon will not do anything in my opinion.

You could always sell it off and put the money towards another one with more drag which would suit you more, but having said that, your sentimental attachment to this reel would prevent you from doing that. The only other thing would be to sand down the washers and try the carbonite ones but I think that it might be a loosing battle for all that work, you may gain some added drag but not sure if and how much. Give Pure fishing a call and ask to speak to their technical department or their parts department and explain what you are trying to do and see what they say. I think their number is 02 43517740. Hope this helps. Regards Ed.

HT-100 drag washers are among the best and a change to carbonite washers most likely won't be worth the bother and probably will not give too much or any increase in drag. Changing to a new reel with decent drag to start off with is probably the easiest way to get extra drag, I know what you mean about keeping and using a reel for sentimental value. I think most of us have that issue and keep and old reel or two for that reason, but it is a bit harder for you as that one is a small casting reel, if it was just for reef fishing and a little bit of casting then there are heaps out there. Have a look at the Penn Fathom FTH15LD or FTH15LD2 they do 9Kg and the FTH25LD2 has 15Kg drag and all are lever drag and ally body and under the $270 mark. A few years ago I picked up an Okuma Solterra SLR-10CS for not much money, mine was the lever drag, open top version and had the magnetic casting control on it, and did about 22lb drag, it had a graphite body, the new ones (SLX) don't have the magnetic cast control on them though, but for boat fishing I prefer the compact Fathom 2 speeds. Come on, you know you want a new reel!

I haven't fished that area before apart from one time when I went up with out a boat and just fished the inlet side of the rocks, I was hoping to go to the Lady Musgrave area ( bottom end of the group) but that will depend on the weather and sea conditions which last time I checked was not all that favourable after the first couple of days. So might have stick to the inlet or close to shore, but you know how weather predictions can be so will decide on the morning and fish accordingly.

It seems to be.Touch wood!