AUS-BNE-FISHO

Nice reel Greg and nice bargain too.

There are several cheap Japanese sites....there is no way of telling which ones have a better deal on any day apart from visiting them each and comparing.....they don't usually come up on search engines that well searching for products.
Always good when you find that deal though.

So, I decided I needed(?) a new reel. As you do. After a bit of research I decided a Shimano 19 Ocea Jigger F Custom 3000HG would fit the bill. So I did some price research and found they were basically $799 plus delivery (give or take a dollar. And in my experience everyone takes a dollar, rather than gives a dollar. Anyhow, back to the story). 
Then I found Discovery Japan where the same reel was supposedly $617 delivered! So, being the stupid old bastard that I am, I ordered one. And guess what? It arrived today and seems to be an actual Shimano reel! Even the correct one. Just letting everyone know in case they are in the market for reels (that’s probably restricted to Japanese made reels, but who knows?). Photos below. 
 
P.S. I’ve had the reel for nearly two hours now and the handle hasn’t even fallen off yet!
P.P.S
IMG_4435.mov    
The knife in the photo and video is sitting there waiting to be sharpened (and has been for two weeks now) on my special German made sharpening machine (which I also really needed). It is more likely to disintegrate from rust than get sharpened. And it’s stainless steel!

Squid are more location oriented than tide oriented...just look for structure they would like and investigate it. 
As a side note...squid really like a sand bottom under them with some structure beside them....60cm of water and seem to be relaxed usually.

if there is 60cm of water you will still catch them....especially when the tide starts to come in.

Gee. I think Southside are in trouble this month. Not many of them are going to have ancient photos of fish with a thumbs up in them!

Hi Hamish, only in the city reaches for me and not when I've been actually fishing.....nearly all of my Brisbane river fishing is below the gateway bridge to the bay. The guy to talk to would be Joshua Charles BrizVegas fishing....he  has a couple of youtube vids of surface threadies in the bris riv.

Welcome to the forum Brenton. If you’re in the area I would suggest stopping by Yeppoon for a fish during Winter, you could try trolling around some of the headlands near the Rosslyn Bay Harbour for some mackerel. Otherwise the Fitzroy River would probably be worth a look too.

Good stuff @mangajack. Do you ever see any threadfin feeding under the lights when the tailor are there? 

Good stuff @mangajack. Do you ever see any threadfin feeding under the lights when the tailor are there? 

Good stuff @mangajack. Do you ever see any threadfin feeding under the lights when the tailor are there? 

Welcome to the forum Brenton. If you’re in the area I would suggest stopping by Yeppoon for a fish during Winter, you could try trolling around some of the headlands near the Rosslyn Bay Harbour for some mackerel. Otherwise the Fitzroy River would probably be worth a look too.

Welcome to the forum Brenton. If you’re in the area I would suggest stopping by Yeppoon for a fish during Winter, you could try trolling around some of the headlands near the Rosslyn Bay Harbour for some mackerel. Otherwise the Fitzroy River would probably be worth a look too.

Good stuff @mangajack. Do you ever see any threadfin feeding under the lights when the tailor are there? 

Welcome to the forum Brenton. If you’re in the area I would suggest stopping by Yeppoon for a fish during Winter, you could try trolling around some of the headlands near the Rosslyn Bay Harbour for some mackerel. Otherwise the Fitzroy River would probably be worth a look too.

Secret code for April is the thumbs up pose - 👍

Well it's been a hot minute since I've been out, but hit the water with the kids today. 10 fish total, biggest was a 30cm Flatty. 3 X bream fed to a pelican. Great time had by all. Hopefully get a few more days on the water before an exceeding busy mid year.

Once you get up above Bundaberg, watch out for crocks. We wear crocks up here...
Jokes aside. Crocodiles are not stupid, and love repetitive actions of fisherman. 
Treat every entry point to the water as a fish cleaning station. Boat ramps, little sandy beaches, everywhere. 
The further north you go, the closer you get to becoming a meal. 
Don't steup camp right on the rivers edge either. 
Talk to locals about the areas you wish to visit. 
We are the sillier species in this case. 
 
 
 
That being said. 
Have fun. Plenty of fish to catch. 
Get yourself a 10lb, 20 to 30lb, and a 50lb setup. 
Get a couple of gold bombers, some slim twitches, a handful of plastics, and also get setup for weedless fishing the plastics up the creeks. 
Check out Andy's fishing and wild cook. He spends a lot of time up in the creeks showing how to fish plastics weedless for jacks, cod etc. 
 
You'll have a ball. Just live by my first tip, or risk death ignoring it. 
 
 

Hook up with one of the guides at Rocky...what you learn there will be applicable for the entire Qld salt water scene as far as barra and threadies goes...snapper are too easy, find a reef and throw a 90mm plastic in front of them.
River togas are where it is at rather than impoundment togas....again ask the guide at Rocky for some rivers that have been fishing well.
Rocky to the coast is about the best fishery along the east coast now for big fish....
If you have time spare and the weather isn't blowing it's tits off then Stanage Bay is a special place...when it fires...for me it is 2 out of 6 runs I couldn't buy a bite, the other 4 runs were excellent.

You know, that's a great pondering question that I've been thinking about lately myself.
While braid does have terrible abrasion resistance, if the hook sets well enough, abrasion is kept to a minimum. I know fish flick the line with their tail etc, but a clean fight will see a successful landing 9 times out of 10.
 
Some of my biggest fish have been caught the lazy way. Braid, straight to hook. 
 
That brings me to thinking that when I lose a decent fish, it's always at the leader. 
Hmmmmm. 
 
I rarely use over 50lb braid. 
Only 100lb for popping/stick baiting, and that line will be sent down if something is wrecking me on the reef. 

🤣🤣
Good to hear you got onto a few.

So Raef and I did a quick run in the Brisbane River this afternoon with the winds dropping off a bit and the showers clearing. Launched at the Pinky at 3pm and fished until 7pm with plastics. My best was a snapp about 55 that was sent back....then a tailor about 50ish.....not welcome in my boat.
If you want a feed of tailor go to the grain  wharf at Pinkenba at night and throw anything into the lights under the wharf....you could bag out in 30 minutes easily. They all seem to be 40 to 50cm there tonight.....I wasn't interested but had to throw a lure into the lights anyway.
Water quality is decent but the run made it a challenge to work the lures well....next weekend will be better tides.
No photos, nothing worth the cost of the flash.
 

Happy Easter everyone!

@mangajack
Yea of course I want to reach out to someone to do an analysis on the amino acids in these local mud flats Mollusks . I will be moving to Port Macquarie in a month and that will enable me to do more extensive testing on Mollusks vs fish. Because I know the limit of most Mollusks is 20 per person and mud Mhelk are everywhere on the mid north coast of NSW. I will post these results within a year of testing. Pro cure have a Crab and Shrimp attractant that I might try aswell.

DPI research indicates that over 80% of mud crab diet is shellfish...
I have grabbed a couple of fist sized bunches of bearded mussels and crunched them under foot and placed them in the pot as bait. I have done this twice in two pots, another two pots had mullet.
They both worked equally well....no preference with either and both caught decent crabs.
These days to can't do this in SEQ with the shellfish protection laws.
I suppose it would come down to how well you can create the amino acids and blend them with oils for your attractant. Will they mix giving the correct scent??