Brodie_S

North Queensland reef species love raw chicken strips got busted off by a few giants on chicken .Big GT love it to although they spooled me in like 5 seconds with my bream setup

yes I use eBay. BCF and other tackle shops are to expensive its much cheaper to buy hooks online I mainly use mustad

nice one Hamish seems like you a pretty good sesh this time worth waking up for on a Sunday

Thanks Old Scaley Im running 300m of PE 1.7 im targeting land based kingfish and just general pelagic speices like tuna and mackerel . And yeah Im looking to get 40lb leader so I can cast through my guides the 70lb is just what I had lying around im looking to get lighter leader. And yeah I wasn't targeting tailor it was just a nice bycatch

Seems like a good day out of the water good job on school Mackerel and snapper

The other day I went out to my closest breakwall one of my usual spots note it was legal I didn’t break any covid rules or restrictions. Before going I tied a FG knot with 70lb mono leader I found the first few I did snapped at close to max drag I found I had to do 2 extra half hitch’s for it to handle close to max drag without snapping or slipping once I got there I tied on a hardbodie a Bluewater minnow 130mm model in I think a Mackerel colour after a few casts the knot just felt to big even though it was a FG the leader was very thick especially for 70lb it was more like the diameter of 80-90lb so I ended up cutting the FG off and I tied a swivel to the braid and about 40cm of that 70lb for leader after that I was a lot less worried about getting tangles and losing lures after a bit of casting with that lure I switched to stick bait in a mahi mahi dolphin fish sort of colour ill add the photo of that lure into the report soon first cast got roughly just over 50m out loved the casting distance of that lure . Around the last quarter of the retrieve I see something chasing my lure and see splashing around my lure and boom im on .It striked hard and had some decent headshakes but wasn’t massive and didn’t go for any big runs I bring it in and see I’ve got a tailor it wasn’t a massive tailor not even a PB but it was decent and definitely legal after that the action went quite and called it a day shortly after I tried some bait fishing with half a pike with no success . Also I was wondering if anyone’s used Wilson nylon shock leader was thinking of getting some in 40lb for my heavy setup as the cheap 70lb mono I have is to thick for the rod

Yep just like tuna are fish said that's why I use a tied on leader even using a bait rig . I do use swivels when im using big baits or livebaits meant for sharks jew or anything big but I always have a tied on leader . I have my mainline going down to a FG or improved Alberto going to a rod length and a half of mono leader going down to a big sinker then going down to a bead and swivel I then attach 40-50cm of 70lb mono or wire trace going down to big mustad hook .This is because where im fishing there is a lot of big rocks oyster beds and weed. If just tied my braid to the swivel I risk getting something big taking me through the rocks and wearing my braid out . But if have roughly 3 metres of mono leader and plus the heavy short leader towards the end of my rig I have a much higher chance of landing the fish if it takes me through the rocks or weed beds which isn't to uncommon.

Question 1 Fluoro carbon is a great leader for using certain lures such as vibes or plastics or if your after a leader shy fish on bait But fluorocarbon leader isn't always the best choice for example if your using surface lures or hardbodies lures your better of going with a mono leader because it floats and fluorocarbon sinks that's why fluorocarbons generally a better choice for soft plastics also fluorocarbon has less stretch then mono under load . Also most monos are very abrasion resistant compared to fluorocarbon I use both FC and mono leaders depending on the fish species and lures used .a few decent quality monos I recommend for leaders . Daiwa j thread platypus and Shimano exage are great cheap mono leaders to use which are just thin and as strong FC leaders. The FC leaders I recommend are FC rock and ASSO if you can get your hands on it. There is no one which is better then the other FC leaders and mono leaders both have their time and place Question 2 1 it hides the colourfully braid from fish 2 the less knots in your rig the stronger it is 3 it makes lures swim straighter 4 if done right FG knots are super strong no fus and far casting knots 5 braid isn't as abrasion resistant as mono or FC for same breaking strain so your more protected against get busted off . Hope that helps

like ellicat said any meat will work .Usually whatever's cheap like chicken works just like goldiefisho said. I've found left over fish heads from fish like mullet , pony fish , tailor or just any old fish frames or left over fish scraps work wonders for catching eels in freshwater and salt . I just use a heavy handline 30lb with 70lb leader going down to a big sinker with a big long shank hook works great for eels you just skull drag em in. kill them cut em up and put em in the freezer for shark baits. Note eels are 100x easier to catch at night. Hope that helps

thanks yeah hopefully this summer ill be able to give it a good test

Today I went out to town to grab my reel note it was legal I didn't break any lockdown restrictions or rules I went to my local tackle shop great place out of all the tackle shops I've been to its one of the best and luckily for me its not far from where I live not so lucky for the wallet . I went there got my new reel (Daiwa kix 4000) had a quick chat with the owner and came home . I spooled the tiniest bit of 6lb mono backing on to the reel as I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to fit all 300m of Tasline on to the reel. got a pencil 2 bricks and some weights and made a homemade line spooler and I began cranking . Surprisingly 300m of 0.225 Tasline PE 1.7 fit the reel perfectly it wasn't over filled or under it was just perfect.Soon as I was done spooling the rod came in the mail .Perfect timing I matched the rod and reel together on the rod and it was a match made in heaven they felt excellent together. The arrowz rod looked and felt excellent quality as they usually do. Its no high end Wilson, Temple reef or Hamachi rod but for the price they are a great deal especially when they are on discount. Thanks everybody for the advice and recommendations can't wait to go out and use it The photos

yeah thanks I've bought FC rock from their site when it was cheap overall not a bad online tackle store . The atomic arrows rods are on special at the moment the smaller bream/estuary/light stuff is $112 and the offshore models are $135. would recommend getting one atm if you want one as its very rare they get this cheap I've only seen them this cheap when i got my first arrows rod ages ago. I ended up getting the ASS-270H offshore model its a 7 foot 14-30lb rod with a casting range of 10-50 grams which is perfect for what I want as I want to use some bigger lures like 30-40 stickbaits bigger plastics metal slugs etc im going to match it up with a Daiwa kix 4000 would have went with a stradic 5000 but they don't have enough line capacity. daiwa reels seem to have a lot stronger drags then shimanos and a lot more line capacity. After this hopefully I can stay away from buying reels/rods as now my arsenal is almost complete just need to get that reel for this rod .This is my rod/reel arsenal now. note this took a lot of saving up for and somehow I still managed to actually put a decent amount of money away for savings . UL setup .atomic arrows bream surface 3-8lb / stradic fl 1000 light setup .daiwa TD nero 2-4kg / sedona 2500 medium light setup. atomic arrows estuary 6-12lb / stradic ci4+FB 2500 medium bait setup. daiwa RZ 6-9kg / Sienna 4000 medium heavy setup . daiwa TD nero 4-9kg / daiwa legalis nero LT 4000 coming soon heavy setup . atomic arrows offshore 14-30lb / daiwa kix LT 4000

Bugger they sold out

You can find them all over eBay and Ali express

Thanks I’ll check out those new abu rods . Didn’t realise you could do that on those sites thanks for the tip Ed

Thanks for the tips and nah I’m after a graphite rod so I’ll have to pass on the ugly stik might have a look at the live fibres though

Yeah I’m always getting better but i was definitely lucky yesterday the conditions were pretty much perfect yesterday. I improved a lot last year when I done the North Queensland trip gained a lot more knowledge and experience .I’m always improving with fishing though and trying to get better this year and next year though I wanna focus more on getting bigger fish like snapper kingfish and whatever else I can catch offshore

Yeah I’ve found FG’s is the best leader connection knot for Gliss anything else can be a bit risky

Yeah I’d love to get a setup like that but I don’t have the money for it my budget for the rod would be under $200

I remember the first time I fished there it was summer I brought my good rod and my own tackle and started flicking plastics I caught a just under 40cm flathead beside the boat but there was so much weed that day that every cast soon as my plastic touched the bottom it would be tangled with weeds . After that flathead I got heaps of small bream on bread although I’ve caught a few legal bream there but nothing over 27cm . after the bream on bread I tried crankbaits I hooked something decent but I dropped it after within 5 seconds. The next sesh I had there I just got small bream on bread but then I rigged up a bit of mullet on one of my rods and hooked something huge and after a long fight it turned out to be a stringray . And every session after that has been either been just really small bream or a donut until yesterday

This morning I was planning to go out to my older brothers boat with my family and help him clean it up and get it ready for summer atm its moored in a shallow part of a estuary depth is between 2-3 metres max . long story short close to last year my brother bought a decent sized cruiser and it needs a bit of TLC for trips and general use and lately we have been getting it ready putting in fridges removing carpet etc . Anyways we get to the boat I find myself doing nothing I don't usually fish there because its not a great spot I always leave my cheap setup there though Shimano Sienna 2500 matched with a 2-4kg Aird spooled with 6lb mono or the spare spool with gliss. I steal one of my brothers prerigged bright pink 3 inch plastics and start covering ground. 5 minutes in I get 40-42cm odd flattie brain spiked it bleed it and put it in a esky after that I didn't really do much didn't really feel like fishing as I knew I pretty much fluked that catch a few hours pass its a hour or so till sunset and I decide to have another flick again this time 10/15 minutes in I get a bigger flathead 5cm or so bigger a lot more fat/muscle though I've barely hooked it soon I see the hook is just on the lip of the fish I losen the drag right off but keep a little tension so it doesn't spit the hook . after that I managed to land it I do the same as I did to the first fish and put it in the esky and call it a day. overall not a bad sesh considering I wasn't planning to fish . conditions no wind every now and then you would get the slightest breeze full sun no rain 2 days before new moon first fish was just after bottom tide second fish was on last 2 hours of run out temp 17-18 degrees barometric pressure rising all day since yesterday pressure went down a tad bit in the arvo first fish 30.15 second fish 30.12 water clarity super clear note I think this time was a fluke I did see a lot more baitfish then usual this time and this time there was less seaweed for me to get tangled on . usually there is no signs of baitfish the bream and flathead there I've caught are usually tiny or barely legal . this time I did paddle around in the dingy and did see a lot of small flathead lying in the water I also spooked quite a lot of flathead paddling in the dingy

I’d stay far away from these reels many people like Alan hawk tackle advisors and many regular fishos don’t have anything nice to say about these reels . Most of these reels are made out of cheap weak parts . ATM for spinning reels the most reliable brands are daiwa Shimano penn not in any order there are a few good spin reels outside these brands such as 1 or a few by okuma fin nor ATC and other brands but for the most part the top 3 daiwa Shimano penn are the most reliable and best value for money when it comes to spin reels . As for a bait runner I’d have a look at the okuma ceymar and see if they are any decent if they aren’t decent you’ll most likely have to buy a shimano if you want a reel that will preform well and last

Ive never used YGK braid so I can't really comment on it but I assume its decent as most Japanese braids are

Never used shimano kairiki 8. I’ve only heard negative feedback and bad reviews I’d stay away from it if I was you . But try it if you wish it might be decent but I wouldn’t risk it . The 20lb/PE 1.7 tasline breaks at 34.7lbs and it’s diameter is 0.225 the 30lb tasline breaks at 49lbs and it’s diameter is 0.229 . I’m pretty sure this is why they measure heavier lines in PE because it’s more accurate PE 1.7 from what I’ve found is actually 30lb not 20lb . So if I was you I’d be looking at getting PE 1.7 braids or tasline 20lb as they are actually 30lb braids not 20lb hope that helps