Tacklejunkie.

An American virologist came out last March and named the lab in the US where the covid virus was developed and said the virus was then transported to the Wuhan lab which is jointly funded by the US. She also named three American virologists that were part of the team that developed it. She has not been sued by either the lab or the three virologists. This might explain why both the US and China refused to support Australia's request for an inquiry into the origins of the virus. That report has just been completed and the investigators reported they received no support rom any authorities but concluded the virus was a release from the Wuhan lab and not a natural occurrence. China's government has to deal with two billion people, most major Chinese cities have more people than the whole of Australia. Compared to Australia China has limited natural resources which is why they need to be economically viable with manufacturing. If you look at China's history their government is doing an amazing job, their development in the last 50 years makes every other country's economy look sick. Did you know that everyone in China, man or woman, receives an aged pension at 60 years old? In Australia it will soon be 70 and a great many people still wont qualify then. There is no perfect government system, the system in the US is probably the worst. Politicians spend all their time soliciting bribes under the banner of "political donations", this leads to political decisions not in the best interests of the people. Look up the cost of a covid test in the US and you will see what their system has denigrated into. Australia's system is better but is still controlled by big business which is why most of the big companies pay no tax and why we blindly follow the US in invasions of other countries.

I can tell from your post that you have not been to China mate, your beliefs are similar to what mine were before our visit there. I had based my beliefs on what I had read and the reality is that most of what I read was false. I am not going to argue against a propaganda machine that openly admits to spending billions of dollars a year, to do so would be futile, I can only relay what I saw and heard when there. We were with a group of American tourists for our stay there, they were paranoid before we arrived and said we would be followed by Chinese security everywhere we went and there would be cameras on every corner so they could keep track of our movements. They were in fear of being arrested on false chargers and locked up. They, like us, expected the Chinese people to be downtrodden, poor and very unhappy whereas the truth could not have been any further from that. Everyone we spoke to were very open about life in China, nobody I spoke to was under any duress and in a city of 27 million people I saw nothing to make me think that life there is much different from most big cities. We caught one of their subways to an outlying suburb, we were told there was a good market there and thought the experience of travelling on their public transport would be interesting. Nothing was different out there, their transport system makes ours look antiquated. What was very noticeable was that everyone was well dressed and almost everyone had their faces in a mobile phone. A local informed us in broken English that most of the people were checking their status on their social media platform similar to Facebook. Our trip back to our accommodation was during their peak hour, that was interesting, standing room only and it would have been difficult to fit one more person in the train but when the doors open everyone disperses so fast your would be carried with them if you don't keep up. China is portrayed by the Americans as a threat to the West, just like they portrayed the Russians were during the cold war despite common sense telling us that no country would attack the US or any other western country as the consequences would have been total destruction of their country. China is not a threat to anyone, they spend a fraction of their budget on the military compared to the US and if you check their arsenal it is nearly all devoted to defence, not attack. Compare that to the US who spend the majority of their defence budget on developing attacking weapons and things become clearer. If you are a fan of history as you say then you would be aware that China has been attacked many times by many countries, always being unable to defend themselves because they are not a warlike people. China have only recently armed themselves to prevent that happening again. If you want to know where the real threat is then use your knowledge of history (or google) to find which countries have a history of attacking other countries. If you get the chance to go to China after this pandemic is over I suggest you take it, we have been to over 35 countries and though China would not be my favourite it was definitely interesting and nothing like we expected.

How did you possibly get that from my comment? The reason China placed trade restrictions on some Australian products is because Australia chose to back the US in their dispute with China over sovereignty of the South China Sea. It's a dispute that has nothing to do with the US and nothing to do with us, it's all about control of the massive oil reserves there. The US is only attacking China over their stance there because it interferes with the aspirations of the multi national oil companies who want it for themselves. The American people have nothing to gain from the exercise, it is only the mega rich that would gain. It is the same scenario as in the Middle East, the American invasions cost the American taxpayers over seven trillion dollars and thousands of lives and they never received one cent of the trillions now being made from the oil companies that have claimed the oil. All they receive from the oil companies is rising fuel costs. The Chinese people want to buy our products, they consider them the best in the world. If our government was not controlled in their decisions on foreign affairs just like the US we would have a great economic relationship with China. I will continue to buy Chinese products and products from any other country, I will not hold it against the Chinese people if other countries can't compete with them and I am sure they would buy our products unless prevented by politicians.

Just a heads up regarding China, there is a huge anti China campaign in motion at the moment, predominantly instigated by the US. This is due to the fact that the US can no longer compete with China economically, as is the same with Australia and most other non Asian countries and are trying to generate anti Chinese sentiment to affect their sales. In the interests of increasing profits most businesses in most non Asian countries now have their manufacturing done in China and then assemble their products at home. Many Australian companies do this so that they can add a made in Aus label. Most products you now buy would not be available without Chinese labour input. Many of the things we are told about China through the media originate in the offices of the propaganda machine. My wife and I were in China 18 months ago and it is nothing like we expected. China does not have a political system run by an out of control communist dictator as we are led to believe, they have a Democratic Republic. The government encourages people to start their own businesses which is why you can find many different examples of the same item but at different quality levels. These are mostly small family businesses that are trying improve their quality of life to the standard we enjoy. We spoke to many Chinese people while in China and none of them were unhappy with the way China has been governed since the late seventies. They were critical of the government before that time as they ran the country in the traditional communist fashion where everyone worked for the government and were on the same wage with no chance of advancement. They were also not critical about law enforcement in China, which surprised us, as we have been led to believe that China is controlled like police State. We saw less police presence than we see in Australia. Not buying Chinese products because you think it will do good is a false assumption, the only effect it will have is to reduce the living standard of Chinese families which is already well behind the lifestyle we have. We need to reduce foreign ownership of Australian assets but we need to be consistent and stop all foreign ownership. The Chinese are not a poor country, there are more millionaires in the city of Shanghai than there are in Australia and they are looking for places to invest in. Australia is attractive to them which is why they are buying up property here but they are not the only ones. There is a concerted campaign to stop Chinese buyers form buying our farmland but nothing about other countries. The Dutch actually own more Australian agricultural land than the Chinese but there is no anti Dutch campaign. We need to stop all foreign ownership of Australian assets. If you want to do something that is constructive then lobby our government to stop selling our natural resources to foreign countries for a pittance and start taxing the companies that are raping Australia for profit. Lobby our government to stop the buy up of Australian assets by all countries. Lobby our government to stop the sell off of our water which is against our Constitution. Lobby our government to stop the gouging of the oil companies for profit, there are record stockpiles of oil at the moment due to people being unable to travel during covid yet the price of fuel is rapidly climbing for no other reason than to increase profits. Lobby our government to fix our problems and not deflect attention to other countries.

Jigging encompasses so many different scenarios it is almost impossible to recommend suitable tackle without knowing just what fish you are gong to target, what depth of water you intend to fish and what your budget is. If you are proficient with their use I would go for an overhead style reel in preference to a spinning reel for jigging, they are mechanically stronger with better designed drags. If you do go for a spinning reel you will need to dig deep and buy one of the top shelf reels designed to handle the job or you will be disappointed. The newer carbon rods, especially the high modulus Japanese carbon blanks are much lighter and stronger than traditional fibreglass rods and can now be bought quite cheaply, they look like toys but are very strong and are a joy to use. There are also some good jigging reels coming out of Korea, Malaysia and China that can handle the stresses of jigging without costing a fortune, I have a few and since buying them I have left my Shimano's in the cupboard. As Ed has said, don't discount Okuma's, they make some very good reels.

They lose the stripes once they get to about 5kg, all those fish are well over that.

Those are reds mate, we also caught a lot of Large Mouth Nannies as well, I will see if I can dig up some photos.

The fishing opportunities on the reef are endless Hamish. Where we were living at Daintree we had the option of fishing the fresh sections of the river for Barra, Tarpon, Jungle Perch and Jacks or the lower reaches of the river for Barra, Jacks and a variety of other fish. We could fish the coastal stretches for Barra, Fingermark, Grunter, Trippletail or hundreds of other species. There were wrecks close to the coast that were covered in fish that southerners only dream about. The fishing available on both the inner reefs and the outer reef would blow you mind, Cobia are prolific and considered a pest, Spangled Emperor averaging 4kgs can be caught two at a time when they are thick and are also considered a pest. Trevally are available in all sizes across many species and at times are so thick it is impossible to catch anything else. Coral Trout are a main target species, I would throw back any over about 3kg or under 2kg and still get my bag limit when I wanted to. Red Emperor are also a target species, I caught 7 in two hours all between 8 and 12kg, they were kept for a special function. The fishing off Cairns has deteriorated in the last 30 years due to fishing pressure, the further north you go the better it gets. From Daintree north it is still amazing if you know what you are doing.

I think this is a good move mate, I find once you get much over 6 feet the extra length causes more problems than advantages out of a boat. My favourite boat rods that could be termed multi purpose, that is chucking lures, drifting out a live bait or fishing the bottom are all between 6 feet and 6 feet 6 inches. I have specialised boat rods from 4 feet to 7 feet but that is not what you are looking for. I lived at Daintree for 7 years, I really miss fishing the reef.

Thanks Hamish, I have been fishing for about 60 years so have accumulated a bit of gear and worn out a bit as well. I still have an Abu 5000c that I bought with my first pay cheque 49 years ago and it still works fine, I had to put some savings to my pay to cover the $36 cost, quality reels last if you look after them. The old saying "you get what you pay for" is no longer true, price is no indication of quality anymore. Most high end reels are very good but some of the cheaper reels coming onto the market are exceptionally good for the price with quality approaching reels costing two and three times as much.

You will be very happy with it mate.

G'day mate, as you may be able to tell by my username I have way more gear than any normal fisho should need including a Stradic. I have the 2500FJ and it is an excellent reel and has stood up well, I'm sure the FL would be just as good if not better. I have many more expensive reels than the Stradic, including a Stella and top of the range Daiwa's but the Stradic gets used as much as any of them. The 1000 is a very small reel but I am sure you are aware of that, it is my goto size for whiting but will easily handle any bream.