Neil Stratford

Sounds a bit tragic ! Our local freshwater scene slowed considerably after a heap of unrelenting rain .It just showed signs of getting going again and now the rains back . Probably not that good for our stocked dams as the mature fish will be going over the spill ways for the winter sporn. On the bright side ,the creeks and rivers will get a bit of a re stock! Even though the fish are sulking Bob ,they still got to eat , go out and get into them Regard Neil

Did a solo trip down the Pin this morning in search of some Threadfin . Spotted some threadies and baby bullies feeding together in 1.5 m of water right where I expected them at 11.30am . I managed to pull a feed before they wised up . team south - Threadfin 885 and 1100mm Bull Sharks 800, 740 and 765mm Grunter 350mm Regards Neil

A few more for team south bull shark 680 mm and 720mm whiting 375 mm Grunter 390 mm and 420 mm Bass 350mm 335mm and 390 mm Bream 275 mm

I took a drive down to the Tweed river and collected some driftwood for the garden earlier this month. I found a well weathered piece of sleeper that I thought I could make into something interesting. With all this crap weather I found some time and got out the electric soldering iron and etched a Kraken into it to add a bit of character. Next piece I find , might make a Rum tasting paddle with a similar design. regards neil

I do a fair bit of pelagic type fishing and I absolutely understand the usefulness of that extra 50 m or so of line on those smaller 4000 and 5000 spinning reels , larger Spanish and Long Tail Tuna will spool them bare very quickly and that extra 50 m often gives you time to give chase in the boat. I have a solution for you ! Post me the 4 and 5000 Stella’s and buy a 6000 and 8000 .lol. Or fish in dams less than 150 m long lol I use one of these to re spool at home. $7 from Temu. The local tackle shop, where I now always purchase my braid from , actually has a re spooling machine similar to the one you’ve sent the link to. They supply the necessary mono backing so your spools are filled evenly to the brim if you ask .You buy their braid , and the rest is free of charge ! They’ll also sell bulk braid by the meter so you can minimise the amount of thicker mono backing down to just a meter or so to stop slippage ,this means you can maximise the length of the thinner braid on your spools . Still doesn’t address the fact that spool size doesn’t meet spec though , if you need more meters of line , you can only go for a less diameter line. regards neil

Sorry I see you’ve tried the shimano brand , maybe send them a letter asking what the problem is ….? Might have to spool up using the maximum drag ratings on the reels , you’ll definitely get more braid on them then .

Hi Bob , It would be interesting to try spooling up using Shimano’s own Kairiki braid , you’d have to expect that it would match their various reel specifications. These days competition is intense , and I think most company’s do “stretch “ their specs to the absolute limit to gain market advantage. In saying this they still must be truthful in what they claim. Presume your reels are laying the braid evenly across the spools?. Neil

Just for you Kat , and at the risk of creating a huge rush on them at Woolies tomorrow, here’s what the Jam Drops look like.

Ray , Mark and I braved some very inordinate conditions at NPD this morning . With 25 knots of South Easterly wind accompanied with squally showers strongly apparent, the possibly of donuting was high on all our minds as we pushed our way down the dam.The previous ritual of a serving of chocolate donuts each was employed as per my previous trip with Ray , and again the donut was adverted. It was giant fork tailed catfish after fork tailed catfish with the odd bass thrown in just to keep us interested for the first few hours Something special was required to break us out of this ground hog day trip. I opened my lunch box , and low and behold my darling wife had packed us a bag of Jam Drops . These little treats proved to make the day turn from ok to extra special event. Believe it or not we then proceeded to pull 14 really nice yellowbelly plus a few more bass off one snag in a few short minutes . It was carnage till a big squall came through and we called it for the morning.

Good to see you smashing them again. regards neil

Very nice boat , I have a friend that’s had the smaller one for a few years now. They are quite light in weight for their size , what are you towing it with? Ps. - No excuses not to catch a few fish now. ! Regards Neil

The big tides create significantly more run when their flooding and ebbing , this often makes fish expended a whole lot more energy to feed. Big tides also often make the water a lot more turbid in estuary’s. I personally dislike fishing the estuary’s during the big tides.In saying this the fish have still got to eat , so the tide changes and eddies often create the best opportunity for meet and greets with our fishy friends. I find the week before and after the full and new moons good ,particularly if there’s a SE wind blowing , this always seems to get fish biting well where I fish .As for the neap tides , they’re ok depending what your targeting , and where. The run in the tide stirs up the bottom and banks of creeks and rivers this is often feeding time for fish if it’s not too strong, no run no fun is something worth considering , but if there’s too much run I”ll always look for eddies out of the main stream run. Neil

Hi Daryl , long time no see. Gee Eva’s grown up , she no long little Evi . Say hello to both the kids . Looks like there’s been no spearo’s along the wall for a while. Nice fish. Regards Neil

I got an invite from Ray K and Rick to do a bass trip to Hinze dam this morning. Ray and Rick have been on skid row of recent times, finding it difficult to boat any bass at all. Clocking up a few dreaded donut trips in succession - times were grim for the 2 bass kings. Desperate times called for desperate measures , so I decided to turn their worlds upside down and shouted chocolate donuts for breakfast before even contemplating dropping a line in the water . We all took our donut medicine and moved on to break the drought. It was a three step process to get the little blighters biting again. 1. We took our donut medicine at 5.30am , and all agreed to move on from the recent dark times. 2. Rick was assigned the job of clearing the dam of eels , catfish and the barred grunter (vermin) , he did this very well and didn’t complain too much , he just got on with it and achieved an excellent result. 3 . We then proceeded the catch Bass till the bait ran out . Success was achieved and the bass boys can now move on and get back to scoring a whole heap more fish.

A few more photos for team south Speckled Grunter 210mm Flathead 310 mm and 375mm Bream 260mm Bass 320mm , 290mm amd 315mm

I dug some worms yesterday afternoon and took the little boat for a spin down to Jumpinpin this morning . Launched at the Alberton ramp at about 5.30 am and enjoyed the cruise down out through the mouth of the Logan River then , down past the power lines , and ended up down near Golden Bank .The sand flies were bad as usual, till the sun got properly up and the breeze picked up a little - lucky I took long pants, shoes and a full can of bushman’s.Sorted my way through undersized bream , grunter ,flathead and sting rays and ended up with a bakers dozen of pretty good quality whiting by 10am , got one that gave Kats 40cm model a little nudge , but fell short by a few mm’s and wasn’t good enough to make the grade. Just had some for tea , they’re hard to beat !

2 whiting for team south 370mm and 390mm

Great fish on light gear , well done Bob! regards Neil

Took my brother for a mackerel trip today. With a week break on the Spanish Mackerel closure opening up today they were the target species. With 4 super fresh baits acquired we went straight to one of my favourite spots ,drove over it , and there was an extremely large school of Mac’s at home , they were stacked 24 metres deep. I put two tuna into the water, they were dead but still bleeding , we both knew it was going to be a sure thing that they’d go off super quick . I’d just finished putting the second bait out and the first one went off. Couple of minutes later he was in the esky . My brother turned the boat around and ran back over the fish , I deployed the second bait , it was bang again, stupidly I grabbed the rod again ,my brother was pissing him self laughing as he knew I was already stuffed from the first fish . After a few swear words , he gaffed the second fish , then we went and got a couple of Grassies before heading home .

What does your doctor have to say about all these donuts and pies Mr Kennedy? Regards Neil

Couple of fish for team south. tuna 365mm tuna 330mm wire netting cod 350mm wire netting cod 350mm Spanish Mackerel 1200 mm and 1225mm Grassy Sweetlip 470, 450 and 405mm

Yatala drive in markets , they are open the 3rd Sunday of each month.

I got a couple of great buys at the markets on Sunday. First up I bought a Wilson Live Fibre Texalium Gold RLFTX 16 10 to 15 kg coupled with a Fin Nor Lethal LTC 20 H over head ,loaded with 50 lb mono For $30. Second up - A Primus Vacuum Sealer with a full roll of plastic bags , this model stows the roll inside the machine and cuts the bag to length $ 8. Third up A- I couldn’t walk pass an old collectors item which was probably a fishing comp prize at some stage a -Castlemaine Super Barra Rod with XXXX Our Beer decals on it . $5. Bargains !

That’s another hard day at the office! It can only get better . regards Neil

570mm Black spot cod team south .