Neil Stratford

Well done Hamish , he would have pulled a bit of drag.
regards
neil

Went for a flathead fish this morning ,but my Lowrance side scan  told me to forget the flathead and fish for something else. 
Ended up getting a nice feed of threadies off the sand in 1.2 m of water. Jess those things go on light gear. Hopefully the photos come up ok as they were beautifully conditioned clean fish.

team south 
Flathead 510mm
Threadfin 1030mm  ,930mm and 965mm
Gave all the fish barring 1 Thready away ,  which I’ll be having with some nice fresh salad tonite.
regards
Neil

Went for a flathead fish this morning ,but my Lowrance side scan  told me to forget the flathead and fish for something else. 
Ended up getting a nice feed of threadies off the sand in 1.2 m of water. Jess those things go on light gear. Hopefully the photos come up ok as they were beautifully conditioned clean fish.

team south 
Flathead 510mm
Threadfin 1030mm  ,930mm and 965mm
Gave all the fish barring 1 Thready away ,  which I’ll be having with some nice fresh salad tonite.
regards
Neil

Went for a flathead fish this morning ,but my Lowrance side scan  told me to forget the flathead and fish for something else. 
Ended up getting a nice feed of threadies off the sand in 1.2 m of water. Jess those things go on light gear. Hopefully the photos come up ok as they were beautifully conditioned clean fish.

team south 
Flathead 510mm
Threadfin 1030mm  ,930mm and 965mm
Gave all the fish barring 1 Thready away ,  which I’ll be having with some nice fresh salad tonite.
regards
Neil

Went for a flathead fish this morning ,but my Lowrance side scan  told me to forget the flathead and fish for something else. 
Ended up getting a nice feed of threadies off the sand in 1.2 m of water. Jess those things go on light gear. Hopefully the photos come up ok as they were beautifully conditioned clean fish.

team south 
Flathead 510mm
Threadfin 1030mm  ,930mm and 965mm
Gave all the fish barring 1 Thready away ,  which I’ll be having with some nice fresh salad tonite.
regards
Neil

Well done Hamish , he would have pulled a bit of drag.
regards
neil

Great land based fish Max  , looks like you suffered a bit of line burn 😉
Hope it didn’t nip you when you were removing that slug.
 
regards
Neil

Well done Hamish , he would have pulled a bit of drag.
regards
neil

Went for a flathead fish this morning ,but my Lowrance side scan  told me to forget the flathead and fish for something else. 
Ended up getting a nice feed of threadies off the sand in 1.2 m of water. Jess those things go on light gear. Hopefully the photos come up ok as they were beautifully conditioned clean fish.

team south 
Flathead 510mm
Threadfin 1030mm  ,930mm and 965mm
Gave all the fish barring 1 Thready away ,  which I’ll be having with some nice fresh salad tonite.
regards
Neil

Went for a flathead fish this morning ,but my Lowrance side scan  told me to forget the flathead and fish for something else. 
Ended up getting a nice feed of threadies off the sand in 1.2 m of water. Jess those things go on light gear. Hopefully the photos come up ok as they were beautifully conditioned clean fish.

team south 
Flathead 510mm
Threadfin 1030mm  ,930mm and 965mm
Gave all the fish barring 1 Thready away ,  which I’ll be having with some nice fresh salad tonite.
regards
Neil

I personally like using slightly larger  spinning reels .
I recon I   get greater distance in my casts with the  slightly larger spools , and you don’t have to put as much effort when continuously casting and retrieving lures and plastics .You also  often get greater line capacity which sometimes comes in handy if you come across an unexpected larger fish like a big  thready or longtail  ,they’ll empty those tiny 1000 and 2000 series  spinning reels faster than you can blink  .So long as the larger reel isn’t too heavy and the rod /reel balance feels good there’s  nothing to loose going up 1  or even 2 sizes. I think the Daiwa kix and Shimano sustains are pretty similar on paper. The Sustain 3000 is just over 10 percent lighter than the 3000 kix., but the 4000 models are pretty much both the same weights. 
regards
neil

Very nice !! You’ve done a great  job with it using some excellent components.
Have a look at a sustain 4000 . 
Fairly good quality reel that’s nice and light.

Very nice !! You’ve done a great  job with it using some excellent components.
Have a look at a sustain 4000 . 
Fairly good quality reel that’s nice and light.

Good to see some good numbers again .
well done 
regards
Neil

Very nice !! You’ve done a great  job with it using some excellent components.
Have a look at a sustain 4000 . 
Fairly good quality reel that’s nice and light.

Went down the Pin to hunt down a huge threadfin that I dropped at the boat last week, couldn’t find any bait for a couple of hours and missed the bite period . By the time I found some bait it was way too late and had to contend with stingrays ,cat fish , sharks and bream . I did have an unusual visitor though , a small wallaby out for a morning dip.
South side Bream 290mm

Went down the Pin to hunt down a huge threadfin that I dropped at the boat last week, couldn’t find any bait for a couple of hours and missed the bite period . By the time I found some bait it was way too late and had to contend with stingrays ,cat fish , sharks and bream . I did have an unusual visitor though , a small wallaby out for a morning dip.
South side Bream 290mm

Went down the Pin to hunt down a huge threadfin that I dropped at the boat last week, couldn’t find any bait for a couple of hours and missed the bite period . By the time I found some bait it was way too late and had to contend with stingrays ,cat fish , sharks and bream . I did have an unusual visitor though , a small wallaby out for a morning dip.
South side Bream 290mm

Went down the Pin to hunt down a huge threadfin that I dropped at the boat last week, couldn’t find any bait for a couple of hours and missed the bite period . By the time I found some bait it was way too late and had to contend with stingrays ,cat fish , sharks and bream . I did have an unusual visitor though , a small wallaby out for a morning dip.
South side Bream 290mm

Went down the Pin to hunt down a huge threadfin that I dropped at the boat last week, couldn’t find any bait for a couple of hours and missed the bite period . By the time I found some bait it was way too late and had to contend with stingrays ,cat fish , sharks and bream . I did have an unusual visitor though , a small wallaby out for a morning dip.
South side Bream 290mm

Went down the Pin to hunt down a huge threadfin that I dropped at the boat last week, couldn’t find any bait for a couple of hours and missed the bite period . By the time I found some bait it was way too late and had to contend with stingrays ,cat fish , sharks and bream . I did have an unusual visitor though , a small wallaby out for a morning dip.
South side Bream 290mm

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

We got quite a few really good  70 cm plus tailor up at Fraser last September ,  the best year for big fish I’ve ever had up there , best fish was a 76  cracker ,  looking forward to using that stick later this year to crack an 80 . 

I’ve been  wanting to make a custom spin  rod for  Tailor  fishing up at Fraser Island for a while now . About a week ago I got on Facebook and  purchased  an old  trashy looking 13 ft butterworth surf rod, (the number on the blank appears to be ss 51569 )for the princely sum of  $50 -hoping I  could do something with the blank.
First up , I stripped it all back and shorted the blank down  till it felt real good at 11 foot 8 inches. I wanted the rod to be powerful ,but as light as possible , so got on line and ordered a set of Alps  aluminium oxide High Rise  Guides , a Fuji reel seat , some shrink wrap grips,  and a butt cap from a local supplier . I had a bit of thread and epoxy in the garage which I used for the project . It took me two nights to bind it all up and epoxy it . My wife even made me up a little decal sticker  for it.
This morning the epoxy had all gone off rock solid  , so I put a Shimano  6000 Saragosa  with 20 lb braid on it and loaded it up to give it a test.Jezzz …  It feels like a weapon and cannt wait to fire out some 65 and 85 g Raiders later this year. I’ve used a lot of high modulus rods but I recon those old school surf rods are hard to beat when surf fishing , they cop a flogging out there on the beach and a lot still being used 20 to 30 years later . Super glad I gave this old girl of a rod a second lease of life.
Neil

A few more for team south .
Spanish Mac 1100 and 945mm
Spotty Mac 800mm
Grassy Sweetlip 480 and 420mm
Spangled Emperor 440mm
Cattle dog cod 370 and 380mm
Wire netting cod 340mm