Bob9863

The world is full of piss poor tradesmen. The automotive industry can be the worse, had a Ute taken in for a 50,000km service before heading west and thought I'd still give it the once over before heading off. Not only weren't the fluids changed they weren't even topped up, brake fluid smelled a bit cooked and was just above the minimum. Air filter dirty, uni joints dry ect. I went over the list of what was supposed to have been done and wasn't which was most of it. I went down to the yard and got the manager out, showed him what I'd been charged for and and the condition everything. It seems the only things they did were the break pads and oil/filter change. Told him I was going away the next day so either do what I'd been charged for or refund the $800 I'd paid. A lot of people worked on that Ute that afternoon. Seen dodgy plumbers too, I moved a bunch of taps for a mate, the plumber wanted about $1500 to move them using crimp joins, and it was going under concrete. I saw the dodgy job he did moving one lot out to the edge of his concrete, he just crimped 6 lengths together on the 3 pipes that was going under the slab. For $320 worth of copper and a few, beers while I worked I moved them out with proper soldered joins. It took me a bit over an hour and I don't work fast these days, so I definitely don't think his dodgy shoddy workmanship was worth $1000 or more an hour. These days you can't trust a tradie, you have to watch em for BS workmanship.

I guess it depends on what's more valuable to you, or what gets snagged more, the hook or the sinker. But you can generally protect one at the expense of the other, anyway you look at it fishing bad snags is always a frustrating experience, but it can definitely pay off big time. If your not getting snagged then odds are you ain't fishing in the right spot.

I always fish a Paternoster style rig using what's, called a T knot. I usually tie the lightest sinker on I can using a length of lighter mono so if I get snagged I only loose the sinker. I cast my own stuff so sinkers are cheap. I also have a, few techniques for getting unsnagged, from tapping on the butt to a an angled flick, one thing about fishing where I do is you get snagged a hell of a lot.

I think I'm going to stick with my egg beaters for now. I was keen on 9ne only because I still have a suitable baitcasting rod floating around but honestly they are more than enough for what I need and adding a baitcasting outfit to my line up won't really add anything to my capability.

It's definitely handy having good fishing spots only 15-20min from home, it makes popping down for a quick fish pretty easy.

My light rod is a Nitro tournament finesse 2kg, it's a bit out of that range at $450 but it's probably my favourite rod. But a Nitro Power bream 3kg is a close 2nd, I fish 1/8, 1/16, 1/32 and un-weighted plastics with it, even a 1.5" curl tail on a 1/32oz jig head goes out a fair way, but what's important about a rod like that is it needs to be fairly fast action with slower action tip so you can both cast good distance with accuracy and have the sensitivity to feel nibbles or pick ups, yet be stiff enough to let you set the hook. I've had some brilliant long slow action rods that really let me launch a light soft plastic out, but I kept dropping bites as it was too soft to set the hook, you had to really whip a very long rod to set the hook.

I'm giving the trout a rest for a bit, when they came on again it was like hell yes, but apart from two mates that like a trout or two, I'm the only one that likes eating them and I'm set for a while. But I have a lot of friends asking if I have any yellow belly, so I might invest some time into figuring out where they are hiding now. But I'm still going to catch a few for fun, nothing beats a big jumping trout in fast water.

I bought a quad bike yesterday arvo and was going out to take it for a run at a mates farm tomorrow. I got it set up, the trailer too faster then expected and thought "I could get 45min of fishing in if I hurry before the wife gets home" I got down there and didn't need the full 45min. As it turned out in 6 casts and 20min later I had 4 nice trout on the bank, the smallest just under 4lb and the biggest just under 6lb,with one monster dropped. I decided that will do me nicely, that's the quickest I've caught trout like that in so few casts.

A few nice ones there.

That 1st yellow was fat little keg, definitely plenty to eat around there.

Then I highly, highly recommend a Nitro Power Bream finesse 3kg. Its made for finesse fishing soft plastics, it's got incredible sensitivity, loads up brilliantly suits a 1000- 2500 size reel perfectly and it casts like a dream. Best of all its right in your budget at $350 from complete angler.

Got out for an hour this morning, I caught and released 2 7lb monsters and kept a 5lb and 3lb ones for the smoker. This is turning out to be a trout catching monster of a rod.

It's a DFT Marksman, here's the specs. I actually had one of their ultragraph baitcasting travel rods, and that was a brilliant little rod too.

It's called a marksman made by someone with 3 initials. I will have a look when I go home. It's a Pe1-3 that is made for jigging I think, it's got a jigging weight of up to 200gm so it can handle casting 30-40gm lead fish no worries.

I've got to do a report on this rod, I got out at 7am for an hours fish this morning and pulled out a 6lb yellow belly and a 7lb 57cm cod. Even in the current that rod has so much pulling power, it's just got so much power and yet it's, so incredibly light. The longer but and fast action let you power a heavy lure out pretty well, not nearly as good as the Nitro distance spin but still reasonably good, but the fighting power is just amazing. The bloke at the tackle shop showed me how tough it is by waking it against the counter top. So it's a strong hard to break rod that's light and pulls like train.

I broke the tip in my Nitro distance spin the other day and bought a replacement while I'm waiting for a new tip that fits. I started slow with just the one 59cm cod but ended up with 5 trout including 2 6lb and an almost 7lb browns, and got a nice little rainbow that made a nice change.

I find it a nice in between calibre, it's, sort of the biggest of the medium and smallest of the big calibres. Has good energy out to 350m which is about as far as I would shoot these days and is plenty flat out to 500m. It's, no magnum but then like that fallow goes to show, it's less about what you hit them with and more about where you hit them.

Funny thing, the only place it will fit inside is above our bed, the wife isn't on board with that for some reason. So he is going to be mounted on a big pine tree beside the house. Blaser K95 in 30/06, it suits my style of hunting. One shot so make it count and the 30/06 is big enough without being unpleasant to shoot from a 6lb set-up. He cut up really well too.

I got his skull ready for mounting, gotta say he turned out pretty good.

Yes, they will be strictly catch and release for a while now, but with how the rivers been then you need to catch em while you can because it can go dry for weeks.

Absolutely cleaned up this morning on the trout. I got out just after sunrise and had the river to myself, in the 1st hour I cleaned up on 5 solid trout on the leadfish. It was the best hours fishing I've had outside of a Thai fishing park. My smoker was earning its keep today. The smallest was 2.5lb and the biggest just over 6lb.

Most spots the difference between taking home a bag and coming up empty is working out the runs and the method that works in that particular spot. There doesn't seem to be a one size fits all approach to fishing. A bit more time and playing with techniques and it might fish alright for you. Maybe even drifting soft plastics might be worth a go.

Pretty damn good run from the sounds of it.

In the smoker, but these ones are destined to go to the farmer that recently gave me access to his place.

A mate gave me a buzz today and let me know they were releasing water again and that the river was running the way it should again and the trout were on the chew. So I popped out in the arvo and in an hour and a half of fishing I had 4 on the bank, and dropped a few, others as I'd foolishly laft my net at home. I will be back out on Friday and definitely taking the net. I've got to cast a heap more lead fish now.