Sylvathorn

Excellent Hamish, nice Thready, well done!

Sorry this took so long @Lil Peep and I hope it's readable and makes sense " Margie’s Crispy Fried Bream Ingredients: 2 x 500g Bream (1 for each of us) 2 or 3 tbsp Oil 5cm piece of Ginger 6 Spring Onions 3 tbsp Soy Sauce Salt sea salt, Water Optional Ingredients: 2.5 cm piece of Ginger - crushed Water Salt Method : Clean and scale the Bream, then make some shallow cuts through the skin on both sides and rub some salt in. Then fry in a suitable sized pan until cooked and skin is crispy. While the fish is cooking, peel the Ginger and cut into thin slices, then into thin strips (this can be done beforehand if you prefer). Also peel and cut spring onions into thin diagonal slices. Put the Bream on a serving plate. Pour Soy Sauce over the Bream, sprinkle with Ginger and Spring Onion. Optional Method (Margie usually does it the First way): 2/3 fill a shallow pan with water add salt and a 2cm piece of crushed ginger. Boil for 5 mins, reduce heat to a simmer. Then add Bream and cook for 5 or 6 minutes till nearly cooked. Then drain and dry the fish and crisp up skin in a hot frypan. Serve as above.

congrats on an excellent fish and writeup Lil Peep. thanks for sharing!

You know what Hamish, it was quiet, but you got do something that only fishermen can do. Enjoy that moment in a space that only fishermen can! A couple of years ago, Margie and I were checking out properties in Buxton (near Burrum Heads) and spent an afternoon on the Buxton Jetty on the last of the runout tide. We caught nothing but saltwater catties, hand over fist, and they were mutilating all my soft plastics, but you know what, it was a glorious session on light gear and we loved every moment! Salmon tail cats aren't the most popular fish to catch in the BR, but you know what, bull sharks love them almost as much as eels. I think it sounds like you had a slightly quiet but pleasant morning on the BR. You are quite skilled and an articulate and a valuable contributor who consistently adds a great deal of value to this forum. I always enjoy your posts and know there will always be more coming!

welcome aboard

absolutely don't mind, it's Margies (TLOML) and she won't mind at all, she's off with the Pixies sawing logs atm, but Ill get it in the morning for you

welcome aboard Lil Peep , mind you I do have a great recipe for Crispy fried Bream

thanks guys, really appreciate it! And yes, Jeremy is extremely happy, he even shared my Advert on his page to improve my coverage - he's a very nice guy dealing with some tough issues atm. It's his first custom build and I really wanted to make something special for him. We suggested the pattern to him (and of course Margie worked with me to get that together), and he loved her ideas, (matches the colours on his Harley's tank). and haha Amazeing indeed - the guy wanting the PE2-3 now want's a maze pattern on his build ... Margie hasn't told me what colour combo I'm doing yet! Good thing they're not difficult to do

I popped an ad up in FB Marketplace @Angry51, so you can see some pics of the wrap there The price is a bit inflated, it was built to order, the buyer is OK with me advertising it for a week or two URL : (1) Marketplace – Custom Build 6'6' PE8 Rod - Jig / reef | Facebook

I'll be a lil quiet 4 ay bit. have just about completed the PE8 custom build, but now have a 7'6" PE2-3 ordered, and a 6' Barra PE2-3 baitcaster, and a PE8 GT chaser with buyer chasing quote, (saw my PE8 custom build and got excited) ... will post pic of PE8 CB when I can, did a Maze pattern ... they always fuss me , not hard at all, just have to always be on top of where you are ................. might need @Ed., @Andrew_P, and @Angry51 all up here to help if this keeps up! Oh, and AUS-BNE-FISHO, ... Hamish, you might need to keep the Barra numbers down in the dam too , and Angry .... the Chooks will need feeding Seriously though, I've got a few repairs for a local Prossie mum (widow), handing on rods to her son in WA that I'm gonna surpass her expectations with, plus 2 customs booked, a spekky to build and 2 more customs being quoted (he saw the PE8 CB and then got excited) .... so I'm gonna be busy phor ay while ... putting tags on everything to keep track of it all .... hope I can post pics soon

A lot of great advice so far @Jeremy_Z, and yes PE ratings are about line diameter and are a hangover from Silk ratings I believe. I'm currently building a PE8 custom rod and am building it to handle anything up to 130lbs - tests on quality Japanese braid (yes a lot of manufacturers still do them) have them breaking at 116lbs and over, so don't totally rely on PE ratings. Having said that as soon as you tie a knot, the breaking strength decreases (how much depends on the type of knot), so don't worry or overthink it And as far as drag goes, I generally use about 1/3 of breaking strain, and I always set hooks on free spool unless spinning lures, but will increase drag with my palm or thumb if needed. Having said that, if you can build a rod or know someone who can for you, get it built with 7 guides instead of 5 (for a spin stick) and that improves the load handling of the rod. If it doesn't have fancy wraps, it might not cost too much more than a "over the counter" and be better quality than the rods mass produced in China or Malaysia. Hope that helps, cheers Misha

True, hopefully it is @AUS-BNE-FISHO, I still want to put up pics of the dam behind our place, that we want to stock with barra.

Thanks @Angry51, there was a bit of work doing that one As far as the colours and which pattern I do goes, Margie makes those decisions - especially which colours blend into which. She has much better colour sense than me.

The 15 - 24 kg two piece popping stick is now complete. I've got it up for sale on Ebay. So, as we still can't post pics here, I'll post the Ebay URL so you can have a look at it there if you want to see how it turned out. Handcrafted custom built Reef Riot fishing rod: 15-24kg Heavy Spin / Popping Rod | eBay

the cheribin sound like a good option @mangajack, saw a place in WA where they grow them to 300 gms. I'll have to see if I can find some to catch once I get the Aquaponics tanks set up.