Sylvathorn

Excellent Hamish, nice Thready, well done!

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 

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  

On 14/09/2023 at 4:17 PM, Andrew_P said:

rule of thumb for rod ratings is that optimum fishing is in the middle of the range. i.e. if you have a 2-4kg set up fish 3kg line (8lb) but it will fish 2kg and 4kg if you need it to. i prefer to choose my lighter rods/ blanks on the lure weight it is designed for. heavy rods i will go the middle of the line rating

setting your drag at ~1/3rd of the breaking strain is a hangover from IGFA game fishing days where they were fishing tested mono lines. this allowed them to up the drag to 1/2 or even 3/4 of the breaking strain of the line if they needed to. you should set your drag at whatever seems right for the fish you are chasing - light if its bream so you dont pull the hooks, heavy for fish like jacks you will be pulling out of the structure. most people i fish with dont measure their drags using scales but set it and adjust depending upon the species they are chasing. remember your reels are designed to give fish drag if they run so you dont snap the line. if you set the drag in the correct range you shouldnt need to adjust mid fight. if you do need to adjust go easy until you are gaining ground on the fish. and remember to back it off before you cast again!

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

2 hours ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

It seems to be an issue for everyone at the moment, hopefully it is fixed soon.

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.

1 hour ago, Angry51 said:

Nice, very nice.

Love the pattern and colours.

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.

On 27/04/2023 at 3:52 PM, Sylvathorn said:

Well, I now have three project rods on the go.
(The Jarvis Walker is now finished aside from restoring the wooden butt.)
The 15 - 24 kg two piece popping stick is progressing.
The Sabiki rod has started.
and now an old Wilson that has a nearly identical curve to my FT67's (Wilson may have made it on the SnyderGlas mandrels they aquired when they bought them out) - this one is for Margie. She decides on all our designs and which colours are used - and as this is hers, she wants metallics!
All will have to fit in between the repairs - I currently have 6 on the trot and another 4 due to come in.
So, I think I will be busy .... none less, I will post pics and updates as we progress.
 

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 

On 06/09/2023 at 1:46 PM, mangajack said:

I would be looking at cheribin over redclaw for the aquaponics stock. Better eating, harvest well and go well in the dams too. They tend to clean the water a lot better too.

I know two guys that grow out their barra fingerlings in the aquaponics tanks then transfer them to their dam as sport fish. One of the guys is giving jacks a go this summer.....

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.

3 hours ago, Angry51 said:

We had rc in pods/tanks and unless you had heaps of hidy holes for the little ones the others ate them and we ended up with two bigs ones left, so we don't breed them anymore.

Yes, @Angry51, you do need to preprare ahead with lots of hiding spots for the tiny, small, medium, largish and the big ones too.
I have bred them successfully before, on a smaller scale, for feeding my catfish, Saratoga and Murry Cod.

3 hours ago, mangajack said:

I would be looking at cheribin over redclaw for the aquaponics stock. Better eating, harvest well and go well in the dams too. They tend to clean the water a lot better too.

I know two guys that grow out their barra fingerlings in the aquaponics tanks then transfer them to their dam as sport fish. One of the guys is giving jacks a go this summer.....

thanks @mangajack, I'll do a bit of research

2 hours ago, Angry51 said:

Yeah, down the dam is OK most times. If you get away from where all the tourists go it's pretty good. The dam's about 80k's from Ravenswood, you could come up the back way from Home Hill about 90k's to R/wood some dirt but mostly kept in reasonable condition for the tourists.

Thanks @Angry51
I'm hoping to make up an Aquaponics system based around 2 x 1000liter Pods. Initially one will be for Barra to stock the Dam out the back, and the other for Red Claw (eventually both).
So I will need to get a few once the tanks are up and stabilized, for initial stocks.

cheers, Misha

5 hours ago, Angry51 said:

Welcome to the forum and to OZ, can't help with info as I don't come from down there but someone will come along shortly and help you out.

Now I've gotta go out and lock up my sheep, just kidding mate.

tsk, tsk @Angry51
Been meaning to ask you, are there good spots for getting RedClaw out your way?

nice about the Bass session ... Ouch! about the thumb!

Great work, Brett and Kat, looks like you enjoyed a a great session.

On 08/08/2023 at 11:33 PM, Thorbjorn Hale said:

Hi guys, I haven't posted a session report in a while so i thought I would do my latest session and a few highlights from these past months of fishing. The fishing these past few months started off well, with lots of jewies about and a bunch of good size snapper. These 2 past months have been very slow for getting bait during the day and I think i've only caught one herring on a sabiki since. 

I rocked up to the local around 8:30pm for a small session. There were 3 blokes fishing, all with frowns on their faces i'm guessing they were not enjoying their fishing trip. They told me there was no bait around and they had begun packing their equipment up. I gave the net about 10 throws before I gave up and waited for the tide to run again- about 15 minutes. By that time the blokes had gone home and I had the jetty to myself, I gave the net a throw and the prawns had completely turned on and I was getting about 2 or 3 per cast. I casted these out on all 3 rods and cracked open a solo. About 20 minutes and a bait change later, a family who I have met previously came to the jetty to see if i had caught any fish or prawns. They were mesmerised by the prawns and were talking to me about if i had caught any fish when I heard the bell on the tip of my rod start ringing, i ran over the to the rod and it started screaming. I picked it up and clicked the bait runner into gear, the fish must have turned around because I thought it might be a small jewfish or a snapper. Th e fish charged the jetty and it was only when I saw it surface that I realised it was massive. As soon as I caught a glimpse of it it took off, peeling probably 30 metres of line from my reel. It started heading for the jetty which I had to quickly put a stop to. After 3 or 4 more smaller runs and a terrifying run in with a pylon and a crab pot rope I pulled it into the safety of the dilly which I promptly lifted up onto the jetty. It was a massive thready, it looked like a new PB

. I quickly snapped a few photos, gave it a measure and a tag and then ran with it my arms down to the rocks at the bottom of the jetty. I was wading waist deep in the river trying to revive it but it had swallowed the hook, lost a few scales and had pretty severe barotrauma so it wasn't looking good for her. I swam her for 10 minutes but after a failed release attempt and an unsuccessful venting job using a tagger I knew it was going to come home for dinner. 

It was sad not being able to release it but I knew that they tasted great so I wasn't too sad. I stayed fishing for about an hour longer and managed to pickup a new PB bream of 37cm and a really fat catty.

I was supposed to be home by 1130  but I ended up getting home at 1140 and my parents were not too happy with me going out to the servo to get ice haha. Overall it was a really enjoyable nights fishing and it made some very tasty sashimi the next day. 

All the fish were caught on live prawns, the tide was the bottom of the incoming, the moon phase was 60% waning gibbous, the water was reasonably clear

I will leave some highlights of the past few months of fishing at the bottom

 

Well done @Thorbjorn Hale, good post, you've got some good fish there!

On 09/08/2023 at 8:15 AM, Huxstang said:

Well done, good sized fish.  I am never sad about taking a responsible feed of fish.    A bit like the new spanish mackeral limit of one per boat - one is a good amount of fish for 2 people on a boat.  You cannot eat it in a single sitting

well said @Huxstang!