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I have seen plastics rigged with a small foam ball sitting where a jig head would be , I have also seen an orange ear plug used to do the same thing , also works on the beach to keep your bait off the bottom and away from sand crabs .

The Texas rig is better in tight structure and for vertical work as the sinker against the hook gives more control of the lure - both when casting and retrieving , the Carolina is better for shallow weed beds and soft silt bottom - you can adjust the leader length to suit which helps to keep the lure above the weed or from disappearing into the bottom silt - even better with buoyant plastics like Zman . Never used the drop shot as I never seen a use for it - maybe teabagging or similar to the Carolina ?

I do the same as green hornet says - I generally run at least a metre of heavier leader - 20lb in my case then use 10 or 16lb trace to the hook . one thing you have to be careful with is the sinker running up the line and getting hung up on the leader knot - mainly a problem when fishing straight up and down . I just feather the line as it comes of the reel to keep the swivel against the swivel or cast up current as far as the water is deep ( cast 20m in 20m of water ) then flip the bail and let the rig sink - it will sink in an arc keeping tension on the line so the sinker stays on the swivel .

The demarcation line between clean and dirty water is where I will be concentrating along with deep holes .

Thanks, that looks a lot better than a few weeks ago. Hopefully will be even better in a weeks time, will stick to Cowan, Pittwater and the mouth I think.

These are taken at lunchtime today 23/4/24

Will try that next time thanks

I'm no hero, it was spikey but all good.

I got it for the first time 6 weeks ago. It was quite mild in the infectious stage. But it doesn't seem to have gone away - feel rather lethargic and coughing, also a bit of brain fog. The latter might be why I got a hook in my thumb (first time I have done that). It was in really deep so it was off to the Emergency Department. Tip - 2 hook rigs are dangerous when de - hooking a fish. Think about using single hook or be very careful. Perhaps cover the free one with Styrofoam or similar. Definitely use tools like boga grips and hookout or long pliers.

Covid sux, I'm still getting over it from the beginning of January.

Hi @linewetter. If you are looking at dropshotting then consider stand out hooks and then maybe pencil sinkers. We used these in a paternoster style format when fishing for Zander in Amsterdam. We just threaded the front of a 3" minnow onto the hook and the hook design kept it hanging square to the line and off the bottom. The pencil sinkers are less likely to snag up in the Dutch canals where we used them. Surprisingly the takes from a Zander were surprisingly timid considering how big and powerful they look. Think flathead crossed with a bass and sharp teeth thrown in. Here was the report I did back then:

Awesome photo @Blackfish, I didn't know you could hold them bare-handed like that though

Hey Guys, Had a fun session this morning fishing around Captain Cook Bridge at the mouth of the George's. I'd fished there yesterday too and managed to stave off a donut - landing a very respectable 44cm bream. I'd spent a lot of time yesterday paddling around the oyster racks and structure round Woolooware Bay - water was still very murky from the rain - today I decided to head straight to the bridge. Good call. Started off casting a soft vibe around - I've only ever caught one jewfish before and it was on a vibe under this very bridge. No interest from anything big so switched to a smaller black vibe - hooked up soon after but got dusted almost instantly. Re-tied and started casting around a load of foam that had settled on the surface near the bridge. Wind was pushing against current which I think creates the foam - managed a decent trevally that I wished was a big bream. I was just making my way over the first pylon again when I saw a huge spray of bait and an almighty bustup which I presumed to be tailor given the time of year. I cast in the splash prawn and after 2 or three pops something large took it. Seemed quite sedate at first and was coming in pretty easy - definitely a tailor. No sooner had I spotted the leader knot when the fish took a massive run - probably peeled off 30m of line like it was nothing. This was on my rod that I use for surface bream-ing - 10lb braid and 12lb leader so I backed off the drag and made the decision that I didn't need to rush. I had plenty of space and the water is deep there - I'd already drifted about a 100m from the bridge. For the next 20mins or so I slowly wore this fish down - still hadn't seen the fish itself. The water was still quite murky so probably only about 1m visibility. Spotted my leader knot about 4-5 times before I got a look at the fish and knew it was a good king - heartbeat rose about 60bpm when I saw the yellow tail. Finally got the exhausted fish to the surface and netted it - there were quite a few excited cheers from me and a round of applause from some spectators on the bridge. My first legal King landed from the kayak and my biggest to date at just over 70cm. Won't forget that one in a hurry. Might hit the same bridge tomorrow if anyone wants to join - some good fish around for sure. Easy launch from Taren Point Reserve. Cheers s

Yep I listened to that with much interest. That’s a whole new dimension to rigging plastics! I want to try it but am a bit distracted by other methods at the moment.

Tie a leader just like you’d do when lure fishing, length is up to you, but really only needs to be short. Feed your sinker onto the leader, tie a swivel then, then add your trace down to the hook. This rig fishes the same as straight through mono and won’t tangle.

Hey guys been mainly been working on fishing with lures lately so I switched all my reels to braid. Did some bait fishing this weekend and used a running sinker rig. Put a running sinker on my braid, tied a swivel and attached a fluorocarbon leader. Every single time the braid tangled around my sinker due to it being very limp which tangled the leader and caused a horrible mess. I just had to keep cutting everything off. I tried using a split shot but it still tangled. Eventually I just put my sinker on top of the hook but it really turned off the bite because the fish could probably see it. Any suggestions on how to stop this? Thanks

Another great report and congratulations on the new rod! I've been eyeing on the shoregun series for my shore jigging setup for quite a while...

How long is the rod? I send out 50g jigs on a 150-300g rod, but it's close to 9ft so I can maintain a reasonable distance, but in saying that, I am changing to a different setup. Because that rods for lifting kings up onto the rocks. Anything silver is best for Bonnie's, like the halcos.

Thank you. Don't often catch them that size in Bate Bay.

Gawd sorry to hear your trip was spoiled. It must have been a bad trip driving home so unwell. The cold drier air air usually affects airways by irritating the mucous membranes producing that annoying coughing. Have you seen a GP? There are meds that you may be offered.

Hey @linewetter This podcast talks about free rigging in Moreton Bay for bream fishing. There might be some relevant info for you here

Hi @Little_Flatty Can't slip anything past you. To be fair, my lure journey essentially started with soft plastics and I grew outwards from there. This was a trip back into my lure fishing roots to solve a problem I was having with the bass at Manly dam. My go to is spinners there and they are very effective but I wanted to start catching some of the ones in the deeper water. The challenge is there is a lot of weeds and other snags so I wanted a weedless rig that I could fish through clutter. I figured a floating plastic lure about 40cm above the bottom might do the trick. Still working on it.

Casting distance will definitely suffer if it's too much below your rod rating. Nevertheless, metals still would cast pretty well, if your rod action isn't too stiff. Halco Twisties and other similar ones are pretty popular for any predatory fish... I think bonnies like those striped Nomad jigs, but I haven't tried that yet... That's just what I saw people are using off the rocks for them.

I think a lot of lure fishing newbies get a little swept away with the hype about this knot being better than that knot and for x amount of reasons . I think of it this way ( yours is probably different ) but if you use an FG knot which takes a bit of time to learn , time to tie and is a known strong knot then use a weaker knot to tie your lure on then isn’t all that effort wasted ? If you are sitting on the bank fumbling around trying to tie a knot like the FG you are not fishing - if your lure isn’t in the water then you can’t catch anything . This point was driven home to me in the comments on a YouTube video I watched recently, the guy uses an improved albright to connect his leader and he copped a bit of an ear bashing by the FG fraternity. His reply was simple and to the point - the knot I tie my lure on is the weakest point , I can tie this knot blindfolded, it goes out through the guides ok and it has never let me down . I think that for a mug angler like me this reasoning will be good enough .

Sounds like a great session - lovely Reddie!