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Thanks Waza. I've just discovered drafting curves and graph paper and am in the process of doodling up a couple of designs that may work. Key criteria is 3inches approx, enough volume in the tail to accommodate decent casting weight, floats, hook placement enough to accommodate assist hooks without tangling and finally a good walk-the-dog action. I'm now noticing things about the lures I own and am taking a keen interest in why they are built that way. For instance, would you know that a lot of lures have a flat bottom side? I'm guessing that that makes for easy top pouring of resin but I wonder if it has an effect on the action? Making lures is a good way to learn about them! That shop you mention is very dangerous! I have some in oz that are half as dangerous as that and it is still treacherous for me

Last time I was there the ramp had a lot of sand & needed a decent vehicle (4WD) to launch/retreive - was some time ago. Agree re the island for kingies. No marks or ideas for wider out but it is very popular. Would suggest trolling out around the headland also but respect the LBG fishos if they are there - maybe go around the corner. The weather has been poor lately and not much offshore fishing/reports. Have a look at the water current/temps. We were just discusing today that it is now Snapper season - SP's etc in the shallower to mid reefs. Heard of snapper off the rocks further south over the weekend. Have a great trip

Good work Mike, the lures look like the 'nudes' they use for Tuna in the USA! Re the bent style minnows, you can buy bibs etc from the USA. I'll message you where from. Great satisfaction when you see your own designs work

Cheers Faker, yeah a topwater flatty has eluded many of us for years. You did well to get yours. Cheers Dave, different experience catching one off the surface.

Well done and congrats on your PB!

Nice work there Mike. A flattie for your efforts on a home made one.

Yep gonna use pliers next time. I plan to eat my next one to get even

Gosh right through the gloves no problem.

If you're chasing kings, Fish Rock is easy enough to access from Hat Head. Just make sure if you're using bait you stay your 200m away from the Rock, otherwise get the sluggo's out. I assume you've got in and out of there before, its a pretty shady channel with access only at high tide, even then, for small boats - otherwise its 30 minutes to SWR with a more reliable channel.

I think the catfish which stung me was an estuary cobbler. It ended up causing my thumb to swell and I had a burning sensation for the rest of the day. I still have a mark on my thumb from where it got me, you can see its white spine on the right pectoral fin in the pic I took below.

Hey Raiders/Deckees I'm selling our Liferaft - 4 MAN OCEAN REGATTA COASTAL ISO 9650-2 - VALISE Purchased as Maria was concerned venturing out to the shelf, but no longer required as she is comfortable with the new boat. Price new: $2,200 ... selling for $1,600. Packed 4.10.2022. 3yr Service interval so 18months to go. 20yr Warranty. Never deployed. Full paper work. PM me if interested. Cheers Zoran ------------------------------------ KEY FEATURES Valise 650mm x 400mm x 220mm- 25kg Made with high quality commercial grade rubber Self inflating Rubber floor Highly visible canopy 4 x large water balast pockets Webbing boarding ladder with large entrance for easy boarding and rescue Observation port Automatic internal and external lighting system Solas Grade retro-reflective tape Internal and external lifelines ISO less than 24 hour emergency pack 3 years servicing intervals and 20 year warranty Full details: https://www.sailexchange.com.au/collections/life-raft-new/products/ocean-iso-9650-valise-4-man-11#

Nice Mike, it took months of messing around before I caught first

Haha nah I’m keeping the day job for now. I’m still buying lures, albeit I’m trying to increase my make:buy ratio. There just some I can’t make myself, like bent minnows.

Thanks Bob it was very satisfying. Thanks Robbo, yes plenty more on the way, including some experiments with paddle pop sticks! (Google ‘popsicle stick engineered angler’ if you want to fall down a very deep rabbit hole). Certainly am Ian! Thanks @sashkello. You’d be surprised how basic a lure you can catch fish on. It’s about getting the right size, profile and action first, and then only after that, considering other factors that can help you. I have learned over the years that the finish on lures is only the last mile. When you pay decent money for a good lure, most of what you are paying for is all the R&D that goes into it, like all the rejects, the fine tuning, measuring/weighing, reshaping and so on. The real scientific precision in those lures is in those aspects of the process. The finish may well reduce a fish’s reluctance to hit a lure, but more likely it's main purpose is to stand out from the rest of the pack and catch the angler browsing in the shop or online. It’s real good fun making your own lures but I’m not saving any money or storage space! Even before I start painting, there’s always another tool or material that I ‘need’🤣. Cheers Pete, yes it is one to remember for sure! I’ve wanted a topwater flatty for ages and came close a couple of times but was not lucky enough until now. Just the paradox of a bottom dwelling fish attacking a surface lure is very entertaining to me🙂

Surely there’s no going back to buying lures now. Next up, selling them! Congrats Mike ! *edit - “Little Flatty” would be a great name for a lure!

Well done Mike, what a thrill to catch your first topwater flatly on a lure you made yourself. I bet you won’t be forgetting that for quite some time.

Oh man, just proves that expensive good-looking lures which mimic prey with scientific precision are absolutely not necessary to catch some decent fish. Well done! And I'll be honest, I would throw that stuff in trash without a second thought. Which shows that I'm just a know-nothing beginner when it comes to lure fishing. Minimizing the amount of stuff to buy is kind of one of my goals, so I must say what you're doing is really inspirational!

Nice flattie on your diy lures Mike! Gotta be stoked with that !

The way I see it calling all tangles 'wind knots' is misleading. Some tangles are caused by mismatched rod/reel combination or unsuitable design; some may be caused by retrieve technique and/or very light lures may contribute; others are the result of twists caused by cranking the handle while the drag is slipping, which twists the line. There are probably other causes, but I'm not sure any are the direct result of fishing on a windy day.

Well done with your flattie. As they say, 'the proof of the pudding is in the eating' - so your lures are on the money!! I can't wait to see the next iteration.

Beautiful fish and must be awesome catching it on a lure you made yourself!

On the weekend I did a bit of a long-awaited tackle bag tidy up. Part of this involved clearing out a whole side of my tackle box for DIY lures: A lot of what makes lures work is having faith in them and I find that reducing my lure stash on the water helps drive this discipline. The stickbaits in this photo have been pretty good performers, especially with a bit of tungsten putty to enhance the vertical orientation at rest. I will need to add an extra split shot in the tail when I make my next batch. The poppers were a fail in a traditional popper sense, as the weighting turns them into floater/divers! Still, may work! This morning I popped down to Tarban Creek again to see if I could find any of the pelagics that were about. I had my home made stick bait tied on. There were none to be found, but over the shallow mud flats, I saw a swirl on the surface and hooked up on a spirited fish that zipped over the flats. Halfway into the fight, the line briefly went loose. Uh-oh...has the curse continued? As those thoughts crossed my mind, the line tightened up again and to my relief the fish was still on. Whilst not a particularly big fish, I wasn't taking any chances on this one, and it was definitely a net job this time. One shot at the net and up comes my first top water flathead! Pretty happy with that. I burned up a lot of luck landing that fish. Examining the leader after the fight, I worked out what happened. It turns out the fish engulfed the whole stickbait, rasping the leader, then mid-fight one of the hooks let go, causing the brief loss of tension. It was also lucky I netted the fish because as I was getting it out of the net, the hooks fell out! Lucky my drag was set lighter and maybe my longer leader helped (thanks to the advice of my fellow Deckee community members on the weekend). Nothing more for the rest of the session, although the glass-out conditions did make me wish that I could stay there all day.

I’ve read horror articles about the pain of cobbler and catfish stings. After a bad foot injury on oysters retrieving a lure I vowed not to hurt myself for a lure ever again. The lure was $20, the pain sounds horrific. @squidjigga is the same species that stung you earlier?

That's crazy! I was with @Aussiefisherman on the weekend and these things were busting up on bait on the surface... weirdest bubbling kind of bust up. Aussiefisherman also got one on a crankbait... very glad now we used pliers to remove the lure without touching the fish😱

Beautiful spot. Looks as Australian as it gets. Thanks for the video @big Neil part of why I love fishing is escaping the noise and bustle. that looks like paradise