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Hey Raiders, A quick post to signal I'm back !! Returned to Oz just before the weekend after a few weeks travelling ... hence the long silence since the last post. I knew the boat was fully fuelled and we had salted pillies and frozen squid in the freezer. So checked the weather report as soon as the wheels touched down and spotted Tuesday was a go for a trip to Brown's - Maria was quick to agree - so we had our fishing trip sorted before we were off the plane ! Keen to wet a line - just a tad. Plan was to launch from Roseville, race out to Brown's and deep drop to see if the Blue eye had started their run, and then troll around for pelagics if we hit our oogly limit. The winds would start to pick up around 11am so that was our cut off to start the trip back. Spent Monday checking the boat, running the motors and packing the Tanancoms and the Trolling gear. Found thermostats had seized on the 200 so raced to McGraths Hill to pick up a set - installed that, motors purring, all good. Just a niggling problem with the RH windscreen washer tank leaking water - hmmm not critical - fix that sometime during the week. 6.00am at Roseville and on the water. Only 2 other boats launching - a pro and a local. A big trailer was already parked there otherwise the car park was empty. Lots of rowers in middle harbour made for a slow trip to the spit, but then the trip out was glassy as - sitting on 45- 55km/h with just a few rough patches. 7.30am at Brown's. Three boats there. Positioned ourselves on the North mark, and set up the deep drops. Observed our drift - current North to South (4-5km/h), water blue 21.8C. Spent the next 5hrs covering Browns with drifts. The action was slow. Good news, we scored a Blue-eye each so were quite chuffed with that (the container length is 60cm). We had two rigs bitten off on the retrieve at around 150-200m, and Maria's blue eye tangled with my line on the retrieve - so quite some time lost re-rigging. With the strong current it meant we spent a lot of time repositioning for drifts. All in all we never broke out the trolling gear. Having overstayed the 11am cut off the trip back was going to be a bumpy one with the winds and cross chop as forecast . Averaged 30-35km/h and there were definitely lots of bone jarring potholes on the way back. Infact so many that Maria literally fell out of her seat ! Well, the bolts pulled through the seat base - she was launched with the seat intact around her and crashed down into the rear deck area. Could have been bad, but fortunately she is fit and flexible and apart from some bruises all she has to show for it is a big grin - and the fact she caught the bigger blue eye ! ...as for me... another thing to fix. Guess its time to replace both seats. Cheers Zoran

You should invest in an egi side bag. Shimano makes ones with little compartments (Sephia bags) where you can put in single jig in. Or you can get an holster and make compartments with some bargain store items. Current I am using an Egi-Oh holster, I've created my own compartments where I can fit up to 8 jigs. However I most likely dont carry that many. I don't bring a bucket with me as I would most likely place the squid in a rockpool and then to bring back I would use the larger Ikea Zip lock bags (most likely I will leave a bucket in the car). Leader, scissors, clips all fit into the holster. This allows me to easily rock hop, as i do not place anything on the ground and I'm alot more mobile, it also allows me to change jigs a lot quicker and there is no need to leave anything on the ground (other than any caught squid), as everything is within my arms reach, also no need to turn any backpack around to grab anything as the holster is on the side of my leg. If I have a donut session, its not much hassles for me as I've carried minimum items and not weighed down with anything. Only item carried by hand is my rod/reel. This is the holster I use: And this is the Sephia one, you have different sizes for them: There are other makes too but the Sephia is the only one I am aware of that has compartments (which is very convenient), and as mentioned above, if you do decide to get one but not a Sephia then you can easily make those apartments using cheap items. With this, I have no concerns about the wash or wind taking my items as it is attached to me. Just one less thing to worry about.

Sorry to hear of your mishap, I’m a bit of a jig addict my self & if it was me I’d be telling work of some family crisis that just popped up & try & get down there today before high tide with some snorkeling gear & scouring the foreshore, I like Franks idea 👍 as well. I have some doubles of hayabusa & Yamashita lots still in packets or unused, I’m willing to part with for under $10 a piece, if interested PM me & I’ll post some photos, I think I might have 1 or 2 red hayabusa in my collection as well

Headed out early with Swano in the hope the water had cleared enough for some kingy action. On the squid straight away before light and with a dozen or so in the tank we headed for the point for a slow troll but was very slow so we spot locked the poly and sent some fresh strips of squid and that did the trick with us both getting + 80ss and I got smoked by a real monster 😡 and pulled the hook on another good fish. Great day out Deano and congrats on your PB Kingfish

Still think for switch baiting the control given by an overhead is much better than a spin reel , line capacity is another issue , down size the Inters to Tiagra 30 LRSW which hold about 500 M of 24 kg and you are ready to rock and roll- as for Finnors for real heavy duty-nope aint going to happen.

Some old HIFI speakers had very strong magnets, and can be found at dump shops for next to nothing.

Have to agree on that call, kingfish in the bay, it’s the only time I have seen bait on the poly 😁 But let’s be honest, much more enjoyable casting plastics when you’re chasing anything else

Ever tried magnet fishing ?. Get a large magnet , tie it to a length of rope and throw it in the water where you lost your gear, slowly drag it back in and repeat throwing it in and dragging it out till you have covered a fair area, chances are you will recover a lot of your gear and who knows you may come up with some other goodies as well. Frank

Lol I have probably spent 3 days of my life perving on squid jigs. I wish there was a bulk pack I could buy that covers all conditions so I'm ready for anything. Looks like a snorkelling session down there would pay off, some of them still in the packet.

I had a saltist 4000 and 6000 for a short time. Neither handled the open centre console formula 15 very well in terms of salt corrosion. I wasn't impressed with drag smoothness either, but that's just my findings. Ive been keen on trying a slammer 3500 on the kings but at the moment I'm more than happy with a stradic 5000. As for the gosa's, well those just seem to keep on going what ever you through at them.

Another awesome day out with Stewy. Seems like he's covered most of the detail of the trip. Couldn't get a bite with live squid but hooking up on strips, getting absolutely smoked on 30lb and then changing to 50lb and then not getting a bite on it? Learn something every time! Gotta love fishing. Oh and one of us works hard at getting a day off to go fishing. The other just works hard at fishing. Ha ! Thanks for putting in the post Stewy. Catch up soon. Cheers Deano.

looks like the slammer and goosa are about the same ( reel weight 600g , line capacity slammer has bigger spool ) if you mean the Daiwa Saltis spin 4000 it's stats look smaller? ( 450g can't find braid capacty) you know the goosa is built like a tank. it's a bit heavy if you want to use it for hours but the next option is a stella at 4 x the price If you are throwing metals 30g - 60g the heavier ones need a bit of a winch to wind them in time after time. If you can handle the weight I'd go the Goosa.

Was due to head out to Bate Bay late yesterday (Monday) with a mate, but he pulled the pin at the last minute, as the wind had blown up a bit and his back was not good - the rocking of the boat would have made his back worse. I was ready to have a fish, so I pushed out my tinny and headed up river. Tried soft plastics along the main channel as it was the start of the run-up. Not a touch except plenty of weed. Headed up to the mouth of South West Arm and had a look. A couple of terns were moving about, so tried a metal for a while then hooked up for a few seconds, then gone. Hard to say what it was. The water still has a bit of colour in it, and as the fish dropped off near the boat, it was followed off by a school of fish. Hard to see them, but they had greenish backs and maybe were larger tailor, not kings. No more hits so anchored near the mouth, and dropped a couple of baits over, pillies and salted tailor. Not a bite all night on the bottom. Usually there are small reddies about to take your baits, but none there. None up from Lilli Pilli last week, so the heavy rain has probably flushed them outside, or into an area that I don't normally fish. I kept spinning and eventually pulled out the largest tailor after a hundred or so casts. The sun dropped out of sight and a few yakkas turned up. Kept a couple for livies and cut the others into strips. The strips still did not attract any bites on the bottom. One livie was bitten on the head by a squid, and the other attracted nothing. There were small pillies splashing about in patches, and a few bully mullet jumping about near the shore. Was thinking of heading home about half dark, so gave the yakka strip a bit of movement, and hooked up a tailor. I pulled up 4 on the yakka strips jigging them back to the boat, and 2 throwbacks, then the bites stopped on dark, so headed home.

We got them on 30 lb spin sticks with 40 lb leaders

Decided to fish for some tailor at first light this morning with a metal, second cast & got a just legal tailor which was returned to grow a bit bigger, there was a fair bit of bait around which seemed promising but strangely disappeared soon after managed to pick up 2 more around the 40+cm mark & dropped 3 larger models which spat the hooks due to the surge & current which is probably why the bait disappeared . Towards the end of the 2hr session bait was being harassed well out of casting range first up it looked like bonnies harassing them & soon after frigates followed by 2 packs of 6 to 8 long tails (northern bluefin) right up there clacker.After that bit of excitement decided to head back to the car & put the tailor on ice & grabbed the second coffee for the morning. Went around to the main ledge & chatted to a couple of local fishos I new who had caught a few bonnies & saw a 7kg Cobia someone else scored, decided to head back to a quieter spot & started casting a pink hardbody & managed to pick up a few bonnies & then got a good hit & run, fought this one on a lighter drag & slowly got it back to the ledge (after being smoked last week & reefed by the last one on a heavy drag) managed to stay on top of the fish which proceeded to take me on a tense 30m walk across the rocks & once subdued waited for a good wave & managed to lift a 75 cm kingy on 20lb mainline & 30lb leaderwhile I was fighting mine the guy next to me hooks up a good 31/2kg salmon on a float & pilly rig & next cast gets another at 83cm & probably around 5kg+ Really interesting day off the stones with a very varied mixed bag of fish caught & sighted. One guy even had a small Bonnie out under a balloon hoping for a long tail

Have a look at a Penn Clash CLA 5000. Great reel. Tell you what is a great reel Shimano Thunnus C14 6000. I have both. Can't fault them. Cheers.

Some sentimental jigs in there that I cherished. Especially nice red Hayabusa jig that I got my first catch on (Should have framed it). All the Yamashita ones