outdoordan

Try envirotex lite. I use this for all my lure making both as a sealer and as a finish. as a sealer, dilute with 20% metho. Be sure to thouroughly clean with metho before coating. Like all epoxy, it dosnt take well to gease, oil or silicones.

I personally have never been much of a fan of sidecast reels, but even so, i am deeply saddened at the news of another austrailian icon closing its doors. I wonder how many jew and tailor have fallen to these clasic workhorses. especially in the hayday of the rock and beach comps, when anglers would regularly take cricket scores of these fish. I remember reading of some epic battles by guys many moons ago using sidecast tackle, like of some of the barrel sized yellowfin tuna taken off the rocks. Or the scores of big jew taken on feathers during floods. And more recently, the 50+kg spanyard and big GTs taken slide baiting off frazer island. RIP Alvey

Look at all that great habitat!!! Could be a good time to do some lure collecting. I hope that such a substantial drop in river levels and flow doesnt have too much of a negative effect on the natives.

In heavy country I go hard on them from the get go. My plan is to pull them up as soon as possible and get them head shaking. That way they loose a bit of traction in the water and hopfully come up in the water table a bit. It is normally all over pretty quickly, either the fish is buggered and comes easy, or im re rigging. I dont think that jew actively try to bust you off (like a king) I feel that when they do me, they are just bolting along the bottom amoungst the structure. I come to this concusion from the amount of times i have taken good fish out of really gnarly cover in pretty shallow water, when the fish could easily bury me, but somehow don't. I think alot of this comes down to conditions as well. In rougher conditions, the fish may feel more comfortable higher in the water column, but when its a bit clearer or calmer, they want to be down amoungst the kelp and boulders. I have never had one hole up like a groper. Ive had small ones get hung up but dont have enough grunt to bust of straight away. Either you get them in a bit battle scared with some bark off, or they eventually wear through. But you can normally feel them thrashing around. Another thing that can happen when fishing a sinker on a dropper, is the lead gets hung up. Needless to say i avoid droppers and either run a running sinker on the leader or run a pulley rig.

I havent played with the crucis overhead rod, but from the spin rod that i have played with, the action is a bit slower, as well as being nice and light. This could be one to look at if you find one stocked near you. The only issue is it is 11ft. you could also look to build on a Live Fibre ZMT7144/2 blank. 12ft, High modulus carbon, quite light, rated to 10kg and slower actioned. Available as a 1 piece or 2. Fully understand the need for abrasion resistance. I fish for jew with 15kg on an Avet MXL off the rocks for just this reason, While i could never break it through the rod on a straight pull, it gives me a little bit of security if the line gets a bit rasped up. If a big fish buries you, even a heavy leader wont save you most of the time.

Crucis do a 11 foot overhead that might fit the bill. There are also the discontinued Rovex 11 foot and Penn big game surf rods which you may still be able to find. The Nirto messiah is 13 foot and makes for a sweet rod, but is better with the lighter cast weights. and of course there is the Daiwa and Penn prevail, but these are pretty heavy actioned and better for the bigger baits and leads If you open your mind to 10 footers there are a few more options, and IMO 10ft is plenty from the rocks. The next option would be the custom route. What cast weights are you looking at? what sort of distance are you fishing at? Do you run 25-30lb on your 6500 at the moment? You wouldnt fit too much on there, about 150-160m filled to the brim. No problem for wash fishing, but a bit light on after a decent cast. You can back with a bit of braid to up the capacity , or drop down to 20lb if needed.

The thing with poddy mullet is that you can only use them up to 15cms as Live bail only. You can not be in posession of dead mullet under 30cms, and cannot be in possesion of any mullet between 15-30cms. The rules are a bit crazy and convoluted. but thems the rules

I have used alot of live bait off the beach and have caught a few good fish doing it. The problem is when tha salmon turn up they will engulf your hard earnt livies. And you'll be surprised just how big of a bait fish they will jam down their pie hole. The other issue is casting them. If you lighly hook them, its pretty easy to cast them off. Hook them deep and they wont last long. Legal tailor and 30cm mullet make better livies IMO! and i'm yet to have a salmon snavel one of those!

I had to google it, but yes. I live around the corner in KL and never knew the name. Let us know how you get on with the soluble string Luke?

The splashdown clips are awesome, but they are only suited to thin wire hooks. anything bigger than say 4/0 will have issues. Imps clips are a bit better but still struggle with 8/0s. I run a loop below the 2 snelled hooks and clip that. Sliding is great for big baits, and you should be able to slide smaller baits with weighted slides, but its easier and quicker to just cast them. current needs to be taken into account when sliding to make sure that the bait makes it all the way out. Also grip leads are a must for sliding as you need to make sure you have a solid anchor point to get enough tension on the line for the non return clip to work properly. Slide clips are pretty expensive, but you can make your own without too much drama with the right gear. Mono is a better option for sliding. I have never slid baits on braid so cant really comment. Perhaps someone with experience in this can chime in.

Matt, I use a low swing pendulum for my tournament casting, but spent about a year focusing on "off the ground" to improve my technique before switching to pendulum. I didnt even think about the pendulum until i was hitting 180-190m regularly. The problem is that the pendulum introduces the complications of the swinging lead. This makes it way too hard to perfect the other more important aspects of the cast, like weight transfer, hip rotation, arm placement and the "hit" (final pull with the lower arm around a solid fulcrum created by the upper arm) For fishing I only resort to pendulum when needing big distances. Otherwise I normally stick to an overhead thump style cast. With thoughtful rig and bait presentation, this method is still capable of big distances. I have put a bait and clipped pulley rig 113m on fishing gear using this cast. This comes down a bit with the bigger baits, but 80m+ is still achievable. The cast with the spinning reel and 20lb braid went 151m with 125gr. The rod is a Century TTLDSM and an Ultegra 5500. Nothing more than my every day fishing gear. The thing with pendulum casting is, it has the potential to generate a lot of power. If your timing and technique are not up to scratch, this energy can break rods very easily. It is possible to bend the rod into an acute angle (same as high sticking) or if you "cut the corner" you will cause alot of twisting force to be transfered into the blank. Like a chinese burn. Rods dont like torsional load and will not last long. It is better to work with the off the ground cast if you are wanting to take the step up to pendulum. Or as Dave mentioned, The easy cast. Just take it easy as this cast can also overload the rod if you try to hit it too hard too early as the lead starts below the rod and needs time to step out. This vid shows some off the ground casting with a 150gr practice ball (less lethal to dog walkers and fitness junkies) and TT Super match. The same principles relate to single handed spinning gear as the over head thump cast. Punch forward and up with the casting arm to load the rod, then flick the wrist to generate higher lure speed through the locked rod. Dave, There is not too much available in this country that would take a decent cast. Hence the reason why I have resorted to buying gear from the UK. There is not much i could recommend that would be anywhere near the league of your Century. There is some SA gear that is resonable, But it is way too expensive in this country for pretty entry level gear. Assassins go for over $400 bucks! They should be about half that. Rick, Not sure if you still muck around with long range baiting, but if you do, do your self a favour an check out clip down and pulley rigs. They are the dogs jangelies for long range bait fishing. I look forward to hearing how you go when you get the FSU out. I still have a 5120G, and wouldnt part with it. Even though it sees less and less use these days. Dan

Im really glad to see you guys getting out there and having a cast. I really hope that we can get you guys smashing the 100m mark soon. But a word of warning, Distance casting is highly addictive. Not only is chucking stuff a really long way a lot of fun, the personal challenge to improve yourself is where you get hooked. I will work on putting a bit of an instructional video together to cover some aspects of rigs, gear and casting fundamentals. but you'll have to be a bit patient. My Mrs has huge "to do" list hanging over my head, and it just seems to keep growing, especially when i keep sneaking out to chase my beloved jew instead of whittling down her to do list. Derek, Your sentiments mirror my own in the benefits of proficient casting, both for distance and accuracy. There is a Belgium guy who holds virtually every distance casting record, he is a machine. Rumour has it that he has hit 330m in practice I am sure that my work in distance casting has improved my rod work with light gear. However the increases would be less dramatic. for example, a few % increase on a 100m cast compared to the same % increase on a 35m cast. Also the poor aerodynamics of a small hardbodies mean that even if it starts out at a higher speed, it will decellerate at a higher speed, meaning the distance increase wont be so great. But as you rightfully mentioned, even a extra few merters equates to a huge amount of extra water you could cover, or the further you can hold off the structure, while still casting to those finiky fish holding on it. The next point that you raised and I also agree with is that of compromise. The rod that would give us the most distance, may not be the same rod that would work the lure most effectively, or it could be too long and cumbersome to cast for hours on end. It could be that 10lb braid will cast the furthest, but would mean that when we do hook that tuna or whatever we cannot put enough pressure on the fish, meaning extended fights and the fish being released in poor conditon. It is important that we as anglers understand what is required in pursueing our quarry, and select the gear that suits those needs best. One example i can give, is of my own Mulloway missions off the rocks on lures. There is one place i fish that requires a cast distance of 70-90m to get a bite from the wash behind a bommie. Considering that this is almost always in horrible conditons, it is not an easy task. I have resorted to making my own hardbodies to try to make the distance. I have also resorted to dropping down to 30lb braid. 50lb falls short but gives me a bit to play with when i hook one, 30lb gets the distance, but means i need to redline the gear with 8-9kgs of drag to try to turn the fish from the heavy cover. So far i haven't struck the balance and haven't managed to land my fish, but i will!

Mike, Getting a good understanding as to what makes a good cast will improve distance with all gear whether it be a 7ft bream rod or 14ft beach rod. Length is not everything. I posted my bests casts at the Australian Surfcasting Federation's national champs in South Australia earlier this year with a 13'6 rod after casting my 14'10 for a day and a half. My timing with the shorter rod was much better and i was able to eclipse my best casts with the bigger rod. But in saying that, a seven foot rod will never outcast a 14fter in capable hands.

Definitely keep safety in mind. and use an decent shock leader that has a least a half a dozen turns around the spool. a general rule is 10lb breaking strain for every ounce of cast weight. (5oz or 140gr = 50lb shock leader) A wayward sinker could kill some one. I can't stress safety enough for anyone trying,. Also use much less weight than the rods maximum rating. Like start with half. These ratings are generally not up to power casting, and id hate to see you blow up your pride and joy. Ground casting is an immensely powerful cast when you get it right. Distances of over 200m are achievable with the right gear. In fact there is a guy in the UK that has cast over 300yards (280 odd meters) with a ground cast. It is important to be proficient in ground casting before stepping up to the pendulum as they share most of the same principles and allow you to focus on technique without the added complication of a moving lead. Look up a video by Tommy Farmer called ground casting fundamentals. Tommy is a great American caster that has held many national titles and records. Another one to look out for is the videos put up by our own Jeremy Schrader. Jeremy is an extremely talented Australian caster and holds the current Australian title. He is also a great guy and personal mate. I think it would be a good idea to focus on the Overhead Thump casts when starting out. It is a relatively simple cast that still has potential for big distance. Plus it is a bit safer as all energy is directed in one direction.

Also i don't salt my baits. The only bought bait that i use is IQF pilchards, and this is only to catch fresh bait.