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.

The first guys technique is very average to say the least and really does not make the most of the rod at all. Also his cast trajectory will be very low which is good when punching into the wind, but will limit the distance. The second guy is a bloke by the name of Ryan White from a shop called Hatteras Jack. He is the century distributor in the US. His cast is much better and shows/explains the principles. The only thing he doesn't go through is foot placement, weight transfer and posture. when combining all these things it is amazing how much more power you can transfer into a rod. I have used this overhead cast to put a 125gr lead in excess of 150m with a 13ft rod, spinning reel and 20lb braid. Im glad to see that you have taken an interest in all things casting.

Its got to give your bait more movement which cant be a bad thing. Plus a lot of fish hunt off the bottom. Jew included. So why not have your bait where they expect to find it. plus you have the added bonus of less shovel noses, dog sharks and other undesirables. But if you have a lot of side current or big seas, it can be hard to hold bottom with a buoyant bait. I use hosiery elastic/bait mate. I get this from the UK as well. The black magic stuff is good too. But pretty expensive for what it is. It does not seem to deter the fish what so ever. Ive never used the dissolving stuff.

The 7500 uses the same design as the 7000. As it is a C3 it has spool bearings, rather than bushes. They are a lovely reel. Luke, I have never used the black magic longreach rigs. They are a basic pulley pennel rig. The bait clip is a Breakaway impact shield and can be bought separately. They are an okay release system but require the use of crimps and beads if you are to make your own rigs. The good thing about them is that they will take any sized hook. There are several other bait clips that i prefer to use namely the Gemini splashdown solo clip and Breakaway IMPS clip. Both of these release clips are a bit limited on hook wire diameter, but there are ways around this. There are some local suppliers for these clips but i dare not mention them on the forum. I often just import them myself in a big order with tonnes of other bibs and bobs. FYI The pulley rig was mainly designed to get the lead to lift up out of the way when fighting a fish in rough environments reducing the risk of snagging. The clipping down of baits features heavily in most of the UK rigs. Clipping down your bait will improve distance significantly. So will knowing how to rig your bait properly. The added bonus is that your hook up rate will improve also. As for foam, this is great idea and i use it a a lot. But more near the bait rather than on the leader. you secure it with bait elastic then build up your bait around this. The guys in south africa have big bait presentation down to an art and some time on google can teach you a lot.

A mag brake will likely cost alot of distance, but at least your lead will stay attached to your line . Crack offs go a long way! In all seriousness, the mag just gives you an way of slowing down the reel to prevent over runs. There are other means to achieve this. The thumb will do a mediocre job. Enough for fishing and lobbing bait, but distance casting is asking for trouble. Centrifugal breaks are good, but the 2 little brakes in your 7000 are unlikely to be able to handle it on their own. another option is to use a heavier grade oil in your spool bearings, something like car engine oil will help to tame the reel further. Also with the spool design on the 7000s, it is possible to use the end caps in the centre of each side plate to apply a small amount of resistance to the spool axle. In regards to the removal of the level wind, this would normally mean removing the top supprting bar from the cage. This would have to be cut out and is something that you cannot go back from. The reel will then be a CT version. The lower bar (where the pawl normally runs) is then replaced with a solid bar to restore the reel frame/cage rigidity. Google or youtube "abu CT conversion"

Wellzy, So that is a difficult question. If all else was equal, Graphite and carbon fiber rods would generally have the advantage due to the speed at which the rod blank recovers. But many other factors can also influence blank recovery other than just material, like resins used and tapers. Glass still has a much greater potential for distance than most people can extract from them, and there are much better glass blanks available than the average stuff we have seen in this country for the past 30 years. Where other surf fishing countries continued to develop there technologies, we just kept pumping out the same old stuff for the next few decades. The trick is that different blank types require slightly different techniques to get the most of them, slower actioned blanks like some of the parabolic sea bass style rods as well as the older MT and SU glass blanks respond well to a slower more progressive casting style to get the most out of them. Faster actioned blanks will load quicker into their stiffer mid and butt sections which allows you to turn on the power a little bit quicker.

In many cases improvments in gear will see minor improvements in distance. But improvments in technique will show larger improvements in distance with any gear. The best casting weight will be one that most suits the rod you are pairing it to. To light and you are unlikey to fully load the rod. The old addage rings true "you have to bend it to send it". To heavy and you will saturate the rod and dampen the rods natural recovery. or worst case you will end up with a rod with a few more pieces. Prefered length is up to the individual, but for general beach work a 12-14ft would be ample. I cant picture the size of a 5000 salt, is it closer to shimano way of sizing or diawas? One of the biggest restrictions to casting distance is actually the rig you are throwing. The drag of the bait and terminal tackle will rob distance big time. Look up distance casting rigs, pulley rigs and clip down rigs. they are the bees knees!! Would you believe me if i told you i can cast a half pilchard (actually it was simulated by using a 130mm squidgy fish with the paddle tail chopped off) on snooded 4/0s and 125gr sinker 113m!! 113m was the best of three casts, the worst was 99m. This was with my fishing gear ( a century 13' TTLDSM and Ultegra 5500) and a simple overhead thump cast with 20lb braid. I am thinking it might be a good idea to arrange a surf casting day at some point in the future. This would be the best way to pass on some of the casting fundamentals as well as show you guys some of the distance casting equipment and rigs. Would there be any interest in that?

The sky is the limit when it comes down to how much you want to spend and what you want to do with it. If you do go down the path of looking at getting any high end UK gear, make sure you touch base first. I have more than a few century's and an AFAW and can offer some honest feedback on what would be most suitable. Thier cast weights are nothing like the local stuff we get here. There are not many off the shelf overhead rods available in this country. Assassin rods from south africa are reasonable but expensive in this country for what they are, which is a average chinese made blank and average components. Penn Prevail 12ft OH is much better value. they seem to get a good rap, but i havent ever used one. The butt length is way to short for me with high reel. I think there is a crucis OH rod available too. I have never played with one so cant comment further. Century's start around the $500 mark and go through to over $1200 depending on what model your after. But they are quality gear. fitted with Titanium K guides, Autoclaved carbon fibre blanks and incredable distance potential. The Avet is a great reel, but expensive. I have to recommend that you steer away from braid. If starting out, you will get the odd birdsnest, and these can be expensive in braid, plus anything lighter than say 50lb will cause issues of digging into itself, which will cause birdies and crack offs when you cast. Just get some cheap mono to start off.

Matt, The first thing to do is get rid of the level wind on your 7000. The next thing is add a mag break assembly. Clean the bearings and load that sucker with 0.35mm line. They are a very different spool design to the smaller abus with ultra cast spools. But will still have plenty of potential for distance. I modify and service all my own reels, so have never had a need to send them out. For parts i would normally contact the local supplier, or in the case of Avet, US supplier. Short, There are a few of us that pendulum cast here is aus. and there are various tournaments on throughout the country. Definately not main stream though. Distance casting is a bit of a dark art. I use a MXL MC for alot of my bait fishing. They are a capable reel and well made. If i lost mine i would replace it in a heart beat. They will cast well and a capable caster can expect 150-180m out of one with a plain lead. They dont have the same potential for huge distance as a star drag, simply because a lever drag has more rotating inertia due to the drag washer as well as the spools tend to be heavier built to prevent distortion from the drag pressure which is applied directly to the side of the spool. For this reason, you need more energy to get them moving and more mags to calm them down, which consumes a bit of energy. This becomes more noticable on the lighter weights (ie lighter metals, 80gr = no dramas). They are pretty heavily magged out of the box and would make a nice introduction into the world of overhead casting. One thing that bugs me is how easily you can knock them out of gear when putting in or out of a rod holder, or if it catches on loose clothing. Its only happened on the very odd occassion but always seems to happen at the worst possible times Also look at the Penn squall 15. Awesome little reel, magged and inexpensive. They will cast 200m in the right hands!

Hi Matt, The slosh is long since retired. I use a few modified 5500/6500 Abus and daiwa 7HT's for my field work, and Penn Squalls, Daiwa BG's and Avets for most of my fishing. I still do alot of work with spin tackle and think i could certainly help you get a bit more distance out of your cast. First thing to consider is running lighter line. Once you have got your knots sorted out, you'd be surprised out hard you can pull on 10-20lb braid. Most people running 30lb braid are not fishing it anywhere near its limit and would find much better performance and distance using lighter line. I use 10lb braid for spinning 40gr metals for bonnies, frigates and salmon/tailor and find it ideal. The key things to work on are solid foundation and foot placement, body weight transfer, looking up to promote a effective lead /lure tradjectory and focus on a strong push pull to finish. 80m with alot of the metals out there is actually pretty good distance and better than most people. But 100m+ should be achievable to anyone willing to put some time into their casting. I am thinking about putting an instructional vid together on basic casting pricipals. I will be happy to post it up once its done if admin allows.

So for those that know me, I am a bit obsessive when I get an idea in my head, and fishing in general is no exception. Always wanting to improve in all facets of my fishing, I identified a year or two ago that I needed to improve my casting. Now you often hear the same old comments “why would you want to cast that far as all the fish are at your feet” or “you're casting over the fish”. Of course when you can only cast 50m, all fish you catch will be within that 50m. But what is beyond that? Now I’m not saying that you always need to cast as far as you can, far from it. Often the fish are right at your feet. But there are a lot of times when having good casting skills can unlock a whole new world of fishing opportunities. One example that comes to mind is when I was sitting on one of my favourite rocks fishing for jew. It was approaching dark and the sea was fairly benign with only a little wash around. Not perfect conditions but I remained hopeful that the approaching southerly change would bring with it more favourable conditions. I had picked up a few squid and all was looking good except for the last piece of the puzzle, the southerly change. When the change did come, it came with vengeance. 20-30knots pushed straight in my face, it whipped up the once placid sea conditions and sent spray skidding across the rock platform. This would be where most people would pack up and go home (me included only a year prior). But I was able to clip down a juicy strip of squid and punch it into the blustery conditions. At this spot you must be able to hit the sand edge that starts about 40m out, and a lot of people would struggle to do this with a decent bait in calm conditions. Any cast that falls short rarely comes back due to the heavy reef. But this is where the hard work and practice paid dividends, and I pulled a nice fish of 15kg out of these difficult conditions. This same scenario has played out several times since, including just last week when i landed a 1m gummy off the same rock in the same conditons. A rather sad looking 15kg Jew taken in difficult conditions Another example is the snapper fishing that can be on offer off the Sydney ledges at the right time of year for those that can reach the gravel beds that sit about 100m off a lot of headlands. Or the great beach fishing that can be had in the deep water behind the first sand bar. I got a few school Jew over Christmas fishing these deep water edges and one shark that pulled 350m of 30lb before biting me off. And don’t get me started about the extra water you can cover spinning for pelagics, or being able to put baits on the edges of the channels in our rivers, for fish that use these areas as highways. Or the fact that (believe it or not) it takes less effort to cast further with good technique, meaning that you can spin for longer without tiring. The thing that all these fishing opportunities have in common, is they are off limits to most people that don’t open there eyes to what is possible through good technique and practice. An 8kg Fish taken from the deep water behind the first break. The ability to cast a bait 80m was the undoing of this fish. I picked up another about 6kg two nights later fishing the same area. The other guys near by on the beach only managed shovel nose rays in the unproductive shallow gutters. So to get back to my own journey into the world of distance casting. With a lazy few hours up my sleeve trolling youtube, my interest was eventually turned to distance casting and UK surf fishing. What an eye opener! What these guys are capable of rod and reel is simply amazing. The inevitable progression was to tournament casting and I was amazed to see that guys are casting in excess of 250m!!!! Including a group of people right here in Australia. I studied these videos in awe until it got too much for me and I grabbed my Nitro Messiah and Daiwa slosh 30 and hit the park to see what I could do. As I already ‘knew’ that I was a good caster and surely be casting 100+meters. The reality check came when my best efforts were falling in the 70-80m range. I mimicked the techniques I saw on the youtube vids as best I could but could not crack that 80m. Deflated but not beaten I went home to regroup and vowed that I will make that 100m. Fast forward a couple of years, and many mile stones later I finally cracked my first casts over 200m on the weekend, setting a new PB of 203m with 150gram lead!!! The sport of distance casting has opened up a whole new world of fishing possibilities as well as feeding my competitiveness. It has introduced me to a few likeminded nutters which I am proud to call my mates and my new found skills have accounted for fish that would otherwise just not have been possible. So now I feel it is my turn to spruik the dark art of distance casting and in turn maybe open someone else’s eyes to the possibilities. I really encourage everyone to get out on the field and see what they (and thier gear) are capable of. Often what people think they can cast compared to what they actually can cast is vastly different. But please be sure to keep safety in mind as a wayward sinker can be devestating!! What a rod should look like. This is a 14'10 Century T1000, One of the most powerful surfcasting rods available. Goes to show the power of good technique.