Yoda

Yeah, absolutely, sometimes I'll go down there with a 10' super light whip rod with 6-8kg gear just for fun and the pigs just laugh at me, I get sick of rerigging, once I ran out of hooks, and that's not really fair on the fish, sometimes I'll use a 12' threadline outfit with 15lb braid and a 12' mono leader, you have to have the mono to handle any scrapes against the reef, but my favorite is the 14" alvey rod with the 650c alvey sidecast, big pigs are hard, dirty fighters, the best thing about this rig is that if the pigs arent there then I can move onto the beach and target big jew, there's virtually nothing you cannot catch on this rig as you can get over 300mts of 30lb mono onto one of these alveys if they can take that much line off me then they win, I dont have the stamina to beat that, but I had fun trying.

I've seen em, but not since about 20 years ago when I used to spend a lot of time on the water as a handliner fisho, I do know that they do not actually fly as in wings flapping but glide accross the surface and for a hec of a long way, kinda like those possums which have the flaps between their legs and extend to glide through the trees.

Is your boat for lookin at or fishin out of? my boat might have been polished 20 years ago when it came out of the boatbuilders shop, but any money spent on it since has gone into gear, fuel or bait. I'll polish it when I give up fishin and sell it.

What a load of rubbish, sounds like a marine scientist trying to keep his funding going for a few more years, and guess what, the government might just believe him and give him 1/2 a million of our $ to see if his idea works.

I've got an alvey 650c which I've had for about 20 years, It's got the star drag but you can also apply the hand drag method if you like, which is very handy if you hook that very strong fish, I've replaced some parts once in it's life and it has been the best reel I've ever owned, match it with a 14" alvey rod and you have got a serious piece of of beach and rock big fish fighting reliable gear, believe me you will wear out before this does.

Great fish there lad, loads of fun to catch aren't they? My tips to any budding pig hunters are; be sure to use sturdy gear, I use a 14' Alvey beach rod, an Alvey 650 sidecast stardrag, with 30lb mono with the drag done to the limit,(with some bigger blokes even this is not enough) with a 1/0 or 2/0 mustad hoodlum hook(heavy guage), a long rod helps you to keep the line clear of the rocks under your feet as well as good leverage to swing them up onto the rocks to land them, on light gear a decent pig will bust you up every time, give them any line and they dive straight for the nearest ledge or cave and bye bye pigsy, I use fresh cooked king prawns and find they work as well as anything else, that way it's one for the fish and one for me, and burley is a must, bread or chook pelllets.

I've fished the rocks for 40 years and never been in the soup (touchwood), I reckon if you have then you've taken too much risk, you only have to go in once to never come back out, always watch your chosen spot for a while before fishing and NEVER take your eyes off the sea, have an escape route planned if a rogue wave hits, wear light clothing or even a wetsuit, most importantly get a pair of wet rock gripping shoes (expensive but a must have), wet rocks are slippery, let someone know you are going and where and when you intend to return, do not risk landing a fish if large waves are looming, back your drag off and wait for a safe time. All in all just use commonsense, don't take risks.

After reading their opinions and putting them into context in the real world it becomes obvious that these people are just junior scientists who are fishing for research grants, after all it is more beneficial to your career if you tow the party line, this is the reason why the only people speaking out about sanctuary zones are the more elder scientists such as Dr Julian Pepperill and Professor Walter Starck among others who do not wish to make their names public for obvious reasons. Rec fishos are up against an extreme green lobby group as well as a number of scientists who are hell bent on ensuring their funding for the next few years, ask yourself, who would be more likely to promote the truth to the NSW public.

concentrate your search on areas close to sewerage outfalls for stringy weed, for cabbage weed you need to search the ocean rocks at low tide.

OK, so the blokes got an American accent, so what, he lives in Townsville and he just happens to be one of the foremost experts in the world on coral reef biodiversity and happens to have more hours diving on the GBR than any other scientist in the world, and as he said in the interview that there are a lot of scientists who are not willing to speak out as to do so will be a career ending execise, as for Daniel's comments about mullet, and this should go a long way toward all arguments regarding beach hauling, the Newcastle co-op has recorded it's best profit year in over 10 years, and that is including ever increasing restrictions on commercial fishers, and less areas to fish in. Did you know that the Great White Shark population on the Stockton Bight has increased to the point that local fisherman are warning the authorities that some one is going to get eaten, the Salmon population is so out of control since they banned the take of Salmon that the sharks are just sitting there feasting on them, but what are the Salmon eating? Well, they are eating all of the juvenile Whiting, Bream, etc, etc, Salmon are referred to as the Hoovers of the ocean, ie; they just cruise the beaches and clear out everything in their path, the end result is no juvenile fish to restock the beaches and massive schools of Salmon all over the place, and lots of Whites. So the money that the fools in government are spending on measures to protect the biodiversity in the way of marine parks would be much better spent on actual scientific measures to gauge biodiversity and what to do to create real measures to protect it, rather than listen to a bunch of greenies with their lock it up lock them out policies with no real solutions at all.

I think using Braid for beach fishing is great, less wind resistance, less drag by wave and current action, greater line capacity, better casting distances, but one thing you should be aware of particularly with summer around the corner is that Bluebottles stick to braid like superglue, If you intend to fish with an onshore blowing in summer I suggest that you have a spare spool loaded up with mono, I learnt the hard way one evening last year when the blubottles were thick and I actually only got my line halfway wound in before the blueys clogged the tip runner on my rod, I had to manually remove them and all the others stuck to my line before I could get my line back onto my spool, with stings all over my hands and arms it made a quit painful hour or so before I could get home, and on the way I absent mindedly wiped my mouth and ended up with stings around my lips on my tongue and in my gob, a liberal dousing with vinegar at home provided some relief as did a couple of amber anaesthetics. Beware. It was my first cast after a 40min walk to some good water off some beach rocks, quite a forgettable fishing outing.

Hey Daniel, it seems that you are predispositioned with Mulloway, mate they are really fun to catch but they are not the best on the tooth, any fisho would rather catch a big snapper for the table, I caught a lot of Mulloway from my boat in the 90's but the most fun catch I ever had was 27kg of Jew off the beach. That beat every big Jew catch I'd had out of the boat by miles in the excitement factor. And I wil not take a Jew less than 90 cm.

I use an ironing basket alongside the boat to throw livies into as I catch them, when I've finished my bait catching I scoop the healthy ones out of the top and transfer them to the on boat live well, the other unfortunate ones which did not make it lie in the bottom of the basket and go into the dead bait well, this stops the dead ones from contaminatting my live well with blood, my main live baits are slimy mackerel and yellowtail and to keep these guys alive for any extended periods you would probably need a seriously expensive setup, all dead fish are kept in an ice slurry and can be kept for days in this manner as very fresh baits.

There has been a lot of different opinions on the need for and the eficacy of Marine Park Sanctuary Zones, I think that one thing which we can all agree on is that there needs to be some serious scientific research done to determine the extent to which the marine environment needs to be protected and I personally am totally in favour of reduced bag limits, increased minimum sizes and slot sizes, and I am conceding this without any scientific evidence of the need for these measures, for the reason that I firmly believe in conservation of fish stocks for future generations, I also believe that the authorities can go a long way towards conservation under current bag and size limits through better education of fishers and more rigorous enforcement, I do not see the need to transfer the effort in any Marine Park from say 10 fishing spots to another 10 fishing spots in the same area, how can this possibly help fish stocks, it simply increases fishing pressure on other areas, put this in worldwide perspective and there are a lot of 3rd world countries which welcome the dollars we pay for imports who have no qualms about selling off their last fillet of 'Basa' while our local seafood is locked away forever. Dr Walter Starck, a world renowned marine scientist who has spent decades studying the GBR says that Australian fisheries are the most lightly fished in the world. We need to get this government to spend the millions they have committed to marine parks to spend this money on proper scientific research into exactly what we need to do as Australians to ensure a sustainable recreational and commercial fishing industry well into the future, not just lock it up and lock us out to satisfy a politically powerful minority for the sake of much needed preferences at the March election.

For any doubters of Labors commitment to the rollout of Marine Parks right along the coastline. Iemma and co claim there have been no deals done with the greens in this matter, if this is so why did he invite 120 leading greenies to dine at Parliament House on the 29th November 2005 and make the following speech: "The Port Stephens-Great Lakes Marine Park, covering an area of some 97,000 hectares will be formally created on December 1st 2005. Work will now begin on finalising a zoning plan for this marine park, which will include EXTENSIVE CONSULTATION WITH THE LOCAL COMMUNITY. The zoning plan is expected to be finalised by 1st July 2006. The second new marine park will be located in he southern section of the Batemans Shelf Marine Bioregion. Its exact name has yet to be decided. While precise boundaries will be finalised by early April, it will cover around 85,000 hectares from Brush Is to Wallaga Lake in the south. LIKE EACH OF THE STATES EXISTING MARINE PARKS, ACCESS TO FAVOURITE FISHING SPOTS IN THESE NEW MARINE PARKS WILL BE FULLY PROTECTED." "Achievements that will be preserved and extended under my government. But we don't do it alone. Like Labor governments before us, we rely on OUR HISTORIC PARTNERSHIP WITH THE CONSERVATION MOVEMENT." "Our history tells one powerful lesson - when the conservation movement joins with Labor to pursue common goals, great things can be achieved. It's a special and enduring relationship, and tonight I renew that relationship not just with words but with concrete measures and plans. I'm proud to announce an ambitious five year agenda - "Towards 2010" - the next chapter in our long and proud history of environmental achievement." "The Port Stephens park will cover the extensive estuaries of Port Stephens, Myall Lakes and Smiths Lake as well as important reefs, islands and wildlife habitats. The Batemans park will encompass many beautiful reefs, islands and coastal lakes such as Durras and Brou. Importantly it will also cover the renowned Montague Island. "All these parks - Byron, Port Stephens and Batemans - will protect iconic species such as the Grey Nurse shark, Green Turtles, dolphins, penguins and sea birds. And to back up these plans, the Government will invest $30 million over the next 5 years. From no marine parks to six within 8 years - another great Labor achievement.....and one that would never been possible without your informed and persistent advocacy." "My friends, tonight is just the beginning of a long and positive dialogue between my new Government and the conservation movement." "Over the next 18 months, Bob Debus, and I will develop the next stage of our plans, working with you, our colleagues in the conservation movement, to protect the environment we hold in trust for generations to come." "I look forward to working with you." Still think it is all a beat up by Jones??????????????????????????????????????????