Rob81

Go lugarno. Youre better off at wharfs of some kind with some kids. Lugarno is nice and easy for kids and you dont actually park far from where you fish. its near a seafood restaurant at the end of forrest road.

As above, learn to tie FG knot if not doing so. Other thing to add for the tag end if you cant cut it too close. Cut the tag with around 2-3mm off the end. And then use a lighter (probably best to use the jet lighters) to melt the tag end down. This will do two things, 1. get your tag end lower, 2. create an anchor so it does slip through the guides. One thing too also, the melted leader will form a mushroom shape, dont let that shape get too big. All depends on thickness of leader, once it gets a bit too thick it will bump onto your guides.

Good luck with it all!

You sure it wasn't an eagleray? I was nearby there a couple weeks back and I pulled in 2 eagles. That was a first in landing them, all the others I hooked onto in the past I couldn't stopped and got spooled. They run pretty fast and hard. If you were lower in the water column and depending on the fight its highly likely eagleray and was more of a coincident that the king happen to go down not long before that... Just a thought. Even the ones I caught, in less than 10cm of water and the height of the thing being around 15cm, still went for a final run on me and pulled out some decent line.

Don't bother with swivels from braid to leader. Just run a fg knot of them. Less things to go wrong with one less item in rig

Almost looks like you're moving into the ISO fishing category going light

You can use a handline if you wanted to but depends where you fish and what you're fishing for. For me, I would use a light rod of that length mainly around/on wharfs. I have ones longer then that but those I use off the rocks more but a more of a mid to heavy setup. I have seen some people use a 6 foot rod around the rocks but I wouldn't recommend it. The extra length helps a lot mostly towards the end fishing off the rocks.

Also mono has stretch and braid is more sensitive

Off memory armpits you were also the person looking for an all in one setup. Fish move around you'd have to be at the right place at the right time to find those. Sometimes you get lucky and they're all there but other days you'd get either a few things your looking for

Young or old if they're doing it that time then they've most likely done it many times before

As Swordfisherman said, you're going to need two setups. All of the rods I use off the rocks will be too long to bring on board a boat. Also, I haven't seen a reel that comes with 2 spools in ages, you'll have to buy a separate spare one if you want 2 spools. You also didn't factor in the budget for Line as well, unless that is included in your reel budget.

Here's my oddest one.

Sweep. I like to call them bait thieves

I have a goosa 8k. Thing is like a tank, been smashed by salt water over the years and still going good. Also, I think a Daiwa 4500 is more similar size to the Shimano 6k.

Usually the ones that come with the tackle boxes are of poor quality. You can probably check out a k-mart or big w store. Not too sure as I prefer to buy everything separately so I have only what I need and its usually better quality.

Found it annoying too them switches. Sometimes I would accidentally flip it over it'll basically free spool. What I learnt a number of years ago though was you'd only find those switches on the low end reels of a brand. Typically mid-range to high end wouldn't have them.

Your reel should have the clicker. The mechanistic is usually within the spool. I haven't heard of a spin reel without a clicker before. I do have a reel without the clicker but that is only because I lost the spring inside the spool. As mentioned above, the top of the spool (where your fishing line is sitting), there should be a circle shape with a bar going across, different reels may appear differently. You can twist this clockwise (to tighten) and anti-clockwise (to loosen). If you make this slightly loose and then pull on the line, you should hear the clicker. If you loosen the spool too much you'll end up removing the spool itself.

I used an Alvey for a short period of my fishing life and my understanding was that you shouldn't use Braid on them. Mainly due to that there was no memory on braid compared to Mono. I wasn't good at it all but wanted to try something different at the time so did more research. As soon as I switched to Mono any issues I had using braid was gone and the only issues I had was me (if anything).

Haha looking at the last few comments the most important thing is that you got to wet a line. Even though you got wet yourself you know what Rah, I tend to fish the first light too. That's mainly cause the wife and kids are still sleeping and I return home not long after they get up to start the weekend rush

Also most wharfs in Sydney are inside, should also take into consideration the height of the low and high tides and the differences in height. This part I'm still kinda trying to work out myself for some of the systems

For myself personally I can only fish certain times so I don't have the luxury of picking and choosing when I can go. So my only option is choosing where to go and I use that information to determine that. Mostly for comfort rather then knowing there is fish there. I prefer rock fishing so in certain swells height/direction/speed mixed with wind direction might not good for some areas but good for others. But also I'll take into considering the wind too. I'd prefer the wind to be against my back when casting as I can use it towards my advantage. But under 8-9 knots won't make a great deal of difference. Some conditions are crap or too dangerous for all rock locations so I may move inland. Basically south swell is the swell coming from the south, north it's coming from north and so forth. Same for wind. Best to keep eye on the timing of swell too. This is prolly a bit more important than the height. U can have a low swell but coming at 6 seconds and still get wet being 3 meters above the water. It's pretty much rough out there. Im no pro but that's just some of the basics I go by. In the conditions that you had experienced today I would have either: -stay home -go under a bridge to fish -fish a location I can watch my rod in a car

For the pillies falling off could be that it's thawed and gone too soft and you're doing a hard cast. Better use them frozen or use salted ones

I got my first Mudcrab nearby that area. But the first two times I pulled it up was full of catfish. It filled up the whole crabtrap. Third time was 1 crab with 3 catfish.

+1 on Captain Spanner's advice on Lugarno. I used to take my kids there, when they were willing to come out for a fish. There's no need to cast far, prolly about 2-3m tops for the kids. if there's no action there, you're less likely to get action further out. Plus the current tends to run fast out there. On a higher tide I recommend casting towards the restaurant, however its very shallow and snaggy over there. On that side you'll tend to get quiet a few flatties there. You'll find usually Breams/Flatties and whiting around that area. And next common thing you'll find would probably be trevallies. But as mentioned above, can be days with no bites (but still easy and safe for kids there). There's also a jetty at East Hills park, I haven't fished it myself (only went to check it out one day). So not too sure if you'll get much there.

Try not using a swivel with braid. See if that makes a difference. Use a FG knot to tie them together, if not then a simple double uni knot.