Green Hornet

Tie a leader just like you’d do when lure fishing, length is up to you, but really only needs to be short. Feed your sinker onto the leader, tie a swivel then, then add your trace down to the hook. This rig fishes the same as straight through mono and won’t tangle.

Back before the FG was a thing, the surgeons knot was extremely popular for joining leaders to braid in the lighter line classes. That, and my old favorite the slim beauty.

As others have said, a simple double uni or blood knot will suffice for your mono to mono/fluoro connection, or you can also try a 3 or 4 turn surgeons knot, which is strong and easy to tie. Regarding length of the bite leader, keep them at around 100-150mm. That’s plenty to protect yourself from a large flatty or tailor.

I should add, being such a large expanse of water with such a long, narrow entrance to the ocean, The Basin isn’t really affected by tides. Best time to fish it is early morning and late afternoon and around the dark moon cycle. Particularly during the warmer months when the prawns are about. That being said, I’ve had plenty of good sessions around the full moon and middle of the day. Sometimes a bit of wind on the water entices a bite.

100% mate. I never pass a channel marker without wafting down a Cranka Crab down beside it. Even the buoys on chains hold XL bream at times.

If you have a good sounder, cruise around the deep side of weed edges and locate schools of bait to fish around. 4 and 5 inch plastics for flathead, 3 inch for bream. Expect bycatch of legal size reds, big tailor and the occasional jew. There’s nothing for fish to snag you up on, so fish light for the best results. It’s a large, relatively featureless expanse of water. Covering lots of ground is the key to a good catch.

All good advice above. A couple of things I can add is obviously you’ll be wearing a rain jacket with a hood, wear a cap under the hood because it keeps rain off your face and stops water running down inside your jacket. Secondly, if wearing gumboots, I’ve found them incredibly slippery on wet estuary rocks and prefer to wear Dunlop Volleys and just put up with wet feet.

For yabbies I like to use a smaller hook than many, either a number 6 or 4 Gamakatsu Panfish works for me. With a #6, thread the hook into the bait from the tail and bring it out, hook point under the body, just before you get to the legs. No need for a bait holder style hook, with the barbs on the shank, because you can feed the eye of the Panfish into the bait to stop it slipping. This way avoids damaging the yabbies belly and they’ll stay alive for quite some time. A #4 is done the same, but the exit point is between the legs. It kills the bait, though it’s still effective and holds better on the hook if you need a longer cast. Same size hooks and similar method for squirt worms, though a bait holder shank helps in this case. They’ll still wriggle around for a while no matter how you put them on. Long enough to get eaten if there’s any whiting around. I find the size 4 and 6 hooks a good all round size for bream, whiting and if using worms, luderick as well. I don’t see too many flathead getting off either.

You’ll do more harm than good using a pressure washer on your eaves forcing water into places where it doesn’t belong and if your house was built pre, mid 1980’s they most likely contain asbestos, which is a whole can of worms in itself. Better to wash them down with a broom dunked in some warm soapy water and if the paint is flaking it will need a light scrape. Don’t scrape into the base material to ensure any asbestos is not disturbed. Modern day acrylic paints will bond quite well to a reasonably sound surface as long as its clean.

I think you live down around my way. If you’re collecting the grubs without the use of poison, I know the local wildlife rehab center is screaming for them to feed their injured animals, if you’re that way inclined. You can call them on 0418 427 214 for more information.

No curl grubs in my lawn. The bandicoots make sure of that, LOL.

I’m not sure that we’re on the same page here Mike. I don’t mean discard 20cm of braid, just pull the line tight so there’s no chance of loose line or loops on the spool before your retrieve.

Good to see you out having a go Mike, that’s more than I’ve been able to do lately. In regard to the wind knots, many years ago I used to use 6lb Sunline Super, a line that was famous for wind knotting and I got into the habit of when I flipped the bail arm manually after a cast, I’d grab the line just in front of the reel and pull off about 20cm against the drag before commencing the retrieve. This eliminated the problem completely and is something I still do with any line to this day without even thinking.

Some days luck is on your side. Nice fish.

WOW, that’s a massive bream @Fobbie, I bet you won’t be forgetting that fish for a while. Nice outfit you caught it on as well.