Juzza

Hey Peter, Happy B'day! Hope to see you out there. All the best Justin

Hey Pete, those blackies must have been hungry to have a 1/0 hook fit down their mouths! Might get into some more blackie fishing some time soon at the lake, see you there. Justin

Hey Ray, I cant wait to get into one of those blueys myself, except, dont think ill be putting my hands anywhere near those rock pools seeing what damage those green eels can do to you. Might stick with a lower grade of crabs Justin

Also, when the oscilating slider hits the bottom and top, the gear seems to get stuck...possibly something wrong with the track behind it? This probably has happened to both my reels!

i think i found the problem, opened up the reel today finally, and it wasnt the 'rusting' . I was thinking the problem is at the 'pole' where the main shaft runs along. It seems to have detached? and it makes the whole structure rub against the gears which was why it made the reel turning rigid at times. Anyone have a solution to fixing it? super glue ......pushing it back into its groove..? Justin

Well, currently im 2 hours away from the reels so theres not much i can do. From what it sounds iv been pretty bad at maintaining the reels. The reels havnt really been dunked but salt water has fallen ontop of them when the drag was loosened The way i serviced it: -Once back from a session from where its been near/in salt it is taken to the shower and washed with warm water do get all the external salt/dirt off. Then dried. -Drag is taken apart and cleaned (these dont seem to be the probelm right now) -Take apart the bail off, and the casing where the part are located, i take them apart and try to get am much sand off them as possible and regrease. The problem is reassembling. That about it for my full strip down, i have tried to take off the main shaft but it doesnt budge (probably something i missed). By a full strip down do you mean right down into this place, where the bearings and gears are located? Justin Truthfully i think i need have a re-read of the product information. And try it again! Just wondering, what kind of different lubricants do you use for certain parts of the reel?

Well, my penn applause 2500 reels arnt doing too great after about 10 sessions near salt water. Probably the gears are rusted as it keeps locking up. Obviously they werent designed for salt water going anywhere near them!!! Even with the rinsing and oiling. Thats not to say they're bad reels, 5 ball bearings and a smoothish drag, they do their job. Compared to say the upper range of reels, what feature does it lack that allows it to be easily subject to the elements? I was looking at the Daiwa sol, could you possibly dunk that into salt water and get away with it? I was playing with one this week...sooo tempting to buy (have to find the money first). Justin

Hey guys, it was a craker of a session! About the leatheries, i found that small leatheries were hard to catch on larger hooks (had to rebait often), on the other hand with smaller hooks youd always get bitten off. To counter this problem sight fishing is the best, lost almost 3 times less hooks and sinkers. Too bad i didnt have any long shank hooks, I was using the expensive panfish gamakatsu!!! Also another tip i found..they ate everything..so if i used mullet skin i wouldnt need to rebait as often and catch about 3-4 without rebaiting. Just some tips for you guys chasing leatheries. Justin

A day after i made my blackie report, dad uncle and me went fishing at broken bay. It was a nice night and with a good tide! When we arrived at our destination we decided to get ready to have dinner. I put out a running sinker rig with a bit of freshly bought prawn...well, what happened next was unreal. We were setting up for dinner and just when we had all eaten our first mouth full of food, the rod buckles and drag was stripped away like no tomorrow (one thing to note was that we didnt have rod holders...it was leant against the boat with my takle box blocking it from sliding). I picked up the rod and played with the fish...or maybe it played with me! With the weight and the long blistering run i knew it was a bream, except I didnt expect it to be such a size. It took 5 minutes to land it, it run around the boat and stayed down deep, to see the first glimpse of the fish sent excitement down the spine. My dad helped net the fish with great precision and good team work, we were shocked and happy seeing the size of it! We bled it and put it in the ice slurry, so, baited up and back to dinner it was. You know what, when we just sat down and we had another massive run. I guess dinner time for us and for the fish were about the same time they wouldnt let us eat at all! But ofcourse we didnt mind . We ended up with 3 fish before we settled into dinner. 43cm,44cm,35cm. After dinner we set up another two rods, all with prawns and left them there while we relaxed in the nice calm night. That was untill one of the rods buckles over again, and i was onto another good fish. You know what! Another cracker sized bream of 44cm which was fat, long, and tall (it turned out to be a female). Also i cant thank my dad enough for the netting skills, champion Well, the session came to a halt when the catfish and stingrays started to roll in and we decided it was time to sleep. The next morning, we found the leatherjackets. Mum makes the best asian soup out of leather jackets, The smaller they are the sweeter they are! Also, i guessed i would do you guys a favour and take a few from the ocean. We ended up with 52 chinaman leatheries. Yum! At midday we went to juno point for a bit before we left and caught 2 more bream that went 25 and 26cm. Well, great day, great fish, best of all great bonding time. What else could you ask for.

Just a quick report, today i went to monavale for a fish for blackies, it was a bit rough so i gathered the bait and fished off the corner on the beach, managed to land 1 keeper 34cm. As well as one of those massive rock fish things (duno what it is, it has a blunt head), it was well over a 1kg. It was 8am and decided to have a go at the run out in narra lakes. The fish were there and hungry, with a mix of ocean ones and lake residents. Managed to hook probably 25, landed about 20 with a few legals going to 28cm. They went crazy over anything thrown at them (weed/cabbage) even if it wasnt presented properly. They were all thrown back to grow a bit bigger for a bigger fight next time ! Kept the 34cm for lunch =D Justin

Went to monavale pool yesterday for some blackies and possibly a bream. The bream werent out there to play, so i switched over to cabbage and weed. There were a few blackies there but they were very finacky just mouthing the bait and sucking it off the hook. Sometimes they're so aggresive! Found a small crab on the side of the pool and well, it managed to give me my first fish. This was the only time the blackie swallowed it and ran like mad. All in all, a nice session with 3 blackies biggest 37cm (which matched my PB and 2 that got away. Its good to feel some weight on the end of the line after a long time of little fishing! Justin

That is awesome to see them eat maggots, full of them as well. Look at all that protein =p no wonder blackies feel like they're on steriods! Justin

Thankyou everyone for your replies! Many of my misconceptions have been corrected. What i missed out in my post was that i will be fishing from a boat. That being said, there has been quite alot of helpful suggestions and conflicting ideas. Currently i have 2, 3yo daiwa spinning reels BG90, one of which has been used to groper. I think they are more than sufficient in tackling MOST hawkesbury jew. I havnt yet intended to aim for kings but this so far my motivation is in the pursuit for a jewey. Truthfully, iv watched jewfish secrets one too many times and i think im just imitating their tackle (not that i know what they were using). Now with all the input here and from roostermans old post, i can see they were probably using level wind overheads loaded with braid. One last thing that is bugging me the most is, is there a whole new aspect for catching jewfish on overheads than compared to spinning reels?. I also wondering...why on the dvd are the big live baits usually on the overheads. >I am considering the tekota 600/700, possibly the diawa saltist. Cheers, Justin

I am planning to target estuary jewfish mainly in the hawkesbury, and going to start a more specialised tackle collection. Was looking at the shimano tyrnos 20, just wondering if it is too over kill and can you spool it with 50-60lb braid? Hopefully to tackle with one of these brusiers once i practise my bait catching techniques. Obviosuly i havnt used one before...maybe ill get my local tackle store to explain how to use a lever drag. Was also considering the tekota with the star drag as i have read it may be easier to pick up the technique. Justin

Yep, I agree, First pic- Some type of goat fish and the 2nd pic- wrasse Justin

Went for a fish on friday with my dad at narralakes to try out my new centerpin reel (not really new, its been collecting dust for 2 months). Spooled with 4kg mono, and fluro blue! it was the first time iv used one, AND it was christened with it's first blackie!!! going 28cm LEGAL!!! Casting wasnt a problem either, thats if i didnt try aim for distance. No birds nest but the line kept slipping out of the spool and getting caught on the handles etc. Also tying to bait up and holding onto the reel was a problem..imagine trying to net the fish, pick up the fish then put it into a keeper net while you're in the water plenty of baby blackies at the caravan park and loads of mullet. Plus loads of weed and i mean mountains of it, i think i got pelicans itch again because there was a lack of flow at the entrance. Justin

Nice catch of flatties there! Just wondering how do you hook your live poddies while you drift? though the nose with a 3/0-4/0 i was thinking of giving it a try. Cheers, Justin

Headed down to monavale to try for some blackies in the morning...The beach has had a complete makeover! All the gutters are covered with sand?! Anyway, decided it wasnt safe if fish anywhere, so tried to pick some weed, except all of it had disappeared (probably due to the cloudy weather). Got what i could and headed down to narra lakes. It was nice to get back into blackies again after about 1 month! Even though they were undersize...caught about 15 throwbacks and a just legal one on my last piece of weed, which also went back to grow bigger. What was interesting was there was a blue swimmer crab walking in front of me which was quite a decent size, somehow i got it walking into the shallows. You could imagine what happened next, I gave chase! Power walking in the shallows, walking back and forth, poking my rod into the water so that the line would hopefully catch around its body, after an exciting battle (with bystanders watching and wondering what i was doing) i lost it...it bolted away. Lost my crab dinner! Justin

Id say your tank is more than enough to keep a whole school of bream, or some eps. I think it depends what type of bream you are keeping. Iv always known yellowfin bream to be more brackish-sea salinity and black bream would be more compatible with fresh. I have not kept any brackish species, but do have a marine tank...the fish dont do too great in 1.016 specific gravity and can adapt over 1.028 (which is the specific gravity of 'sea water'). Personally i would rather a Eps, cod or bass which all each have their different characters. Plus, theyre all mostly fresh water, which would save you from buying/collecting salt water. Most fish would be quite happy to swim around in the 5ft long tank you have =D (except maybe a jardini which may find it hard to turn around in the 1.5foot width) Justin

Havnt been for a fish for almost 3 weeks, decided to fish near my house for a bit on sat, using 2 of the hard bodies i bought about a month ago SX40s. Managed to see some bream, quite a few small ones and about 2 big ones that were grazing around the pontoon. Managed to spook the big ones with the lures, while i was working it past them. The small ones just followed...when i paused they just looked at it and followed again. That was about it! Caught a few 15cm tailor.....And i gave up! Decided to use a more traditional method. Bread! berlyed up, put on a light float, size 10 hook, caught a 26cm bream which went back after a quick snap. As well as heaps of undersized ones, including one that measured 7cm! Soon, poddy mullets moved in and caught 11 which i wanted to use for bait today. But unfortunately i didnt get to go out today either! Guess they're going to be used for beach worms. Justin

I think Stripies is refered to as striped marlin Justin

Thanks for the advice everyone, guess i have to be wary of my surroundings and fish the spot in lower swells!!! safety first, as always! Justin

Thanks guys, maybe it was just me that felt uncomfortable. Because there were 2 guys still fishing the same spot when i decided to move to a safer spot.?! Justin

Went out to fish for blackies on sat arvo at monavale, small tide...but a 2m swell. As the topic title says...i didnt have much sucess. I had a half hearted peck!. There was however good foamy water. But also some dangerous waves (which come from behind)?! So, you have a better chance of getting hit into the water =\. When you think about it, it gives you the shivers! The waves were ok for about an hour... Anyway, there was a rogue wave...surprise surprise...I turn around, and i saw this gigantic wave about to hit the headland, BOOM! >.> Meanwhile i was trying to get away from the ledge, so, i had to run towards the wave, anchor myself, bend knees and let it hit me. The wave hit a bit higher than waist height and made me slide about 1m on my metal cleats. That convinced me to fish somewhere safer ! no blackie is worth me getting swept in...or getting scraped on the barnacles. On a happier note, iv found some areas/ techniques i can use next time i try, so that i have more sucess with the blackies. Justin

Wow, thats a nice blackie! Were the mullet knocking your float the big sea ones?>they would of been good to catch on the blackie gear Justin