Juzza

Iv had my 600L fresh water fish tank (in the wall) for about over 5 months now and found some stringy weed recently growing around some of my plants. The weed is really really thin and stringy and clumps together wonderfully. it looks like it will hold out well on the hook!!! Firstly i took the weed and tied it to some wood that reaches the surface, so that it is directly under my lights. So, how am i growing it...? It is right under a 150W metal halide, really strong eheim pump, pressurised CO2 + weekly water changes (1/4 tank). So heres the weed right now, about 8cm long and almost ready to go on the hook...dont think this is economic to grow, Id rather pick it off the rocks. Would be quite interesting if i caught a blackie on it =D Anyway heres some more pictures of my tank for you all to enjoy! Justin

tinny or wading around the lake is a good option, you'll see alot of people wading around there Justin

nice catch Peter! Too bad i cant get out there right now. Had a session there last week caught 2 throw backs...they were the size of my hand. But caught my first bream on weed. So i guess theres some progress there. Justin

already spent 5 hours on it ...

After a long day of uni, went out to narra for my FIRST proper session of backies!!! First i would like to thankyou to Pete for his hospitality for literally showing me EVERYTHING i needed to do, great man Peter. Really didnt know what i was doing when i got there, well, though i did have an idea from pete's help beforehand. So, found some deepish water and was walking back to the car to get ready. I open the boot to my car and someone with a big van drives in...guess who? We got into our waders and got our gear. Pete had everything prerigged and i hadnt..theres something i need to do next time (Boy is it hard rigging everything up while you're standing in the water). Few more things i forgot, rubber stoppers (used a plastic bead instead), my net! it was too small..., something decent to hold everything i had out of the water, finally i needed to preweight my float. So, pretty much i didnt have anything right except maybe presetting my leaders (actually that wasnt right either, they all got tangled) Anyway the fishing wasnt too hot, but i got into some blackies, actually caught 3 throw backs and one of them was almost a keeper ~26cm. And Peter caught 3 all keepers! (maybe hes befriended the fish at narra and the big fish jump onto his hook more willingly). He kindly donated his fish to me before he left, And here they are! Well, part of them. =D There was one problem though...dont think i filleted the blackie properly, how to do you do it?...its different from filleting a tailor. The first blackie was wreaked and alot of meat in the shouder section . So i thought it would be better to cut down along the spine and could get all the meat along the shoulder...then filleted it normally. Mmm blackie fillets for dinner today. Overall, great day, blackies gave me a good satisfying fight. Just wait till i catch a legal one...then 30+ then 40cm+ then 50+. <--- over ambitious Cheers, Justin

Im almost set, just bought a pair of waders today (snowbee). They're not really a fashion statement but they'll keep me warm and dry. SO, what do i need now...need to make a suitable rod/reel combo except...i cant seem to find anything suitable Rods: - 4W 16ft telescopic - 7W snyder, 8W snyder both 12ft - Breamo rod 2-4kg 6'6'' - a few beach rods ~5-6W but 12ft - 6'6'' 6-8kg daiwa rod Reels: - Biomaster 5000 shimano - Twin power 4000HG shimano - some 2000 reel that goes with the bream rod - 2 big daiwa spinning reels - EMCASTER 4500 daiwa (medium spinning reel) that is currently being fixed I think the shimano reels with a rod will do well, or the medium spinning daiwa reel... If anyone could give me some feedback it would be good. im looking to head out on tue/wed to narra, i have 2 handfuls of cabbage and weed, pretty much all the gear is prepared except the rod+reel. And i found a dusty landing net in the garage =D Cheers, Justin

Can anyone advise me on the ..best value for money waders + boots, the ones that go up to my chest? Also the place to buy them if you can. Hornes waders? i searched that up somewhere Cheers, Justin

Hope the blackies are still out there, though it does seem a bit windy today. Justin

Thanks guys, actually it was roberta's article/advice that inspired me to go fishing for blackfish (i made notes of her notes ). Actually i tried all 4 types of weed/cabbage, wirey stringy, fine stringy, thick soft stringy, cabbage . Yes it would be good to see how the 'pros' do it. Might go see if i can go out again tomorrow arvo for another try. Justin

This is the first time iv every gone weed picking and i found 4 different types, its all starting to grow back! Well i decided not to fish on the rock due to the big swell and wind and headed into the harbour (Cliffton garden) IT was my first time trying for blackys..i was standing off the wharf 16lb main 8lb leader with a stem float, most of the time using cabbage. I could see a few blackfish...and i even tried burlying for them, they got scared easily and i had 0 takes. (maybe i was standing too close to the edge, or the water was too clear?) Justin

As a fish keeping enthusiest: Your tank looks over stocked and they will probably die from an ammonia spike/nitrate spike/or the change in salinity. So use them soon As a fisherman: Nice, gives me a few good ideas Justin

Iv been trying to target squid over the winter...and you know what i caught my first southen calamari with a 20cm body (mantle?) prob about two weeks ago, and an arrow about the same size the day after. You should of seen the smile on my face for those two days. Persistance pays off! Went to a new location two days ago in pitwatter and bagged a small cuttle and an arrow. Anyway enough with the stories. What i need is some tips with 'jigging' What does it mean??? Iv seen it done quite alot of ways...up, down, sideways...ripping action...bouncing...(oh yeh, im fishing landbased). Is this according to personal preference? or otherwise? Justin

Ok this is what i gathered, Looks like my reels maybe too heavy for tackling cowan creek bream??? And if i want to match the 4000 and 5000 up with a rod...here were the two suggestions from the links, Berkley Dropshot 7'6" 4-8kg rod, fireblood rod???, 5-10kg T-Curve rod. So im looking at something about 7', ~max 8-10kg rating... Do you think its possible to catch bream with this sort of setup? if i lighten my leader if required? Also some more suggestions will be helpful theres alot of information out there, and sometimes its hard to understand and make a proper decision on 'best' combo to have. Just a little bit more information Right now my reels have 16lb mono on the 5000 and 14lb 4000, looking at rods up to $250 max Justin

Well over the winter im gonna be going down to Hawkesbury for a house boat adventure with my family most likely cowan creek to chase some bream/Jewfish!!! and maybe some hairies. My last spinning type rod broke...it was apparently 20 years the copper rings had rusted. Oh yeh this is my first post =D be nice ahahah Over the christmas break my father and i went over to hongkong...we went into a fishing store and just by impulse...we bought 2 reels. Unfortunatly i hadnt done much research before then, my fishing tackle expertise wasnt fantastic then/now so we just ended up buying them . The reels are a shimano biomaster 5000, Twin power 4000HG The biomaster 5000 is loaded with some japanese 8kg line which i have used to fish drummer wrasses and a legal snapper off longreef using a 15ft telescopic rod. Otherwise i would use a large diawa eggbeater with a snyder 7w. Anyway can someone give me some help on possible rod choices for chasing bream/Jewfish at cowan? Cheers, Justin