North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

I have been setting out for the last few weeks targeting the last dry season run of breams but trevs are just all over the place menacing my bream rigs. I managed a few times to haul up 2 kgs. trevs using 2x # 2 beak hooks on 20 pounds berkley vanish trace, but lost 8-2 by ratio so, I decided to dig out my 60-80 pounds mono handlines and paired them with a couple of rod n reel with 30-40 pounds hybrid monos. I said , forget the breams and finesse , just wing and skull it, I told myself after trevs and trevs and more trevs , again i have tested handlines beat rod n reel by like 4 to 1 productivity on landbased . The amount of busted rigs equals the amount of fishes ( right? ) swimming or tangled under water dragging sinkers , lines , hooked on guts and lips makes me think . We need to haul them up, take home the catch, or tidy up and
return the unwanted. That's another good thing with hand lining too. With rod n reel, there's lots of hook ups , that end up busted, resulting in fishes dragging terminal tackles. What do you reckon, fellas? . Just my 1 cent.
..will attach some pics, just for fun. Tight lines .

Handlines give a direct feel that can not be matched by any rod and reel.

Some good landbased action mate

That bluebone is a ripper

Yah, that's 100 percent right @ mako. You can feel every nibble in your skin and every surge of the fighting fish through your bone. And yeah, if we are not standing on firm grounds, a 3 kilo fish will drag us to the bottom unless we got flippers. Thanks fellas. I had another stint this morning, 2 rods, 2 handlines. Rods didn't even see action. 4 trevs, plus or minus 3 kgs. each and 2 kgs plus or minus, parrots. Gave away 2 trevs to another eager fisho that got busted 5 times on light tackle rig ...... 20 pounds on size 300 reel,..?? won't work on landbased against trevs or any fish above a kilo. I tell, you but, those blue bones / parrots are A1 tasty steamed and simmered in sweet and sour sauce, home made or ready mixed.

20 pound to light? Not likely.

Thanks for that reply @ Ben jam. 20 pounds is not light. But down wharves where fishes are 2 meters away from their home hole fortified with barnacles and you are 15 meters away from them, you need to turn their direction towards you upon hook ups. In open seas, 20 pounds is a lot on 7 pounds drag. You want to go heavy in wharves and rocky landbased to protect your aim against abrasions, not tensile strenght failures.. Down wharves 20 pound main, 20 pounds leader flourocarbon are just bream rig. My 1 cent anyway. Keep that lines, folks.

Any initiative to reduce line and terminals left in fish and waterways is a good initiative in my book. I've left my fair share in 'the system' but try these days to better match my set up to the location and likely quarry. In the first instance it would be great if some just picked up their shite particularly around jetties , ramps and wharves.

Grew up on handlines but I reckon my wife may commit an atrocity if I let my 'tackle store' gather dust...

Oh yeah. I have seen , picked up lots of discarded birds nest off the wharf. Some people just can't care less about the area. East point rocks, there are packets and packets of half emptied servo plastic bait bags tucked under rock crevices. It takes less than 3 minutes to clean up before anyone start fishing and another 3 minutes clean up after fishing. Minimising lead and terminal tackle pollution is to get the hook ups result to landed fish. As I said any busted hook up will result in a fish dragging hooks , lines , and lost lead sinkers at the bottom. Any hook up ,I don't land , troubles me, not because of a lost fish but because of what a fish may undergo.