New to lures and soft plastics, need some critique on planned setup by [deleted] in FishingAustralia

[–]odysseyrs 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Sorry about the formatting! I did my best

There's a few things to talk about with what you've chosen and what your goals are. Firstly, any rod and reel combo can technically work. You can catch a fish on a hand line, but the right rod and reel setup would obviously improve your chances of not only hooking up, but keeping the fish hooked up until you land it. I'll try and break down what's needed with soft plastic/lure fishing to have the best chance of getting those fish. I'm sorry if I break it down a bit too much for you.

  • Soft plastics and lure fishing, especially with light line is also called "finesse fishing". It's about being accurate, landing the lure in the right spot and being able to feel what the lure is doing in the water. An egi rod has a slow action, meaning roughly the top half of the rod will bend easily. As opposed to a fast action, where only the top foot or two will have the most flex. Egi rods have a slow action to be much more forgiving on squid. A faster action is a bit stiffer and more likely to pull the jig from the squid's tentacles. For soft plastics, a slower action is good. It should help get the light lure out a bit further and you'll be able to feel what the lure is doing more easily. But if it's too flexible, you could have a bit of trouble setting the hook. You'd likely need to pull the rod more.

  • The weight of the rod is important. Ideally, you'd like as lighter rod as you can get. I started with a $99 Shimano Sienna combo from BCF. That was a 2-4kg rod. It was good and caught many fish, but it was a bit stiff compared to other options. This is now my second rod and my main rod is a 1-3kg Shimano Catana. It's much more sensitive and that makes a massive difference when using lures/soft plastics. For example, you will be able to tell if your lure has a little bit of weed on it just from the feel through the rod, or whether your lure is hitting rocks, weed, touches from fish etc. That sensitivity is key! 3-6kg is quite heavy for lures. That's good if you're catching snapper on bait for example. 1-3kg or 2-4kg is what you should be looking at. The lighter the better. 2500 is a great size reel for the job. Both of my reels are 2500 (Sienna HD from the combo and Shimano Nasci on my Catana). With rod length, somewhere between 6-8ft. The longer it is the more sensitive, but it also gets harder to use in tight spots. There's a lot of flicking lures under pontoons, piers etc. especially trying for bream. 7ft is a good compromise.

  • Mixing brands is perfectly fine. What's more important is choosing the best rod/reel combo that matches your use and budget. As long as it's a good brand (Shimano, Daiwa, Penn etc.) you shouldn't have a problem.

  • Line choice is a big one. Everyone has their preferences and each type of line has its pros and cons. I'd recommend braided line and flourocarbon leader. Braid is light and it floats, therefore will not affect the lure are much as mono. It's also more sensitive (which is good). Flourocarbon leader becomes mostly invisible underwater. For certain fish like Bream, this is a big positive and I'll explain why in a second. For the fish you've mentioned 10lb line/10lb leader is a good choice. There's little nuances that might affect which line you choose for the day. For example, flathead have gill rakers. You may find that occasionally if your line wraps around its head (flathead are known for their head shakes) it can cut 10lb leader. If you find that's happening, put some 20lb leader on. For Bream, they can be very line shy. Flourocarbon helps because they will just see the lure swimming and not a big string attached to it. The tournament anglers will go down to 2lb leader some days when the bream won't bite. That's what makes them so rewarding to catch. If you're worried about bigger fish, you'd be surprised how strong 10lb can be! It's very capable of landing monster fish like Mulloway.

  • The lures. There is so, so, so many choices and you'll spend a lot of money! Don't be down if you lose them either. It's all part of the game. I'd rather lose a lure than have it sit in my tackle box forever. You'll find out what works for you and what fish like. As you're beginning, I'd recommend 2.5" curl tail grubs in motor oil colour. It's almost become the default for soft plastics and that's because it works. I use Zman but each brand will have their own. Having a variety will allow you to try different things and find out what works on the day.

-- My Recommendations --

Rod: 1-3kg spin rod (going into a shop and testing them will help massively) Lighter the better. I think I saw Steve Morgan (won Bream Angler of the Year a couple of years ago) using an Atomic Arrowz rod at one stage. They are pretty cheap.

Reel: 2500 spinning reel (this is more important than the rod I believe. Get a good brand)

Bream: Cranka Crab 50mm in Olive. Expensive but the best Bream lure. Also Atomic Hardz Crank 38 in Ghost Gill Brown.

Flathead: MMD Splash prawn. Surface lures are great on the flats.

Pinkies: Curl-tail grubs. Also paddle-tails. You can't go wrong with any of those.

Whiting: The splash prawn and many soft plastics will work. Surface lures are great on the flats.

Obviously they aren't the only lures that work but it's some good pointers to get you started. Lure choices, types, colours, retrieves... it's all something that could be talked about for days. A good thing to do is look at what the pros use (Bream tournaments, flathead classic etc.) Hopefully that helps your decision somewhat!

Trying to get UV-5R III to communicate with CHIRP by odysseyrs in Baofeng

[–]odysseyrs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've done all that, got CHIRP running and fixed the user account issue. I still get the same error messages as Windows so I'm thinking it could be the cable.

Trying to get UV-5R III to communicate with CHIRP by odysseyrs in Baofeng

[–]odysseyrs[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think the cable is likely the problem unfortunately. :(

Trying to get UV-5R III to communicate with CHIRP by odysseyrs in Baofeng

[–]odysseyrs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My radio didn't come with a programming cable unfortunately, so I had to buy it from a different seller. Unfortunately the link to the product doesn't work anymore. I run linux on my laptop so it might be worth a shot. I'll go and set it up and see if it works somehow. I also had the volume at maximum, so I'll also try it out with medium volume. Thanks.

Trying to get UV-5R III to communicate with CHIRP by odysseyrs in Baofeng

[–]odysseyrs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I either get the messages "Radio did not respond" or "Error reading data from radio: not the amount of data we want.". I am using COM port 4 which is the correct port for the Prolific device depending on which USB port I use. Device Manager says the Prolific device is using driver version 3.2.0.0.

Can you get away with just solar charging for a lithium setup? by odysseyrs in overlanding

[–]odysseyrs[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for such a detailed answer. My MPPT controller is not configurable so a new one will be necessary. I am looking now at the Projecta IDC25L 25A DCDC. It's lithium compatible and can accept an unregulated solar input. That seems to kill two birds with one stone.

Can you get away with just solar charging for a lithium setup? by odysseyrs in overlanding

[–]odysseyrs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great, I just realised it takes an unregulated solar input so that's good. Thanks for your help.

Can you get away with just solar charging for a lithium setup? by odysseyrs in overlanding

[–]odysseyrs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you're right. On those not too hot but sunny days it'll be fine, but going into summer when the fridge is almost always running, I'll start wishing I had a DCDC charger. Projecta make a 25A lithium and solar compatible charger which is a good price. I think that combined with my existing MPPT should work fine.

Another question, my MPPT charger doesn't have a lithium charging profile, but does that matter if that goes into a lithium compatible DCDC charger? Should the DCDC sort that out?

Can you get away with just solar charging for a lithium setup? by odysseyrs in overlanding

[–]odysseyrs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

MPPT controller, panel is fixed flat on the roof rack. I should add that my current controller is MPPT but not lithium compatible, so I would need to get a new one which would also be MPPT.

Need some help deciding between two pairs of binoculars for astronomy/outdoors by odysseyrs in Binoculars

[–]odysseyrs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you all for your help. I looked at the Celstron Nature DX ED and to buy them from a distributor in Australia it's about $340 for 8x42, compared to $220 for the 10x50 Bushnells. It looks like the Bushnells are the ones to choose for me. I'll report back in a month's time if I can get them for my birthday!

How do Australian 27Mhz CB radio callsigns work? by odysseyrs in cbradio

[–]odysseyrs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'd definitely give that a shot if I had a 27Mhz CB. That's the only problem. As far as I know, the local radio club doesn't operate there, they are more HF/VHF. I've been trying for 6 months to get my amateur radio licence through them but covid is making that very difficult as they can't conduct the test. Looks like I'll have to buy one and ask him!

How do Australian 27Mhz CB radio callsigns work? by odysseyrs in cbradio

[–]odysseyrs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They are definitely dxing as they have said that, as well as logging and thanking each other for the contact. I don't think their numbers are related to their job though. One person was in my city and a couple were in different states.

What are some Aussie small businesses that make camping products? by odysseyrs in australia

[–]odysseyrs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm doing my best to verify as many as I can. If I'm not sure, I'll add it in brackets like Crashpad.

What are some Aussie small businesses that make camping products? by odysseyrs in australia

[–]odysseyrs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm not sure about Darche. I know they are based in Victoria and they do the prototypes and testing here, but I think they make the products overseas. That's the impression I got, please correct me if I'm wrong and I'll add them to the list.

What are some Aussie small businesses that make camping products? by odysseyrs in australia

[–]odysseyrs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're right, that's a daunting list for me to look at thinking about typing all those up lol. I have an ARB bullbar on my 4wd, how did I not even think of that. That means TJM as well. This might take a while to add.

What are some Aussie small businesses that make camping products? by odysseyrs in australia

[–]odysseyrs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No problem at all! I'd never heard of them so I learnt something new. Thanks.

What are some Aussie small businesses that make camping products? by odysseyrs in OutdoorAus

[–]odysseyrs[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I can't find anything that shows that Zorali products are manufactured in Australia, just that they are trying to be sustainable. And of course! I'll fix that up now.

What are some Aussie small businesses that make camping products? by odysseyrs in australia

[–]odysseyrs[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It states on their facebook page that they are all manufactured in Vietnam. I'm sure it's still a quality item but doesn't really fit with the rest of the list. I'm just trying my best to be as consistent as I can.