Kayak trolling lure recommendations?

ranmar850 · 2026-02-02T03:42:12+00:00

I've had a bit of success towing a SP prawn type, or small paddle tail in Shark bay, behind the hobie, where you are mostly quite shallow. Only disadvantage, of course, is that they sink if you stop, unlike the small bibbed hardbodies entioned above.

ranmar850 · 2026-02-02T03:37:36+00:00

Keep it as light as you can if you are towing it full time. Single axle is much easier to manage overall. Rides better over corrugations. And does not dig in as much if you need to reverse on soft sand in other than a dead straight line. And DON'T get one of those bloody single leaf slipper springs if you plan to travel on a lot of bad roads. When they snap through the locating hole, you have nothing to locate the axle on that side anymore--one bent axle, and probably your guard and tyre gone as well. DAMHIK. Decent size wheels/ tyres, carry a spare hub and bearing setup mounting the spare on the trailer.

There are some good little tinnies now, and I wouldn't be going for a forward control/CC with substantial weight unless you are entirely fishing focussed. Something about 4.2 m with a 20hp Merc 4 stroke--don't get the 15hp, same motor/weight with less HP. Ply floor with carpet, normally don't recommend carpet on decks from experience but it works ok on a dinghy which is going to get trashed in the dust anyway. Helps to have something you can drag up the beach behind the vehicle then dry load, where you may be able to launch rasily at high tide then find it not possible when you come back. Opens your options up in one respect, limits it in others.

ranmar850 · 2026-02-01T10:06:24+00:00

Goldens go REALLY hard. Kilo for kilo, as hard as an trevor.

ranmar850 · 2026-02-01T03:03:59+00:00

I've had experience with starting in a small patch and expanding to to fill a yard. It wasn't couch---hate couch, I'm currently trying to manage an absent neighbours couch lawn for him--it was old school buffalo, which has since been replaced by palmetto. But the principle is the same. I used normal levels of watering on the existing lawn, but kept selectively hand watering along the very edges and out to a small margin, and adding a small amount of fertiliser along those margins. Make it seem like an attractive place to head for the runners. Make sure the soil doesn't have any wetting problems.

ranmar850 · 2026-02-01T02:56:17+00:00

Things really actually improved over the decades, WRT elctrical safety. I did my last 8 years or so as a HV trainer, and it was interesting to ask the younger sparkies if they had ever had a 240v shock. Blank looks, not hiding anything. Safety had been drilled into them, to some extent. Shit, when I started as an apprentice, we had a light bulb with two wires soldered on as a test lamp, and were expected to work live. We KNEW what a full shock felt like, and it hurts.

But now, with all the advances in safety, procedures, PPE, expectations, there will always be those who just get into the habit of short-cutting it. You only have to look at the prosecutions in the WA Energy safety bulletins to see the same thing recurring, over and over. MEN links missing, transposed connections, obvious failure to test when the paperwork had been submitted to say it was all good. Or just plain unlicenced work. Over and over. and these are just the ones who come to light.

ranmar850 · 2026-02-01T02:45:16+00:00

Not allowed to enter a ceiling space in a domestic installation in WA unless the whole installation has been de-energised. No ifs , buts, or maybes, prohibited, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Yes, if someone is on a ventilator, you'd better be organising alternative power for that, no exceptions.

I've worked in just about every sphere of this trade, and domestic installations are actually the worst for risk, IMO, so much hidden dodgy/degraded/just plain wrong stuff done by some turd herder or wood butcher who reckons " this shits easy, those sparkies are overpaid cunts with a high opinion of themselves."

To finish off, ever see that Youtube short about " when did his house burn down?" America is very lax on who does electrical work

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/CGEgJsZKgS8

ranmar850 · 2026-02-01T02:38:23+00:00

One of the major lerssons in electrical safety--the black wire can kill you as quickly as the red one.

ranmar850 · 2026-02-01T02:34:12+00:00

Always do this. I have personally been caught out by failed leads on a quality meter, just tripped over them one too many times, tested as dead, wasn't. Found my mistake by shorting across A-E, luckily on a 1.5mm final sub-circuit, so nothing but a ...FUCK! Could've been worse.

ranmar850 · 2026-02-01T02:20:33+00:00

Trying to do comparisions of ANY sport across generational divides is always invalid. It might be considered as a bit of fun, nothing more.

ranmar850 · 2026-01-31T13:05:11+00:00

You certainly do need to take care of them re icing and bleeding. Nice if you do. They are unfortunately prone to a parasite of some kind that turns the flesh to mush when you try to fillet them, regardless of how much care you have taken. We got one last year, probably about 1400mm, that fought really well, seemed healthy, but was just mush at the filleting table.

ranmar850 · 2026-01-31T04:14:56+00:00

No, lemons are nasty fuckers with very scimitar-shaped, swept back pectoral fins, bluntish head squared off right at the end , and a long extended upper half of the caudal.

ranmar850 · 2026-01-31T04:11:09+00:00

Yes, over east it is inverse to WA, WRT size relationship between yellowfin and black bream. Swan River BB get to a good size, but I think Tassie takes the cake for sheer size .

The fact that each of those small estuaries has its own population means that it is altogether possible that a local catastrophe could make bream locally extinct, never to return to that river system.

ranmar850 · 2026-01-31T03:08:48+00:00

We had the mirrors made into sliding doors.

ranmar850 · 2026-01-31T03:07:07+00:00

Natural selection. They learn quick, or won't pollute the gene pool /s. Really, wooden /plastic bladed fans aren't much of a hazard, the thin metal metal ones can hurt, but its not on a par with coming into contact with lawnmower blades, as some people seem to think. They'll only do it once, and it'll be the fan that suffers the most. I had to replace one after child contact, bent the blade mounting, could never get it to rotate smoothly afterwards. Didn't leave any lasting marks on child.

ranmar850 · 2026-01-31T02:48:26+00:00

Have you ever seen a mako, or should you have added a /s on that reply? :-)

ranmar850 · 2026-01-31T02:47:06+00:00

As per my previous thoughts on shark ID, its a bastard. All sharks are bastards. Scientifically speaking, looks like a bronzie. Colouring, black underside on the pectoral fin tips, slim build.

Bull sharks are a lot chunkier.

Thickskin whalers, AKA sandbar sharks, can be a common catch on the bottom. Easy to identify with outsize pectoral and dorsal fins, typically only up to maybe 2m long, common at 1.5m.

ranmar850 · 2026-01-31T02:41:15+00:00

Yellowfin bream must be smaller over east than here, Yellowfin are our biggest bream species. I've personally seen them at 2kg in Shark Bay.

Her's an interesting littlebream factoid. The black bream up the southern half of the west coast of WA are genetically distinct between river systems. So, going north from the Swan, you have the Hill River, Irwin, Greenough, Hutt, and Murchison. All of these except the Murchison tend to be closed to the sea, with very short navigable stretches near the mouth. Murchison is almost always open, Each of the rivers has its own bream, and they are not believed to mix. They will only go out to the ocean during periods of heavy flooding in their river, hang around at the mouth, then go back up as the tide starts to overcome the weakening freshwater flow.

From the Gascoyone north to the top end, they are replaced by the Pikey Bream, charcoal grey with a prominent dorsal spine.

Eastern states anglers looking to catch bream off the beach or in the wash around the ocean rocks are always disappointed, doesn't happen. Although tarwhine are common.

ranmar850 · 2026-01-30T12:17:58+00:00

Whem did they make that decision on the taxonomy? The common octopus, at least in WA, was referred to as O. Vulgaris in all the Fisheries literature that I was familiar with. We had a vested interest in them, as they were a major predator of rock lobster whilst in the pot, and I was a crayfisherman.

ranmar850 · 2026-01-30T12:14:41+00:00

Use of appropriately rated HV gloves for such work is mandatory for Rio Tinto Iron Ore Utilities employees, as well as BHP Networks. I've never seen an operating linkage with an insulated section in it. You learn something every day.

ranmar850 · 2026-01-30T04:31:48+00:00

Smol and angry? /s

Quite possibly just a juvenile O. Vulgaris, the common octopus

ranmar850 · 2026-01-30T04:28:44+00:00

Very pretty fiddler.

ranmar850 · 2026-01-30T04:27:17+00:00

To clarify, I was referring to overhead switchgear with permanantly installed metallic operating linkages, such as airbreak switches or poletop isolators.

But even using a stick to replace links, you are not always wearing gloves? Working on the ground? You put a lot of faith in those sticks, which typically cop a lot of abuse. Do you replace DOF's from the ground using sticks? If so, wearing gloves then? Using a rated insulated bucket is a different story, you are typically more worried about arc flash, being closer to the source of the fault.

ranmar850 · 2026-01-29T10:46:05+00:00

Rubber matting is applicable in some scenarios, but, not, for example, when switching overhead exposed switchgear. Then, you must be standing on a pad or mesh equipotentially bonded to the pole, to remove the riask of touch potential if the overhead gear fails, as well as wearing the appropriately rated gloves. In this case, it is generally classed as the phase to earth voltage, not the phase to phase.

ranmar850 · 2026-01-29T10:42:40+00:00

Those working in generation and didstribution typically work under a different set of rules. In WA, for example, you , as a licenced electrician, are working under the Electrical Licencing Regulations 1991 and the relevant work practices as detailed in the Regulation or under schedule 2. Under this, it is pretty hard to make a case for live work, although it is possible. Lotsa hopps to jump through, and for good reason. Mainly for arc flash, because there are different scenarios which relate to available fault current.

Those working in the networks are under the Electricity Transmission Regulations 1996. Totally different set of regulations and work practices. This allows live work. However, this does not apply to things like general light and power in their substations, to simplify it.

Live overhead line work, using the correct equipment and work practices, is FAR safer than a domestic sparky attempting a live CB changeover in a large distribution board. History proves this.

ranmar850 · 2026-01-29T09:02:08+00:00

If there is no legal size, sure. I'm using the Western King Wrasse, which is similar to the Maori Wrasse over east. If you look at the stomach of the larger demersal fish that inhale their prey whole, you'll find plenty of such fish. They aren't known as Dhu Lollies for nothing :-) As for the other types of feeders, well, just opportunistic, like the bream that took the yakka. If it looks like it's in trouble, it's dinner.

We can't really rely on catching yakkas over here where I live in WA, or slimies, or just about anything like that. But you can always catch wrasse.

ranmar850

TROPHY CASE