Conference wahoo::fishing-v2

443.0. "Aussie terms explained" by AUSSIE::KIDD (Doug - Sydney Australia) Mon Apr 10 1995 21:50

    I think that the Black Drummer (aka Pig) and Blue Groper are locals. I
    don't know of any other names. The Drummer lives and feeds in the
    "wash" which is the white water at the edge of rocks and holes in the
    rock exposed to ocean waves. They feed on stuff washed from the rocks
    like moluscs, weed, crabs and cunjevoi (cunjie) which is a water
    squirting organism which sticks to the rocks around the low tide mark.
    
    Like all fish their size varies enormously, but 4-6lb is a guide for a
    good catch. They are Black on top graduating to dark grey on the belly
    and really have no distinguishing features as far as looks go. They
    have a thick mucous-like substance which covers them to protect against
    abrasion from the rocks. Baits are as above plus Abalone or chicken
    gut.
    
    Traditional tackle choice would be a solid glass 9' rod of about 20lb
    with a small 6" Alvey reel (more on this later). Hooks should be small
    (1/0 max) but very strong and sharp. Minimal lead should be used to
    present bait naturally. A quill float is also often used, but no float
    is also ok.
    
    The Blue Groper should not be confused with the larger Groper found in
    Tropical Queensland waters. I feeds more towards the bottom, but again
    near the rocks and just loves fresh local (ie. from right where you're
    fishing) crabs. Sizes of 20lb and above are common. They are blue and
    look basically like your average fish (but stupid looking). I think
    that some change sex from male to female at full maturity and their
    colour changes to brown.
    
    Tackle would be the same as for drummer, but stronger and possibly
    hollow glass (or even, shock horror, some new-fangled material) as
    solid glass will be getting a bit heavy by now. Hook size could be
    around 4/0 to 6/0 and bloody strong.
    
    Both these fish pull like a train without warning and you have to be
    ready to strike and retrieve before they can find cover. Usually they
    go straight for a ledge or underwater cave and thats the last you'll
    see of your terminal tackle. Good Abrasion resistance and knot strength
    is a must in choice of line. Both fish have hard rubbery lips that
    require sharp hooks and will straighten weak hooks (particularly the
    Groper). Rods are long, strong and light as the tip is pointed down at
    the water with minimal line slack ready for a quick strike. The line
    tip must be kept down to guide the fish into the wash below your feet
    ready to surf your catch up on the crest of a wave.
    
    Both fish are good eating, but the drummer should be gutted and bled on
    capture.
    
    The Alvey sidecast is an Australian tradition which is basically a
    spool with a handle on it. It is rotated sideways on the rod to cast
    and back again to retrieve. Diameters range from 4" to 8". Advantages
    are simplicity and sand resistance (just drop it in a bucket of water
    to clean it), direct pulling power (gear ratio 1:1), large line
    capacity (some up to 900 yards). Disadvantage (major) due to the fact
    that the line comes off the reel in a different fashion to the way it
    is retrieved, line tangles are prolific and monumental. A good swivel
    must be used with an Alvey reel. Some models have anti-reverse and
    star drags, but the drags are pretty weak and rely on the user to back
    them up. Another advantage of the Alvey is that it is relatively cheap.
    
    Threadlines, or egg-beaters, are just your average reel with the
    bail-bar and the spool that jumps up and down as you retrieve. I use a
    Silstar GXB80 for rock and beach and a Butteworth Project 4000 for
    spinning and light estuary work. These are both Threadline reels.
    
    Low-mount and high-mount (and medium-mount) are terms used
    predominantly for beach rods. Low-mount are designed for the Alvey and
    have the winch mounted low (about 10-12") from the base of the rod.
    Cast with the left hand on the butt (of the rod silly) and the left
    thumb on the reel holding the line against the spool. The right hand is
    above the reel. Hold the outfit at arm's length above the head, rod
    horizontal and butt (rod again) towards ocean. Now imagine a baseball
    in your right hand (cricket ball for the Aussies). Bring the left hand
    down (Aussies will do this anyway) and pitch (bowl).
    
    High-mounts are used with threadline reels and have say a 2' butt often
    with a wooden sand spike. These are cast as you would a two handed
    spinning outfit. The butt can be rested on the sand with the reel
    safely out of it. Some people with short legs and/or long arms buy
    these with really long butts so that they can retrieve whilst the rod
    is resting on the sand.
    
    The low-mount gives a far superior cast as you are swinging more rod at
    the sea and the cricket bowling action is a longer stroke than that of
    the trad method. I use a low mount with an egg-beater. This gives me
    better casting with what I feel is a more flexible (and less error
    prone) reel than the Alvey. I can also spin heavy metal and feed live
    bait at the beach when I want (an Alvey can't spin).
    
    Why the different choices of tackle between states. Originally it may
    have had more to do with differing class structures in the different
    states than anything else. Now it is more likely that "my Dad taught me
    to fish with an Alvey" is the reason. Over here we have a car race
    Called the Bathurst 1000. Petrol-heads like me are either Ford men or
    pathetically misguided Holden (GM) men. We sit down and drink beer in
    front of the telly for six hours on the first Sunday in October to
    watch cars that cost $500K to build with bodies wrapped around them
    that look just like the ones we drive do battle. We do this because our
    fathers were either Ford men or the other kind.
    
    My old man isn't into fishing so I get to make my own mistakes with
    fishing. My son will most likely learn that fishing tackle is just toys
    which are tools for fishing. And fishing is playing.
    
    Baits are many and varied here as they are trucked in from all over the
    country. In one day you might use pilchards from WA, pipis (moluscs)
    from Vic, beach worms from NSW and white-bait (small bait-fish) from
    anywhere. I've tried 'em all, but usually always get pilchards and
    worms for most outings.
    
    I tend to stick with heavy metal slices as far as lures go. I've lost
    so many light weight lures that I've given up. I may try a popper (top
    swimming with concave face) this weekend down around Jervis Bay though.
    
    
    This is fishing (some of it) the way I see it, but there are so many
    different types here that virtually no-one could leave dissapointed. My
    only concern is that poor fisheries management may damage both the pro
    and amatuer industry if things don't change.
    
    Doug
                        

Doug,

Thanks for all the info (which was requested in note 441 BTW).  I tried to 
find the Black Drummer and Blue Groper in some reference books, but no luck.
They sound like the niche they fill is similar to that of Tautog and to an
extent Striped Bass here on the Northeast US coast.  Stripers also fill a
lot of other niches.  They mostly eat fish, but have crushers in their 
throats and will eat lobsters, clams, etc.  They like being near rocks and 
current, but also feed in the surf, in estuaries, in deeper water, wherever
the food is concentrated that day.

Do you have any species of small (less than 20 lb) tuna or other predators 
that feed within a few hundred yards of shore?  We have a few species like
that, notably Atlantic Bonito, False Albacore, and Bluefish.  They are very
exciting because they often feed at or near the surface and put on quite a
show.  This is sight fishing, which is exciting in its own right, and the
fish are very strong and have a lot of stamina for their size.

Bonito and False Albacore are in the tuna family (except Bonito have teeth 
like mackeral), and bluefish are in a family of their own.  Bluefish have 
thick powerful jaws with sharp-edged teeth, and a nasty attitude.  The shape 
and placement of their fins make them look like they are closely related to 
the jack family (amberjack, jack crevalle, pompano, permit, trevally, etc.).
Bluefish are found worldwide in temperate and subtropical water, so you may
have them somewhere.

Our name for threadline or eggbeater reels is simply spinning reels.  The
most commonly used spinning reels are Penn, which are made in the USA, and
Daiwa and Shimano, which are made in Japan.  Penn reels are very rugged and 
well made, and tend to last forever under abusive conditions.  The Japanese
reels are for the most part more advanced in their design (balanced rotors, 
line rollers less prone to tangling, unbreakable bail springs, instant 
anti-reverse, linear rather than sinusoidal levelwinds with a longer stroke, 
etc.)  But they don't seem to hold up that well when used a lot on strong or 
fast fish.  The drag, gears, you name it tend to fail.  This might be old 
news because I wrote them off about 8 years ago after seeing too many of 
them melt down in the hands of my fishing companions.

The alternative to spinning reels is called conventional or bait casting 
reels.  These are the revolving spool reels like the Abu 7000.  

Tom

    Tom,
    
    I recognise some of the fish you mention. Tuna come in all colour and
    sizes over here. Some of the names are Blue-fin, Yellow-fin and
    Dog-tooth. Others are Bonito, Albacore (true of false - don't know),
    
    We have Amberjack, Mangrove Jack and Trevally. I haven't heard of
    Bluefish here, but I'll check it out.
    
    We have all the brands you mentioned here, but in Oz the spinning reel
    is considered conventional. Linear levelwind? No wonder I'm not
    catching anything; I don't have a linear levelwind. Being interested in
    the workings of these things, could you explain the mechanism. Does it
    have a double helix arrangement the same as a baitcaster?
    
    Jap reels IMHO have bad price/performance purely because of Yen v $A.
    Nine out of ten reels sold in Australia come from Korea regardless of
    the brand. Most work well and if you buy two instead of one Shimano
    you'll probably fish longer.
    
    Doug
    
    

    Yes, by linear I meant controlled by a double helix like a baitcaster.
    Penn and other "low tech" reels accomplish levelwind by moving the
    spool in and out by means of a crankarm, so you get a sinusoidal 
    motion.  It moves faster in the middle of its travel and slower at
    the ends, causing the line to pile up at the ends.
    
    With the helix method the spool moves in and out at a constant speed
    except at the instant it changes direction, so the line winds more
    uniformly.  These reels also move the spool in and out much further
    than on a Penn, so the spool is correspondingly longer from front to
    back.  Since the spool is longer, the diameter of the coiled line on
    the spool doesn't decrease as quickly when you remove the line.  That
    means longer casts because the line doesn't rub as much on the spool's
    rim toward the end of the cast.
    
    But the shaft that goes through the spool and supports it is really
    thin on any Japanese reel I've seen.  So when you pull hard on a fish
    the shaft bends.  So they try to make up for that with more ball 
    bearings - more parts to fail, and charge more money.  But if the 
    shaft bends outside the housing it's bending inside too, causing the
    pinion and main gears to misalign and wear themselves out.
    
    The Penn drag is a no nonsense drag made of proven, superior materials,
    and it keeps itself salt-free pretty well except for the 4400SS.  The
    Japanese drags used to be made out of plastics that overheated and
    jammed, never to work again.  Pretty strange when you think how much
    easier it is to make a good drag on a spinning reel.  The spool is a
    great heat sink, while a conventional reel's drag is on its own when
    it comes to dissipating heat.  So why not spend $.10 more and use a
    material that's matched to the temperatures it will see?
    
    I didn't mean to imply that bluefish are in the jack family.  I was
    just describing what they look like.  Kind of like an amberjack with
    a bluish color and thick powerful jaws full of very sharp teeth.
    
    Tom

    I see a thin main shaft passing through the pinion with  a ball
    bearing wrapped around it as the single point of planned obsolescence
    in a spinning reel. A deep bore bronze bush and say a 50% increase in
    shaft diameter would make this mechanism almost bullet-proof at about
    the same cost, but with a bit more friction on retrieve.
    
    
    More on fish:
    
    Black Drummer:
    Latin name: Girella elevata
    
    Blue Groper:
    Latin name: East coast: Achoerodus viridus
    		West coast: A. gouldii
    
    The East coast species is also known as Blue Wrasse and can grow in
    excess of 15kg. The west coast species can grow to in excess of 35kg.
    Eating quality is good in the 3kg to 10kg range.
    
    The Wrasse family has a lot of different species, some of which are
    toxic, but only in certain areas. This is due to them eating certain
    types of coral. Some others in this family are Maori Wrasse which grow
    to massive size and Parrot fish. I have eaten Parrot fish. Smells great
    while it's cooking, but has virtually no flavour on the palate.
    
    Your Bluefish sounds a lot like our Blue Groper in attitude anyway if
    not of the same family.
    
    Doug                                                 

    
    
    		JUST TRY TO IMAGINE THOUSANDS OF 5 TO 15 LB PIRANAS IN A
    	FEEDING FRENZY AND YOU WILL UNDERSTAND A "BLUEFISH BLITZ" .