Ed.

The family and I stayed down at Kirra Beach about 5 years ago, I took my 2 of my daughters and their boyfriends fishing at Tallabudgerra  almost daily.  Nice spot, only caught some little fish and no legals but the girls enjoyed themselves catching those anyway.

Well that didn't take long, you're well and truly on your way to the dark side! 😄 We did try and warn you!

Well that didn't take long, you're well and truly on your way to the dark side! 😄 We did try and warn you!

My first intro to Bermagui was many decades ago, before I was married and I took my little 14ft 85HP boat up there from Victoria for  a 4 day holiday. Put the boat in the water and was just tolling a lure when my mate yelled out to me that a bloody big sail that had a go at my lure and became a bit  air born in the process. A little while longer  we heard over the radio that a guy had been fighting a big tuna for about 2.5 hours on a 50 sized reel and had been busted off. He would have been devastated not to mention worn out. In those days a 50 sized reel would not have had the drag capacity  that the modern day reels do and you would have the fight go on for much, much longer. My view is drag them up quickly and release them without stressing out the fish to the point of death due to the length of the fight.
You don't catch many of the huge fish here but when you do, you will remember it forever.
On my honeymoon I hired a 23ft boat in the Whitsundays and took my fishing gear with me, we anchored up at Whitehaven Beach overnight and the missus went to bed to read a book and so I put on a large piece of fish on a big hook, added a balloon  and used an Okuma 50W, hoping for a Spanish Mackerel, a little while later I hooked up and turned out to be an 8ft tiger, about 15 minutes later I got it to the boat, could have had it in about 5 minutes but at several stages I was letting it run out on a lighter drag just to be able to have fun reeling it in again. The drag on that reel wasn't as strong as the current ones. Just goes to show I would need to get a much, much bigger shark to challenge that sized  reel. I called out to my wife to give me a hand , she came up on to the deck, took one look at the shark and said I am on my own! 🤣 I eventually released it but next day when we were swimming at the beach we were both very wary and just stayed in the shallows and kept a watchful eye out.🤔
So if you want to land big fish you need a big reel.
Here is a link to some guys hooking for research 2 giant Bluefin Tuna,  the largest towards the end is a 280kg tuna using a Makaira MK-80 reel. Swedish language but English subtitles. If you watch till the end you can see that the 80 size reels do take it out of you and depending on the size and type of fish you hook will make you wish you had a smaller one on! Definitely not for us old buggers.
 

Well that didn't take long, you're well and truly on your way to the dark side! 😄 We did try and warn you!

Well that didn't take long, you're well and truly on your way to the dark side! 😄 We did try and warn you!

So Kat, geared up now and ready to go, now we just need some pics! In a prevous life that tuna a few posts up would have been my dream fish, now not so sure, don't think the old body would cope with the strain.

I’m an Australian record holder too! Most time with no fish.

I was going to be a priest but then I looked up celibacy in the dictionary.

Just got this doc off the web, originally on Facebook.
Funny.docx

Just got this doc off the web, originally on Facebook.
Funny.docx

4 rods??  Apparently not, 🤣🤣🤣🤣, some of us learn faster than others!   Sorry couldn't help myself! but in full disclosure, I came close to a ceiling fan once, but fortunately it wasn't on at the time. 😀

That setup is for trolling for large fish, ie marlin, sharks, big tuna etc. I have a Makaira MK-30II on that rod with 150lb Braid on it and that reel can put out 55lb drag. My larger reel is the Makaira MK-50W which I will use for ballooning (need the larger line capacity) from a land based position and also a 34Kg rod and that one has 85lb of drag. Both of these reel require a rod harness and a rod gimble belt to get the most out of the setup and  if you don't use those you are wasting your time, unless you hook a small fish on them then they are seriously overkill.
Just for reference there are 2 larger sizes than those, an 80W and a 130, both are very large reels , as in huge and humungous, with over 100lb drag designed for fish around the 1000-1500lb but I am not into that sort of fishing as for me they would not be fun, fighting a fish that big with those sorts of drag for hours on end would probably kill me, (actually 15 minute would do me in) I am not a spring chicken anymore.
Do a YouTube search by typing in those model numbers plus "shark fishing" or "cow tuna fishing" and you will get the idea of what you can do with them. For the bay here they are are just overkill as there is very little that would require that size reel unless you are targeting white pointers (protected) or very big tigers. Down around Montague Island  NSW and off the shelf, or the edges of the Barrier Reef is where you will find them used.

My first intro to Bermagui was many decades ago, before I was married and I took my little 14ft 85HP boat up there from Victoria for  a 4 day holiday. Put the boat in the water and was just tolling a lure when my mate yelled out to me that a bloody big sail that had a go at my lure and became a bit  air born in the process. A little while longer  we heard over the radio that a guy had been fighting a big tuna for about 2.5 hours on a 50 sized reel and had been busted off. He would have been devastated not to mention worn out. In those days a 50 sized reel would not have had the drag capacity  that the modern day reels do and you would have the fight go on for much, much longer. My view is drag them up quickly and release them without stressing out the fish to the point of death due to the length of the fight.
You don't catch many of the huge fish here but when you do, you will remember it forever.
On my honeymoon I hired a 23ft boat in the Whitsundays and took my fishing gear with me, we anchored up at Whitehaven Beach overnight and the missus went to bed to read a book and so I put on a large piece of fish on a big hook, added a balloon  and used an Okuma 50W, hoping for a Spanish Mackerel, a little while later I hooked up and turned out to be an 8ft tiger, about 15 minutes later I got it to the boat, could have had it in about 5 minutes but at several stages I was letting it run out on a lighter drag just to be able to have fun reeling it in again. The drag on that reel wasn't as strong as the current ones. Just goes to show I would need to get a much, much bigger shark to challenge that sized  reel. I called out to my wife to give me a hand , she came up on to the deck, took one look at the shark and said I am on my own! 🤣 I eventually released it but next day when we were swimming at the beach we were both very wary and just stayed in the shallows and kept a watchful eye out.🤔
So if you want to land big fish you need a big reel.
Here is a link to some guys hooking for research 2 giant Bluefin Tuna,  the largest towards the end is a 280kg tuna using a Makaira MK-80 reel. Swedish language but English subtitles. If you watch till the end you can see that the 80 size reels do take it out of you and depending on the size and type of fish you hook will make you wish you had a smaller one on! Definitely not for us old buggers.
 

I have a vague recollection that there is a rod builder/repairer ? in the Scarborough area, I know he builds rods but not certain if he also repairs them, I would imagine that he would though. I bought some rod parts from him  many years ago  and as he was quite old then I am not sure if he is still doing it. I also think that there was a small shop opposite the Bribie Island VMR that also did rod repairs. and lastly Phil at the Bongaree tackle and bike  store may also do some repairs.
The reel seat may be quite hard to fix depending on how it was originally glued. When I do mine, I do a set of thin rings made from masking tape, then cut out some slits in them, cover with epoxy and slide the seat down, any trapped air and excess resin will ooze out of the slits and get wiped away, then the top grip get pushed down from the tip  over wet epoxy and the whole lot sets,  so effectively the slits gets filled  with epoxy and forms a solid plug binding the seat and blank together. To fix a loose seat you will have to get some epoxy between the two for it to grip again. The masking tape rings are there just to keep an even spacing between the seat and the blank, to do it properly the blank in that area needed to to be lightly sanded down first when the rod was first made.
That area may be completely filled with epoxy so you may not be able to get any more  thick epoxy in there. If that is the case you might be able to flood the area where the reel seat touches the lower or top grips with super glue and as it is quite thin it may seep down to where it is needed and bind the two together, you can tell if it is going down as it will keep disappearing from where you are squeezing it on. If it does then give the real seat a couple of quick partial turns or move it up and down slightly before the super glue sets and leave in position. If the super glue is still disappearing,  then once the seat is in the right position, give it some more glue and let it set. Just a suggestion!

Just got this doc off the web, originally on Facebook.
Funny.docx

My first intro to Bermagui was many decades ago, before I was married and I took my little 14ft 85HP boat up there from Victoria for  a 4 day holiday. Put the boat in the water and was just tolling a lure when my mate yelled out to me that a bloody big sail that had a go at my lure and became a bit  air born in the process. A little while longer  we heard over the radio that a guy had been fighting a big tuna for about 2.5 hours on a 50 sized reel and had been busted off. He would have been devastated not to mention worn out. In those days a 50 sized reel would not have had the drag capacity  that the modern day reels do and you would have the fight go on for much, much longer. My view is drag them up quickly and release them without stressing out the fish to the point of death due to the length of the fight.
You don't catch many of the huge fish here but when you do, you will remember it forever.
On my honeymoon I hired a 23ft boat in the Whitsundays and took my fishing gear with me, we anchored up at Whitehaven Beach overnight and the missus went to bed to read a book and so I put on a large piece of fish on a big hook, added a balloon  and used an Okuma 50W, hoping for a Spanish Mackerel, a little while later I hooked up and turned out to be an 8ft tiger, about 15 minutes later I got it to the boat, could have had it in about 5 minutes but at several stages I was letting it run out on a lighter drag just to be able to have fun reeling it in again. The drag on that reel wasn't as strong as the current ones. Just goes to show I would need to get a much, much bigger shark to challenge that sized  reel. I called out to my wife to give me a hand , she came up on to the deck, took one look at the shark and said I am on my own! 🤣 I eventually released it but next day when we were swimming at the beach we were both very wary and just stayed in the shallows and kept a watchful eye out.🤔
So if you want to land big fish you need a big reel.
Here is a link to some guys hooking for research 2 giant Bluefin Tuna,  the largest towards the end is a 280kg tuna using a Makaira MK-80 reel. Swedish language but English subtitles. If you watch till the end you can see that the 80 size reels do take it out of you and depending on the size and type of fish you hook will make you wish you had a smaller one on! Definitely not for us old buggers.
 

I have a vague recollection that there is a rod builder/repairer ? in the Scarborough area, I know he builds rods but not certain if he also repairs them, I would imagine that he would though. I bought some rod parts from him  many years ago  and as he was quite old then I am not sure if he is still doing it. I also think that there was a small shop opposite the Bribie Island VMR that also did rod repairs. and lastly Phil at the Bongaree tackle and bike  store may also do some repairs.
The reel seat may be quite hard to fix depending on how it was originally glued. When I do mine, I do a set of thin rings made from masking tape, then cut out some slits in them, cover with epoxy and slide the seat down, any trapped air and excess resin will ooze out of the slits and get wiped away, then the top grip get pushed down from the tip  over wet epoxy and the whole lot sets,  so effectively the slits gets filled  with epoxy and forms a solid plug binding the seat and blank together. To fix a loose seat you will have to get some epoxy between the two for it to grip again. The masking tape rings are there just to keep an even spacing between the seat and the blank, to do it properly the blank in that area needed to to be lightly sanded down first when the rod was first made.
That area may be completely filled with epoxy so you may not be able to get any more  thick epoxy in there. If that is the case you might be able to flood the area where the reel seat touches the lower or top grips with super glue and as it is quite thin it may seep down to where it is needed and bind the two together, you can tell if it is going down as it will keep disappearing from where you are squeezing it on. If it does then give the real seat a couple of quick partial turns or move it up and down slightly before the super glue sets and leave in position. If the super glue is still disappearing,  then once the seat is in the right position, give it some more glue and let it set. Just a suggestion!

I have a vague recollection that there is a rod builder/repairer ? in the Scarborough area, I know he builds rods but not certain if he also repairs them, I would imagine that he would though. I bought some rod parts from him  many years ago  and as he was quite old then I am not sure if he is still doing it. I also think that there was a small shop opposite the Bribie Island VMR that also did rod repairs. and lastly Phil at the Bongaree tackle and bike  store may also do some repairs.
The reel seat may be quite hard to fix depending on how it was originally glued. When I do mine, I do a set of thin rings made from masking tape, then cut out some slits in them, cover with epoxy and slide the seat down, any trapped air and excess resin will ooze out of the slits and get wiped away, then the top grip get pushed down from the tip  over wet epoxy and the whole lot sets,  so effectively the slits gets filled  with epoxy and forms a solid plug binding the seat and blank together. To fix a loose seat you will have to get some epoxy between the two for it to grip again. The masking tape rings are there just to keep an even spacing between the seat and the blank, to do it properly the blank in that area needed to to be lightly sanded down first when the rod was first made.
That area may be completely filled with epoxy so you may not be able to get any more  thick epoxy in there. If that is the case you might be able to flood the area where the reel seat touches the lower or top grips with super glue and as it is quite thin it may seep down to where it is needed and bind the two together, you can tell if it is going down as it will keep disappearing from where you are squeezing it on. If it does then give the real seat a couple of quick partial turns or move it up and down slightly before the super glue sets and leave in position. If the super glue is still disappearing,  then once the seat is in the right position, give it some more glue and let it set. Just a suggestion!

Speaking of Rum have you tried Ratu rum? it is a spiced rum and quite nice.
Back to rods, I haven't looked at the new Ugly's yet, I know that they are available but I try not to spend too much time in the rod racks as I know what will happen, I will walk out with another after spending 20 minutes  justifying to myself why that would be a good idea and I really, really do not need any more rods or reels for that matter! ....... I think? 🤔.

Thanks for the offer Sneaky1 but I rarely make rods anymore as I have now 20 of them, occasionally I will redo a rod with guides but I generally switch them over to SiC ones, I bought a heap of them many years ago and almost down to having enough just to redo one more full rod, and that will be my last one, (unless I stick one in a fan! 🤣)  I also must stay away from Rum!.
I still have a 37kg Ugly Stik which I bought and not happy with the existing guides on it,  however someone else may take you up on your generous offer.

4 rods??  Apparently not, 🤣🤣🤣🤣, some of us learn faster than others!   Sorry couldn't help myself! but in full disclosure, I came close to a ceiling fan once, but fortunately it wasn't on at the time. 😀

That really starts off your day in a bad mood, I have only ever broken off one rod due to carelessness, about 40+ years ago when I started making my own rods, one of the first ones I made in fact, I even went so far as making a fancy wrap for it above the top grip, it was a nice light rod for catching bait/whiting/herring,  took over a week for me to make, second time using it and whilst getting it out of the car with the other rods, I left it inside the open door whilst I was taking all the other rods out and moving the other rods  to position them on the jetty, I had to go past the door and so closed it slightly to get past and crack, 1/3rd of the rod at my feet. I just stood there in silence like a stunned mullet marveling at my own stupidity.
Having said that I have never done that again! Lesson learnt,  only other rod I broke was not my fault,  I bought a brand new high graphite content rod, about second cast in and the tip snapped off,  It is only recently (in the last couple of years) that I bought my second high content graphite rod because of that experience (although I hear that it is still a bit of problem nowadays with some brands), all the others have been composites or glass. Once you break your first rod due to a lapse in judgement  it will always be on your mind.

That setup is for trolling for large fish, ie marlin, sharks, big tuna etc. I have a Makaira MK-30II on that rod with 150lb Braid on it and that reel can put out 55lb drag. My larger reel is the Makaira MK-50W which I will use for ballooning (need the larger line capacity) from a land based position and also a 34Kg rod and that one has 85lb of drag. Both of these reel require a rod harness and a rod gimble belt to get the most out of the setup and  if you don't use those you are wasting your time, unless you hook a small fish on them then they are seriously overkill.
Just for reference there are 2 larger sizes than those, an 80W and a 130, both are very large reels , as in huge and humungous, with over 100lb drag designed for fish around the 1000-1500lb but I am not into that sort of fishing as for me they would not be fun, fighting a fish that big with those sorts of drag for hours on end would probably kill me, (actually 15 minute would do me in) I am not a spring chicken anymore.
Do a YouTube search by typing in those model numbers plus "shark fishing" or "cow tuna fishing" and you will get the idea of what you can do with them. For the bay here they are are just overkill as there is very little that would require that size reel unless you are targeting white pointers (protected) or very big tigers. Down around Montague Island  NSW and off the shelf, or the edges of the Barrier Reef is where you will find them used.

That setup is for trolling for large fish, ie marlin, sharks, big tuna etc. I have a Makaira MK-30II on that rod with 150lb Braid on it and that reel can put out 55lb drag. My larger reel is the Makaira MK-50W which I will use for ballooning (need the larger line capacity) from a land based position and also a 34Kg rod and that one has 85lb of drag. Both of these reel require a rod harness and a rod gimble belt to get the most out of the setup and  if you don't use those you are wasting your time, unless you hook a small fish on them then they are seriously overkill.
Just for reference there are 2 larger sizes than those, an 80W and a 130, both are very large reels , as in huge and humungous, with over 100lb drag designed for fish around the 1000-1500lb but I am not into that sort of fishing as for me they would not be fun, fighting a fish that big with those sorts of drag for hours on end would probably kill me, (actually 15 minute would do me in) I am not a spring chicken anymore.
Do a YouTube search by typing in those model numbers plus "shark fishing" or "cow tuna fishing" and you will get the idea of what you can do with them. For the bay here they are are just overkill as there is very little that would require that size reel unless you are targeting white pointers (protected) or very big tigers. Down around Montague Island  NSW and off the shelf, or the edges of the Barrier Reef is where you will find them used.