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For my two pennith worth the Tiagra 16 is the most awsome small marlin reel lets say up to 150kg load it with 8 kilo Stren pre set the strike drag to 3 kilo and baby go bill fishin you will be hooked for life
Matty asked about lures heres a nice spread for the little fellas they love um
Meridian Demon 5 lumo long rigger
Meridian demon 4 Bonito long corner
Pakula Zipper Fuzz shotgun
Meridian Quazi midnight short corner
Meridian demon 5 pink bonito short rigger
witch doctor long corner
bird mirrored with squid short corner
Hope this helps
Peter Pakula is doing a workshop on small blacks on monday night at our club meeting at southport coast guard all welcome
Nick
Nick, who is it thats making these meridian lures so popular, I must be the only 1 not usn em! me and jeffo are going out for a troll tomorrow, fingers crossed there will be one out there for us
rob
8.50 Sunday and guess what its windy Rob i have been usin The Meridians for a while. Doug Bert sells them down here dont know in Briz where you can sourse them the quaility is awsome they are true works of art and very keenly priced and GUESS WHAT BILLYS LOVE THEM
Nick
Firstly a big thanks to all those that have helped with advice. I went out today to try out the new toys, had been checking buoy weather and forcast was for winds not as strong as we got. No billfish (surprise surprise) but we did manage 1 dolphin fish and 1 skip jack tuna for the morning. The skip jack fell to one of those meridion's from dug burts actually.
What depth do you guys focus on with your sounders when trolling i.e: are you just watching for bait and structure on or around the bottom or are you looking for bait in the top 20m or so
generaly speaking.. a high tight bait school is a good one and one that should be trolloed around quite a bit.. a deep bait school (near the bottom) or one that is fairly scattered is still worth a good troll around.. but also VERy worth while keeping in mind for comming back to on the change of the tide or something else that might trigger a bite time. matty- as damon and a few others have said peter pakulas CD is worth its weight in gold.
For Meridians, Black Barts and Moldcrafts on the Sunshine Coast pop into Stuart Mackenzie of Precision Rods Technology Drive. Don't know of any stockists in Brisbane for the names above but the Boss lures through Ausfish are good well priced lures.
Have had a whisper in the big jolly fellas ear and hopefully he will leave pakulas cd for me . Went down to a talk by peter last night jeez that guy knows his stuff was a great night thanks again black and blue for the heads up.
You guys have guts, meant to use another word here but the kids might read this site.
Using 10kg line for chasing beakies - You guys are nuts or I am really messing something up along the way. I have lost count the amount of times that we have been spooled, slammed, snapped and downright outgunned on 80 pound and 120 pound setups. They are all running on 50 - 80 pound rods using Okuma, Penn Internationals and Daiwa Sealine reels.
I have yet got to stay connected for longer than 30 seconds using a 9 weight flyrod - I get busted every time but I will keep on trying untiol I land a line class fish on that setup.
Firstly, I love looking for trouble by chasing things in the water that are bigger than me. Secondly, I do not have the money required to go really deep with a flash boat with all the bells and whistles to run outriggers, downriggers, teasers, sounders etc.
A 23 foot fibreglass, 50 HP outboard with tiller steer, and all the rod holders are home made. The sounder is run of a car battery, the transponder unit is mounted on a clamp I welded up using scrap metal and old scaffold piping. We struggle our buts of to get anything out here in the line of trolling gear. A stupid thing such as heat shrink is a 4 - 6 week struggle, and then the qualty is crap.
Do I want sympathy - Not in the least.
Am I bragging by how hard we have it - Not in the slightest
Do I respect those that are fortunate enough to have it all available to them and chase their passion on a regular basis - You bet ya.
Do I take my hat off and stand up for any fisho that wants to go and chase beakies - Every bloody time mate, every bloody time.
Take what you have, put it in the water and chase them until you run out of fuel mate. Chase them hard and long and you will be rewarded. Me, after 18 months of trying every available weekend I have yet to land a beakie. What rod should you use / what reel / which one is better / what speed? etc etc etc
Who cares. Take what you have and just get out there. I watched a guy troll, fight and land a 20 kg sail on a handline the one day. Who says it is impossible?
If you ask stupid questions, then bigger men true to the sport will help you out I have found. Why do they do it? Because they understand that feeling of triumph when you finally hook a line class fish, fight it hard until your upper arm and back muscles feel like they are on fire and you succesfuly land it.
All the best Matty, and I am a bit jealous since our marlin season has come to an end while you guys should be into the thick of it by now.
A pic of our setup
Me front left with my right hand next to the sounder setup.
All rod holders etc is home made. Why - Cause nobody in this neck of the woods sell any trolling gear.
And this is what I am chasing.
This baby was taken by a crew with a crapload of money that had to spend a fortune in fuel to travel the 400 odd nautical miles to get their boat here, never mind the other associated costs
In the two weeks they were here they managed to land only three fish. This baby was taken on the first day, and was the biggest of the trip. Estimated at 400 + pounds. Tagged and released.
Worth it I asked the guys - Every bloody penny they reckoned.
Wessel if you keep geting busted up what does that tell you! Your drag setting on your reel is set to high get a set of spring scales and set your drag to a third of the breaking strain of your line. As for chasing billys on 8 kilo once everything is set up right it’s a piece of cake the 30 kilo one we got the other day was tagged and released within 5 minutes on 8 kilo! Weve caught 110 kg Blues in 25 min on 24 kilo and that’s real slow! Wessel keep on chasing them you get on sooner or later Ps where do you fish?
Nick
wessel, gidday!
i know a fellow chippy(carpenter) - eric lackey at kingscliff just down from the tweed river . he goes out on a 60's timber surf ski(slsc style!) and has caught a sail around 45kg on it using a broom stick rod with an alvey 750cl snapper reel! towed him about for a while, so you don't need a flash rig!
the marlin we catch here are mostly puppy blacks averaging 20kg.
a club member-jon norling (he' frequents this board/forum aka "shortbill") caught a 300kg(not pounds! kilo's!) blue last season on 15kg and they got 6 in the oneday! he's in a 6.5 meter centre console with 200hp(like pakula's oldboat).
in my rig which is 5.2m with a 100hp i got a lill' black on my 3rd attempt to catch one in these waters- so i would have to say we got it all in the seq region when it comes to sportsfishing/gamefishing.
without a "blackhawk down" situation if you crack a can of beer at the end of the day! lol (joke on the instability of africa/middle east!)
goodluck with your marlin quest!
damon
stuff peter pakula he 'might' know his game fishing but he IS a prick that uses people to get what he wants then gets rid of them, all he cares about is the $$$$$...who deserves to be [smiley=rifle.gif]. ive seen it with at least 5 or 6 differant people. plus ask him who designed 'his' lures??? most if not all where desinged by someone other than himself! so on principal i will never use or fish with anyone who uses his stuff while in my presence!!! anyway if i wanna know anything about game fishing ill ask my uncle Bob... he used to run a 16ft boat in the '80s and the early '90s called V.B. if you have heard some outragious stories about this boat they are true...hes caught enough marlin to get me started with tips and secrets. with big blues and blacks over 350kg tagged.
my two bobs worth
phil
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Rob i have been usin The Meridians for a while. Doug Bert sells them down here dont know in Briz where you can sourse them the quaility is awsome they are true works of art and very keenly priced and GUESS WHAT BILLYS LOVE THEM 
. Went down to a talk by peter last night jeez that guy knows his stuff was a great night thanks again black and blue for the heads up.
