Perth to Adelaide trip - basic fishing tackle I should take

G,day James all what you have stated is good,Exept i would get rid of the alvey mate as your going in to some big fish country down there and the alveys are good but they are tiresome to work, use your big eggbeater, as for lures i would use some plastics there not to bad, but you cant go past the mulie or pilchard that is if your fishing in the ocean, If its the murray river your thinking of then i would be looking at trying to get and old dip tin tie a piece of soap or an old chop in it and catch some shrimp and yabbies, there good tucker to cobb,And the fish are biting well along the murray. Get your self some No 3 and 5 gang hooks and you wont miss to much cobb, Good luck and all the best, Douglas

Get onto fisheries website for both WA and SA to see what fish you could expect to catch, how to identify them (eatable or not) size limits of those fish and bag limits.

A tape measure wouldn't go astray and a camera to record the BIG one.
Will you be keeping some? You have a fridge / freezer?

One trip I had a long beach rod and for a laugh I tried casting some bait off the cliffs in SA near the border. I don't think my bait was even reaching the water cos you can't (don't) get close enough to the edge to tell.

Are you going down the coast from Ceduna to Pt Lincoln? Well worth it, you may make friends with a caravaner in a park with a boat and get out into some King George Whiting. Best eating fish in the sea in my opinion.

Have fun.

Cheers Neil

For your kit...What you have listed plus -

A fillet knife and steel along with a stone. A general (bait knife).
Tape measure. You can get fiberglass ones that are salt water safe.
First aide kit including some side cutters capable of cutting the largest hook you have.

First, the Alvey question... Is the rod made to take an Alvey reel ? To tell, the butt of the rod should be quite short. That is the length from the butt (blunt end of the rod) should be only a few inches from the reel seat. The stripper guide should be quite large compared to the other guides. The stripper, is the first guide up from the reel. If the rod does NOT have these two features, then it is not designed for an Alvey reel.

There are some very good videos on youtube and I believe also on the Alvey web site showing how to use an Alvey correctly... Even if your rod is not designed for an Alvey, you can of course still use the Alvey on it...So to answer the question, take both the threadline (eggbeater) and the Alvey.

Lures... Because you are still learning, I would suggest some basic soft plastics. Hard body lures take some learning and are more intended for specific situations. As a "starter" kit for soft plastics, have a look at a Gulp re-charger pack. They are about $30. BCF or any good tackle store will know what you are asking for if you just ask for a Gulp recharger pack. Ask the staff to show or explain to you how to rig the soft plastics using jig heads. Then select 2 or 3 different size jig heads to put in your tackle box.

Some one mentioned bait (as apposed) to lures. Whatever bait you take, make sure it is salted. You can buy salted pilchard. Any other bait you can salt yourself. You need a plastic garden sieve and a bag of salt. Simply put in a layer of salt in the sieve, then layer the bait then cover with more salt. Wait 2 or 3 days and remove the bait...Done, salted ! A 25kg bag of pool salt is about $7.50 at Bunnings and they also have the sieves. A lot of juices come out, you can collect it in a bucket under the sieve and it makes a very good "recharge" solution ;) Salted bait does not need to be kept in the fridge. You can simply keep it in any old container or plastic bag...it will not go off.

Fishing can be as simple as you want, or it can be an absolute science...My almost 50 years of fishing have taught me one thing above all other lessons - KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid method.

So your last question is very difficult to answer... To KISS it, I would absolutely grab one of those 300 or 500 piece starter kits. Gillies do a few different sized starter kits complete with a Plano tackle box.

ok as far as tackle goes. if you want to keep it simple a selection of star sinkers and hooks. I find size 6 hooks are a good size for small fish like leather jackets, tommies, whiting etc

also 1/0 hooks which are good for decent sized fish and also gangs of 4/0 hooks

now you will be spending a fair bit of time away from bait stores so what i do is get a sturdy plastic bag like some sort of rubish back and get a block of pilchards. you defrost the pillies enough to seperate them and put them in the bag along with 500g-1kg of salt which you can buy home brand of from the supermarket for almost nothing

the pillies will easily last a week now and toughen up instead of getting soft and mushy

if your intending on fishing off rocks like around talia, elliston and streaky bay also foam floats are good. unfortuanatly decent foam floats are almost immposable to find in WA.

I used to have an alvey and was so much happier when i pulled it off and chucked it in the bin replacing it with big long cast eggbeaters which are les than $50.

forget lures if you want to catch fish

Awesome. Great replies. Thanks to everyone.

Definitely some things I hadn't considered, but will now!

QUick one regarding using the salted pilchards - do I just rig em up using some ganghooks, swivel and a sliding float?

Oh and to answer your question - I won't have any refrigeration so the plan is to eat whatever I catch on the spot, or chuck it back. Unless there are any other alternatives?

And research which fish you need to 'bleed', eg. Australian Salmon. It sounds a bit brutal, but it saves the flesh from being tainted with the blood of the fish. There's a few videos on YouTube that show how it's done.