I got the confirmation I needed on the 2nd post. Still had a great trip with the restrictions in place and provided some feedback on what worked and didn't work with the lures that I fish regularly.

When I return down that way again I'll be better prepared, maybe with different lures, maybe not.

Charter businesses can apply what ever rules they feel necessary, after all it's their business.

Hopefully it has highlighted the rule to others planning a trip down there, as it was only by chance I had found out before I got there, so I prepared as best I could with the limited time I had.

Surely the only constructive direction for this thread to take is for people to share their success / or failure of different hook combinations with lures that are otherwise designed to swim trebles, or as someone pointed out with the Nambas, effective lures that swim best with singles.

I personally dont like treble hooks as they are a bit harder to remove from fish but will still let anglers use them as I do understand that some lures do work better with trebles.

To give everyone advice on how I deal with fish when they come to the boat is I lip gaff the fish and lift the fish so the lips are flush with the boats gunnels then proceed to remove the lure and hooks at this point, then once the lure has been removed if we want to release the fish it slides back into the water or we want to get a few snaps I will slid it into the anglers arms from there, at no point I think should a fish be brought into the boat with a lure still in its mouth, its just asking for trouble.

Now to the top water pro fishntips, you have made a few big calls mate, on the road to starting to correct you on your very poor judgment calls, first the photo of me holding the kingfish with RAL in its mouth, it is 100% legit, that was the first fish taken on that lure and the photo was taken by a good client of mine.

your little digs at Sam are BS, you dont have a clue at how much time has been put into R&D on the 100 Haku and other RAL lures and saying Sam is into glory hunting?? come on

you statement that lures with singles or Baker rigs will catch fish when the bite is hot and not when the fishing is slow is a testament to how little time you have actual spent on the water fishing 

to quote you again "Sam will point to angler skill and action rather the design of his baits. Good floating lures can be  notoriously difficult to swim. These sinking lure were not, they simply didn't swim right at all, they just sunk and bogged out on an angle." there is always a RAL lure in the mix when we are fishing top water, I have loads of clients that are on my boat to give top water a go and you mite be surprised to know that they catch fish with the 100gm Haku with very little experience, maybe dont blame the lure for not catching fish it could be your lack of knowledge on how to find them.

Exactly what i said mate.........Dont think they are thinking straight..

managed Wed/Thurs at the Banks, Mon/ Tues sheltering