Ahab [and Craig] and others...
I must say I disagree with the practice of using natural burley.
Here me out.
I have used mussel spat, kina and other naturally found organisms as burley in the past. In the past.
I changed one day. I remember it well... <your screen going wiggly and wavy now okay>
I was watching some Asians at Whatipu scrapping mussel spat of the rocks. Before anyone gets their tits in a tangle, clearly they were of Asian decent. They are also the only race I have seen collecting mussel spat this way. They were using from what I could make out through my binoculars (and I could make out a lot), piano or similar gauge wire. They would hold a piece of wire maybe 2ft long stretched out and held at both ends by a bit of tree (probably a young kauri) and use this to "work" over the surface of the rock, thus scrapping all living things from the rock. This was then collected and boiled no doubt back at home.
I thought very hard and not very long about some of my own practices around the foreshore.
This is not a dig at Asians. This is about doing things a little smarter and looking after what we have.
The reason the fish are found in these places which then leads us to spend hours thrashing the water to a foam with our fly line, IS because of the barnacles, mussel spat etc. We should be protecting that environment not destroying to put our odds up because ultimately we all loose.
Same goes for the practice of catching species such as kahawai for burley or killing stingarays or cutting their tails and barbs in order to maybe save the next Steve Irwin. It is BS. We are not the owners of such things, we are meant to be part of them.
'Pure fly' for me is the epitome of this kind of philosophy. This makes us better than bait fisherman.
Okay, this isn't Sunday and I am not going to preach anymore.
A side note on the Panga's. Build them you soft co#ks, if I can manage it, you can. Wood is Good.