Annual Straddie fishing trip and we purchased our pillies at a tackle shop in Brisbane Road, Gold Coast. A cursory look into each box revealed average sized and whole baits. When we got to the island we discovered that the 2 x 4 kg boxes of "Tweed Bait" pillies were a variety of very small, medium, and the odd good ones. They ranged in size from about 6cms to about 13 cms. If this wasn't bad enough, in the bottom of each of the 4kg boxes we found many broken and headless pillies.
When we rang the tackle shop about the crap bait, basically we were told that, 'shit happens'. When pressed to do something, the tackle shop said if returned the boxes we could sort them and replace the undersized and broken ones. Yeah right! .
A member of our crew coming down from Sunny Coast bought 2 x 4 kg boxes of pillies from a Tackle World shop there and these baits were absolutely first class. Every one of the baits was 13 - 14 cms and no broken ones amongst them. So, be warned . Thoroughly check your bait at the tackle shop or be selective about which brand you buy and where you buy it.