garryl

If you go over to the other side of Broken Bay there is a place called Box Head (or maybe Little box) there is a large rock and there will be half a dozen boats doing the same thing. I believe West Head is there area you'd be after coming up the Hawksbury, but I haven't used that spot myself. If you berly up around Lion Island they usually come in as well. Good luck.

My brother an i went out to the Wollongong FAD last Friday, my first trip out, in a fair bit of swell, one other boat out there. The other boat looked to pick up a few, but were all under sized. We only got one, just legal. We were using yakkas. Saw quite a few right on the FAD, but were all small. Nothing out around it, but it was probably hard to see given the swell.

Hmmm. It's hard for me to explain not being a local. If you put your boat in at lions park, head out of the creek and turn right (head towards the rip bridge) the islands are just around the corner on the left. Need a boat to get to them. Hope that makes sence.

If you have a boat the gap between the two islands just upstream from lions park at woy woy have heaps of them at low tide. Even I can get them! Google maps has the area marked as st Hubert's island. It is west of the st Hubert's property development.

Finally got an opportunity to go out with my brother a.k.a. Uncle Rocket. He's been at me for ages to go out trolling for king fish. Got up nice and early and were fishing for yakkas before 6. Struggled to get many. Only if we were after sweep! It was all I could get! Managed to get about 8 before the frustration really set in. Went out the front of the Hacking and drove around I circles until that got as frustrating as the yakkas. A guy in a yak was struggling with something huge. I called it for a shark, but we weren't sure. After not getting a bite for a while drive right across to Boat Harbour. Then looked for Osbournes reef but only picked up rubbish at both spots. Went back to our trolling spot for one last try. Got a few hits and finally Uncle Rocket was on! We thought it would be a keeper for sure bit she pulled up just shy. So went back for next time. Second king I've had in the boat. Next one is bound to be a keeper. Fingers crossed.

Thanks guys, the ramp at Patonga is "interesting" one if the benefits of taking out the 11 yo is that I've got him trained up to drive the boat off and on while I look after the car. I spent a lot of time going through ray's and other Raider's posts to learn how to fish the area, everyone's tips were really appreciated. Thanks so much. Got out again this morning and pretty much a carbon copy of yesterday. Ben wouldn't come in untill we beat 5. So we had 6 in the well before 9 and got home to the girls waking up!

Got out early this morning with the padawan. Beautiful morning to be out and not at work. Managed to keep junior busy with 5 flatties landed and lost a couple at the boat. No monsters among them but great size for a feed. All taken on soft plastics, jerk shads, shrimp, and one on a squidgy fish.

Took the young fella out with big plans on Wednesday. Got out a bit late because of some rain. By the time we got to the live bait grounds they weren't in the bite so took a heap of time to get 6 in the tank. Tried drifting around Ettaling with the lives and sp's but the wind was mAking it difficult to get up a good drift. Drive around broken bay looking for some surface action but it was all quiet, even tried around the Pittwater but still no good. After 3 hrs in the water headed back to my never-fail spit off Patonga. Landed one flattie on a sp and the young fella dragged in a 53cm model on one if the live yellowtail. Lost a nice one at the boat. Cardinal rule no 1 don't lift their head out of the water!! Outfished again!

Took my young fella out this morning, first time I've had the boat out in what seems like an eternity. We headed over and tucked in behind the North breakwall and started getting a few yakkas which Ben just loves doing. Nothing like keeping the kids busy when they are in the boat. I threw a hook in one of the first ones and threw it overboard, just in case. After a while the heavy rod buckles over and line starts peeling off. Ben drops the yakka rod and grabs on for the real fight. After a few minutes a nice Flattie of 54cm comes up (which nearly got lost overboard in the mandatory measure in) We went outside around the closest Island but were getting smashed by the wind so came back in close to the South Breakwall. Dropped a couple of livies over the side and started flicking the plastics around (Ben using his brand new birthday present). Then the same rod starts going at an even greater rate of knots than earlier on. We pulled in our first ever Kingy, just over 50cm. Didn't managed to get anything else in the boat, but it was great to be out and having a go. How fitting that I always call Ben "The Rat"

I was wondering what the differences are between them. I have started fishing a bit with the Gulp! SPs, mainly 5"Jerk Shad for Flathead. Then I came across the Gulp! Alive Jars and thought this was a great idea as it fixed the problem of the leaking not-very-resealable packets. Now every packet I open I throw the unused lures in the jar with the juice. I was lucky enough to get along to a Gary Brown talk and he suggested it was OK to do that and that there is no problem with colors mixing etc. I was doing a bit of research and on the new Berkley web site found the Powerbait range. I found some for sale and on the face of it they don't come with any juice in the packets whatsoever. So my questions are something like... - Are Powerbaits made from the same plastic formula as the Gulps? - Can Powerbaits be put in the Gulp Alive juice jars? - If so, will they "improve" by putting them in there? I've also come across the Gulp Bio-dip coulouring jars. I haven't found many references to these through the forums. Does anyone use these Do they improve the strike rate? Thanks in advance for any replies. Garry

Thanks guys, forgot the important bits. They were all caught on 5" gulp jerk shads in nuclear chicken and the white colour (can't remember what its actually called)

Finally got out after a dry spell. Was a little bumpy for me outside so I stayed inside the harbour. Tried looking around for bonito / tailor around teh entrance but didn't get any takers. Moved back in to the sandy spot and flicked for some Flatties and managed 5 within about an hour spell, biggest went 60cm which was great. Nice morning to be out as well.

From what I've seen in use (and on other posts in this forum) there are a few options for inlet configurations. The kit system that I bought has the inlet into the bottom of the tank (like yours) then an elbow fitted and a riser pipe running to the top. The riser pipe is capped off and holes drilled in it to act as a spray bar to sprinkle the inlet water onto the top. This agitates the water and adds a bit of air. Initially I didn't seal the connections up, as I planned to pull the riser pipe out to drain the tank out through the inlet, but, of course, while I was driving around the riser pipe came out and the tank drained down when I was stationary. So, I have sealed the connections up and added a drain plug as Geoff has suggested. What I'll be putting on my next setup is for the inlet to come in at the top and a pipe running on the inside to the bottom of the tank to push the dirty bottom water up and create a bit of circulation. The trick is to drill a small hole in the top of the pipe above the water level. This will stop the water from siphoning back out out through the inlet, and add a bit of splash at the top. I think that adding the fresh water keeps the livies alive more that the splashing or any aeration system. (But I could be very wrong) My system is also plumbed up and held in with straps so I can remove it (the kids love to tube more than I like to fish). Would you believe I didn't think of using garden hose quick disconnects like you have. I have been undoing stainless steel hose clamps. What a dumb! Time to get out there and have a look to see how I can fit them in. Thanks for sharing your post, it's helped me!

Hey, why would there be a black market in particular for tailor? They are a fairly ordinary eating fish?

Well done. You won't forget that in a hurry!

Went down to Merry Beach with a few other families staying at the Van park. took down my boat and was a bit nervous given the info I had about the boat ramp and the sea conditions. Stopped in at the Tackle Shop in Bawley Point and picked up some more info, which was very much appreciated. On Thursday night I rustled up a few deckies, Dean, Ben and Gerome. Gerome's a keen estuary fisho but hasn't done a lot in open water. Dean and Ben were just keen to have a go! The tides were kind for putting the boat in in the morning. I think i would really have struggled putting in and getting out if the tide was low without a 4WD, but we got a bit of a system going and managed without any dramas. Managed to get out Friday, Saturday and Monday with Friday being the pick of the days we managed 1/2 dozen pan sized reds and one monster which went 65cm. Not a bad effort for a bunch of amateurs! Saturday was a bit of a disappointment. We got out on the water at about 6 and at 6:30, right on sun u,p a pretty strong Southerly hit. We headed back in, got a bit wet, but toughed it out around the bay. had a bit of fun with Slimeys and yakkas, stocking up for our next trip. Monday was also tough work, but very enjoyable. The swell and wind was up making drifting around a bit uncomfortable, but again managed 4 Snapper and a trev, biggest going 45cm. We also outsmarted a fair sized squid which chased a wrasse up to the boat. We would have had it hanging there for 15 minutes taking swipes at it with the landing net. The squid's persistence finally paid off for us when Deano managed to grab him. In all it was a great weekend, and I learnt a lot, which will help next time I go out. Thanks to the boys for coming out and enjoying the good and the not-so-good-but-still-a-heap-better-than-work! While we were sitting around the van park, especially on Sunday, blokes were bringing in monster Kings from the rocks on the South side of the beach. I'm not kitted up for the rocks so didn't give it a go. The swell was way to big for me, but for those that know what they are doing there seemed to be heaps there.

My cousin had a farm west of Casino and we caught them in the freshwater creek. It was quite a few years ago but I'm pretty sure we ate them. They looked pretty much the same, but they were a brown colour where this beastie looks quite green. I've never seen one caught in saltwater before. Will be interesting to see what people have to say.

I'm not a local to the area but I fish around Ettalong a bit. I don't recall seeing Life jacket signs, nor do I see very many people using them. If you stick to the markers, take the long way around to the left after heading out past Half Tide Rocks the channel is pretty safe. Having said that I got caught out once coming back from a weekend up the Hawksbury and the weather turned very sour, 6m waves. In hindsight I was a dill and should have turned back to the Hawksbury. So, yes, it can get dangerous, but I'd say only in extreme conditions. As for whether or not it is technically considered a bar crossing. i am also interested in the answer. i never thought of it......

Thanks for all your comments guys. So, here's the plan. I don't want to rig up a 12V bilge pump as they drain way too much power. I couldn't bear the thought of draining the battery down. I've given the small battery operated pump to a sparkie at work and he's going to rig up a "Switch Mode Power Supply"or whatever that is which will drop the 12V boat battery to 1.5V and should consume very little power he assures me. I'll see how it goes and post a few pics when I get it set up. I'm also keeping my eye out for a inexpensive deep cycle 12V battery. I've got a battery charger that I can use to top it up and it would give me peace of mind by not using the boat battery. I also need a decent battery as I've been given an Electric winch to play with that I haven't set up as yet. Using the 240V AC aquarium pump I've kept poddies for a few days in an esky, although I did have to change the water a few times to keep the ammonia down. It doesn't take long for the water to get cloudy as well. A filter that removes it would certainly help reducing that work. I'll certainly have a look at that. After I've done all that then I'll set up a full live bait tank in the boat,with a pickup and pump mounted out the back...........

Thanks Guys, BFB, I'm taking down a 530 Freedom Sport towed by a Ford Territory (2WD). Thanks for the heads up. On Google Maps it looked like concrete all the way down, but then, come to think of i,t one of the cars in the car park at that time was a tractor! There were a few "normal"cars in the shot so I assumed it would have been OK for a car. Will make sure I check it out and have a backup plan. I'm pretty gutless so if there was a swell, or predicted swell, I wouldn't try it. I could see that it's not a 100% protected harbor. Also thanks for the Marine Park stuff. I'll have to go and do a bit more searching on that as I didn't realise it. I know there are parks around Nelson Bay, but didn't know about down South. Will start a bit of a search rads, I found your earlier post with some markers in it, I really appreciate it as lots of people won't be that open with their tips! One question, though, is how are the co-ordinates arranged? I'm still working out my sounder/plotter a bit, but it has the display in dd mm.mmm. I know some people reference in straight decimal dd.ddddd and there are other formats? Anyway I'll have a play and plug some way points into the NAVMAN. It's still fun to sit in the boat on the driveway playing with the NAVMAN, the neighbors think I'm nuts. Garry

Hi all, I'm heading down to Merry Beach at Easter with a truck load of people from the neighborhood, planning on taking the boat down as well to get in a bit of fishing. With any luck the weather will ease up by thenI've checked out the boat ramp at Kioloa on Google and had a look around. None of the people I'm going down with are into fishing and I've never been down there before. I'm hoping to pick up a few tips before i head down. Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Garry

A while ago I bought a book "Depth Sounder Secrets"by Rick Huckstepp. It's an AFN publication. It's a pretty good book with lots of detail, and if I can decipher it then most fishos probably can. I bought mine at a local department store, and have seen copies around. It probably is written for the more expensive and high tech type of sounders with all the bells and whistles (not sure where your sounder rates in that scale), but you do get an understanding of all the adjustments that are available on Sounders and what each setting does. If you want to get more out of your sounder and it has lots of features it's probably worth the investment. Garry

Thanks guys. I am heading up from Wollongong so was looking for something near the camp ground at Bundeena, rather than boating in. Sounds like the sand option might be a bit tricky given I'll be taking up my gutless 2WD ute!

I have set up a live bait tank with pump and pickup in my 12ft tinny before I upgraded to a bigger boat. So I have a bit of experience with pumps and plumbing and stuff. I can also generally manage to catch poddies and keep them alive overnight. What I do at the moment is fill an esky with 2 or 3 buckets of water and use a 240V aquarium aerator to bubble air through the water, which gives me a good success rate of keeping them alive, even for a few days. If the weather goes bad I can keep them long enough to give them names and class them as pets. I'd like to get away from using the 240V outlet outside the caravan, and stopping the need to transfer them from the esky into the boat in the morning. I like to get out without too much mucking around when I do eventually drag by back side out of bed. The water from the esky is also getting a bit past it's best by the morning (depending on how many poddies I have) so sometimes they are struggling for oxygen by the time I get to the boat ramp and get a change of water for the minnow bucket. I find that with poddies the minnow bucket is generally all I need so I haven't set up a live bait tank in the new boat just yet, although one is on the cards once I start getting the knack of catching yakkas and squid and start putting time into the Jewfish / Kingy thing (upgrading from Flathead). Anyway, getting to the point....... If I set up a 12V aerator or "Esky live bait kit" (250US Gal / hr pump) in the esky already set up in the boat, and leave the pump running off the boat battery all night (and possibly a day or so) Is this likely to drain the battery? In the long term is it likely to kill the battery by draining it down? Nothing would "disturb" me more than getting to the ramp and finding the battery doesn't have enough grunt to turn the engine over. I do, however, have a second battery which I could switch to, but I wouldn't sleep knowing I might have the switch in the wrong selection and drain both........ The other idea I had would be to use a small battery operated aerator (2 x D cell batteries) and convert it to run off 12V (somehow). I'm guessing this would use a heap less power as the two D cells last more than a night. Is this a better option? Any thoughts out there? Thanks in anticipation.... Garry

I've had the same problem with my 2002 Yamaha 115HP the last couple of times I went out. The info in this post helped me out, so thanks to everyone who contributed. For my contribution... Don't put your mouth anywhere near the port to clear it, especially if it's been blocked up for a few weeks. The water certainly gets putrid! After gagging a few times I had to come inside an take a couple of shots of OP Rum to try to kill the bugs that I'd stupidly inhaled. I'd be a little nervous breaking into the tubing to blow out the line the other way. My luck is I wouldn't get it back together and sealed up OK, or the tube or connections would start to crumble in my hands. I used a fine drill bit and dug out the muck, hoping that this is enough to clear it. I'm also a little curious about the use of Inox. I would have thought it would leave a film of lube inside the tube which might attract debris, or have an adverse affect on the plastic tube? Anyway, cross fingers next time I go out the speedo with work! Thanks again, Garry