Nolongeramember

Love the boat mate and a feed of Flattys and Whiting = yum! Beer battered fish and chips is a favourite of mine with those.

I’ve been using frozen 2lt fruit juice bottles for years. I have certainly saved a packet doing so. I like to use the bottles without any handles to save any wasted space in the esky.

I put fish on ice as soon as it’s caught and it lasts for 4-5 days in the fridge and even on the 5th day it’s still way better than what they sell in the fish shop. For fish market fish to be how they are, I reckon they are never kept cool in any way until it gets to the shop days later. Then they put ice on it in the window to make it seem like they have been caring for it.

Something else you can do besides the servo is go buy some frozen Hawkesbury prawns from a tackle shop and bring them home to freeze ready for your next trip. Only take what you need. That’s what I do and use. They are good.

For the Flathead, bream and flounder live or fresh dead is best but frozen prawns are fine as long as they are not mushy and soft when peeled. You don’t necessarily have to peel them though. I like live or fresh dead worms or nippers for Whiting. Salmon and Tailor should take frozen Pillies. I’m not that experienced with getting them on bait so maybe someone else can add to that. If they are actively feeding use a lure anyway. (Edit) I didn’t realise you can’t use lures. Maybe you can still use small metals? You just have to wind them in. Nothing fancy. You were asking about buying the squid. I think frozen prawns and pillies are your best bet for your species if you need to buy from a servo or tacklo.

I think it depends on what species you want to catch as to how fresh your bait needs to be. With Kings for example, squid needs to be caught and kept cool that day. Nothing else! Forget anything you buy unless it was caught by someone you know caught it in the last few hours. With say Trevally or Bream, I catch my fair share with frozen servo/ bait shop prawns (Tweed bait) but I think any half decent frozen prawns will be ok if you peel them. What are you wanting to catch?

I just realised this and seeing your picture that you already chopped the rail off it’s too late but I think you could have left it, and the electric would fit underneath. When you lower or pull up the motor you just had to angle or slide it to fit under and clear the top rail. Everyone was thinking the rail is there so it can’t be done but I think it would have fit underneath without any problem Anyway, too late now lol.

If I had to choose the rail or bow mount, the bow mount wins and the rail goes. I can't see what else you can do but to cut off the rail as it's very high. Fitting an electric to go over it won't work. You could cut out just one section of the rail but then the remaining parts will be weakened.

You get excessive heat from charging with too many amps, maybe over 25%. Does anyone know what specifically is not good with charging at a rate slower than 10% other than it takes longer? Will the battery be damaged or lower capacity or something? I can’t find any information on that.

Yeah good point with the heavy drag. It would be too difficult.

To adjust distance from sinker or lure to rod tip, I pull the line in front of the reel off the drag. Much quicker and easier than switching the reverse switch.

I like Willyweather. Willy has tides and moon as well.

As far as I know, slower (less amps) is fine it just takes longer to charge. The charge voltage affects battery longevity. If you get a quality charger it will be fine.

The switches are on high end reels as well. On reels with a one way bearing the switch disengages it, and it can then wind backwards. I have used the reverse switch to untangle my line that was wrapped around the rotor a few times before. I also find the switch handy when doing maintenance on the reel.

I would get a Ctek 10amp charger for the batteries you said. I have 2 Cteks for about 6 years now and no problems at all.

You could do what you are saying but it won’t work as well as a proper bait runner reel. Reasons are that if you loosen the drag right off, it will not be as light as a bait runner and the fish will feel some resistance. Also, tightening up the drag to set the hook is impractical and again not as good as flicking a switch like on a proper bait runner. But as I said, you could still do it if you wanted. Personally, I don’t let any fish run.

Did you check the end of your line where it snapped? Was it a clean cut like it just snapped or maybe a little rough as if you got rubbed off? "One or two" clicks on the drag is very minimal and it is possible you just put too much pressure on it, but it's also possible you got reefed by the fish and it just seemed like you put on too much pressure. You said it went towards rocks as well. If you find the end is roughed up then you got reefed and I would say it was a Kingy.

Smooth drag for sure. I use 3.5 size jigs most often and the drag has to be fairly tight to work the jigs properly in the 4-5m deep water I fish. What I think is important is as soon I feel I have hooked on I immediately back the drag right off to almost nothing. Doing that and being light handed with the rod once hooked up is the most important in my eyes. Also, you need a stiff enough rod to punch out a good cast and work the jig. Soft tip and floppy rods may cushion a squids lunge but no good for everything else.

I don’t bother with a dedicated squid rod. Using light hands to soak the squids lunges is the most important thing regardless of what rod you have. Seeing you said it will be used for other species as well then I definitely don’t recommend a “squid rod”. I use a 7’6 Nitro and it is a very versatile rod. Out of your price range though.

I’m not familiar with Shakespeare’s reel sizing but if a 4000 is about the same as the other major manufacturers, it is on the larger side for that rod and “bread and butter” species. I wouldn’t think overly big though and still usable if using bait. If you were using lures I would say definitely it’s too big and heavy to cast and work with repetitively. Then again, everyone has their own preferences.

The Carbontex will make it a bit smoother I suppose, but I wouldn't bother personally. The original washers work fine if the drag is in good working order. It's your call really.

Depends on what spin reel you want to upgrade. Some are good enough left alone and some it can be worth it. I also did my old model Saltiga but they need it badly. If you have something like a new model 2500 Certate I would leave it as it is.

Just reading between the lines. I think the only engine that will give you good power and keep to the same low weight that you want is another old school 2 stroke. Going from a 200hp 2 stroke to a 150hp 4 is a massive drop in grunt.

Yes! As it does the same job only better.

There is no loop knot that is as strong as a Half Blood or Uni knot. Use a split ring. It holds its round shape under tension better than a loop knot as well which is the reason for using a loop knot.