REKLESS

Pick the corner ...the right corner that is ,they do deflect most of the water but on the upwind side you will need a wetsuit!,you are right,they are made in Melbourne,designed by the Kiwis. I have to say to that the step thru bit at the back is an absouleute winner,it allows said guys to safely have a piss out the back without going in to the drink,or pissing all over your mates boat .

I have to say that it is great to a point,probably 1/2 to 1m of sideways slop ,then the chines start to lift and when you get to that stage it gets a little uncomfortable.It sounds a little like a waterfall to with lots of gurgling etc,makes you feel like having a piss all the time!. Saying that ,the ride is probably the best of all the boats (haines signature,445F ,predator,Clark,allycraft,quintrex ,savage)that I have been in ,full stop.We had 20knots of Yuck on sunday that made for some lumpy seas ,I was able to rig up while travelling in the back corner. My favourite is still the 445 but that was purely cause I have a soft spot for centre consoles,if I was in the shit ,that boat would be the pick of the lot-its unsinkable due to the fully sealed /welded floor.The kiwis know there boats.

I had not heard of them either until Saturday either Joe.It seems that they have a pretty good manual one that can handle a 10lb bomb ,this comes in at $350.00,it looks to be the goods ,the base is quick release and they have the ants pants with realtime remote temperature sensing and auto depth adjustment on the electric version. That is going over the top for me,I am just after a good tough hose out version that can handle the idiot test for some years to come.I get to eyeball it this saturday ,if things are good it will get attached to MV REKLESS on sunday.

Gidday Faulks,I have fished at south Head several times and can say that if you want to go live baiting ,I might suggest going south a bit further.the ledges there are hard to fish in anything short of S.F.A swell,anything more and it can get lethal .There is some awsome ledges south of there at the place called the "Eaves",trouble is you need to abseil in and out.I might suggest that you try at a place called "Julien",this is just south of maroubra and the access is good,there is a good chance of crossing paths with a wayward king there.Not knowing if you have experience on the sandstone rocks off sydney makes me a little wary to go into to great a detail,just suffice to say,go and visit the tackle shop at Bronte.The guys there are good and they can give you some good information along with the maps etc. A good book is the one called "top fishing spots".Let us know how you go. Cheers Simon

I hope that you are right DJ,it sure as hell looked promising with the current lines butting up hard against each other,if it was in january that would have been THE place to be I reckon.I have been mates with Grant for twenty years so he is allowed foibles every now and then.But all at once? .

Great report,well done,my turn next!

Hi guys, Looking at investing in a Downrigger,the one I have targeted is a Walker downrigger" the model is the Lake master. Any of you guys have one?,if so any thing that I should look out for? Cheers simon

Gidday all, well this time I got to hitch a ride on my mates boat "Fin and Tonic"a 5.6m Bar crusher plan #1 was to get out from swansea and fish the norah Canyons,this died due to the fact that the vessels range is still n the guestimate box.(The northern edge of the canyons is 61 km , one way). Plan #2 was Browns mountain ,this was canned as we had a plate pull out from a crew member ,and the reports from out wide were only luke warm. Plan #3 ,was the go.Get to long reef at 3hours before sparrow farts ,fish for reds and whatever comes up the trail ,go for a drift for some flatchaps and retire early and watch the mighty Tigers make the Cowboys into cream puffs. I was up at 200am ,and was at grants place 30 minutes later,we hooked his boat up (at hornsby) and then screamed down to Roseville to get the early morning bite.Fourty Five minutes later we got back to Grants place after realising the Boat keys were on the table,under the fishing magazine.This was when we were at the boat ramp of course.the next we howled off to the ramp only to have to turn around when Grant remembered the winch handle sitting in the Garage,................after driving for 15 minutes. We got the boat on the water at 530 . We were greeted with a wonderfull 15-20knot W wind that just kind of sprung out of no where,the water was a delightfull 16.2c,and there was about 1-1/2 knots of current with a southerley set.We were at a spot about 3miles out and had the occasional slap of water on the side of the boat that made the rolling just that bit more shitty.We caught a Morwong after moving to three different spots,we caught 1 leatherjacket........ Tried the drift off the narrabeen wrecks and got bitten off by leatherjackets ,we had to use 1 lb leads to stay in contact with the bottom due to wind and tide_,northerley current-southerley wind. Feeling pretty ordinary ,we decided to visit the King spot under Macquarie lighthouse,gave that away as the temp was still down ,tried the flatty drift off Rosa gully and came up trumps,we caught 11 flathead ,there was some absoulute honkers in there (64 cm).The water heated up (18.5c),there was a red tide line on the current line 1.5c temp change,and there was pods of stripeys that were feeding on glass bait fish that were hiding under the Red tide.Picked up another few fish and then called it a day 2.00pm. Heading back and we found a school of salmon feeding in the bay that forms up the gap.I was on the controls and my mate had two hook ups,but pulled the hooks twice!,the fish were extremely spooky and reacted to any engine noise Variation,ie throttling back and shifting gear.Rounding up ahead of the fish I was getting set to have a cast myself when i heard a noise from a boat that was closer in to the rocks,we motored over leaving the salmon crashing and banging behind us.The guys had a battery die on them and they were about to go on the rocks,needless to say we towed them to safety by plowing our way through Two schools of fast moving salmon.The boat was about 28ft long ,clinker built with a fly bridge,we ended up puuting them on the police mooring at Vaucluse while they waited for the coastal patrol guys to tow them with more appropriate gear and boat. We went back to have a crack at the salmon but they had dissapeared in to thin air. Having done our good deeds for the day we headed back to the ramp at Roseville and had to wait for 15minutes while the wood ducks were fluffing around with there "Speedboats'.We pulled out ,cleaned up and then as we were driving up the hill at Roseville ,we ran out of diesel.-Now wouldnt that just root your day?,lucky the petrol station 400 m up the road was open and had diesel!.I will apologise now to all those who got stuck behind the F 250 now,It wont happen again. Got home ,had a beer and watched the Tigers hammer the Cowboys while we ate some glorious flathead fillets.Was the trip worth it?,of course most of it was. Couple of things I noticed while out.The stripeys were feeding fast and there seemed to be numerous small pods working,as opposed to great shoals of them,they are feeding on little baitfish 1-2cm long.The salmon were mooving fast as well and would stay submerged for a long time before a pod would start feeding ,possibly inciting the rest to join in.Unsure whether the two fish my mate hooked were not foul hooked or not.I think that they were feeding on fish larvae or the likes. Simon

Well Im looking at trying to get on to a yellowfin with a little luck this weekend.See how things pan out.Was originally looking at swansea and out to the canyons but may change to Browns mountain ex sydney.This is on Sunday] Simon

Gidday guys,I was doing some serious arithmetic with Grant who owns the Bar crusher that we will be going out in.It carrys 140lt of juice ,the engine is a brand sparklin 4 stroke 150 johnson.We have been out on this boat on three occasions and have found that on a typical run to of 60km we would use about 50 lt of juice.If we were to go to the canyons and the weather was nice we would be left with a margin that would I feel be a little to tight to make the fishing out of there a comfotatable proposition,even with carrying three jerrycans worth ,there is that thing about the weather. I think that until we get to know the boat better we might be staying a little closer to australia.Looks like it may be Browns mountain ,much closer,its only 37km off Botany.Saying that ,we will wait for the results from Jason and DJ mac before we totally write off getting out there. Simon

geez i just checked out some of those coords on the GPS ,I make it that from the heads at Swansea to the northern end of the canyons is 60km.That makes 120km of back and forth, hmm ,maybe we had better make it two extra jerry cans on board.

Gidday guys, I was reading on another site about some rather nice sized yellowfin that were caught off Kiama last weekend,they were near or on some canyons off there and I got to thinking about some other canyons that I have fished many years ago ,these are off Norah heads. I am going to see if I cant talk my mate into putting his boat in at Swansea and heading out from there.The question rides that if we put in there and head out ,where is there some livebait grounds off of swansea?.Is it practical to go out from there?,the alternative would be the usual browns /shelf etc,but judging by the catch off sydney last weekend I suspect that the areas to the North and South seem to be the go. Does anyone have reliable coordinates for the norah canyons?,I understood that there was two running parallel to each other and they are about two to three miles long. Comments apreciated. Simon

Arghhhh the Dreaded scum of the ocean,GREEN TOADS .I have lost some nice fish to those cursed things.Good to hear that you had sucess out at Browns on the bottom Blue cod. I was thinking about a trip out to the canyons off Norah head,I will put the thread up on the Fish chat ,input appreciated. Simon

It as a pretty good spot to catch Livies at Joe,no doubt there will be things that eat them nearby.

Try the Hauraki gulf .

Hmm ,slim pickings on the yellowfin front over the last weekend .I was listening in to Hi tide with Ross hunter saying that they picked up two small yellowfin for a full days trolling . Blue cod,what did it eat ?,and did you battle the current out at browns for bottom ooglies?.

Average was around the 40cm mark I guess,Dan caught the biggest one which we didnt really worry about as no one had a camera to record any fish for bragging. I reckon that thing that was being towed was either a dry dock or something to be used on the drilling platforms off the entrance. I also found out where some of the yellowfin were.There is a report on the marlin bar about three Yellowfin that all went over the 100lb mark.The biggest was 55.2kg I think.All were caught on pushers,two were caught on one boat (double hookup) on 15kg line.The third one was caught by a guy who was .....Hung over from celebrating,by himself,in shitty conditions,....on 8kg line.Outstanding effort in anyones books. Where were they you ask?,200fm off Kiama (the canyons). Quick lets go!!

Hi all, well I got to go fishing again,this time I got to go out in my mate Grants new Bar crusher.My brother Dan came out this time and he kindly picked me up early (fishing anticpation= no sleep),and we got to Grants place where he asked me if I had actually slept ,seeing as we were early there as well. We put in at Rose ville and howled on out to balmoral where we convinced 5 yakkas and a small trevally to come for a trip 24km outside.After logging in with the coastal patrol and heading out past south head in the (what I thought was left over slop) I called up Knapers and told him that "we are out about 2km and the seas are good they are only a couple of feet ,come on out mate".About 1km later we lost the influence that Ben Buckler was hiding from us and we now faced 1.5m seas and wind that was SW that was around the 18 knot mark .Lots of white horses........we ended up hanging on and trolling (ie wedging one self in the corner and freespooling lures out with one hand).I was having secound thoughts about getting our selves out there but as we were all MAD keen we just hung on .Conditions had not improved by the time we got to the reef but we then thought what the hell,why not ?.Knapers who had followed us out there decided to stick with his plan "A" and kept on going out to Browns Mountain looking for yellow fin.Having a 6m Haines signature probably helped as well I guess. We dropped the pick twice ,Having a few problems with positioning and getting set right,the current going one way and the wind going the other.The current was up and we needed 1lb of lead to get the bottom,but when we did get down it was like downtown Haymarket,China men every where.We ended up catching 29 and a few odds and sods. A few hours later on had us Looking at the options ,I tried to call up Knapers to find out about all the yellowfin he and his dad had caught ,but the radio did not have the range (27mhz),hearing nothing and the seas looking decidedly lumpy we decided that some flathead might be the go and headed in to Bondi to try it out.A few drifts later we found that all the action from the flathead was in Real close,we picked up 11 ,1 blurter and a gurnard before calling it a day. There was a heap of petrels,mutton birds and gannets working a current line about 2 km out , shadowing what seemed to be stripeys ,we trolled xmas trees but did not turn a reel.....a little dissapointing that was as a few stripeys would have really polished off what turned out to be a bloody good day out.Looking forwards to the next one. Whats more ,the skipper even shouted us a beer when we got back!!. Simon

I have always made a snood for the top hook and then used a uni knot that was tied off the tag end . No failures yet. Just something else about the eyelet,we used to use dental floss to wrap around the base of the eyelet ,this prevented any problems with line fatigue and knot failure at that point. Sorry to hear about blowing the fish,better luck next time eh? Simon

I will be on 94 or ch16 VHF,the boat is a 6m bar crusher,the call sign is Fin and Tonic , Simon

We are on,probably a bit late to confirm who else is going out,I will be at Roseville at 530 .Looks like we may be doing a bit of trolling judging by the winds .

I will be getting out with a little luck from the weather gods on sunday. We are planning on doing a little of what DJ mac said.Trolling out towards the shelf towing plastics and a filthy great bibless minnow .If conditions are good and there is bait we may do some cubing,just got to get the timing right for the tide change at 1339.There is trough system coming over and they were forecasting storms,I suspect that it may be one of those days when the NE is going to be crackling at 25knots,or totally still. anyone else out wide on sunday? simon

I am the same as Swoffa,hose them down and let them dry with the drags backed off. Incidentally,I have just finished off cleaning my last reel.They all got the complete strip down ,keroseine bath/ hot water treatment and I am glad to say that of all the reels that needed bits ,the only ones that needed nothing was the Penns and the alveys.The rest required new bearings or Bail arm springs.Maybe I am to hard on the things? Simon

Hey Fishn,we used to have a similar problem branding yearlings,geez it used to hurt. Swallow you pride and follow the golden batting rule,Wear protection. On the fishing ,I will be going out in a mates boat from Sydney harbour on Sunday,the plan is to visit 12 mile ,we will be burleying for things with teeth,then sussing out the spot for the FADS that we have made .Maybe doing a little trolling in the afternoon when the tide changes at 1339,on the shelf or Browns. The boats name is "Fin and Tonic",if any one is heading out give me a call on 94 or 16 VHF. Simon

Well I have been chasing those critters for a while now,good to hear that they are around,good to hear that you had a ball as well!!]