rozza_b

Interesting resource some questionable information in there but on a whole i like the idea of it

Hey all, Wondering if anyone else has noticed a dramatic drop in the amount of bait to be found over the last 2 weeks. Im from southern illawarra and fish out of the boat of a morning mainly and its been a serious struggle to get live bait for the last 2-3 weeks and when i do its only been yakkas not a slimey to be seen, been talking to all my other local mates that fish and they seem to be finding the same results, so just wondering if anyone else has noticed this and if they have any idea why ? I havent noticed any real change in water or any weather events to trigger this is just seems the bait is gone, very very unusual and the first time i have ever seen it like this

I have bolted in snapper racks in my boat, absolutely love them took them out when I first got my boat but wouldn't fish without them these days. Great fishing for reds, flatties etc use them while drifting & at anchor, even use them when I'm fishing plastics with 2 rods, never had a rod pop out of one and have had some solid fish hook up while in there. All mine sit pretty much flat to the water, I would note that I don't find them suitable for rods with shorter butts and I would never troll etc with them

So keen on fitting a catch to my boat, would make launching/retrieve so much easier. Great to see raiders helping each other out

Dunno about that I would still be stripping, cleaning and repacking once a year regardless of them seeing water or not

Yeah that doesn't surprise me at all on getting them as bycatch when prospecting. You must be running your jig along the bottom to be picking them up though. I only really fish for flatties in 1 spot and it's in 30m of water

i fish for Flathead using a micro jig with some bait on the hook, works a absolute treat and is simple with no tangles or anything, of course would only do this on sand bottom where i know i'm not going to get snagged, otherwise i just run a patternosta, i tie mine so i have no double up line to connect hooks to, have a look at how long liners set theres up to understand what i mean

yeah it is rather odd that we drive round in the middle of the ocean with these things and never test them, to be honest the thought hadnt crossed my mind until this post im relying on all the manufacturer date etc to let me know when the unit needs replacing etc

Personally i found that the hydrofoil has made a huge difference to my boat, i have lost about 1-2 knots of top speed but the response of the boat is far better now, i did find it took a bit of getting used to though as it changed the way the boat handled & reacted and had to play with the trim to find the sweet spot again, ill be leaving mine on for now. It took me a while to get to this point though, changed props a number of times, moved all the weight round and finally got to what i felt was a good response still wasnt 100% happy but it was good enough for me, but with adding a live bait tank i needed to do something to help me get out of the hole so went ahead with it. If i could have afforded trim tabs i probably would have gone down that route or just repowered to a 70 it was a cheap option and has done exactly what i need it for

A 5m boat will comfortably go way past 2nm in crappy conditions, I run my 4.88m CC Quintrex fishraider out to 6-8nm in some pretty average weather and we go a lot further in my mates plate CC, it's all about learning how you boat deals with certain conditions and what it's capabilities are. As for boat selection huge amounts of boats available in that range, personally I would love a CC fibreglass like a bonito 500 depends if you want new or second hand, good luck finding something.

Looks like it's been powder coated white, I'm guessing it's had some sort of treatment internally before being painted or powder coated white

Yeah possibly, we always seem to get the cudda in plague proportions everywhere just not jackets, they seem to like hanging out down deep up here which is good in a way, waters has seemed freezing for us this year (I haven't actually looked at the charts though) def not as cold as you guys get but hopefully things start to pick up now the waters starting to warm up, bet your itching to get out and give it a crack with a push of warmer water know I am.

Your not actually suggesting we go out and actually target these things are you......I already donate enough gear to them, let alone willingly, sounds like a terrible idea ??? Gee Jon sounds like your having a terrible time with them down your way, we get them in plague proportions up here but you can always find somewhere to get away from them

As said above you'll get a million different replies What I run with: Mainlines 15-20lb for most things plastics, slow jigs, light or unweighted baits in berley trails and light bottom bashing 30-40lb general bottom bashing, some live baits and heavier jigs 60-80lb big jigs, live baits and when I know the big king's are around Leaders: I change leaders depending on conditions, fish mostly 15-40lb for most things depends on depth and what style fishing I'm using. 60lb and up for king's most of the time As mention above spend some time sitting down and learn how to tie solid leader knots when using braid to leaders as there's nothing worse then loosing a fish to this.

as i said though mate still get the height checks if the motor if its to low it will cause dramas as well, believe me i had a problem with mine just like this, motor was way to low and i the prop was wrong, fixed both issues and it sorted my problems out a lot

Interesting convo some good info, personally i run either 95 or 98 in my boat although the manual says i only need to use 91, main reason is i would very rarely go through more then 15l of fuel in a trip and i have 60l under the floor so like to keep the octane levels up over time plus there is no harm at all in running a higher octane other then to the wallet. Other thing is i come from a car background before i knew much about boats and i can tell you now the difference low octane fuel makes in performance and protection of the engine is nuts, my tuned up STI runs terrible on anything other then 98, back fires, misses, sluggish just to name a few things so guess that plays into my thinking as well. In regards to E10 personally it wont go near my outboard for reasons such as holding moisture, eating seals, economy is a lot worse and more, now if E85 came on the market and my outboard would run it then i might be inclined to change haha

Was actually discussing this exact thing with a mate of mine last week, might have to give it a go before i go and buy another light Cheers Rory

my all round white light drives me nuts has to be the worst positioned light i have ever dealt with, its mounted directly on top of my windshield literally cannot see when driving the boat and its on so i turn it off while traveling most of the time (i vary rarely see anyone down my way at that time) still have my nav lights on... im going to put mine on the end of one of those adjustable sticks, will just put it up as needed and lay it back down when not in use

Dont bother ringing solas in aus they dont exist anymore, they went out of business in about june i think, the business has changed there name, cant for the life of me remember what to Also as mentioned above get your motor height checked, motor to high could be causing cavitation but also if its to low with the extra weight it might be struggling to get up out of the water and onto the plane, this caused a issue on my boat.

I have been tying my fg knots sort of like this for years now never been able to tie it any other way, there's a few things i do different to the video. 1. i do at a minimum of 20-30 turns depending on what leader im using 2. i dont worry about pulling each turn down tight as i go, i do 8-10 turns with reasonable tension then work the knot back down to tighten it down on itself 3. i do at least 8 half hitches around both lines and the main line on its own and i trim that tag end way back, no reason to leave that much if you have tightened it down properly to start with Just my 2 cents, never had a fg fail on me yet

Dam ?? incredible looking boat mate, have always dreamt of owning a centre console fibreglass, one of these day, enjoy

There's a whole number of things that could possibly cause what your describing and by the sounds of it I don't think many of them would be caused by what your doing, when the engine last serviced ? If not recently I would probably be looking at getting that done first, discuss the issue with your mechanic as well and see what they think

well that thread got out of hand quickly......sounds like you've made your choice anyways, good luck with it !! Heres my 2 cents, i own a 4.9m centre console Quintrex fishraider and pretty much only ever fish outside, fish in all sorts of conditions and have never had any issues, im commonly one of the only few boats out at my local ramp, its all about knowing the conditions and what your boat can handle, you will only get that from experience though, take your time read all the weather apps take a look outside and pick your days, sure theirs times when the weather will turn to crap unplanned but it would have to be pretty out of control if you couldn't make your way in, best of luck with it all though mate

Looks pretty close to mine which is a 1994 Quintrex fishraider but mine is 4.88m. I also have a pod on mine and its still a bit arse heavy with a honda 60 4 stroke on it. I love mine though, spend heaps of time fishing from it in all sorts of conditions and haven't had any issues. Shoot me a pm if you want to discuss anything, ill post a pic once i can get to my laptop