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Nice work, I'll put you to work on my boat next! My hands were shaking taking a hole saw to my hull to install my live bait tank feeds. Admire your confidence in the rebuild

You can fish the Cox's and Burragarang rivers, just be aware of the no go zone as you head down stream. I've fished the Cox's upstream towards Megalong Valley and there are some thumper trout in there! I'm sure if you rang Sydney Water they'd be able to tell you where the restricted catchment area starts.

Fixed that link for you (or others)

I'm having the same problem in my boat. The assortment of plastic boxes, tackle boxes, buckets, nets and rods combined with all the bags of lunch stuff and jackets makes moving in the back of the boat a hazard! I'm looking at rearranging the whole boat to make it work better. Moving fuel tanks under the bow, adding fibreglass seat boxes with storage, tackle storage under the back deck, and cleaning up the box seat storage area as well. Also want to add a map shelf under the bow somewhere. I've got a collection of those AFN Fishing Maps I had laminated to protect them but nowhere to store them either. Finding time to get started is the real challenge!!

My trailer has two arms on the back that swivel vertically and laterally. Looks like something that except there are centre rollers along the spine of the trailer too. The roller bars on the ends swivel as does the main arm. As the boat rides up onto them they hug the V of the hull and guide it towards the centre. I have found you just have to do it gently. I usually drift up onto them, let them gently centre the hull then apply idle forward until I feel it settle then power up the trailer. Hasn't failed yet but I haven't tried it in a really strong wind.

From the NSW Fisheries site... Is it illegal to return carp to the water? It is not currently illegal to immediately return captured carp to the waters from which they were taken (defence under section 216 of the Fisheries Management Act). However, carp are a noxious fish in NSW and Industry & Investment NSW encourages recreational fishers to retain and utilise any captured carp rather than returning them live to the water. Carp link Carp are a Class 3 noxious pest in NSW. Release is allowed but discouraged. There may be different rules in other states.

Pretty sure Bunnings or another hardware store would have them. They're the same tool regardless of the material. Might try one of the homewares type places like Spotlight if that doesn't get you one.

Welcome John. Beautiful part of the world you live in! Looking forward to hearing about your fishing adventures!

I have a Huminbird 587cxi combo and I think the Navionics charts are the only ones that work with them, so you might be stuck.

Hi, can you add a +1 to mine please. My partner will be coming too

It depends on whether ti is private property or government land. A check at your local council of the title will tell you. Either way, the owners rights end at the average high water mark (if I remember property law correctly, or it could be the low water mark), so boat in the channel would be acceptable unless maritime have also deemed it a no go zone. I would be checking the title and boundaries on the land as a first step if you're really keen to fight it, but in the meantime, stay away until you get a definitive answer. If its government land then the fines for trespassing are quite stiff. If it's private they can't fine you, but they can report it to the police and press charges so its not worth putting your head on the block for. Good luck.

I can't speak much for the Merc's, but a mate has the 50hp Yamaha 4 stroke with a tiller steer on his 4.5 and it does the job. Has all the controls close at hand and folds out of the way when you need the space. Works for him

You should be carrying a rope length 3-7 times the depth of the water you want to anchor in. The stronger the current, wave/swell height, and wind the more you should be laying out to anchor safely. Assuming you're anchoring in max of 25M of water, you could need upto 175M of rope. Temper this with a little commonsense as to the conditions you're likely to be out in and I'd recommend 100M rather than 50. 125M would be better but they don't sell it in those lengths The more rope you have out, the more bite your anchor will get on the botom under strain as the rope angle is shallow and the anchor flukes can dig deeper. I've got 50M on my 4.75 tinnie and its not enough at places like Flint & Steel when theres a bit of swell and current.

No didn't make it around that far. Found a bunch back towards the ramp at Appletree Bay on the sounder in a "baity" looking bit of geography but could get a hook into them. I'll definitely try the pill boxes next time. No probs Newboaty... plenty of opportunities to catch each other on the water.

We got a bit of light rain on the way out but it cleared by the time we reached F&S. Clouds looked angry though and I wouldn't have thought it was going to stop so quick.

Starting prepping the boat on saturday after 4 weeks off the water to find I had a flat battery. After an emergency run to buy a battery charger and leaving it on overnight we headed out to the Hawkesbury for the change to the run in tide at Flint & Steel. Tried to find a few live baits for no success then headed to F&S with some woolies prawns. Managed an undersized black bream, although he was fat and in good condition. The catch of the day was a baby Hairtail at 3:30 on a piece of peeled prawn. He was way too small to be worth cooking so I let him to go for next year. My is starting to make jokes that our new diet will be to only eat what we catch. She says we'll lose 20kg's each in no time

Welcome to Fishraider! I would encourage you to post your itinerary here as you flesh it out. One thing about the Fishraider crowd is they're happy to share and help out, so if any of us have the time when you're in our local areas I'm sure someone would be happy to show you some spots. Give us some ideas of the kinds of fishing you prefer and if there are ay species you'd like to target too. Once we have an idea what you're after I'm sure we can offer better advice. As for what you'll need? The fish are so big here that most of us use the electric winch and 5 ton cable on the front of our 4WD's Seriously though, in NSW you'll need a Fishing License. Fees go directly to improving recreational fishing so don't feel like its the government just grabbing your money. They get that from the 10% GST you'll pay on everything here Queensland has a different system and rules - Info here We also have size and bag limits for many species, and there are closures and restrictions as well. Info here Finally, check out the Fishing Trips section of the forums, often Fishraiders are looking for people to fill their boats chasing various species. They're generally spur of the moment trips though so you might not get a lot of notice. I'd also recommend reading the Recreational Fishing Guides, they have a lot of useful general information.

Yeah I'm looking at relocating the fuel tanks to the front to provide a little balance, just not sure if thats going to be enough.

That's the gunwale. I've seen them put LED or globed lights facing into the boat, but I think you'll find they are too bright like that and ruin your vision in the dark. If you put the LED strips up under that channel it will light the floor brightly but not shine directly in your eyes.

Haven't been out for a few weeks but was going to try F&S on sunday too. Keep an eye out for a black Brooker with a 60 Yammie on the back

hahaha good reply What sort of lights are you installing? I put 2 x 1 metre LED strips under the gunwales of my runabout. No drilling required, just glued them to the hull so they're out of direct sight but flood the floor with light. If you don't have a wide enough gunwale for this, try putting them inside a length of plastic or aluminium channel and glue that in with the open side facing down. The strips cost me about $30 each.

Soft or semi-hard I would think. I think the need for hardness when your priming is to get some pressure up to assist the fuel pump to pick up fuel from an empty line when you run out of fuel and change tanks. During operation the fuel pump should suck it through and the pressure should decrease I would think.

Currently my boat has a pedestal seat and I've been looking at upgrading them since they're not real comfortable for extended periods. While looking into seat boxes I realised something about the current position of the seats. When the boat is at rest in the water it sits tail down a bit which means the floor is not level with the water (and the planet!). This causes the bum part of the seat to also point downhill when the seat is rotated towards the stern. This angles the back of the seat towards the stern and leaves you perching on the edge of it - hence the discomfort. Any ideas on how to level it? The tricky part is I don't want the same problem when the boat is on the plane and level with the seat facing forward. I want to put a pair of seat boxes in with tackle storage to free up floor space in the back but there isn't much point til I solve this problem. {EDIT} I've been thinking some more about this and I think what I need is a rocker or gimbal of some sort. Something that will allow me to tilt the seat base forward and back. Anyone seen anything like this?

Looks awesome Sanfly! Nice job!

The stuff is called Regopol I think