Yowie

Are you still heading out and pulling out a fish or 2?

It certainly does. When you manually lock a lower gear with an auto, the engine revs are higher and you are in the power band. The engine is still working hard up the hill, and the water radiator (auto tranny radiator, is fitted) are pumping away, but by keeping your speed down a bit until over the hill is not too hard on the vehicle components. If you leave the selector in Drive, the auto will change between gears, trying to find the appropriate gear to drive the vehicle, the tranny fluid will heat up faster and get to the point where the heat build up will cook the fluid. When the fluid is cooked, it loses it's ability to cool the tranny and the gears will start slipping, and this causes more internal heat and then The End of the transmission. A lot of money to repair the tranny. Flat roads can still cause a problem by towing a large trailer/caravan continuously. Driving into strong headwinds also increase the towing effort. When I towed my van across the Nullarbor, I waited until I had a tailwind both ways for several days. Those heading against the wind told me it was quite an effort on the tow vehicle, speed was below their normal towing speed, and fuel economy jumped markedly.

The flounder are very nice, though the blue spots are pretty good as well.

Sigma, I would be wary of towing up hills in auto. The auto box will hunt for the right gear, up and down a few times, and this is what raises the temp of the tranny fluid and causes it to overheat. 1700 kgs is not too much, so it may be O.K. If the Pajero hunts between gears a few times going up a fair sort of hill (eg. Mount Ousley) in full auto, it would be wise to select a lower gear, and lock it in until over the hill. My van has an ATM of 2900 kg, tow it with a Landcruiser auto, and I use the selector to lock it into 4th gear, at a 1:1 ratio (5th and 6th gears are overdrive - all those gears do is raise the tranny fluid temp) Smaller boats are not a problem, towing large boats around the weight of a caravan will eventually cause a problem as well. If you tow heavy weights a lot of time, a large van or heavy boat, it is a good idea to have the tranny fluid changed every so often. Toyota usually states the tranny fluid is set for life, no need to change it, but if you look at the colour after a lot of heavy towing, the fluid can be quite a bit darker and not functioning as efficiently as it should in keeping down the temp. (Auto Transmission experts state the fluid needs to be changed every few years when towing heavy weights) About 50,000 kms can be a good time to change the tranny fluid. Ask Mitsubishi to check the fluid colour around that time during a service.

14 foot, just big enough. Have seen them around the 12 foot mark at times.

Whenever towing, tow in a gear that is a 1:1 ratio. For some of the newer vehicles, that might be 5th or 6th gear of an 8 gear auto box. You might think you are saving fuel towing in the highest gear (less than a 1:1 ratio) but you are increasing the temperatures of the auto transmission fluid, or manual gearbox fluid, which will decrease the life of the fluid and the gearbox. With some of the newer vehicles, a high temp in the auto box will cause the vehicle to go into limp mode and you are not really going anyway very fast at all.

A nice feed there saltrix. Earlier in the year, I pulled up a Spikey Flattie that was 32cm long. I have eaten a couple of the larger ones and they are very tasty. I use the spikey fillets for the bigger flatties, and have seen them in roe around the 20cm mark.

Thanks guys. Looks like the wind will be blowing and the swell pumping all this coming week.

Thank you all. Scratchie, for a while there it looked like it would be an empty brag mat. The flattie fillets were rather enjoyable pan fried.

Headed out of Port Hacking this morning before sun rise. The forecast was for light winds less than 10 knots, seemed a bit stronger than that. Swell had dropped a fair bit since Monday, but still cracking over Jibbon Bombie. Tried the squid jig at 2 spots for nothing, drift a bit fast. Due to the wind, I headed south of the Bombie to try closer in to the cliffs to get out of the wind, but it was blowing S/W so a bit sloppy in a small boat. First drop was onto something, that turned out to be a double header of barracouta. Moved to another spot for a large pike and nothing else for some time. Another move and 1 spikey flattie, nothing else for a while again. The wind was whistling in my ears at one time, so stronger than 10 knots. It was looking like I was going home with nothing for the table, bugger that, so decided to move out a bit further. Wind was puffing away, a bit of swell, and white horses on some waves. Water not too deep, but 6 ounces of lead still needed a lot of line out to stay on the bottom. Pulled up a couple of spikies for bait, then found a patch of fish. All caught on the one drift, and when a couple of waves splashed spray over the side of the boat, it was time to head back in. Not big flounder, but they will taste good anyway. Only a couple of other mad fishos out there besides me.

Good work there Ash.

Thanks Scratchie. Usually the quietest time of year for fishing. Should be some flatties off the coast, but the swell is very lumpy at present.

Some mornings, the wind puffed in at sunrise and kept going all day. Was up there last year around the same time, the winds were not as strong then.

I spoke to a local up there, he was getting ready to have a fish during the late afternoon. Could not find any restrictions on fishing there. Not sure of the name of the creek, hopefully I did not break any rules.

That is a nice fish, good work.

In early June, I towed the caravan to Qld, but not much fishing took place. Drove northwards near the coast for most of the time. Some days is was very windy, strong enough to blow a dog off a chain. In a lot of places, the locals were complaining that the wind was stronger than normal for winter, however, the rain was rather lacking. The usual comments from the locals, "you should have been here last month, the fish were biting." After having a few swims in places, being careful to avoid the crocs (DO NOT swim in the northern rivers, only swim the beaches with caution, and with other people so you reduce the risk of being eaten first ), the water was fairly cool a metre or 2 below the surface. No surf either, unless a cyclone is blowing. Tried somewhere near Gladstone, on a sandy inlet, for a little dusky and a whiting, about 1.5 hours fishing. Wind blowing a gale. Moved further north, fished of a big wharf, a long way down to the water, for nothing. Wind blowing a gale. Found a small jetty up a river at Lucinda. Caught a Fingermark, undersized but a new species for me. Also caught 2 cod, looked like black rock cod but with some pale orange spots along the body. Probably undersized, released, another new species. Also pulled out 6 Pikey Bream, as per the photo. (none on Fishraider records) Only one was legal, others released. Another new species, and tastes similar to our yellow finned bream. A slash mark near it's tail was from something grabbing it on the way up. No wind, but sandflies by the hundreds. Bait used was half pillies with a very small ball sinker above the hook. Headed for home down the centre of Qld. Stopped at a few freshwater river spots, no bites at all. Called in at Orange for a couple of days (minus 5.5 degrees this morning, a bit cool in the van) Had a drive a bit west of town yesterday, found a small river and spotted some trout cruising about, a few near the 60cm mark. Only had soft plastics or hard body lures, no fly gear. No bites either, were not interested in the lures swimming past their noses. Have to get back to some local fishing.

Correct.

Most yakkas have them inside their mouths. A few trevally as well. Tailor and occasionally whiting will have these doctors on their pectoral fins, where they suck blood and cause a deformity to that fin.

Holls, the way to check it out is to carefully fillet the fish to find out if the backbone is deformed. Bream and especially smaller reddies will by attacked by larger fish. Larger tailor will attack smaller reddies, as I have had quite a number with bite marks out of them, especially the tail section. Have caught a few tailor that have attacked small reddies I have hooked, or pulled up the reddies with a tailor chewing on the reddie's rear end. Large flatties will attack bream.

No. It had distinctive darker yellow colouring and jet black spots. Pectoral fin not so large.

A good feed of fish there, and nice sized ones at that.

Good stuff Scratchie.

I made an enquiry with the Australian Museum, and spoke to one of the guys in the Discovery Section. He is a qualified Marine Biologist and has scuba dived for about 40 years. His Shark I.D. Book has sharks from around the world, but nothing of the shark I spotted. He can only conclude that what I saw is a colour variation of a Leopard Shark. He has not seen or heard of the description I gave him, so I will accept the I.D. from him (and name it Yowie Leopard Shark )

Thank you all. Will enjoy the warmer weather for a while, and maybe have a feed or 2 (shop bought though) of Qld fish. Last year I tried Spanish mack, small mouth nannygai and red emperor on the various BBQs while travelling around. The emperor was best.

Tis close, but may not have survived. If he floated away dead, the sea eagle would have grabbed him, so better I have him instead.