majed1965

I have never caught so many fish in the Bay at all, little own 18 snapper...it was one of those days where everything went well.....It will probably never happen again....we were using prawns, squd & chicken breast...Chicken was absolutely firing....

Trust me, we have a big family.....not even one fish left........yuummyyyy

My cousin took the snappers and some of the other fish, so i missed taking the shots of them. Just had the trevally's, flathead, flounders & king yellow tails for dinner.....yummyyyyyyyyyy...

Decided to take the day off work yesterday and go fishing in the Bay early morning. Dad, my cousin Maher and myself hit the water around 6am. It was blue skys and beautiful calm waters. Went straight away to the Kings ground and target some Kingies. No luck their with no bites for about an hour. Went to spot X in the bay and did not move at all from 7:30am until 12:30pm due to the amount of bites we had. Burleyed all morning with lots of success. At the end of the day we had 44 fish in the bucket for a big family seafood feast tonight. 18 Snapper, 13 Trevally, 2 Flounders, 2 Flatties, 1 Salmon, 3 Bream, 5 large Yellow tails which look like small kingies. (Jumpus told me the name of these, but i forgot what it was) It was a really fun and rewarding day, especially catching the Trevally's and the 60cm Salmon which weighed in at 2.4kg. It was great fun on light tackle seeing the salmon jump out of the water.... I tell ya, nothing beats a good days fishing....

You will need an anchor that weighs around 6kgs. You should have a chain at least half the size of your boat and at least 30 metres of rope depending how deep the water you will be anchoring in.. In your case you should have a minimum 2 metres of chain. See your local boating store for the correct one. Its always best to anchor from the bow. Ensure you place your boat in the correct postion when anchoring. If the tide is running out, then the bow should be facing the opposite side of the runout tide and vice versa. Hope this helps.

Hi, the swivels need to be at least 1 metre high. 550mm is too short....

Hi All, I am having difficulty working out what type of seats / pedestals to install for my Cruise Craft cruiser. This boat has a huge and high cabin and a rear lounge seat. It is a very high cabin and as such will require a high very high pedestals to be able to view ahead when driving. The pedestals sold in marine shops are too short. Currently i have some boxes made up which i use to stand on when driving so i can see ahead as i cannot see if i stood on the boat floor. The downside of these boxes is they take up too much floor space and cannot be fished from. I would like to install a driver and passenger seat which will not take up much room and can also be used to fished from sitting down. Any recommendations / examples would be greatly appreciated. I have added some ppics of the boat.

Problem with boat has been fixed... New water pump, impeller, head gaskets, hoses, plugs, leads and 1 coil. Propeller was also changed to a pitch 15. A temporary tacho was connected by the meachanic for testing until i get one permanantly in. Boat flew onto the plane and was running full bore at 5500 RPM's. This looks like the correct pitch for this boat. This motor has a lot of grunt in it. Just finished cleaning it up today and getting it ready for the weekend. I am really happy now. Thanks to everyone for your help.

Marine mechanic checked compression which was 115 psi for all six cylinders. He said it was good for an old engine. Will test out with a couple of propellers tomorrow and see how it goes.

Here are some pics of the boat....

Thanks for your tips. We will only be trying used propellors tomorrow. We will try different pitches until we find the most suitable one before we purchase a new one. Hopefully this will fix the problem as the mechanic said there is now absolutely nothing wrong with the old outboard. Below is an extract i found in an old OMC manual: "The propeller is the final link between the boat's drive system and water. A perfectly maintained engine and hull are useless if the propeller is the wrong type or has been allowed to deterioate" Lets hope it is the propeller so i can hopefully be at rest.

Hi All, Finally managed to fix the overheating issues with the outboard. A service was done on the water pump, new impeller, cylinder heads were removed anf=d cleaned, new head gaskets, plugs. Motor runs fine now. Mechanic said it is going good. Thamks to all for their help We took the boat out for a run but it would not go onto the plane. There is no RPM gauge to determine how its going. The mechanic jumped in and said the engine is running A1 and the carbies were good. He said the issue is with th propellor. It has a 21 pitch propeller which is too high. He recommended before we buy one to test out some smallet pitches starting with 17 and then 15 and see how it goes. This will be done on Thursday. It would not get up on the plane at all with the 21 pitch. Does the propellor pitch make that much difference in power?

I could only find the serial number of the outboard. The model number is badly worn out and not visible. So i am not sure how to determine exact year it is.

Thank you all for your advice and recommendations. One other question, Why does this outboard not have a water output hose under the cowling. My old 1977 70HP Evinrude has a hose that comes out from under the cowling to disperse water out. This Johnson 200HP doesn't seem to have one. I have looked and looked and cannot find one. So where does all the water desperse from. Regards, Majed.

Hi All, Just bought a huge Swift Craft 6.2m cruiser cabinet yesterday with a 200HP Johnson outboard. The boat & outboard are around the early to mid 80's. Hull and trailer in excellent condtion. On land the engine started ok and sounded good. Noticed though that not enough water was pumping out. The boat hasn't been used for about 7 months. Anyway, took the boat out for a run today. After a few hundred metres the engine overheat alarm sounded. Turned back to the ramp. The outboard was hot, but seemed still ok. Took it out of the water and put on some muffs. Took off the Thermo housing and found no thermo installed. Started the outboard and found only a trickle of water going through the powerheads with some salt residue visible. Checked the plugs which were old but seemed ok. For such a big engine, it was no wonder it heated up quickly. I rang the guy i bought it from and he said he was not aware of any issues with the outboard. (typical answer i suppose) Before i go and spend big dollars fixing it, can i trouble shoot it further myself without much work? My question before is, could it be a blockage? If so, can this blockage be fixed without pulling half the engine out. Can i somehow try and backwash or do something to clear out any blockages? Could it be a water pump issue o r impeller ? If so, are they easily removed. Or is it something much more serious? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Regards, Majed.

I normally use suicide hooks. Until recently i have been having good success with the long shank.

Was using peeled prawns and chicken breasts. Long shank hook was used. (not sure of size in number, but it was a small type hook.

While enjoying my time off from work and the great warm weather, decided to hit my favourite spots again on the Georges River with my dad. At the boat ramp at 5am, warm weather, calm waters and wonderful early morning scenery has hopefully set the fishing day in good stead. A bit slow the first hour with only little bites.....at about 6:30am the bites started to get bigger and more aggressive. Beauty, hooked up a nice 35cm bream......great first up fish.... More and more bites but no hook ups....noticed another boat about 50 metres away also hooking up a couple of nice bream..A short time later i am on again...just as we were about to net another big bream, the hook came off the line.... Next cast dad is on too....again lost the hook near the boat... i don't know what i am doing wrong with the 7 loop uni knot recently... A short time later i hook a 25 cm bream.....lots more small throwback breams hooked hup throughout the morning. Just before we are to call it a day, another 34cm monster bream is hooked and netted..you beauty... 10:00am called it a day and headed off home...

Firstly, would like to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR. Hope this year is a rewarding one, not only with money, but FISH too......... Now to the fishing, decided new years eve to go out fishing early new years dat while everyone was still asleep and before it gets too hot... Left home at 5am with my dad and youngest son and headed out to my favourite spots on the Goerges River. The weather was perfect, calm waters and warm water temperature of 25 degrees. Started fishing at 5:45 with instant success for my young one with a small flattie (25cm), which was very happy to swim back when released. Throughout the morning the bites never ceased using chicken breasts and peeled prawns. By 8am we had around 10 keeper breams in the bucket, including a couple around the 32cm mark. At approx 8:15 am, i noticed 2 old couple fishing behind us about 200 metres away in a canoe. The water was calm. About 5 mins later i noticed a jet ski speeding towards the canoe. After a closer look, the poor old couple's canoe was submerged while they were treading water. Quickly we retrieved our rods and pulled up the anchor and proceeded to them. The gentleman on the jet ski was assisting them. I told him i would take care of the people and bring them into the boat while he retreived their belongings which were floating. I got the couple into the boat who were so relieved and took them to the local marina for safety and comfort. They were a little shaken, wet but otherwise ok. Went back to help the jet ski retrieve the canoe. Tied it to the boat and took it to shore. It was a struggle as the canoe was upside down. At the shore it was turned over to the correct position and towed to the marina by the jet ski. The couple informed me that a wave from a boat tipped them over. The main thing is the couple were ok. Secondly i would like to thank the gentleman in the jet ski for his assitance. A job well done by all. Back to the fishing after about an hour, i immediately picked up a 40cm tailor. Next cast i had a really big hook up which to me felt a few kilos (maybe a jewie). It was taking me around the boat, but i lost it near the boat when the hook came loose. Next cast my son lost a similar one too exactly the same way..oh damn... By the time we called it a day (10am), we had 15 bream and 2 tailors in the bucket. A good days catch and a rescue...........

Georges River is a nice comfortable place to fish. It can at times be hard to pick the right spots, but then again its the same with most places including Botany Bay. Most of the Georges river is pretty shallow, but don't let this be a deterent. I have caught many a fish in the Georges. Como can be very good at times, but is best on the runout tide. Captain Cooks bridge is also a good spot when it is not too windy. The Moons is also a good spot for whiting & bream. I normally use peeled prawns and chicken breast. To make life easier i normally cut up my bait at home ready for the hooks. After i have cut the chicken breasts into pieces i normally add a bit of salt and let it sit there for about an hour to drain out the excess water. Salt will make the checken nice and firm. Once out on the water i add some parmesan cheese to the chicken. As with all types of fishing, berlying increases your chances of attracting fish. Hope this help, and good luck.

Isn't Oatley further up the river past Como?

They will sell it for $5000 which i believe is dirt cheap for an 18ft boat. I think it is worth at least $8000...the only downside is i cant try it in the water as he lives too far away from water and the nearest dam is 2 hours away and he is not prepared to go that far. I dont like buying boats without trying them. ....Just running them from the muffs doesnt achieve anything and i dont want to end up with a lemon....the bloke seems honest, but when it comes to buying mechanical items, try first...

Thank you all for your help....

Thanks for that.......are petrol inboards ok?

Hi All, I am interested in a 18ft SwiftCraft half Deep V cabin with a Volvo 130HP INBOARD engine.... I am told the boat is in very good condition. The boat is around the mid 80's model. I am also told that this boat is very sturdy. I would like to know your views on this type of boat, especially being an inboard engine. I have included a pic. Any info is appreciated.