Sammy0884

I'll probably be working on the boat.. Might give it a polish, shampoo carpet, polish the stainless work....i also picked up a new flush mount deckwash fitting that needs to be installed, so i'm looking forward to the fibreglass itch..... oh yeah, i might finally adjust the freakin antennas so they are even!

Ok, there are some major differences between the two.. The 625 is a big boat for big seas, if you are planning to make regular trips to the carpark off port stephens then the 625 is definately more suitable boat, it will also fish 4 people quite comfortably. The downside is they are a serious rig that is heavy, you will need a trailer rated to 2.5 tonnes with electric brakes, you will also need a serious 4WD that can pull it. You will also need upwards of 175hp if you want the boat to perform. As for the 575, they are a wonderful hull, which are totally capable of going wide to catch marlin if the weather is in your favour. They perform brilliantly with engines between 135 and 150hp and weigh alot less allowing a lower cost trailer and tow vehicle. They are also much easier to handle on your own if you are just taking yourself and a mate or your family out, I have spent many hours at sea in a 625 explorer and rate it highly!

Hi Mate, Its fantastic motor mate, i have the same on the back of my boat (albeit with a mercury cover). The are reliable, honest performers that should give you many years of economical operation. Cheers Sam

unfortunately not everyone would be so please to catch a king like that, it was only 60cm long and went back to fight again.

Hi Mate, surprisingly the Kingy only took a few clicks of drag, it was set fairly aggresively though... 8kg... I had another feed of flathead tonight! delicious!

I'll give that a go BlacknBlue

Hi Guys, i have been having some issues with my deckwash system. Its a jabsco system that picks up via a stainless skin fitting on the bottom of the hull. Most of the time it works fine, but if i use it when the boat is moving quickly the water drains and it develops an air lock, then when i next stop it will not pick up again. Is there a way i can stop this? do i need a one way valve of some sort between the skin fitting and the pump strainer?

look around in some of the larger fishing store chains, they carry them.

300m minimum, 500m to be safe.

I use a little one made by rapala that is just awesome! little brass head that is lethal... puts holes in fish if you whack it too hard!

I've gone through a couple, and i still love my mini baseball bat... i picket it up from rebel for about $10. there are others that are specially made with more weight in the hitting end, but they also do alot more damage to fish, boat floors, gunwhales etc.

lol @ flatties singing! Get out there people! the flatties are on!

We were rigging them up on resin head jigs... the natural rocking of the boat imparts plenty of action on the lures, we still give them a jiggle and drop them back down to the bottom every now and then. Tones, it was great to use it for its intended purpose, thanks for taking care of that little issue and getting me back on the water so quickly!

Hi Mate, The 115 optimax is a nice engine, but will certainly feel underpowered compared to the 135 V6 you had. It will probably perform acceptably well on the 5.4m hull for general running about and fishing duties, but it will be under cooked if you decide you want to pull the kids around during summer. I have a 115hp EFI four stroke 4cyl on my 5.5m seafarer and it gets me around 35kn on calm water, which is plenty fast, but with a boat FULL of 5 people it does struggle a little. If the option is there DEFINATELY go the 135hp optimax, they are an awesome engine, probably the best 135hp option around at the moment, it will hold value and make the boat somewhat more attactive to sell if you decide to upsize your rig late on.

Hi Jase, Speak to Tony @ Fishfinder, as the cost varies depending on your build specification. The blank i chose was the Live Fibre TX300 100% high modulous carbon, its rated for 50lb line and up to about 10kg of drag. The new version of my blank is able to dead lift something like 15kg, truly insane, i suggest you get down to Fishfinder an check it out, it will scare the shit out of you whilst blowing your mind. Cheers Mate Sammy

Ring the site sponsor Tony @ Fishfinder bait and tackle... he will sort you out with a Berkely dropshot for $100.

Cheers guys! The catch certainly got the three of us back in the good books, i certainly know my and my own family were giving me grief for making them wait for so long between flathead feasts! Ross, the shorts certainly give the 'i mean business' look at the boat ramp.. its camo for the fish

Hi Guys, Saturdays plan was to head wide and have a crack at popping my kingie on a jig cherry, then come in closer to road test some of the new Slam! soft plastic lures i had scored on the resident flattie population. Lauched in cooks with Sharky and CFD on board where we joined what was a race to the peak, awesome conditions allowed us to make our way out at 30kn all the way. We didn't have trouble finding the mark with the best part of 20 boats already trying their best to fool a kingie. We sounded out a strong school and set the jigs down, sharky was the first to hook up on something that felt a like a paper bag on the 80lb jigging gear, it turned out to be a nice size leather jacket.. on to the next school. I sent a jig down and was hit instantly...then chop...bye bye $25 zest jig, braid and wind on... GGRRRRRR!!!! i re tied a double and trace while chris sounded out another school... i decided to go for the cheaper Williamson 250gm abyss speed Jig in pink. We found a school and started jigging again, bam! hooked up, the Fishfinder custom jig stick loaded up and i heard the ever sweet moan of braid over the guides. i had my cherry popped with a just under legal Kingie released to fight again. We tried a few more positive soundings, but they turned out to be masses of leather jackets, so we pulled the pin after loosing a few more jigs and about 150m of braid . With conditions now glassed out, we made haste back into the familiar 50m waters straight out of Botany. CFD and i had a small beer wager on whos favourite edible plastic would get the results, so it was one of each on way to the ocean floor, Gulp on the top and the test sample Slam on the bottom jig we had another rod with some of Chris' most disgusting, foul smelling salted pilchards just in case... The first few fish fell to the bait rod, mainly throwbacks that were barely worth winding to the top... the drift was slow so there was plenty of time for blaming each other on the poor results.... Sharky came up trumps with a double hookup on a pair of awesome 48-50cm flatties on the stinky pillies.. Shortly after that the hits became more agressive and the plastics started to pay dirt, the Slams were out fishing the Gulps by at least 2:1 although they were lacking a bit in size on both accounts. - below is one of the plate sized flatties that fell to the draw of the Slam lures. Chris was now fishing a pillie and plastic combo and was starting to seriously out class me in the capture stakes!.... i called for a move to another spot, then BANG! my trusty live fibre bent in half and drag started ripping off the baitrunner, brief fight later and a handy net job by Chris and i had a HORSE of a fish on board, the Slam! did the damage and the Beer prize was mine! We did a few more drifts, only keeping the fish between 40-55cm as they are the best eating we feel, chris also took a monster jacket on a gulp plastic.. back at the ramp we did the final count, 24 awesome tasty fish for the table! We caught in excess of 60 fish today and kept only the best eating ones – both Chris and I agreed that the Slam easily contributed to at least 60% of the days catch… considering we were running 4 double paternosters consisting of 4 pillies, 2 Gulps and only 2 Slams id say that these are pretty impressive results for the Slam crew – if only we had run 8 Slams our catch could have well quadrupled!!! It was an awesome day, great weather and fantastic fishing! Cheers Sammy

I'll be in the white seafarer, blue canopy.... everyone else?

I'm programming the VCR right now.

There's no way we can win with you driving chris... step aside.

I think the shimano Tcurve and the Diawa Monster mesh are awesome rods for the money. I had a set of the Tcurves and upgraded to Tony's Custom Fishfinder jig rods and they are awesome.

Grow some stones and play a gentlemans sport. Rugby Union.

Seabreeze is usually very accurate, i would not be bothering on saturday, sunday might be fishable inside. you can also try the windfinder website.

I'd reccomend sticking with well known brands like Shimano or Diawa, purchase locally because it it highly possible that you will be calling on some warranty assistance if you are using the reel on big fish, as for a specific recomendation, i'd look at a Spheros 14000 or a Saragosa 14000 or 18000 for something tougher... Spool it up with 500m of 50lb braid and off you go. there are options from diawa but they are somewhat more expensive. As for a rod, the Shimano Tcurve 200 are excellent and balance nicely on the afore mentioned reels.