Slink

Hi Folks , I am going to tow the Seafarer up to a mates houes at Port Stephens in a couple of weeks , looking forward to it big time. We will be hoping to catch bait then either slow troll for kings or drag big lures around for anything on top . Only problem is that I havent been out fishing there before so I dont have any spots or Gps marks . Can any of you kind people point me in the right direction ? What are they getting there at the moment ? Thanks guys Brad

Hi There , I have a 17 foot Seafarer and am looking for a sea anchor , mainly for when the wind is up and the drift is a bit too fast , have used them on a mates boat and thats why I want one , they work . Can you give me any info that I might need , is there anything that I have not taken into consideration ? As far as I know I just go to a marine type store and get one suited to a 5 or 6 meter boat , but I am sure that some of you can give me experience help to make it all easier for me . Thanks guys Brad.

Thanks Lure , I can get the Twinpower for quite a bit cheaper than the Stella so I will be going for it , Thanks again for the reply mate , a bit of info from someone like you is a great help Cheers Brad

Hi there , I am in the posistion of being able to acquire a near new twinpower 12000, never caught a fish. Has anyone out there got one and if so how do they compare to the stella 20000 ? I know that there is a difference in price but I want to know is there a MAJOR difference in reel quality and performance, price aside . I have read all the reviews and asked around but the more info that I can gather from people who actually have and use the TP the more that it will help me decide on what to go for . The TP's are no longer available , I have read that the reason for that is cause there was bugger all difference in price between the stella and the TP so most people went the Stella . So has anyone got the TP 12000 and how do you rate it on tuna , marlin ,shark , kings etc. Thenks fellas Brad

Hi EH , Please do yourself a favour and throw your 27meg into the closest bin . They are rubbish and totally useless around here. Invest in a VHF and you will enjoy clear reception every day. I install marine electronics and for a offshore fisherman the 27 is crap. The VHF will receive and transmit over a much further distance and the reception will not compare . Also the safety factor is far greater than the 27 , hopefully none of us will ever need it for that though. Brad

Hey Pickles , I saw you out there yesterday , it got pretty crowded didnt it . I was the first boat out there at 3am and we managed 4 legal kings as well as many rats. We moved elsewhere and landed a few flatties and trevally then in the afternoon everyone went home so we had the place to ourselves again. Had a good day though , you passed me mid morning , I was around dee why then in a seafarer .See you again soon.

I agree with Greg , Carp might not have been the best species to open the show with. Nevertheless I will still record and watch every weeks episodes , just love fishing shows.

Thats so awesome !!! What an absolute ripper !!!!! What an achievement for anyone !! I will gladly by that gran a wine , beer , whatever.

Johno , It was anywhere from 2mts to 20 mts didnt really matter , you could see them all around the boat . Trolling at 2 knots and ended up just drifting over them. Great fun , there are big ones there too , got smoked on the 24kg gear 3 times !! Good luck mate Brad

Jonno , I didnt downrig but had a large barrel sinker above a swivel with heavy trace. A poor mans downrigger you could say !!!!!! Brad

Thats helpful , what is CG please.

PM sent

Thanks , I always release the ones under 68cm when they are thick like that . Get out there and have a ball ! Thinking of going out this arvo for a session , hope the missus wont mind . Brad

Good stuff mate , looks awesome

Hi All, Went out last Saturday at 4:30am with a mate , got about 25 yakkas thinking that it would be more then enough and headed to Longy . Got out the rubber bands and bait needle , rigged 2 livies and started a slow troll around the bommies. On our second pass both rods buckled over and drag was screaming as we pulled the gear from the rod holders This continued untill we ran out of livies , about 2 hours. At first we were the only ones on the spot but it didnt take long for others to see us getting double hook ups every pass and there ended up being about 4 other boats enjoying some drag burning action. The kings were bringing a few mates to the surface each time we hooked up , great to see so many around ATM .Most landed were spot on 65 cm so they lived to menace someone another day. We got smoked several times by kings that did not want to play the game , always fun when you try to pull them into deeper water as the reels are screaming. We ended up catching more on dead yakkas , soft plastics with big jig heads , old squid strips and frozen pillies sent out floating. The buggers were fired up hard and it was a great day. Ended up coming home with 6 legals , the biggest going 77cm. Great fillets tonight again. Dont have any photos to show , it was to much action to stop and snap a few off. Hopefully it is a sign of things to come !!!! Cheers Brad

Well done mate !!!! Beautiful Dollie , I am so pumped for the warmer water , hopefully I will be showing off my PB dollie soon !!!!!! See you out wide Brad

I use that ramp almost every weekend and it is always around 20 bucks , I am now going to buy a sticker from the council for about $164 ( i think ). What I am puzzled about though is although it is one of the only ramps around here that you have to pay for ( also roseville ) why can't the council install quality fish cleaning tables ? What are you meant to do , you are not permitted to clean fish before coming in (which I can understand as some people will keep undersize fish ) and there is nowhere to do so at the ramp. What I now do is after I wash down the boat and fishing gear is to then take the catch to Longreef ramp where there is a cleaning table and do so there. I just think that for the amount of money that we all spend to park our car and trailer for the day that Pittwater council could install a couple of stainless steel top cleaning tables with sinks and running water so we can all get the boats and fish cleaned at the same place. Its a pain in the butt having to go clean fish elsewhere after the days fishing. Also how many of you have come in after the council have turned off the water at the boat wash down area ? How good is that !! Go pittwater council , you guys are tops !! Brad

Hi Mate , I had alot of success last year in the summer months trolling around the Fads and traps. I was mainly using small pakula uzi's and other skirts as well as the rapala x-raps in the medium size. I caught heaps and heaps of striped tuna as well as a few small dolphin fish. I have only ever caught 1 king trolling a lure as I find that trolling a bridled livie really slow is much more effective. As far as trolling speeds go I found that around 6-8 knots is really the way to go. Bonnies dont seem to mind what you use , they are not really fussy when they are around and hungry, those pink plastic squid or cheap xmas trees will pretty much smash them every time. Good luck and hope that this helps. Brad

Mate I am asking the same question to myself, although I can only run 3 lures. I have a 8000 stella, TLD25 and a Tiagra 50W. I am going to try and run my largest skirt on the shotgun pole out the back running on the tiagra , then smaller skirts each side near the witchdoctor. Not sure yet how it will go but I figure that to a fish it may look as though the 2 smaller lures are being chased by the shotgun lure ? Cant wait to give it a go !! Goodluck

Well Done Butch ! , I am thinking of going this saturday morning for them . Talk soon bro. Brad

Thanks Fellas , Going again this weekend to try and upgrade , I know that they are there . To answer Fisheyes question I am floating a bait ( either squid , whole pillie etc ) under the smallest possible sinker depending on current and casting out then leaving the bail arm open for a few minutes till I think that the bait is somewhere near the bottom but not on it . Lock the arm over if you see it belting off earlier then you are on . Happy Days !!! Cheers Brad

Hi Raiders , It had been a long time since I have caught a decent bag of reddies , had a number of undersize fish and knew that it was only a matter of time till my luck would change. Anyway last weekend was the first ever local snapper comp that was open to anyone and held on the northern beaches . I had a ticket early and was sticking to a plan of heading to a wider spot around 70 meters off Long Reef at 4:30 am and starting a burley trail down deep with the burley bomb. I had been to the fish market the day before to gat fresh squid , cuttlefish and bottle squid as well as fresh pillies and striped tuna I had salted down from earlier trips. Feeling quite confident I sat for over an hour before seeing any action , then a legal red came up , then another legal around 36 cm , not what I was hoping for but at least I was on the board. Normally I would have moved on after 2 or 3 hours but the tide was changing in a couple more hours so I decided to sit it out and keep burlying . Right on low I managed 2 around 43cms , starting to feel more confident now I set out whole squid on straight lines with pea size sinkers , good choice ! I then had the screaming runs that i had been waiting for , first a 56cm with the nice lumpy head then a 63cm light red coloured model. Now I was left wondering what the other 50 or so anglers were getting amongst as I knew that I had a couple of decent reddies, but there were alot of really good snapper fishermen out all searching for a monster. Everything slowed down a couple of hours after low tide and by now I had been sitting on the one spot for about 10 hours , so I decided to pull the anchor and go in closer to around 40mts. I had found a good looking spot and the sounder was showing bait with what looked like snapper under them. I set the anchor and started to burley again. Just on dark the floater screamed again , I grabbed the rod which had 20 pound braid with 20 pound fluro leader and held on as the shimano stradic was howling . I knew straight away that I really needed this for the comp , the big head shakes were there and I was positive that I had hooked a big red of around 6 kg. The first runs of a snapper are always the hardest and this was no different but every time I had jis head turned and managed a few turns on the reel he would turn and head for the bottom again. After 10 minutes I had colour and backed off the drag , when he surfaced I was stoked and had a hard time getting him in the landing net . He went 6.420 kg and measured 85cms . At the weigh in I had the longest fish and thought that I may of had it won but was pipped at the post by a guy who beat me by 20 grams !!!! Anyway I ended up with second place and a great feed which I gave most of away as many guys had nothing to weigh in. Probably a PB snapper for me , I have caught 2 others around the same size before that weren't weighed that accuratley. Other guys said that had hooked fish during that comp and could not even stop them or even slow them down !!!! There are definately bigger snapper lurking out there right now !!!! Back again this weekend for sure. Cheers Brad

Hi Raiders , I am gathering information on making a shotgun pole that I can place in the rocket launcher and fish like a outrigger. I have a 5mt Seafarer and can only run a rod in each corner when trolling . Last summer I simply put the rod in the rocket launcher as the shotgun , it worked OK but we didn't hook up on anything other than stripies , so when I am trolling around the shelf this summer I want to be able to have the rod next to me instead of over my head. I have bought larger 24kg equipment so now I will be getting a bit more serious. I was also thinking of getting a set of outriggers but I think that it will be a bit chaotic when we do get a decent fish as the boat is only small and not heaps of room to move . Also I like to have a maximum of 3 anglers onboard but usually its just 2 so simpler is better for now. Has anyone got the same setup as me ? Did you make your own setup ? Where can I buy a unit already setup ? Also I am thinking of getting a secondhand old rod ( fairly stiff ) and making on from it ? Any feedback will help Thanks fellas Brad

Thats Hilarious , Great footage , I would love to see hungry snapper doing that !!!!!!

Have a look in the setup , then look for units. It should all be there.