MrGenius

Couple more pics 95cm Hooked up to a 1m, nice bend in the rod The big one on the scales

Ive got some more pics coming, ill upload them this evening

My mate bought himself a downrigger for xmas and has been giving it a work out during his holidays. It was a slow start getting used to using it but we got a few baits taken and one rat on the first go out. Since then he has been heading out every day possible and has done better each time, upping his PB to 95cm. Then last week i get a picture message on my phone with the latest update and a new PB Here it is 130cm and 18kg caught in 30m of water over an offshore reef out of South coast NSW Time on the water definitely pays off

Big problem down there with this happening, we had our windows smashed but they couldnt get thru the tint and there was nothing in the car anyway. Keep an eye out for cars with 4 or 5 in em all young kids, they were driving a silver EA falcon that smashed ours.

I was out in the bay on sunday and had temps ranging from 23.2 along the cliffs up to 25.4 in the bay.

I have a Regal 4000, it is the older model than the ones on sale but it has been quite good and only needed the drag washers replaced in the time ive had it. The drag is quite smooth too for a lower spec reel. It is larger in physical size than a shimano 4000 series so be aware of that when matching it to a specific rod.

I find it best there to pump nippers as the tide runs off the flats and the sand is still quite wet.

This statement confuses me, i would have thought that if it is doing this when trimmed all the way in that the motor is too high on the transom/not far enough in the water? or possibly something to do with weight distribution in the boat if the motor is at the correct height? What causes a prop to slip apart from being too high in the water? When trimmed out you would expect the prop to let go quite early in the turn too?

Yep i have the Sedona FB and it is no good with braid whatsoever, i tried different brand braid as suggested by tackle shop thinking it was that but its just that the reel does not lay it on correctly.

Hi Dave, Im not complaining Although all the ones ive seen caught on plastics in the same area have been huge compared to our 45-50cm ones. Cheers, Nathan

There was a thread here a while back with just the info you are after, if you do a search in this section you should be able to find it.

Couple of my mates had these types of boats, i think they might even have one in the shed still. They had 25hp and 30hp tohatsus on the back and they went pretty good with one skinny kid on board, but these days would definitely be begging for 50hp+

Yeh ive had plenty of people tell me they are the poor mans lobster, i dont eat fish anyway so they all go back.

Pflueger Infusion is another one to look at

Ive replaced most of my reels with Okuma's, im yet to have anything fail on any of them but ive had them serviced at Okuma with no problems at all and excellent customer service. Shame i cant say the same about 2 other manufacturers i used.

Can only hope

As the title says, slimy mackeral are in absolute plague proportions down the south coast from Greenwell point into JB. We had trouble getting baits to the bottom without slimys knocking it off or getting hooked. I even hooked a few on 5" jerk shads At one stage there was a heap of surface action that we assumed would be salmon or tailor but no just a heap of slimys hitting the smaller white bait etc. They were mostly in the 30cm range and made great fresh slab baits + a heap for the freezer. Got a few snapper at one of our GPS marks around the 48cm mark, plenty of reef species and a couple of little samsons. Still cant seem to get a snapper on plastics tho, i know they are there cause we can get em on bait but just cant make it happen on a plastic. No probs getting red rock cod though

Do you eat those rainbow wrasse? I chucked about 20 of them back the other weekend, not that i eat fish anyway but never thought they were any good to eat.

Cool, cheers

Thanks James thats some good info hopefully some other raiders have some more

As above, need to make sure you are adjusting the trim correctly before you even consider wasting money on another prop.

I have to go to Port Douglas for a wedding in August this year and we are all keen to go for a fish while there. Never stopped at Port douglas before so have no idea where to fish so if anyone can give some info on popular places to throw in a line and if you know of any good charters in the area please PM me the details of them. Cheers, Nathan

Sometimes an ignition lead will arc out on the latch for the cowling and cause issues similar to this, put some conduit around the leads to protect them and rule that out.

You guys did alright We didnt even get a touch all day, not one fish landed

Hey Guy, That king is massive! Good catch mate, going to be a hard one to beat Cheers, Nathan