pure spirit

planning on spending the night out tonight, will let you know how i go, hopefully the wind will drop off and i can have a nice relaxing night. If not will end up looking for some protection in the basin anyone had much luck there ?

Hi Geek... thankyou for your "kind offer" but i think i'll keep it ! nice to know it's holding it's value have not looked at boat sales since i got mine. but i have heard that the quinnies tend to do that... make a nice change from the 4wd i bought 5 years ago for over 40k that is now worth less than 10k !!

Mate love my quinnie 520 spirit it's 5.8m (think that inc the 'swim board" at the back) No trouble heading out to browns but i pick my days, but have been out to the FADS in less than perfect days (ie afternoon winds running accross the swell etc)to do offshore i've fitted a 2nd battery and always carry extra fuel in a jerry can. mine is coming on three years old now but got it new 2nd hand (if there is such a thing)about 18months ago with only 30hrs on the yammie 2 stroke 90hp I paid low 30s after fighting the dealer down a bit, if you find one in your price range i'd highly recommend them as a boat. It's also a pretty good family boat, fishes okay with two other blokes but i can easily get it in and out of the water by myself. Only down side is i hate the carpet floors which i'd change to checker plate if it was not for the family..... read... the wife says no !

Thanks mate, that settles it then, staying inshore might spend tomorrow night out on the boat and give the jewies a run for their money

Lineclass did you bottombash as well looking good for wednesday but if they have shut down might save the fuel for another day and stay inshore.

nice work, can tell you put a lot of work into the layout...worth every cent (and minute) when your on the water. cheers noah

great tail mate

Nice work, as said before any seal problems ?

hey squidin, about the light thing I fine that really strange i have a couple of LED spotlights on my boat and I normally find that they draw the squid in, I'm not a squider so to speak ...meaning I don't chase them but if they rock up I always have a range of jigs on board.

+2 for shovelnose, from a boat I've had a bit of luck with flathead but lots of shovelnose as by catch last time i fished it i changed from bait to plastic avoid the shovels

Heard about it a while ago cost of 900k if i remember correctly, I'm sure it will be fantastic but I can just imagine the chaos over it once it starts to hold fish ! may have been a better idea to drop a series of smaller ones in a long row with spaces between anyway time will tell.... might just mean taking more days off mid-week to avoid the crowd !

No didn't think about it till I'd was cooking him last night, great tasting ! with heaps of meat on it. Was not going to get into it in the other post but a funny thing happen when i caught it .... I went out early-ish and I hate being cold so I was wearing thermals under my pants so mid morning I went to take the thermals off, so when I'm at the point of just being in my undies I see a small tap on my bait line then the rod doubles over, while I'm fighting it another boat goes by (wonder what was going through their mind seeing some guy in a t-shirt and undies)took me a while to boat as i had trouble netting it and didn't want to use the gaff as i was considering throwing it back but it had blown out its swim bladder which as strange since i was only in about 15m so ended up keeping it. Gave a good fight

regardless of brands (your budget will help work that out). First and most important is the amount of line it can hold if you have less that 700m your wasting your time don't go thinking you'll fish browns with 400m of line. Just remember that the brand of line you use will most likely be the cheaper brands that are thick for their strength. I use a ryobi AD 100, I'm happy with it.

I fished the wall yesterday, (tried my wider marks but wind, current and swell not working together so I opted to fish close) I didn't have any trouble with them, I berlyed pretty hard. Did have a few livies smashed up with not hook up. Got a good sized blue groper (72cm), heaps of small crap and one take home snapper.

caught this guy in the 8th gorge out of katherine he had a big heart !!

first sooty grunter i caught really surprised me, but i'd say aussie salmon but i only ever target them on light gear and a few queenies have given me a run for my money.

I use a blue water solid tip with a fin nor off shore and i'm pretty happy with the rod and combo. Only time i've used a tyrons (was a mates) first fish out of the box for the reel was a marlin the drag stuck and the braid bite into the spool and locked up which was the last thing we needed since we had a double hookup going on. the line ended up being the weak point and snapped. Mate took the reel back to the shop the next day... having said that i think it's a good price want are you using it for,

I normally use the baths at balmoral to pickup my livies before heading out, but will normally fish a livie "just incase" while I'm there. late summer this year picked up a few nice kingies on yakka, tail pinned under a balloon in mid water (this works well because the yakka fight against the balloon the whole time). This time of year you'll find salmon in the moorings but they will cruise by the baths as well. Bottom live bait will often get you flathead. When they are on you can pick up garfish pretty quickly berly with bread, and fish the surface. Bream and small snapper are okay. And there are heaps of trevally there at the moment.

Nice work, looks like a nice day to be out there.

I've had trouble doing them crispy skinned in the past so now i only pan fry them once they are skinned, Panned fried some seasoned with masterfoods maroccan herbs and spices and served with mayo was a bit of a hit with everyone (including my 5 year old girl who does not eat fish..... she only eats "Sea Chicken"... which is a story in itself). Try them in the oven (don't over cook) in foil sit them on slices of lemon, butter and chives on the top with a splash of white wine. They also rock in batter or just done in bread crumbs in a little oil. did some in a thai red curry on friday but it was not the best. If you don't mine getting your hands dirty they make great fishcakes as well. enjoy

Mate no expert but I'll take a shot at part of your question, i've learnt the hard way myself but have been lucky.. a mate has given me some great tips on longy fishing (and fishing in general only been doing it for 35 years but they say the first 50 is the hardest). Firstly you fishing on anchor ? if so drop you line to the bottom then bring it up a couple of metres if your fishing on the bottom chances are your baits hidden in the boulders your lossing your gear to. When we fish longy we normal have one each dropped below the boat (often a livie) then free spool a floating bait down the berley trail. I would not worry about wire just go a heavy ish (depending what your targeting) leader.I normal opt for weight above a swivel then leader to hook if the current picks up i'll clip extra to the swivel rather than re rig. I got a nice little bronzy out there last month on a bottom line set like that with no wire so wire is not always the answer and i think you'll put more off than you'll loss to bite off. Thing is out there there is so much structure if your already on the bottom you've lost half the battle before you start. Set your drag hard as well. There's no such thing as sports fishing there you might just get a 30cm snapper or it could be a metre plus king.... be ready for the king. As for knots I tie a range depending on weight of the line etc but just remember "if you can't tie knots tie lots" the sacrificial sink is when you use a lighter line to your sinker than your main line so it breaks first, I use the method for deep drop but would not bother for what you are talking about, for me the only time you what to be on the bottom offshore is if you are drifting gravel beds for flatties but hey that's just me and I don't always catch fish.

mate few things in point form these are key things that work for me. I use bricks or gal pipe filled with cement I run my motor the whole time to keep my line straight up and down. My sounder losses the bottom all the time (and does not work in deeper water) so i just fish by gps leaving my trip tracker on so i can easily back track if required / be sure to work new ground . i'd suggest if you are fishing a couple of rigs is to enjoy the drift drop one while your bring the other up so you always have a rig down. As you get hit's save the mark. Most people sit on the central mark at the top of the mtn don't be afraid to fish wide and deep bit harder if your using an overhead reel. I use 100lb braid with 200lb leader about 30m of it to a swivel (i shark clip my droppers normal only two) from that a short loop of 15kg mono as a break away with a metre or so of 200lb to the brick this sinker leader will help you should you hit the bottom and makes it easy to hand at the boat. my view is it's good to have a very weak break away with 600m of line out you want to be sure that's where it breaks. I try to fish well off the bottom but at least for me it's lucky dip. I use a mix of size 13 and 16 circle hooks Bait presentation counts for nothing but i do mix it up on each drop big baits are the order of the day cuttle fish slabs work well as they just will not come off.

Yeh brick works fine cheap and cheerful, I also use lenghts of gal piping filled with cement at about 35-40cm they weight in a bit over 1.5kg they seem to drop better than the brick (kg for kg) but more time and $$ to make them. brick is easy just drill a hole put in a plug then a ring screw I use about a metre of 200lb leader (which protects you on the bottom and makes it easy to handle at the boat) to a swivel then a short loop of 15kg mono (as a break away) to a clip swivel on my leader. I just make sure i have a bit of matting on my boats gun wall to use as a resting spot for the brick whilst i prop my droppers throw them in first then the brick last. It's an expensive day fishing browns on every level adding the cost of lead to it just makes it worse so I see it as one area to save a buck or 20 !!. My mate how got me started on the brick rounds out the corners so they spin less but since i've made my own i have not worried. If you need more info let me know and i'll take a photo for me.

Thanks mate, what were you in ? and how'd you go? if you see me again call me up I sit on 21 with dual monitor set to 16 (another safety step)..

quinnie 520 spirit 5.80m i believe, I would not say i'm game going to browns or anytime i head out on the water. my boat is very well maintained and never misses a beat I run dual indepentant batteries and full safety equipment things such as epirb and flares, water stain, strobe and torch and v sheet live in a water proof bag attached to a spare life jacket this lives on deck the whole day (it's the yellow bag you can see in one of the photos) out should I need to ditch (or if i roll), needless to say i wear a life jacket the whole day . I Plan my fuel usage based on weather and sea conditions plus carry a spare 20lt ((and a spare lt of 2 stroke)backup I alway plan on coming back with a 3rd of what i leave with. same goes with time, I never rush to get either in of out and i log my trip with marine rescue with a mid trip checkin . most importantly I go on the days the condtions look right, in that way i'm very lucky being the "boss" I plan my days off around seabreeze.com.au Hey Im not going to be fool hardy and say it will never happen to me but if it does i'm prepared and I'll dealing with it the best i can but i'd rather be in that position than that of the person in the (as a example) 10m boat that has sat on a mooring for months unused or unchecked till some bloke who used to be a keen fisho takes out a few mate on a day they planned weeks earlier, the conditions are wrong, flares are out of date, short on life jackets, has not upgraded his epirb since they went digital etc etc etc my point being there is more to it than the size of the boat