The Incredible Hull

So it finally was released and I ordered it straight away, few days later, here she is! Going to put on the Game Type J, can't wait to hear it scream!

I take my battery out and trickle charge inside my house. I use a 7amp ctek charger. Use the "Search" function on the top right hand side of the page, there's plenty of topics on this that has been discussed in depth.

That reminds me, I'm yet to order a mask, esp during this cold winter. I believe they're called "buffs".

On another note Krispy, do you get sea sick? Bring some tablets =)

I've got a 2 stroke, if I could turn back time, I'd definitely get a 4 stroke. I'm so sick of those 2 stroke fumes. I've developed into a more mature fisherman over the last couple of years, having a 2 stroke is fine when you're at anchor, but if you're constantly moving or drifting, the motor will be on all day and those 2 stroke fumes are just horrible. I'm sure a lot of people will agree with this.

Hey Buddy, Congrats on getting your licence! I got mine and my first boat about 5 years ago now, still have my first boat =) My boat is a Quintrex 420 wide body dory with a 40HP Mercury. I bought it off a mate for 5k. I think they are still valued around the 5k mark. It's a big boat for a tinny, and most fishing is done with only 2 people anyway. Even on a bigger boat, 3 is a crowd, we only ever fish with 2 people. What would I change about my boat? I wish it had wider gunwales. Other than that I love it. With a tinny, its so easy to launch and retrieve cause its so light. Its easy to maintain due to less moving parts. What to buy: I know the Stacer range has nice tinnys in your price range with wider gunwales, check them out. I would look for anything thats 4m in length, maybe 1.7m beam width, and minimum of 2005 hull and motor. For a 4m tinny, I'd get a 30hp motor, most people like Yamaha, I think Mercury is fine too. For towing, any car with a minimum engine size of 2.4L will comfortabley tow this. What to look for: Once you've narrowed down say 3-4 boats that you really like, go see them and get a feel of the buyer. Usually, you get a feeling of how the buyer is, you can just tell by your gut if they're dodgey or not, trust your gut! Always ask for a test drive on the water, that way you'll know for sure if there's any major issues, take it to full throttle too. Open the motor cover cowling, a 2005 engine should look really new with all the original grease. Check the tell tale to see if the water is coming out strong. Inspect the bottom of the hull for damage or dents. Trailer is a big topic too. Check for rust on the trailer. Check for rust on the winch. Check the Axle as well and the U bolts behind the wheels. Questions to ask the boat owner: When was the last service on the motor and what was changed (spark plugs, lower leg oil) When was the impeller (water pump) last changed (depending on the use, should be done every 2 years) When was the trailer bearings last changed (this should be done yearly) Those are the main things. When you go inspect and test drive a few boats, you'll get a feel for what to expect and a much better idea on what is a good quality boat and a crap one. It helps if you know a boat owner to go with you. Make sure it has life jackets, sand anchor with at least 3m of chain. Also look up insurance, NRMA charges me like $150 a year for peace of mind. And never rush into anything! Feel free to ask more questions here, or PM me if you like. Good luck mate and happy fishing! Dave

Did you guys watch the footy show? Paul Harragon pretty much summed it up really well. Blues squad has changed so much... that its like most of the teams at the beginning of year with new players that haven't gel-ed yet. And each year they keep changing the squad which makes it even worse. NRL is a team sport, its not like the NBA where you have 1 ball hog who scores 50 points a game to carry the team. Blues recruited 6 ball hogs this year.

Well thats the thing about these stupid rules, they are so inconclusive, bunch of monkeys who made up these rules. If its not 100% certain, then its as simple as a No Try. And the rest of the stupid rules, Hand on the ball.... you're meant to keep the hand on the ball to prevent offloads, yet the Refs are so inconsistent and give penalties. Rake, Strip, Loose Carry - these rules all contradict each other at times. Knock on, knock back, lol this is a joke too. Basic physics tells you the second you touch an object its gone forward, keep the rules simple why complicate it for lol I know most of you out there would agree to some extent that these rules need to be revisited, and changed to a solid black or white decision. With such a low scoring game and many 50/50 rules, and also penalties which most of the times lead to trys, these rules are an easy target for match fixing.

You guys have it all wrong. The bunker DID have sufficient evidence, hence the over turn. He did NOT make it to line, plus there was a hand under the ball as well. If anything, the refs should be sacked for calling something they clearly were NOT sure of. How the hell can he call TRY when he was not 1000000% sure, how much was he paid. This then leads to the whole match fixing debacle, and I will not be surprised when they start investigating Refs. Why am I so passionate about this? I was one of the people who contact the authorities and started making a case about these dodgey NRL matches and their stupid 50/50 calls that goes either way, typically to the highest bidder.

I tried Sweep, terrible, very mushy meat. Aussie Salmon top of my list, that fishy smell and taste stays in your mouth, ewww. I'm a little surprised on some of the above. Tailor is great smoked and also wrapped in foil with lemon salt pepper on the BBQ Trevally cooked the same way or even sashimi is very nice, nice and sweet meat. Bream shallow fried, awesome Bonito sashimi, awesome. Gotta try it guys!

Hey Raiders! I know there has been numerous posts on this, I just thought I'd share my experience doing this, its very easy for those of you who haven't yet had a go at doing it. First thing was buying the hub kit. Mine is a Ark Galvanised Hub - 6", Holden HT, most trailers use this type. Hub kit was around $50 each hub. Get marine grease, lots of rags and also disposable latex gloves. No special tools are needed. 1. Remove the wheel and old hub (Est time 10 minutes per side) Loosen wheel bolts before jacking up the trailer. Jack up trailer and remove bolts, remove the wheel. If you have a cap on the hub, use a flat head screw driver to help remove the cap. If you have a bearing mate, use a hammer and lightly tap the sides whilst spinning the hub. After taking off the cap\bearing mate, use a rag and wipe off the grease around the nut. You will see a split pin that goes in between the nut, into a hole of the axle. Before taking off the spilt pin, it is vital that you take note, of exactly how far the nut is screw onto the axle. On my trailer, the end of the nut was at the first thread of the axle. Take note of this as you will need to put it back on exactly the same. Use pilers to bend the 2 split pin ends so its straight and pull the pin out. **I had trouble with this cause when I bent one of the ends of the split pin it snapped, so it left a little L shape at the bottom. So I used vice grips, and grabbed the top of the pin, and just forced it out. Undo the nut with a snapper, or a 29mm-30mm socket. Theres a washer behind the nut, take this out. The nut and washer need to be wiped down as it will be used later. The hub should now slide completely off. Old Hub Using a rag, clean the axle. Now apply new grease. 2. Pack new bearings (Est time 15 minutes per side) Here's the messy part. Put on your disposable latex gloves (get tight fitting gloves). Open your new Hub box and remove both bearings. Grab your marine grease. For right handers, use your right hand and grab a chunk of grease and put it in the palm of the left hand right near your left thumb. Grab the larger bearing first with your right hand, make sure the larger opening is at the bottom. Put your right index finger in the bearing to get a good grip and push down into your left palm where the grease is, and slide away from the grease whilst pushing down into your palm firmly. Repeat this process until you see the grease coming out from the top of the bearing, through the little gaps. Do this all around the bearing. Repeat this process for the smaller bearing as well. Spend a bit of time doing this, don't rush it. 3. Assemble the hub (Est time 3mins per side) First apply grease around the inside of the new hub where the larger bearing will go into. Insert the larger bearing into the hub. Apply more grease inside the hub where the axle will slide on. The hub kit comes with a metal round piece that goes over the larger bearing. Use a rubber mallet to tap this metal piece in, so it is flush to the hub. Then insert the rear rubber seal into this metal piece and you're done. 4. Put hub back on axle (Est time 3mins per side) Slide the new hub on first. Then grab the smaller bearing and slide that on, make sure its facing the right way. Slide on the washer and screw on the nut. I would suggest to screw the nut on hand tight first as this will pack the bearings in nice and tight, then back off the nut. In my case the nut was at the first thread. The nut should be quite free flowing. Insert new split pin and bend 2 ends. Then insert your cap\bearing mate, tap it on with hammer lightly. New split pins New hub on Bearing mate on All done!

They charge more for heavy vehicles cause they do much more damage to the road. If I was in your position, I would call the ombudsman.

Thats awesome info Fab, my motor is due for its winter service, I'll be following your method =)

Hey Raiders, I worked for Transurban for 4 years as an IT Application Support Analyst , the state gov is too poor to own anything, even our electricity is privatised. The Gantrys have 6 or so special cameras that measure the size of the vehicle, then charge accordingly. In your case they probably thought yours was a heavy vehicle. I would ring your tag provider and dispute it. Speak to the manager on duty and they will create a case for you and have it looked at. Why should you go out of your way to get your rig measured, that's total BS mate... just provide previous times you've been through the gantry with your boat and ask them why didn't they charge you back then? With all technical engineering, there's always maintenance and upgrades etc to the equipment so don't be surprised if it's faulty. They keep a few months worth of pictures on their roadside servers, get them to dig one up when you're able to find the details of your last trip that was charged correctly. And yes, I would suggest to buy their shares, its a win win situation, gov is way too poor to ever buy it back, the company is worth billions. They have 40 year leases on these Gantrys, and its their job to keep increasing the lease to maintain their big bucks, just like the M4 will be soon tolled again. PM me if you need any more help buddy. Dave.

Nice job buddy!

I got the wing type on my 40hp Mercury, boat is a 420 Dory, never had a problem with it. My boat needs it as the motor is quite heavy for that boat, gets on plane very quick.

I used to have the exact same problem lol And for that same reason I don't fish the hawkesbury anymore! It gets trawled anyway.

Let me know how you go buddy. My boat is roughly worth the same as yours, I've owned it for about 4 years now and have not had insurance on it. I park my boat inside my house, so never really thought I needed it. Starting to get paranoid now with bad drivers on our roads.

Watsons Bay has squid, try along the inside fringes. Make sure you're near the bottom, you need to snag once in a while otherwise you're not deep enough or not in a weedy area.

Good to hear Geoff. The auto locking I think is quiet normal. When you lock the car with the remote, then unlock it, it will automatically lock within a minute or two. It varies from car to car, the newer cars are smarter and can detect the key, old cars not so smart.

Well written sid, I feel the exact same way after a kingy session, absolutely buggered and pretty much waste a day sleeping! At the same time though, there's less people on the water during those early hours... its give and take I guess!

Hey Raiders, I'm planning a NZ trip with a mate, our target will be Kings and Snapper. I've read Sept or October is a good time. I'm after any info on what times of the year to go, where to stay etc. We're looking at 2 solid days of fishing, hoping this will be enough time to cement some memories and PB's! Cheers, Dave.

Great to read your reports again mate, keep them coming =)

I ended up getting a Shimano Game Type J, PE 2-5 I got that rod cause its amazingly thin. Looks like a bream rod but pulls up kingys up to 70cm pretty easily. EDIT: running 30lb braid, 40lb leader, using 50-60g jigs, so fun snagging rats =)

Nick job mate! I was at Belambi last winter, drifting a live yakka around the 40m mark, rod bent a little, reeled it up and thought I had a snag or something. You wouldn't believe, a massive hugeeee southern came out, it seriously looked around 10kg, a serious sea monster. Got it close to the boat but unfortunately having a yakka pinned in the shoulder with a J hook, it just simply let go =(