Aero

I wouldnt have turned back, especially in a cat, and especially since you were so close. Conditons were slighly sloppy and due to be abating in the arvo, and they did exactly that.. Chris

Okay, I'm ready to come back to sydney now! Red, Prep randy savage for a winter misson Chris

After way to long without my Minn Kota I squeezed in a 2 hour meat gathering session on the bay. Managed a few Squidlies (being stir fried right this moment), a couple of bream and some other odds and ends. Jeez, it feels good to be back on the water...

You know what, I'm pretty sure your right. That just pisses me off even more. Hows that saying go? If you do the right thing by one person they'll tell a friend, but if you do the wrong thing by someone they'll tell the world? I'm just doin my bit ! Chris

After a brief 4 day visit my Minn Kota spent at BLA getting a rubber mouting Bush replaced I picked it up 18th of last month keen to get back out on the water. Thinking all was good I took out for a whirl the next morning only to find it vibrating something chronic obove 1/4 speed. On closer inspection I find the prop shaft bent. I figured it was obiously bent in transit from BLA to my tackle store, so not wanting to waste anymore time I returned it that same afternoon. It left my tackle store via the Rep that same day, the 19th of April. Here I Sit Almost 3 weeks later without my Minn Kota. Now the service prior to this has been second to none. The unit has had its usual hick ups with the foot pedal and servo but I was prepared to deal with that due to the fact their turn around time was exeptional. Well so much for that ! I'm sure I'll get fed some great excuse, But the fact that there was no courtesy call to let me know about pending delays etc, and leaving it up to me to chase it up with the Rep (which I have no issues with)on more than one occasion is a joke. Hopefully its not too far away now but I'm not holding my breath. Chris

Congratulations guys, thats an awesome report of a great trip. Chris

Greg, That seagull would have made a great addition to your YouTube video's Chris

We cant complain I guess, We had our bag by 8.40 and tryed ever so hard to upgrade. 20 or so legals later we ended up with 2.860kg just ahead of Ice and Co. On the bright side we did end the series off in second place ! Congrats to Rich P and Co, Great consistancy paid off guys ! Chris

We bombed out too Andrew, cant wait to reedem ourselfs on the harbour ! Chris

That makes perfect sence to me, Since you were fishing with lures (like I normally do) it didnt even cross my mind how good they would be as cut baits, especially with the amount of blood in them. As for baiting them, they're a good bait if you can crank them in fast with minimal damage. rigged with a bridle and towing them around at a couple of knots works wonders. They are a Tuna in essence so you need to keep them moving otherwise they cark it pretty quickly. I've seen some big sydney kings come on live frigates, they only ever lasted a few minutes before they were either inhaled by a king, or dead. Chris

Nice work on mate, We've been having a ball with these guys too ! Tell me, what do you do with all the frigates? Apart from being a top Marlin skip/swim bait I've found no other use for them. Chris

Nice report. The choppers allways do their drills on that cliff. I've been up there watching them train the apprentices on securing people for rescues. Chris

Nice work mate, we'll be holding you to that last comment too Chris

Thanks for that, I've never ever seen a reel's drag tested like that, but I have now Chris

Nice King ! Rohit, I'd like to know what you've done to the stradic to get 6kg of drag pressure out of it ? Chris

http://www.marine.csiro.au/remotesensing/o...owe/latest.html Chris

Nice fish man, perfect live bait size ! Chris

Excellent work, You've just convinced me my Saegake's are capable of much better fish than their currently seeing ! Chris

It's not a cost cutting exersize, I've often paid more for stuff I've imported. Certain lures just never hit our shores, especially in the berkley range. you often have a better colour selection as well as acess to discotinued stock that has thinned out locally. I recently landed 10 packets of 7" berkley jerk shads (non-gulp) because they were never available here in Australia, and they came through without drama's. I've previously landed various discontinued gulps as well. It all depends on who you buy it from If they're willing to write "plastic fishing lures" as an item discription instead of "powerbait sandworm baits" then your in with a shot. Chris

All the good Bream, flattie and luderick possy's have been blocked off with that stupid fence. The footbridge is really shallow and only fires in the peak of summer. The little canal closer towards campsie between this footbridge and the canterbury rd road bridge was most productive when i used to fish it. The mullet are allways going nuts in there too. Havent fished the river since they put the fence up a couple of years ago, prior to that there was not much I didnt catch in there. Chris

The current run of fish seem to all be between 25-35kg. We nailed 6 on friday and the biggest may have nudged 35kg. your fish looks to be high 20's possibly pushing 30. The fish in the other thread is probably just over 30kg. If you havn't seen alot of tuna, is quite easy to overcall weights, as they are such long fish. Problem is you need to bleed them and prep them pretty much straight away, so getting them weighed correctly slides down the priority list. Chris

I have a 30WLRS and love it to death, It's nailed its fair share of black, blue and striped marlin too

Any particular reason you use 300-400lb for stripes?

R_Zee, Noddy, A pretty easy way to I.D stripes from blues is the actual height of the dorsal fin. The height of the dorsal in stripes is usually equivillant to the depth of the body. As you can see with your fish, its got quite a tall dorsal. There's other ways to I.D them such as their lower Jaw, Lateral line etc... Chris P.S Have a Sticky beak here : http://www.marlinnut.com/facts/strmarlin.shtml

Nice fish guys, Like everyone else has said its a decent sized striped. Out of curiosity did you guys acctually weigh it? as it seems to have grown 10kg since R_Zee's post, and looks just under 100kg from what I can make out in the picture. Regardless she's a nice capture. Chris