daniel944

Hi all When I fitted out my first boat in early 2007 I purchased a Lowrance X126DF sounder, which was a great little unit, right up until it died a bit under a year ago. I was quite miffed and deceided to go with a humminbird 718 which I purchased from BCF. That unit has never worked properly, and even when it worked as well as it would it wasn't a pinch of you know what on the lowarance. So this weekend I went back to BCF for the 3rd warranty claim and after a bit of complaining they agreeded to give me a refund, so well done to BCF its not there fault that the sounder is crap and BLA cant fix it. So I did a bit of research and my heart is now set on the Lowrance Elite 5X DSI. While reading about the sounder I found the Lowrance 5 year loyalty program, stating that if the unit failed in under 5 years they would upgrade it for an 'unbeatable or matchable price'. Great I think, ring them up and get a cheap sounder, might not even have to fork out any money after the refund from BCF. So when I give the operator the serial number of the sounder he spends quite some time looking it up and then comes back and says, this unit was made in 2003! I replied by saying that internally it has a sticker that says 2004 so that is clearly wrong, but he would not have a bar of it and told me that I was eligable for no discount So has anyone ever used the lowrance loyalty program and if so what sort of discount did you receive? Thanks Daniel

Headed to Lyell on Saturday for the first time. We had trolling rods, spinning rods and fly rods in the boat with a range of lures and flies. No bait gear as we wern't planning to base our selves in one place as this trip was more about exploring a new waterway. Turning onto Sir Thomas Mitchell Drv, it wasn't long before we had our first view of the lake and as expected all I could see were water skiiers Anyhow we have come to far to turn back now, although we did consider a detour to Dunns Swamp but deceided againts it as I have wanted to fish Lyell for quite a while now. Pulling into the camping ground (dont take the dirt track where the sign is, keep going past the sign to the tar road) we paid our $4 and launched our boat. The first thing I noticed was the dirt in the water. There appeared to be suspended dirt all throughout. At this point I hoped that the water would be clearer in the middle, little did I know. Soon we had the boat underway and headed up the far end of the dam until we considered the likley hood of loosing lures in the trees higher than the likley hood of catching fish. Down went the minn kota and out came a surface line with a rebel ant, a down rigger with a crickhopper and a dipsey-diver with a devel. All used various different types of ford fenders or cowbells. We trolled this setup all over the lake, with different lures, depths, attractors, speeds, everything but nothing not even 1 hit! Me thinks that the biggest issue was the water quality, brown everywhere and quite warm 21degC. Plus the water skiiers didnt help much either. We also noticed that the sounder showed fish few and far between, and all on the bottom in about 7-8m of water near the shore. Towards the end of the day we drove the boat up as far as we could and got out and walked the coxs river. We had one small brown on a dark brown nymph and a hit and miss on a repala minnow (brown trout color). Sorry no photos, camera was in the boat. And that was it. After retreiving the boat, the owner of the shop told us that the water quality was due to droping lake levels and strong winds stiring up the loose dirt on the banks, plus he claimed that recently 2feet of water ran over the spill way and took a lot of the fish with it. So we headed to blackheath for steak, chips and beer and got home around 10:30pm.

Ive been down there twice now, I went with guides. The first time we went to lake 4 springs and the second time to woods lake (tried arthurs first, but it was dead). Both times I hooked onto some very nice fish! All fishing was boat based, although at lake 4 springs you could walk all the way around it casting lures or flies.

Being a scientest myself, I feel the need to be a nerd and stick up fro the desk jockey. Most likley the results of fish tested got worse and worse the further you travel down the river. The line needs to be drawn somewere and most likley the decision was made based on a low likleyhood of the very bad fish making it as far up the river as the bridge. I would not have a problem taking a fish from cockatoo island out, provided that the fish fought well and looked healthy when I cleaned him. I think water quality at that point is not so important because as others say fish move around a lot. Further more, I use the silverwater rd boat ramp and I can guarentee you that the river there is pure filth. I even clean fish on my boat in the harbour before returning to the ramp. Cheers Daniel

Heaps better for Diawa, they wanted $120 for a replacement procaster tip, when the rod was two years old. The fluger rods are better and cheaper than just the tip of the procaster!

There have been bass in Parra lake, but various polution problems may or may not have wiped them out. Plus the lake is full of carp which would make life for the bass hard. Go down there and throw some plastic's and spinner baits around, see what happens? Just remember dont eat anything that comes out of that water!

Hi Aquaman Its a calcium battery. Ideally I would like one charger that I can hook all 4 batteries up to and then have them charged from a solar cell on the roof. Cheers Daniel

I have 4 batteries in my garage, 3x lead acide (2 in cars and 1 in boat for outboard) and 1 deep cycle for the electric. It occured to me the other day that this represents about $600 worth of batteries! I know to keep them alive I have to trickle charge them when not in use, but I also seem to remember that Deep cycle and Lead acid require different types of charging and maintance. What can other raiders suggest?

Seems more like ignition, based on the comming and going of revs. Is it running on all cylinders when the revs drop? If its a multi carbie engine, could be something like a sticky needle and seat in one, an inspection of spark plug color may help determin this.

I have had a bass hit a lure that was the same size as the fish! Depends on the species, although not an expert my feeling is that in salt it is not as critical as in fresh, but if the fish are feeding they will hit almost anything.

The basin can be a bit of a bummer with the little ones. I cant offer you much advice on shore based as I go in a boat, however I've been having success up wandandian creek of late. When I pull up to the shore and have some lunch there are vehicle tracks everywhere so mabey do a google maps search. Also I think the lagoon is accesable from sussexx inlet road, not shore though. Failing that, next time im there lets have a fish, Ive got a weekender on The park drive and am hoping for a fish weekend after next, although you'll have to tempt me from the Bass in Danjera dam first!

Hi All I am thinking of heading up to either Lake Llyel or Dunns Swamp for some boat based trout fishing on a Saturday arvo/evening. Can anyone tell me how the areas are fishing? Thanks Daniel

Thats my old boat! Good to see you got her back on the water, any dramas with the fitout?

Week ago after a Friday arvo fish in the Nepean we stoped at Wallacia pub for dinner. When we got back we found the cover on our tinnie had been un done and the screws on our electic were loose. Luckily all the gear was in the car and there was a pad lock around the electric...