zmk1962

Hey Raiders, As I mentioned in another post my wife (Maria) and I headed out looking for flatties on Saturday with good friends Glen and Sue on board. Launched at Bayview (nice ramp) around 7am and headed out through Pittwater. We had squid, plastics and a frozen skipjack from a previous expedition as bait. The skipjack was dropped into the burley pot to thaw out along the way. Tried a drift between Lion and Barrenjoey, but there was a biting cold NNE breeze so we moved over to Patonga and drifted around there for a while landing a keeper flathead, some chopper tailor and a yakka (kept as live bait). The breeze died down around 10am so we went out past Barrenjoey to the 30-35m grounds to find heaps of juvenile flathead hitting our baits and being a general nuisance - but after an hour or so we had landed another 2 keeper flatties and 2 octopus. So all was good, the seas were calm and we were all enjoying the beautiful warm still conditions. As Maria was bringing up yet another juvenile flathead she noticed a large fish circling the boat - turns out a nosy mako had joined us and he was very interested in the tuna frame in the burly pot. I didn't have any wire set up but managed to lay my hands on a rigged 200lb mono leader and clipped it to a 15kg outfit - and out went the live yakka. The Mako had a few looks at it, gave a couple of half hearted chases but generally appeared disinterested as if he could not be bothered to chase the yakka ! Glen came up with the idea to butterfly the yakka tail and so out it went again. BANG ! That little bit of blood and the Mako was on within seconds. Fortunately the hook had set in the corner of its jaw and our confidence grew that the mono was going to do the job. No aerials from him but he dove deep and after a bit of a fight we had him gaffed and tailed alongside. With a good feed in the bag, we headed back in to drift around Patonga and Flint and Steel where Sue landed a 55cm flattie to top the day off. What a great day - 4 flathead, 2 octopus and a 1.2m Mako! We went out for flatties but it just shows - always be prepared as you never know when THAT fish is going to show up. Lots of boats out and about. Hope other raiders were among them. Cheers Zoran

Hey Guys.... thanks for the input I will take it all onboard. I am also waiting for the manufacturer to revert with some data. Spotterone - the vendor is promoting 10m of chain with the 8mm rope... so I think the consensus is now to move away from the 5m of thicker shock leader and just deploy longer chain. But your experience is a good one to add to the mix. Thanks. Welster I can't agree with you more... that braid sure is strong and a b*stard to break when snagged... and as tempting as it is to spool 10+ kilometers of 50lb braid onto the anchor drum you haven't quite convinced me... he he he.... Cheers guys... and tight lines..... I am out looking for flatties around Barrenjoey this weekend. Zoran

Thanks Guys.... a friend of mine that used to work for MSB introduced me to that techique and I have used it a few times. It overcomes a few of the issues I mentioned above but also introduces others. The downside if this technique is that you have to have some type of container lying around the back of the boat to hold the rope and anchor(s) and when you are not anchoring it is just doing that - lying around the back of the boat taking up space while waiting to be used. Yes you can move it into the cabin out of the way but regardless I always had the fear that some newbie would stumble and fall impaling themselves on the reef pick prongs. Also maybe its just me, but I never found it as easy as you describe Rick - trying to idle up past the rope in calm water was a cinch, but in a chop I have drifted over the rope with the risk of fouling the prop etc etc. As I mentioned before in my experience no technique is perfect - its all a compromise. My main intention is to automate the typical anchoring I plan to do. In the event of the anchor fouling on a reef, the drum winch I am looking at has a 3.6T holding capacity at anchor - and at that rating it will probably rip the bow out before the winch lets go so I plan to have a weak link in the set up rated at well below that capacity to prevent just that. The other alternative is to tie off the rode onto the existing anchor bollard which will not be removed as part of the winch installation and pull the anchor up just as I do now. But again that manual intervention will only need to be done if the anchor fouls. Anyway we have drifted way off my original topic regarding peoples experience with different anchor ropes into discussing pro and cons of different anchoring techniques - I think someone else started a chat on that topic and maybe we should move the bulk of this dialog to that topic. PS - Thanks again guys....appreciate the different viewpoints... it helps me review what I am considering and make sure I have not missed anything in my analysis. Cheers Zoran

Sorry for the late reply guys... have been busy running my dear wife to the specialist. Thanks Fab and Rick - your advice is pretty much what I have had on board for many years 200m of 10mm (in 2 x 100m lengths). I also run a 14" buoy with one of those Whitworths s/s clips to get the anchor up. Its a great anchoring system in general and has suited me fine over the years as my preferred fishing has been on the drift, or trolling out wide so very infrequent anchoring. However, my wife is starting to accompany me more an more (which is a good thing) and she does like to bottom bash - flatties, snapper etc. To me fishing is fishing so I am cool with it and very happy we are out on the water together. So facing more frequent anchoring, I have to admit my Haines 635 design is not conducive to manual anchoring. It's generally not a pleasant experience especially in cold damp weather. The hatch is awkward to get to in a swell, I have to stand up through the hatch on two foam covered bunk beds (unsteady in a swell) and I have to feed wet or wet and muddy rope into a 6 inch wide gap between the hatch opening and the anchor well....trying to keep balance, not lose fingers when the anchor snags and not to get myself and the interior cabin wet and muddy. I am also getting older, getting a bit of arthritis in the fingers and would prefer to preserve them for my guitar playing rather than anchor rope handling. Even 100m of slack rope floating on a buoy is not an insignificant effort. It takes time. Change locations 2-3 times and it becomes a burden. Looking ahead most of our anchoring will be in estuary conditions (<25m depth) or on the offshore 30-60m flathead, snapper grounds in reasonable weather. (I am not a fan and never have anchored in close to the rock faces - I see many folks do it - and GOOD LUCK to them - no fish is worth it in my opinion - in those conditions I have one eye to the sea and my 200hp purring and ready to face any rouge wave I see coming in). So I am mainly after automated anchoring for my typical requirements (for emergencies I can always carry an extra 100m of rope and have a shackle arrangement that allows me to disconnect the drum and easily connect the extra 100m if I need it just like I do now.) I have chatted to a number of Fishraiders about winches and drum systems and their experiences. I have settled on a drum configuration that will fit in my anchor well and have also located someone with the same boat and same drum winch installed - so I know it fits and works in my rig. So to me it comes back to choice of anchor rope. Jocler has an interesting angle on using double braid to increase breaking strain but I have to consider the abrasion resistance factor of 8mm vs 10mm... I'll make a few more inquiries down this line. As with everything in boating without unlimited budget - its all a compromise. The main thing is stay aware of what you have installed and its intended purpose and stay within the safe operating limits of your gear. eg If I do go down 8mm rope path I certainly would not have an expectation to be able to anchor off Sydney heads in a swell or anchor on a reef out wide over night ! However, I would not see anchoring at Hawkesbury's Flint and Steel on an incoming tide as a significant issue. Thanks again everyone. Cheers Zoran

Hey Raiders, I am about to upgrade the anchoring system on my Haines 635L (6-7m fiberglass hull) and will be installing a drum winch system. I have a choice of rope that will suit the winch I am interested in: 8mmx130m 1350kg breaking or 10mmx95m 1900kg breaking I have no experience with an 8mm rope on my rig - I feel it would be way to thin to use manually all the time and I have used 10mm rope up until now. But with the winch I would prefer the extra length of the 8mm and was wondering what the Fishraider experience was regarding using 1350kg vs 1900kg breaking strain for my 6-7m fibreglass rig? What diameter rope do you guys use with what rig? Thanks Team. Cheers Zoran

Excellent job ! ... hope he invites you for a barbie after all that. Cheers Zoran

I use a dropper loop. Have used it from 15lb-200lb mono and it has done the job for me. http://www.netknots.com/fishing_knots/dropper-loop Cheers Zoran

The picture shows my live tank and bait board set up. Although my boat is bigger there are several similarities - take what you can from what I found works for me .... I too have found you do not need to go for more than 30L for serviceable live bait tank. In my set up there is a 360GPH rule pump under the pod/marlin board fitted onto a stainless scoop water pickup. I drilled the marlin board and put a thru-skin fitting fitted with a standard male hose connection on top of the marlin board accessible from the stern. The pump/pickup feeds water up through the marlin board both underway and at rest for : 1) the live bait tank, 2) the hand wash tap on the bait board and 3) the deck wash (not high pressure but does the job). The live bait tank is a 35L kitchen rubbish bin with flip top - it lasts about 5yrs - then I get a new one. All the fittings are from Bunnings (mainly irrigation line or rainwater water tank plastic fittings) and they get re-used every time I need to replace the bin. I feed the live tank at the bottom through a non return check valve and it empties near the top. All the crap the bait fish bring up gets flushed out. On slow fishing days it has kept 10-12 baitfish alive all day. I have found you don't need to go to the expense of an esky to keep the baitfish cool as long as you run plenty of fresh clean water through. The bait board is made from larger kitchen cutting boards - sourced at the local catering supplies. It hinges upward, so frozen bait is stored in a plastic container that fits snug in the compartment underneath. There is a recessed sink drain and large 2" plastic hose that carries liquid and cuttings over the side (In addition to keeping the baitboard clean, I have found this very useful when cubing - once you have cut your pile of cubes, just use the knife to flick them into the drain and out they go - eliminates dirty hands on my rod grips and reels). Also on the cutting board is the electrical switch for the 360GPH pump and another switch for a red side light that is used to light up the cutting board at night. There are 3 irrigation taps to direct the water flow. The cutting board is removable and clips onto my stern/trasom by heavy shockcord. The hoses all attach via standard hose fittings etc etc. There is a multi-pin electrical connector that makes wiring connection/disconnection a breeze. I made this cutting board in1998 and its still going strong. Since then I have had to replace the pump once and have gone through several bins, shock cords and hose fittings through normal wear and tear. Anyway, hope some of the above helps you as you design your set up. Cheers Zoran

No personal experience... but I can see how some may be "fans" of this approach... lol

Thanks for the confirmation.... will start drift at 30m-40m mark.... much appreciated.

Yup have to agree... but when you have all that distance to cover you might as well fish along the way (troll). And don't get me wrong nothing wrong with the flathead !... I frequently target them. The drift was meant to recover pride by putting some flatties into the ice box before having to front the missus and explain the 1/2 day before spent prepping the boat and gear, the full day on the water and the 1/2 day to be spent the next day washing down everything...with just a morwong to show for it between four blokes. I wish it was just the fuel! But that's fishing .... Anyway, the good part of all this is my missus enjoyed how I cooked the morwong ....AND now wants to come out around May 12th specifically to target flatties and show me how its done ! How goods that ! BTW - thanks for the tip re starting drift at 30m.... I will give it a go for sure. Cheers Zoran

Awesome ! and great sport with the family there. Congratulations. After my miserable effort on Sunday I am so glad you landed "scale" on Monday.... makes me want to go out again. Cheers

Same happened to mine on an iPhone5 and I did not update to IOS 10.3...I suspect its the Marine Rescue App update not the IOS update. Anyway, I deleted the app and re-installed (go to App Store purchased items and re-download) - that fixed it for me. Cheers Zoran

G'day Raiders, With the extra calm weather predicted for Sunday I mustered a crew with the plan of hitting Browns Mountain early morning and then working our way back in to 12mile and the closer Sydney reefs. Well got to browns about 7-730am, absolutely beautiful conditions - calm seas, slight breeze, blue water (23.6C) all around. There was a flotilla of craft out there at least 30+ all shapes and sizes. Most were deep dropping although there was one large cruiser doing the troll rounds. Anyway, baited up the lumo deep drop rigs with whole squid and skipjack strips - sent them down for a drift at each of the marks - first tried East, then South and finally North marks. Did it twice. Doughnuts !!! The baits and lumo squid skirts did come up a bit worse for wear - looked like Nannygai type bites but must have been small stuff. There was a 2-3kmh southerly current. We had one deep drop rig (old school Alvey Reef King), and another cubing rig (baited with a skipjack strip) in play. Doughnuts and Doughnuts. Didn't see anyone landing anything around us - maybe if there were other raiders there they can share their report. Around 930am we pulled in the gear and put out a trolling pattern of 4 skirts and a teaser shotgun. Did a wide round of Browns and then headed for 12mile. 10km on the water got calmer and glassy - still 23-24C - we switched to hard bodies with lots of action - trolled all the way to 12mile. Doughnuts again. Scouted 12mile with the sounder - no bait balls - nothing. So upped stumps and raced in to the Sydney reefs and flathead grounds to salvage some pride with the "flathead drifts of shame". Dropped down a paternoster at Obelisk and up came a 40cm morwong (well thats one dinner at least). The other 3 crew scored a 10cm Sergeant Baker between them. Upped stumps again and moved to Leads Inner - doughnuts. Moved to the 60-80m flat head drifts - doughnuts. So there you have it - absolutely perfect weather conditions - good mates on board - about 130km of water covered - and just one 40cm morwong to show for it. As the song goes - "some days are diamonds some days are stone" ... Cheers Zoran

Yep some movement is expected... for some reason it seemed more than normal... Thanks guys. Back in my box !

Hi Raiders, Following washdown after a trip offshore I usually do a basic check of my outboard - steering links, tilt, props etc. Yesterday I noticed there was some free play on my prop shaft (about 1/8in). Seems to be more than I recall previously so though I'd pose the question here - what is an acceptable amount of prop shaft free play? The free play is in/out. There is no free play side to side. The motor is a 200HP Mercury Salt Water series with 260hrs on the clock. Not sure how to attach videos here ... but here is a link to a short YouTube clip https://youtu.be/_N7aXU1avX8 Thanks Zoran

Like others have said... Wow! ....so sad. Felt like a kick in the guts when I read this but I can wholly relate to the effort Donna and Stewy have put in. THANK YOU for carrying us all this long. I sincerely hope you guys take that long earned break and catch more fish! BTW, because of the standard you set this was the only site I joined, read and contributed to over the years. I wish you well.

Ok ...have been in further dialog with Navionics and Lowrance(Eagle)....so just to wrap up this topic from my perspective.... Given there is some doubt re Eagle 642 support of Sonar Charts (Lawrence says yes, Navionics says no) and the fact my trusty Eagle can only support a 1gb SD card…and also looking at the overall cost of upgrading Navionics Gold to add Sonarchart (the Navionics upgrade would effectively extract one region say Sydney - Melb from the full XL9 maps trade in and add Sonar for that region on a 1GB SD for $126 upgrade fee). It seems to me that my most economic route by far is to dedicate my Eagle 642 to be just the fish finder/sounder (of course it can be a backup GPS with the Gold navigation charts already in there), and move my main GPS navigation requirements to my iPad mini. Given I already have the iPad and Navionics AU&NZ with Sonarcharts, the total investment required would be a waterproof case and a sturdy bracket. Guess that's the path I am on. Anyone have any recommendations for waterproof iPad mini cases and brackets? Cheers Zoran

MV Sunray... what model lowrance ??

ha... love it "fish&chip" mode - sounds like a setting that should be on a microwave oven!.... if you can take a shot of the hummingbird settings screen and post that, it will give me a place to start looking for a similar setting on mine (I have posted mine above and cant see anything like that)... but I think we have our answer from Navionics above...

Hey Radiers.... I have been chasing this with Navionics as well and it looks like a Navionics Gold XL9 issue - ie that level of contour mapping is not on the nautical charts supplied as part of Navionics Gold. That level of details is supplied as Sonar Charts which are displayed on the iPhone/iPad apps...and can be purchased as upgrades (but you have to check if your GPS unit can handle Sonar Charts). Here is the response from Navionics --- Hi Zoran, The charts you see on Navionics App is the same as the charts on current Nav+ and Platinum+ cards. They are nautical and sonar charts. Your Gold card is year 2008 card, the data is old and it only contains nautical charts. You can update it to current 50XG at $185. The new 50XG covers AUS & NZ, and has one year Freshest Data. The Eagle 642 unit only can read nautical charts, not sonar charts. Regards, Customer Service Australia, NZ & Asia I'm now checking with Lowrance whether my Eagle 642 can handle sonar charts.... if not guess its going to become the dedicated Sounder (and backup GPS) and the nvigation GPS will be on my mini-iPad once I source a waterproof case and mount. Keep you posted. Cheers Zoran

I designed the overall hardtop shape, dimensions and angles of screens...then worked with a local guy who has this type of business and who did the majority of the construction and modification of the existing s/s framework (we reused as much as possible of the existing framework). Some jobs like installation of the glass and wiper motors were 2 man jobs (so I was the apprentice) and then I did all the re-wiring and installation of washer bottles etc on my own. Another local guy did the new clears and storm cover. The hardtop and full glass screen have made a HUGE difference in terms of comfort....should have done it sooner! Cheers Zoran

Thanks Short... good to know.

Thanks rick... checked that before I posted... should have mentioned that apologies... I have added below screen shots of my settings menus - you can see for Navionics>Depth Contours are selected. ..and I have also shown a shot of the Sydney Heads display - which shows the general contours are shown....so I think my settings are set correctly to display contours. I guess that narrows my question down to... do the Navionics Gold XL9 charts have the level of contour detail that iPhone Navionics displays or is it that my Eagle sounder just cant display that detail... So if anyone has Navionics Gold XL9 installed I'd really appreciate if they select 12mile (S33.55.662 E151.28.484 ) and post a shot of what they see on their GPS unit. Thanks... Zoran

Hey Raiders, I am running Navionics Gold XL9 charts in my Eagle Seacharter 642CF (GPS/Sounder). I seem to have lost a lot of bottom detail or maybe it just wasn't there and I have a poor memory - so wondering if anyone else that has Navionics Gold XL9 could share a screen shot of what they are seeing - say for 12mile. I need to determine if something has gone wrong with my Navionics Gold SD card, or my Eagle Seacharter....(or memory!) 1st is a picture of what I see on my Navionics Gold XL9 with Eagle Seacharter 642CF for 12mile (ignore the purple lines thats my track marks not contours). 2nd is what I see on my iPhone running Navionics AU&NZ for 12mile (basically a lot more detail). What are other Raiders seeing using Navionics Gold XL9 on their GPS unit? Thanks for the help team. Cheers Zoran