zmk1962

Thanks Rob the new rig is everything we had hoped it would be. 😂 Maria was chuffed - especially since I was leading the score 4-0 before she trumped me with one fish. It’s always satisfying when a plan comes together. Tight lines. Z

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GUYS .... you are peeking at my PLAYLIST I swear .... but if you are starting back in 70's .... here's some that I see missing off the top of my head .. TMG - Jump in my car (which bloke got their first car in the 70-80s and was NOT playing this song ...) Dave Edmunds - I hear you knockin' Daddy Cool - Eagle Rock, Come back again Sky Hooks - living in the 70s, all my friends are getting married, ego is not a dirty word, women in uniform, horror movie Radiators - Coming home, ... and what was their other famous song GIMME H??? ... .... Crowded House - they were Split Enz (NZ) but add them to Oz coz you have Dragon there. Have to go out but will add more ... you are talking to someone here who was a barman in the 80's ... hahaha Cheers Zoran

Sorry Jon ... I don't fish that far so I have not needed to test the paid versions at that level. From memory there was a free trial period before they started the subscription.... I just checked and it's still there but you have to sign up thru the website not the App. Maybe jump into a trial period and see if it will do what you need. https://support.fishtrack.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002621252-How-do-I-sign-up-for-Premium-#:~:text=You can sign up through,through either of our apps!&text=1) Click here to start,billed for an annual membership. Personally, I could not justify the subscription cost of FishTrack (I'm not a pro) and I found the BOM site above good enough for my needs. Best of luck with it. Cheers Z

Thanks Chris. 😂 … it’s a nice problem to have…for the short trip from the boat in the driveway to the side patio where I clean them. cheers Zoran

IMO the best data is the one that is based on your sounder brand (and model). What are you running? cheers Zoran

If I could double like I would! Doesn’t get better than that enjoying the outdoors with family and friends with a catch to boot. @Larkin shared the bigger kings were playing at 12mile on Thursday- that’s fishing I guess .. a day makes all the difference. But you’ll never know unless you give it a go. We live in gods country and need to fight to keep it that way. Thanks for posting. cheers Zoran

Does this help Jon? Press the play symbol (top right) and it shows the flow and direction. Good enough to predict where it is going in the next few days http://www.bom.gov.au/oceanography/forecasts/idyoc300.shtml?region=NSW&forecast=SST# cheers Zoran

Having been a hand spear fisherman in my youth those photos reminded me why I stopped - it was a day just like that when 3 of us were hustled out of the water at Clovelly by a too inquisitive shark, appearing out of the murk and swimming between us several times. Double hats off to you Jon - conditions and water temp. ps - you can tell this was a long while ago- no spearfishing in that area now. cheers Zoran

Well I can certainly conjecture that whatever that mineseeker was playing off barrenjoey was not liked by the flattie population - but loved by shovel nose and banjo rays - two trips worth of statistics to contribute there. 🤓🤟🤟🤟

Nicely done Bob and crew… you are the kings master and congratulations to you and Rosie… I know how much effort you both put in! Give her a big pat from me. When are you heading to WA? cheers Zoran

🤔 I’m still not sure if it dropped off … or you threw it away once you saw it’s pretty fang filled face … I may have to revisit that video footage 👍. But I did donate the other gem, which I caught, to you for being such a good sport … and I was surprised you accepted coz it was caught with a plastic lumo squid. 😂 Yes they are a nice target fish for sure. Be careful where your bucket list desires lead you … you may just end up with a heavy offshore rig and on a never ending quest for the next one 🙄🤣 Cheers Rob. Hahaha… yes it’s definitely better to pick the days based on conditions than to just go out on the day you have free. There will be other times. All music was played at a moderate volume I assure you. 😜 cheers Zoran

Thanks BN ... the last minute decision paid off and I am already looking forward to the next Gem dinner. The new rig ""devOcean" is proving itself a worthy upgrade to "Barrycuda" and has met and even exceeded many expectations. This is the widest we've taken her so far and we're both certainly not tiring of embarking on more adventures. Would a fish survive ? - well hapuka, bar cod, blue eye etc wouldn't - they fight hard up until the 100m mark then become progressively weaker as they succumb to barotrauma - they come up belly first and are very docile. Gems on the other hand fight right to the surface and still have a lot of kick in them - they will even lash out at hands and fingers - their belly swells and the bigger ones are on their back - but I have lost quite a few from a violent head shake right at the boat (ask @Yowie) and those ones head straight down into the depths. One raider has told me he has experimented sending live yakkas down and they have come back up still kicking. I guess it depends on the fish. Cheers Zoran

Thanks LF ... I try to re-use everything on the boat so that it minimises the carry on gear. The pole is just the boat hook we use to pull up to a wharf or mooring. The deep drop gear is a bit specialised but I've been hooked on that style of fishing for a while so when putting together devOcean's specs the requirements (wiring anderson plug connections, rod holder orientation etc etc) were definitely included in the design. We always carry a long gaff (for toothy critters) and a short one which I find a lot easier to manage. 🤢 Hahaha ... it takes a few trips to get your sea legs for sure. Maria's just got hers back... the last three trips for her have been a little trying but she has persevered - you'll notice she was munching on crackers and stuff. I find that helps a lot. ... and she is absolutely cured once the fish bite starts or there is a hookup. I'm sure you'd be the same. Cheers Zoran

Thanks ... yup think I cracked the cooking code for gems ... they're back on the menu 🤣 Thanks ... very happy with the result for few sunny hours spent on the water. Hey Chris ... well as we powered past 12mile at around 9am I could see a congregation of vessels - which is always a good sign - and I was seriously tempted to stop. But I had not tried all the electronics and deep drop gear on devOcean and this was really the first opportunity, so I decided to stick with the plan and fortunately it paid off. Otherwise I'd be seriously P!$%$D 🤪. Thanks for the intel. Thanks ... It was a beaut day. Saw a whale fully breech just to the south of Browns and a huge pod of dolphins came around us both on the way out and back ... just great! Cheers Jon ... well I had this predisposition about eating gems and as you know two is an individual bag limit and my first drop had a double gem when I was hoping for a blue eye ... so I wouldn't have been too disappointed if a mako took the other one while I was dealing with the first 🫣 ... I also realised I need to shorten all my deep drop rigs. The lengths I had worked really well with Barrycuda because it was always drifting and hence the lines were kept pulled straight ... but being spotlocked into place I found there was too much loose line. So I was "learning" as I was going with the first deep drop session on devOcean. BTW, I was much quicker in getting the fish out after that first drop. And YES... I'm very familiar with line around the prop possibility with Fishpoint. Since experiencing that I have made a harness so I can lean out and clear the prop WITHOUT going in the drink! Correct, we were fishing the southern side of the mount. There are actually two mounts there with peaks at around 360m and we fished the canyon between them at around 470m deep. You win the bragging rights about spending time in 14C water ... I'll leave that to a young man such as yourself. Thanks Dave ... yes M was very chuffed as you can see in the video. ... we've had 3 meals so far ... one with extended family and still heaps to go. The family and friends bookings are coming in fast for this week 🤔 Cheers Zoran

I second everything Noel has said. . Wayno and I were desperate one day fishing for flatties but all we caught were Banjos and Shovels ... so we decided the next thing we catch we will give a go on the chew. Sure enough up came a 4ft Banjo and a 3ft Shovel. They were both a real pain to skin.... and without the head they do not leave a lot of fish. Banjo definitely had more blood meat. We filleted both and each took a banjo and shovel fillet ... cubed and battered as fish cocktails ... they were not too bad (banjo being more fishy) both being edible ... but honestly when you consider how little yield you get, the effort required to skin/prepare and the fact they are prone to accumulate mercury - so you really should not eat a lot ..... they are just not worth it. Cheers Zoran

Hey Raiders, Since the "One of These Days" adventure - which was a wintery, cold, and rainy event that Rob @Madkanu kindly wrote up, I've been somewhat hesitant to push Maria for another winter offshore trip. But the conditions last Thursday 13.07.2023 were just too good to pass up. So a very late plan was hatched on Wednesday afternoon to head to Browns Mountain 40km SE off Sydney Heads to fish the continental shelf for deep drop ooglies. We had frozen Lunds squid, pillies and some tailor fillets on board. The plan was to head to Browns first and if the action was slow, then work our way back past 12mile (kings?) and on to the flattie drift grounds until we had a decent catch. Come Thursday we even had a relaxed, gentleman hours 7am launch from an amazingly quiet Ermo (Warf Rd) boat ramp.... ( and yes the Asian chap had just finished his morning swim as we were launching 🥶 🤪). Once in the water the sounder indicated the water temp was a brisk 14C. Dashed up the harbour to middle head, burleyed hard and tried for yakkas - nothing, zip - it was a desert. We settled there would be no livies to fall back on and pushed on. Here's the video log of the rest of the day. Some stats for anyone planning to head out. Water temp at the shelf was around 17C, there was an Easterly drift and the underlying current was slow. The Yam Helm Master Fishpoint handled the conditions with ease, holding us within 5m of the set position for over 3hrs. So the final score was 4 gems and 1 blue eye. Maria's PB at 70cm and 10kg. No need to stop at 12mile or the flattie drifts with lots of tasty meals assured with this bag. Thanks for reading. Cheers Zoran PS - In the past I had posted that I was not a fan of gemmies (hake) on the plate - I always found them too soft and oily done on the BBQ or just shallow pan fried ... but I was determined to find a way to cook them. So I went to basics (remembering BirdsEye fish fingers and fillets were hake) and lightly coated a few fillets in tempura batter before rolling them through panko crumbs. Fried in hot olive oil with one garlic clove, the gemmie firmed up, stayed moist and was just delish ! I am now a big big fan.

Excellent report Jim … my last two trips have resulted in no bluespot as well - think we need to wait for slightly warmer water. You seem to have had great conditions and a very enjoyable day on the water after the long hiatus. Re: muffs - they would have restricted water flow definitely- maybe there is a thermal sensor that activates a limp mode to reduce risk of overheating - I don’t have the yam150 to check the manual so just a guess. cheers Zoran

Looks the goods. Just FYI, looking at your circuit diagram, I would add a master fuse between the +ve busbar and the battery +ve. Just to protect everything in case of any short between the busbar and the negative side of the circuit. This fuse should be rated to carry the total Amp load of all devices/switches turned on, but less than the Amp capacity of the cables between the busbars and battery terminals. cheers Zoran

Well it may have been a quickie but I bet it was satisfying !! I guess no way of avoiding the crays - that little eddy you found would have been a sanctuary for many critters. cheers Zoran

If it pumps fine then you’re on the right track to solve getting water to it. Way back in the day my 40hp johnno used round rubber muffs feeding water from one side and it worked just fine. I may still have a set lying around - where do you live? With all muffs I’ve had I have had to bend the metal spring arms to provide better compression. Use a vice or just stand on them to close the arms. cheers Z

I use the same muffs as XD mentioned above (on a much bigger motor) and they do work. I have had them break where the plastic tubes connect to the flex tubes ... but that was easily fixed by shoving a 3-way hose connector into the flex tubes and securing with cable ties. It's now worked well for years. But one thing to watch for, is that you should not be relying on hose water pressure to flush the motor. The hose and cups really just need to supply enough water to simulate having the impeller immersed .... and its the impeller that should be generating enough suction and pump head to drive the water through the motor for cooling. If that's not happening then your impeller may be worn and it may be time for a replacement and pump service. Do you get good water flow out of the tell tale on the water?? If you dont recall then perhaps test it at home by immersing the lower leg in a bucket of water and then run the motor ... if you are not getting a good tell tale flow then your pump is cactus. Cheers Zoran

Excellent catch Chris - beats my efforts of last week hands down 😞 cheers Zoran

Nicely done Dave. A couple of feeds there 👍 cheers Zoran

Excellent catch. You’ll enjoy those ! cheers Zoran