zmk1962

Thanks Chris ... yup nothing like a bit of the washing machine to stir things up 🤢 hahaha Thanks Isaac ... can't complain ... a blessing that made the trip entirely worth it. Thanks Guinness, We were fishing with two outfits both 7ft. One had a Penn 750 SSM, and the other a Penn 6500 SSVi. I think you could do it with a 4500 size letting the fish play out, but generally it would be on the tad small size for the stuff we encounter offshore - especially with a hot bite when you want to get them in ASAP before they spook the rest of the school or the tax man shows up. Thanks Neil, Yes dollies are delicious and they seem to cook up well in various styles. I've had them as cubes in tacos, fried like flattie fillets, in a green curry - they never disappoint on the plate. Thanks for your kind words re the Cruisecraft. It is everything I had hoped it would be. Thanks Rob, it was one of those days where reality did not match forecast... but it looks like it may have played to our advantage. Can't complain. Cheers Z

Hi Frank ... I second what Jason said above. The girls have come up from Melbourne so my next few weeks are full but I'll reach out and pop around after that. All the best mate. Cheers Z

Thanks Jason .... once on the water I guess you keep going .. as long as it's safe to do so. Getting wet or bopped around is just a part of offshore fishing. Thanks Bruce ... Yes surprisingly warm. I watched a similar current on the forecast a few weeks back when Jason and I headed out to Syndey N FAD ... but the forecast didn't eventuate on the water at all with a max that day just below 22C from memory. Hahaha ... nothing wrong with rock 'n' roll at any volume ... but when it's underfoot with a big fish on and another on the deck it really gets interesting 🙂. We'll have to wait for Gil to report on the Alfonsino ... but judging by the pic below he was pretty happy with how the day went. Cheers Z

Hey Raiders, It's taken a bit longer than I wanted to find time to write up this report but here it is. Forecast for Monday 15.03.2024 showed great offshore conditions - infact ideal for a trip out to Browns. I had Gilford pre-arranged as crew (the man that first took me to Browns way back in the 90s) so it was all systems go for a 5am Launch from Ermo ramp. As I reported on the last few previous trips, there has been very poor visibility on early morning starts with cold, misty and moist conditions. Part of the problem was the condensation that formed on the plate glass screens... so in the two weeks since the last trip, I purchased and installed two windscreen heaters/demisters. They're mounted with industrial velcro so easily removable. The plan was to turn them on when leaving home and hopefully by the team we hit the ramp the windscreens will be clear. This was their maiden run. Well, happy to report they worked like a treat. Arrived at Ermo ramp at 5am with clear dry screens - problem solved. The plan was to fill up with yakkas at Balmoral and then hit the FADs and 12mile before heading on to Browns. Although the Yakkas were plentiful they were very shy .. it was a bit of struggle but we managed to put 30 in the tank and were racing out the heads just on dawn. Conditions offshore were ANYTHING but the forecast. No 7kts breeze... more like 15kts. No 2ft swell ... more like 4ft with white caps and a short interval. But the water temp was a surprisingly warm 24.3C. We bashed our way to be first at the FAD and boy were we glad we had the yakkas ... the dollies were ready to play. Check the angle of the boat ... rock and roll conditions ! But the dollies were on fire .... Fish of the day ... just a tad over 1m Then as quickly as they came the dollies were gone .... but we had 15 in the kill tank chilling on ice ! We left the FAD without seeing another boat. Given the conditions we contemplated the next step and decided to punch on ... hit 12mile to find a charter and group of boats drifting ... the crew on a 23ft Carribean had rods bent over so we stuck around to see the catch - 2 undersized kings. We dropped some pillies, but they were being picked off super quick and with the current running pretty hard we decided to head to Browns. We found one other boat at Browns .. it was not pleasant there at all. In went the deep drop rigs ... and up comes an Alfonsino .... Gil shows he's still the Brown's master ... The action was slow but we stuck around for a while adding 3 more gemmies to Gil's tally .... making him Brown's Grand Master ... before deciding to point devOcean west for the 65km trip to Ermo. Final count for the day 15 dollies, 1 alfonsino and 3 gemmies. An absolute mixed bag of a day weather wise and fish wise but what a great adventure to share with a good mate. I finally finished cleaning the rig, rods, gear and fish at 3am ( a few whiskeys were required to see me through that) but the reward was superb ...My share of the dollies came to exactly 10kg of skinned and deboned dollie fillets. What a blessing as we have several birthday celebrations coming up in the next 3 weeks - I know what will be on the menu !!!! Gil messaged me the next day that he had a similar yield ... way to go! Tight lines Raiders ... Cheers Zoran

The mystery continues .... hope the jewie spot works out ! Cheers Z

Hi Albert .... I'm sure the guy you met was a fantastic, upstanding, top bloke .... us Zoran's are like that .... but mate I'm sorry it was not me! Sunday I was no where near botany....I was packing my boat for an offshore session on Monday ! Cheers ... "the" zmk1962 ZORAN

Interesting @JonD - they are just as delicious at that size although obviously the yield is much better from bigger specimens. Ours were caught in 430m just at the edge of the mount. You are an expert with offshore boating Jon so I am not surprised you are stretching your boat's legs far an wide. Exploring different prop pairings with a motor and hull certainly has its advantages. Did you keep the same diameter when moving to the 15p? When I repowered the Haines I settled on a 17p as that gave me 4sec hole shot and great top end with little slip which I was very happy with. The new owner of the Haines messaged me that he dropped it down to a "tuned" 15p and his hole shot now was 2.5sec which I guess was important to him...it would certainly make the boat more responsive at lower rpm. I've left the Cruisecraft Yam300 with the 18p Saltwater II that it came with, but I have been tweaking the zipwakes. I’ve now covered 997km on the water over varying conditions and found the default curve was too aggressive on pitch control in a short chop and would drive the bow down (slap) on the back of the wave. I manually edited it ... which improved the pitch aspects but stuffed the roll control. So I entered slightly different hull parameters (length beam weight) and allowed the zips to recalculate the curve and now she rides sweet ... its dialled in for me and made a big difference on the return trip. Now hoping to get another outing in the coming week. Cheers Zoran

Perhaps 🤔 this post needs a subject name change - Which raider is the most competitive…? Enjoy Z 🤷🏻‍♂️

Yup … I guess if you dangle enough hooks long enough something is bound to run into them 🤣

Nicely done Dave. I had a trip planned for yesterday but canned it - just didn’t want to face all the flotsam in the rivers. Hey, maybe the fish jumped on your hooks - they didn’t want to be in the brown muck either 🤣. cheers Zoran

I’m with Noel- if it passes a thorough mechanical check (compression, charging system, oil pump, fuel delivery etc) it should be ok. I ran with a 2st Saltwater EFI Merc for over 21yrs. What prompted me to eventually part with a fully functional motor - concern over availability of parts. If you have the model number ring a few suppliers and check on the availability of the annual service parts - impellers, seals, fuel pumps, poppet valves etc. You can also source from overseas but then you have downtime while you wait. If the regular parts check out ok, then consider sourcing a more critical item eg ECU, high pressure fuel pump and check availability of those. In my case I had one failure with the motor in 21yrs - and needed to replace the flywheel- my mechanic found one - the last one in country $$. There were no Merc ECUs - although one company in US sold their own branded ECUs tuned for racing for pretty $$$$. That was my call to action on a new motor - if there was another critical failure the motor was junk or parts - worth much less then if I sold it while still working. So if you like the hull, consider the 115 as an interim motor even if it checks out - and factor in your ownership budget an engine replacement in near future. cheers Zoran

This item is no longer available… gone to a new home. Cheers Z

Do you rent Swordie out Donna?

Nice write up Mike. You gave it a good shot. Some fishing days are like that…you just go through the motions - I’m told golf is always like that 🤪. I look forward to seeing some of your creations and your analysis of how they perform. BTW have you submitted the Halco Roosta Popper as a FR record? … it’s a worthy catch on rod and reel. The approval might take some time though - I’m still hopeful my mega SP caught at Discount Reef gets approved. cheers Zoran

Hi @DrRaymondSnapper fantastic to have someone with your skills on board ... please feel free to pitch in on other stingy topics ... like what's the best recommendation re flathead spikes, rock cod spikes etc. Regarding Blue Bottles and vinegar interesting. I appreciate recommendations change. I mentioned vinegar treatment as that was how I was treated by the Surf Life Savers back in the 80's as a young body boarder with a blue bottle on his back - ouch. Since I did feel relief then, and I have used it subsequently when a crew member who had some wrapped around his fingers I thought I'd do a quick google to see why it was removed. You are correct Hot Water is recommended (so I will now up my thermos of black Tea from the 500ml to the 1L size - just in case)... BUT interestingly vinegar is back on the recommended list ahead of the hot water application. Appreciate if you would have a read of this and give us your considered opinion: https://activehandtherapy.com.au/news/treatment-of-bluebottle-stings/ Many Thanks Zoran

Outstanding result Tarik! ... way to go. There are few experiences in life like hooking up big ... fishing the deep drops ... look forward to the video. Cheers Zoran

Oh dear ... reading this has brought back so many bad memories ... 6yrs ago lost the rear lawn to army worms .... they marched through neighbours property to mine from left to right ... they march in a straight line ... how do I know - we have a pool inbetween and they marched straight into it ... millions didn't make the channel crossing YUK! The ones that went along the sides hit the lawn and kept going - in a straight line. Took ages to eradicate them and regrow the lawn. Then came the curl grubs (strangely they appeared after I had topped up our vege patch with 2 cubic meters of garden mix from F Power). First came the circles on the lawn (crop circles 😱) which I jumped on pretty quickly with the army worm deterrent, but that must have driven them deep because they re-appeard having discovered the golf ball shrubs .... I pull up a dead plant and sure enough 3-4 curl grubs entangled in the roots....they wiped out 30 in the back yard and 18 in the front .. I guess they were a delicacy at $15ea !!! Now and for the past three years I have been waging WW III .... against bronze orange bugs (stink bugs) which have invaded my citrus plants - the lemon, the kaffir lime, the lime, the orange and the mandarin tree have all been attacked. The lemon is totally trashed - I have no idea how it is surviving. These devil spawn bugs have appeared ever since the neighbour behind me planted fast growing "insect resistant" lilly pilly bush things along the entire back fence as a privacy screen. Aaargh. We've had many battles ... which sadly they have won (we lost all our citrus crop last year) ... but this year I am infront thanks to Richgrow Beat-a-Bug and a sprayer I modified to enable me to reach the tree tops and the underside of the foliage (I know spraying is bad ... but there is NO natural defence against these abominations... I have consulted many a specialist). I am down to a few that come out in the morning ... but they are BREEDERS ... so I have to keep at it till the cycle is broken. Cheers and may the force be with you all. Zoran

Yup. Blue bottle tentacles. I keep a small bottle of white vinegar on board. It helps neutralize the stingers. cheers Zoran

I’ve seen many people fishing up from the Spit Bridge and have not heard of any issues. DPI has issued the below advice for Sydney Harbour with warnings for fish west of the Harbour Bridge and general advice for fish east of the bridge which would cover middle harbour I guess … https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fishing/recreational/fishing-skills/fishing-in-sydney-harbour Are you concerned about anything specific you have heard? Cheers Zoran

That’s fishing I guess…but I bet that first cast felt sooo gooood after the wait! Enjoy and best of luck for the season. cheers Zoran

I guess that's fishing BN ! .... Out of curiosity, did you take the franks in one bite ... or exercise a more cautious technique ? 😁 Cheers Z

I keep thinking of the huge bar cod the lad was trying to show us ... perhaps its cuz! Are you referring to the midship bollard on the boat? I've found that very practical and a huge time saver. Sinker wise yes I'm ready but I still have to top up some braid on Tanacoms and recalibrate the line out meters (see link below) - probably tomorrow afternoon - and then sort out aligning crew calendars to conditions forecast 🤣 ... keep your's updated if your interested ?? https://community.deckee.com/topic/90913-daiwa-tanacom-and-tanacom-bull-line-spooling-and-calibration/

Thanks Bob ... blue eye is certainly up there with the best ... that deep ocean perch was also a treat ... more like lobster. We have to get those calendars aligned buddy. Cheers Z

Thanks Jason ... yup can't complain about that feed and the conditions were to forecast - I also tweaked the Zipwake curves since you were out last - couldn't be happier with the ride now. Whatever the snagged fish was - it was big - it bent that rod, took the rig down (approx 18kg drag) and that was that ... yup frustrating. I loosened the drag off and left slack line several time hoping it would swim away clear but no luck .... aaargh. I also just finished replenishing the sinker stock with the spare lead at home - thank you again !! (we lost 5 on the day - 3 to toads and 2 to snags) ... BUT THAT'S FISHING !!!

Me too.. but just sharing a fact. Maria and I met in our early teens and started fishing together and look where it’s lead us … it’s a dangerously contagious sport. 🤓🤪😜 cheers Zoran 🎣🎣🎣