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Hey all, Does anyone know a good retailer in Sydney who sells St. Croix rods. Interested in some of their rods for Bass fishing and want to go check them out rather than taking a punt online. Also, if you have used one for similar- any thoughts? I am near CBD. Thanks H

Side console!

Thanks guys, pros and cons for both. Looking at the new 2014 engines, I can see around a $1000 difference. Also from reading elsewhere the 'lean burn' tech on the suzuki looks like it will provide much better fuel usuage. The one thing that may sell me to the Suzuki is it has a 5 year complete warranty where as the Merc has 3+2(major parts only). My current boat has a merc and just after the warranty was up, one of the seals went and cost us $400 to replace. It's nice to know for 5 years any issues will be covered. Problem is online, you always get some horror stories about all engines and some amazing stories.

Hi folks, Posted a few weeks ago that I was looking at different boats and was weighing up between the suzuki 4 stroke and the etec 2 stroke, both at 50hp to sit on a new Renegade 420 from quintrex. Anyways, we have decided the package we want and have chatted to a few dealers and at the moment we have two offers on the same boat and gear, just a different engine. Basically, I can get a Mercury 4 stroke 50hp or a Suzuki 4 stroke 50hp, both brand new, presumably late 2014 models. The Suzuki looks like a better engine, its lighter and more fuel efficient. But if we buy the Mercury, its about $1500 cheaper. Just curious if anyone here can offer some pros and cons to either? Or any reviews on the newer model engines. Is the price difference warranted? Our regular mechanic said the Suzuki is the way to go, but $1500 is a lot (a new rod or two would be nice ). Anyways, just after some sage wisdom from you guys....

yeah my mechanic for the boat told me the suzaki's are pretty good at the moment!!!!

Hey All, Long time since I last posted, too busy fishing! :-) So I have decided to upgrade my boat to something between the 420-450 size. Was looking at either Renegade 420(SC) Engine options: 50hp EFI 4 stroke Suzuki 50hp Evinrude ETEC (2000$ less expensive) Anglapro Sniper pro 444(SC). Mercury 60hp 4 STROKE. We primarily fish estuary and freshwater- but are now getting into wanting to fish the bays and outside the heads on a nice day. We like the size of the 420 as with fresh water, it's great to get yourself into those tighter tree filled bays etc but the anglapro looks good too and is a bit larger. They are basically the same boat in the sense of layout. Just curious if anyone can comment on the slightly different hull designs in the sense of stability. Also, with two big(6ft+) blokes on the boat, if we both stand on the casting platforms, will the boat lean a lot or is it fairly stable when still? We have a very flat boat at the moment so it's very stable, just curious if with these deeper vhulls we should expect a lot more instability as we move around? Finally, is it worth going for the 4strokes or is the ETEC a good engine(its a few grand cheaper). Any advice from you guys would be amazing!!!! Hugh

Hi Guys, I am heading down to lake Eildon to do a bit of trout fishing in a week or two. Planning to bypass the lake as we won't have our boat with us and instead we will fish rivers like the Rubicon/Acheron and maybe Kind Parrot. I am just curious if anyone has any advice or if you want to be generous, any good spots to begin wading from?? Any advice would be amazing!! Cheers

Sounds like we have roughly the same boat... we had an old Sea sprite without any marine carpet etc and boy when we bought this, it was amazing. We use ours in the harbour and also up the various rivers. She has never let us down and it always feels very stable. My mate, who I co-own the boat with, has also launched it by himself too and had no issues. Only issue we have had is when we fish in stormy, wavy areas, it obviously doesn't handle too well and you get very wet. But that's not the point of the boat... Ultimately, they are nice little boats. I still remember my first fish on it was a 62cm flatty and was my largest fish up till that date. It was like the boat was rewarding me...

Nice catch mate... Never caught a shark before but man it seems like fun!

Thanks Ron, I might take you up on that offer. Just trying to work out exactly what is needed at the moment and what we want to do. I'll let you know if I need your help. Thanks so much though!

Hey Guys, I'm wondering if anyone can PM me a good mobile boat mechanic for the CBD/Inner West area. I'd love to take it to the site sponsor but unfortunately, our trailers lights have completely blown and we don't feel safe driving the boat all the way up there without a working trailer(not to mention the likely hood of getting fined). So any help you guys could provide would be amazing. It's just a 3.7m stacer with a Mercury Seapro so nothing too fancy. Thanks \

Thanks Huey! Might give you guys a call in the next few weeks if I can raise some cash for it... and clear it with the missus! Would rather buy one of you guys. Cheers

Hey guys, I have an older minn-kota on the boat with a bracket so should fit that. Just need to win some money to pay for it... Just wish they were easy to find second hand as if the price was right i'd buy one but no one seems to be selling them used!!! I'll try the site sponsor although their website doesn't seem to work

Yeah I'd love one but the $2000 for one is just a bit too much... maybe I could sell a kidney!?!?

Hi Guys, We bought our little tinny second hand and as will happen after a year, things are slowly dying . One thing we are thinking of upgrading is our Minn Kota electric. We have a PD1 version and were thinking of doing the search for a Riptide with Ipilot as we do a lot of fishing in Rivers etc, so having the ability to lock onto spots or control drifts would be pretty cool. But we need something that can handle salt as we go into the harbour a lot too! Does anyone have an Ipilot electric? Is it worth getting? Also anyone have any idea where some good 2nd hand ones might be found? Unfortunately, we don't really have the 2 grand for a new one. :-( Any help would be awesome!

Jeez- if I caught a Hairtail I think i'd wet myself. Awesome fish, just looks like something you should be seeing on National Geographic shows on Deep Sea creatures...

Nice one mate- I miss trout fishing!!! So much fun!

Nice- would love to see some photos. Best way I upload them is to upload them onto a site like photobucket. They give you series of links below the image and you just copy and paste into your post... I fish the LCR a lot, can I ask where you were fishing from? Near Figtree? Anyways nice work!

FINGERS CROSSED

Just got a call from the man we helped. He is fine, was out of hospital that evening and now has new meds which will really help him out. Also he is sending us wine as a thankyou!

We lost 4 on Saturday so a grand total of like 48$ or something... plus petrol, food etc. Not that cheap

Both me and my mate both use 5lb but I am unsure of what brand(but I think its Nitlon). In total we got busted off 4 times. The first was because I tried a new knot for my leader which cut through my mono (I think). One was a monster flatty who manaeged to fray my mates line and then snap it with a big surge. I got smashed by one of the mullet and it bit through the line(?) as it was cut just above the lure and then the final time was a mullet who took my mate around a post as we were fishing right next to a wharf. I like the 5lb. Normally we haven't had any issues with it and we rarely lose lures unless they get jagged in a completely messed up rock. It just appeared to be one of those days where the fish got the better of us. We are now down $45 worth of tackle Always more devasting when you haven't got many fish to make up for it. But it helped reconfirm my love of the albright knot rather than these new fangled knots the kids use these days

You were in a Purplish colour Kayak were you? If so we may have talked to you

On Saturday we headed up to Middle Harbour. We had never fished the area before so we were hoping for a bumper day. After getting on the water at around 7am we headed to a sandy point with a nice dropoff hoping to hit some bream and flatties. Within one class I had a follow up and a few casts later something big busted off my lure. It was then that we heard a person moaning. Turning around we could see a guy in the water hanging onto a kayak and loudly moaning. Unsure if he was just pissed at falling into the water or he was in a bad way we watched. A nice big cruiser went past him and either ignored him or didn’t see him. A few more moans and we realised he was in trouble. We tore over there and as we approached he starting yelling out for help and shouting he had a heart attack. Ends up, he had a heart attack and had passed out, thus rolling his kayak. He had a surgically installed defibrillator which shocked his heart and restored it to a normal rhythm. The shock of the water woke him up. Anyhoo- we managed to get him to a nearby dock attached to a house and we managed to direct the ambulance down to him. By the time they got there he was walking and seemed fine- in fact he wanted to go home and have a shower first before going to the hospital. We even went and found his flooded kayak and gear and dragged it onto shore. Anyways, lucky we were there as no one else was around and he was not doing well in the water. Just shows that you need to keep an eye out for your fellow fishermen/water users! Praying we had some good karma on our side we headed out again but it was not to be. We got half a dozen baby snapper only 10cm or less. I caught a nice leatherjacket and then after moving up to one of the bridges I caught a nice 41cm whiting. Bumped into a few fishermen and they were not catching much at all! After an hour or two of nothing we scooted around to near manly. After noticing some mullet cruising on the surface I threw a blade at them just to see if they would react. Bam! Mullet starting chasing me everywhere. I got busted off and when my mate threw out his blade he landed a huge fish. He got a second one on but it took him around a post and broke off. We normally disregard Mullet and I never thought they took lures but it was 20 exciting minutes but only 1 fish landed. Oh well, no fish but in the end of the day- lucky we were there otherwise you never know what might have happened.

Cheers- thanks mate!!!