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Hi guys and gals, I’ve just purchased a new boat and trying to work out what sounder to put in it Has anyone got and feed back on the Lowrance HDS 9 Live with the 3 in 1 transducer. What depth is it achieving? In my previous boat I ran I Lowrance with TM260 tranny and was happy. Any feedback appreciated.

We fished yesterday (10/7/16) out of Botany Bay. Head straight out to the southern Canyons dropping the lures in the water as we cross over the shelf. Conditions during the day just got better and better. Picked up this 52kg YFT 5kms NE of the Sth Canyons on our way up to Browns.Good 15 minute tussle on 24kg happy to get him in the boat. Coolest water we saw was 19.1'C and warmest was 20.4'C. Pretty happy with my sounder setup (1Kw Tranny) giving clear reads like this.

Thankfully I'm on long service leave until mid February so I'll be putting in plenty of hours Marlin hunting ?

Went out with high hopes from Port Botany today. With a forecast of light winds and virtually no swell conditions looked perfect. For once the BOM/Windwilly/Seabreeze got it right conditions were better than good! It seemed the wider we went the calmer it got, at times it glassed out. Ran out to the two FADS off Botany Bay but there was no signs of any dollies. Didn't waste anytime and pushed on out to the shelf. Put the lures in and trolled NE past Browns for about 3hrs without a touch. Turned and pointed the bow south and trolled back to the Southern Canyons again without a touch. Checked out the Port Hacking FAD which was sitting dead upright, not even a hint of current running. As they say "No run No fun". The FAD was lifeless. Headed back to the ramp about 2:30pm with my tail between my legs. Not often I go duck eggs and not even turn a reel. On the upside the water was a beautiful blue and water varied between 22.9 - 23.5'C. Only heard two other boats off Sydney tag fish.

I just recently upgraded to a TM260 and water tested it on the weekend. Mine was giving a perfect picture at 20knots. I would suggest dropping the transducer height by 5mm. If your still not happy drop it down in small increments until your happy.

I would have said breather as well. For the sake of $10 replace the primer bulb. I had a similar issue with one of my motors and it was the primer.

Heard two boats on the vhf out at Heatons good a couple of YFT. One called for 50kg.

170kms and didnt turn a reel, not even a touch. Water was 20.4 for most of the day and green.

Tomorrow is another day. One thing I know is you wont catch them from the living room.

Yep we are going out from Botany Bay on Friday. Hopefully the wind doesnt get any stronger in the arvo.

Great report & pics. I'm doing a 7 day charter to Swains Reef in Sept so good to see what I'm in for.

Other than my rod & reel I gave all the lures and soft plastics that I took over to the local fella who took me out fishing. He was very appreciative as that sort of stuff is not only hard to get on Tanna but very expensive for the locals.

The rope on the deck is their anchor rope....all 500mts of it. They anchor in those depths and fish with deck winches using what looked like 300lb mono for a deep water fish called 'Poulet'. Glad I didn't have to pull the anchor up by hand! Poulet makes up a large part of the locals diet and is readily available in all the local restaurants too. Its very tasty. In regards to the rebuild post Cyclone PAM it was very disappointing to see such little progress. Port Vila itself is obviously back up and running and one would hardly know that the place was ripped apart four months ago. However once you get out of Port Vila into the villages and especially on Tanna the locals are still living under blue tarpaulins where their roofs were blown off. Some coastal roads were washed away and new roads haven't been re graded or repaired so the local have to go 4WDing through paddocks just to get around. This itself is causing a lot of unrest between the private land owners and locals just trying to get by. In Tanna, the southern island that was hit hardest by the cyclone everything is still damaged. Even the airport building roof is missing half its roof. You cannot get any fruit on Tanna as all the fruit trees were destroyed. The locals are living wholly on root vegetables, rice, chicken and fish. Thankfully UNICHEF has provided large temporary tents so the schools and some hospitals can carry on. Hopefully these buildings can be repaired before the wet season arrives in a few months as inside these tents will be unbearable with the humidity and temps above 30'C+. The underlying issue with the rebuild is that the Vanuatu Government was corrupt and only last week the people threw the Government out and appointed a new Government. They have a very different political system to ours in the way it operates. All the aid that was sent over to Vanuatu by Australia and New Zealand still remain sitting on the docks in shipping containers in Port Vila which was very disappointing to hear. Our very own Gov Gen Peter Cosgrove was on Tanna last week when we were there have a look around at what needs to be done. What the people of Vanuatu need is TOURISM! It is a beautiful place with world class fishing and amazing scuba diving. Tourism is down more then 50% post cyclone and it is hurting the locals who rely upon it. Hopefully with the change of Government there will be some much need progress in the coming months as it is a beautiful place.

Just returned from a recent trip to Vanuatu and was able to squeeze in some fishing with the locals. Caught this Wahoo off the southern Island of Vanuatu (Tana) on a 6in Xrap lure in 400mts of water literally 300mts off the coast. Taken on my Stradic 8000 loaded with 50lb Power Pro braid and 30lb Black Magic mono leader on a Shimano T-Curve 7ft (3pc)travel rod. I have some awesome GoPro underwater footage of the fish.

Mate I installed a single Deck Tech 5x LED 15W (750 lumens) on the top of my rocket launcher to light up the back deck on my 22ft boat. It does it easily, actually probably a little too bright. Have a look at the link. https://www.whitworths.com.au/main_itemdetail.asp?cat=123&item=31835&intAbsolutePage=1 If you go for the twin 1200/2000 lumens you'll need to the 30+ sunscreen when its dark and a welders helmet. Nathan

Custom all over cover. Made from UV resistant light weight canvas guaranteed for 10years. Cost me $2200, but well worth it. Make sure you use a breathable material otherwise you will get mould and mildew, not to mention it can get into your electronics killing them. The marine trimmer I used is located at Peakhurst.

Mate, I did a similar repair job to mine when I changed sounder/transducer. Just a tip I got a plastic syringe from the chemist and filled the epoxy/resin into the syringe and then injected the resin deep into the hole for maximum penetration and bond. I worked a treat. Nathan

Gary Don't worry I've been hooked for years. Its one thing to catch a marlin from a charter boat. But landing one from your own boat gives me a real buzz. Nathan

Went out early on Saturday leaving the Port Botany ramp at 5am. As expected the ramp was pretty busy due to the recent good reports of warm water, fish and calm weather. Heading out through the heads we were greeted by some pretty large swells rolling in and sloppy conditions, but the forecast was for the swell to drop by mid morning. Only a couple of KMs out of the heads we were greeted by cobalt blue water pushing 24+ degrees. Things were looking good. Went to the close FAD of Botany Bay first and there was only two boats there working it. After about 10minutes I looked west and could see a steady stream of boats making their way to the FAD. It was about to get awfully busy very quickly. Wanting to escape the crowds we left and pushed onto the Botany Bay wide FAD. Using soft plastics (6" Squidgy wrigglers) we quickly bagged 3 legal dollies. That was enough for a feed (as I don't like freezing them) so we commenced trolling NE in 25-26'C water with a spread of 5 skirts and teasers. We covered some ground and the boys on board appeared to be loosing hope. I made the call that either side of the tide change I would expect the fish to come on the bite. Sure enough at 10:30am the shot gun screams into life. I reached for the rod which was mounted up high in the rocket launcher and set the hook. Next minute a good size marlin launches out of the water about 100mts out the back. As the crew cleared the deck it peels off another couple of hundred metres of line whilst launching numerous times and violently shacking its head around. I was pretty confident that we had a solid hook up as the previous week I had hooked up on a smaller fish only to have it throw the hooks when shaking its head. After about 20 minutes we had the fish boat side thinking the fight was nearly over, when it has burst into life and launched itself out of the water crashing into the gunnel of the boat in front of the cabin. After another 10-15 minutes we finally have it boat side and take hold of the bill. Grab a few photos. Unfortunately the fish did not recover well and survival was not looking good after about 5 minutes of swimming the fish. We made the call to capture the fish. This is the first marlin I have ever taken as I am a firm supporter of C&R. None of the fish was wasted as it was shared amongst no less then 6 families. Trolled around for a few more hours and then back towards Botany Bay. When about 2NM from the heads we came across a free swimming marlin but it was not interested in our lures. The whole thing was captured on a Go Pro with some unreal underwater footage of the fish all lit up (I'll try to upload some soon). For those interested the position of the strike was S33'59.179 E151'31.579 - due east of the 12 mile in 100 fathoms. One of the boys on the boat reckons it is a stripe marlin but I am pretty confident its a blue Marlin. When it was in the water it was electric blue running down its sides. Any thoughts????

Sounds like a common problem.... Mercury. Get a Yamaha!?

I have a hds8 installed in the dashboard. Never had any issues with gps signal. I regularly use the boat ramo at foreshore drive and never lost the signal. Sounds like there maybe a issue with your unit.

Ditto, where are the nipper grounds in botany bay?

There has been some recent discussion on this forum regarding boat flooring and hands down Regupol rubber flooring is a stand out winner for fishing boats. I have no complaints with the product just the half wit in the Regupol warehouse who clearly cannot read a tape measure. I ordered and paid for 1.6m and this stuff is bloody expensive. Picked up the order and went home, quickly measured it...... 1570mm. 30mm short. On closer inspection of the rubber I found two more small slices in the rubber where it looks like a Stanley knife has slashed it. Just a warning to other Raiders who are thinking of using this product, measure the material before you leave their warehouse and closely inspect every cm of it. I am still awaiting a response from Regupol Sales.

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If you catch them let me know......they'd make good berley!