djmac

hi mate good way to spend a couple of days off! are you sure you got the size of that blue right? where did you measure from? standard length measurement is from the lower jaw to the fork of the tail. then a girth measurement to get your estimate without a girth measurement a 4m blue would weigh more likely 400kgs+++++ who cares what weight the fish is anyway a blue is a blue! Col

goodluck out there guys. hopefully a few blue fellas show up i am unfortunately missing out on fishing this comp as ive done some ligament damage in my shoulder weather looks like its going to be a cracker! Col

http://www.pakula.com.au/BTL/Docs/0301_The_Aussie_Plait.html http://www.pakula.com.au/BTL/Docs/0302_The_Uni_Knot.html step by step photos and video to help with your tying

Certainly is fun using topwater lures for our estuary species. things ive learnt lately: you can beef up your leader when using topwater lures. i run 16lb most of the time as some places i fish have vast amounts of long tom and pike who will make short work of your $25 lure. your leader is pretty much out of the water so it will not spook the fish. short leaders seem to work better. i never have a leader over about 20cm. also helps when a big lizard or tailor decides it wants your lure. retrieve styles for whiting is alot quicker than bream. bream will still hit this retrieve but not as much. but you can pretty much pick your terrain after a while and watch you will catch. dense weed beds seem to produce more bream but open sand areas with a touch of weed you find big whiting (common sense really) if the weather is calm and no wind on the water use topwater lures like a smiths towadi or a luckycraft sammy etc etc or lately i have been using squidgy bugs and a resin head which are topwater plastics and you still get that visual thrill out of using them. only issue is you cant cast them as far but they seem to produce a few more hits in super clear and calm water. i also use these over racks etc as it doesnt hurt too much when u lose the odd one or two. with these lures if you do get a hit and no hookup. they dont float like a popper etc so keep them moving. once the lure stalls and slowly sinks they seem to freak out. when using the bugs drop your leader size as they will spook the fish as u just paddle these across the top with your rod tip up. i normally fish them with 4-6lb leader. heres a couple of fish from sunday. my mate with the beanie on was stoked first set of fish on topwater lures! certainly some good fun u can have on 4lb line. wind definetly does not hurt when it comes up a bit. get it behind you and you can cast further and it always produces a few more fish as they arent as spooky. my only issue now is ive been finding some absolute brutes feeding in less than 0.3m water and on sand with broken oysters bottom. these bream are oh so spooky. they freak out at anything near them. the only option i havent tried as yet is a fly. so ill be taking the 4wt next trip. gonna be interesting in that skinny water. happy fishin! Col

Hey guys, not to raise a dead thread. but Roberta. thanks so much for the instructions. my old man bought me a cheapie smoker and finally starting to get success out of it after reading your instructions. heres some tailor fillets i did last night. they were beautiful. Thanks again. Col

hi guys aluhra took out tnr with 8 fish for the weekend followed by in a meeting on 6 fish(they have had a good season) axeman hooked up to a tiger just after stop fishing unfortunately. they got it to the boat and couldnt get it into the boat. took them 6 hours to tow the thing back to broken bay. it weighed 559kg i was supposed to fish on true blue but unfortunately have done a ligament in my shoulder so i was out. they had a pretty quiet tourney raising 4 fish and unfortunately didnt pin any. thats gamefishing Col

hey pete that looks good mate. what silicon do you use on it ? how did the end result come up? Col

Warnie, thanks for showing us all the example.. it really shows how keeping tight to the fish plays a big role. if anytime pressure had come off the line then no doubt the fish could have won its freedom at any second with the hook straightened and out. interested in a bit more info mate what hook? and what line class and were u on strike? certainly must have been a fair bit of pressure on the hook. we jumped one off last week after about 10mins having it bill wrapped and the leader wore through. interestingly though this was on 15kg (strike) and 300lb leader i wouldnt have thought it would have gone so quick. the little stripe must have been sharpening up his bill in the off season. Col

hey mate, that looks like a great way of doing it. would be interested to see the steps on how to make a mould. ive recently been making some small surface poppers out of balsa and would love to make a mould of them and reproduce them a bit easier. Col

Ross, how did you guys fair yesterday? i was in the little side alloy side console with the green bimini next to you. we found some better bait and a good school of mahi in about 70 fathoms so didnt spend too long out there bait has certainly spread out alot and there wasnt much current.. only ended up with a couple of nice mahi for a feed. Col

Ahh phew. thats good to know thanks heaps chris and huey. was having a bit of a heart attack lol spose its best to check these things before putting it in anyway in a sad way i was actually enjoying the troubleshooting. ( ) well im pretty much ready to give the boat a run. hopefully those parts come in soon huey then i can drop her in for a hot lap. Cheers guys Col

just had a look at the lower gearcase oil and its as yellow as yellow can be so i guess its not the prop seal? in saying that though it hasnt been run in salt since the service they did before i picked it up. it would be black in there too though wouldnt it if that was the issue? when i did run it for a little while in idle and i was mucking around with the cold idle would that cause the excess build up?

Huey, thanks for that mate. ran it for approx 8 mins on the muffs there was no sign of the oil leak until the engine had stopped and i came back 30mins after it had finished running and i found the leak. motor used to be oil inject but they have disabled it and changed to premix by the look of it. i just ran premix into it when i have run it. and made it at 50:1 strange that it did not show the first time i ran it? how would i check the thermostat? thanks for the help mate much appreciated. Col

Hi guys, finally gave the outboard a proper run that i got for my project boat. ran it before no dramas but i didnt have any throttle cables. i ran it today with the throttle cables. banged into fwd and reverse and ran with no issues. however i walked out the back about 30mins and was confronted with this. im pretty lost when it comes to this sort of thing so any help would be great. the outboard was apparently serviced before i picked it up. Cheers, Col

warnie thanks mate. has been a bumpy ride to get it thus far and can say i had to walk away from it a few times and leave it for a couple of days! been well worth the effort though. hopefully i can get an old formula 233 down the road and do an even better job!! Col

ahh good stuff... weathers looking good for this weekend... i should be fishing thursday up there so ill hopefully be able to give you the lowdown on where they are.

Getting bait in close at broken bay like warnie has said boultons is worth a look. another reef well worth looking (i normally get my bait here) is esmerelda. broken bay is typically a lure fishing area as bait does not congregate like it does at port stephens... in saying that if y ou do find some like warnie has said give it a good going over as theres a good chance a fish will be on it... dont hesitate to drop the lures in around 40-50 fathoms near long reef either. weve caught quite a few fish in that area. goodluck warnie are you fishing the broken bay tourney?? Col

thanks guys taken me about 4 months to get that far! most of the time was repairing the old stringers, floor transom etc. if i did this again i would get a sound hull and then restore from there. would have taken half the time. ive had a big update and added more pics etc to the project site. http://www.shareaproject.com/pages/projectTut,p,451,00.html its 99% complete now! getting exciting! let me know what you guys think! Col

Thanks guys! it certainly has been a pretty big transformation. i just hope it floats with all the added weight Dan you'd be surprised that you dont need too many tools.. power wise ive only used: belt sander high powered drill circular saw bench saw angle grinder jigsaw the only thing i had to buy really was a compressor for spray painting. but you could easily use the brush on paints available for marine applications these days. they are very high quality, or just get someone to spray it.

Hi guys, thought id post this up. its about 99% complete before i started this i had 0 exp working with fibreglass and pretty much powertools too lol working in IT for the last 6 years i wanted to do something hands on. turned into a lot bigger job than i planned but its all a learning experience. photos etc are on this link. id paste them on here but id be here for hours! http://www.shareaproject.com/pages/projectTut,p,451,00.html Col

Huey, Thanks for the response mate. just thought i had better double check! i will give it a measure and come and see you this week and grab some cables. thanks again mate! very helpful!! Col

Huey, Thanks for that mate. that is very helpful just to confirm i am measuring the right distance heres a photo attached of where the throttle is mounted. will come in and see you after i get the right length! Thanks again, Col

Chris, thanks for that mate. that helps easy the pain a bit. i was stressing a little hopefully huey will see this thread. Col

Hi Guys, finally gave the motor i bought 6 months ago for my project boat a kick over and a run. went a treat but i found that i did not get throttle cables with it. its a johnson 50hp 2003 model im just trying to work out what cables i need for it. has anyone had experience with installing new cables. there are some at bla here that i think will do the job but do i need to get http://www.bla.com.au/index.php?fn=product...3d390180a8c9dc2 and do i need this connection kit also? http://www.bla.com.au/index.php?fn=product...3d390180a8c9dc2 and do i need 2 of the cables as one being throttle on being gearing forward neutral etc etc any help is good help! Cheers, Col