fishingrod

Im in the same position. 5-7 miles in 60-80m depth from Broken Bay is my normal comfortable stomping ground. Im equiped ok safety wise. I can carry around 190L of fuel on a 115hp carby 2 stroke. If the run out takes 1.5 - 2 hours (@14-20knots) in smooth to avg conditions I cant see that being any more than 60 litres. Leaving a considerable amount to move around and still come home. A extra couple of litres of oil is on my list. Ill keep watching what the others are doing. The 9th might be a possibillity for me. Would be better to plan to go in a group, rather than me just hope to find someone out there. Whats the ramp just on the western side of the General Holmes Drive or Penrhyn Road like at low tide. I had a look on the ramp section here and i think they are rated as excellent, but maybe have silted up since the report? My 2wd only does a average job at retreiving my rig. Rod EDIT : wow just saw my 100th post 2ND EDIT : Western side of GH Drive

This Shark business is a interesting concept. One time about 5 mile of Broken Bay had a shark steal a mowie or snapper that i was bring up and then the shark proceeded to jump clear out of the water and do a couple of tail dances before dissapearing. It was close enough to splash the windscreen ! Makes we wonder if i should go for some thinner rope on the sea anchor. I think that 4mm might be too thin to handle though.

Is anyone thinking of heading out mid week after the Queens Birthday Long w/e. Ive got that week off work. Im THINKING of doing my ever first trip out there ever and in my own boat. I think ive got the courage Im in a 5.7m (fraction shorter without the pod). Maybe id feel moe confidient on the weekend. Most indications are that even mid week there are a few people around out there if anything happened. Ive had my rig for about 9 months and it all seems to be running smooth. Ive got a aux motor but it would be a marathon effort to get back at 4knots, but possible if desperate! Ive looked at the charters and read all the hints and tips. But its more fun on your own boat. I dont have the gear to bottom fish, so would just think about having my first shot at cubing. It seems if the fish are on, that even though im not super experienced that i could get some reasonable hits. All weather permitting. I dont have anyone to go with. So might be looking for someone (prefer with genuine offshore sealegs) who is happy to go out with a confident and experienced, but chicken skipper. Just seeing if i can open up some discussion. Help me make a decision to go or not. It will bug me all season if i dont go. I think first trip is always the hardest. Ive bought a couple of sub 7m boats down the NSW coast, but never been so far offshore. Rod

Fishy F - email sent. I saved those brochures from what I was young and visited the boat shows in my primary school years. I had heaps of differnet ones. Even had a Seafarer Vsea 4.74 and several others as covers on my school books. I wish id saved more and not wasted them .... it was fun at time though on school books. Re the trim. Thanks Huey Im a trim trigger happy person, ill always have it as high as i can get it without cavitating or porposing. In the photo its on the edge of porposing if there is a slight bit of chop. But it was mirror smooth that day. cheers Rod

Great stuff .... thanks for your replies guys. I had a look on here this afternoon and saw your replies ....... quickly ducked out and got one of the orange colapsible ones on my way home. $25 about 550W x 750L for a 6m boat The next size up was about $38 1.25m x 1.25m. The price didnt worry me but it seemed very large. Ill give mine a try. I saw the ones with frames and hoops. Im sure they serve a purpose but as Big B said that looked a pain to store. It looks like i need to fiddle with the rope lengths. (edit) I tried the 25L bucket trick once before, it changed the orientation of the boat a little but hardly slowed my drift. cheers .... thanks again Rod

Hi Fishy I used to own the half cabin version of this hull and have answered similar questions on other forums. If you can PM me your email address I will send you what i wrote to the other people. Its far too much to paste onto the forums here !! cheers Rod These should help too I used to own the Half Cabin version of the same hull. This was my boat until about 2 years ago.

Hi there Has anyone ever used a sea anchor to slow their drift when fishing offshore? Ive got a 5.7m fibreglass. I was out fishing 65-70m on Sunday and there was gentle NNE'er blowing that making the drift a bit quick and i didnt want to swap to huge sinkers to reach bottom. Any idea if a sea anchor would be effective and what type to get. It would be towed from the stern about 2-4 metres behind the boat im guessing ? Ive seen that some low-mid range models have a hoop or frame to keep the mouth open. I was looking at spending about $40-60 from of the established chandlreys in Sydney. Any hints guys? cheers Rod

They showed the buoys on the news the other night. They looked yellow and about 1-1.5 meter diameter cylinders with LOTS of solar panels all around them. Rod

Ive never fished any of the FADs or riders so not sure on their names. But the Wave Rider that Manly Hydraulics Lab uses still appears active as of 6pm tonight. http://www.mhl.nsw.gov.au/htbin/wave_data_...Location=Sydney You might be refering to a completely different wave rider and in that case ill crawl back under my rock.

It could get uncomfortably lumpy between West Head and Juno. Its hard to say, Somtimes the westerlys seem to be "up high" and dont get down into the Hawkesbury. But sometimes they do quite strongly. Once you turn left at West Head the southern shore is usually the calmest area heading towards Juno. Between Bar Pt and Spencer the run is roughly nor nor west and it can be pretty exposed. Not usually dangerous. Just wet and annoying. Personally i dont think wind will make too much difference (less than 10%) in terms of fuel use Spencer-Wisemans. Im thinking between Spencer and West Head that you MAY have to throttle down in some areas is where the extra fuel use might be. If you get to Bar Point and you havent touched your 40L worth in Jerry Cans you should be ok to get back to Pittwater. Just a hint that if its lowish tide dont cut any of the corners too fine as some have shallowish areas extending out. Keep 1/3rd into the channel and you will be fine in most areas. Two Sundays ago it was VERY foggy at Spencer until 830am. The left hand bend between Marlo and Spencer has a shallow area quite far out from the mangroves and its almost exposed at low tide. It has markers. If its foggy make sure you are on the correct side !!!! Have a good trip. Its an expensive way to get to Wisemans with fuel at $1.30+ a litre this week! But if you have never done the trip by boat its very scenic. cheers Rod

Yep, allow 2hrs cruising at 20-25 knots each way. Fuel hmmmm. Say 20-25ish litres per hour @ 4000rpm cruise. Id say make sure you have at least 130litres on board and min 3 litres of 2stroke oil depending on the technology of the motor. There is limited fuel available at Wisemans (one of the house boat marinas) and also Spencer. Brooklyn has heaps of fuel available if you get worried on the way home. Obviously if you hoon too much above cruise speed you will make a dent in the fuel usage. Once you get past Spencer the tidal influance can make a couple of knots difference to your speed. Have a good trip. Rod

Id go the Furuno. Ive mainly only ever heard good reports about Furuno, especially their new range of coloured units. Ive got the RayM DS600X (slightly bigger screen) as it came with my boat when i bought it second hand. Its a good unit, but i would not replace it with another if it broke. You would not be unhappy with it, but considering they are within 10% the same price id still go Furuno. Do a seach and have a browse on a couple of the forum pages here. There is PLENTY of discussion on this kind of stuff cheers Rod Rod

Thanks for the reply Red. Fuel fires scare me Ive just re run all new fuel lines with seperation from wiring and put a shut off valve close to the tank incase my fuel hose burns thru. cheers Rod

What was actually on fire, and what type of boat was it, if i may ask ? Just in general terms. Boat fires interest me. Ive never had a fire aboard my own boat and plan not to. Ive attended a couple of cruiser fires and evacuated people of the boat. You dont think twice, you just do it. I do remember asking him what type of fuel he had on board and where it was stored. There was a mad scramble too get as many fire extingusishers as we could find on the duty wharf before taking off at a zillion MPH. Rod

ive never been to the traps and i dont know where they are. But will pass on something i read on the net or in the newspaper. I read that many of the pros had caught their quota (of what i dont know) so a lot of them bought their traps home. This refers to offshore Terrigal or Broken Bay. Not sure which, cant remember. Like i said, this is chinese whispers/3rd hand info ..... but might be of some help if you if you dont get many other replies. Rod

Ive never caught a hairtail. But for land based people, i think the picnic area between Cottage Point and Akuna Bay is one of the prefered places (can get busy i think) It might be called Illawong Bay, but im not 100% sure. But i have described the location correctly. Places like Waratah and Jeuruslam Bay get mentioned as Hairtail spots in the reports, but its fair walk to get there, especially at nite.

I asked the same Q re using a spinning reel on a overhead rod on another forum and at my local tackle shop. The discussion above about the first (stripper) runner is true. I dont think line "wear" will be a problem unless the runners are very small or the eggbeater has a very very large spool. Re the backbone question. Its is true what has already been said. Ive got a Ugg Stik Gold overhead rod (about $65) and many people agree that lower cost rods such as this dont have a true backbone. PS: im using a Baitrunner 4500 on the Ugg Stik cheers Rod

Yeh, i need to shove my hand into the bottom of mine at the end of each trip to get the junk out Mines on a marlin board on a fibreglass boat, and was already installed when i purchased the boat secondhand. You definatly need to secure it or you might loose it ! You could try 1-2 stainless bolts with spring washers and wing nuts for fast removal? (for the non technical types, the spring washer keeps a bit on tension on the nut to reduce the chance of it vibrating loose) Dont let it drag in the water while on the plane. You can always space it up a bit if its too low. Use longer bolts and put some nyloc nuts and washers halfway along the thread to stop it dropping all the way down to the plastic flange. As a staring point id suggest it is a minimum of 30-40mm above the bottom of the hull. Im not saying a jigsaw is the right or wrong way, but if you are please use at least eye protection. And dont lean on the step or your personal equipment will be pretty close to the blade on the bottomside (ouch) Mines mounted quite far back on the marlin board. A bit closer and it would be easier to drop things in. Maybe pick a spot where you dont damage the integrity of the step with such a large hole. Measure twice, cut once !

Thanks for doing the report Dicko Im a happy camper now ive caught a few squid, so thanks for the pointers. The one intact squid i took home was wok fried with some chilli, garlic and soy and was good. It smelt great too while it was cooking. I was thinking about those 2 hits i got on my yakkas ..... if i had my overhead in free spool (rather than light drag) the fish might have grabbed it and not felt any resistance ....but then if it decided to take off for a big run and i wasnt quick enough to jump up from my seat and lock it in gear it might have ended up in a birdsnet and lots of tears. Cant win ! It was good to see a few of the other guys out there too. cheers Rod

Hey Pete, Good report there, It was nice meeting you and Brett. Im glad you caught something off our livies ....... thats a nice Samson. Better luck with the weather next time. cheers Rod

Quite often they are just a stainless U bolt with some 'glassed in timber backing on the inside. Have a look around the inside of your boat to see if you can see any nuts on the inside to tighten up. They might be covered with some flowcoat to hide them and make them look pretty. If they are covered with something they shouldnt vibrate loose, unless the timber backing has gone soft/rotten. Id make it a pretty high priority as it could come off and you loose your boat on the road....... or if winching on and it lets go, the winch cable could whip back and do you some damage. cheers Rod

Dont worry, we are doing it again tomorrow (Wed 4/4) to try and get him a bigger one cheers Rod

a little salt and black pepper, drizzle with soy sauce, fresh chopped corriander and (optional) a little chopped chilli. Wrap in foil and bake, bbq or grill until "just" cooked thru, so the meat is mostly white but around the bone is still slightly pink hang on ... i think there is a cooking or kitchen forum we should be posting in ! cheers Rod

Im heading out for my 1st serious fish of Sydney Harbour in a few years. Im heading out with Dicko1 on my boat from around sunrise. We'll probably be anywhere from the Spit Bridge, to North Head to Clifton and the 'Cakes. Come say hello if you see us, or "Panda" on 27:88 or VHF16 cheers Rod

Thats them !!!! Good work KingsRule They are almost a throw aways for people in the industry (im not in the industry) They probably have some deposit value to return them to the supplier. Ive seen people with them for sale for $10-$30 used. Maybe scan ebay or the trading post.