Frantic

have fun there ray and hope the weather holds for ya, i use to go and stay at point plomer every couple of years sum top fishin spots at that parts of the coast. craig

ive got a new series strudwick softbodz 7'0 6 to 8kg that ive had since chrissy,not sure if its in that price range but its light and got loads of grunt right through to the foregrip,it handled plenty of snapper,samson over xmas and im not talking about undersize fish it might be a bit overkill for 4lb braid but

Looking at joining the VMR so i can get a callsign to help with logging in and out ,but my question is if i register with say brokenbay and make my donation,do i still have the same callsign when im up the coast at coffs,and is the registration on a statewide database or not ,thanks for any help. craig

i dont really like the look of hull edge which the transducer is behind ,can u put a pic up of the entire transom from behind ,my lowrance reads pretty good up to about 60kmh,but the signature with the vdh hull gives you a nice staight edge on both sides to put the transducer behind for good clean water.at a guess id say turbulence from the hull. craig.

mate save a bit and blow it on a Navionics aus gold xl not cheap but worth every cent for the detail.I was going to get a platinum but lowrance dont use them . craig

Being a chef and running a seafood restaurant for 8 or so years, ive grilled lots of fish from a humble leatherjacket to a 4.5 kg snapper whole,the reason why most fish are quite dry from a griller is people forget to baste it like a roast .if you want to do a flattie whole i would turn him upside down use a knife or scissors to just cut through his ribs near the backbone so he lays out nice and flat, make a cut down each side diagonally from start of ribs to his last rib but not to deep, season with a bit of salt and pepper in the gut cavity and on the fish squeeze of lemon then into some flour ,then lay him out flat onto a dish that has quite high sides like a 1cm with sum oil and butter in it about 3 to 1 ratioroll him on this and get coated up dont worry if theirs a bit extra on bottom of tray because youll use a big spoon while cooking to spoon the oil up and onto the fish ( i use a pair of tongs for this which takes a far bit of practise otherwise you where it down your arm which wont be pretty especially when its hot ).have the griller quite low to mod otherwise she will just burn,let it start to cook for first 5 min then keep basting every couple of minutes.a usuall flattie of approx 50 cm shouldnt take any longer than 8 to 10 min obviously with so many variables the time can change depending on size of fish and heat of griller and space between bars or gas and fish , A telltale sign thats its cooked will be when his eyes have popped if in doubt use a knife and have a peek up near the thickest part, at least for the first few. cutlets are similar u should be just be able to move the center bone,omg i just started to think of how much fish and prawns ive cooked over the years geez your taking tonnage here. And dont forget to stick him in head first due to back of the grill being the hottest you dont wont to toast his tail before the rest of its done.I think the only seafood i havent cooked is sea urchins and sea cucumber's. BTW that big snapper took about 25 min fed all the staff and was exceptional craig

if its blowing or u might have a current running there great dont waste your time with a bucket go buy a decent one for your size boat. i usually have mine about 20 to 30 metres behind the boat on some rope and it can bring my drift speed down from say 4kmh to say 1 or 2 thats on a glass 5 m boat ,its great when u have to drop a bait down 20 to 70m.

Noticed in todays paper something about a goverment mandate that starts in december on all standard unleaded fuel having 10% ethanol ,we all know what ethanol does to fibreglass , hoses and tanks,but anyone running good old 2 stroke's running standard unleaded on their trailerboat will be in trouble i think, it also said most marinas will still have standard unleaded but petrol stations wont, whats going on .

Holy thats a monster from the deep,and it looks in great condition too. my PB is 3 foot and 10 inches across the head.(didnt have any scales ).WOW fish like that are a capture of a lifetime u wont forget that in a hurry. the ANSA record for a dusky stands at 9.44 kg caught in richmond river back in 83' for anyone wondering,doubt it will be broken any time soon.

Great jewie and a respectable PB thats for sure. Maybe there was a big mama but she was a bit slow off the mark and one of the kiddies got to it first.

I think the biggest question is going to be the tow vehicle, with only that amount of towing capacity it will become a definite factor in what boat u get. if it was not a problem id have a look at a few glass boats eg signatures as they will outride any of those ally's especially on rougher days.

I was in the same boat not long ago after buying my new Lowrance LMS 527 gps/sounder and not being to proficient with electricals i called in my bro who has rebuilt plenty of pinball machines (if u ever saw whats under the playfield would be instant migrane ,lights,switches and cables everywhere) .so i just used a waterproof toggle switch on the positive cable in front of the inline fuse straight to the positive on the battery.the white wire is blocked off and the black cable straight to the negative. All the conections are soldered and tubeshrink has been used to keep water out .Now i only have to get him to come and hook up the overhead deck lights. if its a 2 prong switch u should have positive on 1 side and positive on other so its inline like the fuse is ,no negative wire to it .Dont forget all the switch is doing is braking and connecting the positive circuit.

i have recently removed my stern light as it just kept getting in the road and i put another ros holder there instead. I have seen some boats with a all around light on top of there rocket launcher but there on a quite small stem and im thinking if youve got a selection of rods up there wont the light be obstructed from at least some angles. craig

what about also garfish ,parrotfish, frsh scollops really any fish of white flaky fillets will do.

I use a Oceanic Tide and Sky weather station its got mobile sensor stations that u put outside ,got quite a large lcd screen showing everything from sunrise,sunset,moonrise and moonset ,high and low tides,barometer with last 12hrs and shows tendency if it will go up or down ,humidity and inside and outside temp's got it from my little brother for xmas if think he wants some free trips out in the boat but its shows all this on the one screen which save's a lot of time.It a little ripper. craig.

I've seen a photo of a tailor which was the width of the front end of a comby van "it was tied to the bullbar" id say its was about 20kg at a guess but not from sydney ,WA i think shark bay and it was a really old photo.

Yep lord howe for sure ,my friend got his wife her first fish "a 18kg spaniard". but if she wants to sit back and relax well its got everything and its not that for away . its a matter of do you want to catch 20kg GT's or oversize kingfish and other assorted monster's of the deep .

In scenario no1 where the boat is still upright but no motor the epirb would only be used if inadated with water with no radios operational and u cant use anything else like flares and such ? the clip that its in is pretty tough and hard to knock it out . Easy to fit in a few place's mine's inside top coaming next to steering wheel so i can grab it even if the boat's overturned. a couple of self tappets should do .so its stored separate to flares & expired one's "so 2 sets of each",maps ,horn,vsheet and other assorted items. I would be looking towards scenario no 2. craig

OK the big question is cast iron ,stainless , personally a lot of things stick to stainless and too much effort to clean while carst iron can be turned into a totall NON-STICK surface . It doesnt matter if its a WOK ,frypan , dutch oven or bbq hot plate Only thing is u cant really stick a hotplate in a oven unless its commercial size . You can check out video's on certain websites. Use lard to season as it doesnt go off as quick as vege oil .Heating up opens the pore's of the iron and by using lard u fill up the microscopic pores then as it cools down these same pores close up. The "petina" you see on chinese woks allows them to be super nonstick.To wash use warm soapy water NO HARSH cleaners And its pretty metal friendly unlike some tefloncoated which will come off as i use these pans everyday at work.my favourite's are Scanpan Titanium and Circulon elite but .both have done about 5000 serves of scambled eggs over a 2yr time frame. ID take your cast iron off give it a hard going over with metal brush and start from scratch again ,it wont take u long over a couple of days just wipe it really dry after wash wipe down with lard heat on low to mid for 20min then let it cool down then wipe it down again and heat up again. Id do this 4 or 5 times before use. seems like a waste of gas but it's the end result we want .chef for 14yrs and still is i love camparing my hotplate to brother-inlaw's like chalk and cheese. the taste of the meat is probably from being too hot at sum time with meat on it which has degraded into the pores of the iron. craig.

But its crescent to pt plomer ARRGGHH.

I think it depends on what sort of livies u talk about , I catch poddy mullet and garfish there pretty hardy, in the afternoon and whack them in a 200lt bin at home using a airator overnight and use them in the morning,straight into the onboard livebait tank i recently did this off coffs and also how many livies you have ? obviously 20 livebait in a 30l bucket wont work overnight . It's a good way to make sure u have some to start . craig

Id like to see some Pics

Ive got a couple of 6500 great reels especially with the features its got plenty of times ive dropped the bait back on its free spool for pearlies and snapper and once they start taking line just wind the handle. they also hold plenty of line ,mine are on Original Ugly stik 701sp's and they dont creak.

it will be the placement of the transducer for sure .put a pic up of side and rearview of sounder on transom.

NAVIONICS Platinum card shows bottom in 3D pretty sweet