recurve

Carbs are not hard to take apart and put together. If you have blocked Nozzles/Jets then you are better replacing them so need to buy a Carb Kit. Putting back together is not hard but I found getting the Carbys tuned up again required the dab hand of an expert. Good luck. Nothing more frustrating than a dicky motor

Look at the Surtees/Bar Crusher Boats. Higher price tag but they are a better fit out IMO. Great storage and an excellent ride. They are narrower than the Formosa so very comfy underway and have a ballast hull to compensate when at rest. Build qualityis unreal, on the Surtees models. They also offer a crazy amount of factory accessories and fit out options. They will be at the show. Really good boats. They have Centre consoles as well. I like the full hard tops myself. So so much warmer and good in summer for protection against the sun and dry winds. I like fishing center consoles when inshore and in estuaries but having a hardtop is a worthy sacrifice when offshore. Next time I buy a new Alloy boat I am going to insist on having a VibraStop Pad installed between the motor and boat. They make a huge difference. Congrats on the capex approval

Yupp Burley is the key. We went out on Sunday as well but stayed in very close. Caught 7 snapper but all Squires. Nothing worthy of writing a report for. Would trade my 7 for your big boy any day.

So he installed a new impeller and water pump..... I had a similar issue with my motor and it stumped me and the mechanics. Mainly as the alarm had been disconnected...don't ask. The cause was corrosion in the cooling chambers had restricted the water flow. The Engine was self preserving and lowered the revs so it did not overheat. The fix was to open the thermostat permanently to increase the flow. I only wanted a temp fix as wanted a new motor. I have a new motor now so happy days. The other think the marine mechanics thought it could be was either bad fuel, water in the carbs or gunked up nozzles due to using fuel with Ethanol. Which I have never done! If he replaced your water pump maybe you have an issue with water flow or you have restricted fuel flow due to gunk.

Well done. Did you anchor up to get onto those? Have seen a couple of Makos at the Ramp. I don't like killing sharks myself. Always let them go. Especially Makos. Can't bring myself to kill them. Too precious.

Nice work. Very nice haul. Well done. Season has definitely begun.

You def should not need Trim Tabs on a boat that size. In my experience they are good on larger boats with Hard Tops to counter the wind and push of water on one side. In serious wind they do a great job

Use it as a fish attracting device and source of bait.

Got a good bin launching at Bellambi today. Went earlier than sparrows fart as we had a plan and a theory we wanted to test. Very dark this morning as only a crescent moon to light our way. I Saw a lot of Whales yesterday on a cliff walk so we took it slow on way out to the mark. My Uncle lost his 40 foot yacht in the dark after hitting a whale. It happens. Did not take long to get set up to fish. Was a very smooth running trip. After not long we were all on, we were very very busy rigging, de-tangling , checking, fighting, landing, netting etc. Hard work carrying on like that but great fun. In total we got 15 fish. 11 Snapper, 3 Slimies, 1 Samson Fish (my first). Then around 7.30am a huge Cuttlefish carcass went right past us (was too slow to grab it) and the run slowed down. I think it took all our Snapper with it. After a couple more Snapper we decided to chase Squid. We weren't that into it though and soon ended up back at the ramp before the late morning return crowd. Very easy fishing today. Great low stress day with results. Love it! I can confirm for everyone that Cuttlefish are popping. Lots of gorging Albatrosses today. It has begun.

Uhhh Yupp. That looks like some really nice reading there. Those first sounds look decent.

Just buy one with the biggest and best motor you can find. If you want to upgrade the boat and trailer later on you can and just stick your motor on. Then sell your small boat. Always think about that next boat.

Good read. Nice effort. If you go to BCF and get the smoker which comes in a green box they are divine. For large Salmon like the ones you got. Gut them properly, and butterfly. So fillet them from the gut to the back and fold them over. So don't cut through the back skin. Rub in Salt. Be liberal Rub in Brown Sugar. Make sure all flesh is covered. Longer you leave it the better but minimum of 2 hours Fill up Meth Containers on smoker. Lots of wood chips ( They come with chips) Smoke for 17Min for big boys like what you have. You won't believe how good these are. They make unbelievable Kedgeree. And really good in a fish pie. My mate makes fish cakes from them. We like them on toast with Mayo, Capers etc.

Driving a boat on a trailer is always going to push water out and therefore some sand. The idea is to use the minimal amount of thrust. Ideally you should have the motor trimmed out some so you are only creating a lot of surface wash rather than trimmed in so you kick up all the sand. If you have your motor trimmed in then your gonna get sand in your impeller so your hurting your boat as well. Many boats and trailers are designed to be driven up and have self catch latches which minimise the length of time you need to be thrusting. I have been on my own and had a a nightmare before. Did not flip the latch the right way on the self latch and had to hold the boat with motor while I climbed over the front to see what happened. Then climb back in to drop down on the trailer, then back over to flip it right way then back in to drive it on the latch. You don't need a massive amount of thrust to hold a boat in place if the boat and trailer are from the factory and well balanced for each other. Even with all this drama and extended time holding myself on the trailer I did not kick up a lot of sand. You see people who give it heaps while trimmed down and make a mass of wash and sand or people who have a trailer not perfectly fitted or designed for the boat and give it heaps of throttle to get it up and hold it up are the ones who push the sand around. Driving boats up trailers is what is required and how many great boat set ups are designed. Some (a few) people struggle and make a mess of it but does not mean that the method should be frowned on. Rather drive up than get smashed around in surge or get pushed around by the wind on the hard top and have a nightmare. Having a half cabin is a lot easier to use a winch with than a hard top. Try retrieving a hard top on windy day and you won't frown on it anymore. Driving up without the safety chain is a knucklehead maneuver and as you say often ends up in a very dangerous or expensive disaster. I think the key is people need to know to trim out some before they drive up. Trimming up actually makes it look worse but it does not push anywhere near the amount of sand around that doing this trimmed in does.

I recently upgraded from an old 2 Stroke. Got a Suzuki DF115. Spend the extra cash and walk away from the 2 Stroke. You don't need all that smell and noise in your life. Very glad I upgraded and spent the cash. I personally love the fact that I don't have the stink anymore. Hated that smell. I looked at Evinrudes but they still had the smoke and smell. I have also found the hole shot on the Suzuki to be fantastic. I went from a 140 Yammy V4 to a DF115 and I reckon the hole shot is better on the new motor. All Jap 4 strokes are awesome. I have heard not so good things about Mercs......but I know they have a loyal following out there. No looking back. The reason why I chose Suzuki. They Run a bigger prop Have really nice electronic control panels Have a Troll Mode which is very nice Interface to Lowrance and other Devices as part of the Control Panels. No extras needed for this They look the business I thought the guys who sold them down my way were the best of the bunch. More power than the Yammy and better controls Honda only has a 100 no 115. I did like the Honda. If you can go to a 100 then this is a good motor. And well priced. Mercury, I don't like American made electronics. I work in IT and we have more issues with Yank stuff and no issues with Jap stuff. Also I heard average reviews and their control panels are cool, but expensive and the smaller model does not talk to other devices on the boat. Evinrude they are 2 strokes and I don't like the smell. My fuel consumption is unreal compared to the 2 Stroke. I was at the fuel pumps every weekend now I go only once or twice a month if that.

Nice set up.

In NZ we used big Kahawai or Salmon under balloons for Kingfish. Lot of chaos when that goes down. I have had a take on a big kahawai over 55cm but I never got close to landing it.

Nice one, on burley or drifting?

Poor bugger, not even a life jacket. I would have given him one of our cheapo lifejackets instead of a fish. Imagine the self inflating ones would be no good for him. He would want to be very careful with your hooks and anything sharp. 2KM is a long swim even with flippers. Especially if you don't have a snorkel and can't put your head down.

I saw you. Recognize the boat from the pics. You went in quite close to the bridge while I went looking further out. Same result as you. I got a bunch of Slimies off Bellambi but was a very very slow day.

So post storm you were getting smashed by Snapper off the rocks. On the Friday we went in close and had a big burley trail but nothing. Well done!! Prior to the storm we were getting 10+ per trip with most over 55cm and fishing very close to shore. Same tactic after storm not happening. Fishing is such a mystery.

40m over reef, nice one. It was freezing but by around 8am I was boiling with all the layers I put on. 80m that's a fair way down. I really don't like big sinkers but I really like catching Snapper.

Agreed I rate it. We turned it into a Fish Curry last night and the boy had his fried. Thought about bagging out and salting them down but could not be bothered with the wife objecting and don't have anymore freezer room. Only caught around 10 of them and stopped. They don't last long before the flesh changes texture and flavour. best eaten within a day or two.

Well as you know the coast down here has been totally smashed by the storm. There has been a huge volume of dirty silty water that has been washed out to sea and the fishing scene has changed dramatically. What worked before the storm does not appear to be working now. Friday: We went out after work so did not want to go to far. Quick in and out. We discovered that there were big channels of brown water everywhere. We tried fishing in them, on the edge of them and away from them. There were no bites or takes. Not one and we were using fresh squid......, Now and again we would see fish on the sounder but they were not interested in what we had to offer. Monday: Went out on my own. Thought it would be best to go out wide. Took off at sparrows fart and went wide 18k from Bellambi Boat Ramp at about 60m. Only to find we had a different current on the bottom than the top and the wind was different again. Total head bend. Tried the Sea Anchor but it was a no go. So buzzed over to the humps. Not long after arriving the 5 boats on the humps all buggered off....not a good sign. I sounded around the gravel and found some life but again they were not biting and no one was hooking up......hmmmmmm this is not working!! Decided to go to the 40m mark off Stanwell but nothing, no fish on the sounder and no bites. Went to a flatty ground but only got wee tiny flatties......what in the blazes is going on!! Water was much clearer than Friday so I thought I would start a burley trail and see what was happening in 20m. Slimy, Slimy, Slimy, Slimy, Slimy, Slimy. Nothing else just Slimies. No wrasse, no Bakers, No Sweep just Slimies. Came back in tail between my legs. What was interesting was that it was a very busy day at Bellambi and lots of boats had come in when I came in but the cleaning tables were not being used. Not a good sign. Spoke to two groups of lads who had caught a couple snapper. They were all caught past the ships in 60m directly out from Bellambi. They had no issues with current. So I had the right idea but where I went I found mega current so was a fail for me. I think over the next 2 weeks it will settle and the usual spots on the 40m mark will start to produce again. Where the snapper go though will have to figured out. The code has changed and needs to be deciphered again. Next few weeks are going to be interesting and require a lot of exploration to suss it out. Hope I figure it out before the rest of you Love to know if anyone else found the snapper. I don't like fishing massive sinkers but right now that appears to be the go.

We went out. Went too shallow too close. 20m 3 hour burley trail and not a bit, nothing. Going to try again tomorrow but going about 8k offshore. Launching from Bellambi. I think out wide is the answer at the moment.

My go to rig when jigging plastics for Kings is the 6" Flick Bait Evil Minnow. I put on a heavy Jig Head of around 1/2 or 5/8 have caught lots doing this. My mate runs light gear and uses small jigs and small plastics. Our hook up rate is about the same.