copafisher

Hi Roberta, there was some frigates around Terrigal Haven a few weeks ago. I went down for a try one afternoon but didnt see any, although one fisherman was leaving with a couple when I got there. There were quite a few fishing but didnt ses any takes or caught. One of the local ladies did say one block got 20 earlier. Havnt got back yet. LOL, I just realised the post below was a 2008 post after I put it up. Did a quick search and didnt see the date. Kingy Kid got some earlier around Pittwater, http://fishraider.com.au/Invision/index.ph...&hl=frigate Hope you get amonst them. Cheers

Good to see you are getting out amongst the fish & squid Ray. Hope those squid get something nice for you. Are You going off the beach or the rocks, and what are you aiming for ? Havent fished Avoca for months myself. Cheers Steve

For the price range you indicate, I guess you will be buying second hand. Look for one of the newer boats, most boats built on or after 1 July 2006 should have an Australian Builders Plate attached which gives safety information including buoyancy performance. I have an older 4.8 Stacer bowrider; while i have not yet ventured too far out it handles OK and has 75hp so has good power. If going outside reduce the number of people, ours is rated for 5 but would not carry that outside. NSW Maritime indicate "A reduction in the maximum number must be made in adverse weather conditions or when on open waters. If not, the master may be guilty of negligent navigation. This was stressed at a recent licence course the young bloke went to. Maritime has useful info on their site re plate/capacity/flotation etc http://www.maritime.nsw.gov.au/sbh/rego.html#capacity I would go bigger than 4.8 if you can. Personally I would love the extra room, capacity and comfort but extra cost, harder to handle with one etc. Good luck

Love your idea slinky (tackle Room/office) - wonder what the tax man would think ? Note to self... dont install a fan in the office, I think aircon would be worth the investment

me too ? Though I was thinking jewfish off the beach, tonight was looking better.

Sorry to hear you had no luck Poacher, the water temps supposed to be down around 18 at the moment. The fish reports in the papers are indicating theres been little luck until the water warms up. We found it like that a few months back to, lots on sounder but nothing biting, was cold then. Did you try any other baits or jigs/lures. I have bought a couple of the Lucanus type jigs, so Im dying to get out and give them a try. Maybe tomorrow ? How far out were you, dont know the water of Terrigal yet and dont have a GPS, so I have just looked round looking for likely spots/fish last few times. Better luck next time

tentonner Do a search on Copacabana and you will see all the previous posts. Seas have settled down a bit now so Macs to Copa surf club would be the go. The area from north of Macs to north of the lake should give you plenty of options. Look for gutters near the lake. Havnt had a look yet but should be some. Copa/Avoca rocks are also spots as is Avoca beach. You can access Bris waters easy from ramps at Pretty Beach, Empire bay, sth Kincumber, Davistown etc, plenty of ramps within 10-20mins or terrigal haven (ocean). If you go out with boat, Maritime & Police are doing checks, breath tests etc so make sure your a ok. Look at ramps etc on Maritime's map for BW at http://www.maritime.nsw.gov.au/docs/maps/brisbane_front.pdf I was just looking at high tide saturday afternoon, when the asked "whats on at the movies this weekend ?". Dont think I will be sneaking off somehow as shes picked a 5pm movie cheers Copafisher

Thanks Troy, email sent.

Troy, I have a similar problem with my Stacer 4.8 bowrider of the same vintage, will have to try adjusting the keel a bit more too, next time I am out. Meant to get Huey to look at it last time was serviced but forgot. I am looking at a removeable bait tank but room is an issue and dont wont to make any holes until I looked about and saw how others had done and what works/doesnt. I would appeciate any advice or if you have any photos etc and any comments about good/bad aspects. I have been pleased with the Stacer too (though I wish I had got a larger one, lol). Cheers Steve

Sounds a lot like my normal fishing trips , lol Grab a hold of a happy moment if you can, there seems to be a few about................ Good read, cheers

PM sent Justin. Like you I cant always arrange my mates and teenage son to get out. Give me a call. Cheers Steve

Gday Ray, nice to see you back and writing up your adventures. May be natural, I went for a snorkle off Copa yesterday and was suprised by a number of large schools of baby toad fish hanging around close in. Cheers

Stevo, as Jonny said, I had the same problem not so long ago. Simple answer is to undo the smaller nuts either side of the engine where the steering cable goes in and use a piece of wood to protect your steering cable end while you tap/hammer the steering cable end through. Dont remove the large nuts as they hold the tilt tube in place and form the hinge for your engine, if you tap out the hinge tube you could drop the engine off the hinge/boat. Once the cable is out give it a good clean and regrease it. You will need to clean inside the tilt tube & the outside and inside tubes of the steering cable. Turn the steering wheel left or right to get the inner sleeve out of the external sleeve. Both of mine had a thin layer of hardened grease & salt. I used some really fine wet and dry to break it up it up. I will have to pull mine apart again as I could not clean all the crap out from inside the tilt tube, even with a brass shotgun cleaning brush & drill for over 20minutes. If you have a grease nipple on the tilt tube it doesnt actually get grease inside the tube, it only lubricates the outside of the hinge itself that tilts the motor. Move the engine back and forward everytime you go past, and schedule a clean every so often, once you have done it once its pretty straight forward. My previous post etc is at http://fishraider.com.au/Invision/index.ph...c=34213&hl= or search previous posts using %steering%. Cheers Steve

Jonny, I had the same thing happen to me last year at the ramp. You probably need to remove and clean your steering cable. See http://fishraider.com.au/Invision/index.ph...c=34213&hl= or search previous posts for "stuck steering". I have an injected 2 stroke (Mercury 75), on mine the alarm has 2 functions, either overheating (I check tellltale is functioning as a start) or the 2 stroke oil reservior is getting low (usually its oil as I dont fill it to capacity as it leaks when tilted, my alarm seems to com on when about 1L left in rough sea). Check that the oil injection and low oil alarm is properly turned off. Send a pm to Huey at Huett Marine, they are a Fishraider sponsor and provide much good advice. Cheeers

You could lend it to me and I will see if it works....

Now thats fishing, I bet your old boss will be asking "when are we going next" all the time from now on.

Razza, the one we caught was around 40cm, and appeared to change colours from light speckled green when 1st caught to a darker green (almost black) when it came of hook and fell onto the transom. It had gone a pale colour as shown in photo by the time I cleaned & filleted it. I recall there are many types of rabbitfish, as Jezzo indicated, but the common one in Sydney appears to be Siganus nebulosus, seems to be wide colour variations. Key appears to be the distinctive shape/fins, speclked appearance and the "emerald green eye" which one of the previous post links indicates. They taste quite good but I was extremely careful not to spike myself when handling it. Cheers

Got a late start yesterday on Brisbane Waters with my mate and our 3 teenage boys. Anchored at Hardys Bay and used bait and plastics for no bites, then tried a drift between Box Head and Lion Is with no bites either. Motored over to Lion Is and around it looking for fish sign. We were saved by some surface activity in the lee of the island, which turned out to be chopper tailor. They were biting on almost anything you threw at them, with lots of missed strikes until you finally hooked one. Had to keep moving to keep up with them moving about and us drifting around. I didnt get a single photo as I was too busy driving, directing the boys, removing fish, rigging lines and occasionally replacing the couple of plastics and catching a few myself. Between the 5 of use I reckon we caught and released about 30-40 chopper tailor which were fun on the light gear, only got 2 that were legal. Looked like we were going to get drenched by the storm but it stayed west and only slightly dampened us on the way back. Cheers

Blackfish has correctly identified the strange beast. Thanks Gordon. "Your critter is called a Swimming Sea Anemone 'Phlyctenactis tuberculosa' http://www.woodbridge.tased.edu.au/MDC/Spe...emone.htm" Largest anemone seen in southern Australian waters. Moves rapidly either by crawling or drifting with the current. During the day it looks like a bag of baked beans but at night moves onto plant fronds to catch drifting food. Though mine looked more like the one in this photo at the time http://www.acfonline.org.au/articles/news....=942&c=5504 They appear to be fairly common and come in a wide range of different colours if you look up images on google. I might put it in for COTM, its certainly better than the few yakkas I caught that day and was fairly caught with a frog & 3/0 combination . Cheers

Diver1, I had the Happy Moment, tarwhine and a leather jacket for dinner tonight. Skinned the HM fillets and fried each separetly in a pan with olive spread (no butter on hand) and teamed up with salt/pepper and squeeze of lime. I reckon the HM was quite nice, has a fairly tight/meaty texture and I reckon nicer than the other two. If I catch a decent size will keep next time but will bware the spines as i dont want to enjoy the un-happy moment. Maybe the meaning for happy moment is "nice eating fish but the happy moment was realizing I did not spike myself" Cheers

Josh - They were a soft squishy but were tightly held around the centre, no apparent wriggly things inside, extracting the 3/0 took a bit of effort and broke a couple open but just a red/black content. Appeared to be a cluster of eggs, not seaweed. Blackfish - Dont think it was any type of anemone, had no sign of tentacles etc. I hooked it from a weedbed, when released it sank back down. I actually thought I had hooked some taxi drivers beaded seat cover when i first saw it ! Will have to send photo to museum/marine expert to identify ? I love the amusing replies, cheers

You are correct Saltrix, it is a Tarwhine, didnt really look at it closely or note the cavity when cleaning. The swell didnt have me feeling the best either so didnt take much thought to come back to calmer waters. Diver, I dont think I would bother with the Happy moments too much after this one, just on the off chance of spiking. Looked a good size but the fillet is not as big as you would expect. Might be todays lunch. Cheers

Ventured out off Terrigal this arvo with my 16 yr old son and his mate for a quiet fish. With a good swell, my young bloke got seasick within a half hour (with me not far behind) so ventured back into the Haven for some calmer water. Sons mate spotted a black fin breaking the surface while outside but we lost track of it and couldnt recognise it, possibly small shark. Inside, my young bloke managed a nice pb tarwhine ( not a bream as I first indicated) of about 27cm and his mate a large happy moment (rabbitfish). Lost a few more bream on the size 6 hooks while catching yakkas. The happy moment was almost "unhappy" as I went to lift it straight into the boat on handline & size 6 (before realising what it was) and had it drop onto the transom near my feet - no one got spiked thankfully. Carefully filleted the happy at home to give it a try, they have a large gut cavity though, so the large fish didnt provide quite an equivalent size fillet (see photo). Cheers

Anyone recognise what these are ? And no they are not "frogs eggs" lol Brought them in while fishing in about 15' of water in the Haven at Terrigal. Appeared to be a cluster of some sort of eggs, I presume got hooked by my plastic from a weed bed. Each one is about the size of a baked bean. Cheers

Nice fish Jig, great way to see out year. Was that 3 fish ? the top photo is a much bigger fish insnt it ? Cheers & a happy New Year