copafisher

494.. and one diary entry so far Copafisher

Thanks Ray, I recalled there was another but could not remember it at the time. I have not looked MHL up for a while. I have organised and saved to my favs now. Funny enough I was looking for it again just before I read your post, as I am hoping to get out in Brisbane waters tomorrow. I find the Real Time Data & NSW Offshore Wave Heights better as it puts a mark for Sydney and includes some extra data. They also have a graph at http://www.mhl.nsw.gov.au/htbin/wave_temp_...Location=Sydney. Cheers again

Seabreeze has temps though I think they are from BOM anyway. Try http://www.seabreeze.com.au/graphs/nsw_seatemp.asp Looks like surface temps are set to be 20-21, looking better as long as the NE dont bring up cold water. Steve

ADZ There is a site for all NSW laws but you need to know a bit about how to find & read the Acts and Regulations. Maritime has a Link to the relevant Legislation on its website http://www.waterways.nsw.gov.au/other.html# but its not easy to use. See http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/maintop/.../inforce/NONE/0 and look at section "Regulations etc inforce" & under "W" "Water Traffic Regulations—N.S.W". There seems to quite a bit of legislation for waterways, licences, drugs & alcohol etc which does make it confusing. I would say you were done under Water Traffic Regulations—N.S.W, Regulation 11.(13) (a) If any registrable vessel is on any navigable waters and is unregistered: (i) the owner of such vessel shall be guilty of an offence against this regulation, and The fines are set out in the Schedules at the end of the legislation, the good news for you, it does appear to be only $80, which does seem pretty cheap given similar motor traffic legislation and fines. ( Schedule 2 Prescribed offences and penalties for the purposes of section 30D of the Maritime Services Act 1935, 11 (13) (a) 80). Usually they talk about fines in terms of penalty points (just to make it a little harder), but in this case they actually give the cost in dollars. copafisher

I thought the same with mine albert, after an hour with 2 100+kg guys trying to move it , I figured it was only going to move with a bit of persuasion (and a bit of hardwood to protect the end). I had also liberally applied WD40 the night before and during our struggles but it didnt help, once I got it started it tapped through pretty easy. Hardest bit was actually breaking all the hardened crud off the inside of the tilt tube. Like you I now add a bit of extra grease after the trip, after cleaning off the old stuff. Steve

Hi Ray, Occasionally see them off Copa too. 26 years ago when I came up to Terrigal courting the missus, I used to occasionally see a bloke off Wamberal on a sailboard. He must have been a bit of a extreme sports fan, cause you would see him out when the big storms would come in, rocketing across the bay and getting lots of air off the big waves .

Congrats diver, some nice fish there. If you dont mind me asking what rigs/line (plastics/colour/heads ?) were you using and rough whereabouts ? Cheers

Gidday, Had a spare hour today after going into Gosford so I thought I might give the rockwall near Iguanas a try cause it was close and convenient parking and access. Used a 1/4 oz head and some squidgies and only got a few small strikes, which kept me interested, thinking the next one might be something decent. Mind you it was around 10-11:00am so I wasnt expecting much. Wasnt a bad way to destress for an hour or two, the shag kept me company for a while and caught more than I did. Tight lines

Hey Jon, I had the same problem not so long ago. If you search using %steering% and copafisher its not too hard to find my initial post. There are others too. Simple answer is to undo the smaller nuts either side and use a piece of wood to protect your steering cable end while you tap it through. Dont remove the large nuts as they hold the tilt tube in place and form the hinge for your engine, if you tap it out you could drop the engine off the hinge/boat. Once the cable is out give it a good clean and regrease it. Mine had a thin layer of hardened grease & salt. I used some really fine wet and dry to break it up it up, you will need to clean inside the tilt tube & the outside and inside tubes of the steering cable. I will have to pull mine apart again as I could not clean all the crap out from inside the tilt tube, even with brass shotgun cleaning brush & drill. If you have a grease nipple on the tilt tube it doesnt actually get grease inside the tube, it only lubricates the hinge itself that tilts the motor. As jewgaffer said move it back and formward everytime you go past and schedule a clean every so often, once you have done it once its pretty straight forward. See photo before I cleaned mine up. Cheers Steve

Get a copy of the book, costs about $15. Really clear and easy to read but I still have to experiment with settings etc while reading my manual to get a clearer understanding of what I am seeing. When swapping between fish symbols & arches I dont seem to get arches, mind you I am not sure the symbols are real fish anyway. Will have to find some real fish & vary the settings/readings, takes a bit of understanding. Good luck Steve

I use BOM, Seabreeze and http://www.coastalwatch.com. BOM & seabreeze gives broader view, coastalwatch has better beach/close offshore. I found BOM was not always detailed enough, Seabreeze seems good. Coastal has cameras also so I can check swell etc without leaving home, but has limited camera coverage. Cheers, Steve

Nice catch Ray, what colour minnows were you using ? What size flounder ? I have never caught a large flounder and found the ones I have caught a bit on the skinny side, personaly I prefer a flattie or tailor over a flounder, the flounder I have caught and eaten seem to be more bone than fillet whereas even smaller flatties have a nice chunky fillet. The flounder tasted good but I have decided to throw smaller/skinny ones back. Steve

".....haha i cant wait to screw around my kids by telling them things like that..." The only one I can remember and still use to this day with kids, teenagers & even adults, is one dad used on us. Gets them nearly all the time. "Grandads axe - its been in the family for 40years, its had 10 handles and 2 heads." I know some kids, who have taken years to work it out

Looked much the same all day today Ray despite the strong winds. Terrigal was blown out severely with very strong NE, amazing difference from one beach to the next. Took the dog for a walk early this morning and regretted not taking a rod & some plastics. Saw Noel & a couple of others out tonight for the full moon. I was going to see how theyre going but i am having an early night. Cheers

Hey Ray, Did you get any hits ? I would expect flatties, bream & whiting but have not heard of anything much off the beach lately or ever had much luck myself. When I first saw your post I thought you might have been among those on the rocks this morning, there were unusually quite a few visible from the whale platform about 8:30am. I had a quick check this morning for gutters, the beach seems to have lost a bit of sand and lost the gutters it had near the lake. I was outside potting up some tomatoes for the missus this arvo, the wind seemed to be pretty strong at times, did it give you any troubles on the beach. Cheers Steve

Got home Friday night to the news my 15yr old son (deckie) was working Sat morning. After some discussion with the , she agreed I could go fishing by my self (I had indicated earlier in the week, that Saturday was the day after waiting for weeks for decent weather), so she would have to get up early and drive him to work at 7:00 instead of me. Didnt start to well, as I got up at 6:00 with a bad headache (no, it wasnt the ) and had to wait till Kerry & Peter cleared till I could it all together by myself. Took off from Sth Kincumber about 9:30 and made hast (at mostly 4-8 knots due to the zonings, out to Box Head to get some livies). By the time I got there it didnt appear to be looking good, what with all the other boats coming in, the wind/chop/swell picking up and out past Broken Bay it looked like the forcast late weather change was coming in early. Decided to skip the livies and give it a try anyway. The swell was from the North (as Ray R has indicated) and about 1.5-2m as I left BBay. I changed plans from Boultons to West reef, as being by myself I figured if I had to make a rush back a following swell rather than sideways + wind/storm would be safer & nicer. What with the headache still persisting (breakfast included a couple of panadol/codeine and the last ginger tablet ) the swell had me a bit . Dropped some baits but decided after about an hour with no bites to go back in to more sheltered waters, leaving a small berley trail just as I was about to leave (I was fine till I started to look down a lot). Ended up drifting Half tide to Lobster for flatties for about 2 hrs, only picking up 1 small throwback (no pics yet camera wont download). Then tried the big hole on the west of the Rip with one of my big squid (I often get "big fish" on the sounder here and figured after reading up to turn off fish symbols and try different sounder settings while I was out by myself). I had one take but struck early (sorry Jewgaffer I forgot your jewfish advice) and only lost the squid head/guts (happened before here too), the 2nd take slow and found it was a bloody eel so cut him off before he wrapped himself all the way up onto the rod itself. Just before leaving I had a great, but fortunate, "funniest home videos moment" when I stepped up onto the rear seat and transom to empty my remaining squid bits & liquid off the back, rather than down the side of the boat. Just as I was stepping up on the transom a rogue wake wave rocked the boat and I fell back onto the esky/drivers seat and floor on my back with the bucket emptying its water inside . After extricating myself from the floor I found the squid bits & guts thankfully stayed in the bucket and no apparent injuries . Note to self - be more careful next time. Motored back home through a seriously choked Saratoga/Davistown/Cochrane Ck. A number of sand bars & the Creek etc had the sounder alarm (I have set to 3ft) going off. They seriously need to stop & do some dredging etc throughout Brisbane Waters through to Lobster, the number of extra warning bouys and shallow depths is in parts quite dangerous, so keep a good lookout if you use these waters . Not sure why but I seem to find the area around the entrance to BB has worse swell than Terrigal/Copa, I reckon it funnels it up bigger here as the depth decreases. Has anyone else noticed this ? Bye

I reckon Ian needs a bigger fish holder, the one hes using doesnt look big enough for it to fit into Nice looking rigs stickface

The office (not mine unfortunately) overlooks Hyde park, Domain etc and we have a view from the Opera House through to the Heads and eastern suburbs, so I get a good view of the harbour if I go around and have a look. It did look really good today, though it seemed there were only a few boats out . If reckon if I borrow a theodlite and check bearings & distances I could probably map all the spot X's with enough time, just from working out were the boats always anchor (though I dont fish in Sydney harbour). Quite depressing really when it is such a great day & you are stuck in the office Tomorrow, tomorrow......looks even better

They even say it twice.. "Note: Brisbane Water, and a portion of Broken Bay (enclosed by a line from Little Box Head to Green Point) is permanently closed to the use of all nets and traps (except the dip or scoop net, landing net and bait trap) by virtue of Schedule 2 of the Fisheries NB. Brisbane Water, and a portion of Broken Bay (enclosed by a line from Little Box Head to Green Point) is permanently closed to the use of all nets and traps (except the dip or scoop net, landing net and bait trap) by virtue of Schedule 2 of the Fisheries Management (General) Regulation 2002. Schedule 4 of the Regulation also makes it unlawful to use spears, spear guns or similar devices to take fish from waters of Brisbane Water and that portion of Broken Bay.Management (General) Regulation 2002. Schedule 4 of the Regulation also makes it unlawful to use spears, spear guns or similar devices to take fish from waters of Brisbane Water and that portion of Broken Bay." I though bait traps were banned too, but appear OK now. Poddie time for a livy or two me thinks . Now I just have to find it .

I know what you mean Ray, I have been dieing to get out off Terrigal and have a poke around to catch a snapper or some kings. Saturday morning looks more promising according to Seabreeze. Now if I can get my young bloke out of bed to crew and convince the I need a break after all this bad weather & rain I just might have a chance. Will you & Hutch go from Terrigal or out through Broken bay ? Ta Steve

Nice Sambo Ray, good to see someone can actually catch a decent size fish from Eulalia. I have only ever caught baby bream & squire from there, I launch the boat there fairly often now. From your pics I would say he came in with the tide, looks like a high tide to me. Love the clear photos, what camera do you use ? Steve

Maybe something like this, thats what the 700l of fuels is for

Have you tried Nortons Basin (at the junction of Warragamba & Nepean) ? Not sure if its legal now but you used to get trout etc there 30 years ago when I was bushwalking through there. I imagine with no river flow it would be very quiet though. Steve

Slinky, Lol - you didnt mention those that provide large houseboats etc to enable additional home comforts, music, lounges, beds, alcohol, BBQ's etc enabling a more enjoyable fishing experience. Sounds like the is in on this consipracy also , in an attempt to take over another of mans past times. I had heard a hairtail or two were caught (do dar do dar do ), has Mulder and Scully been notified. Copa