Jaso

I often wonder how larger boats at night avoid running into those buoys or traps.. I would imagine the co-ordinates of the wave riders and fads are published, but surely they would be a danger to people who were not in the know..

Mate that would be great if you could post some pics. I went through my user manual on the weekend, but couldn't find where to set the 'ping' frequency.. i found the chart speed no problem.. is there another sensitivity setting for 'ping'? Cheers.

Here's mine: 4.2mtr 2002 Stacer Seahorse with 40Hp at the back, and some battery powered thrust at the front

Are fly clips the same as the tiny snap clips (or snap swivels that don't have the actual swivel bit)? I tried them on my hardbodies (size 1 and 2) but found that they are unbalanced and made it seem like my lures were detuned (they would swim to one side). So I do the loop knot - but let me just say it took a while to practice. Needs to be followed to the letter otherwise the loop closes as the knot tightens.

I don't have digital cam of my own (apart from dodgy phone cam) so hadnt got around to taking/posting pics of my boat until today. I bought a 2nd hand 4.2mtr 2002 Stacer Seahorse last November.. when I bought it, it had a flat floor in it, 40hp on the back. I'd previously owned a small boat with forward steering and I really wanted more fishing/casting space if I was getting another smaller boat, so I went for tiller steer this time so I could use all the space in the middle. The 40Hp gets the boat going pretty well.. I wanted something to handle the chop a bit better than my previous small boat, so I went for a 'deep V' style boat rather than a punt. However I also wanted to be able to chase fish, but it would mean I had to do some work to it to get put an electric on the front. I didnt have the cash to spend on a boat that already had loads of features like platforms and underfloor storage.. So I did a few upgrades myself, took a few risks and bought the leckie and sounder in the US, got some mates rates on marine ply etc, and a big thanks go to Ozy and to PM'ing back and forth on how he fixed up his previous deep v boat (another reason to show why communities like this make a difference to people with common interests!) I ended up putting a casting platform up the front, and platforms down the back, and an electric on the front. Its turned out very well, and I'm real pleased because Im not that handy, but it's come together well, and it makes such a big difference having the electric motor on the front being able to position the boat to get actively chase fish around structure. Here's the pics: The boat.. The leckie (MK RT55) and front platform.. There was a foam rubber cushion stuck onto the front thwart, so I cut a section out of it and marine carpeted the thwart and platform so you could stand on the middle of the thwart also Cut 3 sections for the rear platforms so I could get to the storage, and marine carpeted those also I took a piece of carpeted marine ply out of the back of the boat and used it as the mounting point for a sounder bracket - I had the aluminium bracket made for me by a relative (who is good at that stuff) and mounted the quick release sounder bracket to it (Humminbird Matrix 37). It works well so you can swivel the sounder screen if you are on the front platform also.

Thats the problem - got it! The first time I turned it on I thought to myself, 'why wouldnt I want to speed up the refresh rate by turning the scroll speed up?' ...i think this would be the reason.. Cheers

My noodle is a 5ft6in shimano kmart special, with a plastic kmart shimano reel to match, and the best low quality no name mono line money can buy. Its been dropped in the sand, saltwater, and been treated like absolute you-know-what. Unbelievably in one session at the western wedding cake it did land me 2 legal size kingfish, and nearly got me another! I had the drag at tight as my fingers could twist it, but the fish still took line, and the rod didnt snap! At the end of that day I looked at the mono and it was actually fraying and fuzzy from the heat from the guides! Amazing! Here's another form of noodling by some guys that do not have any idea how to use their noodles..

Thats great thanks.. it sounds similar to me which is encouraging I did see one arch come up when i first turned it on in the water, and the weed indication you mention now I remember it comes up the same. Do you (or anyone else) know if putting it on the freshwater setting would make the readings show as fish more often for smaller species? I read in the manual that the freshwater setting is more for realism as saltwater species tend to be larger.. just wondering if anyone has tried this?

I've got a Humminbird Matrix 37 and I've used it once, but Im unsure whether the readings I'm getting are ok, or if there are some tweaks I can make. Eg: There was a huge school of bait pretty tight, and close to the surface all around my boat, but I only got a tiny reading of the school on the screen. Also, I did not see many 'arcs' or fish images all day, but i did catch fish so i know they were there. To be fair I wasnt watching the screen all the time (and I didnt set the alarm) I was fishing, but it just seemed a bit odd ot me. Also, if there is weed, how should the reading for the bottom look? The reading I was getting over the ribbon weed was a broken and patchy bottom (like a misread), over sand it appeared to be ok. Once again Im assuming this is normal - but just want to check I'm unsure if its showing moving targets ok. Is it a valid assumption to make that if its showing the bottom ok then in theory it should show fish (including bait balls) ok also? thanks..

I bought some zoom and lunker city tiny flukes when i was in the US in Jan. The albino and 'ice shad' colours have been giving me the results. They are the same shape as a bass minnow but smaller at 2 and 2.5inches. Im starting to worry about supplies as I have gone through a few, but I think Im going back to the US in May - I will be driving the 5hr round trip to visit the Bass Pro shop without hesitation

well done mate - sounds like a great time. Great pic - that fish has beautiful clean colour to it.

I went down to the weigh in to have a look. A couple of pics on the dodgy phone cam The hardware lineup at the weigh in Was a pleasure to watch this one swim away

Yeah.. Im surprised its come out in the media this hard this late. QX has been a growing problem in the Hawkesbury for quite some time now, and already destroyed the livelyhood of farmers. QX impacts the Sydney Rock Oyster only it seems. QX does not impact some other popular varieties of oyster, and farmers are beginning to farm other varieties. It is however quite sad that the days of the Sydney Rock Oyster as we know them are numbered..

Is there info posted on the boater/non boater pairings for today, and also what time the weigh in occurs each day? Im keen to head down to Bayview and have a look, but I cant seem to find that info anywhere

Sorry for the delayed response.. I'd posted a bit over a week ago on catching pike/squid in the basin so it was probably my original post u were referring to.. works been a killer and I wish I'd read your post sooner I've seen and caught squid at the basin a couple of times now. Where they've been before: - If you go in towards the shark net for the lagoon theres a very distinct dropoff - Facing the sharknet, at the dropoff point, they've been in the weedbeds to the lefthand side.. they are usually around the dropoff point and have been easy to spot Like Rick T says they do follow and can be drawn in with other lures so if you dont see them or have success with a jig immediately try throwing some SPs around In saying that I was there 2 weeks ago and found none - I was talking to a local that day and he had not seen them around for a week or so. I did however have some fun with the pike in there on SPs... Lost a few tails but had fun sight casting at them. They are at the same spot as I described for the squid.

Its on today but at a different time than last week according to the tv guide (on ninemsn.com) .. 1pm, not 2:30pm today. I watched the show last week but I have to admit 1 segment doing the same stuff (even tho it was a mad session) made me a bit bored.. I'd rather see a few different spots in each show.

..and if you used the 300yard packs thats approximately 4800 double uni knots you'd have to tie..

good info - always wondered where that was

Ok may sound like a dumb question but what's 'whiteline' (and what does it do for you)? Also - why keep it on fresh? Cheers

Finally got the tinny out on Sunday after a couple of days of waiting for the swell to die down. Put in at Patonga ramp on the BB side and motored across to Pittwater.. swell at that stage was not too bad. Headed into the Basin as I had scored the past couple of times I had been there, and started flicking an atomic fat grub around in the shallows. The squid have been there the past couple of times and have been drawn in on the small plastics previously.. but they were not there Sunday. I was pretty puzzled because I had seen them there consistently before.. Anyway it didnt take long before I started to hook up. I was surprised when the first fish that came aboard was a stinky pike.. then the 2nd.. then the 3rd!!! They were fun, but not the kind I was hoping for. Eventually I scored a couple of nice bream. 1 on the fat grub, but also another on an albino zoom tiny fluke. In the end, 4 pike and 2 bream which I was happy about for a couple of hours in the morning.. provided some fun. Also, I tried out my new sounder (Matrix 37) and would appreciate some advice on what level of sensitivity is generally pretty reasonable.. I switched it to saltwater mode (defaults to fresh) but unsure if there are other settings that I should put it at to get a better performance generally. Any tips would be much appreciated.

Hornsby Shire Council perform water quality sampling at Crosslands 5 times per month (at least once per week). They also sample twice per month at the sewerage treatment plant upstream usually in the 2nd week of every month (once per month), and at the galston gorge bridge (where calna creek joins berowra creek). They also sample at the other treatment facilities that have outflow into the estuary systems. It is all tertiary treated. You could drink it in theory but you wouldnt risk it. The sampling data is freely available from the council if you call the water catchments team, and they also have an interactive map on their website showing where they sample: HSC Water Catchments I dont think they've updated it with Crosslands, as they have just started resampling there recently.

I was introducing a mate to catching flatties on soft plastic lures.. he's the camera man.. I grabbed the camera from him when the jelly prawn squidgy fish got him onto his first sp flattie!

i wondered about whether that would show up.. i guess it did! I said it didnt get any easier. It was a superb morning to be casting a line at dawn into that hole opposite the caravan park.. Here's another from the 'walking on water' collection

It doesnt get any easier than this

Yes - I will be there at Easter (we should aim to head out in my craft)! I didnt actually head to Umina last weekend hence nil contact on the Byronphone midweek - launched from Bayview. Incidentally I didnt realise there were ticket machines for parking required at Bayview (having never launched there prior). I ended up having to ask another fisho for some change so I could avoid rude shocks when i came back from fishing. Im not going to the social but for others that are going who have not launched from Bayview prior it may be worth a mention (if not done already - must admit Ive not gone thru the whole 8 pages worth of social posts looking).