livo

Looks good and they have a different prediction again. I guess that makes it a good day to see which one gets it right. Actually they just updated there forecast while I was putting this reply up. Interesting to note that the Bureau forecast now includes a strong wind warning in this mornings update and they've lifted their maximum prediction to 20/25 knots. Anyhow I'm out there.

Well done. I'm hoping they're on the mark about tomorrow. If they are it should be a great day out. Looking forward to lots of good posts.

Took the youngen's out after lunch today for a bit of a float around. Did the Flathead Beach drift a couple of times and got small Flatties, undersize reds and live bait size tailor about 6" long all in less than half an hour. Everything was nailing those little Bluebait (miniature pillies to me). Missed a couple of good touches as well. The daughter caught the first keeper flattie at about 45 cm then turned green and lost lunch. She wasn't going to recover so we went back in and pumped some pink nippers as the tide hade dropped. Only got half a dozen then over to mosquito bay for a couple more baby reds. Called it a day after 4 hours. When asked did she want to eat her flattie, which incidently is her favourite fish, the answer was no. So having kept it alive in the bait tank we released it. Had we been able to stay I'm pretty sure more flatties would have ended up in the tank and I wouldn't have asked whether or not to keep them. I'd be eating Tempura flathead pieces instead of mixed grill tonight. Kids are off to Pony Club tomorrow with mum so my day is all mine and I haven't unhooked the boat. After all, what's the point?

Yeh. Good one. Double or nothing?

I'm taking bets on which service has tomorrows (Sunday) ocean wind forecasts correct. Sydney Weekend Boating forecast says N/NE all day increasing in the afternoon to 15/20 knots. Seabreeze says NW/NNW all day decreasing in the afternoon to 10 knots. What do you think? It makes a big difference if your planning a trip to the FADS in a 16 footer.

That's good water there although it might have been green on the day. I reckon you could catch anything there at times. Cobia have been caught in Brisbane Water around Woy Woy Bridge and in Paddys Channel and these spots are much further from open ocean than D'Albora at Nelsons Bay. I once watched some kids spinning up heaps of baby kings there. Little ones only about 40 cm long but heaps of them.

Wildfish, read the post before you blast off mate. I did not claim to be a truck driver. I said I have a heavy vehicle license and I have had cause to use it. I was explaining the situation from the other side and not excusing bad driving. Put yourself in charge if 20 tonnes of vehicle and freight and have an idiot in a Hyundai lodge themself in your glide path. What do you do?

You guys have not read my reply. The truck driver was definately in the wrong. He did an illegal U-turn on a stretch of road that I assume is ridiculous. It could have been nasty and I'm not trying to excuse that. But Hazard Lights are Hazard lights and I ask other heavy vehicle license holders to confirm that the average "Car driver" has no idea what they mean. By the way I'm an Industrial Arts School Teacher and a Truck driver occaisionally.

I've caught the odd one from the beach when targeting Tailor right on dark and just after if that helps.

Mate, I don't know about Great Whites. My mates and I surfed it for years and me and my father used to deliberately burley up sharks for sport with dehydrated blood from the Abatoirs on a drift from Little Box to Lion Island. The biggest thing we ever got was a Bronze Whaler that was nearly as big as our 12 ft Quintrex Deluxe. Cured my sea sickness immediatley. Still I suppose that's big enough to bite you. My mates were surfing the Box when we hooked it out in the middle of the bay. They did find a sick and dying baby White Pointer caught up in the mud flats at Gosford a few years back so it had to go in through there but I've never seen a report of anyone catching one from Umina Beach. I do remember a time in the late 1960's when a large shark caused problems at Umina / Ocean Beach Surf Clubs and my dad and another guy named Ken Nowlands rigged up a 44 gallon drum float with chain and a meat hook baited up with a lump of pork and the whole thing dissappeared. They never found any of it and the shark never came back. Sounds like Jaws I know but it's a true story.

Some where caught last week but not many and only small plus the guys who got them had to move from spot to spot as they got shy when there mates started dissappearing.

If you look closely at the kayak photo you can detect a definite line across it between the shark and the Kayaker where the water color changes from light to dark in a straight line suggesting stitching. The surface markings on the water, however, are very convincing although one guy at work reckons the bow wave of the shark is too far ahead of it to be accepted. I wasn't sure. My view is that it's probably doctored but very well done. I'd like to see it sourced from original.

I have re read your post and by all accounts it would appear that the truck driver is obviously at fault I am unfamiliar with the stretch of road, however, I will emphasize the fact that most and nearly all car drivers have no idea about what to do when a truck displays Hazards. I'll check the RTA website to see what the car driver license requirements are in relation to this. Also as boaties, most of us, we remember having to pass a test to obtain our license and this test included recognition of boat lighting configuration from Port, Starboard, Astern and Ahead and course adjustment accordingly. It's not too much to understand what Hazard lights mean. All I can say is if you see HAZARD LIGHTS, expect a hazard and slow down. 1 minute lost is better than a life. Glad to hear that no child or anyone else was injured as a result. Lucky you weren't towing a boat.

Without being there I can't explain fully what happened and your right in as much as the driver should not have left the scene, however as a licensed heavy vehicle driver I will point out the rules in relation to Hazard Lights when displayed on a heavy vehicle. If you see a heavy vehicle with hazard lights on it means you must slow down and prepare to stop as it usually means that they are about to use more of the road than usual. This is the only way trucks can pull out and then reverse into delivery driveways. With many years of experience I have almost cleaned up several car drivers who ignore Hazard Lights or simply don't know what they mean when displayed on a truck. I know other drivers who have had cars slam into them. You must understand that with some trucks the only rear view is in mirrors and they are not without blind spots. You chose to drive past a truck displaying Hazards at 60km/hr. Did it occur to you to slow down?

Putty Beach right up the Eastern end of Kilcare. Called Fishos corner. You may need to buy a NSW National Parks ticket if your there in business hours but I usually fish there after they're home in bed, and having fished it for 20 years free, it's hard to pay. Good catches of tailor on dark from March through Easter. Jew are known to frequent. Have caught some beaut Lizards there as well. Occaisionaly you get monstered by little Bronze Whalers. Plenty of fun to be had down there and the North East wind blows from your back.

The best Poddy trap I ever used was one I made in about an hour out of some black gutter gaurd plastic mesh. No reflected sunlight to put them off. Two squares for the ends with a 2 inch diameter hole in the middle and crudely fashioned funnels pointing inwards. Four rectangular shaped pieces with the top one hinged and clipped into place with clothes pegs. The whole thing is stitched together with some decent sort of fishing line like 30 lb or so. A bit of snapper lead in the bottom and bread inside used to catch more than I could use in no time. Beats the telescopic clear plastic model from the shop every time. Other successful models are *the top loader describred in earlier post although the one I used was made from a large clear plastic salad bowl that lost??? and flyscreen gauze secured with a large elastic band, *and if you can cut them the old 4 ft fluorescent light tube with one end cut off. Poddy swim in but no reverse. They jam in like sardines. My mother used to have one of those crazy old glass cutters used to make things out of old beer bottles and the like and me & the old boy used it to cut one end off the tubes.

Mark, where would you launch or be able to be picked up and what time?

Well bugger me if that cold puddle from Broken Bay to Nelson Bay hasn't doubled in size again in 48 hrs. Still it's better than it has been and it may have a differential temp affect which is favourable as one game hunter pointed out. And yes there are finally Dolphin Fish at the FADS or so I'm led to believe by a friend who's "seen them" and "caught" a couple. Don't know whether I'll get out there tomorrow morning or not yet but I'm sure someone will. So Looking forward to a report or two. Good luck.

That's what people will be hoping for. I have heard of a couple of large ones (over 10 kg) being sighted and taken from within their own domain last weekend. Hi Bazza if your reading this. Greg

I think Broken Bay is OK. The Green puddle is futher north at Lake Macquarie / Swansea and south from there to around Norah Head. It's changing all the time but the picture is at least showing up a general warming of what has been very cold water for the most part of summer.

Have a look at this image. Warm Water

22 km due east from rounding Box Head. Been very quiet though. There are nowhere near as many kings in Broken Bay as there are in the Harbour. Different water altogether with the river running into it and also trawling going on. I don't think anyone is keeping secrets so much as not catching fish.

OK. Did you feed him?

That will be great. We didn't see much being cleaned at the ramp at about 3.00pm. One poor sorry guy was cleaning a bucket of sweep. A couple of fellas we spoke to went north to start and moved around for nothing until finally getting a couple of keeper reds at T Wide. Missed seeing what a charter cleaned just before we returned to shore but the big esky wasn't heavy as one guy was carrying it on his own. They'll be back.

Take a litre per Km or 2 per Nautical Mile in fair conditions. Then double it to allow for trolling around, moving around a bit etc. So if your FAD is 20 kms from the ramp take at least 80 litres. To be safe and allow for a slow zig zag run home triple it. If I was in your boat I'd take at least 120 litres for such a trip. I use 50 litres plus for an 80 km round trip and about 2 hours trolling and 40 kms of that is in flat non ocean water from ramp to Box Head, running with a 70 HP in a 16 ft Seafarer solo. Fill her up mate and take what you can carry. No fuel out there.