fragmeister

Thanks Donna & Stewie for finding a way to keep this site going and moving forward. Welcome to Mike and crew at Deckee. Cheers Jim

Good work Ojay. Another great video. Cheers Jim

That's interesting... I have done some carp fishing but never caught one on a lure even as a by catch of spinning for say redfin or trout. I am guessing that with the greater numbers with food at a premium they turn to more aggressive feeding. Cheers and thanks for sharing. Jim

Sounds like a lot of fun in the new boat. Was the king in your burley trail? If so they will get very suspicious if they can see a hook in the bait especially if they are close to the surface... if you bury it in the bait completely and you have a fluorocarbon leader then that will often take in if they are already picking bits out of the burley trail. Cheers Jim

I don't think you should pick that location if you were specifically targeting them but marlin have been caught around the FADS, from Long Reef and off South and North Head and probably a lot more locations. I spotted one of South Head close to the artificial reef last year. Cheers Jim

Fantastic effort!

Hi Neil All the best... you better celebrate by going fishing! Cheers Jim

Hi Sam, Not sure how the currents are at the moment but the Sydney FAD gets some pretty strong currents running past it. The Botany Fad is not such a problem. As far as whether the Dollies are around at the moment I don't know... haven't heard much news Good luck when you venture out. Its no big deal as long a you are sensible about what weather you go out in. Cheers Jim

Cheers to that Neil!

Another fine effort Fabian. Cheers Jim

Thanks for asking Neil... I am doing ok...struggling a bit with work at the moment so I don't have any time for much else. ... but I have an exit strategy for semi retirement starting next year so if that all works out you may see a fishing report every couple of days from me! Woo Hoo! Cheers Jim

Great read! Thanks Neil. Cheers Jim

Thanks Fabian, Excellent explanation and it makes complete sense. Cheers Jim

Thanks Fabian, I suspected that you would find this post eventually and help me out! That all makes sense. What I have been finding is that there ends up being over spray of "dry-ish" paint on the margins of the blend. Can I just buff those out? Cheers and thanks again. Jim

Hmmm... so no painters out there?

LOL! To be honest I am thinking about the resale value. I am thinking of selling boat and buying one a little more ocean going. BTW... I think that last line describes me... except it's 58 and falling apart from over use!

Hi Raiders, About 12 months ago I fixed up some blistering paint on my Quintrex. The paint was blistered so I sanded it back to bare metal and used some etch primer followed by Telwater White all straight out of the can. The result was and remains excellent but the area was on a corner of the boat rather than on a large flat surface so it was easy to mask off and blend in. The boat had a few bubbling paint issues inside the first 5 months and the dealer fixed these for me at no charge and they have not resurfaced 3 years later. Similarly, the one I fixed has also, at least after 12 months, has not suffered any problems. I now want to tackle some other blistering on some larger surfaces and as I am happy with the result straight our of the can I would like to continue this way as I touch up a few small areas. So I have a question for those more experienced than myself. Is there a way of blending small areas on larger flat panels so you don't have to respray the whole area? Your help would be much appreciated. Cheers Jim

Also lighter line means less diameter and it will be better for distance casting which is often important in the surf depending on where the gutters are. In my view heavier diameter nylon line does have advantages in the surf as it is is less likely to tangle with your sinker in the wash than braid for example but as long as you keep some tension on the line this is generally not an issue. Cheers Jim

I am in favour of the Saragossa too. There is a lot of common technology taken from the Stella range but without the cost. Cheers Jim

25 percent is way too high a rate to charge a wet cell lead acid battery. You can achieve higher with other lead acid batteries such as gel batteries. As far as I am aware ( I worked with Excide Batteries when I was in the Materials Handling Industry) there is no real impact on battery life from using very low charge current. You are correct that it is very difficult to find information regarding charging a battery too slowly and that's probably because it not really a problem and people don't write articles about things that are not a problem. If you want to charge a battery you should have a quality charger. Poor quality chargers or chargers not designed for lead acid batteries are a greater danger because they may not regulate correctly through the 3 stages of battery charging. So, if you accept that you should be using a decent battery charger then they are almost certainly going to be at least a 3 Amp capacity and therefor the whole issue about whether the charge current is potentially too low is gone. BTW. Let me know if you need a battery charger as I may have a spare one hanging around. Cheers Jim

Lots of good comments here and I agree with many of them. Having fished JB regularly many years ago would tend to agree with Squidmarks about leader and line rating but also to some degree with JonD in that it can be tough hanging onto a long rod with a loaded drag and an angry Kingy on the end of your line. I believe many of the old LBG spots in JB such as The Tubes are now off limits but in the past this was a top location for Kings, amongst other species. Off the rocks you simply had to go heavy as possible and really put some hurt on big fish. Wedge yourself in the rock, get someone to hang on to you but unless the kings runs straight out to sea ( which they rarely do) then you will get busted off in seconds. We are talking 15Kg plus fish on a regular basis. As the best example I can think of check out the guys on Big Angry Fish for their approach to Big Kings off the rocks.Check our their web site and see how different the approach is to harbour kings on the flats. It certainly is different to Kings on the flats where they do let the Kings run a little and are easier on the drag. The same thing applies to boats of course when you can have a little water depth to work with. As a matter of interest the approach at The Tubes to Yellow Fin in particular was very different - these fish can strip off 500meters or more of line off in a single run without an issue and with that amount of line out the actual applied drag on the fish is impacted by the resistance of the line in the water and the mechanical advantage the fish has as the reel's spool becomes more empty. Getting reefed is less of problem than simple getting busted off because you didn't back of the drag as the fish took more line. Having said all that I do understand JohnD's experience as I think Kings tend to pull harder if you pull harder so with light line and less drag you may get them up higher in the water column early where the structure is less of an issue. Cheers Jim

Hi, The 10% rule for wet lead acid batteries is all about making sure that the battery is not damaged through excessive heat which causes plate warping, electrolyte degradation or plate material loss. It certainly is not ideal to charge a battery too slowly as depending on where it is in the charge cycle it responds best to different charge rates and in the perfect world having a quality smart charger capable of a charge rate at least 10% of the Ampere Hour rating of the battery is ideal. Remembering that this will be a smart charger which will ensure constant current/constant voltage at the appropriate stage of the charging process. So.. if you had a 130 Amp Battery then a 13 Amp Charger is ideal but that is not to say that a 10 or 5 Amp Charger will do the job perfectly well but just in a shorter time. BTW, a 20 Amp Lead Acid Battery Charger wold also be fine as the charger will not the use the full 20 amps but simply regulate to the correct charging current for any sized battery ( assuming a average to good quality charger.) Lead acid batteries are quite a science so its no wonder that the whole subject is a little mysterious.... I think its more mysterious and complex than fishing! Cheers Jim

LOL! I think that is worth a post topic of its own - Unusual Things I Keep in The Boat! Cheers Jim

I only used bread... although I did cast a few SP's around the place. To be honest I didn't spend a lot of time fishing on that side of the Island. We got into some Kings on poppers and stick baits on the headlands either side of Ned's Beach. I think we only landed one after being smoked time after time near the edge of the rocks. I was a little under-gunned for that outing. At the time the two youngest kids were 5 and 8 so I didn't really get much of a chance to fish. Cheers Jim

They are pretty much all over the reef ... they will respond to pretty much anything at that size. They took the micro jigs on the day but they would have responded to pillies or strips of squid, whole cooked prawns are effective and of course live squid, yakkas or slimeys. Cheers Jim