fragmeister

This is a good question and I think its been answered well yet again by the fish raider community. But I've often wondered about the life of a properly service outboard. The only experience I've ever had with servicing based on hours is forklifts. Generally forklifts are serviced at 100 hours much like a boat motor service. This would equate to something like 5,000klms in a car. Using that formula and some car experience you should expect perhaps 200,000 ks from a quality engine manufacturer which equates to somewhere around 4,000 hours in a boat engine. Obviously well serviced, not flogged. How does this fit in with fishraider members experience and how would this vary in 2 and 4 strokes? Cheers Jim

I think there is something in that... Well setup boat, quality gear and plenty of bait and no fish and an accommodating guy in his 50's . Lets get into the mind of a Fisheries Inspector Option 1 - Crap fisherman - Option 2 - Values the catch a release principles Option 3 - He's hiding undersized fish at the bottom of his pristine tackle box! I know they are here somewhere! Cheers Jim

Like I said mate, no many boats out for them to check so they went the whole hog on mine. Agree completely. You are right ofcourse with the 4 rigged rod limit. They didn't actually count two rods terminated in swivels... still not 100% certain if that counts but based on the inspection no hooks means its not rigged. Yes... I agree. I must admit that I sort of expect that someone will look at me and the boat setup and make a pretty quick judgement that I am not likely to be hiding undersized fish and do a quick skim and leave. Probably too much to ask and maybe I shouldn't expect that. They were polite and respectful but I guess it can seem less respectful the more questions they ask. Unzipping my tackle bags and lifting up each plastic case to check for stashed undersized fish is a silly I think. Anyway mate, if it was a couple of female inspectors I would probably have enjoyed the attention! The days of women showing any interest in me (or at least me thinking they were) are long gone!

Where was this epic story of man against nature going I thought... To a fitting conclusion. We'll done buddy... A most deserving catch. Cheers Jim

Hi Raiders, Took the boat for a de-stress run on Thursday... work has been unusually hectic and that and the school holidays have messed up my regular Friday Fishing Session. Don't you hate it when work gets in the ways of fishing! Did a bit of exploring, caught a few trevally and bream but returned them all as the freezer is pretty full at the moment. Left about 2pm and motored back to the ramp. I had backed the trailer in to the water and was about to put the boat back on when a fisheries dept boat arrived. They were quite friendly but very thorough. Are you just leaving or just returning Sir? Returning. Can I see your fishing licence? Sure I said I have 2 ( accidentally renewed before one expired) Did you catch any fish? Yes Do you mind if we get onboard? Sure, but once you do will need to follow my commands as the owner and master of the vessel! Now get of my effin boat! (No I didn't say that). Can we look in your esky? You already are I thought but said sure...its just my lunch. Do you have a kill tank? Yes.... but I don't use if for that. Can we look anyway? Sure, its right there. What is under this hatch? Thats another storage area ... open it up if you like. Can we look in the storage area up the front? Sure...go for it. Can we look in your live bait tank? Yep. These pilchards are for bait. Burley actually, I defrosted them in there. What is in that bucket? Rubbish Can we just look under the transom area. Yes I guess so Whats in these bags Sir? Thats a tackle bag and that's a lure bag I'll just have a look in those if thats ok. Sure Well, you're a bit of a tackle rat eh? I guess so... I though I was a pretty conservative. This little esky here.. what in that. Drinks... take a look No worries. We will just take a look in the anchor well. OK... But I would really like to put the boat on the trailer and get it off the ramp. Was it just you fishing? Yep In the end they found a hand line in a side pocket that had a hook on it for catching lives.... that put me over the limit of rigged lines. They were ok about that... they asked me to remove the hook on the spot. That was bit silly I thought given everything else was in order and I was clearly finished for the day. On that subject of maximum number of rigged lines, has anyone ever tried to run 6 rigs at once on a boat under 6 meters? Fine if you want an unmanagable mess of tangled lines and missed hookups. I get that they are trying to limit the number of lines catching fish but these days many of us have dedicated rods for dedicated jobs but rarely use more that two at once. Anyway, it certainly occurred to me that the fisheries department running up the Parramatta ( muddy as it was this week after the rain and virtually devoid of fisho's) is a total waste of resources. I mentioned to one of the fisheries guys that I have not been pulled over in 2 years and they replied " thats because there are very few of us around and such a large area to patrol" which adds to my belief that they are under resourced and this was a fairly pointless exercise. Anyway, that was my experience. Any one had a similar one? Cheers Jim

Ahh! the canal... you guys pull more fish our of there than any other stretch of water around. Well done yet again. Cheers Jim

Hi Krispy, Thanks for the insight into surgeonfish. Only caught a small one of these by accident but the idea of 2 - 3 jobs is pretty exciting given how much go the smaller versions have. Oh, and good work on the king too! Cheers Jim

Well done Witha, Good idea to try and clean up the Oyster cut... a bit of painful scrub with alcohol is a good idea. Cheers

Well done and no apologies required for the story behind the catch... makes it a whole lot more interesting. Cheers Jim

Great read and good work on the sp's

Well done and a very interesting post with a slightly alternative occult kind of flavour to it... still any man who pays guitar is ok in my book. Cheers Jim " the not so vey dark or mysterious"

Reminds me of the seemingly carefree attitude some have in those areas. When I was up on the Daintree I saw a kid playing at the waters edge while his old man loaded the boat on the trailer. I was watching the crocks patrol the river not 100 meters from the ramp.... frightening stuff really. Jim

Carp on a lure.... who would have thought it! Where abouts were you? I used to fish the Murrumbidgee when I was much younger ... its looks familiar but I guess there are a 1000 spots like it. Cheers Jim

Agree completely.. I meant to meet up with you specifically as the man who made me glad I paid attention to chemical symbols in science at school... now I just have to meet the guy called Hastings with a handle of 1066 and I can definitely say that school was not a complete waste of time! (Thinking that a man with a Handle of NaClHOK9 will not think that is an obscure post.)

Looks like a lot of surface area for the epoxy to bond to. I would be confident that you could repair this.

No matter how may times I see this I can't pick where one ends and the other starts. There is some dough in that customization.

Keep the essays going ... they are very entertaining. Love a good fishing story. Cheers Jim

Great result and good on you for returning them to fight another day. Cheers

Hi Raiders, This post is on the back of the excellent Lowrance Sounder night and a recent post I made about Jelly fish showing up on the sounder. This image was taken as I slowly approached the Wharf Road Boat ramp on the Parramatta River after coming back from a harbour fishing trip. I was in about 3 meters of water not far at all from the ramp and over towards the last starboard channel marker before the ramp. It actually extended with similar images for about 30 meters up river. When I first saw the images on the sounder I had enough knowledge to assume that they were fish hanging around over a depression in the bottom. I looked over the side ( don't know why because you really can't see much in the upper Parra) but I did see that there were huge amounts of small jellyfish in the water so I then made the assumption that they were not fish but jelly fish. Well, after showing the image to the Lowrance guys they independently pointed out the error of my ways.... actually they pointed out that I was right in the first place although not totally right because I missed the most significant detail. Although they were not entirely sure how jellyfish show up on the sounder they were adamant that the images were certainly fish. Individual fish, probably bream near the bottom and in mid water a larger shape which they both suggested was probably a Jewie. I certainly can vouch for the fact that there are a bunch of land based anglers who do very well for Jewies in the upper reaches of the river and in fact from the wharf at the ramp so none of this should be a surprise to me. Those of us lucky enough to get to the sounder night learned that, depending on the orientation of a fish in the water and where it was in the sounder beam will determine whether it shows up as a arch or half an arch or even a little blob like image. Anyway, the end result was I am lot more confident using the sounder due to the insight provided by these guys on the night. Thanks again Donna and Stewie and the sponsors for making the night possible. Cheers Jim

Thanks Donna & Stewie for organising the event. It was good to put a few faces to names and the presentation was a real eye opener. I certainly learned the value of side scanning as a broader fish location tool and the Lowrance boys certainly know their stuff. Check out my new post on the "jellyfish incident" later today for a professional opinion on what I was seeing on the sounder. Cheers Jim

LOL Very funny. I figured when I posted this it would strike a chord with some fishos. Cheers and see you there! Jim

Hi Big Neil, Great to hear your account of fishing the Murrumbidgee. I am a Sydney Angler but the Murrumbidgee holds plenty of significance for me as it was my first freshwater fishing location as a young fella with by Dad and 2 of my brothers. We fished below the Burrinjuck Dam from the early 70's through to the 80's at a place called Childowlah. I went back for a few days earlier this year after a 10 year hiatus and found that my usual camping spot owned, by the local sheep farmer, had been be sold off in lots and was now inaccessible. We moved to the camping area down river. The place had not changed much except it was greener that I had seen it for a long time and roos and wombats were seemingly in big numbers. I remember a time (as you may well too) when there were no carp in the river and trout, yellow belly and redfin were our most common catch. That all seemed to change in a couple of seasons as the carp moved in somewhere in the middle of the 70's as I remember. Reading your post brings back fond memories of some great times as a kid. Its a very special part of the country. Cheers Jim

You certainly get around don't you. Not nice conditions for beach fishing so to land a flathead is not a bad effort. Cheers Jim

Yes... I am aware of the science behind the sounder. However , I hasten to point out that ropes, rubbish, plastic bags and pylons don't show up as arches... well ...not on my sounder anyway! Cheers Jim

So on the way back to the boatramp last week these showed up in various places in the Parramatta river up towards the Wharf Road boat ramp. Looks nice doesn't it! Lots of nice arches hanging around that depression. Well I am pretty sure it was jellyfish which were all over the place when I looked over the side. ...looking forward to the sounder presentation tomorrow! Cheers Jim