fragmeister

I didn't go out last week but before that they were in the in the harbour but mostly down deep rather than on the surface.

My experience in Sydney Harbour (I suspect it is them same in most places) is that you have to pick a known area to fish that will generally be productive (good structure basically) and burley constantly for as long as it takes to attract the fish. This can take an hour or more sometimes but at least for me it always seems to work. Don't expect this to work well on featureless sandbanks, these are the haunt of summer species ...you need significant structure like rocks and reef because the fish stay close to these areas in winter. I believe that winter fish like bream and trevally are in quite concentrated schools. By comparison, typical summer fish like flathead and whiting are more scattered. Toss a bait virtually anywhere and one of these scattered fish will find it and bring the others around just by the commotion they cause. By comparison in winter, the concentrated schools need burleying over a longer period to draw them in from further around but once they are there they tend to stay around. Maybe I have been lucky but I have not failed to catch my bag limit in the last 12 months and I go out every Friday (except last Friday I took my wife out for her birthday - it was very windy so I picked that day on purpose!) . There are a few things working in my favour here I have to say. Much less boat traffic on Fridays, no competition for the better spots but still I believe its the burley and the persistence that does the job. If you are happy with bread and butter fish like bream and trevally with some salmon and tailor thrown in for good luck then anchor on the up current side of sow and pigs (or any other likely spot, morning is best on high tide at dawn or a few hour after) in comfortable casting distance and start a constant flow of a little burley a little at a time. Pilchards are ideal for this. Drop an un-wieghted half pilchard down the burley trail and if you don't catch a feed I will be very surprised. The trick here is to use the same bait as the burley and no lead if possible as the fish are much more cautious at first in the daylight and clear winter water. If you find yourself being bitten off it will be tailor which hang around the reef most of the day so switch to a whole pilchard ( I like using smaller salted pilchards) on ganged hooks. You should find yourself hooking tailor... you will miss a few of the bream and trevally with the larger hook sizes in the process but you will hook some real studs when you do hook up. If the trevally are around ( and they have been for the last 2 months or so) then they will be in big numbers competing ferociously for the bait so toss a few SP's at them if you run out of bait and you are almost certain to hook up... remember to keep the burley trail going. Often, another boat will arrive after I have been there a while at the fish are all fired up. Their experience will be that the fish were "just on" that day but in fact they were only "on" because I had been firing them up with burley for the last 3 hours. All this week the reports have been pretty average. I will let you know how I go. Cheers Jim

Hey Timmy, That was my 12 month Quintrex report ... yours is a clear case of galvanic corrosion as mentioned by OutdoorDan. The advice given here is spot on and the sooner you do it the better. Cheers Jim

Have to agree. All the salmon seem to be near the bottom. I'll be out all day this Friday. I'll post another Friday report after I get home. Cheers

Good work yowie, Those little reddiesseem to be in plague proportions at the moment.

Mate, you've had a lot on your plate haven't you? Still congrats on the new arrival and I can certainly appreciate how hectic it is with a newborn. Good luck with getting the boat back in shape. Cheers Jim

Yes, In Kiama in particular, the rock is very dark basalt and in the tidal zone there is not a bit of weed growth in kilometres of coastline. Makes you wonder what the blackfish and drummer do for food ... although there does appear to be plant of growth below the surface.

Hi Fishraiders, Not sure how many of you have noticed this but the rocks around Kiama are almost completely devoid of marine plant life. They have barnacles and limpets but no weed at all. I suspect this has something to do with the basalt rock - perhaps the chemical composition is not favourable. I am not sure really, does anyone have any ideas? Cheers Jim

Hi Guys, Here is an update. I contacted my dealer and the offered to take a look with a view to repairing the paintwork. They also said that it not likely to be a case of severe corrosion but merely the result of impurities in the aluminium used in boat production today. This happens on most boats and it is not the start of massive aluminium cancer. Restrictions on the additives allowed in paints today are also an issue. At this stage they are doing the right thing so I will keep you all posted. Cheers Jim I

Good catch. Completely agree with the table qualities of a properly looked after and prepared fish. What bait did you use for the shoe?

On the subject of marine vinyl... what is best product for cleaning it? Thanks in advance Jim

Thanks to all for all the advice and comments. Clearly there is a lot of experience on this forum and it has certainly pointed me in the right direction. I have contacted my dealer and I will see how they repsond. I will post the reponses I get along the way Thanks Jim

Seems to be a common thread. I live in the Lidcombe area, used to ride the Silverwater to Rhodes loop along the river 5 days a week but winter and a new boat have slowed this down. Must get back on the bike soon I think... Cheers

Thank guys, So, the oxidising under the stainless fitting is due to disimilar metals in contact with each other without the protection of duralac and the oxidisation around the transom rubber may be due to poor painting preparation in the first place. I have to say here that there are lots of other fittings on the boat whch I susepect would be more likely to be exposed to salt water but they have remained unblemished. I noticed these issues months ago and they have not gotten any worse. I always wash and dry the boat thorougly after use. All boat brand selection and loyalties aside my objectives here are; 1) to establish whether any of this can be put back on to Telwater 2) to understand what causes the corrosion. 3) to fix it using the best practices possible. I would have no hesitation in removing every fitting in the boat and either aunimium rivetting it back on or using duralac as protection. To that end you guys are being very helpful so keep it coming. Cheers Jim

Great photo! You've sold me! Cheers Jim

Hi Raiders, Ok, here are the photos of the offending areas. They are hi-res so click on them for better detail. This stainless fitting is original. Bubbling is also obvious on the transome next to the transom door... no dissimilar metals here. What are your view boys?

Thanks for the comments guys. I am going to post a few pics because if I get this right the areas where dissimilar metals are introduced are the problem. I have a couple of small spots where there is some blistering and one of them is nowhere near any fittings. Your continued input would be appreciated (including yours Heuy so don't bow out yet!). If paint blistering is a characteristic of alloys boats in this price range or it is reflective of today's quality or it is sign or my poor practices I want to know as much as possible but if ends up being a quality issue in the boat build I will certainly be knocking on Telwater's door either directly of through a dealer to get something done about it. Cheers Jim

So, given that paint blistering can be a feature of alloy boats, dissimilar metals etc where would you expect to see the paint blistering? At the point where the stainless screw is attached or some random place on the boat? I have a couple of spots of paint blistering one is next to a alloy riveted original fixture the other is on a flat surface on the transom door cut out.

I'd be hanging on to that squid jig!

Well done boys. Certainly the trevs are there in numbers but where are the schools of surface feeding salmon! Cheers Jim

Like others I have heard some of the horror stories regarding Quintrex build quality and in particular there have been issues in the past with cracking welds. My Quintrex 570 Lazeabout is almost 12 months old and needed its 100 hour service so before doing so I went over the boat with an engineer mate of mine to make sure that there were no issues with the boat. We reported any issues and they were fixed by the dealer with one exception. This is what we found. 1) We found 1 small cracked weld which seemed to be a tack rather than a full weld. While this was all good it was a pain to remove all the decking and floatation to inspect the welds but for peace of mind I had to do it. The whole process took about 5 hours. We didn't report the tack weld as an issue. I will do this every 12 months with particular attention at the end of the hull warranty period. 2) The fuel gauge was not properly wired which explained why it never worked in the first place... I just figured it was me not knowing how to select the feature on the gauges. This was fixed by the dealer. 3) The trailer had a split plastic guide... my fault, I hit it a little hard in 30 knot cross winds putting the boat back on. They replaced that for me for the cost of the part (about $40). 4) The trailer keel runner brackets were a little bent. I think this is a design issue. There is a gap between the roller and the bracket and it is very easy fro the keel to run in between the two and force that gap wider. When this happens the boat tends to find the gap quite often and get jammed in between the two. I straightened them up again but this may be an ongoing problem. 5) There are a couple of blemishes in the paintwork. Quintrex documentation says this is normal and I understand that these will not be fixed under warranty. Below is the official Telwater Warranty policy which will apply to all Telwater hulls 6) One of the anchor points for the ladder restraint has frayed. All in all the boat was fine and I am happy with the response I got from the dealer. Although it did take much longer than they said it would and I missed my Friday fishing trip! The price of the service was a little steep I thought but that will be the subject of another post. Paint is warranted against defective paint or application, NOT against the normal effect of oxidization and degradation caused by fuel and dissimilar metals. The normal effect of oxidisation of aluminium has the potential to bubble paint surface finish. Surface contaminates could cause oxidisation if not removed from the vessel.

Looks like you worked hard but got a feed. ...BTW love the Ugg Boots... can't say I'm not tempted to wear mine on some of these mornings (note to self ... buy some spare ones for the boat so the missues doesn't complain about the smell) Cheers Jim

Well mate, its good to see that you can see the positive side. Last time I had some gear stolen the insurance company just gave a credit to my fishing tackle shop and I went to town! I had lots of gear stolen but much of it was duplicated so I carefully selected a more suitable and versatile range of gear. The only downside was that amongst the gear was a 6 inch Alvey sidecast with a cedar spool that my old man gave me when I was about 9 years old. That stuff can't be replaced. Every time I used it I would remember the day he gave it to me and the first fish I caught on it (tailor off Wanda beach). Good luck with the shopping!

Great report John, Half way across the world and still some of those fish could have been caught here in Australia. Are you familiar with our Slimy Mackerel? I wonder how close they are and how they compare on the plate. Regards

I have been thinking along these lines too. I have even been banned from putting bait in the beer fridge on the verandah. What I am getting today is a small chest freezer in the shed. Buy bait in advance, refreeze old bait for burley, keep extra live bait or salt for later use. My brother in law is coming over to put power to the shed... I have to do the trenching though...here goes the back again! I get what you mean with the frozen pilchards too... they can be very hard to put on hooks if they are frozen. I know people do this and I know fish are caught on a still frozen bait but I am inclined to think that a fussy fish might spit the bait out if it thinks something is wrong.