fragmeister

Thanks... I will concentrate on the east of Gladesville bridge. I am on the road a fair bit at the moment so I am on trying out all the ferry wharves where permissible. Cheers Jim

Hi Raiders, From time to time my favourite squidding spots seem to dry up on me so I have been thinking about trying a few new land-based spots ( easier than getting the boat out) and increasing my potential squidding spots. Many years ago I fished the Hacking a lot more and I had some good land-based spots where I could pretty much guarantee either a feed or a good bait supply. Sometimes I would catch in advance with the belief that fresh dead squid is still a good bait and on that subject, I would rate squid baits as follows. I would be happy to hear from other Raiders who may have a view on this. 1) Live Squid 2) Very recently ( up to a few hours) dead squid 3) Caught last night squid. 4) Caught and snap frozen squid along with all that inky goodness. Now, its taken me some time to get to the point of this post but here is the question for all you harbour squid fishermen... All things equal ( like no recent heavy rains) what would you say the upper limit for Arrow Squid and Calamari is in Sydney Harbour? Look forward to hearing from you. Cheers Jim

Thanks! He was a natural too... took to it like duck to water. Thanks Yowie... first trip in while and probably the last for another long stretch, unfortunately. Thanks. He's convinced this fishing lark is easy... bagged out on his first trip out. Yes.. they are a cracker of a fish to eat. Yes, they seem to get bigger in size throughout the summer although there are also many small flatties at say 150mm and it can become a little frustrating as you end up retrieving to check the bait or rebait and in 45 meters that get a little tiresome... shouldn't complain though!

Hi Raiders, This is actually a fishing report but here is a bit of preamble... One of my mates ( Bob) is a complete newbie to fishing and never eats fish. I have been telling him for years that if I only had access to supermarket or fish shop produce then I would probably never eat fish either but... its a very different equation to catch your own fish, treat it properly and cook it yourself. He remained unconvinced so I offered to take him out and catch some Blue Spotted Flathead and then take it home and cook it for him. Before heading out to the flathead grounds we sussed out North Head for any action. There was bait everywhere but the swell in close to the rocks was a little uncomfortable for Bob so after a few casts into the wash we headed off to drift off South Head in about 50m meters. Bob is a pretty quick learner so after I had shown him a few times how to bait up and what constituted a bite worthy of a strike he was away. Bob Caught his bag limit in about 3 hours while I watched and cheered. I settled for just a couple of Blue Spots myself that I would keep and cook up for him later that day. The size of the fish was excellent and most of Bob's were around the same size as the 2 two I kept. There were plenty of small flatties taking the bait too so we had to take particular care to mark the spots where the larger ones seemed to be. There was no wind , very little current and of course not, a lot of drift so I actually used the Minkoda to push us along. While we were out we saw schools of Bonito probably 1 k offshore and managed to spin up a few each time the schools came by for use as bait. We also saw a pod of hunting Dolphins which was really cool ... the were leaping clear of the water catching fleeing fish in mid-air. I have never seen such a flurry of activity. We left about 1 PM and Bob was a converted man, at least as far as fishing goes. I dropped him home with his cleaned and filleted fish and told him to get back to my place around 4 and I would cook a few up for him. When he arrived I showed him how I prepare them in a Tempura Batter and then I deep fried them for him. I served it up to him and his response was... "That's not fish" He was blown away! He is a converted man. Cheers Jim

Great account of the experience Sam! Cheers Jim

I feel for you Neil... this would be hard to take and certainly, you could ask yourself whether anybody actually cares. As you say there could be an uproar if there was a big fish kill in Sydney Harbour and actions would be swift and decisive. I am no expert on this but it seems to me that the rivers are a more immediate indicator of environmental health than the ocean. The ocean is obviously vast and for the most part, the estuaries are to varying degrees flushed by the movement of the tide. This provides a huge buffer zone and the effects of pollution are diluted and the results of the pollution are very much delayed. In the rivers, it's a different thing. Every season the rivers are affected by the volume of water flow and, if they are not sufficient then temperatures rises and pollution factors can cause immediate and devasting fish kills. Perhaps these are to some degree a natural event but not with the frequency and magnitude with which they happen today. The rivers are an early warning system and it seems we pay little attention to them. When I see this sort of thing happen I write to various "departments for water" ( they have different names in each state) and the federal environment minister. I would encourage anyone interested in the health of the environment to do the same. As sad as the event is, thanks for bringing this to our attention Neil. Cheers Jim

Thanks for posting Mike. The salted baits really are a good idea and it works a treat on all those baits that suffer badly from freezing. Cheers Jim

They were in vented boxes with plastic covers and straps that held them in place. There is a carpeted ply cover that slots into place and lines up with flooring under the transom which is about 100 mm higher than the deck. You have to release the straps to get the covers off and removing the covers requires losing some skin off your knuckles! I am not convinced that batteries require a great deal of venting. Hydrogen is lighter than air so as long as there is any sort of hole in the top of the battery compartment the gas will escape. In most situations, the boat is underway when all the charging takes place so the general airflow in the boat is going to quickly disperse any gas. Cheers Jim

Hi Anthman, I found this article useful. https://www.fishing.net.nz/fishing-advice/how-to/trolling-for-kingfish/ Cheers Jim

My Quintrex 5.7 Lazeabout has a similar battery setup and it was a real pain to get to either of the batteries. I was happy to leave them where they were but it accessing them for topping up charging at home drove me crazy so it did this ( posted in a previous article).

All good points Jon... It is certainly a more expensive option running dual batteries when correctly installed in particular as it's not just the second battery but the wiring, battery switch and, ideally some way of isolating the system for external charging. As you mentioned, in smaller boats with pull start outboards a jump starter and a single battery is probably the best low cost option. Cheers Jim

I have a dual system in the boat and a lithium jump starter for emergencies (usually to help other people out!) Actually, the boat has 4 batteries in total. This is why I chose them which may or may not be relevant to your circumstances but it may be worth something to someone. Battery 1 is a 75 Ampere Hour cranking battery which I use as the primary starting battery. Cranking batteries do not like being discharged below 80 per cent charge regularly so they are not ideal for running lights, GPS equipment, bait tanks etc unless your motor is running to keep them topped up. Battery 2 is a 70 Ampere hour deep cycle battery which I switch to when I am stationary for a long time or doing an overnighter. Deep cycle batteries can handle being deeply discharged without any detrimental impact on their serviceable life. Battery 3 and 4 are 100 Ampere hour deep cycle batteries in series for my 24Volt Minkota. They are 5 years old and still going strong. A typical Lithium Jump Starter has a capacity of around 20 Ampere Hours compared with a typical boat battery of say 60 to 90-ampere hours. The cold cranking amps on these units are about 50 per cent lower than a marine battery. I have found that Lithium starters are great for starting a boat which has a flat battery but not so much one that is flooded or wet etc and needs a lot of cranking to get going. The small leads and contact surfaces on the connectors can rapidly overheat and increase the contact resistance and decrease the starting current. Some are much better than others and like Jon's, mine was a few hundred dollars. They do work, but I would always trust a properly maintained dual battery system over a single battery and a Lithium Jumpstarter. Cheers Jim

Amazing!... you see some gooks Kings caught under there but a 7lb Snapper... un heard of in recent years. Good effort! Cheers Jim

That's a cracka Zoran! Cheers JIm

Yep.. that says it all!

nice one! I like that idea. On thin fillets this can be a problem so that is a great idea to make it look more appetising.

That's true enough. I don't have the time any more but at one stage I grew all my own veggies, caught my own fish and kept chooks. I was pretty independent the food department for a number of years . With the time pressures of work and my business, plus to screen the town house developments around me I got rid of the food production areas and landscaped the block planting trees and shrubs all along the boundaries.... it's a bit hard to go back now... I would need to chop down a lot of trees to let enough light in for a decent veggie patch.

No worries Frank as soon as I get the opportunity I'll drop in. As far as the batter goes, I don't like thick batter like you would find in a fish shop. To me it just tastes all batter and oil - some people like that... I peel it all off or buy it crumbed instead I just use a Tempura batter that I buy in a packet from woollies. I have made my own but the packet one is pretty good. ADAMChef ( haven't seen him around for a while but the post will be here somewhere) gave a recipe he used in his restaurant where I think it was 50/50 flour and cornflour with perhaps beer of soda water in the mix. It was a very good recipe so for most peoples tastes that is the one I would go for if you can find it. Cheers Jim

Then you may be missing something very special! If you have never tried fish caught that day and killed properly and iced down then give it a try.

I thought I would offer some advice about cooking methods for shop bought fish. 1) Purchase the fish of your choice. 2) Coat in batter , deep or shallow fry. 3) Give it to the cat to eat! Every so often, when I have not been able to get out to fish I get a-hankerin' for some fish and chips. So I go to the fish shop and get myself some of the freshest looking fish I can find. Like I did tonight... fried it up quickly in some tempura batter for just 5 minutes... The batter was light and crispy and the fish was mush... Never again! Why do I never learn! Perhaps as fishermen, we are spoiled but it occurs to me that if that is what's on offer for the average Joe who doesn't go fishing it's not surprising that many people don't like fish. Cheers Jim

That's good work.. she's managed to get a lot of depth in that painting. Looks like a combination of brush and knife work.

I paint. Landscapes mostly. Places I have been. Working on Lord Howe island painting at the moment - very tough.. beyond my meagre skills that's for sure. Play the occasional computer game. Factorio is my favourite. Play guitar. Gardening. Look at my fishing gear and the boat and lament about not getting out enough. Think about retiring so I can do more of those things. Cheers Jim

My Yamaha 150 4 Stroke (5 years old) says I should use 98 so I do... never really gave it a thought until now.

Is this a two stroke topic? Cheers Jim

Haven't been fishing for a while but I saw a few bustups in the Eastern channel off Neilsen Park last Sunday and there have been reports of the same off North Head as you would expect this time of year. Cheers Jim