SquidMarks

Whats most around at the moment? .... SQUID!!!! both myself and 4mysons have already given you the clue. For me, winter is all about stocking up the freezer with squid. Also, snapper are not off the cards mate! (my last snapper was 3 weeks ago, a 3kg specimen). Persist and you will catch snapper and other fish, but like i said, its far more productive focusing on squid at the moment. (im letting the cat out of the bag here a little, but my last 2 squidding trips with my dad resulted in 20+ squid each time, 1st time was a total of 11kg of squid and second was 10kg of squid and in the last 5 squidding trips i have not went home without catching at least 12+ squid) but, like i said, if you want to catch snapper, then getting up EARLY will get you on the fish. What do i mean by early? For example, tomorrow (Wednesday) sunrise is at 7am and first light is at 6:32am, you want to be at your snapper spot burleying/cubing at around 6 or earlier and if you dont catch snapper by 7:30am you can call it quits. Winter is tough fishing but fish still need to feed throughout this period, i find that the lower temp means that fish feed (and are actively hunting) in a much smaller timeframe. Yes you will score a feed of fish during the day (maybe a few trevs or reefies) but you will be hard pressed scoring snapper, bream or tailor burleying flat out at midday in winter. Having said that, i have been proven wrong many a times. Hopefully this info will guide you onto some tight lines.

I will also chime in and say that you should be focusing on squid in winter. I find that in winter If you do want to fish, you have a relatively small window of an hour or so at sunrise and sunset when the fish fire on, otherwise its quite hard to entice a bite during the day.

i believe the MROVCP is the lesser of the two courses (MROVCP only allows the use of VHF radio where as MROCP allows VHF and and MF/HF radio use) in any case, i want the whole shebang. Time to get reading! thanks roadrunner! Beep Beep!

Hi All, Well i thought it was about time to get rid of the 27MHz and move on to a VHF radio in the boat so my nose has been in the books for the last couple of days in preparation for the test. In reading the book though i have come across to page 4 which states: " Syllabi for the two certificates and the satellite endorsement are shown in Appendix 1 of this handbook. Examination questions will primarily be based on symbolised sections as follows: a) Marine Radio Operators VHF Certificate of Proficiency (MROVCP) ◆ Marine Radio Operators Certificate of Proficiency (MROCP) • " Then, throughout the booklet, there are setions marked with the designated symbols "◆" and "•" I will be going for the MROCP license. Does this mean i should be mainly focusing on remembering those sections marked with a "•"? Im guessing people who have completed the test in the past should be able to chime in here.. thanks!

i know this is not an answer to your question, but i just need to understand this, you want to run 5lb braid WITH 80lb leader? im not sure how effective that will be. Im guessing you want to go 50lb braid right?

OK, after a bit of searching, i have found the pdf versions of maps which describe the open waters limit. http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/maritime/using-waterways/maps/boating-maps.html click on the relevant map and the info will come up. So for Sydney harbor, as you can see from the above maps, if your at old mans hat, you are in open waters and if you basicaly go past bear island in botany bay, you are in open waters. so just be careful and dont get caught off guard without essential safety equipment!

NaClH2OK9 is spot on, don't make the assumption that open waters are only outside the heads of a bay, sometimes the open water boundaries are quite different (anc can be inside the heads, as i believe they are for sydney harbor). Thanks to good old bureaucracy, department mergers and other 'efficiency' measures, all this info seems to have been lost, but there used to be maps available showing a clear line/boundary at each of our ports and harbors as to which areas constituted being in enclosed or open waters.

Always have water (6L) stashed in the bow section of the boat on me and then just bring regular water to drink on the day as well. The 6L gets swapped after a couple of months (its probably still ok to drink in a life and death situation but i like having it fresh) Also, dont forget hardcopies of maps in the area you are in!

I was out at osborne shoal the weekend before (along with about half a dozen other boats who saw the glassy conditions as an oppurtunity to have a go) when maritime started pulling up alongside the boats one by one after coming up from merries reef and presumably checking the boats there. Afterwards, some boats packed it in and moved and then it came to my turn. Maritime approached and asked "do you realise you are technically offshore at the moment?". I replied "yes". "Great" said Mr Maritime, "can you please take your flares out and read me the expiry date". I grabbed my waterproof fluoro orange plano safety box and proceeded to read out the expiry "october 2016". "Excellent, can you please show me your v sheet"? I pull that out as well, in anticipation i also pull out the epirb and mention that the life jackets are at the front of the boat. Mr Maritime then asks "do you have a fire extinguisher?" "Yes, but its in the glovebox of the boat, 2 secs". He stops me and calls out "dont worry about it, you seem to know what your doing". Now this seemed like an odd statemen5 so i asked him "why, whats it been like this morning?" He replies "put it this way, your the first person today to have your flares within the expiry date".... Wow... Fishraiders, PLEASE check your flares fo4 their expiry (they have 2 year shelf life). You dont want to be without them when something goes wrong. This is acter i towed back a boat from jibbon bombora to st georges marina last summer. I told them they should probably put on some lifejackets as its mandatory to wear them when being towed... that request was completely ignored. Then, when towed to the marina i netioned that i will release then about 2-3 meters from the marina and head off only to get the reply "can you get us to the warf?" I replied "its hard to tow someone to the warf, just use your oar/oars to get there". Guess what the reply was for that...... Please boaties and fishos, enjoy the great outdoors but dont save yourself 50 bucks by skimping on essential safety equipment!!!

Yeap, saw that on sunday midday too, i also saw the blokes launch the boat from yowie bay on saturday afternoon (around 1pm) so the boat was there for 24 hours unless they relaunced then manage to beach themselves on monday?

He saw that you were catching and he wasn't and hence why the doofis decided to anchor up in your burley trail. He probably thought that you had your quota of fish and its about time he catches some! Its becoming more and more common, the world is becoming a "me me me" place, look out for numbero uno and who cares about the others, i am not responsible for any of my actions and will always blame it on something else. Idiots like that cannot be reasoned with unfortunately. Its a sad state of affairs that this world is going like it is but we can always try and lead by example

sash, its great that your willing to help out a fellow member. Just a word of advice, you might want to remove your private mob number from a public site and pm the bloke with those details instead.

Im with you Ryder, John Dory has been my target species for 2 years now and i just cant crack the buggers!

Nice, i wouldnt really think there would be much out there in the brown murky water at the moment but im glad to be proven wrong! I guess the fish seem to like the macbetter because it would have a stronger scent than the freshly caught Trev, and seeming as theyre swimming around in the brown muck, they must be usign their sense of smell to find their food much more than their sense of sight.

You again have a problem in the fact that a worms body is considerably softer then the head and the next 5cm or so behind it, so the tendency of a worm to snap mid body is much higher again. A trap witha pull mechanism would be good, but wer are looking at cost vs benefit now. (im also imagining a spring loaded pipe/bazooka looking device being dragged down to the beach and placed next to a beach worm, just waiting for him to tak the bait)

Me and my dad were catching worms like that in the 1980's. Even though most of the writing is in Italian, the first line "veliko morski crv" is a giveaway and is not shot in italy. (we caught worms like this in Croatia since i was a kid). We often talked about building the same traps for use on beaches here but it simply would not work. The worms over there are a different kind of worm which did not have a tendency to snap (as long as you are not forcing him to come out too quickly, hence the bottle, providing constant buoyancy which pulls the worm out) If you place the trap in australian beaches, the moment the worm grabbed and the trap sprung, the worm would: a) be cut in half because it requires a significant amount of pressure slip through as some larger beach worms have more force to pull back with c) snap themselves in half once they have been caught (as beach worming is all about timing and extracting the worm at the right moment. That is, after you have grabbed him a delay in pulling/extractig the worm usually ends in a stale mate where the beachworm has locked himself into the sand and extra force results in a snapped head) So unfortunatley, just like everyone else who wants to catch beachworms, i have learnt to do it the old fashioned way with my fingers! If anyone wants to try making the trap, i have no problem drawing up a simple diagram of it, its really not that hard and can be made witha piece of square steel pipe.

Welcome to Jew fishing mate.... Like you said, you seem to be doing everything right, but there are a couple of things that i would do differently (keep in mind, what i may do, some other jewfisher would not). 1. If theres weed on the beach and its a sturggle, just pack up and call it a night. It drains your morale and your energy and i have never had much luck with weed around. 2. Look for beaches which are not featureless and shallow! or if you do haveto fish these featureless/shallow beaches, go up on end or the other where the beach meets the rocks, there should be a gutter running out to sea (or onto the beach) there, fish that area (i prefer gutter going out to sea myself). Keep at it! your jewfish awaits! You are well past due for a fish with good bait and your choice of fishing times.

the maths has to be terrible, how else does that 26cm bream turn into a 34cm bream?

Geez youre really grumpy latley, must be because you havent been fishing in almost 2 weeks! Bloody hell she is right! I have been taking it out on everyone! Why cant this damn wind calm down and allow the lovely less than 1m se swell to just roll through! Anyone else notice that their mood begins to change when you havent been getting much fishing action lately? Just allwed me to relflect on how much fishing is a part of my life.

Its not hairtail time already again is it?! feels like a month ago that everyone on board was chasing them in the cold dead of winter.

Can suggest to mainly attach the perspex using sillicon (do not use the bolts to tighten the perspex,its just there to hold it in case the sillicone fails, the sillicone will do the sealing and holding). That involves drilling holes in perspex that are larger than the bolts (smaller than bolt heads and nuts of course) and having the sillicone 'ooze' out of the bolt holes.This way, there is nothing to hold back the perspex from expanding/ contracting or the sillicone flexing if it needs to. In regards to water pressure.. water pressure on an object is proportional to the containers depth regardless of width. so unless the tank is really deep, water pressure should not be snapping 5mm perspex.

Defiitley test out your range somweher safe. Keep in mind that different revs will produce different fuel usage rates so factor that in. If i were you to test your range, i would end up buying a second 25L tank, fill upp all your tanks (so you have 2 x 25L and 12.5L), run a first 25L untill its dry and see what distance you get, that way you will always have the seond 25L (plus the extra 12.5L in case of bad weather etc) to return home.

Is ALUKABOND cost effective? (my father in law works in the sign industry and deals with a very similar material but he reckons its pricy compared to Expanded polystyere sheets or aluminium). what are we talking about roughly per sheet?

so practical! i can just see that working great sneaking up on bream in tidal estuaries! (i am of course talking about multiple 400 verados strapped to the back of a boat)

Im all for lifejacket safety and its great to see the Maritime Management Centre always trying to up the standards regarding safety and comfort (with the new lower buoyancy jacket). I hope im not jumping the gun here but i must respond to this point in particular: "new requirements for testing inflation indicators and gas cylinders" About 3-4 months ago i had traded in an bought 5 automatic inflating lifejackets where the inflation indicators and gas cylinders can be tested at home by the user (through the governments life jacket new for old trade in scheeme they have had running mid/late last year). I sure hope they dont just stuff everyone who had upgraded to these life jackets by requiring life jackets be tested by a 'qualified technician' of some sort who will now charge me for this service. It would be a scandal if they encouraged all these people to upgrade to new inflatable jackets only to have them now be told that they no longer can check their own life jackets and must pay for the service. again, i hope i have misread that point....