SquidMarks

Nice fish mate, but you didnt tell us the size! Good to see it was on a soft vibe, i have been hearing good things about targeting mulloway with them.

Could the speedometer hole on the outboard leg be blocked? that is another possibility.

before you blame the engine, maybe think about the boat itsself. Have you added any extra weight to the boat? (such as additional batteries, anchors and chains, taking extra eskies full of ice, taking more mates on board lately etc). All of these will affect top speed and your ability to get on the plane. once you have ruled that out, then you can start looking at other factors (one of them maybe being the outboard).

Nice work on the fish mate. Good to see people finding a nice work/life balance. that second fish is a tailor mate

not sure what the book is called, but "Anglers Omnibus" sunds correct. i wil have a look next time im at his place. correct.. 57cm circumference around the fish at widest point vertically. so i believe it was longer than 60cm in length!

Excellent croc you got yourself there! Glad to hear she was released back to repopulate. Well done!

Rifling through the father in laws old fishing books, i came across a photo of a bream record from the sixties which dropped my jaw to the floor. As they say ' a picture is worth a thousand words'

Jim, i think the head of something you cant identify is the whole thing! I think its some juvenile species of boxfish, but i cant for sure say which!

thought it was you! yeah, unfortunately i dont get out as much as i have a little 5 month old boy but i used to be out every weekend (as long as conditions were good). Dont know if you were around last season when this happened but i managed to hook a whale from that spot! (accidentally of course... spooled me!) Good to see the fish are out there!

Nice work there bez! you look familiar though.. i also fish from the hacking. Here comes a long shot.... Correct me if im wrong but, did you have a pesky seal following you and your mate around last season? (i was the bloke in the other boat with the wife)???

sorry for the late reply, yeap mate, a hacksaw

my motor rest is at angle (approx 40 degrees). I made my own 'motor rest' by buying a black rubber trailer roller and cutting a groove into the roller lengthwise up to the centre point (where the hole for the spindle is). The roller slips over the hydraulic piston and the motor is lowered until it comes to rest on the rubber roller (and theres no problems with gravity fighting the hydraulic system or issues with the motor bouncing around on the highway) let me know if you have trouble picturing it and ill post a couple of photos!

I tend to get the biggest squid using spikes. When drifting and flicking jigs around i usually have a rod in the rod holder with a squid spike loaded up with a fresh yellow tail (head first, squid like to hit the back of the neck and having that area near the spikes helps). Add a small bean sinker straight on top of the line above the spike, drop them over the side and freespool till the spike hits the bottom, then lift it up about a meter or a bit more and drift away. When the rod is bending rythmically you haul in the squid, easy as! Also, off the stones, use the same procedure but add a float (and adjust to suitable depth -> the spike about a meter off the bottom) and your in business.

Love it! especially that she went back in the drink so she can continue populating the bay! good on ya mate!

Almost exactly the same problem here (minus all the rear damage) I had my routine for prepping the trailer and it was working perfectly, well, one day my wife wanted to look after our friends dogs and needed the keys to secure the side gate, the same keys that are for the trailer coupling padlock (the keys came from a padlock set meaning you have 1 key opening 3-4 padlocks). So i hitched the boat up early in the morning, drove from Liverpool on the M5 to port hacking, fished, drove back home. just as im reversing the boat up the driveway i heard an almighty crash!, immediately apply the brakes, get out to have a look and realised that i have just driven to port hacking and back without the coupling locked into the hitch! The chain took the slack but there could have been some serious injury if the trailer bounced on the M5 (or anywhere else for that matter!). The coupling smacked the rear bumper and left a nice graze. Everytime i hitch the trailer i look at that bloody graze and remember to check everything twice!

Great to read all the flatty stories and to know they are being put back. Its also good to hear that more large ones are getting caught (which must mean there are more in the system i hope)... It has come to a point where if targeting them, it has become common to at least land a 70cm fish and larger, i dont do it often but when i do i tend to score. The biggest to date for me could not fit her head in the net (it was that wide) so it got away after trying to play it around for a second go... (not sure how big she was, and i wont call it for a meter because some fish which i thought must crack the meter mark often come up as 80-90cm fish). This fish was caught on the last outing (2 weeks ago), she looked 1m+ when she was being brought up!

Undo the right screw holding the transducer mount and slide your transducer down so that its parallel with the waters surface NOT with your boat hull! it looks like its leaning to the left in that pic. Also, we need a second side on view as well for height purposes.

I like it! Im Petar

yeah but the DSI is showing a whole bunch of fish from 4m down and they are not turning up...

depending on a number of factors (such as hull design, transducer type and your installation) you will get interference at higher speeds (though it should not drop out and give shallow warning alarms at 10 knots but you will get 'fuzzy images' which means that you will get basic readings only of depth and sometimes bottom composition as well as some arches of larger/prominent fish). Check the height of the transducer to ensure that the transducer is just below skimming the water when on the plane (half in half out) and also ensure that the transducer is parallel with the waters surface on both axis' when you are on the plane. You are best of making these adjustments based on the hull of the boat, following the hulls curve and extending it to the transducer. here are some diagrams which will help http://www.arimaowners.com/gallery/6/4-050315202759.jpeg http://www.chsmith.com.au/media/extendware/ewimageopt/media/template/dc/d/transducer-installation-large.jpg http://www.sternmate.com/line_draw_lowrance.jpg As for your photo, you need to increase sensitivity on your sonar as your downscan (DSI) is picking up fish but your regular sonar is not. As for whats there, based on your DSI image i would hazzard a guess in saying either a small baitball or, your burley around the 2 m makr then some fish stacked up from 4-8 m. (not sure is DSI picks up squid so i cant help you out there!)

tehy will live in any rocky/weedy area. it is a wrasse, im guessing gunthers wrasse (pseudolabrus guntheri)

Quick Google of Shimano schematics led me to this page. http://dunphysports.com/forms/warranty/schematic/STC3HGFK.pdf You should be all set from there..

Im with you xcite! Its called earning your sea legs! The more you fish, the less seasick you get!

im wondering if Wazza is talking about the curved 3 piece quintrex windscreen? (not just straight panels inserted in a frame)?

Nice work on the kingies manhands and good to hear they are getting bigger. I was fishing inside point perp just 2 weeks ago and it was one after the other all morning on soft plastics and lures but they were all rats in the 60cm range. Im assuming you are aware of the national park just past the inside of point perp which extneds to crocodile head (hence why all the boats hang around inside point perp now). I will need to pick a day and head out when the swell is small to give it a shot myself but its a bit of a drive out from calalla bay for me..