kiwicraig

What I wanted to understand was flow rate, not just fuel level. Having said that I agree that planning for failure is important. I've added spare media for the inline filter and a splice for the fuel line to my little box of bits I keep on the boat. If the fuel flow sensor fails then it's a couple of screws to remove it and put the splice in to connect the two sections of fuel line.

I run an old fibreglass half cabin. The previous owner got rid of the traditional plastic fuel tank under the rear seat and installed a 100l metal tank in the footwell of the cabin. While this is quite handy it completely lacks any kind of fuel gauge. Generally, I just keep it topped off and I am not going far enough to worry about it. However, on longer trips or multiday stints where I have stayed on a house boat and used my boat as a fishing platform I have found that it very hard to judge how much fuel I have left. I also have no visibility on how efficient (or not) my heavy-handed approach to the throttle is. I recently replaced my sounder with a new Lowrance Elite 7ti and this has given me the opportunity to do something about this. This leads me to my current project – installing a fuel flow sensor that can send data to the sounder. The fuel flow sensor communicates with the sounder via a NMEA 2000 network. On my old boat I don’t have a NMEA 2000 network so to make this work I need to set one up – so in this project I am going to establish a very simple NMEA 200 network and connect both the sounder and the fuel flow sensor to it. The Components. Shopping around I found a Lowrance NMEA 2000 starter kit that gives you the minimum you need to establish a small network and connect the sounder to it. This basically consists of: - 1x Backbone cable - 1x NMEA power cable as the backbone needs to be powered independent of any devices - 1x T-connector that gives you an output from the backbone - 1x Cable to run from the T connector to the sounder - 2x terminators (one male, one female) that go on either end of the NMEA backbone. In order to add the fuel sensor in I found a kit that included the sensor with integrated cable and another T Connector. From a NMEA perspective that is all you need to connect the two devices. Once you have a NMEA network if you need to add other components in you should just need additional T connectors and cables off the backbone cable. The fuel sensor has a few requirements: 1) It needs to be mounted vertically 2) It should be close to the tank 3) There needs to be a filter between the tank and the sensor. My existing fuel filter is towards the back of the boat, but I wanted to mount the fuel flow sensor in the cabin near the tank. Rather than try to move the main fuel filter I decided to install a second, inline fuel filter between the tank and the sensor. The Install. The first thing I did was snip the tape and cable ties holding the current fuel line in place. I then undid the hose clamp securing the line to the priming bulb and elevated the line to drain the fuel in it back into the tank. I held a little container under it when I broke the connection to catch any fuel that leaked out and just tipped that back into the tank as well. Next, I cut the fuel line and inserted the inline filter, taking care that the flow direction marked on the filter was correct. I then figured out where I wanted the fuel sensor, cut the line again and added in the sensor. After that I re-attached line to the priming bulb and tightened up all the hose clamps. Wipe all the connections down before priming so you can see if there are any leaks. Before proceeding with the networking I primed the motor and started it up to make sure that was working as expected. The inline filter is clear and I could see fuel flowing through it. I am sure the sound to money draining out of my wallet was imaginary. So far so good. Next, I connected the power cable to one of the T connectors and wired that into the fuse block at the helm. I then connected two other T connectors to that one. I put one either side, but it would not matter. To complete the backbone I added one terminator on each end. I connected the fuel sensor to one of the T connectors using the integrated NEMA cable and used the long cable that came with the starter kit to connect the sounder to the other T connector. Before tidying up the cabling I powered the sounder on and confirmed that I could see the fuel flow sensor listed as a device – which confirmed that the NMEA 2000 backbone was working as expected. I will still need to calibrate it when I next go out, but all up an easy addition to the boat and I look forward to getting it out on the water and seeing it in action.

Depends what you are asking. You are only allowed 1 Lobster pot, but can take 2 lobsters in NSW. So really when I said "some pots" I should have said "a pot". There is no point getting more than one.

Ah thanks. That's probably where I saw it. Will go re-read. Thanks all for the comments.

I've been thinking about getting some pots myself. There is a guy locally that makes them. PM me if you want info. I would love some tips on muddies. I get blue swimmers over summer. Have not had any luck with muddies. If you need a boat to place your lobster trap drop me a line. Happy to help as I have been thinking about giving this a try too.

I tried squidding off a jetty in Woy Woy the other day. There is significant tidal flow in the area and I simply could not keep in touch with the jig. I was running braid down to a swivel, flouro leader to the jig. The area looks like it has the right elements - sea grass beds, clear water, lights at night. Are there better rigs to use in high current areas? I've heard of people using paternoster rigs - how do you work those? Or am I wasting my time when the tide is running strongly?

Mate of mine gave me this recipe. Super easy and delicious. You can also make the poaching liquid in advance and freeze it. Then you just defrost it, bring it to the boil then add your fresh catch. 400ml can coconut cream 4 kaffir lime leaves 1 lime, zested, juiced 1tbs fish sauce 1tbs brown sugar 2 red chillies, sliced 1 garlic clove, crushed 4 x pieces of fish 250g snow peas, trimmed Steamed rice Shredded spring onion and coriander, to serve 1. Combine coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves, lime juice and zest, fish sauce, sugar, chilli and garlic in a wok and bring to boil 2. Add fish and reduce heat to low. Cover and simmer gently for 8-10 Mins (or until fish flakes) 3. Add snow peas and simmer for 2 mins 4. Serve fish on bed of rice, spooning on so e liquid and top with spring onions and coriander I made it tonight with some flathead fillets I had in the freezer and it was awesome!

Of course mate! We had good laugh about the spikies on the boat as well. One in particular got me right next to the nail on my middle finger and bled heaps. We were wondering which was going to run out first - the bait or my blood. There was nothing funny about all the little nicks and cuts on my hand when I juiced the lime for the mayo though!

The ones I put a photo of in the post I linked back to earlier in this thread. I bought them because the packet cracked me up as they claim to catch every fish you have heard of and some you haven't. "Fathead" and "Shapper" haha. They came pre-tied on a paternoster and yes - actually did ok.

I put these little squid things down today when drifting for flathead offshore almost as a joke. They accounted for the two biggest of the 10 keepers I caught. Go figure.

I headed out early this morning with @antonywardle to chase some flatties off shore. When we had the central coast Fish Raider lunch the other day ant was telling me that he had gotten pretty good at the flatties offshore. He was not kidding! We launched just after 6am from Woy Woy and made our way out of the heads and into Broken Bay. We started drifting in about 50-55m of water. First 10 mins or so were fairly quiet. Then mayhem! After I pulled in the first couple on pilles we hit a patch of flatties. We were both using two rods and went through a period where we could barely rebait one rod without the other going off. By nine we had 12 keepers between us and had both several undersize or just legal fish go. Ant also pulled up a few whiting as well - I think about 5 all told through the morning. By this time we were running out of "the good pillies" and were into some prawns and some very manky pillies that had been refrozen and were pretty awful. But we were still catching fish but it took a bit longer to get the remaining ones. We repositioned and worked through the remaining bait and I even tried out my worst ever lures just for a laugh. I was picking they would catch nothing. Ant thought I might get a jacket. Surprisingly we were both wrong with my two biggest flatties (both over 40cm) falling to my $5 squid lures! Having said that Ant landed the two biggest fish of the day. Mine ranged from about 35 to 45 cm. But we both bagged out - with me pulling up my 10th just as the bait ran out. This was my first time I've ever bagged out so was pretty happy. We headed in about noon and on the way back in I spotted a whale breaching and Ant killed the motor. As we slowed it arched gracefully, flicked its tail up and disappeared. What a great finish to a top session. Everyone one at home was dying for fish tacos - so we had a good feed and could give some fillets to the elderly couple across the street. And there was still enough left to vac pac some for later. A great day.

PM sent.

My all time fav "bad" lures remain the ones I picked up for $5 one day. The list of species they can supposedly catch is priceless.

Hi and welcome. Hopefully you will find us all pretty patient. I kind of goes with fishing! I will let others comment on the area as I don't know it, but one piece of advice I will give you is always go out there targeting a specific species. You will still get other things as bycatch. When looking at a new area you can approach this in a couple of different ways. Firstly you can pick the target and then try to figure out when and what conditions are likely to produce that target. Alternatively if you know you are going to be there at a particular time you can try to figure out what will be there at that particular time/season/tide/Moon phase. Once you pick the target, that will inform other choices like gear, bait, lures etc. I wouldn't write of the humble pillie though - for some targets they are a good bait.

I always keep an eye on where the line goes into the water. I'll often see the take before I feel it. But if you do miss it don't fret. Next jerk you do you will feel the weight. If you do, it is only one of two things. Squid or snag. Lift the to enough to keep tension on and wind steadily. When you get back to the jetty I recommend netting them. If you try lifting then out of the water you run the risk of just ending up with one of the candles as the rest of your Salt and pepper squid drops back into the water.

Great to meet you all. I look forward to getting out with Waza's lures when things warm up a bit. Good times.

Are we still on for Sunday? In still keen.

Nice work and thanks for sharing. That's a healthy looking drummer.

For me it depends what you are after. Drifting is my go-to method for flathead as covering ground is more productive on the lazy sods. If I am chasing beam or trevs then I would anchor up and burly away. Either way if what I am doing is not producing then I will switch it up.

Saturday was close to full moon. I had the same issue with them last season - went out near full moon and not a bite to be had. I've booked my annual trip in with the boys and we are targeting new moon this year! See how we go.

Hi Baz - yeah it does but it is not the most elegant process if I am honest. On Wi-Fi it is as simple as a prompt that says "there is an update - do you want to apply it now?" Also while I wait for the boat I have been able to put it in demo mode and learn my way around the menus, adjust colours, create custom dashboards and basically get about 70% of the setup done. My old unit was a different brand so building some familiarity with this one before I hit the water should help me get up and running quickly.

Lets do it! When are you thinking?

Great, thanks for the tip. It applied an update when I connected to the internet. I'll check the version numbers to make sure I have the latest.

I recently bought a new sounder combo unit, opting for the Lowrance Elite 7 ti. It comes with a cable that just does power, but I opted get the optional one that also has a NMEA 0183 serial interface well. This left me with a spare power cable. I had a small battery so I thought I might rig that up so I could fire the sounder up inside, apply all the updates etc on my nice fast NBN rather than tethered to my mobile. Unfortunately when I went to charge the battery it came up as faulty. I still liked the idea of being able to do this inside though so I started digging around in the shed. I found a power supply for an old external hard drive that put out either 5v or 12V at the right amperage, so I cut the plug off and used a multi meter to figure out which of the 4 non-standard coloured cables actually carried the 12V current. I then hooked these up to the sounder (including a 3A inline fuse just in case) and switched it on. Sure enough I can now power up the sounder inside. Has been really good being able to get used to the interface while I have had the boat in at the mechanic for a tune up and to replace the steering and control cables. Can't wait to get it on the water for a test drive.

@mrsswordfisherman posted that the old articles going to be up someone this month. There is a great hairtail article there so keep an eye out for that. I want to re-read it myself!