frankS

The skipper could not have timed it any worse, side on at the peak of the wave. Hope they survived with not too much injury. Frank

Just an idea but instead of charging an annual fee, how about asking for donors to the site, I'm sure there would be heaps of loyal members that would donate heaps more than any modest membership fee and in the long run the site could get much needed financial support without an annual fee. However it's done I'm just glad the site will remain open, I've seen far to many fishing sites close their doors. Stewy and Donna If there is anything I can do personally just ask, I am will to do the extra yards for the site. Frank

Steber19 I'll swap you a 2" square axle and a set of springs with hangers etc for your Al-Ko axle. Pm me to work it out if you like and do measurements etc. you would need to buy hubs and wheels. I will be in Canberra next few weeks so could deliver. Frank

In this day and age it's not just tradies and the like that get a good view of your property, anyone with a computer can go onto Google Maps and get a fairly good view of what's in every back yard they choose to look at. If the boat OR whatever is exposed to the elements ( no roof ) it is in plain sight to anyone. Frank

Been 10 years for me, woke up one morning with my left elbow aching like hell and couldn't make it comfortable no matter which position I put it in, went to work not feeling real great and after lunch which I couldn't eat a mate said you better go see a doctor you don't look the best. At this stage it had been 30 years since my last visit to any doctor, I was the bloke that wouldn't take a asprin for a throbbing headache, anyhow went to see dock and he advised me to go to hospital for check up, walked into Auburn hospital and they took one look at me and straight into intensive care, went to westmead hospital for 3 stents then back to Auburn 7 days in intensive care and 3 days in recovery ward. I haven't had a smoke since that day, wasn't hard for me as the alternative was not a good choice. You can do it easily just keep thinking of all those tubes and such and time in hospital and it will help you through it. Those hot flushes while having the stents inserted are something aren't they. Frank

Bit off the point but back in the day of us rockers when we wore Brylcream on our hair we would run the mono through our hair and it worked a treat. Frank

That's a really top effort Rick, those surface BOOFFS are heart stoppers, nothing beats it. Frank

I have but 1 word JEEP Frank

That's a great read and lots of advise for both the novice and the hardened Cod Fisho. Frank

I wish that I knew how to post photos on this site as I have heaps of different ideas that I have done over the years and set up my Bass boat from a bare hull to what it is today. Unfortunately I have been forced to sell my belovered Bass boat and now looking for another bare hull to start all over again. Frank

No it's not illegal but it is very annoying when you see someone doing it all wrong and churning up the silt etc it takes practice to get it right and have the trailer in at the right depth that suits this method of retrieval. I have been driving on and off for more years than I wish to remember and I make my own version of the catch clip, I do sell a few of them to close friends and about 1 5th of the price the others charge. Frank

Safer to use a very powerful flash light or a flood light and make a tapered funnel so it fits over the light and into the bung hole and look to see if any light shining up through the floor. Frank

I'm with the rest of the guys, total waste of time and as rickmarlin said, Where is the water coming from in the first place ? and have a reliable bilge pump. Debris gets stuck in these things and allows water in. Frank

I was 100yds up the road from the Cobargo festival on the week end, could hear the music, my mate and fishing partner for over 50 years has a 10 acre property and it's where I stay when I go down there. Pity I didn't know she was giving a speech or I would have gone and listened in. Frank

Thanks guys for all your comments. To sum up where I stand now. As I said the boat has been sold to my mate Roger who lives in Cobargo 18 k's from the boat ramp at Bermi. My old Commodore was a 2000 model Olympic special wagon A HSV vehicle and this is why I was a bit reluctant to sell it up till now, just the wheels were one of a kind mags HSV mags and worth some dollars and to date I have never seen another set of them, a few other things were HSV Olympic special as well, but we won't dwell on that now. I have decided to bite the bullet and let my mate who trailered the car back from Marouya to Cobargo buy the vehicle off me cheaply and I hope he gets good use from it. It turned out to be a $20 crank angle sensor and once replaced the car should be back to being reliable, but as I said my faith in it has been lost so let it go. My new car ( to me ) is still an old car for many of you as I am a pensioner with very little money to throw around. it's a 2006 Commodore wagon in very good condition and I hope it will see my driving time out , I haven't done a trip in it as yet so will be driving it down to Bermi in the next couple of days. Being 70 years of age and not all that fit I have decided to join the NRMA so any future car problems will at least be minimised, It would take me all my time these days just to change a wheel if I ever get a flat. Yes it is good to have mates that you can call on in times of emergency's and I really don't know what I would have done without them in this case. I can't offer anyone fishing trips now as at the moment I am boatless, till I do some work to the Half cab. But may still be able to take John ( Snatcher ) down to bermi fishing in my old boat. Cheers for now and I will let you know how I progress from here. Frank

Fab1 and others. Ollies tow bar is not the issue, it's his present vehicle Toyota corolla ( I think ) and it's just not a suitable vehicle to tow this boat. The boat in the video is not the vehicle in question. Frank

I can now see where you get your last user name from. Glad it worked ok for you and when you buy that Jeep for towing all your problems will be solved. Smaller wheels and a few less leaf spring leaves and the boat would sit lower and you wouldn't have to back down quiet as close to the water, even with a conventional 2 wheel drive. If you are happy with the way it is than go for it. Frank

As the title suggests, I have had one hell of a dissapointing week. Started as I was on my way to Bermagui with boat in tow, I got to Nowra and the heat guage started to rocket towards the boil mark, lucky I was close to a service station so bought a container and filled it with water, Couldn't see any obvious faults so let it cool and topped up the radiator Got as far as Ulladulla and up she went again, this time as I was putting in water I could see it leaking out from the overflow bottle. Filled up again when it cooled down got another 15 k down the road and again she got hot. There was that much road works going on I didn't want to boil in a cue and not moving so I chose a decent spot and pulled over. By this time the leak had got worse and I knew it was hopeless to try and continue on so I rang my mate at Bermi and he came up to pick me up. After sitting on the side of the road boiling hot with no shade for 3 1/2 hours he turned up with the 4x4 so we put the boat on the back of the 4x4 and filled the commodore with water once again, took the grill out and left the bonnett on the safety latch so it got more air flow. Managed to get it to my mates place, next day put it in the garage to get fixed while we went fishing. Fishing for 2 days and not a single fish due to lousy windy conditions that made lure casting a nightmare. Day 3 I decided to drive home minus boat as my mate can use it for a couple of weeks till I get down there again. Anyhow the water problem now fixed the car was running great, that is till I got to Marouya when it started coughing and spluttering and making weird knocking noises. I pulled it over to the side of the road and rang a mate in Sydney to come and pick me up, that was at 4.30 in the afternoon. Due to my mate having a few commitments he ended up getting there at 11.30 pm loaded all my gear into his ute and got home at 3.30 am. Next day I organised to have my car picked up and taken back to Bermi ( another mate with a car float ) since then my mate has said he has driven my car around heaps and it hasn't missed a beat. Doesn't matter I have now lost faith in it and now have bought another Commodore wagon as I like them and will now sell the one down Bermi. To end the saga I have sold my boat to my mate in bermi to cover cost of newer car, so now I don't have a Bass boat any more, so back to the drawing board.\ Frank

Just to finalise this issue. Ojay bought his boat over to my place on Thursday, I couldn't use my gantry for reasons we don't want to go into here, but managed to get the boat floating in my driveway. The rollers were a bit of a mess and after a fair amount of sweat we managed to fix his problem. Snapped 4 bolts along the way and had to cut and re-weld brackets with new bolts, we replaced the old keel rollers with new ones and new axles pins etc, we reversed the V guides with better placed holes and reduced the gap between the bracket and rollers so that the boat should go off and on a lot better without getting gammed. Another bit of work needed to get this trailer to maximum use. Smaller 9 " alloy wheels with much smaller guards and a few leaves taken out of the springs will lower the centre of gravity of this boat by at least 4 " probably more. A job waiting for more pleasant weather. Frank

Look into it carefully and if there is any exposed fibre you need to glass it immediately IF there is a coverage of glass resin still then the job wouldn't be so immediate but still would be best before hitting water again, even rain will cause problems if fibre is exposed. Frank

Hi mate. It is not a very productive area at the best of times, persistence might return a fluke but you would be better to spend your time in a more productive area. Sorry for the bad news but have to tell it as it is. Frank

I have the chirp mounted up front in my bass boat, have the tranny mounted to the shaft of the electric motor, works well. I know it's not a yak but as long as the tranny is in the water and aiming at the bottom of the sea bed it will work OK. Frank

Check your prop size and let me know. I may be able to lend you a smaller pitch prop, no promises but IF I have , you can borrow for a couple of weeks to test it properly in different conditions. Frank

Jcc Welcome aboard, personally IF I were you buying for the first time I would buy second hand, you can often pick up a as good as new outfit for way less than the hull new price and mostly the second hand boat will have a few extras already added, some with everything you would want or need and for far less money. It won't be easy buying the right boat the first time so another reason to shop around the second hand market to get a good view of what is out there. Frank

Noel. To my knowledge the bag limit is 10ltrs per person, when they are really running hot its not hard to get big quantities quickly. One thing I did learn last night and that is next time I am going to get a pilot light ( probably one of those $2 solar garden lights from Bunnings ) and put with my gear so I can easily find my way back to buckets seats and any extras I take that is not in the water with me, last night I went to someone elses gear by mistake. Easy to get disorientated. Frank