frankS

Sometimes when I am fishing out in the blue stuff I will turn my electronics off and revert back to the old days by lining up certain marks on the shoreline, especially if I am only a couple of miles off the coast, I only do this when I am familiar with the area ! . When I go to Bermagui I don't need sounder or GPS as I know my marks well. Even though I have lived in Sydney most of my life I am NOT familiar with Sydney marks, been about 15 years since I have fished the Peak for example. Frank

Some days you have bad luck. but still you ended up with a decent feed and a adventure. back in the day before sounders and GPS units we had to rely on position fishing by lining up certain marks on shore, you could still be several k's off the actual mark you wanted but that's all we had. Maybe Zoran should get some old paper charts of the area he fishes in case he has this problem again, at least you can look at the paper chart and get some idea where you are in the ocean. Or perhaps a 2nd cheaper gps sounder as a back up ?. Zoran. Have you found out what the problem was yet ?. Frank

The " Amians gun " as it's known as it sits in Canberra. This is just the barrel weighing approx 45 tonns . The carriage and all the other stuff that goes with the great gun was sold as scrap ( what a shame ) . My DAD shortly after the capture of this gun became very ill with some sort of disease which to this day I still don't know what it was and was sent back yet again to England hospital where he stayed till the end of the war. Frank

I have stated it before on here that my Dad was a ANZAC. Born in Great Yarmouth England 1894 came to Australia as a imported farm boy, joined the Australian army when the war broke out Foght in France , was wounded with shrapnel right leg, sent to hospital in England and patched up and sent back to the front. It was his regiment that captures the German canon that is now on display in the ACT war memorial . He was shot in the neck with machine gun bullets, sent back to England for another patch up job then back to the trenches fighting for OUR freedom. He spent the 2nd world war as a signalman and never seen action . After the war he bacame a postman till he retired at 65 Died soon after at 66 . That was 1960 he died the day before my 14th birthday. He died from complications from the leg wound all those years prior. was never really fixed up. That's how the Australian government. looks after it's war heros. The Amiens canon

I used to fish with Ron quiet often , he was the one that introduced me to the buoy anchor retrieval system. I have many fond moments in my memory banks. I have never been a keen rock fisherman as I have had boats since I was 16 years old. Frank

Noal. My only objection to having the Warriors in the N R L is the name National not International. If teams from countries other than Australia want to join then the name should revert to what it was prior to Super League and that was Australasian Rugby League. Then I would have no objection to Australasian countries competing. Frank

Just my opinion but I recon The warriors should NOT be in the N R L it's National Rugby League NOT International rugby league. They are doing well this year and I wish them all the success they can get BUT they should not be competing. I am not as passionate about the game as I was before my team was forced to merge with another team which I loved to beat . sort of put a bit of a damper on my whole outlook for the game. I played reserve grade in my younger days , never good enough to make first grade, Back then we had 2 reserves ( before inter change ) and once a player was replaced that was it for the entire game. Players were dedicated for the game NOT for the money involved. Frank

I call them " Blind Shark " OR Lunkers catch heaps of them on Brothers reef down bermi way. Good hard fight but useless otherwise. Frank

Only one team I dislike more than Melbourne and that is Manly. Was great to see them bash the hell out of each other. would have preferred a storm victory. Frank

Derek. Thanks so much for your explanation of " Benefits to the long cast " . I had no doubt that you would submit yet another awesome read for the members here. You have a certain knack for holding the interest of those who read your articles, much like @wazatherfisherman the way you two gentlemen put words into your writings is far and beyond the general hack such as myself. I do hope many members read your words and perhaps learn the why it is beneficial to their angling to be able to get a good accurate long cast in when needed. I think your reply to me should be a separate heading so more members will read it. Thank you. Frank

Derek. Maybe start a new thread so members can react to you rather than using this thread. Up to you. I think it will be interesting reading and may answer more than one question. PS would love to catch up with you some time and have a brew or two and a decent chin wag. Frank

I was talking with a young chap about fishing and trying to explain to him that generally fish like to hang around structure. I was telling him that a river or bay, even out in the ocean is similar to human highways where long distances can be travelled and very few vehicles are seen, then along the way you come across a McDonalds OR similar and all of a sudden the numbers of vehicles has increased 10 fold to the point that it is sometimes hard to get somewhere to park. Well structure is the rivers Mcdonalds where fish tend to gather in numbers because that is where the food is. I went on to explain that the majority of fish will be close to shore OR structure around pylons of piers etc or bommies out in the middle. He then asked me why IF the fish are usually in close Why does @DerekD teach and encourage that you cast as far as you can and you should tune your equipement to get as long a cast as you possibly can ?. I put my thoughts to this but not being one to answer why another fisho things and teaches the way he/she does things, I thought I would ask @DerekD this question as I believe it may be an interesting subject that others would read with interest. So @DerekD could you explain your thoughts why you encourage casting as far as humanly possible ?. Don't get me wrong. I know why I sometimes like a long cast but the novice may find it confusing. Frank

Yes Blue line at the base of the dorsal fin and extends the full length of the dorsal. It gets it's name Whiptail as it has a extended portion of the upper tail fin shaped similar to a whip and of coarse it has Blue lines on the face. Very pretty fish when caught but the colors fade upon it's death. Frank

Yep it's a Blue faced Whiptail OR Paradise fish. You can't see it in this photo but it would have had a distingt blue line between the body and the dorsal fin. They are excellent Snapper bait and anything approaching 8 or so inches are great on the table although a bit fiddly to prepare. Frank

Can't get much better than that ! . Neil. Never too old to enjoy the outdoors and a bit of roughing it with the elements. Frank

The memory is faint so it could have been anywhere, but I remember fishing there and I believe ( from memory ) the outer wall of the Aquarium had direct access to the ocean with large inlets so the sea water rushed into the viewing area and kept the fish airated. But it's a long time ago and I could be slightly mixed up with my memory. I never actually went into the aquarium . I thought it was at fairy Bower but could have been the one at the wharf. Frank

Can anyone remember a aquarium at Fairy bower ( Manly ) ? Way back in the memory banks I seem to recall fishing off the rocks there as a kid. I looked on google maps and there is nothing there that rings a bell with my memory. I seem to recall catching the Manly ferry from the quay and lugging all my gear to fish off the rocks, this would have been late 50's early 60's . Frank

Time to do a bit of magnet fishing. Hope you remember the area the rod was lost. Easiest way to recover a lost outfit and it won't cost you a lot of dollars to get a decent magnet. Frank

Think the fish is a " Black banded Kingfish " pretty common catch down to about Port stevens not so much seen around Sydney. Might be worth submitting it to the best species list, don't think many would have been entered. Could be wrong. Frank

When I win lotto I am going to take a 8/11 day River cruise, either the Mediterranean Or one of the europe rivers. I am not interested in an ocean cruise . Frank

The snake at Chullora has heaps of stock I would be surprised if they didn't have what you wanted in stock. And Supercheap is next door. It's a great place to spend some spare time browsing boys toys. Frank

The big snake at Chullora has the 60" shaft in stock. I would recommend the drive up to get one, worth the drive just to have a look around the store. I am only 5 minutes away from it . Frank

You're not wrong Donna I will be heading up that way as soon as I can arrange it. Frank

Good post and seems like you had a great morning. Hope you reported the boat that was keeping the undersize kings. Frank

Hi I have one and only tried it out once. The boat is a Savage scorpion 485 SF and I had to make a bracket to hold the motor, 60 inch shaft which was needed for the high bow of the Scorpion. The power supply was a 180 amp hour battery and I used the motor at about full power to both troll around the bay and hold possition with anchor lock. I only got approx 5 hours out of the battery before it reached 11.5 volts ( not a good idea to go beyond 12 volts ) but I did give it a really hard work out. With normal fishing I would say the battery would last much longer but I wanted to give the motor a hard work out. I have another 105 amp hour battery which I will be using in the future . The motor worked extremely hard and on a slightly smaller boat would be ideal. I looked at both Minn Kota and Motorguide and I am on a pension so money was an issue. Glad I chose the watersnake, IF I was working with a proper job I would probably have chosen the Motorguide. Frank