[Anyone selling a Hobie Mirage Drive 180 v2 or sprocket parts?]

I have a hobie mirage drive 180 v2 and the sprocket has finally sheared all the teeth after many years of use.

Before I go down the path of buying a new spine assembly just wanted to check if anyone has one lying around or is willing to sell the sprocket parts?

Hobie don’t sell the sprocket as a spare part unfortunately and they will only sell you the spine assembly which is pretty expensive.

[First Fish for 2024 more summer hairtail and a crab]

No donut 🍩 day is a great day!

First fish for 2024.

Chasing #hairtail and #blueswimmercrab at the Hawkesbury River.

Perfect conditions in the morning and as predicted the wind would pickup around midday and it sure did.

All Hairtail caught using #roundherring caught from Sydney Harbour. 3 for me and 3 for my dad.

With a broken mirage drive sprocket I had no choice but to use only the electric motor today and I’m very happy that I had 42% battery left.

Included a photo fail, the downside of trying to do this solo.

My favourite way to eat crab is mixed with mayo and sriracha on toast 🍞

Gear used:
Rod: Daiwa TD Black V2 Mangrove Masher 642MFS
Reel: Daiwa 21 Caldia MQ LT3000
Line: #Tasline Elite PE1 (15lb)
Leader: Sunline FC Rock 20lb
Hook: double trebles with flexible wire
Bait: Round Herrings

[A “Royal” way to start 2024 - Harbour Kings are finally getting bigger.]

Cracker session Bob

 

[Kings and Flatties]

What a haul of flathead well done.

I've tried for inshore flathead on the yak and I can managed is millions of undersized ones.

I'll move about 10-20m and then immediately get smashed by more small flatheads. 

They seem to be everywhere, I guess I just need to figure out where the bigger units are. 

Wondering does everyone here know how much flathead fillets cost in the shops, cause I can tell you they're not cheap. But I guess fishing is more expensive!

[Bate Bay]

Nice silver and red! 

A general question to the wider community how do you like to cook trags?

 

On 12/28/2023 at 1:56 PM, Fried Rice said:

Nothing wrong with that catch, great feed. Well done. Never tried cooked prawn heads as bait.

This is also used to chase groper so don't throw these away!

[Snapper, pigfish and other reef species]

23 hours ago, Yowie said:

Nice catch of fish, a couple of better reddies, however, no mowies stay on my boat. All released very quickly. 🤣 They fight hard, but it is their only good point.

Grey mowies yes I agree they are not the best eating. But my dad's is in town and he eats fish everyday if not every couple of days. I can't seem to supply him with enough fish lol. So if I'm catching fish for family and friends I'll take a few as I personally wouldn't touch them. But the red mowie it's a different story, I think it's a fantastic eating fish. How can 2 related fish be so different in taste and texture!

 

23 hours ago, Blackfish said:

Great catch again there Whiskey 

 

22 hours ago, jenno64 said:

Cracking bag!

 

21 hours ago, thaichilli said:

Nice one, good to be rewarded for the paddle/peddle out wide.

 

18 hours ago, bessell1955 said:

Monster Snapper!

 

16 hours ago, Basil D said:

Nice mixed bag of fish

the morning was very flat

it did change about 10amish 

Thanks Guys

16 hours ago, noelm said:

Seems to be more and more people keeping Butchers these days……

I think it's an under rated fish honestly but everyone has different preferences. 

 

11 hours ago, Larkin said:

Nice seafood buffet!

Well done Mate! Some good sized reds too. 

Thanks Chris, I actually gave the larger ones away and kept one small snapper as they have better texture steaming. The larger models are better for frying and I want to make sure we aren't always eating fried fish and there is a balance.

 

4 hours ago, Pickles said:

Nice work again @whiskey299. I’m with you on the circle hooks - love them - you can leave rod in holder unattended & be pretty sure if you get a hit, you’ve got the fish.

I love circle hooks as well, rodney rod holder and circles make an excellent combo! This leaves my hands free to use another rod with J hooks so I can strike and not get bored watching the rod tip lol.

 

4 hours ago, Little_Flatty said:

Solid feed @whiskey299. Well done!

Thanks

[Snapper, pigfish and other reef species]

Full moon fishing and I’m grateful that I didn’t donut 🍩.
 

Conditions were perfect today so I took the opportunity to fish the inshore reefs and explore some new areas.

The plan was to target trag and some reef species for the #fishdistributionsystem. 

I always have family that want fish so I’m more than happy to share it around and keep a few to eat.

Couldn’t find any trags but I found a few good sized snapper, largest one measured 48cm and one of my favourite pigfish. I would take pigfish any day over trag.
 

From the photos you can see the j hook was barely pinned on the lip. That’s why I like using circle hooks as you get a good hookup rate and it’s great for releasing fish. Plus you can just leave the rod in the rod holder and let it do all the hard work.

Tried that thing I see people do where they hold the rod and fish and struggled to take the shot and had lots of blooper photos.

Managed to finally land a fish on the palms jigaro super slide 60g. I’ve had this lure for over 2 years now and it’s never seen a fish, primarily used to target kingfish but today I hook a big ass scorpion fish. Can’t complain as they are great on the plate.

I think this will be my last session for 2023. Looking forward to trying some new styles next year. 

If you’re reading this far, congrats 👏. I wish you have a happy new year and lots of fishing and catching!

Gear used:
Rod: Daiwa TD Black V2 Mangrove Masher 642MFS 
Reel: Daiwa 21 Caldia MQ LT3000
Line: Tasline Elite PE1 (15lb)
Leader: Sunline FC Rock 20lb
Hook: gamakatsu 1/0 circles and 2/0 j 
Bait: Yakka strips

 

 

[113cm Sydney Harbour King]

Well done Max and epic catch in the harbour

[Sydney Harbour wide - Kingies and Trag.]

Well done Bob

[New to Crabbing.]

5 hours ago, Mike Sydney said:

Great topic @AFT Fishing, I actually just bought my first pots earlier this week thinking it might be worth a crack during the wilder winds this week.

My question for those who use pots is how you transport them. I presume they’re filthy coming out of the mud and my wife would have a fit at me dumping it in the car….do folks use tarps or bags or what? All the videos I see have folks just chucking them in the back of a Ute which is a luxury I don’t have !

Go to Bunnings and get yourself one or two of these to line the car.

Ultimate Flooring PVC BBQ Mat, it's only $16. I have 2 in my car, my wife's car has one, mother in law has one. You get the idea.

When you're done fishing take them out and give them a quick rinse.

 

[Deckee Community Monthly Wrap - Fishing and Boating News]

What a great summary report! 
well done

[Snapper and Kingies came out to play at Long reef (with 30other boats). But Grubs fishing off the wharf.]

Great report Bob. You didn’t miss much at the fad. It was just rats taking slow jigs.

That’s a nice snapper you got

[What type of flathead is this? (Northern Sand Flathead)]

45 minutes ago, Blackfish said:

I recon “Northern Sand Flathead” Platycephalus endrachtensis but as @noelm says, if you can get a photo of its tail that would have been great.
With what I can see it’s got the distinctive stripes.

My friend's catch so I can only ask to see if he can get a photo of the tail section.

[What type of flathead is this? (Northern Sand Flathead)]

Caught in Sydney Harbour

 

[Cracking the 1m mark]

Congrats on the new PB, fish that size are just in a different class.

Hopefully we will see more of them around.

[Making your catch look bigger]

Help needed with this fish to make it look a tad bigger!

 

[Plan B and a rare catch an Eastern Blue Devil Fish]

1 hour ago, noelm said:

Not a huge fan of those Crimson Banded Parrot fish, or the Butchers…..probably would have tossed them back along with the Sweep and Red Rock Cod, but, lots seem to keep them. Good catch of Snapper there, well done.

Yea these fish aren't for everyone but my parents love them fried.

I love the red rock cod, it's great steamed and adding a touch of sesame oil to the sauce just enhances the taste.

[Plan B and a rare catch an Eastern Blue Devil Fish]

15 hours ago, Yowie said:

Not a bad haul at all with no sounder. Pan sized reddies, and red rockies, and a couple of others. The red rocks produce small but chunky fillets.

 

1 hour ago, LuckyFil said:

Great to see the Eastern Blue Devil Fish, I've only seen one before about fifty years ago when snapper fishing near Palm Beach

Fil

 

1 hour ago, Robbo from Sydney said:

An impressive haul - even more so with no sounder or gps

Thanks guys, yes it was challenging without a sounder and gps. I've been checking the wiring and it looks like the sounder is dead. From what I have read online lowrance won't repair units which is going to be expensive at it's going to cost me around $1400 for a new unit! But I will give them a call and confirm before I pull out the credit card.

[Plan B and a rare catch an Eastern Blue Devil Fish]

 

#fishdistributionsystem working overtime to share these with neighbour, uncle, in laws and parents.

Plan A: Head offshore in the yak to see how far I can go and how long it takes to reach some really deep spots 70-100m
Plan B: Fish the heads for table species

Got to the ramp nice and early launched at first light and what do you know. The damn sounder won't turn on! I disconnect and reconnect the power connector many times but it still won't turn on. I'm devastated as I really wanted to fish offshore.

So it looks like plan B and I'll be fishing blind! I motor out to where I think the wreck is, drop the sabiki and to my pleasant surprise I've caught a yakka. After about 15mins I consider myself very fortunate that I've managed to almost fill my livewell without the aid of the sounder. 

The morning started real slow without the sounder and my gps marks it's a guess work where there might be fish or structure. By 8am a school of rat kings make their appearance. It's the first time exploring this far and it doesn't help that I have no downscan or gps. Throughout the day I just have to guess where the fish are and I'm constantly moving spots until I get some decent nibbles. It's not until about 1pm when the action really starts the pickup, wrasse, snapper, scorpion fish one after the other. I even managed to hook an Eastern Blue Devil Fish (protected species) which is a first for me. Such a pretty fish I didn't really get a chance to admire it as I wanted to return it back to the water asap. Eventually the bite wears off at dead low tide. While moving around looking for fish I snagged multiple times and then hooked a freight train that ran straight into the rocks. I suspect this was a decent king as most sharks would head out towards the sea, not into the rocks. Today I lost all my sinker and rigs that I had brought, primarily due to snags and having no gps on the sounder. 

The scorpionfish is the biggest I've seen and caught and a PB for me 36cm. When they get to this size they are reasonably weighty.

 

[Summer Hairtail and Blue Swimmer Crabs]

11 hours ago, Isaac Ct said:

Great stuff mate, thats an amazing trip out.

Well done.

 

9 hours ago, Larkin said:

Well done Brad! Some nice fish and good haul of crabs.

it’s one species I’ve never caught - wouldn’t mind giving it a go one day.

What’s the rig you were using?

 

2 hours ago, bessell1955 said:

That is a top result, well done.

 

Thanks all.

Chris post has been updated hopefully this helps. 
there might be other ways to rig but this works for me. 
you could try gangs instead as I believe that’s what more people use.

[Summer Hairtail and Blue Swimmer Crabs]

18 hours ago, Robbo from Sydney said:

Wow. I always thought they were only caught in the dead of night during winter!  

I caught them earlier this year in the middle of the day back in April this year and my PB 1.6m

Back then I wasn’t as prepared and still finding what technique worked for me. Everyone has different ways to rig, some ppl use gangs I prefer trebles.

18 hours ago, Yowie said:

Very nice work from a yak. The teeth are the only problem with yak fishing, especially hairtail teeth.

they certainly are! Lucky they don’t trash around like other species. Even with their mouth closed there are still two expose teeth that’s very sharp. So when bagging them in plastic bags I have to wrap a cloth around the head.

[Summer Hairtail and Blue Swimmer Crabs]

First time chasing hairtail in summer in the Hawkesbury River and I’m very happy I didn’t come home empty handed. 

I took annual leave from work as the conditions were ideal today, a small tide change and little to no wind forecasted for the morning. Got to Parsley Bay Boat Ramp nice and early, rigged up and launched at first light. Water temp was a nice 24-25C. Biggest hairtail caught today was 1.5m.

Spent probably almost an hour getting to the spot and setting up the crab pots and dropping them at various locations. In a boat this would have only take 15mins but on a yak my speed is limited.

Fishing was very slow to start off with, I didn't catch anything until 9am when I hooked a small jewfish. After that I spotted something different on the sounder and before I knew it, the drag was screaming! Finally got it boatside and the hook pulled I'm devastated as this one was a good fish, would have easily been over the 1.5m mark. Rigged up another bait and another pulled hook! Decided to use half a herring instead of whole and I didn’t loose anymore fish after that. With each drop I would continue to hookup until the tide hit the lowest point and the fish disappeared. So I focused on checking the crabs traps which were all empty! But I decided to wait it out for the run in tide to kick in and luckily I did as all the crabs were all caught in a small 1 hour window! By then the wind was raging as forecasted, so I packed up and headed back in.

While I was fishing I actually got checked by fisheries. They were impressed by my hairtail catch and said to hide it from other fishos lol. They visually checked my crabs and told me to stay safe and don’t get blown away (wind was really picking up by now, white caps everywhere). It’s the second time I’ve ever been checked and it’s good to see them about. Even managed to score some freebies! 2 x crab rulers and a sticker.

Gear used:
Rod: Daiwa TD Black V2 Mangrove Masher 642MFS
Reel: Daiwa 21 Caldia MQ LT3000
Line: #Tasline Elite PE1 (15lb)
Leader: Sunline FC Rock 20lb
Bait: whole/half frozen herring
Hook: Double treble with 20lb multi core wire

 

UPDATE

I’m just using a 3 oz sinker, about a 1m of leader attached to a snap swivel. Attached to the snap swivel is 2 trebles using multi core flexible wire. I do it this way as they can swallow the hooks, so I unclip the trebles and dispatch the fish. Once dispatched you can bleed it on the side of the yak, gut and recover the hooks. Up to you how heavy you want the sinker to be but I find the 3 oz works well with the wind/current to keep the line almost vertical. With the 1m leader I used to use FC leader,  but now switched to using multi core flexible wire, because I’ve lost too many rigs from big hairtail swallowing or cutting the entire rig including the sinker! Optional is a flashing light attached where the sinker is. When I first discovered hairtail in the area I was targeting jewfish and wasn’t using lights so I know you don’t need it but I think it helps attract them. When attaching the bait is use the elastic bait thread to secure the trebles. I find using a light rod setup works best as you need to watch the tip for subtle bites. 

 

 

[Big Cow out wide]

Nice catch Chris!

Hats off to you sir for persisting and nailing a good size.

At this rate you'll need a bigger brag mat and kitchen benchtop.

I've also got reports that the current has been pretty strong recently

[Snapper and Kings - Life is good (eternal life is better)]

3 hours ago, Pickles said:

Got out for the second time in 2 days 😌. Headed off shore thanks to @whiskey299 and followed his advice and bagged 2 nice snapper (75 & 51cm). Conditions blew up and swell was sloppy so headed back in about 10am and tried a few spots inside the heads, but only rats, but good fun and plenty of them.

The snapper were 50m off the rocks and caught free lining unweighted strips of fresh slimy mackerel (heaps and heaps at all the bait grounds, (the rock fall inside nth head, the heads themselves, middle Head, George’s Head, the artificial has smaller- better sized ones).

Kingies were caught on live Yakkas, live slimies and squid, I reckon they would have taken prawns if we had them. Also got a just under 2m bronze whaler that took 15 minutes to get to the surface. I thought I’d hooked a seriously big Kingie - very disappointed.

Overall a good day made better by catching up with Raider Bill in his BarCrusher @blaxland.

Well done Bob! What a cracker size, did any of them have any gamakatsu 2/0 hooks in them by any chance? If they did it can I have them back lol.

Glad to see Mr Banana and being proudly on display. 

The sharks there are annoying but that’s the price we have to pay.

 

1 hour ago, blaxland said:

Nice feed there Bob I often see a boat in that spot on my way back I wonder if its @whiskey299

Not likely as I would be fishing in a blue kayak. 

[Kingfish Ceviche Recipe]

As requested by some members here is my wife’s kingfish ceviche recipe that’s she has refined over time. We love this sauce and it’s our favourite. Honestly I’m not sure why but I can’t handle wasabi and soy anymore, maybe because my pallet has been spoiled!

Anyway it seems like a lot of ingredients but worth a try. This recipe goes well with Kingfish, Australian Salmon and Trevally. 

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon yuzu/lemon juice
1 clove garlic puree
20g black pepper
1.5 teaspoons white miso
1.5 tablespoons mirin
1.5 tablespoons sake
Some sugar to taste if too salty
Add diced red onion and spring onion

There are various toppings you can add to this which we have tried and they all work out well. You can drizzle the sauce on lightly but we prefer to drown it in the sauce as it’s so good you could drink it!

Photo 1: Is kingfish ceviche but we added some chilli oil to spice things up a tad

Photo 2: Is kingfish ceviche without chilli oil

Photo 3: Is Australian Salmon with additional toppings of pomegranate and some fried shallots for texture. The green leaves are shiso leaves, optional topping up to your taste. We normally dice the leaves and dress it ontop. Purple or green shiso leaves both work.

Photo 4 & 5: If you’re in the mood for some extra texture then you just add the fish onto some fried sesame rice crackers for some crunch.