PaddyT

yep witchdoctors were designed for lures

And where you catch the slimies is the first place to catch a marlin, slimies tolerate being trolled much better than yakkas but what Scratchie said is spot on , one livie at about 20 , the other 40, a dredge is the way to go at slow speed rather than a witchdoctor if you want to run a teaser-which is actually a good idea when livebaiting because you dont have the wash to act as a teaser for you. Comment on your gear-15 kg line is a bit dangerous for little blacks- you will get them too the boat really quickly on 15 and that can lead to some very interesting moments for the uninitiated , keep your boat in gear at all times and watch a couple of vids on how to take a leader and how to grab a marlins nose (hint -they dont like it much)-good luck

Ill give you a hint-dont jiggle sabikis up and down-it doesnt work-drop them through marked bait-use your sounder -aggressively-you will know youve loaded up when the line stops coming off the reel. If you dont get bit-wind back up again and drop through again-keep the line vertical.

PS little blacks can really be single minded about the bait they are on-much more than stripes-i use lures for stripes off Sydney because we dont get the bait aggregations that Port Stevens or the south coast get so the fishing is "search and destroy"-when you have bait aggregating like you described-livebait will be far more effective-even if it is not as spectacular. Finding fish is all about edges-reef edges,pinnicles, current edges, colour changes-little blacks will be in suprisingly dirty water at times as long as there is bait. The least amount of success ive had has been in hot , purple fast running current , look for everything else you would look for chasing pelagic fish-birds, bubbling bait, bait on the sounder, ripple lines. Ripcharts is a good starting point but its not a magic blanket-once you are out rely on your eyes and your electronics-not a 24 hour old satellite image , use it as a guide to plan.

If you are marking bait-dont leave it-personally looking at those charts i would of pushed a little wider or a bit north to the intersection of the north vs south current and fished that edge- best direction for lures is across current- zig zag-a lot-lure positioning is all about getting them "in the window"-so in your clear water "tunnels"on the face of the wave which is why i dont faff around with 4 lures and two teasers in a small boat-mostly run 3 , 4 if i have crew that know what they are doing. Also in a small boat because of the compact wake its difficult to position more than 3 lures without outriggers-use them if you have them. Also if you mark a fish under bait have a sabiki ready to go , catch some slimies and get one over the side- far more effective than lures.

PS to paraphrase Arnold Schwarzenegger-"If you want your bait to live, dont turn the pump off"-aerators are useless, bait needs fresh water at a decent flow rate

Im in Brissie at the moment and the boat is in Syd , but the rams would be approx 150mm long im guessing so total travel would be part of that taking the ram housing into consideration-its a good guess depending on how accurate you want to be

Tackle guard

Depends a bit -when the motor is trimmed right down it moves slowly till its about a third up, then it moves quickly for the last 2/3 to the top. Im guessing about 3 seconds for the first stage and about 4 -5 for the second-its a Yammie F100

have a look on youtube , there are quite a few vids-also maybe talk to your local outboard dealer and see if he will lift it off for you and store it for a few days while you do what you do-might be a cheaper and simpler way to do it.

Did you actually read my post-i gave you 9 spots that have livies

Livies in the harbour can be tricky when they are hit day after day-whilst i will always respect Bobs fishing abilities, in general i catch my livies with sabikis by sounding up schools and bombing them. The only time i use the bait and handline trick is in winter, however the key is often this-BE ON THE BAIT BEFORE SUNUP- Roseville probably contains yakkas and a whole bunch of other baitfish-i see them bubbling , i see them on the sounder but in general , i catch them at The Fridge, The island , the Arti , the Centurian, the Dunbar, the other wreck off south head, The colours, Longie at Little Manly in front of the old gas works , they are everywhere-I cant be bothered sitting in one spot berleying most times when i could be fishing , its a rare day when i havent filled my tank inside 30 minutes using this approach.

Alex-what are you in a rush for - these sort of FG boats can be chock full of hard to see and hard to fix problems. Assuming you are brand new maybe reset your sights to a bare bones tinnie- any structural issues will be obvious , easy (relativly speaking ) to fix. You can add bits, modify it and your fishing sights will be expanded enormously. There will always be other boats-also buy in winter time- they are always cheaper!!

Beach always has swimmers-even at dusk and dawn-as a kid i caught about 8 million tailor off the rocks there (it was one place that my parents were willing to take me -they would beach, i would fish)-chucking small metals or floating strip baits under a float.

They are actually pretty good chewing once they get big enough- but they are an absolute bugger to fillet and skin-and forget scaling , that seems impossible!!

Accidently killed a couple of birds over the years-once managed to hit a gull with a full blooded cast with a big metal lure at Terrigal Skillion-it was instantly dead-must of been the most uncoordinated seagull on the planet as generally they are pretty good at dodging . The other was a mutton bird -got tangled in my line while i was spinning up striped tuna on light line , unfortunately for the bird a tuna ate the lure at the same time and dragged him down deep for long enough to drown the bird. Easiest way to handle birds is put a rag or towel over their eyes-they become a lot calmer. Funniest one i ever had was a full grown albatross that got tangled in my line at Whale Beach -he had an excellent go at eating me before i safely untangled him (took about 15 minutes), i dont think albatrosses are scared of much-caught a couple more marlin fishing and they are always keen for a bit of a fight before you let them go. But yeah , just treat everything that lives with respect , if you are going to kill something kill it properly and then use it .

nothing wrong with knocking one on the head , once they are tailwrapped they do tend to run out of puff really quickly , had one at the boat nearly dead inside ten minutes a couple of years ago-once we towed it around for a while it revived but im guessing if the fight went another few minutes it would of been all over for the fish.

Might be a little early for macks , but dollies and kings should be around. There are a stack of livebait grounds off Coffs- the closest is the bommie just north of Muttonbird, there is also Bullocky straight out the front(excellent spottie mack grounds), the Trag grounds to the north, the close bait grounds to the north east and the wide bait grounds out the front of Split SOlitary , should be kings at the big island, maybe a 'hoo or two. Go to the big tackle store and you should be able to get the marks for all those bait grounds-just be aware of the marine park boundaries. I fish there a fair bit, best time of year for the macks and pelagics in general is Autumn but you could well be in with a chance of a small black if you tow a slimy around-weve caught them as close in as Little Muttonbird-good luck

use a rizzuto finish in it after the hitches-the other important thing to do is sinch it up before fishing -or dont waste fishing time by tying it and use a albright.

Nope-light weight 10-12 ft rod, 8lb mono leader- you can use braid off a light spin reel no probs-i use a baitrunner with 8lb braid as the ability to control the float with the baitrunner function is much better than opening the bail arm-if you want to go old school use a centrepin-you need a few different floats to suit sea conditions -calm seas big float/lots of chop /swell current-bigger float-weight the stem so they stand up by themselves in the water and just add a few split shot below to get the bait down to depth-some float stoppers , hook choice is fine but size 6 and 8 the sizes you need on the rocks, some cleats and away you go.

when he waves you for a tow-just mind your own business

Its summer-the once a year boaties are out in force-try your best to help them and educate them but even better avoid them by going early. Tunks is a good ramp but the parking is awful , Roseville is far better (the NP fee keeps it a bit quieter) but the harbour needs a couple more ramps.

Davidson boat ramp is open, although boaters living outside the Northern Beaches Local Government Area are advised to use another boat ramp as restrictions apply to this area."---Cut and pasted from the advisory , so yep as Roseville is in the zone north of the bridge its probably not a good idea

its an advice that non locals shouldnt use but not an order

Dont know why i was quoted for that-as i said before-ive switched away from inflatables