PaddyT

Having lived up that way for a few years and crossed the Noosa bar more times than I can remember a 4.2 M boat is not going to cut it. You do see guys on glassed out days go across in all sorts of little boats and get themselves in trouble at times too!. For your budget 2nd hand is the way to go. A pure estuary boat up their gives you a lot of options anyway- the river has a pretty good fishery anyway. Trevally of all sorts, queenies (the small variety) , jacks , whiting , flatties- occasional barra (not that I ever caught one). Get a cast net and learn how to throw it, live prawns, herring etc the way to go. Light tackle lure fishing can be pretty good too.

There is heaps of info out there- key points are this- fuel is a blend of hydrocarbons of varying volatility, the more volatile compounds will evaporate from stored fuel fairly quickly leaving the heavier longer chained molecules behind. This will reduce the octane rating of the fuel and increase the chances of "gum" forming. Turning the fuel over is a good idea for that reason. Second point is that an empty /half empty fuel tank will "breath" as it expands and contracts with variations in temperature- this will suck air from the atmosphere into the tank which holds water vapour. The water vapour will condense in the tank and sink under the fuel (water is heavier than fuel). Ethanol containing fuels will speed up this process because ethanol is hydroscopic(attracts water), ethanol also has a higher octane rating than normal fuel . Ethanol containing fuels will also potentially react with rubber/plastics differently than normal fuel and those two reasons are why they should not be used in marine/aviation activities. The other factor that lots of people dont understand is that most engines will NOT perform any better if you put higher than recommended octane rated fuel into them because the computer setups will not be set to take advantage of the higher rated fuel >the safest bet for most outboards in NSW is use 95 because as yet it does not contain ethanol (this may change in the future). Ethanol containing fuels on the other hand will not cause any problems to 99% of cars because the higher turnover of fuel doesnt let the ethanol "suck" water into the tank and the componentry of the car is designed to deal with ethanol. My tow vehicle is a Ford territory with 309000km on the clock and I have used nothing but E10 since new without a single engine/fuel related issue but my boat with a Yamaha 100 4 stroke gets the 95- again no issues after 4.5 years and 570 engine hours. Install a proper water removing fuel filter and simply use your boat and you should have minimal problems.

When my kids were small they generally were actually fairly hard to keep warm on the water - a PFD is pretty good for keeping the wind off as well as potentially saving their life and also being a legal requirement until they are 12. I agree 100% with Jon about the inflatables- I am actually going back to normal jackets on my boat because after doing a few demo inflations at work - for kids and teachers (I run a swim school) ive come to the conclusion that i dont trust them- inflated one the other day and sure enough their was a faulty seam inside the jacket (6 year old MinnKota brand-properly maintained) and it leaked- I think if I go in I want a proper jacket

you might want to read this;http://www.wafishaman.com/content/sht-house-boats , usual story buyer beware and do a lot of research-

AFAIK the bite is still north but it is a good bite

Dead right Noel- seen footage of a trawler getting rolled on a bar because he broached , too many people want to attach hard and fast rules to boating when in reality you are dealing with an ever moving surface and ever changing environment

The only time i felt safe anchoring in a yak was in areas with very little current- its too easy to end up side onto the current and end up going in,

Nice-we had a couple of dud days after the New Year and my 21 year old decided to break the curse and do a "bollocky" swim 7 km out to sea- I was laughing so hard I nearly cried , unfortunatlely it didnt break the curse!!!

Jon- your a mad bugger I reckon!- i guess the advantages of the RIBS are that they just bob like a cork , but what you say is correct- as long as you dont have a bar to cross swell is only a worry if you get seasick (i reckon some folk feel worse in long period big swell that in a bit of nasty chop ) My boat is a 5.4 M TABS centre console. It is a typical AL boat in that it bangs and jolts a bit into the sea but it has very predictable down sea running characteristics (unlike some). I brought my boat back from Sth Solitary Island to Coffs in 30+ knots of NorEaster one afternoon- no probs, pushing into it would of been very nasty I think. I use voyage planning as my main form of safety- if the Noreeaster is predicted then I head north in the morning , if a Sthly is due to blow then I head south-coming home with the breeze is a lot easier than trying to bash into it. Having said that last year on a solo marlin trip I had been up at the baitstation all morning with whitecaps starting to form from the NE when I decided to run down to the Peak (about a 25 k run), hooked 2 marlin and had to bash back to the harbour in 20 knots of NE- i was perfectly safe but got very wet. Learn the capabilities of your boat and ere on the side of caution.

Good rule of thumb is as much chain as your boat is long- with the current around juno you would probably need to let out depth of water plus 20-30 meters of rope to hold bottom

All good mate- just change one thing at a time to work it out

Coldest water around at the moment is about 21C, there is actually an upwelling starting off the coast and it brings all sorts of nutrients to the surface. You can catch kings in 16C water in the middle of winter- not sure why everyone waits till January- mainly rats this time of year

Yep- couldnt get past the smell personally to even think about trying!

I would highly doubt that the property owner has title down even as far as the high water mark , but I will check some things out and get back to this

Move the motor before you re-prop- you might be pleasantly suprised without having to spend $660- SOLas do know their stuff though

USed fireline for years- i have one baitcaster which has line over 8years old on it and no probs- it does get a bit tatty looking though. Fireline is not a true braid - it is a fused line, as i said i find it fine. Sounds like your main problem has occured during spooling- with all braids/PE line youve got to use a bit of muscle to spool correctly, take the line off (wind onto another reel) and respool under tension and you should fix your probs

Few things-I would of thought that motor should spin out to about 5000rpm if correctly propped and at correct height. Also dont discount the damaged prop- ok its got a couple of chips but is it bent out of shape a bit? that can cause a bit of a list so have a good look again at the prop. Really bad situation might be that you have water forward in the hull that doesnt drain out the through the bilge-worth a precautionary look - some FG boats can trap water leaking in from rain up in the forward sections , because they have underfloor bulkheads.

Ok-one more time-Every single one of these other sites pulls all its data from the BOM and in most cases doesnt even bother to reinterpret the weather- some are OK as a guide but best bet is learn how to read a synoptic chart and look at the BOM site- the METEYE page is excellent if you cant be bothered to learn how to read the weather map. This especially applies if you wish to fish offshore or rockfish.

Manly lagoon is pretty famous for having a population of "exotics" like jacks, various tropical trevallies including bigeyes, giant herring but it got hammered a few years ago by runoff contamination (i think from golf course chemicals) and had a couple of very bad fish kills. The guys that fished it tended to be locals that popped down for an hour after work and most outings they missed out but every know and then they caught fish. The theory was that tropicals survived in the lagoon because the shallow water tended not to cool too much over winter and the fish were stuck there anyway. I reckon trying to target bigeyes in Sydney would be pretty close to impossible but you can only try. Go north if you really want one- they get pretty thick in most estuaries from Coffs north

its a marlin- quite a few small blacks in close at the moment

As ive said elsewhere the closer in FADS are generally a waste of time- the dollies tend to be small and are easily put off the bite by the large amount of traffic they get. Punch out a bit wider and find some of the fishtrap fields on reef or go for an explore and see if you can find someones private FAD. The bigger fish can be anywhere up to a KM away from the FAD

Yep early with a tank full of livies-nothing better for dollies. Also seen guys backing up on the FAD when they get more than 3 meters from it, putting the fish down. Other time that works well is late arvo when everyone else goes home, best lures ive found over the last couple of years are floating stickbaits worked at a slow/meduim walk the dog- even outfished livies some days

The chopping board should be fine- put a piece underneath the gunwale as well- it will be rocksolid then

very good chewing too

I have mine mounted on the port side as far back as it goes and I havent got any probs with turning etc. It faces atraight out the back and on my boat (tABS CC) in just pokes out past the motor and well past the pod. I usually use one of the rod holder on my Bait board to hold the rod im using. The rod should be behind the rigger - less chance of a fish cutting you off on strike. I would also mention that you might want to replace those plastic rod holders with some heavy duty ones if you are going to be fishing heavy.