Jethro

Thanks all Another year older ..... and should be another year wiser....... but what can ya do

Personally I recon they both have their place.... I really enjoy the ABT format with the random Boater / non-boater parings. Its very rare you will fish with someone new and not learn something.... I especially liked this format from a non-boaters point of view. I learnt more about breaming in 1 weekend than I did in 12 months of reading and teaching myself. The last couple of events I have fished have been teams events which have been heaps of fun. It allows you to try different tactics and explore new options during the comp...... plus there is still a bit of freindly rivalry between you and your mate... If I had to pick between the 2 I would go teams event

I recon they were probably sea lice and came from the water rather than the fish. We get them pretty bad off the beaches up here from time to time and they are a real pain when you are fishing strip baits. The Silver Biddies have a fairly soft skin and I recon the lice are just eating their way in

As coollamon said atke your time. the worst thing you can do is rush it...... Get out in as many different types of boats as you can and you will soon find which will suit your needs best

G'day Grant. How have you been?? have you been out on the creek much?? We were up the lake again on the weekend and magaed to get a few again.... Not huge fish but were are starting to get them each time we head up there.... we are getting there slowly but surely. James - I know bream are slow growing but have no idea on the age. I think they take about 3 or years to get to legal size.

I think the main reason for the covers is to protect them from the elements and wear and tear. It would stop little scratches and fading from the sun.....

My brother and I were out fishing in Hervey Bay in a 12ft tinny. We only had a 6hp on the back but the bay was like a sheet of glass. We were getting a few small fish around Woody Island but things were pretty quiet. As conditions were so good we decided to head a bit further out into the bay to one of the channel markers. When we got there we had a look back and it was a bit further out than we thought..... but while we're we may as well have a fish I saw something move out of the corner of my eye and just thought it was another sea turtle... we had seen heaps of them through out the morning... When I turned to have a better look ..... hang on its a shark ........ hold the phone its a Tiger Shark... this thing was bloody huge!!!! It slowly cruzed in for a closer look at us and swam right next to the boat. Now we are in a 12ft tinny with about 40cm of free board and thing had to be at least 16ft long...... so we "calmly" discussed our position (ok ok paniced) and decision was made to head back. Looking back I shouldn't have been overly concerned as I can quite easily out swim my brother. But it was definately a very humbling experience.

Funny you should ask....... I had it weighed, a quick photo then released...... Then my mate says "maybe we should have measured it" oh well... I will have to measure the next one

G'day mate Congrats on the new purchase... Im sure you will have many a great day on the water Have a look at this post HERE It should give you a few ideas on maintenance..

I just checked the results and we ended up finishing 12th... pretty happy with that When we weighed in the big bream was 1.2kg but someone ended up weighing a 1.45kg fish so my little 1.12kg was waaaaay off but still happy with the new PB

Tyronne - to be honest mate I haven't been out for a while. We have been getting a few bream in Tuggerah Lakes and chasing a few flattioes in Lake Macquarie but thats about it Hopefully be heading down the Hawkesbury over the next couple of weeks to prefish for the next Pro Bream

Thanks guys... it was a pretty good couple of days I thought the same..... he had his haed out of the water and I could see him chomping away... We he got off I thought he had bitten through the trebble.... but he just bit through the back end of the lure

Hi all We fished the Lake Macquarie pro Bream on the weekend. As a few of you know I have really struggled on this lake in the past but we thought what the hell... we will give it a shot anyway. It was a teams event so it will be a laugh if nothing else. We didnt get a chance to prefish before the comp so we went in pretty much blind. We had a couple of new spots to try but were not expecting a great deal.. 1st stop were some boats where I pulled the 1st bream ... and it went size!!! No record breaker at 26cm but it was 1 in the well. Over the next 4hrs we tried a few different spots and had 4 in the well. We were averaging a fish an hour. Again not huge fish but they were size. It was coming up to 11am and were were fishing the outside of some weed beds. I made the comment to my deckie that we were just about due for another weigher and next cast he produced..... Only one to go for our limit. Around midday I dropped a horse next to the boat.... Im sure everyone on the lake something had gone wrong . With about 10mins of fishing time left I pulled a small fish that was just on size to give us our bag.... It went 2.46kg for 6 fish so it wasnt huge but hey it was a limit so we were happy. Sunday saw us starting in 15th with the top bag being 4.6kg. The 1st stop was where I had droped the good fish yesterday. About 4th cast my deckie had 1 at about 700g hit the net which was a good start. I was doing it tough and couldn't raise a bite. I came up tight on a small fish that turned out to be a greed toad which made short work of my SX40 Around 7am I fired out a long cast and came up tight on a better fish. It took off like a scolded cat and I was starting to regret going down to 4lb leader. After a few anxious moments this guy hit the net.. It ended up weighing 1.12kg and missing the big bream by 80g.. but it was still a new PB. After that things went down hill and we didn't boat another fish for the rest of the session. But it was still a great day I wouldn't say we have cracked Lake Macquarie but we have definately made some head way

It all depends on the type of fishing you want to do. If you can give us a bit more info on where you want to fish and what you want to chase, Im sure a few people will have suggestions

Mate they are great fun on light gear and you get to do a bit for the environment... I have heard of the odd one being caught on a lure but if you are going to target them bait is probably the safest option.. I have only been carp fishing a couple of times but we have always used a long light rod and a float set up. You can burley with bread or corn (yep corn) and just use a couple of the niblets as bait. If you can get then feeding on bread a little bread fly can be heaps of fun on a 5wt

It looks like we will be attacking it Friday arvo I just picked up the new cable and there is no grease or oil on it. I asked the guy that sold it to me if I should put some sorth of lubrication on it and he said no... I pointed out to him that the cable that is on the boat had some grease on the end that goes into the back of the steering assembly... Then he suggested I use grease ...yeah heps of help Anyway.... I have heard a few people mention oiling the cable and someone else told me to fill the cable with transmission fluid.... What are your suggestions for greasing or oiling a new cable??

I had a bit more of a play with it at lunch time and have managed to get the rod bac as far as it will go into the cable... I have tried pulling the cable out again but it still runs into the gunwhale. Maybe a photo will explain it better.. I cant see any other way other than dropping the motor off

I rang the council (Wyong) about this a couple of months ago. They said you can not use the town water supply outside for any reason ... This includes flushing of outboards and washing trailer brakes.... I asked them what happens if my trailer brakes become unsafe and they said "no exceptions" If you fish at Lake Macquarie they still have taps available at most ramps. We use the one at Nords Wharf. Otherwise I will wash the boat and trailer at Car Lovers and give the outboard a quick flush in the carport when I get home.They wont let you use the tap at the car wash... I know your not supposed to but when you have that much money invested I'm going to flush mine... I know a quite a few people have installed tanks just for flushing outboards but its just not in my budget at the moment. There was an article in teh paper a couple of months ago about a guy who got a 25L container and fitted a short length of hose and a hose attachment. He just puts it on the gunwhale of the boat, hooks it up to the motor and lets gravity do the rest.....

G'day Jani I love fishing UL gear around the weed beds near home. There are usually 2 way I will do it.... For lure fishing I use my standard light bream gear which is a Biomaster, a home rolled Samurai S001 and 4lb Fireline. For leader I will use 4lb Vanish maybe even go down to 2lb if they are really finicky... When I am fishing live prawns I will get out the silly string (2lb mono). I use the same set up and just change spools. When you are using 2lb mono you need ultra sharp hooks and a soft hand... If you strike to hard it is very easy to snap the main line

Dorado - I'm not sure what you mean. I can get the rod top move freely in the tilt tube, about 15cm or so. I get into trouble when it wont fit back through the transom.... If I understand you cortrectly you are saying it needs to go the other way??? The cable is completely seized and I cant get the end (where the spanner is) to move any more to the left

Unless I am missing something the motor will have to come off to replace the cable.... There is not enough room to get the cable out of the motor. There is a hole on the right where the cable comes through.... but it doesnt line up

Thanks for the offer George.... Its really appreciated I will let you know if I can get down there

Thanks guys... I will have a play with it this arvo and see what I can do..... The only problem with replacing the cable is it looks like I will have to drop the motor off the boat to get the cable out.... Im not sure how comfortable I feel about doing it myself... I rang a couple of boat places locally and I will be looking at the cable plus a couple of hours labour... So I will be looking down the barrel of $400...

Thanks heaps mate... I will give it a shot

Thanks for the quick reply guys. I had a bit of a play with it yesterday. I loosened the large bolts at each end of the steering ram and the rod moves freely from side to sdie and rotates in the pivot. It seems to be sticking further up the cable. I cant seem to move the rod out of the pivot as the splash well is in the way. I will get a couple of photos at lunch time and show you what I mean.