greg123

Hi, this site has without doubt been the major contributor to my fishing knowledge so please take this as more of a query than an ignorant statement of opinion. Is the reason members cannot mention '*bay' anymore due to sponsorship issues? I feel that auction site has become a household phrase much like 'google-it' or 'band-aid' and 'minn-kota' (to us fishermen/women). I think that when someone refers to the site they are not trying to push the brand to encourage or advertise its use but to suggest they have found an item they are interested in somewhere other than a retail store. Using the name incorporates context into their description so that other members can understand it may not be locally sold or may not be previously used and so on, and therefore be more helpful in their suggestions of whether it may be appropriate to the needs of whoever raised the topic. I agree wholeheartedly with and support administrations monitoring of offensive remarks or preventing people from registering just to push a product or sell something to name a couple of examples. However, where do you draw the line between allowing fishing enthusiasts to discuss their favourite pastime freely without having products pushed in their face or being offended by others and creating 'rules' to protect very existence of the forum? Greg

Cheers for the cost update Little hooker. Do you think making it out of fiberglass would be any cheaper?

I have just bought it so I cant be 100% sure its going to be fine but with boating offshore there's just so many variables that something is bound to go wrong eventually. I found an article on aux motors where the author suggested 'if heading offshore with a 15yr old yammy v4 then an aux motor may be necessary'. I do have quite a lot of confidence in the yammy though but not a huge amount of experience with motor issues. I was really just looking to bounce some ideas off raider members and hopefully get some input from people with more experience/knowledge on the topic. I guess my main concern is preventing swamping from the stern and getting home should the yammy fail. Would a sea anchor always be able to keep the bow into the waves? Maybe a Seatow membership + good sea anchor + Improved communications would be more cost effective. Also by offshore I mean 30kms+ trolling all day so there are fewer boats in case of emergency.

Cheers Rod, that's a good point, I'm pretty sure it's a short shaft so I guess it won't do anyway. Whaler, I see where you're coming from but the reason I thought I might need one is because the primary motor is getting a bit old now and if it fails at sea It's either call for a tow or use an aux. to get home. I think repowering may be out of my budget, the yammy is probably worth 10k and the tinny 4 so that's 14 compared to the 25+/- of a new yammy of similar hp.

Hi, It's come to the point where I need to sell my tinny which has a 15hp Honda 4 stroke 2000 year model as it's not used now that we upgraded. However, I also need an auxiliary motor for the 18.5 foot Vickers (glass boat, small cabin thats fairly high, 1998 yammy 2-stroke Vpro, weighs about 2,000kgs im guessing).. Do you think 15hp would be appropriate? As I may need it when offshore in case of the primary motor failing. So my options are: 1- keep the 15hp Honda and sell the tinny/trailer for a 1000-1500 maybe 2- Sell tinny package for about 3500 and buy new aux motor which may have to be 2-stroke As an auxiliary motor are 4 strokes a better option for reliability? (My Honda has never even struggled to start in the slightest since I got it 5 years ago and its 11 years old) I know 4 strokes are heavier but I don't see the 6-7kg weight as that significant. Also I do like the electric start on the Honda which might be useful if I need to get it going quickly. If anyone's had some experience with aux outboards your comments would be greatly appreciated. Cheers

Hey mate the NMEA cable you need for the elite 5 is called the 'NDC-4 NMEA-0183 Output Cable', and its Lowrance manufacture number is 000-0119-31

Hi, I'm also in the process of figuring out my chartplotter/VHF connection and DCS etc. On the point of whether DSC is necessary I can repeat some info I got during a yachting Australia ocean safety course: They seemed to think DSC was a fairly good idea because; 1) Your passengers may not know how to operate a radio properly/read your plotter so a push of a button is better than nothing, and 2) Even though marine rescue doesn't monitor it to a large extent, most (if not all) of the ships will have DSC capable VHFs so your signal will be received by them who can then relay your position. Just remember that you should always follow DSC signaling by a voice call Hope that helps a bit

Does anyone know how much these cost? I know a company in Avalon makes them but have been unable to get in contact. Another company gave me a quote of more than $2900 for 2 of them which seems ridiculous. Are any raiders fiberglass fabricators?

I'd suggest you make sure that motor is in the best working order possible before you venture anywhere where a change in conditions could prove to be a problem. You might know what your boat can handle normally, but you need to consider what it (and you) can safely handle if things go wrong. e.g. if you have motor issues you might find the wind pushes the bow down wind and with a low stern like on the fishabouts you could get swamped pretty easily in any decent wind chop In saying that I've taken a 3.8m tinny 4kms offshore with no problem (with other boats around and perfect weather of course) Its all about knowing what sort of conditions you're likely to find in the waterway with the given weather forecast (and your own observations) and knowing what your boat can handle if something goes wrong.

Its surprising what a difference the hardtop makes to your boat. If possible could you post your designs or some pics of the construction? I'm trying to figure out which canopy option to go for on my boat and would love a hardtop if its not too expensive. Hope it all goes well!

I was considering putting them in triangular shaped storage areas under the port and starboard seats up the front. What do you think about getting some custom made tanks to go at the bottom of those under helm seat boxes? Taking up about half of each box so about 35L each. Tuffy in reply to your outboard tank suggestion, the bow storage locker doesn't have room for two of those tanks as it's triangular in shape. However It has a decent volume of more than 70L which is why I was considering either a bladder or custom made alloy/SS tank.

Wow! Surely if you need more than 557Hp its time to go inboard. I bet that supercharged V8 sounds nice though

I've got a boat the same size with a 200 2 stroke and have the same fuel consumption problem. I know if I had the cash I'd be going for the new four stroke Yamaha's But that's just from speaking to some experienced guys who've owned pretty much everything (not from personal experience) so maybe have a chat with Huey, I'm sure he can help you out.

Try some cat food! (sounds strange I know) I just pick up a few cans of tuna flavoured cat food from a supermarket for around 70cents each and you can use it in your berley bucket or poke holes in the can and tie a line to it and let it sit where you want under the boat. The Yakkas go crazy for it!

Ok cheers Huey

So you think it may be possible to link it to my new chart plotter that is NMEA2000 compatible with an adapter cable? Thanks for your help. I'll try to get some more info on it. Greg

Hi Raiders, Does anyone know if a 1998 Yamaha V Pro 200hp is NMEA compatible? I'm guessing it's too old but I just wanted to make sure. Cheers, Greg

I just bought a second hand boat that came with spotlights on the bow. I find that they do ruin your night vision and sometimes worsen vision as the light illuminates all the fine particles in the air shortening the distance you look ahead when turned on for more than a few seconds. Which is why I don't use them for navigating the waterway itself. However, for some reason there are still numerous vessels I've come across without lights on or lights that are obviously not working properly. And after having a few scares with these boats I find the spotlights very useful to quickly flash every few hundred metres when travelling in a crowded or narrow waterway for two reasons: 1. To spot any unlit dangers up ahead 2. Every boat on the water will have a tourch. Not only is it a legal requirement but most people will go fishing or travelling at night with one to find their gear etc. When I periodically flash my lights I usually find someone on these smaller boats will shine their tourch towards me letting me know they're there. For some reason they don't do this as frequently when they see or hear me coming with just normal nav lights on. While 'headlights' on boats are illegal and can ruin the night vision of you and other boaters, using spotlights in quick flashes has saved me from hitting a couple of floating objects and has helped me locate some small unlit fishing boats at night. After travelling the cowan waterway for a few years and many times at night I found the best navigation aid was knowledge of the waterway. As said before, those markers are useless unless you know the landforms surrounding the water very well so that they can guide you from point to point. Another note is that travelling at night by GPS alone can be a huge mistake. A few weeks ago I read an incident report about a yacht which crashed into rocks during a race partly due to inaccuracy of their GPS system.

NSW maritime has them as well if there's one near you

It took a medium/large sized green lumo mate but I know of others that hooked up on other colours within a couple of miles of us. A deckie on our boat got a very nice blue the day before with a completely different colour in the same spot so It seems a variety in the spread is the key but I'm sure more experienced raiders can comment on lure selection more accurately for you. Good luck!

Sorry I meant throughout the comp on sat not on our boat alone haha but I wish! Yeah it was pretty tiring! Still... I can't wait to do it again

Cheers Gary, Yeah its great fishing at the moment. A lot more fish were landed that I was expecting. A couple of yellow fin came in as well, along with a mako and tiger. My next challenge is having one landed on my boat sometime.

Hi Raiders, I recently went on a trip up the coast and beach launched my tinnie. Anyway we got a bit swamped by a rouge wave and had to pull the boat out of the water. I had brought along my 'safety grab bag' from our 5.7m fiberglass which contained 2 parachute flares, and all the respective smoke flares required for offshore use. This bag was stored under the floor of the tinnie and was completely submerged. I assumed it would be dry in there as it was one of those roll down type bags that are usually waterproof. Well this one said the same but turns out everything in the bag including my flares were soaked as well. After reading the guidelines on the flares themselves I couldn't find any info on whether they could still be used or not. I'm assuming they would be designed with water submersion as an assumption but I thought I would make sure here before I decided that they were ok, or not ok. Will they still be fine? or will I need to go get some new ones? Cheers

Went out with some experienced game fishos in a tournament on saturday. We trolled along the shelf all day and about 4 hours in I was on to a mid sized striped marlin (my first !!) The fight lasted about 40mins and apparently included a big jump at the start (which I missed because I was so focussed on getting my harness fixed up). The fish was estimated at about 2m in length but was tagged an released fairly quickly after a few pics so cant be too sure on the exact measurements. All in all was a great day out and learnt a lot of tips that I'm sure will improve my fishing. (I won't name names as they're not raider members as far as I know).