pauljm

Hey raiders....got a mate looking at buying a 16 or 17 foot fibreglass cuddy or half cabin as a general fishing and family boat including towing the kids on tubes etc....he has seen a few he likes but they have stern drives which he is unsure about...all i know about them is we used to have a 25 bertie with legs and they used to give us nothing but trouble.....anyone had one in a smaller boat? He is looking at spending around 10 to 12k.....any thoughts?

Can i ask how much and what brand was the vhf?

I have always believed the whales know you are there.....have had many seem to come and check us out b4 moving on....we used to have 3 or 4 boats anchored within shouting distance of each other and the whales would pop up in the middle of us all....sometimes seeming to follow the anchor ropes up?.... imo its just another thing to be aware of whilst on the ocean

mate when we were heading in from outside on sunday arvo you could have bagged out (max 20 ea) with a landing net! Dead LJs floating everywhere...... we trolled for zeros all day out wide....had a quick drift b4 heading in and got 3 ljs and bitten off twice before pulling the pin.......as already stated... they are everywhere.....

Went to Hawaii October last year.....every single person we spoke to said we would love it..... unfortunately we didnt....what are you wanting to know?

A mate of mine caught a kingy offshore a year or so ago and was surprised as it gave him very little fight.... he didnt think much of it until taking it home and cooking it that night....it didnt cook as usual and it turned out real mushy and he had to throw it out.....we figure the fish must have been sick....hence no fight and no form to the flesh when cooked.......personally i reckon take it back and see how u go...good luck

Mate once they are siezed in my opinion its not worth trying to unsieze them as u will forever have trouble and its not worth the risk (esp. with family in boat) for less than $200 u can have a new cable and no worries.....they are not hard to install either.....not sure if its the one u need but there is one in swap and sell right now......good luck

Unsure about the whole deoxygenating bit.....i was hoping someone else could confirm or deny that? Trust me if you could have seen the colour of the water and all the dead fish you would be brave to eat them. Hoping someone else remembers the same incident..... Yeah its some sort of algal bloom....like the blue green one that was in the upper hawkesbury a few years back by the look of it....

Hey raiders.... After talking about the toxicity of syd harbour does anyone remember the red tide that happened around the early to mid 90's?..... After fishing outside one day we were heading up river to go home and noticed a bream floating in the water near the gladesville bridge....then we noticed another stud bream and a good jewy floating up river....we stopped the boat to see what was happening (by this time we were west of bridge) and noticed the water was a deep red and there were dead fish everywhere including 5 to 10 kg jewys washing up on the shoreline.....enough to bring tears to your eyes! From memory the older fisho in fishing club reckoned it was called a red tide and it was some algae that deoxygenised the water i think? He said it happened now and then? I havent seen one since has anyone else? and anyone else remember it?

We have always eaten the flathead from around cockatoo island and never had a problem...i think the cut off point used to be the gladesville bridge but now they say its the harbour bridge....it was in the news in the last year or so that the families of some commercial harbour fishos had high levels of mercury (i think) in their systems from eating too much fish from the harbour.....i think they were eating it 2 to 3 times per week for many years so moderate levels would be fine imo. As for eating yakkas? Do us all a favour and target the leather jackets instead! A tasty fish with much more meat than a yakka.

Yeah i find when they are not biting i cast jig past where burley is sinking and then a slow retrieve up the burley trail often gets a hit.....i reckon servo squd is the go as its hard to get off the hook so as small apiece you can put on the hook often can catch 2 or 3 with out changing bait...dont over burley either..good luck.

Hey all... after reading a recent thread i was remembering getting back to tunks park after fishing by myself and there was another guy launching on his own...he was straining to pull his boat to the pontoon after he had parked the car....i thought this was odd at the time but after tying my boat and getting the car etc etc i realised he must have had boat tied off to the pontoon and just clunked in to reverse to hold it off the pontoon while he parked his car (hence why he was sort of straining to pull boat back to pontoon).. i thought at the time it was a good idea all be it a little risky if things go wrong.... so does anyone else do this or was i seeing things???? He was in about a 4.8m tinnie... dunno how it would work with bigger boat/motor?

Yeah gotta admit real happy with the yammie....seems the majority of boats i see lately have a yammie on them... or is it just me? tunks park early sat 3 out of 4 boats that i saw all had one on them

Got bag somewhere with jewels in it from fishing in the 90s...unfortunately no real big ones in there... i remember seeing a mate suspiciously digging his fingers in to a fishes head at the fish markets one time so im asking him what the f are you doing.... "im going for the jewels you fool" or something like that was his response...lol.... he had no chance with his fingers so whos the fool? if i can find my collection ill post a pic.

Mate it would have been a real shame if your bream hook got stuck in the anchor rope of the offending boat... ever pulled an anchor rope in with a hook stuck in it? Anyone that has will not anchor on top of another boat again without thinking twice if you know what i mean...can get real painful!

Thanks for that as I tried that the other day and it didnt seem to work but tried again just now and it got water out of tell tale so thats all it is....i will have to try and source a better quality set of muffs or if not ill fabricate my own... surely with the price of big outboards there is a better quality flushing system around?

Hey radiers...just wondering if anyone can tell me are "normal" muffs ok to use on these motors as we went out on sat. and had no probs but when flushing motor out no water would come out of tell tale....thought at the time it could have been poor water pressure or something like that but just tried it again and its still the same...ive never had a problem b4 so i assume i have a blockage somewhere or dud water pump or what?... motor was serviced 3 months ago and is out of dealer warranty by a number of days so b4 taking it to dealer would like to hear anyones opinions? Water is coming out of exhaust and everywhere else but the tell tale.... what do ya reckon???

Mate where did you hear that? Ihope someone else replies to your post as i plan to hit tunks 430am sat. morning? Anyone know?

Yep first glance i thought yft....great fish and well done....

Hi... i guess it depends on what u call fishing "wide"....in my opinion as long as that boat has a solid transom etc , all the safety gear and a reliable motor then i cant see why you couldnt get outside for a fish on most days when conditions are ok.... i have been in and seen much smaller boats fishing off sydney... usually staying within 4 or 5 miles of the coast...if you do some hours on the water and build confidence in the reliability of your rig as well as having it properly serviced then keep an eye on the weather reports etc and use common sense when deciciding whether to head out or not then all should be sweet.... even better is to go with another boat to back each other up, maintain radio contact at all times and enjoy the fishing... tight lines....paul

Hi raiders....out of all the sounder reviews i have read on this site i have never heard anyone mention Eagle? Is this because no-one has one or are they cheap and nasty or what... the seacharter 642ci is interesting as it has 500w with dual freq for under 1k....any thoughts??

Hi raiders..... Left home at 430 this morning to try and beat the wind..... went to get yakkas and could only manage 4 and the sun was coming up so i wanted to get outside to try and beat the wind and fish the hour b4 the tide.... surprisingly the sea was flat so did 20knots plus offshore and anchored perfectly on what we call our spot.... thinking i was goint to get smashed by by leatheries i put down my leathery rig and rigged up a more conventional 20 pound outfit and put it out as well..... got mowie then reddie straight away.....yee ha no lj's..... rigged 6/0 senator and sent livey down and continued fishing for reef fish... one after the other reddies (through 4 back just on legal) and kept 2 ...got a blurter then noticed livey rod was looking a bit heavy.....pulled in and a nice fat pike had taken yakka.....upsized hooks and down went pike.... continued fishing ..another blurter...mowie....reddies then noticed livey rod looking real heavy but not taking line....picked it up and heaps of dead weight so i thought great...cuttle fish...lift and wind and lift and wind and then after a minute or so a couple of headshakes....wait on im now thinking maybe monster jew.....lift and wind lift and wind and then a screaming run.....yee ha! no jew definitely king.....10 minutes of screaming runs later and im contemplating how im gunna get it in as gaff/net is in cabin... so i figured i would have to wear it out and then tail grab it.... a few more minutes and im knackered and thank god so is the fish.....i get colour it goes for the outboard so i turn it and it glides past perfectly for me to reach and tail grab with my last piece of energy! by the time i catch my breath and rerig the reefies had gone off the bite and my last 2 yakkas got attacked by what i assume was leatheries.... amazingly right on the 730 tide change that was it...no other takers and the wind was now officially howling so i went in and got more livies and tried the harbor for zip. Home by 1130 for a good morning out.... ill try post some pics....

Mate when fishing outside they can cut you off anywhere from going for the swivel from main line to leader which is most common...or they just take a hook off or sometimes they will cut the braid off just under the boat ...if a little bit of anything gets stuck on your line the 50 metres of braid and entire rig is gone... so i have gone and bought 70 m of 1.2mm staino wire rope and put it on an old alvey with an old broom stick rod and a normal wire trace set up for leatheries.... i reckon ive got em covered....will post results if i can get out in the wind tomorrow....cheers paul

Thanks for clearing that up.....20 per person is a good feed....should be able to do that in an hour or two if all goes to plan...will let you know how i go....shame about the wind forcast forthis weekend though.......cheers...... paul

Hi raiders... i am pretty sure i read somewhere on this site the maximum limit for any fish was 20 (pls correct me if i am wrong).... just wondering cos after losing countless $$$$$$$$ offshore in braid,hooks and sinkers i intend to get a bit of my own back and target the critters to feed the extended family for a while! So if it is 20 is that per person on the boat or total capture? Winter fishing for us used to mean big kings and trevs but now you are lucky to bring your own hooks up. Its driving me mad as no-one even wants to go anymore as we just lose too much gear..... Its time for revenge!