Berleyguts

I’m not even in lockdown in Port Stephens and I’m still not fishing! We just lay low. If Health NSW was to contact trace me, they would find I mainly just went to work at Bunnings, my local supermarket, my local servo and 1 or 2 local cafes or restaurants a week for takeaway only. My wife works from home and hardly gets out at all. It’s pretty much been like that for roughly 15 months. We have family locked down in Sydney and have to suffice with video calls. My wife’s 90 year old uncle lives alone and is getting quite frail and his own kids can’t see him - they drop care packages at the door. Please stay at home, people, if you can. Get vaccinated, if you can, and stay safe!

Thanks @wrxhoon1 (my son would rather have a Silvia 😂😂). I’ll look into that if necessary. It’s certainly a great time to sell here in Port Stephens and yes, pretty much everything goes to auction. We were going to auction but accepted an offer yesterday and we hadn’t even gone live yet. Our agent found the buyer from her database. We’ve made an offer on a smaller place, hoping to buy before it goes to auction - just playing the waiting game at the moment. So stressful! 😂

Get ‘em everywhere up around Wisemans Ferry. Bloody ugly, slimy things. You can have ‘em! 😂

I did a search for “folding drawbar” and this appeared! Thanks Zoran. 🙏 Does anyone know how this mod impacts on trailer brakes (cable)? We are looking at selling our house (with its special boat port 😩) to downsize to a smaller, low maintenance property in the area - getting old you know! Chances are that the place we choose won’t have side access for the boat, so the folding drawbar might be the option, but I need to be sure the brakes will still be functional. I would get someone local to do the mod. Any ideas? My other option if we make enough by downsizing the house is to buy a bigger boat and put it on one of the local marinas! 😂 I’m not sure I can convince the missus of that, though! 😂

You must have knocked off Kevin Lee’s (I think it was) record, Ron. 😎 I remember he caught one on 2kg while spinning for flathead in Swansea Channel at the annual St George Sportfishing Club flathead day. I watched down on half a dozen cobia chasing baitfish in Pittwater from the grounds of the Newport Arms Hotel while enjoying a work lunch and beer once.

Mine sits in 2 tube clips under the port side gunwhale, above my rod locker. Easy enough to grab when fishing solo and gaffing my own fish.

Welcome to Fishraider, Bob! My wife is from Singapore. We were supposed to be there this month for a family reunion. Thanks COVID. 😡 We live in Port Stephens. Currently at Corlette. I don’t bowl but I’ve had a beer or two at both Nelson Bay and Soldiers Point bowlos. 😉 The view from the Crows Nest room at Nelson Bay is spectacular. I played at a few open mics there. Soldiers Point is handy to us and we are members there. I don’t know much about Sunrise.

Maybe she was checking you out, Ron. 😉

Fixed mount, for sure. Better range. A hand held battery might run flat. I have my radio on all the time so I can listen for announcements by Marine Rescue, general chatter etc. With a hand held, I’d be tempted to turn it off to conserve battery. Carry one as a backup if you like. And don’t forget your EPIRB!

I can fit 8 in the rod holders mounted on my side console. (The rod holders are those alloy ones most guys put on their bull bars for beach fishing). Because I can fit 8, I usually fill it, plus 1 or 2 more rods and a couple of hand lines in the port side rod locker. I can carry less out of gamefishing season and I will usually leave the 15 and sometimes the 10kg outfit out and just carry the 6kg outfit, just in case. Then I’ll carry 2 spin sticks for snapper plastics fishing; 2 for bottom bashing; a bait jig rod (just bought a new Sabiki rod); and a light or ultra light spin stick for flicking small metals at bonito and salmon, or if I duck back inside to spin for flathead or bream. I like having duplicates to save time re-rigging if I bust off or get a bad tangle when fishing solo (which is most of the time). 🤷‍♂️ If I’ve got the wife and/or son on board, the rods are shared

Great stuff, Jeff! Hey! You know I get Wednesday off one week and Wednesday, Thursday and Friday off the next week, right?😉😂 And I’m actually in a position to fish more often now, especially if my wife hears that you wanted company fishing… she doesn’t like to see people disappointed! 😉😂

Nah... I think @Scratchieuses 7 inch Zman jerk shads. 😉

I only have 3 guitars. I definitely need more! There has been discussion in my band about which keys to do our songs in. I’m the lead singer and, as a baritone, I sometimes need to change the key to suit my voice. When discussing a couple of songs to try and which key, I said, “I’ll put a capo on and work it out”. One of the band members (lead guitarist) suggested using a capo was not a good idea, as it can throw the tuning out when you take the capo off for the next song. “Ah!”, I replied. “But I retune with the capo on and again when I change it... but what really makes sense, is to have different guitars tuned appropriately for each scenario... capo on a particular fret/alternate tunings etc.”. It was agreed that this makes sense... so I figured I need one guitar for each of the 12 major keys, plus 1 for Dropped D tuning, 1 for DADGAD tuning, 1 each for Open G, Open E and Open A (for starters), 1 for half-step down, 1 for whole step down and so on. And then there’s the acoustic guitars... oh... and the 12 string guitars... 😂 I’m sure any guitarists out there would understand! 😂😂

Nice stuff, Rick. The Turon is pretty nice country. 😎

Just to clarify, my last post was completely serious. The others were just me mucking around! 🙊

She doesn’t. She is very much a minimalist. She looks beautiful without makeup and always has. She gets rid of things she no longer uses but hasn’t got rid of me yet… thankfully!😂 I’m a very lucky man. 😍 I was just making a light hearted post to break the monotony while I’m down in Sydney for a few days visiting my elderly Mum and we’re apart. Everyone knows I’m just joking around, right?! 😂😎

Yes, I actually tried saying something along those lines in my justification statement. 😂😂 She’ll probably never understand it but she’ll have to live with it. 😂

Or, she’ll sell them for what I told her I paid for them! 😂😂

She’s actually very much a minimalist... and she doesn’t own much makeup. She looks absolutely beautiful without it. 😍🤷‍♂️

I agree with Paddy. Up north an 8ft rod is the go and down on the JB ledges a standard game rod is fine. The Talica 16 is designed for 8kg line class (mono). If you put 15kg on it, you might be undergunned and probably spooled in no time. Back in the day, most LBG fishos I knew used Penn International 30s for 20lb (10kg) class and 50s for 30lb (15kg) line class.

So, my wife and I were about to go out in the car the other day. She stood there looking at my rod wall in the garage. I could hear her brain ticking over. I sensed the silent muttering under her breath. I could almost see her head shake and the steam coming out of her ears. She said, “I can’t understand why anyone would need 15 fishing rods!”. So, without mentioning the fly rod, 2 x estuary luderick rods, 2 x side cast beach/rock rods (light & heavy), 2 x spinning beach/rock rods (light & heavy), that were in the room under the house behind the garage, I proceeded to explain... ”Well... there’s the 6kg, 10kg, 15kg game outfits (no 24kg or heavier outfits yet); 2 x light snapper rods with 20lb braid for flicking soft plastics and hard bodied lures; 2 x other rods with 20lb braid for drifting for flathead etc; the Sabiki rod rigged with bait jigs for catching slimies and yakkas;” (I let her think I’d always had that... it helps to stick a few fish scales on the blank or grips 😉 ...), “an old 4-6kg spin stick rigged with mono; 4 x light/ultra light spinning rods (2 with braid, 2 with mono) for fishing in the estuary, chasing bass or trout, or fun light tackle spinning for salmon, tailor and bonito around the offshore islands etc.; a light baitcaster rod; and that last one’s waiting for me to replace the tip runner. AND... don’t forget that, although I can only use a few rods at a time, I need enough with me to cover all opportunities and if you and/or our son come out in the boat, we’ll need enough rods with us so that we can all fish at the same time. We are a family after all!” She just continued to shake her head and I don’t think she was convinced. 🤷‍♂️ She should be grateful I only have 3 guitars... ... at the moment! 😂 So, whaddya reckon, Raiders? How many rods are enough? How many do you have???

I actually have a 12v accessories port and 2 USB ports in the boat but sometimes the USB ports play up and the battery still drains. Might be my cable. Might be the connection. 🤷‍♂️

That’s great, thanks... but you know I meant while out in the boat, right? 😂

Thanks for all that info, Donna (and others). I think I’ll be able to figure it out now. I must admit, I wanted to find @Scratchieon the app the other week when I knew he was out the same day as me... I was going to follow him! 😂😂 I couldn’t figure it out and I went home fishless! 🤷‍♂️😂 The only issue I have with using my phone all the time for the Marine Rescue app, Navionics and now Deckee, is battery life! 😂

Welcome to Fishraider, Mat. I’ve replied to your PM and I’m sure we can tee up a trip soon. 😏