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My fave outfit at the moment is my Black Diamond Flats Ranger 3-5kg with Daiwa Certate 1500 and 4lb Fireline. Great bream outfit, and can handle bigger fish with ease too - yet to get a king, but plenty of big trevally. Problem is the Certate is making all my other reels feel inferior! My second fave at the moment is the Daiwa Saegake with Sustain 1000, I use this as my lighter SP rod (1/16 and lighter), can't go on enough about how good the Sageake is! Ben.

Hi Rob, If the boat's in the southern Sydney area, we (Yabbie Marine) can have a mechanic do a pre-purchase inspection for you. If it's elsewhere in metro Sydney we can put you onto a reliable mobile guy. Hope this helps, Ben.

From my limited experience with baitcasters I reckon you'll be much better off with a true braid rather than fireline, I use Fin-S 20lb on my baitcaster, its much more supple and less wiry than Fireline.

Give the site sponsor, Australian Bass Angler, a call or PM mick r, if anyone will have them they will. I've never seen or heard of 5" bass minnows, seen the 4" variety at plenty of stores though, as well as 5" jerk shads which are a similar profile.

No pics released as yet, as soon as I get 'em I'll post 'em!

Hi Folks, Polycraft have just announced the launch of a new model, the 5.30m Warrior: THE 'NEW' POLYCRAFT 5.30 WARRIOR The wait is nearly over for the release of Polycraft`s latest model the 5.30 Warrior scheduled for September. The 5.30 Warrior will provide an exciting alternative in its category where performance and affordability are important. The recreational fisherman will be happy to see that the 5.30 Warrior has been designed to meet their requirements. Available in Centre Console and Cuddy cabin Models , with ample deck space, bait tanks, extensive usable storage and a long range fuel tank. These models provide a stable fishing platform and a unique soft riding hull that makes the Polycraft difference. But wait there’s more! For those of who enjoy lazy days out on the water just relaxing with friends and family or if skiing and wake boarding is more your style, then you will appreciate the 5.30 Warrior Bow rider. This model features comfortable seating for all the family with front and rear lounges and two wrap around helm seats. Access to the bow is easy with the walk through windscreen. A specialist Bass/Bream/Barra model will also be offered in the range to cater to this increasingly popular market. The boat will feature a generous front casting deck with a 120 litre live well, bow mount electric motor, rod locker and custom graphics. The 5.30 Warrior will provide the best of both worlds with the ability to fish rivers and impoundments for Bass and Barramundi and also have the ability to venture offshore to target blue water pelagic species. Launch date: The 5.30 will be launched at the Brisbane Boat show in Early September. Further specs and pricing are yet to be announced, I'll post here when we get some more info. Cheers, Ben.

PM sent. Cheers, Ben.

Hi Folks, Dave - I appreciate you taking the time to clarify your comments (that was the intention of my PM to you, it certainly wasn't to ask you to mislead anyone) and agree completely. A 30Hp is certainly the minimum horsepower you would use on a Poly 4.1 or 4.55 open, and you may struggle if loading it to the hilt, however for the average fisho fishing one or two up with a resonable amount of gear, the package is perfectly adequate and very well priced. Nick stated he had a budget of around $10K, hence I offered him the package that fitted his budget. When he comes down for a test run, he can decide for himself whether he needs to increase the budget and up the horses. As I said previously, I have many happy customers running the 30HP Suzuki on Polycrafts. Cheers, Ben.

We have many very happy customers running 4.1 open Polys with 30HPs (both 2 and 4 strokes). I'd be more than happy to pass on their details to Nick so he can get a personal opinion on how they go with a 30. These guys fish one or two up and take a fair bit of gear, and have no complaints. You certainly won't break any speed records, but to describe it as "seriously undergunned" is a gross overstatement in my opinion. I invite anyone interested in a Poly to come down and take a run in our stock 4.1 open boat with Suzuki 30HP to see for yourself. Cheers, Ben.

Hi Nick, You're not dreaming! We can set you up with the Polycraft 4.1m (v nose punt) or the Polycraft 4.55m (deep vee) with a Suzuki 30HP on a trailer for the budget you're looking at. Give me a call at Yabbie Marine 9524 6488, or PM me for a chat. Cheers, Ben.

Don't know of any on the north side, but as Pukka has said, Viking at Taren Point are highly reccomended. HTH, Ben

Hi kevvie, The Hornet and the Edgetracker are both nice boats, but if you want a super stable platform and a soft ride, you might want to consider the Polycraft 4.1m challenger. My best suggestion is to try to take a spin in each of the boats you are considering, there's no substitute for an on water demo. I'd be more than happy to take you for a spin in the Polycraft, and give you a quote on a rig. You could be in an optioned-up side console Poly with a Suzuki 50HP 4-stroke for your budget, not sure what layout/motor you're looking at with the Hornet or Edgetracker (you get a lot for your money with Polycraft). Give me a call at Yabbie Marine, 9524 6488. Cheers, Ben.

Joe!!! We sell plenty of second hand glass boats. Its true though - aluminium and polyethylene can be recycled, fibreglass can't...and just to dispel a rumour going around, Polycraft are made from virgin polyethylene, not recycled poly!

Hi fishaman, Its an Evinrude 1991 6HP or 8HP long shaft (the "EI" on the OMC tag indicates 1991). HTH, Ben.

Hi Jason, Feel free to give me a call at Yabbie Marine (9524 6488), and I can give you the lowdown on the Polycraft 4.1. Based on what you said - "I can Launch by myself and that can take a bit of rough handling", "has to handle a little bit of chop", "I want to relax and not worry about it getting damaged, I only want to spend about the 10k mark", the Poly sounds like a perfect fit. If you search here on Fishraider or any of the other fishing sites, you'll see that Polycraft owners are always very happy with their boats (Whitto is a great example!). We also sell Blue Fin aluminium boats, and I can tell you about the options in their range. Blue Fin have a great reputation for their quality build and finish, you can see the range here - Blue Fin Boats If for some reason I'm not around, talk to Eric. Cheers, Ben

Heres the official line on buying from international sellers: http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=4376 Whether you actually get charged or not seems to be fairly random...

You beat me to it Swordfisherman - had a hectic day, was just logging on now to tell Windu the measurements now. Cheers, Ben

Yep I'm here! Was out fishing with Swoffa today, but I'll measure my trailer in the morning and let you know Windu. Ben.

You should pay about $24 for a blue slip on a trailer (plus possibly a weigh bridge fee if the trailer doesn't have RTA spec sheets). Ben.

Hi Folks, Four of my mates bought me a fishing charter for my birthday in January, and we finally got around to organising it and headed out with Scotty Lyons of Southern Sydney Fishing Charters yesterday morning. The sky was clear, but a very chilly westerly was already starting to blow when I left my house at 5.30. We arrived at the wharf, and headed off for the first stop, Molineaux Point (container wall at Botany). After circling around for a few minutes and checking the sounder, Scott anchored up and threw a handful of pellets into the water. I had one of my bream rods with me, rigged with a bass minnow, so while Scott rigged up the bait rods for my friends, I dropped my line in, and came up tight on an average trevally on the first drop. For the next hour or so, we pulled in about 25 trevally (kept about 15), with my bass minnow outfishing the bait by a small margin. At one point I dropped my bass minnow down and got hit hard. The fish tore off at speed under heavy drag, and we knew this wasn't a trevally, but a king. The first run was blistering, and he took me under the anchor rope with a lot of line. I gained a little line back when he turned and took another run, then pinged me The trevally slowed down, and I then found my lure had been "swiss cheesed", so Scott rigged me with a paternoster, a small hook and some squid, and I managed to get two leatherjackets, my mates got another 3 amongst them. The jackets are great bait thieves though, and even on a graphite rod with 4lb fireline, I could only just feel the bites. During this hot session there were a few other boats around us that seemed to be catching very little, I have no idea why, somehow Scotts boat seems to attract fish (good berley and anchoring technique is the real reason I suspect)! We then went to get some livies in Yarra Bay, and managed to snag a few garfish and some yakkas, and slow trolled them around the point for zip, so we headed to the third runway and trolled some rapalas. We picked up three good size tailor doing this, and I dropped another good one when it jumped and shook the lure free. In the afternoon, the wind had picked up more, and we threw some plastics around for flatties at Brighton. I got two undersized fish and that was it, seems the flatties didn't want to play. Got back to the wharf at about 1pm, then went home and had a massive fish feast - trevally sashimi (which was sensational, I won't be throwing trevors back any more!), and BBQ'd tailor. Everyone had a great day out, and Scott (and his deckie Nathan), were an absolute wealth of knowledge, I'd highly reccomend a day out with him especially to the guys who fish the Bay regularly, or have troubles getting fish there. Scott is releasing a DVD soon too - "A Day on the Bay", which will be worth looking out for. Unfortunately no photos as my camera is cactused at the moment, and my mates forgot to bring theirs. Cheers, Ben.

I'll be hitting the lower Geroges on Saturday arvo after work, then on charter with Scotty Lyons on Botany Bay on Sunday with a bunch of my non-fishing mates, should be fun! Ben.

Aqua, make sure you are doing enough wraps, I use the Stren knot and do 5-7 in the leader and 10-13 in the fireline. If you are doing a uni I would use the same numbers. HTH, Ben.

Great stuff Byron - I'm jealous!!! I am very keen to get out and try for a fin - Swoff, you can count me in for a day out with Ross, Byron and some other fishraiders in the very near future. Ben.

I liked the bit where he is bream fishing with MickC and says that once the lure is out of the zone to wind it in fast to get another cast in, as the bream won't follow the lure out, then 5 minutes later he gets a bream right next to the boat...just wish they had shown more of Mick fishing than Mark.