boat lengths

[fredflathead]

Just sitting here reading a book on fishing spots and they refer to 4 boat lengths out.

Now think about this I am fishing in a 10ft tinny, so I am 40 ft from the shore. now my boat is 18ft, so I am 72ft from the shore. What do you think.

[XD351]

I never understood that either 😂 What if you own a 40ft riviera? 

Reminds me of a few fishing map books I had when i was a kid , things like “ A long cast directly east will land your bait on a patch of sand “ - How long a cast are we talking about ? 30m? 50m? 100m? or do I just aim for the horizon and hope for the best 😂

[mii11x]

I'd say if the spots referred to in a book relate to estuary/river fishing most of us would be in a 3-5m boat say, maybe at maximum of 5.5m boat for this type of fishing.  I'm just averaging really.  This is what most fishos are using and by what I see when I fish in nsw estuaries from Narooma to Forster

[noelm]

I guess when these things were written, everyone had (say) a 10' rowboat? I have an old hand written book that my father had, and in it are special "marks" for fishing spots, one states the "cargo shed in Shellharbour over Wilson's house" the cargo shed hasn't been there for over 70 years, and who knows where Wilson's lived? But back when the marks were written, everyone probably knew the land marks. Some are still relevant, because they refer to mountain "dips and peaks" that will never go away, well, I hope anyway, we are in big trouble if they do......I had one "secret" Snapper spot I fished in summer, in NE wind that relied on lining up the radio tower on the Warilla Police Station, they pulled the station down about 10 years ago, took me ages to find it again and mark it on the GPS!

[bessell1955]

Yes, all these marks are relative to another era.  Remember that in those days there was no Sat Nav, No fish sounders and all locations were marked by prominent land features.

[noelm]

It's kind of funny, but even today, in this "electronic age" for all my close in Snapper spots, I don't even take the sounder with me, or use GPS. Around here, looking for "stuff" on the sounder will see you fishing in a school of small Sweep or other rubbish, I only ever use the sounder to find structure, like a drop off or peak, not look for fish as such, right or wrong? who knows, it's just my "thing" all that said, there is a few places that would be near impossible to find without GPS and the sounder, one in particular is just a small patch of "something" in a sand desert almost (I suspect it's an old container or small boat wreck) but it can be red hot fishing at times, but it's quite a distance offshore, so no amount of "boat lengths" or houses over Pine trees would ever be accurate enough.

[fredflathead]

My brother-in-law and I just fish the spot and cast in various direction till we hit the spot.