Nothing Blue about this trip! - Blue Eyes from Browns Mountain 25.03.2024

[zmk1962]

5 hours ago, Welster said:

It looks and sounds like another day out in great conditions and a few good feeds there.   That snagged fish would have been so frustrating trying to find a way to get it free.  

Thanks Jason ... yup can't complain about that feed and the conditions were to forecast -  I also tweaked the Zipwake curves since you were out last - couldn't be happier with the ride now.  Whatever the snagged fish was - it was big - it bent that rod, took the rig down (approx 18kg drag) and that was that ... yup frustrating. I loosened the drag off and left slack line several time hoping it would swim away clear but no luck .... aaargh.  I also just finished replenishing the sinker stock with the spare lead at home - thank you again !!  (we lost 5 on the day - 3 to toads and 2 to snags) ... BUT THAT'S FISHING !!!

[zmk1962]

3 hours ago, Pickles said:

Top effort Zoran and Wazza, nothing eats better than a blue eye. A great report with fantastic pics. Well done boys.

Thanks Bob ... blue eye is certainly up there with the best ... that deep ocean perch was also a treat ... more like lobster.  We have to get those calendars aligned buddy. 

Cheers Z

[Welster]

10 minutes ago, zmk1962 said:

Thanks Jason ... yup can't complain about that feed and the conditions were to forecast -  I also tweaked the Zipwake curves since you were out last - couldn't be happier with the ride now.  Whatever the snagged fish was - it was big - it bent that rod, took the rig down (approx 18kg drag) and that was that ... yup frustrating. I loosened the drag off and left slack line several time hoping it would swim away clear but no luck .... aaargh.  I also just finished replenishing the sinker stock with the spare lead at home - thank you again !!  (we lost 5 on the day - 3 to toads and 2 to snags) ... BUT THAT'S FISHING !!!

18kg of drag that must have been huge!   I was impressed with the ride when we were out.  Handling my boat solo by myself since the trip the wharf had a missing bollard leaving only one to tie off to had me reflecting on your system and some mods I should be making.   It looks like you are ready for the next few trips. 

[zmk1962]

19 minutes ago, Welster said:

18kg of drag that must have been huge!   I was impressed with the ride when we were out.  Handling my boat solo by myself since the trip the wharf had a missing bollard leaving only one to tie off to had me reflecting on your system and some mods I should be making.   It looks like you are ready for the next few trips. 

I keep thinking of the huge bar cod the lad was trying to show us ... perhaps its cuz! 

Are you referring to the midship bollard on the boat? I've found that very practical and a huge time saver. Sinker wise yes I'm ready but I still have to top up some braid on Tanacoms and recalibrate the line out meters (see link below) - probably tomorrow afternoon - and then sort out aligning crew calendars to conditions forecast 🤣 ...  keep your's updated if your interested ??

https://community.deckee.com/topic/90913-daiwa-tanacom-and-tanacom-bull-line-spooling-and-calibration/ 

Edited March 31 by zmk1962

[Welster]

14 hours ago, zmk1962 said:

I keep thinking of the huge bar cod the lad was trying to show us ... perhaps its cuz! 

Are you referring to the midship bollard on the boat? I've found that very practical and a huge time saver. Sinker wise yes I'm ready but I still have to top up some braid on Tanacoms and recalibrate the line out meters (see link below) - probably tomorrow afternoon - and then sort out aligning crew calendars to conditions forecast 🤣 ...  keep your's updated if your interested ??

https://community.deckee.com/topic/90913-daiwa-tanacom-and-tanacom-bull-line-spooling-and-calibration/ 

Yes the midship bollard would make life so much easier.  I am keen if the timing works out. 

[JonD]

Been good numbers of small blue eye down here, mostly in the 3-4kg size. Whats been strange though is they are over flat ground just about anywhere in 300m. In regards to little boats, Ive been doing runs to the Vic border from Eden lately, which gets a few funny looks. I experimented with many props and found a small 15 pitch mercury spitfire x7 is amazing in rough conditions. Im able to hold lower speeds and far better control when conditions get really messy. Obviously though some conditions really shouldn't be tackled in small boats, a strong westerly all the way from sea mounts would be horrible in such small boats. 

[zmk1962]

Interesting @JonD - they are just as delicious at that size although obviously the yield is much better from bigger specimens. Ours were caught in 430m just at the edge of the mount.  

You are an expert with offshore boating Jon so I am not surprised you are stretching your boat's legs far an wide. Exploring different prop pairings with a motor and hull certainly has its advantages. Did you keep the same diameter when moving to the 15p? When I repowered the Haines I settled on a 17p as that gave me 4sec hole shot and great top end with little slip which I was very happy with. The new owner of the Haines messaged me that he dropped it down to a "tuned" 15p and his hole shot now was 2.5sec which I guess was important to him...it would certainly make the boat more responsive at lower rpm. 

I've left the Cruisecraft Yam300 with the 18p Saltwater II that it came with, but I have been tweaking the zipwakes. I’ve now covered 997km on the water over varying conditions and found the default curve was too aggressive on pitch control in a short chop and would drive the bow down (slap) on the back of the wave.  I manually edited it ... which improved the pitch aspects but stuffed the roll control. So I entered slightly different hull parameters (length beam weight) and allowed the zips to recalculate the curve and now she rides sweet ... its dialled in for me and made a big difference on the return trip.

Now hoping to get another outing in the coming week.

Cheers Zoran

 

Edited April 12 by zmk1962