First fish in our new boat.

[Luke.]

G'day raiders

First post after a long time of reading the posts as I haven't been fishing much in the last few years due to working too much and starting a family.

We finally decided to purchase a boat for our family and after approx 18 months of looking decided to buy a new Stacer Searunner 519SE with a 115 Yamaha and Lowrance Elite FS 9 sounder. This would allow us (me) to fish saltwater and offshore a bit that I love (not very good at it), fish our local the Nepean for bass, have nice family days out with our son who's 2 now and also a bit of tubing and skiing once he's older. A general all rounder.

Once we had it home for a month or so it was time to go in for mods. Plumbed live bait tank, squid lights, deck wash, internal lights, electric anchor, dual batteries with plugs for a fridge and a minn kota instinct quest (the new sealed brush less one) with lithium battery.

A few trips out playing and learning the gear while trying to fish yielded nothing until a cracker of a day last month. 

We dropped our son off at day care and it was off to the boat ramp at Penrith for a mid week launch. 1 other car in the carpark... Perfect.

We head up the river and start playing with the electric motor when my wife sees a fish jump under an overhanging tree. We humm on over there with the electric motor and start flicking a spinnerbait on my 15yr old fibreglass rod that I broke the tip off and corroding reel.

About a dozen wayward casts in and my wife repeating to me where she saw it, the lure hits the water and bang. We're on. A short fight later as the fish moved out of the snags making it easier we managed to net the first fish. It was by far the biggest bass I had ever caught. Easily passing my 20cm previous PB

It came as such a shock, we had no pliers, nothing to measure it with but after a lot of laughs we got the hook out and used a piece of fishing line to measure from head to fork.

With a piece of fishing line the right length, and some cheering we let the bass go and watched it swim off. We played and fished a bit more bur could only manage the 1.

Once home and after a guessing game of how big we finally measured the piece of line.

It went 39.8cm, I was over the moon but annoyed it wasn't the magic 40cm.

I have since fished in Sydney harbour and up to long reef with my dad for a few bonito and some undersized snapper and flathead. We look forward to learning how to catch live bait, squid and more fish as we go.

We also went out to the Nepean on Tuesday before the rain and picked up a nice 36.5cm model bass.

Thanks for reading my first post. I have put some pictures up of the boat and fish. 

The boat now has 20hrs on it and we are looking forward to many more adventures with the family

Cheers

Luke

[Little_Flatty]

 To the community Luke and a fantastic first report. That’s a solid couple of bass.

Nothing like midweek fish! I’m sure many happy memories will be created on your boat.

[mrsswordfisherman]

Welcome @Luke. 

That boat looks fantastic. Please tell your wife to join up and make posts if she wants, very welcome. 
Bet you both can't wait till you start taking your son out fishing.

[bessell1955]

Great photos!

 

[Pickles]

A great report Luke @Luke., that’s a great rig you’ve got and (in my opinion) a perfect set up (very similar to mine) and a great general / all purpose boat that will give the family much pleasure.

40cm is a cracker Bass and there are lots more there (54 is my biggest ever), and the river is so close and being freshwater, wash down and motor flushing is a breeze, no need to worry about saltwater.

Keep posting mate, it’s great to read and now you’ve got the goods we’d all love to see your pics and read future reports - if you need any input, just ask, we Raiders are happy to share. I’m always happy to take folks out or have them come with me (or follow in their boat), so reach out any time (fish the harbour and outside lots).

[Luke.]

Thanks very much everyone, we look forward to posting a lot more photos and stories from our adventures.

@Pickles we love going down to the river, and it's in shade by mid afternoon which is great for our young bloke.

Thanks, I have been doing a lot of researching on here, especially for saltwater. I'd love to get into it more as we go. I only work 6 months of the year so hopefully catch up sometime.

Cheers, Luke