Blairy

great work love your reports

buy a second hand Cruise Craft Reef Raider will be under budget it is great little cuddy cabin fantastic for inshore or outside and can handle bad weather. Also mine has a 115 Yamaha so I can toe the kids on the biscuit at pretty decent speeds with great wip. The boat is only 16 foot 6 and a single axle trailer only. can pick them up for anywhere from $8000 to $14000 depending on condition and motor - just check the floor and transom prior to buying - you should be able to jump up and down on the floor and the transom should be rock solid. Cheers - Blairy

Lake Benmore is prolific for Rainbows and Browns and you can catch them from the shore, just grad some Tasmanian devil lures and you will kill it. Benmore is south towards Queenstown. Check out Lake Tekapo it holds big Brown trout but forget the fishing here - go for a hike and take some photo's its amazing. Mt Cook sits just behind it. The rivers either side of Christchurch the Waimak (shortened version) and the Raikia are good salmon rivers in season. I caught a 15 pound salmon from the bank about 10 years ago using a crappy loaned rod with a white metal spoon lure with hardly no paint on it - took the Salmon to a guy my brother in law new who smoked it for us (unreal). The Avon river which flows through Christchurch is also pretty reasonable - we did the whitebait thing the kiwi's do and filled an ice cream container with Whitebait and then made a whitebait omelette - pretty delicious against my better judgment. Good luck Blairy

Quick report before i right the big one, me and my brother and a couple of solid mates headed to Tin Can Bay to pick up a hire boat a much anticipated break from Sydney. Margot from Tin Can Bay Houseboats was unreal and the set up of her boats are second to none. Motored out of Tin Can and headed up the Great Sandy Straits, with ideas on fishing and crabbing anything that looked fishy. What an amazing waterway sea life, bird life and sunsets to die for, I will post more pictures when I get them onto a computer, simply though we caught fish everywhere we went, no stand outs but fishing day and night and at anchorage or whether it was setting the crab pots in the creeks for a muddy in the tender, it was outstanding. Needed a liver detox after but a trip I will do again for sure, especially now we have some more knowledge. Garry's anchorage and Kauri Creek provided lots of fun and the latter provided me with my first ever squid, 5 in 10 minutes which was a lot of fun and very tasty with chilli mud crabs, fresh Flathead, Bream and flounder. Here is a pic of the boat in Kauri with me and the squid, check the millpond behind me Cheers Blairy

Looks like its from the Red Rock Cod family, but you can see the differences

I reckon the jockey is too heavy

You must try the Bonito raw with some wasabi and soy fresh it is absolutely beautiful

especially if your a St George Supporter could have stayed all night fishing

I kept my first blue groper caught of Belambi in a boat in 30 metres it was about 6 Kg's - I ate every part of this fish in several different ways - if I ever catch another it will be in the PAN

Hi guys Marble Flathead are reasonably common just generally only get one here or there, from a legal size perspective I am sure you will find they have to be the minimum 33 cm - I am sure it states all other Flathead species in the size sheet I get from Fisheries. Cheers - Blairy

Ring the fisheries if no joy ring the police - but say something and if he gets angry then you have already notified the police - I am passionate myself and a few years ago after mentioning politely to an older Italian gentleman at a wharf in San Souci that the 40 bream he had were under size and he should return them while they are still alive. He reacted badly and told me to F - off or he would stick me with his knife - his fished end up back in the water and he followed, apparently he could not swim but managed to get back to shore. I suggest you don't do that I have learnt my lesson to make it hurt in the back pocket - it s the only way.

Wagonga Inlet Narooma plenty of seals near the moored charter boats and some big rays

That's a very well fed Tiger Shark, must have filled up on tourists before you dove. Ha Ha Awesome stuff and all credit to you to have no fear, my wet suit would have warmed up quite a lot at that point. Cheers

Hi Sigma, Thursdays fish were caught about 4km out from Shoalhaven Heads on what they call the Middle grounds Friday's fish were caught South just short of the Banks West on mixed ground gravel and sand in only 35 metres of water Saturday all over the place on the charter as it was rough as guts

Had a great weekend last week at Greenwell Point, Fished Thursday, Friday on my boat and Saturday on a charter with fish on all three days. Thursday picked up 15 flatties and Morwong between us ranging from 40 cm to 55 cm, Mowie well over a KG. Friday picked up four Snapper including one fish that gave 3 KG a shake more Flatties and Mowies - two flatties today were monsters 1 was 70cm and the other close to 65cm big for blue spots. Saturday fished a charter for much the same no big Snapper biggest about 2 KG, Slimeys everywhere and big buggers as well, few Mako's around had one cut a Wrasse in half and then hang around for a few minutes, beautiful creature in the water. Overall great trip and on Monday enjoyed the fruits of a whole baked Snapper. Nice to be fishing again.