Marlin01

Great eating with the tusky, fantastic spot too!

I’ve eaten fish frozen for 18 mths and it’s been fine. I would say safely twelve months and it’s like it was caught yesterday! That said buy a good machine (sunbeam is hard to beat) and also good quality bags or rolls, cheap stuff is rubbish and will waste good fish. Not Allmark but not far away, easy 2.5-3knts of current, marked a few big fish mid to top water, maybe sharks. Lots of toads or jackets also, lost lots of gear gets exxy with 32Oz leads 8-( .

Weather looked great so locked in a trip for Monday. Not quite the winds we were after with 10 knots of Northerly on top of left over NE slop but away we go. Launched at Shoal Bay, looked like it would be interesting on the low tide. Livies were easy, tank full of slimies in 15min along with a few for cut baits. Bashed Out to 80 fathoms, very sloppy. Ran through a couple of current lines but temp was constant. Arrived wet and well tenderised. Rigged the rods with traces sinkers and bait, noticed we had drifted 1.2 kms in 10 minutes, obviously lots of current. Ran back to the mark and scored a king and a nice 2kg red first drop, looking good. Hard work over the next few hours but scraped a bag of reds to 4 kg, a few great kings, big goats and a weird yellow cod? Much better run home, entertained by the whales along the way. Low tide meant Shoal Bay was a no go with a shipload of sand on the ramp a car and boat already stuck so split to Halifax which wasn’t much better but managed to get out first attempt. Long day, hard work (felt it on Tuesday) but good fun and a great feed of fish. No pics, I was flat out all day. One pic of my share of the vacuumed fillets!

Just fishing in the berley, not many berley up there. Really is a lucky dip what’s going to bite in the cubes. Most snapper had berley in their guts, shows it works.

The charters went well a week ago, nice spotties too, I reckon you’ll do well!

He doesn’t waste much, yum! 14Kg Wahoo, I’ve gaffed a few but never caught one ☝️ Done ✅

The last day for fishing arrived so back to Grassy, water was blue and warm (26deg). Too much current to berley for reds. Surface fish were the order of the day. First livie ot got short back and sided, I always wonder how they miss all those hooks? Start readying for another livie deployment when Nicho spots a couple of Wahoo cruising, jam on a slimie and no balloon, instant strike and wait for the screaming run....and wait and wait. Strange fight, never got more than 50 M from the boat, start thinking tuna but no telltale headshakes? Guesses keep coming, I’m thinking big Spanish. After 20 min we get a flash of silver 15 M down, Spanish. Pump and wind and spot the blue stripes 10 M down. Nicho finishes with a great gaff shot and my first Wahoo hits the deck, pretty stoked. Manage to loose three big spots in a row as the stinger falls out 2 m from the boat each time. More tuna and a couple of spotties actually landed sees us finish a great trip. Love fishing up here, so many options, took the kids fishing and crabbing also a couple of times. Ill be back!

Week two saw the temp keep sneaking up and a few more reports of Spotted Mack’s. Plenty of bluefin tuna along with Mack tuna for a work out! Current started to run a bit harder but surprisingly the bottom fish shut down, glad we got a couple of pearlies and tuskfish first week. Fished Tuesday and didn’t have a fish in the boat at 12 o’clock. Fish in closer again to get a few reds and a hot Spaniard bite going, lots of current. Fished Grassy wide next day and wound up with some great reds (the sharks got the big ones ?? Even managed a few spotties to top off the day!

The bar is typically quite good on most run in tides and the first half of the run out. This is all swell dependent along with wind direction. We fished twelve of fourteen days and had no trouble on the bar. We did utilise the “chicken run” on the North wall a few times just to avoid the pressure waves on the main bar. This is shallow (.5M under the hull) but very safe and allows waiting for a break if required. Back to the fishing, more snapper and a few nice Spanish appeared by the end of week one as the temp snuck up to 23.5deg.

Well that time of year, up to SWR for a couple of weeks with the family. Arrive Friday, unpack and relax whilst prepping for a fish Saturday. Saturday dawns, bar was flat so up to Grassy we head to be greeted by green, cold water (21.5deg). Very dead on the wider grounds so headed in closer and the snaps were co-operative unlike the Mackerel! Went south the next day, big swell (3M+) and only a couple of small snapper. Fished real close up North and went well on the reds. Landed a 5 and 6kg red on light gear along with some great pan fish, bluefin and yellowfin and a couple of school mackerel. Great day TBC

No photos, chased a few reds in close this morning, started well. Reds in the berley straight away, all good till I pulled the hook on a nice one and shutdown time, doh! Out for a few flatskulls, good bite with a few doubles. Got my ten in just over an hour with a few upgrades. Nice bag of fillets! Gave the electric a run, all good. Cheers Marlin

I'm with stevefish, a 587 Furuno and a tm260 will cover all bases. Marlin

Still fishing well last week with Mackerel and Tuna still around. Snapper also in reasonable numbers. Just had two weeks and fished almost each day with only one poor catch. Plenty of bait, caught yellowfin, bluefin, Spanish and spotted mackerel along with snapper, Jew and a few pearlies. Well worth the trip! Cheers Marlin01

Fished the southern end of the Grassy Middle Grounds, not much show on the deck but a little baitfish action. Certainly a lot less sharks. Got a few reds on the inner grounds but did better south towards fish rock. Cheers Marlin01

No Spanish this trip, didn't actually target them. Some big spotties in the bag though. Marlin

Lucky enough to spend the week at SWR. The tides were good, the weather was better and the fishing even better again. The Spotted Macks were keen to bite each day with some days being ravenous. A big mix in fish sizes from 2 Kg to my new PB of 8.5 Kg. Also managed a good bag of Snapper from 1Kg to 2.5 Kg just to break the spotties up a bit. The river bar is very shallow but I had no trouble, just avoid the dead low. Had a look at the goal ramp and it looks pretty good. Again the Sharks were a big hassle at Grassy middle grounds so we avoided these grounds and only lost one more fish thereafter. Bag of reds and spotties Nice Little Wahoo Back up in three weeks for a fortnight, can't wait Cheers Marlin

Initially, Seafarer DID produce the VSea in a centre console, my Dad fished SWR in one in the early Eightys. Good boat. Got some old pics around here somewhere. Will_I, The 445F is a very able hull, capable of punching above its weight. As you point out it is still a 4.5M boat but it will get you home in that crappy 20knt NEaster or 25 knt southerly, a little wet perhaps but safe and quite a reasonable ride. I've had mine over 30yrs and have trouble matching the ride with anything around the same length so on we go! Cheers Marlin01

A picture would be invaluable here. Just checking the basics, not aligned with a strake, transducer is below the bottom of the boat, how far is the tranny from the motor leg and prop?

They actually look like frigate mackeral, great live baits, big king jelly beans. Nice session. Marlin01

I am not an outboard mechanic and as such won't come up with reasons why these particular outboards did not perform to their expected standards, EPA or otherwise, only that they didn't in these cases? I guess every brand has lemons in their lineups I have been unfortunate to have chance exposure to several under performing examples. My statement was factual and not influenced with allegiance or economic advantage with any manafacturers . Cheers

Reece, I have fished on several boats with both Etecs and Yamaha four strokes. I will get howled down for this but if seasickness is a factor I will say the Etecs were very fumey at low revs, also the newer motor (12 months old) suffered a fouling problem after trolling live baits for an hour. On the other side of the equation the Yammie for strokes I have fished with have been faultless especially when slow trolling. I am on my second Yammie four stroke but if my motors were rubbish I would not hesitate to bag them. Just some feedback from someone who has fished on boats with both motor brands. Cheers Marlin01

We clean our boats at the ramp ( probably not available at some Sydney ramps). My mate normally cleans the fish and I wash the boat with biodegradable wash and chamois off, normally takes 3/4 to 1 hr including rods. Most of the time I'm finished first ( cause we catch so many fish). It is only 14 1/2 foot long. Parked in garage so good to keep it smelling acceptably, I always finish with a dash of disinfectant straight on the floor. Great to get home and only have the inside of the evakool to clean, put the boat straight away. Drinking beer much quicker!! Cheers Marlin

I would think you clip it on and actually reverse a little. Great concept.