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Your boat ramp is not lit? Also get an internal marine red light installed in your cabin. You can see everything but does not effect your night vision.

Another trick is to tie the sea anchor to the side of the boat. If you have a hard top it can position you so your casting with no obstruction of the hard top and it makes it easier if there are two of you as you can alternate. While one is retrieving the other casts. Sometimes it seems to slow you down even more as well. All depends on wind and current. Don't think the sea anchor always has to go off the back. Off the side when the wind and current is right is good for bottom bashing as well as your chute is behind you and you have no issues with the line touching the drogue rope.

Burley, un weighted baits and life jackets. Same method as a boat.

Sounds like poor connections. Maybe you need to replace all the hardware. Or you may have a cable that is damaged but inside the coating. Lee

Good report guys. What a great session.

Buy gloves and get the Decky to do the anchor. 8ml if retrieving by hand sounds as small as I would want to go.

You'll need at least 100m of line to anchor at this depth properly and with comfort to you physically and comfort knowing your going to hold. You could go less and add more chain but more line is better.

Went for Reds and ended up catching three Bonnies. Sent two back as not sure how to cook them. Kept one as decided maybe they could be good as Kokoda. Kokoda is fish cubes partially cooked in lemon juice mixed with raw veges and coconut cream. It's amazing. Cut fish into cubes 1-1.5cm. Salt and cover in fresh lemon juice. Leave for two hours. Take 3 tomatoes and remove the seeds and liquid. Do the same to a cucumber or two as well as a capiscum. Cut up super small and put aside. Chop half the red onion up super small as well. Season well. I rinse the lemon juice off the fish and Pat dry. Put in a bowl and add all the chopped up bits. Then add over half a tin of coconut cream. Season to taste. If kids are not involved then red chillies also go well. This is devine and to my delight, works well with Bonito. Kingfish is best but Bonito was very good. Crusty bread and Kokoda, BAM!!

Your right, it's a 5000 I have. Has the big knob. Good reel

FJ 4000 Stradic. Is a good reel for slow pitch jigging. Has a good retrieve and a big handle. Also good a good all round reel. I have this paired with a Gomoku Blue. Very happy with the set up. Use it to jig for Kings with very good success.

In NZ it's widely known that piper or Gar fish are the best baits for Kings. You can rig them up like a livie and pop them. Never done it but seem it on TV a few times.

Depends if the cert from Stabi is an international cert recognised in AU, if it is then you should be fine with 5. My understanding is it is either x people or x KG. But you would need to confirm. My Surtees is has an international cert and is recognised here

Angler power in Sylvania or Liesure Coast Bait and Tackle in Corrimal Rothery Road.

I fish the Illawarra and have often seen Whalers Basking in the summer. We have caught a number of Makos as by catch, all under 1.5m. We have had a White Shark come to the back of the boat middle of winter at Bellambi Reef when we had a tuna blood burley running. Two years later in middle of Winter I saw a White launch out of the water like shark week at Bellambi Reef. I new it was a White as was massive and had a black top half and white underside Seem to be plenty of sharks around.

I used a Stradic FK 5000 or Ci4 4000 on mine. Seems to work well. I mainly use the blue model.

Hi Bear, Exciting times getting a new boat congratulations. When I purchased my boat new I had the motor as was so disgusted with the boat I owned I dumped it with meth heads in the hills. I only had to pay a 20% deposit and they custom made it for me and 2 months later it was ready. They put my motor on for me as well. I think it is always good to have some recourse so if it was me I would hold back 20 or 30 %. If you don’t think they are straight and might shirk if things are wrong then do a sea trial. Holding back some funds is totally acceptable in my opinion. Asking for upfront in full is un reasonable.

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Good report. It is worth the hassle helping others out. Heartbreaking to see people in strife. 2 weekends ago at Bellambi I was launching solo at dead low 6am. Ramp was busy as with long queue, looked over and saw a guy with his kid launching on the dock side where it gets really shallow and sand builds up. I thought I had better get out and go over to tell him about the depth issue + possible consequences and to come over to the far side. In all the rush I carried on and I saw him backing in further, but was in the boat trying to find a chance to tie off to get my trailer out. ( Always feel so rushed when in my own) When I eventually walked past him I told him to launch far side. Too late, he was already in deep trouble. Both his dual axle trailer and his rear wheels of his truck were in sand and he was going nowhere. I felt so bad. 2 minutes of my time to stop and give him a run down would have turned his awful morning into a great day on the water. Not sure what happened to him. I assume a tow truck or maybe someone had an even bigger truck than him Better to help out and lose some time than have a fellow boater come completely unstuck. Although when it’s game on and your ready to launch it can be bloody frustrating.

I use a Daiwa Gen Black Nugget overhead with a Daiwa Lexa 300 Reel. It is my go to rod for Vibes. Have not targeted Jews on it but have caught Barramundi (in the winter!) and a 1.2m Threadfin Salmon and also caught Snapper and plenty of Sergeant Bakers, all on Vibes. It is quite firm and gives the Vibe a strong action and I have good control and feel oft he Vibe with the overhead. Really happy with this set up. Could go a bit longer and lighter with the rod but the advantage of this set up is I can put some real pressure on a fish which l was very happy about when I caught the threadfin.

We always use CRC. Noticed they have a new product specifically for this now. https://youtu.be/-9ZyBI85LPk

I have been fishing with the Blue Gomoku for a few years. Pair it with a Stradic 5000FK. I mainly use it to jig plastics for Kings and Salmon. Handles 65cm - 75cm with no problems. Any bigger I struggle to stop them. 5000 in a Shimano size is a good match. Not sure about the other brands. They are really powerful rods and you can put a lot of pressure on a fish with them.

The best thing you can do is install a sounder. You don’t know if your on the fish unless you have one.

Overheads are only tricky if you are casting. In saying that, I started using baitcasters for the first time this year for plastics and vibes and have adapted pretty easily to them. They are not as tricky as they are made out to be. Spinning reels are also very effective When jigging for Pelagics it is pretty much all in the rod and the action. I imagine Mackerals are like kings. Pump pump pump thump!! Don’t see why you need overhead for that. I would get the jigging rod and use a good spinning reel you can keep using for land based.

From a Boat or from shore?

There are two types of Sea Anchors. Cones and Parachutes. Cones are pretty weak. I have a Hard Top and Deep V so need to use a parachute. I rarely use more than 2.5 - 3 x Anchor Rode and I hardly slip. However I do run 7m of heavy chain on a 5.5m Boat. But I have an Anchor winch so I can go longer and heavier chain with no moaning from the crew. Putting a heavy chain on and having crew manually retrieve will incite whinging which can be annoying for captains. A correctly sized Sea Anchor should work for any boat.