recurve

Of course. I have a squidgy flick bait 2 years old now, chewed up, cut up and caught loads of kings legal and rats. Reckon it has a session or two left. Gulps have to be put back in the juice or they dry out. And you have to be careful to only store Z man with Zman. You can’t store Zman and Squidgy together. They seem to melt. You can leave them on the jig head as well. But don’t put jig heads into the Berkeley gulp juice as the lead seems to leak out and makes a mess.

Don’t think it would be worth it. Long way and be much easier by car. If you fish in port make sure you don’t anchor in the harbour as you can be fined and same goes for getting within 50m of the jetty’s. There is also a restricted area you can’t go into so make sure you know where that is before venturing further up into the harbour.

There is also a ramp at Shellharbour. Kings are off the break walls and around the islands. Be careful going between the shore and island to get to Hill 60. Very shallow and can break where you don’t expect it. Orange mark is ramp at port Kembla. Bugger all parking though.

Get a coil burley bomb. Looks like a car suspension spring. They are called a wobble pot. The action brings them close to the boat and spreads the burley out. Your lures or baits will always be further out and wont tangle. Putting burley on the anchor only works when your boat is in line with anchor warp which is not often when deep.

Can be a fine line some days between success and failure. We often fish where there are lots of Trev when we target pelagics. If we want to catch them we go small lures and if we want to slay them we go small micro jigs. Same with Amberjacks, if we want Amberjacks we have to change the rig to one we know they will go for. Some fish you need to know what and how to rig for. Guys fishing lightly weighted baits with dough on smallish hooks and light gear will outfish you with big circle hooks all day everyday when it comes to Trevs, Yellow Tail, Slimies etc. Watch what they are doing and replicate. If you want to increase your catch rate have a plan and approach for each species.

Try finding the bait and Jigging Soft Plastics from the bottom up. Use a 5/8 Jig head.

I helped a mate to this a few weeks ago on a 5.5 Fiberglass boat. We just followed our noses and used common sense and it worked out well. Make sure you have the right tools. Get a spanner and tie it to your wrist so if you drop it you don't lose it under the boat. Very easy to drop tools when reaching under. Don't do it when the ramp will be busy, people will get annoyed. It will take longer than you think. Also wash is really annoying. The key was to have it lined up nicely off the transom to the edge of the trailer and then adjust the front pillar to suit. You should have an easier time of it as smaller and much lighter craft. We struggled to man handle the fibreglass boat but you will have no issues with yours. To make it easier take as much weight out of the boat. Will make it easier. It's all common sense. And I would not do it on my own. Get a friend to help.

Also Bar Crushers are no longer the same boats as Surtees. Barcrushers were originally a carbon copy but Surtees have kept innovating and changing the boats. My 2012 Model has a completely re-designed and strengthened transom and fuel tank design which is completely different to the Bar Crusher. They may look the same but they are not. Surtees are the innovators. Replicators are never leaders.

Stabi's have been around a lot longer than Profile Boats and there are a lot more out there so more are on offer as used. Not often you find an upset Stabi owner.

My old man has a 7m Stabi Craft with a cabin and I have a 5.5 Surtees. Not the same boats but he had a Stabicraft around the same size as my 5.5 before he got the big boat. In short from my experience. Stabi is a rougher ride. I always think about the Bang Bang Bang and thinking about your knee caps. But you can point and shoot it at anything and it just Bangs into it and out of it, much better as captain and you really have to mind the knees as one of the crew. Surtees is much smoother riding and also very predictable and very re-assuring in the rough when underway. The big difference is when you are at rest. Stabi Crafts are incredible and you feel really good in them even while things are going to crap around you. Surtees are not as settled into the water if you know what i mean. But they are still a great platform. I remember in NZ when we set the long line then went out wide. It went to crap completely and the long line was gone when we came back. Dad was not kissing it good bye and we searched for it. I was like....ahh yeah lets go Dad. Anyway we found it ages away and we proceeded to haul it in and it was full of Snapper and Salmon. 25 Hooks and the Bouy etc was real mission in the rough. I remember actually forgetting about the situation until I looked around and was stunned that we were working in that and not getting completely smashed around. I don't think I could have done that a Surtees They are also really good when deep sea fishing and sitting in the rough. However I would much rather of headed back to Port in a Surtees If you could ride like a Surtees and sit like a Stabi you would have the perfect boat. That's my experience. If it was me and it was for the South Coast I would choose the Stabi but if I wanted to save some money I would choose the Surtees. Both would make me smile ear to ear though. Internally they are both serious bloke boats. Be a bit of a price difference between them i would imagine. Surtees are a lot less to buy?

I don't think an ipad is a smart device. Cost of a 4G ipad is not much less than a head unit of a major brand which is designed for the environment. ipads will die in a boat. rough, wet and salty. Not good for ipads.

Could be anything, old age? Sickness? Stress. I was always told not to eat anything that was sick or dieing. Once had a huge John Dory float up next to us when we were fishing was still alive but like your whiting was going to die. We left it for the scavengers. The logic to not eat dead or dieing animals to me is sound. I would not eat it. Too risky.

In the harbour with so many references it it easy to find your spot. Offshore not so much. GPS is gold offshore.

Don't know mate. You would need to research it. Check out www.trademe,co.nz That is where a lot of second hand boats get listed.

Hi there, My story. Lived in Auckland and had a 6m wooden boat, got sick of sanding. Purchased a Brand New Surtees 5.5 Hardtop. Then after a 2 month wait it arrived. Put the motor from 6m Boat on the Surtees and sold the 6m boat to a guy who said he liked sanding, had the trailer fitted to the 5.5 by Surtees. Then after 2 months I got a job offer in Sydney so we took it. Employer paid for transport of the boat as I would not leave without it. I purchased the boat new so I paid NZ GST on it of 15%. As I Exported the boat less than one year after it was purchased I had to pay GST on it in Australia as well and I could not get the GST back I paid in NZ. Wife was not happy. The 5% Tariff was mandatory. I was still better off as buying that boat over here was dearer in Australia. And we now live in the Lucky Country with a Surtees. All worked out well. Not sure what the Surtees Dealer model is. I purchased from the dealer in Aucklands Suburb Takapuna. Guy called Andrew. Don't know if you can buy direct as there is a dealer in Sydney, Good guys. Ended up getting a new motor over here. So if you buy second hand make sure it is over 1 year old or you will get hit with taxes or if you buy new make sure you don't take possession of it in NZ and don't pay NZ GST. I will message the name of the employee we dealt with at Conroys. He was awesome.

I imported my boat from NZ. Used Conroy removals, they were super awesome and went above and beyond. I put mine in a container as the trailer was too hard due to compliance issues between ANZ. Trailer is the hard part.Catch 22, you can't get the trailer certified at the shipping yard and you can't drive it with out it being certified. Also the trailer may need mods to be certified which you can't do at the yard or with a boat on it......to hard. My boat was new so the compliance cert on the boat was done to one of these global standards recognised in AU as they sell them here as well. Was a Surtees. You will have to pay Stamp Duty or import tarrif of 5% They don't miss you. Also if the boat is used and under a certain age you will need to pay GST on it which sucks!! You will need to show papers on the boats value and what you paid for it as proof. In a lot of ways your better off buying it new from in NZ AUS and not paying the NZ15% GST on it and getting clobbered with the 10% AU GST when it comes in. You get way more bang for dollar for boats in NZ than you do here. When I did it the exchange rate was 75 cents so I got a bargain. If you call Conroy Removals in NZ they have a guide on how it all works. They were great. Just be aware of the taxes. There is no escape. Oh and I was warned, if you are doing roll on roll off (Not in a container) Strip the boat completely down as the ship boys are known to help themselves. If you leave the trailer behind you have the issue of collecting it without a fitted trailer, again as they sell my boat here I purchased a trailer from the dealer all set and ready to go, Went to the yard in West Sydney and they crew craned it on for me. Good luck, Lots of paper work!

Nice report. We came accross a monster bird sized Mutton bird work up off Wollongong. Hundreds of birds all feasting on those tiny fish. Could not get anytakers on Plastics and Jigs. Only thing that worked was 20g Micro Jigs. Trevally, Slimies and Yakkas. No Salmon unfortunately. Love the pics.

Dont touch these. Handle with extreme care. They will ruin your day. https://www.google.com.au/search?q=red+rock+cod&dcr=0&prmd=imsvn&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjUvY_Ak8rWAhUCE5QKHclfCPUQ_AUIESgB&biw=360&bih=560

Rule 1: Avoid Spikes Rule 2: Avoid spikes from brightly coloured fish even more. Rule 3: If in doubt, dont handle it. Flathead have spikes above thr back of their gills. These hurt like a ××××××××××××. Use a decent rag when handling.

That is no Gemfish

Put the motor all the way down and disconnect the ignition. If they tow it they will carve the concrete and make a hell of a racket. Likely to be pulled over.

You would need to be in some big following seas to worry about having to install a collar, if you need to install a collar to a boat to be in following seas you are in the wrong boat for the conditions? There are plenty of old fibreglass boats with good hulls around but under 10k for a boat to take offshore you are making compromises. Good Hull, bad engine, good engine bad hull. Look at the facebook buy and sell. Some good boats for good prices come up quite a bit on some of the sales feeds. The best boat is of course someone elses boat.

Solid effort. Two Jews in one session for one angler is pretty good going.

Good to hear there is action happening out there. Looking forward to this weekend. Work has seen my priorities get back to front.

I guess a Drogue or Sea Anchor would act as a Fad?. Have also wondered if taking some palm fronds out there and having them attached to act as a Fad is legal.