tryhard

G'day all, This is a bit of a late report from last weekend. No excuses on my part, I was too bloody lazy to get the Photo's off the camera. Anyway, the story goes a little something like this........... After the great weather that we have been having on the weekends, I could not contain my primeval urges any longer & needed a valid excuse to get on the water to catch & kill (hunter/provider syndrome). After racking my brains & checking the weather forecast 50 times a day, I formulated a plan. I rang my usual fishing mate & sugested that the weekend looked promising (weather wise) & that he should lodge the appropriate doccumentation to obtain a short notice leave pass from the relevnt minister. The plan was really quite simplistic - School Holidays - should do something with the kids - two adults (by age only) & two kids spending an educational field trip in the great outdoors, last chance before having to return to School! So having carefully mapped out the logistics, the chain of command & the mission, upon arriving home on the Thursday night, over dinner - all relevant parties in attendance - I mustered up the courage and asked the Kids if they would like me to take them fishing early one morning - home by lunchtme? Both kids expressed interest - no reservations (that's a first) and having now achieved a democratic majority, I also cleared my leave with the minister for war. So the detail of the plan was to have afore mentioned fishing buddy arrive at 5.00 am leave the house by 5.30 & be at Berrowra ramp by 6.00am. So 4.00am of the big day arrives with my mobile ringing in my ear - said fishing buddy & co conspirator had managed to poison himself the day before - yeah great timing! So I figure I wont get the kids up & will snooze for another 1/2 hour, only to be rudely awoken by a soft voice saying urgently Daddy, it's already after 4.00 - are we still going ? We left home under clear pre-dawn skies and soon descended into a Pea soup fog as we neared the ramp, slowing us down to a walking pace. (so frustrating when you want to get the boat in ASAP) Well we launched the boat & chugged off into this.. We were barely able to see the moored boats & yet we were passed by a small open tinny, man with a young kid (4-5yrs old) aboard doing about 15knts - no life jacket, no lights, and a larger tinny going slightly slower - madness if you ask me. We arrived at our destination (the Vines) and began drifting. The fog had cleared by 8.30am and we had caught a couple of just legal flatties on just under & a small whiting. Eventually the sun burnt its way through & we began getting bites in earnest. Shortly thereafter we had a 48cm flatty in the boat, and another just legal (we kept this one 'cause he was gut hooked & not at all well) A short time later we left after running out of frozen re-frozen thawed servo prawns (sick fishing mate was going to bring the bait!) Last night we had fish & chips for dinner !

G'day all, Recently spent a coupla days at Golden beach. I usually take a telescopic rod - but given the grief I have had in the past when I've tried to slip away, I had to be content with watching others, & taking photo's Anyway, here are the better ones - all looking across the Pumicestone passage to the Northern tip of Bribie Island.

Bruce, Looks good mate - still no drain hole though! How are you going to do the lid ? Hinged or lift out? look forward to the photo's

Hey Bruce, Looking at your pics, I see there was a drain hole in the floor of the esky. Don't you want to keep that ? I think it'll make emptying & cleaning easier ! Looking forward to seeing the finished product

You guys all think you are such experts ! there's only one piece of advice I have ............... I even got this technical Gem from a renown expert in the field (Fishraider Website) Remember, it does not matter about the size of your hammer - if you hit it hard enough & enough times and it still doesnt work, you have an electrical problem !

Is it too late to register ? I'm coming Sat. night anyway, registered or not !

Funniest report I have read in ages. Chuckled to myself all the way through. Well done.

Whilst I find bright lights in the boat annoying, I am happy to have a couple of low mounted Flouro's for a couple of reasons. They light up the floor space but not the water they throw a reflection on the clears - helps other vessels see you at night . I note that there seems to be more boats fishing now at night with little or no lights - a fact that I just cant understand after the recent fatalities we have had - I think that even if your in a bay or a no wash zone, there is no accounting for the actions of others & I would rather have lights annoying me than the pointy end of another boat !! whoops, sorry about that, got into a rant about one of my pet peeves !

Hi Mate, I certainly know where you were ! I heard you when you caught your Hairy. Would I be right in suggesting that you had a disagreement about whose rod was in whose rod holder ? We were in closer to the rocks than you guys, on the Western side about level with the big boat that was moored up. your 1.5m is a good size Hairtail - I have not seen one like that for a while.

Laurie, Where abouts were you & what sort of Boat? we were in Quintrex Cruisabout - white hull yellow deck.

Georgieboy, The rig that I use is a sinker above a 200mm wire trace with a single 1.0 suicide hook. I sed to use ganged hooks but found it just as easy with a single 1.0. Good on Thursday Bait is pilchards but Ibelive that live yakkas are also good.

Mariner, Hairtail are predominantly mid water feeders in my experience, and are not built for acrobatics, but a good size hairtail puts up a reasonable fight. You can definately eat them but opinions on quality vary - I recently saw someone comment that they are OK if your tastes tend toward wet horse manure ! I have to say though that this is not my experience, & the big ones (160cm +) are better that the small ones. I think that the flesh is not too disimilar to leatherjackets but not as sweet. They have about 20 brazillion bones to the lineal metre, but the bones are not difficult to remove. I am planning to try this one in a Thai gren curry style dish, so if any one has a suitable recipe I'd be keen to hear it.

G'day all, time to post up my annual fishing report, you know what I'm talking about, the time I actually go out and catch a fish! Headed out from Apple Tree Bay, at about 5.00 pm, returning again at 5.20 to collect the bait from the car !!! headed up to Jeruselem & set about feeding the fish. after about half an hour, my mate has a nice 60cm jewie caught on a Hawkesbury Prawn. another 15 mins. sees me pull in a Hairtail ! We had a couple of Hairtail takes (they are very distinctive), unfortunately the fish seemed very tenantive, and a couple of frustrating hours saw us with a 35 cm tailor, & another jewie dropped at the boat. An another hour & I was on to a good Jewie ( felt the head shakes) sadly, a minute or so saw the Jewie morph into a rather large Ray that refused to come to the for the next 10 minutes !! (Bugger). There were a few boats out there & from what we could hear there were a couple of Hairy's caught and another small jew. The Hairtail are certainly not there in any sort of numbers at the moment, maybe when it cools a little more they might be more prolific. A couple of Ugly photo's for those (like me) that need a photographic fix ! Why do they always look smaller in the photo's ??!!

Thanks Jewgaffer, Any chance you can draw me a diagram ? I am thinking that I'll put in at Apple tree & will give the areas up around the mouth a whirl. with the weather lookng good thismorning, we might get enough tidal flush to make it OK. Bring on the catties !! thanks

thanks for the responses, but you dont seem to understand................. I must go fishing on Saturday night !!!!!!!!!!! Oh well, looks like cat fish & eels logs & mud again!

g'day all, Looking for some Opinions / guidance. Given that I have not been out for a while, I am fishing Sat. Night rain , Hail or snow ! Is it worth going out ? Is there any spots anyone would recomend given the amount of rain? I am specifically targeting fish - thats any table fish with the specific exclusion of catfish & Pike eels or Toads !!! I dont know if I'll put in at Berrowra or Apple tree or Parsely Bay, that will depend on any of the feedback I get. thanks

Hey Stocko, 3 x 2 litre Coke bottles (or similar) remove the label off one cut the pouring end off all three and the base off the one you took the label off - so you end up with one open tube & 3 funnels. Insert the inverted funnels into the 'tube' section. either glue the funnels into place, or sew them in with copper wire (I have not yet found a durable bonding glue that lasts any length of time) Take a soldering iron and poke lots of holes in the tube section (be careful of the plastic fumes), enough to allow free flow of water through the trap. Through a couple of decent sinkers into the bottom of the trap ( or a handfull of stones) for negative bouyancy put some water soaked bread into the trap & place it in the shallows - berly up around the trap with bread and as the bread in the trap breaks down, the fish will eventually find their way in. has worked for me in the past! Only problem with this trap is that it is pretty much a one off use, but it cost nothing to make ! play around with it, you might come up with something that is more servicable ! good luck

Thanks for the info folks -We'll give it a whirl & see what turns up

G'day all, I am thinking about taking the boat to lake Macquarie, but I am not familiar with the area. can any one give me any tips /pointers/ likely spots for fishing. What about crabbing - any one know if witches hats are permitted ? will be Staying near Nords Wharf if that helps thanks

Top Job ! Gotta be happy with the outcome! I need to know your methodology in painting the fibreglass - I want to do something similar.

A Big public thanks to Craig & the crew at Huett Marine. I eventually came to the decision to upgrade from my old 85hp Suzuki to a newer Johnson 90 that Craig listed under the "a word from our sponsors" section. After badgering him with many many questions - all patiently answered, I convinced Craig that my boat was the right place for his engine ! Craig promised that he could have it fitted by next Wednesday (I was a little disapointed that it would take that long - as happens when you buy a new toy - I wanted to play with it then & there ! However, I am not unrealistic & know that all good things take time .......) Having quietly accepted that Wednesday next week was realistic, I was ecstatic to recieve a call this afternoon to come & pick up the boat. Not only did they over deliver in terms of timing but Craig also arranged some photo's of the old motor for me, to list it for sale. And they also installed a speedo included in the installation (not originally part of the deal) Nothing quiet like over delivering !! Many thanks Huey, tomorrow I'll be terrorising Berrowra waters

How about some sort of hard rubber type material from Clark Rubber ?

Roberta, Was up your way over Easter & wanted to get some worms myself but not having wormed for about 15 years figured any worm was a good worm !! I found them in close to the breakwall on the foster side & there was some serious size to them as well ! I excelled myself by catching 1 & 1/2 worms (small to medium) also in a heavy onshore wind. I found the worms further up from the breakwall were very timid & would not arch to the teaser - that is so frustrating. Anyway had a ball catching dart with my 1 & 1/2 worms (worm?) and a few pipi's. I need more practice = I need more holiday's regards

Thanks Shark Bait, Makes perfect sense - Pelican Had already pointed this out to me. Took it out on the water this morning. All seemed to go well and then, I had the same problem re-occur. This time when I pulled the plugs they were dry. The motor refused to start at all. I pulled the air box off & sprayed a bit of 'Start Ya bastard' but the motor only ran on that & did not run on the petrol - that is it refused to keep going. I put the 2 new spare plugs I had in & that seem to do the trick (even though the plugs that were in there were also new. once going, the motor ran fine again - called it a day at that point. When I got home the motor started on the flusher but there was a definite miss then she stalled as though it was out of fuel & I could not restart it. I have given up for now, next stop is the mechanics.

SUCCESS !!!!!! 1st, thanks to every one who offered advice. Following Huey's comment that the fuel pump should draw fuel from the Aux. tank when it is sitting on the ground next to the motor, I decided to rebuild the fuel pump. Completed that this morning, cost $80 for the Kit - pretty pricey for 2 diaphrams and a spring !!!!!!!!!!! took about 40 minutes from removing the pump to refitting. I have run the motor this morning with the auxillery on the ground - No Probs Ran the motor from the main tank - No probs. Only one issue........ Broke the b$#@ filter / separator - thought I'd drain the fuel & watch it fill from the main tank but managed to pull up the main bolt too tight shattering the glass bowl -bugger bugger bugger. I was going to change it but was not planning on right now. Any way next test will be on water - maybe tomorrow - see what happens.