SquidMarks

I have had success with Reds out of the hacking, i hope you dont mind but i wont divulge where im fishing! Having said that, im fairly confident that all those reefs would hold snapper. The points which will determine your success IMO: 1. Time - first light till sunrise and sunset till last light being the prime time (i never caught a decent Sydney red in the middle of the day). 2. Date -these winter months going into early spring are best! (July in particular fires for me out of the Hacking). 3.Position - target the deeper edges of the reefs (nothing but reef fish like wrasses and sergeant bakers on the top of those reefs). I prefer to hit areas where reef meets sand. i pretty much use a 3/8 oz jighead with a 3/0 hook for 20-30m and a 1/4 oz jighead with a 3/0 hook for 12-20m (you can tell i fish the 12-30m zones). 4 (most important) - Read ANY/ALL posts on snapper fishing (and their reports) by scratchie and rickmarlin. (Scratchie brilliantly covers tactics and lure types as well in addition to the things i have mentioned above. Rickmarlins squid catching fishing reports (for snapper bait) opened my eyes to the importance of fresh bait for snapper, as well as scratchies fishing reports which always seem to start out with a trip to the LBG).... The Hacking reefs can feel really barren when you are not in the right place at the right time! Good luck!

You should see me burly up the dogs when im waving the stink around while beach worming! Geez thats always fun! They come around, have a sniff and a lick of the stink bag, tread all over the spot where i just saw a worm and decide to try runaway with my staked stink bag while im getting the worm. Some sit next to me as if hoping i would give them some, and others just look at me longingly for a piece of pilly. Its all part of the fun, the owners usually rush over and try get the dog away from the stink bag, i usually give the dogs a few pats and everyone is on their merry way. The dog is an animal, not a remote control toy, it has instincts and will do what opportunistic animals do. (reminds me of a time when one pooch decided to go into my worming bucket and eat a few beach worms, was very funny watching the owners face as this dog is running around with a metre of worm still sticking out of its mouth and she is trying to get it to drop the worm!) Most dog owners are apologetic, me, i tell em not to worry, it is an animal after all.

I get their usefulness, i think they are the bees knees when they work (especially in game fishing when you need to reverse on fish). The problem is, you just dont see that on a 5m ally boat (stacer 5 m boats have scuppers with unsealed decks) . THE FOLLOWING is what i have a problem with.. the thought of a days fishing in winter with my feet permanently submerged in an inch of water all day. Does not sound like a fun day to me.

Fair enough, thought the deck was not sealed because i have seen the scuppers on the stacer boats with unsealed decks. Maybe a weak ss spring to hold the ball in place (stops allowing the leaves etc to jam up. That or creating a semi permanent seal (like bungs). seems like they are not of much use on the water and would just be used in washing down.

sounds like fun...... For you blokes with scuppers, wouldnt you be better off just permanently sealing those bloody things if you need to clean em every month? If you are more likely to get water in through them leading to a dangerous situation then i would be sealing them, you can always empty your boat out through the bungs when stray water comes in, its not like the deck is sealed or anything anyways...

I have had 2 of the original stradic Ci4 4000's and two shimano original rarenium ci4 2500 for over 5 years, fish them hard and never had an issue like that! I have replaced the roller bearings on them a few times each but i cant figure out for the life of me how salt water managed to get in the anti revese bearings for you. (it has to get in under the spool, through the gap between the shaft and pinion gear mechanism and then into the anti reverse bearings). Are you sure a mate of yours didn't accidentally dunk the reel?

any chance of a couple more photos of the area affected? Im beginning to suspect that the guide feet leading into the binding have not been given enough epoxy resulting in a cavity where water can reach the underside of the guide, pool and rust away.... This can happen on either side of the guide feet where the binding has to rise to meet the foot as its wound around the rod blank, leaving a gap between the binding and the blank. The other posibility is a lack of epoxy applied to the inside ends of the guide feet, allowing water to enter under the epoxy/feet, pooling and rusting away. That or the manufacturer used a metal file/grinder when grinding down the guide ends leaving microscopic iron filings (or impregnating the stainless guides with the filings) and the result is the rust you see.. I must say i have built a few rods and i dont have this issue (but i do use a high viscosity epoxy which requires more coats but allows for better penetration into cavities, i take the time to ensure that epoxy wicks into the cavity between the guides and binding on my first coat. I also keep guides away from steel files and bench grinders which are not suitable for stainless. EDIT: The epoxy should not discolour like that on its own, any discolouration in the epoxy would be uniform throughout and the discolouration would lead to yellowing rather than that characteristic rusted effect. Im guessing it has picked up the discolouration due to some oxidation occurring somewhere...

agree 100% my fav fish to sashimi if looked after from point of capture to table.

Hi guys, Im in a bit of a situation trying to help out my father in law with a trim issue on his 2016 90HP 4 stroke Mercury outboard. The problem is that the motor loses trim when you go higher than 10 knots or so (it trims itsself down, im guessing due to the thrust from the prop applying pressure to the hydraulic pump). You can trim up at 10 knots or so but as soon as you stop trimming up, the boat begins dropping trim fast. The trim level does not drop at low speeds. There is no hydraulic leak anywhere that we can find, likewise, we have purged the trim mechanism a few times to ensure there is no air in the system. We tried a soap spray over the ram and associated hydraulic trim components and this did not show any air leak (not that this would happen, but when you start running out of ideas you begin trying everything!). We have tried leaving the motor trimmed up on dry land overnight to see if it would drop overnight ( like a small leak may) but the motor did not drop overnight at all. We have even taken the motor to a dealer to have it looked at and he thinks that there is nothing wrong with the trim/tilt mechanism, thats how its supposed to work!? I am having a hard time accepting that the trim on an outboard is meant to drop when travelling at more than 10 knots or so. Does anyone have any suggestions we may have missed?

Hi Frank, PM sent.

Hi Guys, Just wanted to revive this post to see how the reef are doing? has anyone tried them out yet?

I tackled a spongy ply floor replacement a few years back (end of 2015). replaced the floor with marine grade aluminium with regupol stuck on top. Its still going strong and is as good as the day i finished the job! The regupol is super grippy (is that a word?). Love hosing down the inside of my boat without fear of the old floor (marine ply with carpet) rotting away. here is a link to the last page in my post showing the job. https://www.fishraider.com.au/topic/79115-aluminium-boat-floor-thickness/?page=3

slimy?

I would say that is true about 60-70% of the time. The worms are there on the steep and coarse beaches, its a matter of worming on a really low tide. When i take my worms from these coarse and shelly beaches and go fishing at say Budgewoi Beach/jewfish point, the sand that the worms are in looks dark yellow and grainy/shelly compared to the sand at the above mentioned beach. You are also more easily fooled into thinking there are no worms at the shelly and grainy step beaches as the worms poke their heads out for a fraction of a sec when burleying (as opposed to very flat beaches where the worm is waving his head around like an idiot looking for that morsel that just drifted past). Coupled with the extra false positives from all the shells, rocks and grit making V's in the receding waves and it becomes easy to overlook or pass up a good worming beach. Just to prove a point that they can be found in all sorts of areas, I also worm at a beach in Sydney INSIDE an estuary (not an ocean beach) where the waves rarely reach more that half a meter, and most of the time its a piddly 30cm wave lapping the beach. It is here that monster thick beach worms are found (not the long slimy ones). They are accessible on the lowest tides and in only a 30-50 meter stretch along this particular beach which is much larger. Go before or after this 50 meter stretch and you would swear that there is nothing there. The beach looks uniform throughout and im not sure why they can only be found in that small stretch, my best guess is that the tidal current must bring more food to this particular part of the beach. This spot is my go to worm beach when targeting Jew and i need a few XXL worms to do the job. Most of my spots have been found blindly waving a burley bag in all sorts of places, you should do the same. When you find a new reservoir of worms you notice just how abundant they should actually be (compared to some of the pillaged beaches along our coast). I have added an old pic of the calibre of worms found at this beach (and this isnt the biggest, those i cant pull out for the life of me!!!).

The wharf at the ramp holds em. Burley up and grab a few using size 10-12 hooks with either no sinker or the smallest split shot on 2kg mono. Best time is dawn, during the day they seem to scatter a bit and are hard to get. Use a tiny bit of peeled prawn or a tiny piece of a filleted pillie. The trick is to make your bait look and behave in the water column exactly the same as the other thousands of pieces of burley floating around. Good luck!

I must say that, from my personal observations on the water, 99% of the time RMS have been great in dealing with members of the public, but i have had 2 interesting encounters... (i wont mention the areas because i it is not my intention to smear all RMS officers in a particular area with the same brush). The first time was fishing in open waters in a Quintrex Coast Runner 470. There were 2 of us on board in broad daylight. The RMS officer motored over and began the usual inspections which in am completely fine with, we even bantered about how we were the first people today to have flares which were not expired. (he checked about 10 boats in the area before he came over to us). Anyways, prior to saying our goodbyes, he makes a statement "you know, both of you guys should be wearing a life jacket out here because the boat is under 4.8m". So i tell him " i know its a coast runner 470 but the boat is actually over 4.8m, the 470 is just a number, i can stick the number 6000 on there and it wont make a difference in the physical length of the boat. The 470 is the length from bow to the beginning of transom not LOA, The 480 models are actually smaller, kind of like what bar crusher did with their model lineup". He insisted that the boat is not over 4.8 meters in length, so i invite him on the boat to come check the Boat Builders Plate which states that the LOA is 5.08m. That quitened him down... Again, no apologies, no mention of him becoming confused, he just said 'ok, have a good one but you should be wearing it anyways". I thought that the more pertinent approach would be to ask the Captain for the LOA of his boat or to ask the captain of the boat if he knew the size of his boat before making those sort of statements. The second time was over the Christmas break. Maritime pulled up to our anchored boat and the first thing he said was "get a life jacket on that young bloke before you get a fine". I was a bit taken back, the boat was over 4.8m in length and we were anchored but we didn't argue and we got my son to put his life jacket on. I did ask him if the rules have changed and he sarcastically asked a rhetorical question "is your boat over 8m?, since its not, he must always be wearing his life jacket". We apologised, said our goodbyes and he want to check the next boat over 20 meters away. Anyways i thought i better check the rules because i also fish in different waterways and dont want to get stung by another officer who wont be kind enough to give me a warning. I quickly jumped on the RMS website. Having found out that the young bloke didn't need to wear his jacket when not underway i hailed the RMS officer to come back. When he motored back to me, I mentioned to him that the rules have not been updated on the website because it states that if the boat is over 4.8m LOA and it is not underway that children under 12 are not required to wear a life jacket. I emphasised that i am not trying to be argumentative but i want to clear it up as fish multiple waterways and different officers may have a different interpretations of the rules. So he tells me that he is sure that they have changed the wording from 'underway' to 'operational', he tells me it all written in the new RMS Boating Handbook. I asked him for a booklet, and he gives one to me, i proceed to turn the page to life Jacket safety and point out that it still stipulates that the jacket is only required to be worn when underway. So then he tells me "well, what are you doing, you're defined as underway!" i told him "im not drifting, im at anchor!" His answer??? No appologies, no my mistake, he said "alright, he can take it off then" and he just motored off...... That really left a sour taste in my mouth... I'm left schooling RMS officers who are enforcing laws which they are not familiar with. I wonder how many fines this officer gave out for this supposed offence which people would have unwittingly paid prior to encountering me...

First thing you may need to do in order to improve your success rate in catching crabs is to throw out those crap traps you bought and go and get some crab traps (unless of course you are targeting crap and not crabs!) ?

I guessing the groyne construction at south entrance beach did very little to keep the channel open.......... ?

Im going to guess that its a sleeve for a removable component (like a removable rocket launcher). can you tell us where on the boat this is?

Hi Stevoo, Enjoy Croatia, it is a beautiful place! Just be prepared to set your bar low in terms of fishing. You need to remember that the Mediterranean has been colonised and fished intensively for much longer than OZ so dont expect any wild country type action. Coupled with no minimum size and bag limits and you can kinda see where im heading here... Squidding will be very hard as it is a seasonal thing there (catch heaps in winter and barely any in summer). Most locals fish with nets as you are permitted to have nets of a certain type, length and depth as well as mesh size. Line fishing by locals will almost always be with bait so i guess throwing lures around could work as fish would not have seen many of them. If you are living on a yacht i would get some hard bodies and troll as you yacht away, i remember catching fish like this with my father in my youth but strikes will be few and far between. If you are staying on the yacht then i wold guess that you will anchor up in a bay for dinner. Ask the captain if you can use the dinner scraps to burley up, grab some really light line (2 kg max), a small hook (size 8-10) and small pieces of bait (fish or bread dough) and have a go catching Oblada melanura (they are called 'Usata") , you can get a decent bite going well into the night, its a nice way to spend the warm evening in summer, they wont be big but they do put up an ok fight in very light line and they are quite tasty! As a bonus, you may even burley up something bigger that would make you reel scream on 2kg line. Good luck and have fun! PS: Which part of Croatia will you be sailing through?

HA, check out this other record for PJ shark, i cant remember the last time i DIDNT catch a record breaker! http://wrec.igfa.org/WRecDetail.aspx?uid=65358&cn=Shark, Port Jackson#.WtH51oiuwuU

Say you catch one of these allmighty sargents (i think most people, inlcuind myself have caught a SB record breaker) what do i need to do to go about proving my catch to the IGFA?

Are you fishing dawn and dusk periods? (including first and last light?). Most of my legal reds in Sydney are caught during this time (including in estuaries). By heading outside aimlessly and fishing broken ground you might strike it lucky, youre better off doing some reading, follow Rick's snapper reports, he has shared some excellent info (depth, structure, timing, current etc) in them that will get you on the fish. There was an excellent post late last year if i remember where someone asked for help fishing for reds and scratchie and rick just let loose on the tips, try seek the post out.

Hi Rick, Nice catch! Please dont tell me you are getting these from budgewoi/tuggerah lake?! I always thought the lakes would be too turbd for squid?

Great reminder RIck. May i Remind those with inflatable life jackets that they need an annual service (i do mine every year just before christmas). This usually involves a manual inflation and a weighting of the CO2 cylinder (check your individual instructions for your models correct procedure). An inflatable life jacket is a piece of rag unless it inflates...