Ocean Addiction

Got the boat wet twice this week (after 6 weeks off the water due to a back injury). It has been the longest dry spell we have had and we desperately needed to spend some quality time together. The weather on Wednesday was great so decided on a bit of an exploration day which also helped charge up the batteries and blow away some cobwebs. Got a few good screenshots from the sounder including this little beauty in the harbour. Unfortunately, I was playing around with the GPS while I was recording sonar in the background and didn’t even know I had driven over this (twice) until I reviewed the recordings later that night! Thursday also looked great on the weather front so popped the boat back in to try and find out what was on the sonar the previous day. Same place, same tide and whatever was there on the previous day had moved on. Had a bit of a flick with some plastics but nothing wanted to play ball. Moved back on to my home turf of Iron Cove to flick some plastics around the shallows. Plenty of small bream were around and many casts were made for not much excitement. Moved back under Iron Cove bridge where I had earlier seen some bait on the sounder. It was quiet here as well and the wind was starting to get annoying. As I was burning my very last cast for the day back in a huge splash appears behind my plastic before around 8 kingfish scoot under the boat. The quickest cast in fishing history was made and one of them grabbed the plastic (briefly). Probably only had him on for a few seconds. I realised I had little chance of landing it on bream gear under the bridge. I tried finding them again but couldn’t work out where the school had headed. This is the second time I have seen a school of kings in Iron Cove this year. Both times were around the bridge so this must be a bit of a hunting ground for them. David

Hi eli, I have a 54/54 Watersnake on the front of my 4.9m Bayliner Element (fibreglass). I only use it for inside the Harbour so I can't comment about offshore use (although I am contemplating trying it offshore very soon). I’ve had the unit for about 5 years and this is the third boat I have used it on. In answer to your questions: 1. Yes, but within reason. What bothers me more is the unit popping out of the water with each swell. Mine will pop out when going over a ferry wake. Gets annoying real quick and probably isn’t too good for the unit being under load, no-load, load, no-load continually. Glad I didn’t go with the 48” shaft as it would be out all the time! 2. Maybe – I think my boat size is at the upper limit of what this unit can do. Works fine but I need to use full power if trying to travel any distance into the wind (I just tell myself that slow = stealth). I think offshore may be demanding on 55lb particularly if the current and wind are both against you. 3. In my experience trying to manage the foot control, while looking at the GPS/sounder and keep your balance (and maybe put in a cast) in a bit of a swell is like trying to dance after WAY too many drinks. For chasing bream on the flats or moving around a bridge or wharf the foot control is perfect. Once you add boat wakes, a bit of a breeze and trying to sit right on top of a GPS mark I find I’m concentrating on too much other stuff and no longer fishing. ie, it’s great for moving/prospecting but hard work sitting in one spot. 4. I have a 120 AH deep cycle and it lasts all day running all my accessories (sounder, stereo, watersnake, lights etc). Recently I have hooked the accessories battery up to a VSR to charge it when the engine is running. Main reason was to have a backup in case something went wrong with the start battery. Don’t get me wrong, the 54/54 has been faithful for quite a few years and having it on makes a massive improvement to how I fish. But, if I found myself in the position of having to buy another unit now I would go for the GPS so I could concentrate more on fishing. I would also be looking at the length of the shaft and maybe going up to 60” for my boat. I hope my random thoughts help you out a bit. With any luck I’ll be taking the Watersnake offshore later this week so can report back on how she goes. David

Pretty shallow - all of them would have come from less than 1m of water. At the right time of year bream and whiting are very keen to hit a surface lure. Some of them aren't small either!

Is that a grass minnow Green Hornet? Do you find you loose more rigs to tailor by having the line running through the plastic?

Seriously how good are Magic Erasers? I had some scuffs and marks on the gel coat of the boat from just general wear and tear. I thought I was going to have to polish them out but thought I might give some of the Magic Erasers that were on sale at Aldi a few weeks back a shot. Apart from scratches (which they also cleaned out pretty well and hide the scratch a bit) they removed most of the marks without a trace. I also had some white marks on the rubber where I had bumped up against a pontoon. A little bit of scrubbing and these came out too. I am yet to try them on light surface rust but I expect they will probably get this off too. Half an hour later and I had almost erased the entire boat!! David

I had a bit of time up my sleeve yesterday so decided to get the boat wet. Headed out to some of my favouite flats in the harbour to see if the topwater bream and whiting were willing to play. The weather was pretty spectacular in the morning (maybe a bit too warm). Skimming unweighted plastics across the surface that looked like a fleeing prawn I managed 14 ok to decent bream for the day. There were plenty of interested whiting around as well. Despite stacks of whiting hits they all missed. Worm hooks are terrible for catching whiting but I love just watching them chase the lure all the way back to the boat! There were plagues of little tailor around which started to eat into my plastic supplies. Even when they are cleanly hooked they seem to bleed over everything and make a real mess!!! To round the day out I saw some dolphins under Gladesville bridge on the way home which was a pretty great way to end the day. David

Hey Mojo, Denarau Island is great. I've passed through there quite a few times on my way to Kadavu to go fishing and there are heaps of great resorts to hang out at. Make sure you go have lunch or dinner at the Hilton while you are there. While fishing at Denerau isnt really allowed a charter would probably be a good idea to get amongst the action. Usually late Jan and early Feb they get a run of decent (to very decent) yellowfin - but it is all in the timing. I usually go around Australia Day and I have missed it 2 out of 4 times (and just by a week or two). If you could get on a charter throwing poppers/stickbaits at these you would not be disappointed. You might have to go up to 50lb gear though. I know some of the islands are OK with you doing a bit of shore based fishing. You get little GTs and Bluefin trevally coming up into the shallows harassing bait. 20lb gear would be fine for this. Definately pack some little stickbaits (like 70mm & 95mm Sugapen) and some poppers around the same size. If going shore based fishing in Fiji I've found it's generally best to ask first if it is OK to fish in that area. Also talk to some of the resort watersports guys that hang out on the beach - I've had some offer to set me up with a local with a boat, although I have never taken them up on the offer. Hope this helps you! David

I've fished out of Noumea with Le Poisson Banane (LPB) a number of years ago. I think they have since gone out of business. The fishing was pretty good. Usual tropical affair with casting poppers at the reef and jigging in the channels. We encountered several unstoppables. I found the reefs in New Cal to be a bit more unforgiving than those in Fiji. I think they have a bit more structure to them which makes it easier for the fish to bust you off. The scenery in New Cal is pretty outstanding (once outside of Noumea). I also saw my first Whale Shark on this trip which was pretty awesome. I do recall it was quite expensive as the exchange rate was TERRIBLE at the time!!! Might be worth checking this out. I imagine Isle of Pines would be pretty for a fishing charter as it is a bit more remote. We had to go a fair bit out of Noumea to get to some of the less fished areas. Hope this helps.

I thought that VSR and ACR were pretty much the same thing? Im really interested to find out what the difference between VSR and ACR is though! Can anyone help? Robsrock, Yeah I could have done it without the switch which would have ended up being a much cheaper option. I think the VSR itself was only $45 but the switch added close to $100 to the job (plus the cables and M10 connectors that I had some trouble finding). I really like the idea of having the "all off" and "combine" options - (edit) which were not included with my VSR. Which VSR did you get? David

Hi Robsrock, I just finished putting a VSR in my Bayliner. I seem to be running the same amount of gear as Antony listed above and the little starter battery worried me. After quite a lot of research on the internet it seems as though there are a couple of ways people hook them up. Im certainly not a marine electrician but I was willing to have a crack myself. I got a fair bit of my information from US wakeboarding blogs/sites (they seem to run a second battery to power a massive stereo) and from Jaycar (go during the quiet times and you can usually find someone willing to help out) as well as the instructions that came with the VSR. Here is my setup. I installed 2 new Bluesea fuses along with the VSR and switch which allows me to parallel the batteries if the start battery goes flat. The outboard, accessories and bilge pump were already fused. The negatives run to a power post located underneath the switch. Ideally it would have been nice to install the VSR above or below the switch as it would have been much nicer looking but I didnt have enough space. My only task left is to work out how to run the bilge directly off the battery rather than through the switch (that bundle of black wire in the corner). That way if I ever have it switched off and it fills with water then it can empty itself out. David

This time of year you will find a huge number of boats anchored around the mouth of the basin or hovering around the artificial reefs. My advice would be to take the opportunity to explore other locations. Try drifting the flats casting surface lures for bream and whiting. There are a stack of productive flats <1.5m deep so choose whatever works with the prevailing wind. Otherwise use your sounder to locate bait schools and fish deeper with plastics or blades (or baits). If you're keen on using bait go for a prawn on a light gauge hook. I find a red lumo bead can improve your numbers slightly. Hope this helps and good luck out there! David

I've found that the tides do play a role. They go pretty well on the incoming tide but go very quiet over the top of the tide. They will bite on the outgoing tide but are definately not as enthusiastic. I would go chase something else over the last half of the run-out through to low tide.

After yesterdays success on the whiting I thought I would back it up again but this time in the boat. First stop was Rose Bay where I tried from the ramp back to the marina for nil. After that I popped over to Mosman to try another couple of sandy beaches again for nil. So I headed back to home turf (Iron Cove) where they were more than willing to play ball. I picked up another 10 whiting this time on a R2S Rover. Still no great size to them but great fun anyway. I'm thinking in about another months time and we should see some bigger ones up on the flats. David

Krause, if you are having trouble hooking them maybe your lure isnt tracking straight enough. You could try tying your lure on with a uni knot and using a heavier leader (maybe 12lb) to get it to run a bit straighter.

Last week I picked up a few new Strada stickbaits that I wanted to try on the local whiting population. The weather hasn’t been kind lately and put a stop to a few planned trips so I was pretty keen to get out. For a few hours yesterday afternoon everything in the universe lined up and I managed to sneak in a couple of hours fishing. I headed down to Iron Cove for the incoming tide over the flats. I managed about a dozen whiting – nothing of any fantastic size with the biggest around 30cm. Even though they’re small it’s awesome fun seeing schools of whiting chasing down the lure and smashing it. The two most successful lures for the day were the R2S Rover50 and the new Strada stickbait (which fills the hole in my tackle box since a kingfish stole my favourite Sugarpen). I'm hanging out for summer when we get some bigger ones down in IC. David