YZ250

Hi Isaac, yes that's a fave spot of mine too. I normally get a few there. We got a really nice mixed bag last time. Im yet to get onto one of the giant flurries though and absolutely struggle on the artificial reef there. Do you ever pull anything off the reef balls?

Hi Fil, Yes no idea. There was lots of fry around, and huge schools of silver trevally in the area too so something was obviously going on. I've never had a session like that on flathead. The seafloor must have been carpeted with them. I have heard that about scorpion fish too, and have always been keen to try one, but I lost my nerve when I saw this lump.

Hi Neil - yes I was impressed with the creek. Good depth in the channel, and lots of mangroves feeding in. We had to go home so i only fished there for a small amount of time but a full afternoon with the right tides would be epic.

Headed to Jervis Bay on the weekend for a long overdue weekend away with my Partner. Obviously I don’t need to remind anyone living in these parts that the weather has been atrocious seemingly forever so when we booked it was always going to be a lottery as to what we got, and overall I think we were reasonably lucky. The wind was the main issue as it was blowing 15 to 20 knots or worse and that is a bit much for my liking. The principal concern however for fellow Canberrans is the state of Nerriga road – which since I last travelled it has deteriorated into a seemingly contiguous stream of potholes large enough to swallow a small car. I am not joking when I say I have never in my life travelled a bitumen road that is as bad as this. Anyway after too much fun at the Husky Pub on Friday night it was a slow start on Saturday. My partner wandered off for coffee and bacon and egg rolls and I took the opportunity to have a few casts at the waters edge near our accom. I couldn’t believe my luck when the 1st cast resulted in a beautiful dusky flathead of about 36cms. I put this one back and then nearly fell over when the second cast, in the same spot, pulled one in at 40cms. And so it went – the partner came back with Coffee at some point and I got her a rod and between us we landed 9 Flathead and lost several more. The smallest was the first at 36, the majority were 39 to 42cms and two of them were over 50. We kept 4 of the 40cms ones for dinner and sent the rest back. The main point of interest was how aggressive these fish were – If you’ve fished JB much you’ll know the water is gin clear, and especially so in winter. This weekend was no exception. As such, I could see to the bottom very easily and this was a wonderful insight into the world of flathead fishing. I was able to watch my lure hopping around, and watch the flathead follow it – and then strike. Mainly the fish would take the lure as it lay on the ground, however on other occasions they would leap up and belt it as I hopped it up. On one occasion, I hooked a fish 3 times before I got him in. Each time he managed to spit the hooks, I would pause, twitch the lure, and he would hit it again. This was one of the 50cm ones that I let swim away. The bite didn’t stop – we left it raging as we wanted to put the boat in. So we did that and were soon on the water in the bay. I tried to get out and chase some Kingfish but yet again I was thwarted at the heads when the size of the sea proved no match for my confidence in a small boat. So I spent an hour or so drifting for fish and my partner got an enormous red scorpion fish that looked like it has escaped from the pits of hell. I got a small pinky which remined me just how hard Snapper fight when compared to the old flathead but that was about it before the wind had turned the bay into a sea of whitecaps and I decided to abort. The boat, a Haines Hunter V16R, performed really well as I punched directly into the wind and waves. I was holding between 35 and 38kmh comfortably and it was good for my confidence in the boat. Out of curiosity, when we returned to our accom I went back to the flathead hole from earlier and started throwing some vibes around on dark to try tempt some trevally I had seen that morning (which had absolutely zero interest in my soft plastic). I got a flathead first cast, then got smoked by a trevally, and then my partner joined and we picked up another couple of flathead which all went back. I dropped another Trevally and then called it a day to go and have dinner – this little session was maybe 30 mins and like before, I left the fish on the bite – they were certainly in the mood. The next day, the wind was worse, but we went out again. I tried (and failed) to catch squid which annoyed me because I really wanted one for dinner! We got blown off and went back in as some brave soul in a Tinny with a Dog went past us and out to Bowen Island… must have bigger stones than me that’s for sure! We finished the day near Woolamia boat ramp where we picked up some small bream and trevally on the falling tide. My god those trevally go hard for their size – such a good fight in them. That was it and we bounced our way back to Canberra, relieved to make it with the trailer still in one piece although minus the spare wheel which rattled off somewhere on the way. I love Jervis Bay – cant wait to go back , and hopefully get through those heads!

AREA: Near South Coast LOCATION: Currambene Creek providing access to Huskisson and then Jervis Bay CONDITION OF RAMP/ACCESS: Excellent condition with major upgrades in 2019. The Ramp is two lanes wide and drops down into about 1.8m of water at high tide. Launching my 5m runabout was a breeze and could be easily done with trim fully down. The ramp has two generous wrap around pontoons. PARKING/FACILITIES: There is parking onsite for approximately 20 trailers, which would be the drawback of this ramp as I imagine in peak season it would be competitive to get a park. There are toilets and fish cleaning tables available on site. The ramp is a roll on/roll off design with 3 large preparation bays on approach. Each could accommodate up to two boats depending on the size. The generations pontoons are great for solo launchers like myself as there is ample room to launch and tie off without holding up others. I didn't have any issues with current moving the boat around, however the 20 knot norwester that was blowing when I retrieved made the left pontoon the better choice. Just before I retrieved someone had hauled out an enormous boat (pictured) so presumably this ramp is going to be suitable for virtually any trailer boat. Overall this is an excellent ramp.

Thanks everyone - i will definitely report back when I have made the decision. I wont be rushing in so that will take some time. My visit to the Merc dealer was good - he reckoned 115hp Pro XS is the go. He was worried 90hp would leave the boat underpowered.

Thanks for this link - that was a really great read.

Thanks gents. We’ve got a merc dealer locally, prob others too. I like the idea of quiet idling for trout trolling

Thanks Noel. I am happy with the 90hp two stroke on the back, but am leaning towards 115 in a four. There doesn't seem to be much weight penalty in the 115s compared to the 90s, but I have noticed they jump a lot when you go up to the 130 bracket. My boat is rated for up to 140 hp apparently.... however in 1989 a 140hp two stroke only weighed about 160 kilos.

Hi All, I have an 1989 Haines Hunter V16R with a 1990 90hp mercury two stroke on the back. The motor goes hard when its warm, but is a pain when its cold (very stally). I dont mind it so much when im driving but it makes it hard for my partner to drive at the boat ramp when we are launching. In addition, the kids hate the gentle aroma of billowing two stroke smoke whilst we are out and about so I have decided to repower. I am looking at 90hp or 115hp motors I think. Any more than that will be a weight concern with my low (20inch) transom. Firstly, I am reluctant (but not 100% opposed) to buying brand new as the cost of new outboards is frankly alarming. Do they ever go on sale? I have only looked at online list pricing - is there any wriggle room in this? I just balk at having to pay the same price as a brand new small car for just an engine. Secondly, if I go the second hand route - what is considered low, medium and high hours for an outboard? I have seen some for sale with 300 hours, and others for sale with 2000 hours on them. How long will one get out of an outboard? Lastly, why does everyone have such strong views on brand A vs brand B? I have done a bit of reading and find such polarising views on virtually every brand that it makes it hard to determine if there is any truth in it or not. Thanks in advance, i am new to this game so grateful for any help. If its of assistance my boat is used in equal measures in the snowy lakes, local lakes (canberra) and south coast estuaries. Another key reason for upgrading is to have more confidence in the motor when heading offshore (havent done that yet). Brendan

Hi Bluefin, I chose this one after scouting around for a while and after coming off a Lowrance Hook2 7X. The 7X returned great images but it was a but clunky to navigate at sea, especially entering and naming waypoints. My sealegs can be average at times, and farting around with my head buried in the sounder is a sure fire way to make myself crook. So I chose this one because of its touch screen abilities, and they are sensational. Its very easy to use. My brother in law helped me install it - we put it essentially where the old sounder on my boat was and as mentioned it will hold bottom at speed which is great. Im keen to get out into some deeper water to see what the sounder can do there.

Thanks Pickles, I haven't had them as sushi yet - i cooked this in a yellow curry. I will definitely give it a try though! I have seen vids of people getting into the GTs...it looks like a lot of fun and is definitely on the bucket list.

After a busy festive season with far too little fishing I was itching to get out on the water for a go, and in particular to test out my new sounder. It’s a Garmin Echomap 95SV that I recently installed on a new to me Haines Hunter V16R. I am still setting up the boat and learning its capabilities so this trip was as much about that as it was about fishing. When a last minute opportunity came up to hit Wagonga on Australia day I leapt at the opportunity. I started by dropping into Tuross on the way down there. This was on the 25th and it was blowing a gale. Coila was an absolute write off – with cresting white caps and not a boat in sight. Tuross however was sheltered from the brutal nor-easter and had plenty of boats out so I put in for a couple of hours in the late arvo. It was fairly quiet and my baits weren’t getting much interest in the chosen spot near the boat ramp so I decided to pull in and move elsewhere. As I retrieved the second bait I noticed two HUGE whiting following it in, which got the heart racing. I downsized a rig and sent it back out and put a sugapen on my casting rod. I persisted for a while with the sugapen but the wind was too strong to use it effectively so I gave up. I eventually caught a small bream on the baits which I released and then carried on to Narooma. The 26th was much better – overcast and not a breath of wind. I started fishing Wagonga inlet around mid-morning which was high tide. My partner was with me and she really wanted to get in the water so we motored out to a sand bar and anchored up. We used some berley to coax the fish in and this worked very quickly. Soon my partner was onto the bream and she landed four or five mostly small fish, including one keeper. I was tossing lures looking for flathead but didn’t get a touch. Eventually some rain came in which sent all the boats around us scurrying for the ramps but I wanted to fish on so we weighed anchor and moved over to a bank to keep looking for the flatties. I started fishing the new spot with a smaller 3 inch paddle tail that I had been using on the sandbar, but I wasn’t getting anywhere. So I switched to a reconstituted 7 inch jerk shad in nuclear chicken (refer my other post in the general chat forum). Before long it got belted by something on the drop. I am only new to fishing soft plastics but had read many times that the bites often come on the drop, and this was exactly what happened here. I had retrieved about half a cast when something grabbed the lure and had a good go at it. I pulled in a now 3 or 4 inch jerk shad which I replaced with a freshy, but couldn’t get any further bites. We moved on to some oyster leases and my partner was immediately onto the bream again. She got heaps, essentially getting either a bite or a fish a cast, including a better one that was slightly under 30cms. I was persisting with lures – this time using a Vibe to try and catch the bream that were obviously around. Finally – breakthrough. I felt the hit and cried out with joy, however the cries turned to dismay when I pulled the fish up and realised it was the world’s smallest snapper! It was past lunch now and the tide was rushing out. We decided to hit up one more spot before making the trek home and pushed up the estuary a bit. We had this arm all to ourselves but it was a bit quiet. The baits (servo prawns) weren’t really going off so I pushed on with the vibe. Eventually, my persistence was rewarded and I hooked up virtually immediately on a full cast. The fish hit the lure as I was winding over the bail arm and it put up a hell of a fight. I had no idea what it was, but my partner could tell it was a better fish as my rod was doubled over and the fish was peeling off line. I nearly lost it twice at the boat when it bolted for cover until finally I got it up – it was a silver trevally of 38cms and it went into the Esky for dinner. I thought it would be bigger to be honest – I can’t believe how hard that fish went. In any case it was absolutely delicious in a yellow curry I made the following night. Overall it was a bloody good day on the water. The sounder is amazing – and was holding bottom at 30 knots. I was getting good returns, including some enormous bait balls which were following in my Double Clutch in Tuross. We are learning more about the boat and what modifications/additions we need to do to it which will happen over the coming months. I cant wait to get out there again!

About 4 months ago I went fishing in Sussex inlet and was using a Berkley Gulp 7 inch shad in nuclear chicken colour. I wasn't having much luck with it so I swapped it out for something else and promptly forgot about it. Fast forward four months and I am getting ready for a trip to Narooma when I found this shrivelled, dry lump in tacklebox. It was the shad and it was as hard as iron and a very dark brown colour. I was going to bin it but it had a brand new TT jig head in it that I wanted to retrieve. The problem was the thing was too dry and shrivelled to get it out. So I decided to soak it in water to loosen it up. Over the course of the next three days I witnessed a transformation of biblical proportions. The lure was reborn, like a phoenix rising from the ashes. It slowly and consistently grew in size, became supple and incredibly it took on all its glorious nuclear colours again. I compared it to a brand new lure from the packet and you could not tell the difference - they were identical in all aspects. I decided to roadtest the reborn lure in the backwaters of Wagonga where it elicited a massive hit from something (presumably a flatty) and was bitten clean in half. I wouldn't have believed it if I didn't experience this whole thing first hand. Ill definitely employ the same technique next time I dry out a gulp! YZ

Whats everyones 2021 fishing ambition?? Mine is to get the skills and confidence up to use my new (to me) boat for bottom bashing sessions precisely like the one you described here! Ive spent many years honing my trout fishing game but I really want to put some effort into the salt in 2021.