greg123

It was definitely not a cuttlefish. It did not have a cuttlebone, and as I said the mantle was about 1.5 to 2m whereas the largest cuttlefish mantles get to 0.5m. Also I imagine the marine biologist onboard would be quick to correct us if it were a cuttlefish.

It was just on the shelf line. Not sure exactly where we were at the time. Yeah the flesh was about 4-5 inches thick.

Hi Raiders, I thought a few people might be interested in this. Last weekend during the Port Hacking GFC tournament fishing on Tantrum we came across a dead giant squid. It was missing its tenticles (A marine biologist onboard explained that sperm whales are often the cause of this). The mantle measured about 1.5-2m. We ended up dragging as much as we could on board although it was pretty fragile and broke up while it was pulled with gaffs etc. We stopped dragging lures for about an hour and used the squid as burley for sharks with no success. This is the best photo I could get as my hands were soon covered in squid slime. Sorry theres no other object with it to give it's size some context.l

If you have a look at Peter Pakulas website there's a section called 'between the lines'. It has chapter by chapter outlines of the common game fishing techniques, set ups, rigging, safety and so on. It's a good starting point for a beginner. Just keep in mind that many of the top boats use different techniques to those mentioned and will write some of them off completely. Anyway there's no bible on the sport and you'll just have to learn the different ways of doing things as you go then pick the ones you prefer for whatever reason.

Hey Burnsy I'm setting up a 19foot boat for game fishing and would be interested in how you've done it. Any chance you could post or send me a few pictures of yours? Cheers

Ok cheers Huey. Any chance you could give me the dimensions of the unit if you have them handy?

Does anyone have either one of these in a trailer boat? I just spoke to a mate who put the in hull version in his 43 mariner and says it sounds pretty poorly over 10knots. Might be the installation but I'd like to hear if anyone else has some experience with these. Cheers

Ok that's what I was wondering. Yes of course not drilling the hole is preferred. Sounds like the in hull is probably best Cheers Huey

Thanks, will do. My only issue with that is the temp sensor which is very important for the sort of fishing I'll be doing. I will probbaly keep a 200/83 transom mount i have currently running with an Elite 5 however I'm not sure how good the temp sensor is in those??

Hi, I just bought an HDS5 (Gen 1) and I'd like to upgrade the transducer as I'll be mainly fishing offshore towards the shelf. Does anyone have any suggestions/experience with this? I've done a quick search and found two that looked good: A bronze thru hull (B164) with temp sensor, and An in hull (M260) without temp sensor I've heard that furuno uses the same transducers as lowrance. Will the plugs fit perfectly? Any other suggestions are very welcome. Cheers

I recently did a sea survival course and asked our instructor the same question. Apparently they won't go off in 'light spray' but if you hit some bad weather and take a decent amount of spray then they can go off. From memory its just a bit of chalk like substance that dissolves and releases the firing pin. I ended up going with manual (I have a 20 footer and we fish out wide) because I wear it when we're outside and occasionally end up completely soaked on the ride home.

If your outlet is lower than the gunwale don't forget to put in a riser loop in the hose to the outlet to prevent reverse syphoning of water into your boat in case the water level is above the outlet. You can put the outlet just above the waterline if you want but you will need to use a riser loop and seacock. A lot of boats have it this way to prevent oily/dirty bilge water dripping down their fancy paint jobs etc but you might not need to do it this way with an alloy fishing boat. Also try to get an outlet that is not made from plastic. I know a lot of boats out there use them but after a bit of exposure to the elements they end up cracking near the rim and leaking. Get a stainless one as it won't react with your alloy hull too much especially after you use sika to seal it in.

Hi Raiders, Does anyone know of somewhere I can get a few parts re-chromed. I've got some gunwale rubber caps and handrails that need to be tidied up. I heard somewhere that the process isn't actually done in NSW anymore. Is this true? If it is, does anyone know the cost of this process? Cheers, Greg

Just filled about a hundred drill holes in my boat. If the diameter is any larger than about 5 or 6mm you will need to dremel the gelcoat away around the perimeter so you have an area about the size of a 20c coin indented from the surrounding surface. Cut a piece of fiberglass matt the same size and epoxy it in. You will be left with a slightly concaved surface. Then fill in this slight concave area with your preferred marine filler and block sand flat.

I'd say the bottom of the sump is about 10-15cm above the bottom of the hull judging by the gap between the bungs.