dandas

Nice one mate. I wish I could have joined you. I almost made it out but had a few important things on. Great fish.

That sucks !!

You know they probably would have followed it. May be worth taking a look.....

Is that photo a bit distorted? Or are those flatties almost as long as the Jew? Crazy catch !! Love it !!

Hi Bruce. Nope, the only thing I saw was the single FAD - Botany wide.

very very nice.

Just to make sure I was not imagining things the otherday I went out today to maqke sure there wqas actually a FAD and not just a big floating yellow piece of cheese in the middle of the ocean. The FAD was still there - Phew. I was with a mate this time and not just on my own. The conversation always gets more interesting on those days. I made sure we were at the FAD by daylight this time and we arrived to see Dollys jumping around all over the place. We trolled past the FAD and had a quadrouple hook up. Good fun with 2 guys. Only one keeper, the rest were too small. Turned around and trolled past again for a triple hook up. All too small. Turned around again fore a single hook up which we kept getting every time we went passed for the next half hour or so. Everything was undersie by about 5 cm. A couple more boats had arrived by this stage so I decidsed to head to the Port Hacking FAD. Well I hadn't read the posts here so after a 40 minute bumpy ride in choppy water I discovered the FAD was gone. We turned around and went back to the far FAD off Botany and hooked up a few stripeys on the way. We used them for bait when we got to the FAD and managed to pull in about 20 more dollys but only 2 were legal. There were a few boats that came and went but then another boat arrived who really pissed me off. We were watching them pulling in dolly after dolly and they werew keeping them all. I could see how small they were and I knew from all the ones we caught there weren't many big ones round. They just kept pulling them in and keeping them. I wanted to say something but the guy I was with made a good point that you just never know when you will see them again and what they will do. Headed back in and stropped off at the peak for a quick look but didn't get anything so made our way back to the boat ramp. As usual, I wouold rather be catching undersize fish and throwing them back than floating around not catching anything at all. Dan

I woke up Saturday morning pretty early and rather than roll over and go to sleep I figured I would put the cruise craft on the water and head out to the fads. I launched from Sylvania waters and headed straight over to get a few livies which didn't take too long then headed straight out too the far fads. Nothing too much out there. Trolled over a couple of schools of Bonito and kept 4 for bait then did a few drifts past the fads. Managed a few rat kings but nothing worth keeping. The wind picked up the water started getting choppy so I headed back to the bay to try and catch a few plate fish. I got a bit bored after half an hour an was really hungry so I headed up to Brads Boat Shet at Como for a Hamburger. Once I got it I drove out to the middle of the river to eat and threw a line in for a laugh. While I was eating, my rod started bouncing around and a nice 30cm flounder decided it was lunch time as well. After I finished I thought I would just keep drifting and start playing around with soft plastics. Managed a couple of undersize whiting then the clouds and rain came so I headed back to the ramp and pulled the boat in. Nothing to exciting but any day catching fish is better than no fish..... Dan

How awesome are whale sharks !! When I did my scuba diving certificate in Thailand I swam with a 16 meter whale shark on my very first time under water with the instructor. There was an experienced diver there that had moved there just to see a whale shark. He was there 3 years at that point and when I was swimming with the whale shark he was sitting on the boat with a headache... Needless to say he flipped out and wasn't too happy. He ended up going in straight away and the whale shark was still there. Phew !

You went for a second dip to get your hat? Mad man !! I love it !! Dan

Nice fish and even better that you have a GF that is happy to go fishing. I would love my girl to come with me but she gets sea sick. She is so bad that sometimes I think she gets sea sick in the bath.....

Very Nice !!

OK, my vote is in !

LOL, that's gold !!

ow, what a beast. The bay can produce somew good fish sometimes.....

Hi Guys. I am heading up to Nelson Bay this weekend and am thinking of taking the Cruzy up. I haven't been there before so was wondering 1) Is there a proper boat ramp? Someone told me there is only a beach boat ramp where you drive across the sand. 2) Where I will catch any YFT or Kingies at the moment. 3) Wether it is worth the hassle of dragging a two ton boat all the way up from Sydney this time of year. I will probably only get a day and a half of fishing but will do it if it is worthwhile. Thanks in advance !! Dan

Well I guess I should add my two cents worth..... I passed with 86% I had to get out of the exam asap so finished in about 45 minutes and left without checking my answers. I thought I had a good shot of failing really. Luckily I made it !! Yay !!! Thanks guys for organising the course. One more piece of plastic up my sleeve now :-)

Was it on?

That really really sucks man. Just think of all the markers you will have to manually enter again.. Plus there is the cost of course. :-(

Any sight of that video yet? I am hanging to see it !

First hand experience. You can't beat that !!

I will be there with bells on !!!

Well that is good. We wont have to start fighting over who gets the car first :-)

Ah, if only. But you can keep your ML. I would take the Lexus LX570 ANYDAY. My mate who is a sales manager at Sydney City Lexus told me about how they rocked up to a 4wd park to test the new LX in a bunch of business suits. The place was full of hard core 4wd enthusiasts with jacked up nissan patrols and toyota land cruisers who laughed at these guys in the new Lexus wearing suits. The enthusiasts warned the Lexus staff not to try and get up the big boulder hill in the LX because they wouldn't make it. The staff laughed and bet them $50 they could do it in reverse. They did. Each wheel has sensors monitoring the traction and when you push a button the car just drives up hills on it's own. You just steer. It accelerates and brakes and adjusts traction all based on the sensors on each wheel. So each wheel is completely independent. Totally awesome.

Well it is up at the mechanic now. All arrows point to a short with some wires behind the throttle. They installed a new steering cable when they serviced it recently so my guess is they bumped some wires feeding it through. They will be getting it done tomorrow (hopefully). Thanks Arman. As Mike pointed out at 6.5KG the fish was just an embryo. Probably a bit embarrassing to put it up anyway