gummybusta

why not?

they have the nickname of 'A Boot Fish' so when the old timers have called then a Boot you know it isn't a good thing

cast ahead of your drift and fish the lure as you drift towards it in many cases the snapper will hit it as the lure is sinking

the goverment has decided that Hammerheads need protection http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/432935/20120524-PROTECTION-FOR-HAMMERHEAD-SHARKS.pdf I know a few around here have encounters with these sharks so please be warned

well for many of us up here on the mid north coast NSW the flooding mean we may as well fish right out our front doors nah to be honest the rivers are kapoot at the moment so only place to fish is the deeper reefs outside in about 40m (20fath) as anything more shollow also has too much fresh on it and the fish are sulking

hope you have got them marks down shark?

even looks rubbish in the pic behind the boat well done in that slop and a fish most deserved for just fishing in that

yeh agree with all that start nice and slow untill both you as a driver and the rider are feeling comftable one main thing i will add however and this is more to do with tubeing than most other towing and that is to watch the turns and leave yourself PLENTY of room to allow the tube to whip out i have seen people getting whiped into trees and although thankfuly i have never seen it there are DEATHS each year from exacly this with people not giving themself another room for the whip and putting their loved ones into moored boats, pontoons, trees, riverbanks,and other such obsticals the tube when you turn will whip out from the wake and momentum will force the tube out wider than you are turning

i often wonder the same there have been cases up north with the big barra where one said of the camp is saying that keeping the bigger ones can do the fish stocks better as the big girls eat more fingling than they produce and also reduce the amount of fish stock being able to be kept no to add to that i often wonder with the big fish like this flathead at if released how much longer would it really be around for anyway as no dout that is about as big as these fish grow so one would have to think it must be near the end of it's life anyway food for thought i know i can not answer some of these questions but it does get your thinking about when big is too big and where do all the big fish go to die

5 Mile 32.04.239s 152.39.711e 7 Mile 32.16.842s 152.36.233e corner 32.16.082s 152.34.591e pinnacle 32.13.771s 152.36.001e lats 32.12.602s 152.34.201e tanks 32.10.749s 152.31.311e barge 32.09.379s 152.32.279e blackhead 32.05.891s 152.33.239e dj's (trag) 32.06.272s 152.38.021e blackhead wide 32.05.202s 152.37.802e schnapper rock 32.01.749s 152.36.050e hope some of these help you get into a few reef fish

have a VHF and i use it even thou i'm not ticketed to use it been pulled up by my loacal guys a few time mainly for a bit of a chat and never once have they said anything even my loacal marine rescue unit have told me they much prefure me to have one and use it then not to have one and need to use it one day they will run a course and i will get it but most around here are still running a 27mhz and not much of a demand for the unit to run a course for the VHF yet answer the question thou yes you can have one and monitor however technicaly you need to be ticketed to use one ohh and they changed it from calling it a licence about ten years ago and now it is classed as a ticket

love things like this mainly because fish know not to either be west or east of the bridge nor can they swim each side no dout some over paided desk jockey got paid alot of money from the goverment to tell them this also almost all fish move up and down the rivers streams harbours and coast lines so who is able to tell if a fish caught at the habour mouth is any better than one west of the bridge sorry can't help you with your question but i guess the best thing to do is what geekstyle wrote and if it looks ok smells ok and came from a clean enoght place maybe give it a go as along as we are not talking eating them each and every day

as i'm not from down sydney and it has been a few years since i last spent any time down there i can't say if there is any point or not i know up here on the mid north ocast i can reach my marine rescue unit from my home so i can test my radios it is that good i even get them on the old handheald i have also (good for haveing on listening to the chatter from other boats)

you hit the nail on the head there troy you make your own and have not them let go on you yet i would bet that your wind-ons are made a hell lot better than the average joe buys off the shelf and it are these ones that have let people down and why many don't use the wind-ons makeing your self is the only way i will go for a wind-on now days

depends on the airal some will not need the earthing and souds like yours may not if it has the rubber backing and may be doing the earthing via the radio so check the plug to make sure the sheilding is still in good order and no corosion is happining

may hate to read what i have to say but champ bugger the 27mhz radio off and go for a VHF unit less interfearance and longer range but yeh try and keep all high power leads away from your airal cable as it can interfear with it also check your grounding on your airal so require it to be ground whist other are already ground that can make a world of a diffrance also

yeh need to say i'm a fan of the combos they save space and do everything the seprate units do in one most of the time your in one or the other pages so don't do alot of split screen but as greg said get the biggest you can so when you do run in split it is fine as for 1k being top end nah you need to jump up a fair bit from that try over 3k for the higher end stuff and the stuff that the comercial fleet run is more like 10k 1k will get a decent unit but and the one in my little tinny is a lowrance mark5 combo i brought OS online and that was around $500

2meters of double with a big clip on the end useing a catspaw and then a long leader with the lure was useing wind-ons but had one too many let go on us and when on a fish it is not a good feeling to see gear fail if i could be bothered to do my own wind-ons maybe i could trust them again but store bought ones you just never know no matter the brand

horses for courses champ in some cases the super light to even unweighted placcies are the go for bream yet other time a 1/8th jig is just the right one for them but this is more in the faster moveing water or deep water sections where the lighter jigs just wouldn't get down to wher the fish are i have caught plenty of bream on a 1/8th jig head and the 1/8th is my go to jig for the flathead

woke up at 5am this morning thanks to someone setting an alarm on his mums phone (lucky for me considering i normaly have to get up at 03:30 in the morning for work it still counts as a sleep in) looking out the window i noticed a lack of wind that was predicted so i prompley woke the little #### to get ready and go fishing (say lets go fishing and they wake up first go yet wake them for school and it takes forever i'm told)with the prediction for some 20 knost from the north blowing all day i only expected to get a hour or two in at the best so after a little scramble we ended up on the water by 05:45 we headed straght to one of our fave spots on the river and had a quick little play atfirst trying some jettys for a bream or two but they were not that intrested and couldn't even get a reaction strike on the surface even with them slurping prawns still the flathead were sure up to it and we found endless smaller modles the real fun started once we moved into the floating leases with my mates thrid cast comeing up tight and takeing line this had us thinking a very nice flathead but we were both very pleased when a nice big silver flash came up and on the end was a nice little 45cm jewie and his first on a soft plastic we contunied and found even more flatties and even got one or two over 40cm to put in the livewell after a couple of hours and not beliveing how lucky we were with the weather we made a move into the oyster leases proper to find a score more of flatties rangeing from about 15cm to 38cm (we don't like to keep them unless they are over 40cm) wasn't till about 10:30 that we had some really good luck first with a nice healthy 51cm flattie falling to the plastics and then a few cast later another jewie this time 50cm inside the leases and only on 4lb gear some tense times as i could feel the fish running under the leases and rubbing the leader on some of the upright poles but somehow we managed to get it back into the small gap between the leases and managed to land it even thou the leader was shot and shreaded 11:00 came and we made our last move back upstream as we had to get home by 12:30 to have a look at a boat the flatties came think and fast at this location too with fish after fish on each cast and double hook ups toboot ended up releaseing countless flathead to 49cm and keeped only 4 flathead from 41-51cm and the 50cm jewie

+2 yeh like most my slot size limmit is 40cm-60cm on most days if fishing is a bit tough i will keep them at leagle size but that doesn't happine that much may keep one at 65cm but anything over that gets a bit big to fillet alot of meat on a 55cm flattie

good stuff boys that is a top bit of water there for them kings even better that it doesn't get hit all that hard as for going on the troll for the marlin just a month or so ago we had a double on stripe marlin that one took a knife jig and one took a king as it was brought up right at that spot so no need to go too far intresting you said you left the kings balled upp as that was what they were doing right when the marlin turned up so we were thinking the marlin were down there chaseing a few of them up i must get out there again in the next week or two as there is nothing like the spot anywhere else i have found

maybe fill us in a bit more on your livewell set up most of the ones i have used or had much to deal with have the pump under floor with a hose and sprayer in the livewell with the sprayer they normaly have a tap on them so is it possable it has been turned off so no water is getting thru (if done the pump will still run just no water will come in) also have you tryed to squrit a hose up the pick up to disloge any blockage or even from the well side doing it backwards all guesses but as i don't know how your livewell is set up

brought a Elite5 coulor combo from a dealer in singapore about a year or less ago now and it is a top little unit i do use mine in pretty shallow waters with say nothing over about 40meter at the most and the majority in the shallower rivers so less than 10meter the screen is pretty clear and if your used to lowrance sounder and know how to read them this unit is as good as any other as for the overseas and no loacal warrinty well the dealer i used carrys the warrinty on a ship back term so if you have a dram you need to ship it back to them to get it fixed or replaced but considering i saved over $300 on just this one unit i'm sure i still will be in frount

three rods and reels simple there is the frount door don't let it hit you on the bum on your way out love! some things are more importaint than relationships