beakie

Congrats on a top day, hopefully they are not far off Port Stephens yet as Port Stepens has been dead for the last couple of weeks, waters good one day filthy the next, current is really pumping down south, washing the bait with it(hopefully it will back off shortly and bait and fish will start to stack up.. Fished yesty again, ocean is lifeless around the shelfline, headed wide into near 27 deg water , put a tag in a blue. Only heard of 2 other marlin from about 15 or so boats.

not too bad of a bite up off port, out of the 9 boats on the sked ,i am pretty sure they all come across a coupla stripes yesty.

I am sure you had fun.

98 Kg of fillets bet ya's enjoyed the cleaning fish part !!!

This is part of a email from a very respected charter boat operator,that clearly is not happy with the decision. The whole argument for the new points score system is based around giving the fish an even and sporting chance for their life. Letting the skill of the angler fight the fish. This will be achieved by giving MORE points to someone who "Tags & Releases" a fish on lighter line. So they can win a trophy!1. There is no benefit for the fish in this new system.2. Longer fighting times (enviro groups say "Torture Time") are not good for the fish. 3. How do you police the line class at the weigh station?? just because a boat uses heavier line doesn't necessarily mean they are fishing heavier drag. Show me an angler who can fish 80lb or 130lb as a true 80 or 130! yet alone fishing lighter line.Let’s give the fish a real go;4. If you want to give the fish a sporting chance then why not turn off your engines when you hook-up? Turn off your sonar, turn off your sounder, turn off your GPS, turn off your radio, radar, cell phone, live well, clickers/ratchets, electric teaser reels, sat phone, laptops, hard drives, marlin magnets and satellite sea surface temp printers. Stop paying crews to catch bait, rig baits, tease fish, tag /gaff fish for you. Make the angler do it. I know many anglers among you all that can do it any way! And yes it’s bloody great to see. But does it matter as I always thought of fishing as a team sport any way.5. Lets ban reverse gear.6. All boats with a tower are banned.7. All professional crews are to be blindfolded.8. All boats to be cut down to 8 meters.9. All tackle (which you will now need plenty of) will be sold to you by tournament sponsors and club officials.10. If these rules don’t suit then change them all until they suit you best. Move the posts.Welfare of the fish hey? Let the live baiting continue! This new system will in fact play directly into the hands of the professional/seasoned captains and crews. Yes that’s me and my peers.WHY then do you ask that I am so opposed to this new system??I am opposed as it places personal gain, greed above the welfare of the fish, the moral ethic of the sport and the membership base of ALL clubs. As usual it’s all about winning a piece of timber.

Just wondering what the general feeling is towards the new introduced T&R lineclass pointscore. I am against it as i feel it might bring with it some doubt towards the honesty of line class actually used(ie does the line have to be IGFA rated ? eg;fishing with 20 pd/10 kg braid,everyone knows that braid breaks way above what it is stated, also what about the health of the fish,after a long drawn out battle on light line i doubt the successful revival/relaese rate of a lot of fish thats if they revive at all. I feel that the health of the fish is being risked considerably with this new system !! Cheers guys

Gday guys, just wondering if anyone on the site has owned or owns an optimax and has had any issues with the motor changing revs whilst idleing or travelling ?. I have a 2002 200 optimax and lately it has been constantly changing its revs as it feels like. Optimax dealers have had it on the computer and tell us that there is no faults ! so basically dont worry about it !. Has anyone else had this problem ?, if so what was the verdict. Cheers.