Berleyguts

Hey, nothing to hide here... I’m past being embarrassed! 😂

That was at the old house in “Schitney”. Up here in the Bay, the driveway slopes down to the side of the house, with the garage a side entry under the house but a straight run into the boatport. Well, the driveway curves too, which makes it interesting reversing the trailer down but at least it’s level up on the street.

I actually had that happen to me with a box trailer full of blue metal. It was hooked up to the car at the top of our steep driveway while I was doing some landscaping. My wife needed the car to go out, so I unhooked it to move it over to the side. It didn’t roll down the driveway but went through the garden and over the rocks to the side, coming to rest in the grass below just before the footpath, with me still hanging on to it. It was a much tougher job to barrow the gravel up to the backyard from there... and I could only do that after I’d cleaned up my skinned knees! My son’s prized Nissan Silvia S14 finished up in the same spot due to hand brake failure while he left it idling - it was a write off (rather him do it there than on the road though!). 2nd time for him... another of his cars sailed straight down the driveway, across the road and up the lawn into our neighbour’s garden bed. My lawn mower once did the same thing when I started it... it mowed a strip up the neighbour’s lawn - he had a great old laugh while he drank beer and watched me finish mowing his lawn! 😂 Like father, like son, I guess... the handbrake on my 1975 VW Kombi failed once... it rolled down the driveway on an angle, backwards over the letter box, then did a little pirouette, before rolling back, nose first over the downed letterbox and coming to rest in the garden, looking like a naughty puppy!

Oh... duh! It took me a few views to realise it was running in reverse! 😞 😳

I respectfully disagree with Noel. I use a fuel stabiliser in my boat fuel and in all my power garden equipment because these aren’t used regularly, unlike a car, so the fuel can become stale and lose octane over time. In my training at work, I was told that fuel starts to drop octane after 2-3 weeks. Stabiliser also helps fight moisture issues. It is claimed that stabiliser can prolong the life of fuel up to 3 years. Of course, it must be added to fresh fuel at the time of filling the tank. It will not “fix” old fuel! I use Stabil. My outboard always starts first time, as do all my old power garden tools. Even if that’s not really due to the Stabil, I feel it is a small price to pay for the piece of mind it gives me. It’s a long swim home from Broughton Island or the FAD!

Great effort on light gear, especially land based! From a boat, you have a bit of a chance because you can get away from the structure... but land based, it’s a real battle! Well done! I don’t know about the “it hit the ground running” narrative, though! 😂

If you wanted a bit of traction, you could add some “tread” by wrapping the PVC tube with rubber matting, like fatigue mat or ute mat or similar. Fix it on with some glue or rivets/screws. Just a thought.

Interesting discussion. The snapper fishery varies around the nation though. Over in WA, the minimum length is 50cm and the bag limit is 2. The charter skipper I fished with over there, said that they just don’t have the expansive estuary systems we have in NSW that help a good fishery. Makes sense. I don’t know much about the fishery in SA but I suspect they also don’t have as many estuaries as NSW. Perhaps the snapper get targeted heavily due to limited other options down there and are now feeling the impact? In NSW, I believe the RFAC has requested a 35cm minimum length for snapper (as they apparently reach sexual maturity at 32-33cm, so should allow them to breed at least once) but this has repeatedly been knocked on the head by the pros and the restaurant industry because, get this, “30cm is the ideal size for a plate”! (I have to admit, I do like a crispy fried whole snapper at one or two local restaurants here in Port Stephens... 😋)! However, I, for one, would be happy with a 35cm (or even 38 or 40) minimum length and maybe a smaller bag limit, say 5, and possibly a slot limit with, say only 1 or 2 allowed over the maximum size (to be determined), accompanied by a good education programme on how to release fish properly for the maximum survival rate. If fisheries are managed properly in this way, with science behind it, perhaps this can eliminate the need for total bans and/or closures in the future. The cracker snapper season being had at Port Stephens (and in other areas) at the moment, is fantastic but maybe, if everyone enjoying cracker sessions regularly kept and killed their bag limit (10) of big snapper, one day down track, we may find ourselves lamenting the lack of snapper, too. Just my two cents worth.

Further to Taz’s reply, if you take the time to build your own rods occasionally, you’ll learn how to find the backbone of the blank and align the reel seat and guides correctly etc. Back in the 70s and 80s, I never bought a complete rod - I built them all myself after selecting the blanks from a quality tackle store. That way, I got what I wanted in blank, guide, grips, reel seat and fancy bindings. These days, off the shelf rods have come a long way, so I don’t bother building my own but what I learnt back then helps me choose off the shelf.

Good stuff! Glad to see they’re still around. I’ve still got 3 1/2 weeks off work after my op. Hope my transducer arrives soon, so I can get out there!

It is currently closed season (1 August - 30 September) for finfish in a section of Fraser Island to allow tailor to spawn. However, I’ve read in discussions on that announcement that the tailor have not really showed up in great numbers yet. The theory is that water is still too warm. That may be one reason why you’re not finding the tailor and salmon in the usual numbers where you are. There are certainly reports that longtail tuna are still around here near Port Stephens, so there might be some basis in the theory.

Lol. I’ve done similar. Launching the boat, I did unhook the chain but I just couldn’t push the boat off the rollers. It had been a while between trips, so I thought the rollers must have seized up. I drove back up the ramp a bit and reversed back down quickly and hit the brakes hard... it still wouldn’t budge... so I put the trailer in deeper and tried to reverse the boat off. I churned up a lot of water but still couldn’t budge it! I pulled it out again, confused. Then I realised the tie downs were still on! 😳 Then there was the time I launched solo very early one cold winter morning at Parsley Bay. I think this was one of my first trips in my new boat. I pushed the boat off the trailer... it slid off quickly and easily. Too easily! I failed to grab the bow rope and the boat just careered out into the middle of the bay! I stripped down to my undies and swam out to the boat. This boat (current boat) is bigger than my old tinny and I struggled to climb in, so I swam to the bow and I just managed to grab a bit of the bow rope that was hanging down. I swam it back in by the rope. Took a while and I was exhausted! After I tied it off, parked the car and trailer, dried off and got dressed again, I then remembered I had a step at the stern that I could have climbed on to!

Silly things I’ve done when tired (or drunk etc.): * Put 600ml of oil into the petrol tank of my new 4 stroke mower. * Rubbed toothpaste into sore muscles after soccer. * Put Dencorub on my toothbrush. * Proposed to my (now) wife. Oh, hang on! One more... posted a list of silly things I’ve done in a public forum! 😂

Good on you, then! 😎 I enjoy fishing with my Shimano baitcaster and the blank I built the rod up on is a pleasure to use. I reckon I’d struggle casting unweighted baits for bream from shore though!

Why do you want to use an overhead reel for bream? IMO you’d be better off with a threadline or an Alvey. Off the rocks, you’re best using unweighted or very lightly weighted baits - they’ll be in close to the rocks under the wash. Overhead reels need a bit of weight to overcome the inertia when casting and you’ll definitely need the weight to get a decent cast out in the surf. Just my opinion.