Greetings

[demarc]

Heya,

I'm Julian. I've been into fishing for 3 years and into boating for nearly 2 years now. I started fishing to escape the stress from work. I've now become addicted.

My first boat was a run down 4mtr Clark center console. I spent 6 months restoring the boat and rebuilding a 1979 Evinrude 25HP. Then the addiction hit! I had this boat for nearly 1 year after completion doing many trips to my local haunt Jacobs Well and occasionally to Breaky creek and the Brisbane river. In Jan I sold that boat and purchased a 4.75 Stacer 1980 r unabout with an old 1980 60HP Johnson, I then repowered to a 60HP Mercury Bigfoot. Best investment I have made so far, the boat goes well but it slow to plane and rocks side to side when on the plane.

Recently I have just cleaned all the "rust" I discovered of the boat and touched up all the affected areas. This was a one weekend job. Soon I'll put the coating(durlac?) on all the stainless steel bolts to slow down any new "rust".

I'm not a real good angler yet, coming home with 3 or 4 flathead usually and sometimes a Threafin or Talior. Recently as of two weeks ago I started exploring Moreton Bay. I was on the east side of Mud two weeks ago and had a great time. I wanted to explore four beacons but there was 15knot winds. In the hour past the high I was pulling in Squire every 5 or so minutes catching around 20. Most were in the 25 - 30cm range(which I released). We also got a parrot fish(which we didn't know what it was at first, so released) which was 40cms.

I signed up on this site to get active in the community in hope of learning more. I'm interested in soft plastics, but so far have not caught any fish on them. I'm also interested in the art of crossing bars and heading offshore.

Happy fishing!

[51MPL]

Hello and welcome, you've definitely joined the right sight!

Keep an eye out on the forum for deckie spots or to follow people out if your interested in going offshore (safety in numbers). There are a lot of very skilled skippers on here who would be more than willing to help teach you a thing or two about bar crossings but if you really want to get into it - i would recommend doing the bar crossing course provided by Bill Corten (that name could be completely wrong so feel free to correct me anyone).

On another note - good to hear that you are starting to explore Moreton Bay and the art of soft plastics. Until the past few months I mainly only fished the river and estuaries/canals in my boat and with the help of some friends have moved into the bay (on good days) and am loving it.

Also, some plastics which always get results are Damiki armour shads. Get some 3 and 5 inch varieties in Skin Blue, Oxblood and the Moebi colours - match this with some jigheads such as 1/16 - 1/24 - 1/6 or 1/8th for the deeper holes around mud. Drop them down and hang on!

Any other questions on working soft plastics ask away, youtube is also a great resource with lots of videos teaching you how to work them. Be careful though, once you get the lure bug it's hard to stop buying them!

[jeff f]

try trimming your motor up highter when running to lift your nose up higher, it should stop the side to side pull as that is usually caused by the chines biting in to the waters surface.

welcome to afo by the way.

if you want to become involved in the community try to make it to the camping/fishing/drinking weekend at blaksleys reserve on straddie in a couple

of weeks

[demarc]

thanks alot for this information!!

I will hunt for the Damiki armour shads.

[demarc]

Thanks! Next weekend when I'm out I'll try to play with the trim as you suggest.

From reading, it seems the trip starts on a Friday. I'll book the day off, and come and meet everyone.

I'll definitely bring my boat, though I'll need a deckie as I'll be coming by myself.

[jeff f]

find this thread "AFO wanderers camping at Blakesleys nth Stradie july 20/22" in the camping category

for all the details & thats where you'll get a decky, just got to offer a spot

[Do$tylz]

welcome to the site demarc. Plenty to read and plenty of socials to attend and meet like minded (read - crazy) fishos

[demarc]

try trimming your motor up highter when running to lift your nose up higher, it should stop the side to side pull as that is usually caused by the chines biting in to the waters surface.

welcome to afo by the way.

if you want to become involved in the community try to make it to the camping/fishing/drinking weekend at blaksleys reserve on straddie in a couple

of weeks

I ended up trimming the motor all the way down. My hole shot is now done in 3 secs, and I've gotten another 10knts from the engine. My speed is now 30knts.

The profile of the boat has changed dramatically after doing this basic setting.