queensland Katfish. Good name for my first boat?

[Kat]

Hi All.  Long time no reports.  Been fishing quite a bit but also some part time work keeping me busy.  Combine my addiction and work and there is no time left to do the AFO thing.  

Anyway, thought I would let you all know that @GregOug is a champion and gave me the lead on a boat "for sale" that hadn't even gone on the market.  I was fishing with him in the bay a few of weeks ago and mentioned that I was expecting the payout on an insurance policy soon and was looking at getting something as close to 5 metres as I could, preferably with a centre console.  Well blow me down two hours after I was told the money was in the bank Greg texted and said he had found a centre console that might just be right for me. 

We arranged a viewing last Friday Greg accompanying me and I then managed a test drive on Wednesday.  Was supposed to be Tuesday but thank god my luck seems to have turned and it was postponed til Wednesday (not sure the test drive would have worked out in the storm at 10am on Tuesday!).

I took a fishing mate with me on Wednesday who lives up the road and after the test drive we drove to the bank got a bank cheque and towed the boat home.  

There have been a couple of hiccups with the deal that are stressing me out and will cost me a little more but I am told by everyone who knows anything about boats that I got a bargain.

So today I took my mate (he is licensed and I am not ) for a run to the "Mile" just off the Broadwater and then headed down to Jumpinpin.

Stressful but great day and the boat handles amazingly (bit what the heck do I know). 

Got some good sized whiting, my first leather jacket, my mate got a tailor and a stingray.

Thanks also to @deegee12g (Don) who spent time talking to me about the various boats he has owned and fished in, and suggested I look for a centre console!  

Now I suppose I am auditioning for deckies who have their license and are willing to put themselves in danger by letting me skipper the boat - oh and can teach me what on earth to do - ha ha.  

The advice from the boat licensing places are to get some experience before booking in and taking the tests.

I am glad that my first day out was not a .

P.s. the Bimini is the first thing coming off the boat - who wants a centre console with a Bimini?  Surely it defeats the purpose.

Formosa 4.75 - 4.8m, Suzuki 80HP with 24 hours on the clock! 12 inch Lowrance (older model), electric trailer winch etc etc.

THANK YOU GREG!!!!!!!!!

[Another Wazza]

Nice rig Kat!, looks like it'll get along nicely, your right about ditching that bimini, 

I always thought it was considered bad luck to change a boats name?, we could just start calling you C JAY?

[ellicat]

Congrats Kat. Looks like a great boat for you. May she serve you well.

That fish is a Yellow-fin Tripod Fish.

[Allnighter]

Nice boat Kat !

Years ago i too had a formosa centre console and it never let me down, it was a great boat and very safe.

Just some free advice on the bimini......

 i left my bimini on the whole time, i had some "clears" custom made for the front and the sides attached to the bimini and straps.

The clears at the front had a zipper in the middle. The clears buttoned along the front to the aluminium.

Most of the time the whole bimini and clears stayed down in the folded position to the front of boat and rested behind anchor well, it was out of the way.

In cold windy weather or a storm or anchored on a cold night i would simply pull the folded down bimini up into position with the clears already attached and it would instantly convert into a huge half cab sort of idea, you could still see all around because of the clear vinyl - it worked a treat.

We would sleep either side of centre console on rolled up foam mattresses.

Snug as bugs in rugs !!

 

 

[GregOug]

I think Katfish is a fantastic name!

[kmcrosby78]

Congrats @Kat, nice rig, very exciting  

[Andrew_P]

Congrats @Katfish that is an awesome name! You can change a boats name you just need appease Poseidon with a re-naming ceremony when you do it. A bit of fun too 

https://www.boatnames.com.au/boat-naming-ceremony/

enjoy the freedom! Ignore the costs

 

 

[Junky]

Geez, look at you go. 

Just leave some fish for the rest of us. 

 

If you're a superstitious person, do not change the name. C-jay is a nice name. 

I'm to poor to be superstitious. 

[benno573]

Congrats @Kat.  Look out fishies!

[Neil Stratford]

Nice Rig Kat  ,

Yes,   follow the re naming ritual and it will  serve you well  .

ps, You’ve probably already done it , but  check the life jackets are compliant with the new Aust Std., flares are in date , and Epirb is registered and it’s battery is in date. 
Happy Boating 

BeastMaster
 

[Old Scaley]

You have come a long way in a short time @Kat. Fantastic boat, new job, catching fish - life is sweet. Do you work Monday to Friday? If you have some weekdays off maybe a few of us could arrange a tag along fish around Jumpinpin sometime?

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi Kat

Great job on the new boat. Katfish is a good name I reckon. 

Hopefully you will catch many good fish on it  

Cheers Hamish

[Ed.]

Hi Kat, congrats on your new boat, you might also need a few more things for your boat as well if you haven't already got them; landing net, extending pole with hook for tying up to jetties, spare decent sized anchor with chain and more rope, and also a gaff for those monsters you now will catch!

P.S. Katfish as a boat name for you would suit you.

Cheers

Ed.

[Kat]

3 hours ago, Old Scaley said:

You have come a long way in a short time @Kat. Fantastic boat, new job, catching fish - life is sweet. Do you work Monday to Friday? If you have some weekdays off maybe a few of us could arrange a tag along fish around Jumpinpin sometime?

Hi Steve.  I don't work Monday to Friday.  Sometimes I am free three days a week sometimes two.  But to be honest I hope to be working say 4 week days and one day at the weekend - so I can reserve one week day for fishing without the crowds.  But beggars aren't usually choosers.

Yes I love your idea - provided one of you leave your boat behind and get in mine and give me lessons....  But I am not sure Jumpinpin is good fishing anymore?  Haven't see much around when I have been there..

Problem is I need to learn how to tow a trailer (and back it down the ramp  - that is the part I am not looking forward to.

 

Cheers Kat

[Kat]

5 hours ago, Neil Stratford said:

Nice Rig Kat  ,

Yes,   follow the re naming ritual and it will  serve you well  .

ps, You’ve probably already done it , but  check the life jackets are compliant with the new Aust Std., flares are in date , and Epirb is registered and it’s battery is in date. 
Happy Boating 

BeastMaster
 

Hi Neil

Thanks -got new life jackets (rated 150 and can wear comfortably fishing all day and take offshore later), life jacket sticker, Torch and fire extinguisher.  Boat had V sheet.  Flares are not needed until I am going to travel to Moreton Bay in partially smooth waters and EPIRB not needed until I feel I am competent to take her offshore (that feels like a very long time away but I do learn quickly so you never know).  But yes they are on the list of things to purchase.

More importantly I have to get a new aerial so the new radio works.  Figure out whether I can get the GPS on the Lowrance working and have some sort of chart/maps for navigation.  

Oh and then there is the list as long as my arm that everyone else is telling me I need or should have or could have.  My head is spinning

BOAT - I am told - stands for bring on another thousand $$$$$$$$$$$

[Kat]

3 hours ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Hi Kat

Great job on the new boat. Katfish is a good name I reckon. 

Hopefully you will catch many good fish on it  

Cheers Hamish

Hopefully when I am competent you and dad can come out with me for a fish!  Then I know someone will catch some good fish on it.  I think the plan should be for me to figure out how to fish the seaway - then you and dad can make a trip down here and we can try and catch some bigger fish.  Of course I would hope that by the time the mackerel season comes around again we can go offshore around the gold coast and chase those  .

Exams/assessments finished yet?

Cheers Kat

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

2 minutes ago, Kat said:

Hopefully when I am competent you and dad can come out with me for a fish!  Then I know someone will catch some good fish on it.  I think the plan should be for me to figure out how to fish the seaway - then you and dad can make a trip down here and we can try and catch some bigger fish.  Of course I would hope that by the time the mackerel season comes around again we can go offshore around the gold coast and chase those  .

Exams/assessments finished yet?

Cheers Kat

Hey Kat

That sounds great! The Seaway sounds like a good idea but I’d be happy with any type of fishing! 
I went on a couple fishing charters there. On a Winters morning, you’d catch live herring in the canals, then you’d catch 35cm+ bream, trevally, jewfish (well I never got a big one but the charger guide said they were a regular capture) which was always fun! 
And I’m happy to say it’s school holidays! So no more annoying exams for another term .

Cheers Hamish

[Kat]

A real pity I am n

14 minutes ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Hey Kat

That sounds great! The Seaway sounds like a good idea but I’d be happy with any type of fishing! 
I went on a couple fishing charters there. On a Winters morning, you’d catch live herring in the canals, then you’d catch 35cm+ bream, trevally, jewfish (well I never got a big one but the charger guide said they were a regular capture) which was always fun! 
And I’m happy to say it’s school holidays! So no more annoying exams for another term .

Cheers Hamish

A real pity I am not competent now - maybe next school holidays?  Do you have your own lifejacket?

[Kat]

Have any of you bought a boat and re-named her?  After reading about it not sure I should - gives me the heebie jeebies as it is not just bad fishing luck it is more like - bad luck you are going to die at sea!

[Ed.]

Kat, regardless of where you go in Morton Bay or anywhere for that matter, in my opinion having an EPIRB and/or a Personal locator beacon on you with built in GPS is a very good idea even if it is not "required" by law, for instance lets say you decide to fish Mud Island,  so before you leave the harbour in the morning/night,  and you do the right thing and you notify the VMR/Coast Guard of where you will be and that you will be back in the late afternoon/night, so off you go and get to Mud Island, then you hear on the radio that someone is catching some fish two miles away, you might even be close enough to see them, so are you going to let the VMR/Coast Guard know each and every time you change your position via the radio? Probably not as you will still be in the general area where you said you would be. If, say you hit something whilst travelling there or back and/or get swamped by a wave, and your electronics wiring may get shorted or blow a fuse you may not get time to solve the issue and call for help before you start sinking.

If you had kept the EPIRB in a grab bag and in a handy spot on the boat and/or wearing a Personal Locator Beacon, you could at least activate it even in the water and tie it to your life jacket,  A) It  would let the authorities know you need help within minutes and B) Exactly where you are even, if you are drifting in the current. Otherwise, the VMR/Coast Guard would only start searching for you after you fail to return back to base in the afternoon/night and seeing as you are no longer where you said you would be, you could have drifted miles away and may not be found at all. Morton Bay is a very large place and seeing as they will start the search where you said you would be...well you get the idea!

Your 1m square of space in the water  is going to be a very cold and lonely spot in 20 plus square miles of water. So lets say your notified fishing spot is point "A", and you go just 2 miles from it, your area to be searched is now 4 square miles,  the tide changes and it takes you another 2 miles, your search area is now 16 square miles!

Don't skimp for the sake of a couple of hundred bucks. Don't mean to put a downer on you or put the wind up you, but the sea is an unforgiving place and can change from flat to "why the hell am I out here" within minutes so you need to be prepared and minimise your risk. You can't just get out and walk home should you get into trouble. Just my 2 cents worth.

Cheers

Ed.

[kmcrosby78]

Good advice there @Ed. - reminder to me, Kat and others that sometimes you should spend the money even if not legally required to.

[Andrew_P]

Good one Ed. I bought an EPIRB for my occasional offshore trips but pack it in a grab bag for my bay trips now too. I have the big yellow lifejackets in a bag (enough for my POB) but wear and make my deckies wear pull type inflatable lifejackets as well at all times. If we roll I know the grab bag with EPIRB and life jacket will float but I’ll already be wearing my lifejacket in case I fall out and the boat keeps going....which reminds me I probably need to think about attaching my kill switch to my lifejacket when we steam....

[Kat]

Hey Ed.  Good point.  But reality is I will probably get an EPIRB in the next couple of weeks - basically when shopping I wanted the life jackets  (ones I can wear all day fishing) because they were on sale and the essential safety gear to go out on the Broadwater.  I didn't have card access to the account with the insurance funds , had limited cash on me and it was 15 min before the bank shut.  So I got what I needed then.

I can tell you that the news coverage about the young lad Trent going missing from his boat, the surfski guys and a couple of closer to home stories have me more concerned about safety than most.

The advice is great and practical and good to know that it is coming from someone with experience.  I have already had the lecture from my stepdad today about the ignition key being attached to me. 

I will heed the warnings and thank you.

I also agree with Sam that we should all be wearing life jackets at all times -. The reality is that there would be many scenarios in an emergency or accident on a boat that reaching the life jackets and putting them on may be impossible.

So flares and EPIRB and personal locator will go on the top of the list.

To be honest a lot of the more seasoned fishos/boaties I meet should re-think their life jacket policies.

I also think the safety gear should be stored where it is easily and quickly accessible which is often not the case.

Cheers Kat

 

[Ed.]

Speaking of all things gloomy, it appears another tinny got into trouble in Morton Bay yesterday, they rescued the husband clinging to the upturned boat the next morning but the wife slipped away during the night. They did find the wife but she had died.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-06-20/qld-search-couple-fishing-trip-port-of-brisbane/100229066

[GregOug]

Yes, and the tinny wasn’t that small either by the looks of it. And they were only just outside the river mouth when they got into trouble.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

In the last few months there seem to have been many tragedies in Moreton Bay. My plan was to buy a tinny as soon as I could afford one, and after learning a bit about how it drove and the lay of the land, start fishing for snappers and more in the bay. After seeing how bad things can happen quickly, ie, the storm you were caught in Greg, and that bad things still happen to the most experienced people in the bay (let alone me) I’ve decided I was rather complacent. It’s definitely something I will consider when buying a boat and learning how it all works. I have always aspired to become someone with a zillion different marks in the bay and spots in the river, but maybe I will need to rethink this until I get way more experienced.

RIP the lady who died recently in the bay.

Hamish

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

On 19/06/2021 at 2:21 PM, Kat said:

A real pity I am n

A real pity I am not competent now - maybe next school holidays?  Do you have your own lifejacket?

Hey Kat

That sounds good. Yep, I have my own life jacket which is level 50. I’m pretty sure that’s enough for partially smooth waters (nothing higher though).

Cheers Hamish

[Ed.]

Wise move Hamish, most of the time, boating is fun and safe however when the excrement hits the fan it often happens very quick, when I was much younger I did some silly things in boats and fortunately I didn't end up as a statistic and leant from them, as I got older and more experienced I didn't make the same mistakes, it is a huge learning curve. Often you can minimize the risk, for me I don't go out or come back in the dark anymore. If I can't see what's in front or around me then I can't avoid it. Morton Bay is full of little gotcha areas where if you aren't careful you can come a croppa, plenty of sand bars that have waves which can stand up quickly if the tide changes, floating logs etc., from the rivers after storms, wakes from passing boats that can build up very high etc. especially when they combine with a rough sea,  so my preference is daylight hours only, yes, fishing is best at daylight and evening but no fish is worth your life!

One of the best things to reduce the risk is to get a bigger boat, whilst it isn't financially possible or practical for most people it will be safer, having said that,  having a bigger boat won't guaranty that you will be safe either, plenty of bigger boats come to grief as well but if you are in a 4.5m tinny and the sea whips up to 2 plus meters during a strong wind or current change in the wrong area that is almost half your boat length and about 1m higher than your freeboard so wouldn't take much to get a wave over the front and fill up your boat in a second if you hit it too hard or surf down unintentionally over a wave and plow straight into the back of a wave which is too close.

There is no substitute for experience and time on the sea, a lot of people get their boat licence and go out on flat calm days and after a little while they consider themselves to be  experienced, and so they become complacent,  however they will still have no experience on what to do when conditions become rough, situations can still happen that they will be totally unprepared for. Problem is a lot of people take their small boats into areas that the boat is not suited for, if the conditions are right then it's no problem for most of the time. But, and it is a "big but"  if the conditions change quickly they will have put themselves at risk as their boat is not designed for the developing conditions. Incidentally, I consider anything under a 7m as a small boat. So take your time to get the experience and learn so that you can have future experiences.

As for a life jacket I am not sure that a 50 rated life jacket is valid in the bay, when you consider you can get a 150-180N rated inflatable jacket for about $80-90, invest in your safety! I certainly would not rely on it. It is less than the price of a rod.

Again, just my 2 cents worth.

[Kat]

Hi All 

1.  @AUS-BNE-FISHOi think you might not weigh enough for my 150 pull inflate lifejackets (brand new) - can wear all day fishing.  But I will probably look at buying more anyway.  I have two and some of those horrible bulky lifejackets.  

2.  @Andrew_PWould appreciate advice on those horrid bulky yellow life jackets - is there something special about them that you have them in a bag with your EPIRB?  Should I keep the ones that came with the boat?  Or do you just keep them in the bag with the EPIRB so that it floats and you can find the EPIRB if worst happens.  Confused?

 

 

[Andrew_P]

15 minutes ago, Kat said:

 

2.  @Andrew_PWould appreciate advice on those horrid bulky yellow life jackets - is there something special about them that you have them in a bag with your EPIRB?  Should I keep the ones that came with the boat?  Or do you just keep them in the bag with the EPIRB so that it floats and you can find the EPIRB if worst happens.  Confused?

 

 

Sorry Kat I wasn’t clear. I have a small waterproof grab bag that I keep the epirb in as well as my phone and car keys  it sits next to me at the tiller. My big yellow lifejackets are in a waterproof bag at the front of the boat in the open anchor well and that has my other safety equipment in it (offshore flares, v-sheet etc). I wear my inflatable type PFD at all times. If I have a deckie I have another inflatable pfd for them plus I always have the 2 big bulky yellow ones up the front =4 legal lifejackets for 2 people. 
the yellow lifejackets are really uncomfortable BUT  super buoyant and are designed to keep your head above the water when you cannot. They are cheap, meet the new laws and would float if the boat rolled that is why they will always be in my boat

Edited June 22, 2021 by Andrew_P
Formatting issues

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

1 hour ago, Kat said:

1.  @AUS-BNE-FISHOi think you might not weigh enough for my 150 pull inflate lifejackets (brand new) - can wear all day fishing.  But I will probably look at buying more anyway.  I have two and some of those horrible bulky lifejackets.  

It is time Dad and I look into a new life jacket for me anyways. I had some trouble getting mine on last night on the yak (no success). 
Hamish