queensland catching the "ellicat curse" 28.02.2008

[benno573]

Hi all,

decided harries wasn't the best option last night owing to the 15kn solid N. decided to head for peel instead. anchored up on my favourite drop off just after 6 and threw a floating pilly out the back while i was mucking around with the lights. after about a minute the floater goes off and game on. instantly thinking shark by the fight, and about 15 minutes later a whaler was beside the boat, around the 4ft mark. a good start. let him go to fight again another day, went back to getting the lights working. turned around and here comes a police launch to issue me a "marine infringement notice" for not having lights on. that shark just cost me $150... :angry: :angry:

so suitably pissed off, i tried to forget about it and relax. threw out a couple of floaters, one on the bottom and cracked a bundy. over the next few hours, about 20 fish were boated, red bream/squire, sweetlip, cod and bream, mostly undersized, all released. one snapper come in at 640mm. a total of 6 sharks were caught throughout the night, ranging from 2ft up to the big fella that took a live grinner at about 7-8ft. one of the smaller ones was kept for my famous shark curry... :laugh:

at this stage, all was going well, apart from the fine . from here it was all downhill. a spark plug gave up the ghost , had a spare so decided to change it. half way through that, started hosing down (while i have the cowl cover off and the spark plug out) so used my only raincoat to try and shield the motor and got drowned. spark plug in, motor starts on all cylinders :woohoo: .

driving back to viccy point, freezing cold due to being soaked, spotlight s##ts itself (well the bulb anyway). markers near the ramp are not lit so tippy-toeing my way in where i think the channel is... not quite. ran aground. got out and pushed boat off bottom and cut foot open on rock or something else sharp make it to boat ramp in a fantastic mood. last but not least, trailer winch cable snaps half way up onto the trailer. that was fun... 25 min later left the boat ramp and drove home. all in all, rather glad i was flying solo. i might have offended someone's ears had they been there...:blush:

sorry for the long post but as ellicat said, it is rather therapeutic.

[Feral]

Bad luck Benno!

I have a couple of dodgy switches on my Nav lights, have to jiggle them to get the lights to come on - I think I'll go buy the replacements today after reading your tail of woe!

[ellicat]

No pics ?

If things come in threes - you're lucky to have them all out of the way in one night (lights, plugs, cable):dry: :laugh: :whistle: :pinch:

Glad I couldn't change my plans and come with you....you would have blamed me:laugh: :silly:

Nice squire amongst the fish you boated - 64cm's a good size around Peel:woohoo: Bet he gave you a good run for your moneyB)

[benno573]

yeah squire went pretty hard. he took the light rod with a prawn on it - great fun on 8lb line!!!:laugh: :ohmy: :woohoo: big sharkie was fun too, unfortunately i am a bit over-powered for bay sharks with 80lb braid but still...

no pics, probably should be glad i forgot the camera, would have dropped it in the drink for sure...

[kiara_poltegerist]

benno573 wrote:

yeah squire went pretty hard. he took the light rod with a prawn on it - great fun on 8lb line!!!:laugh: :ohmy: :woohoo: big sharkie was fun too, unfortunately i am a bit over-powered for bay sharks with 80lb braid but still...

no pics, probably should be glad i forgot the camera, would have dropped it in the drink for sure...

haha, couldnt agree more! Murphy's Law . hahaha. but good report all the same mate! would've loved to see em sharks

[Mack_attack]

Did your 4 footer take you 15mins to land on your 80lb gear?

If so i did pretty well to land my 4 footer(120cm) model on a 20lb outfit :woohoo:

[nigehey]

Great report thanks. Makes me glad I'm mostly landbased...just the drunks to deal with!

[Biggles]

Excellent post thanks Benno, great read.

Regards

Al

[Rocket75]

Great fish tally, sorry to hear about the other dramas:(

Shark curry ! Indian?...Thai?...u might have to share your recipe! with the amount of sharks that are being caught locally we might have to start eating them b4 they eat us:silly: .

Thanks for the report, I'm sure that you won't have trouble getting a deckie next time with such action expected:lol:

Rocket

[kriso]

bad luck mate with the water rats they can be knobs sometimes. thanks for the report

[Brian D]

You poor bugger, have you been looking for a deckie, good luck. :woohoo:

[benno573]

Mack_attack wrote:

Did your 4 footer take you 15mins to land on your 80lb gear?

If so i did pretty well to land my 4 footer(120cm) model on a 20lb outfit :woohoo:

nah i have a variety of rigs. the 4ft'er was on my 30lb rig which i usually use to float live baits for macks and cobia. took a floated pilly i think. i usually chuck a big livie on the 80lb rig - in this case a grinner about 50cm. have caught some seriously big beasts on that rig, it's nothing flash though - a TLD20 with 400m 80lb braid and a pen boat rod - about $40 from kmart. does the job!!!! :laugh:

when deliberately targeting smaller guys the 30lb rig or even a 15lb is fine. unfortunately... big fish eat little baits too and i have been spooled twice. not good when you need to buy another spool of braid...

[benno573]

Rocket75 wrote:

Great fish tally, sorry to hear about the other dramas:(

Shark curry ! Indian?...Thai?...u might have to share your recipe! with the amount of sharks that are being caught locally we might have to start eating them b4 they eat us:silly: .

Thanks for the report, I'm sure that you won't have trouble getting a deckie next time with such action expected:lol:

Rocket

shark curry is actually malaysian. goes good. i'll have to think about how much and what i put in it before i share a recipe... i think it is different every time!!!

[geebz]

ellicat and benno maybe there is something in the air because my brother and i had a shocker on saturday night.

We the boat in a dohles rocks around 5pm we head upstream to get some livies. So we pulled up and i cast netted for about 15-20mins and got a fair few biddies in a range of sizes. So we were looking set to go. Start the boat up to find it wont go into gear. Reverse was working fine but no foward. It was like it was stuck in neutral. So we are trying to fix the problem ginning around for awhile and before we know it the battery is flat. So we end up walking the bank/paddling to deep water bend (probably 1km) as no one else was around. Oar broke, booties broke. Got to the ramp called the missus went picked up the car/trailor for dohles and went back for the my brothers boat. No fishing to be had and got home around 10pm.

Any ideas what could be wrong with going into gear ? Its an old 140hp suzuki. I think the problem is up in the throtle controller rather than the motor.

[ellicat]

No idea Geebz.

I've been hearing of a few mechanical dramas lately - might be something to do with lack of use in a pretty ordinary summer season (weather-wise)

[benno573]

geebz wrote:

ellicat and benno maybe there is something in the air because my brother and i had a shocker on saturday night.

We the boat in a dohles rocks around 5pm we head upstream to get some livies. So we pulled up and i cast netted for about 15-20mins and got a fair few biddies in a range of sizes. So we were looking set to go. Start the boat up to find it wont go into gear. Reverse was working fine but no foward. It was like it was stuck in neutral. So we are trying to fix the problem ginning around for awhile and before we know it the battery is flat. So we end up walking the bank/paddling to deep water bend (probably 1km) as no one else was around. Oar broke, booties broke. Got to the ramp called the missus went picked up the car/trailor for dohles and went back for the my brothers boat. No fishing to be had and got home around 10pm.

Any ideas what could be wrong with going into gear ? Its an old 140hp suzuki. I think the problem is up in the throtle controller rather than the motor.

glad to hear it's not just me...!!

the gear thingo... ummm.... well could be a range of things really. check the connections at the throttle and make sure they are all attached and working. the fact that reverse works most likely means the problem won't be here, but check anyway. other than that... depending how mechanically minded you are, have a look at the gear linkages and if you're really keen pull your gear box to bits and have a look see but maybe not the best of ideas. if you're a bit unsure, go with the professional assistance option.:S

[ellicat]

Hey benno, which ramp did you use at Viccy Pt ? The pontoon or the other one ?

[geebz]

Yeah i dont think i will be pulling the gear box apart any time soon.

Bare with me as im not really that good with boating terminology. The throttle now wont move into reverse, even without the engine running. I think what has happened is when the throttle is in neutral idoling position it has a lever so that you cant knock it into gear. The bottom of the lever ( the lug that drops down) has broken off, so it isnt actually engaging anymore. I think it has fallen down into the casing and is stopping the throttle going into reverse now.

Anyone know if this could explain the problem or is it a seperate issue ?

Ill probably pull the throttle apart and have a look for anything obvious but other than that its going to the mechanic.

[benno573]

geebz wrote:

Yeah i dont think i will be pulling the gear box apart any time soon.

Bare with me as im not really that good with boating terminology. The throttle now wont move into reverse, even without the engine running. I think what has happened is when the throttle is in neutral idoling position it has a lever so that you cant knock it into gear. The bottom of the lever ( the lug that drops down) has broken off, so it isnt actually engaging anymore. I think it has fallen down into the casing and is stopping the throttle going into reverse now.

Anyone know if this could explain the problem or is it a seperate issue ?

Ill probably pull the throttle apart and have a look for anything obvious but other than that its going to the mechanic.

that could well be the problem mate - i'd check it out. pretty hard to stuff things up at that end really.

[benno573]

ellicat wrote:

Hey benno, which ramp did you use at Viccy Pt ? The pontoon or the other one ?

the one near vmr with the pontoon down the guts. makes it very easy launching and retrieving solo, and is quite well lit for night time operations. the marks heading north out of the ramp are not lit and there is a dirty great big shallow bit in the middle. you can't miss the shallow bit, it has a freedom-shaped groove in it at the moment... :laugh:

[ellicat]

Yeah, It's pretty tight through there. The prop (when it was working) churned the bottom a few times with the call for everyone to run to the bow:woohoo: :laugh: :laugh:

[benno573]

that's always fun that... it is a lot deeper since the put the pontoon in but still a bit dicey on a low tide. and at night when you can't see...:laugh: