jon

We mainly fish them during the day but they do fire at night too for certain species eg lipper red emporer and reef jacks etc

Yeah certainly was a long run home mark, we even nailed one of the legal reds in 14 metres of water on anchorage at night time which was a great surprise

Suzuki df 200, 2008 model. Not sure what the cause was but the engine did have a few thousand hours on it

Yeah cheers mate, that engine has certainly been put through its paces. Should get better fuel economy with a 250 ap lean burn aswell.

Well My mate got the report back from the mechanic turns out we initially dropped a cylinder then bent a piston rod and eventually cracked the head The whole engine now a complete write off. He said he was very surprised we were even able to get back to the ramp. At least we didn’t have 1500 plus dollar bill from the coastguard for a tow I suppose. Positive is can’t wait for my mate to repower with a new 250 over the old 200

Is it a fibre glass hull or plate ally, what sort of boat is it what sort of engine is it?

Best advice kelvin is go in tandem for your first few trips

Cheers Hamish we’ll be eating good for quite a while! Sounds crazy to most people but I’d rather to catch more big lipper than trout as in my opinion are a far better table fish. Still can’t complain about trout tho

Not sure i Not sure if that was directed at me or cobia but if me always hunt the tuskies In The day. They do some random thing at night where they hole up and some how impede the entry with some slime thing, so I’ve read any ways

Did someone say Tuskies? I mite have to go for an Inspection of these said grounds lol!!

Yeah mate made to broomfield but the plan was to go to innamincka. I’m glad it happened a broomfield tho would have been In a world of hurt if it was out at the shoals

Yeah he fished pretty well and was an even better skipper considering the issues. I’m still not gonna hear the end of it from him coz I lost two massive reds lol. I had to remind him who got the massive nannygai last time lol

Close to five Hours we were down a few cylinders but did some re arranging of weight and after twenty five minutes of full throttle ( limited to just shy of 4000 rpm we managed to get on the plane thank christ

Yeah we’d planned on doing a much bigger trip than we did, we had some serious engine dramas and spent most of the trip in limp mode. This was combined with a broken marine radio which made this interesting to say the least Especially as the dramas started 100km offshore. Most importantly we made it home safely. Worst part was the motor was serviced two days before the trip ( specifically for the trip) and radio was three weeks old. We didn’t get to fish our big red grounds but thanks to some bush mechanics and luckily having good tools and spares on board we still had a great trip considering. I CANT stress enough to anyone undertaking long range trips how important it is to be prepared for the worst and have a good understanding of your equipment the weather and the grounds you are heading to. We were able to do the majority of our fishing on anchor in the shallows withIn protection of the reef Or at least in sight of it. Then it was a matter waiting it out two nights for a break in weather for the run home. We spoke to another boat we knew out there who was heading home on Monday and gave them the track we would be taking home (as we had zero radio comms) and left four hours before them as we were at fairly lows speeds. Knowing if engine totally gave up the ghost we could drop anchor and wait for them to come by. This option was probably a result of good karma as on day one that other boat had busted a hydraulic steering line and luckily we had a few litres of hydraulic steering fluid to give to them and some hose clamps which saved their trip. Keep in mind both boats are well maintained and always serviced and regularly checked over before big trips so it can happen at any time. And last but not least on night one our gas mate cooker with a Brand new freshly opened canister started spewing flames at a rate of knots directly from where the canister connects to the cooker so was promptly sent for a permanent time out at Davey Jones’s locker, as with 300 litres of petrol on the deck this was NOT good . So it was cornchip an salsa sandwiches and a couple of skipped meals for the next day and a half( not ideal in the middle of winter) in conclusion with high spirits and a bit of know how we still had a really good trip which could have been so much worse we managed three reds, twenty one trout, 1 gold band and then a good mixed bag of lipper parrot and some nice coral tomato and Māori cods. So the fishing front was pretty great! ( I’ll get my big red next time !!) anyways enough dramas here’s some pics enjoy and stay safe !!!

I’ve got six metre custom platey, but we went in my mates boat, it’s a bit bigger

Cheers mate I jagged another one a couple of days ago so I’m good, thanks for keeping an eye out

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Nah not at this stage

There’s definitely better times of year than other times. But if your willing to push out a bit further than Fitzroy/Sykes you have a great chance of most species

Well I’ve been trying to get away all year to 1770 and beyond and something always gets in the way but it’s looking like this weekend might be a goer fingers crossed. Anyone else heading up??

No worries cheers mate

Hi mate is this torsa still available

Hi thanks kelvin I heard about that one way too much for me. Cheers tho

Yeah not a bad grunter for the bay. Good eating too

Great session and would have been heaps of fun on the light gear