Old Scaley

Thanks Brian. My charger has that function as well but only gets there once a certain amount of charge is present. We never got to that stage. Time for a new one!

Just a note of caution for future trolling motor purchasers. Turns out you should always disconnect your motor from the battery when not in use. My usual routine is to disconnect the Anderson plugs that I have above the deck when I come off the water and then plug the smart charger in after I finish cleaning the boat so I am good to go at short notice. Lat time I had the boat in the water was a week before I went away for a few weeks and I forgot to unplug the motor and didn’t put the charger on because I knew I wouldn’t use the boat for at least a month. When I got home I plugged the charger in and saw it was registering 2.7v. The motor must draw a small amount of juice even when stowed. Against all hope, I left the charger on for more than a week and only achieved 7.0v so I have now pronounced the trusty 3 year old Century Deep Cycle dead. Now looking at a replacement. I don’t need (and can’t justify) to spend big bucks on a lithium. I see that Supercheap have 105ah agm for $299. Brand is XTM. Anyone had any experience with that brand or have a better suggestion, bearing in mind that I am not Rockerfeller?

Great way to start the day!

Glad you didn’t end up creating a new reef in the river. Bilge pumps can only do so much. Ray has the right idea with 2 in his tub. I got caught in a cloudburst once that was so heavy that the bilge couldn’t keep up and I was bailing like crazy to keep up. Visibility was zero. Lucky it didn’t last long. BTW, keep looking for fish in the river. There are plenty there, just not always hungry. Mate and I pulled 7 decent snapper on Friday and could have caught the bag limit if the northerly didn’t get up earlier than forecast. Got a nice feed of crabs as well. You will work it out soon.

Great to be back on the water after a few weeks in Vietnam. A bit windy but we managed a feed. Crumbed whiting for dinner tonight - yum. Thanks for your company once again, Brian.

Thanks for organising @ellicat and for your insightful and informative updates @Gad. Congrats Kelvin! I will be back again next season supporting all the Qld teams as usual.

Unlucky mate. Very disappointing to put so much effort into a trip and then not have it live up to expectations. Hopefully the new battery will solve some of the MK issues. Are you getting a warranty claim on the old one?

How good will that be! Enjoy the game Kelvin.

I know @Another Wazza. I have been busting to put up a photo of the 110cm Cobia I caught under the Indooroopilly Bridge last week. Not sure I will be able find it again when photos come back!

Sounds like a great trip, Neil. Shame the photos aren’t working at the moment.

Thanks for the tip, but I don’t think I will buy jig heads specifically for one brand of plastic. Hope that they aren’t over-packaged or over-priced for those who do use them.

Hey Hamish, do you find the baitjunkies slide down the jig head too easily? I have been trying them recently. They look the goods but are overpriced and over packaged as well as being hard to keep on the jig head properly. Maybe it’s just me?

I can’t see photos on the site any more? IPhone12 running latest iOS and old iPad running an out of date iOS. All I see is a blank rectangle with a small ? In the middle. Is it just me?

The choice of gear will depend on what sort of trolling you are going to do. One of the big factors is the drag produced by different lures. If you are dragging a spoon behind a trolling board for mackerel you need a rod with a fair bit of grunt. I would say a 10kg rod as minimum. If you are trolling small lures for flathead in Bribie passage, then a light stick with lighter line is ideal. Around that 1 to 3kg rod, 10lb line and leader. You will often find the flathead are in very shallow water so try trolling on the bank with a flood tide and edge of the bank for the run out tide. maybe keep using what you have for the lighter work and use the Penn outfit for trolling bigger lures in the deeper water? Unfortunately there is not really a universal setup that will cover all types of fishing, including trolling. Good luck and keep us informed of your progress.

No, Hamish. Way too lazy for that. Had some cuttlefish, salted mullet fillets and grinner for bait. Didn’t see any bait on the sounder either.

Went for my first snapper hunt since the closure ended on Wednesday. Fished the last two hours of the run in and first hour of the run out in the southern Bay. Fishing was dead until the tide turned, then started to get some very finicky bites. Managed a feed before the dreaded northerly made it too uncomfortable so headed home with 3 pannies and a chunky bream. Only by-catch was a couple of grinners which were turned into strip baits and accounted for one of the snaps.

The fuel I cite is a flat rate, currently 48.8 cents per litre, so the government doesn’t benefit from higher prices. If anyone can understand the petrol price cycle and how the same fuel can go up and down by 40 cents a litre, please let us know.

Oops, 75mm. Second one was not much bigger.

Kept the last one Kelvin. The first one was probably about 75cm. Not much bigger than the lure.

Hey Kat. Waiting to see the forecast on Thursday am but probably one of the Bay Islands.

Yes Hamish.

Had another crack today. Again no bait. Similar result with a couple of nice dinner sized flatties. Interestingly, also caught 3 very small winter whiting on the troll. Snapper are back on the hit list tomorrow so heading out Thursday to see if they are hungry. t

What’s going on, Ray? Are you up on blocks at the moment?

Geez Dino, your wife is going to confine you to the rocking chair if you don’t stop damaging yourself. Well done on the fishing!

I have been meaning to do a bait-free session for ages. I used to do this occasionally years ago, but since I retired I have spent more time fishing with other people and it has been mostly bait with token attempts at lure or plastics, or a combination. So, with @ellicat not being here to reinforce my lazy ways, and because it is still snapper closure, I decided today was the day. No sense making it too hard for myself so flathead was the target species. I also decided to go light (4 lb braid with 6lb fluoro) and only take the one outfit (Samaki Zing Extreme 1-3kg with a small 1000 size Twinpower). Launched at Port of Brisbane about 2 hours before low tide and hit up a bank where I have caught plenty of flatty on plastics in the past. Decided to have a troll but had no luck so moved to a different bank and had instant success, pulling in around 10 flathead but they were all around that just legal size so all released to do their thing with the breeding females who were no doubt close by. Changed to casting up onto the shallow banks as the tide started the run in. Got a few more and lost a couple of big girls close to the boat. Started wishing I had bought a slightly heavier outfit, but had a lot of fun anyway. I kept 2 for a feed, then changed to a Samaki vibe in deeper water as the tide got bigger. I could see lots of action on the sounder and pulled up a couple of decent snapper in the mid-40s which were released boatside. Overall, a fun little session that has inspired me to do more bait-free sessions, but didn’t stop me pulling into Mr Bait on the way home to stock up for a snapper session next week.