Jimmyjack

An ali floor is a good idea, and  Seajay have one that is fitted like that.. To me that's the issue with a quintrex, it has a ply floor. I thinkthe waveriders look pretty good, but also consider, if you can find one, a Borger Cat from Ingham. Also McLay aren't a bad little boat. What ever you go with, you won't get one that does everything. You have to go around the 5 mark ali (iight and strong and able to lift off banks etc and not get scratches from rocks bars etc) for inshore work and creeks etc then a glass boat for offshore work, preferably 6m plus. My advice would be buy the inshore boat then hire or borrow for the offshore otherwise you'll have a boat for neither situation.$0.02

I feel your pain. I had checked the tides and had a trip planned to central Qld but that's now off. Imagine having planned for the ekka and now it's off, that would be a massive blow formany people too. 

Yep, somepeople learn quickly, some learn slowly and some l ike me don't seem to learn at all. I have caught the odd fish aorund the pine but tough going. There are a lot of boats around so maybe sneaking around the corner into Bramble Bay might give you some better territory. Your man Peter Jung has done some videos of fishing on the pine with plastics if you can find him on the youtubes. But Grmby's advice is sound obviously and I can't help you much at all sorry.

The trim should only change the position of the prow v the stern Baz, not the line of the boat from left to right. That lean to port or starboard normally has something to do with the weight distribution in the hull. For example, if the fuel tank and the battery are on one side it can lead to a definite lean.

15 hours ago, Breaming with bro said:

starting with soft plastics can be challenging but after awhile you get better at it . as for fatties I highly recommend fishing 2 hours before high or low tide that's when I find I get the most I recommend you use the retrieve @Khan mentioned or use a slow roll technique you let the lure sink... quickly reel in for a few seconds and then let it sink again and repeat .I use both retrieves. I find the slow roll technique works best for my local areas but switch the retrieves up every now then. every day is different sometimes flatties might prefer one retrieve over the other id also recommend using the right gear its gonna be very hard chasing flatties on plastics if your using a 5000 size reel and a 6-9kg rod spooled with 20lb mono. a 1000-3000 sized reel matched with a 1-4kg 2-4kg or 3-5kg rod is ideal for flatties on plastics and braid from 4-12lb is good and leaders from 6-15lb is ideal id recommend using at least 10lb leader first just in case a flattie swallows your lure after awhile your reaction time using lures will improve and you can go down to 8 or 6lb leader but I recommend starting out with 10lb leader or even 12lb leader if you wish. As for plastics I recommend 2.5-3.5 inch plastics matched with 1/8-1/4 jigheads you can go heavier if your fishing deep channels with high currents . flatties are not particularly fussy on colours but I usually use whitebait/sardine colours or motor oil/grub colours or even sometimes bright pink orange and green colours . I usually find the natural whitebait or grub colours work best though. as for brands I recommend Daiwa bait junkie and Zman the most after that it would be savage gear and eco gear then after that squidgies and Berkley although sometimes the bargain bin specials/strange unknown brands work better then all of the brands I just mentioned but generally all the brands I just mentioned work extremely well and shouldn't make much difference on what plastics you use . And lastly location and where your fishing is key for flatties .you'll find you'll catch the most and biggest flatties in shallow water 1-4 feet sometimes though they hide out in deep channels . also drop offs and heavy structure but be warned flatties are not forgiving fish around heavy structure. So to sum it up if you 

fish 2 hours before high or low tide

use good retrieves and mix it up

use the right gear tackle and lures 

target drop offs structure and shallow banks 

I guarantee you'll be catching flatties left right and centre 

hope that helps make sure to listen to other peoples advice to @Drop Bear @Khan@ellicat and others had great tips to. welcome to the forum feel free to ask any tips on any of your fishing/outdoors subjects there are plenty of great experienced fishers on this forum to answer your questions .

Great advice good work mate

Oh thanks peeps, next week. cheers

Yes, you need to have some grunt to get them away from structure if you're talking jack or barra, but threadies is very much lead them to the boat, wait for them to explode, get them back to the boat. They don't go into structure as a general rule, or at least where I fish for them.

They're restricted at the moment along with pearlies? or am I deluded?

Sounds great, good luck.

Painted sweetlip, related to blackall (mother in law or slatey bream.) Can also be called a morwong in some areas. OK eaten fresh and can pull like blazes. At least I think  that's what it is.

Plenty of people eat tilapia, fillet with crumbs in  oil or batter. 

River Heads people, deep water, rocks, well woorth a trip.

Outstanding comments thanks Neil.

On 08/03/2021 at 7:48 PM, ellicat said:

Yes, you can get removable ones or ones that fold down out of the way.

Or get a railblaza one with a starport.

Alternatively a good headlight is the $50 rechargeable from Jaycar. Thrws a good beam and lasts an hour or so between recharges.

On 23/11/2020 at 5:02 AM, rayke1938 said:

Make my own shrimp pots and leave them in the dam. Any spare shrimp left over I take home and keep n a 4 ft fish tank ready for next trip.Have eaten the shrimp in the past taste ok but need plenty of salt. They do shrink a lot when you cook them.

hahahahaha

I see the funny goes with the name kennedy, being one myself.

I think their spinning and baitcaster reels are made overseas to Alvey specifications but I could be wrong.

17 hours ago, Jaz44 said:

The BG will be more of a bulletproof reel. That is not saying the Baitrunner can't take any punishment. Both are great reels but the ability to have a secondary drag would sell the Baitrunner to me. Don't go the 'OC' series. Make sure it's either the Thunnus (great reel) or the 'D' series. I also recommend the BG. Both are fantastic reels.

I agree, I have a thunnus and two D series baitrunners, and the thunnus is a class above the baitrunners. Not that the baitrunners aren't a good reel. I have a 6 and also a 12 and I use them especially for threadies. I use the 12 out on the reef and it's got good drag. Nice and smooth. They're complicated to replace parts but I had to change the main drive gear in the 12 which was interesting. Ordered the part from shimano and that worked out fine. Thunnus is a really smooth reel.

Those are a cod lure I think? Freshwater lures tend to have a violent action more so than saltwater lures which tend to shimmer more.

They should be there.

It's funny how some rivers seem to be full of jacks and some (like the mary in qld) they're quite rare. It might have to do with access to reefs as they migrate from creek and river mouths out to inshore and offshore reefs to mature and breed. This is possibly why north qld jacks caught in the rivers and creeks are much smaller than those in southern qld, and gold coast jacks are amongst the biggest. Just a thought.

Yep and sometimes you'll find the low profile reels carry less than the others. Also for jigging some of the reels don't have the level wind which annoys the hell out of me but some love it, so watch for that. You also need to consider whether it will be used only for dropping or whether you want to cross over with it to do some casting as well, as some reels just won't cast at all well.

That's outstanding economy

I have read that about the thermostat, but then what does that say about the flushing option that yammies and others have to just run water through without starting the motor. Have read a few diverging opinions on this over the years. INteresting though, thanks for bringing that up.

I think this was the issue I had with my 90 Johnson 4S, (rebadged Suzie 90) but managed to catch it in time. When I took it to the outboard machanic he knew what the problem was strgaight away, and fixed it with a weld maybe? Put me off suzies TBH.