Junky

For the amount of muddies I caught in my younger years I have never seen this before. Looks as though it can't pinch anything with it though. Just fixed in position.

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Early fly reel, maybe.

Sweet. Just checking. At the end of the day, lures catch more men than fish.

I would never park a boat nose down on a steep driveway. When it rains, it can not drain. A cubic meter of water is 1 tonne. Recipe for disaster imo. Park it sideways across the slope no worries but definitely not nose down a steep hill.

No worries Hamish. I'm sure you will work it out easily. It is only a very slight adjustments. You can barely tell you've moved it. Also, you'll know if you adjust it the wrong way. The lure will be even more uncontrollable. Breaming with bro. I am refering to the flat steel ring that comes out of the lure with the split ring through it in the pic. Some lures have just a steel loop. Either way, they're all tunable, well 99% are. Some lures are just duds.

Are you aware you can tune lures to swim straight? A slight bend on the piece of steel that the split ring goes through will do wonders. Sorry, I don't know the correct term for the bit I'm talking about, I just know how to do it. Just because they're cheap doesn't mean they're crap. I've purchased big rapalas that I've had to tune cause they kept rolling out to the surface. As for hooks and split rings, spend the money on quality like owner trebbles and seahorse splitty's.

I recon all the fish know who you are now. They see that keel and skeg coming at them and they take off.

Good work mate. Just a caution on WD40. WD is a repelant and cleaning spray. So use it to clean everything up but do not rely on it to lubricate. It doesn't work as a lubricant. It may seem like it does but in actual fact it doesn't. It also likes to ruin rubber and plastic. When it comes to reassembling use an oil based lube. Lanolin or inox or even use a specific reel oil if you want. But lanolin or inbox does the job well. Some people use grease inside on the moving parts. I find this can create a stiffer winding action. Oil keeps everything moving free. I service my reels regularly. I do not have a reel younger than 12yrs old. My certate just turned 12 and is as strong as the day I got it. Replaced a few bearings and lost the plastic line retainer that lives on the spool, but the reel itself is rock solid. Also a good drag grease is something you should consider. Especially targeting threadies and jew from the shore. Yep, I grease carbon drag washers. Why? Partly to help with friction but to also fight off corrosion. You may lose a little of the maxed out drag on multi washer drag systems bit I have found my TLD'S with one washer get better max drag. Go figure, but it is super smooth at all settings. I would use erskines smoothy grease but that is not available anymore so I have found this one to be sufficient. Cals universal drag grease. I have nothing to do with this seller either. I just buy the grease. It works well, and for the cheaper end reels it works wonders on the drag systems. My young blokes cheap end Shakespeare now has a super smooth drag. Cheers. Damo.

Hahaha. The face says it all. Well done.

G'day young Hamish. I've read two of your reports and loving them pal. Very well written. Also including the gear and bait at the end is top notch. Well done. .with the reel you just scored (great catch btw) rip the side plate off and give it a clean and lube. Not a hard task. Youtube has plenty of vids....and spin reels are a piece of cake. Maybe check the drag washers out as well. Good luck and keep writing. Cheers Damo.

If you spot fish then the sounder has done its job. It is not going to tell you which direction they are travelling. That is why it is called fishing....not catching. Once you know the fish are there.. or around the area.....cast, burley, bait the crap out of it. It can take me sometimes 2hrs before I drop a line. I'll sound around till I get what I am looking for.....and after a while you'll be able to tell what fish are giving the returns. I can tell what most returns are just by the image on the screen. Snapps pearlies and reds have a very identifiable return. That takes a while to get the gist of though but with time you will learn.

200 kHz is for shallow water. Up to 100m or thereabouts. It pings quicker than 77khz. By ping I mean the clicking of the transducer...similar to dolphins clicking when they're sounding for food. An easier way to look at it is 200khz pings every half a second......77khz will ping every second and a half. That's why your picture looks faded on 77khz compared to 200khz. The information is just not coming back as quick as the 200khz is. That is why it is more for deep water. You can hear the pings if you pour some water over a glass table top and sit the transducer in it. Power up the unit and listen to the clicking. The transducer sends out a click/ping. It then waits for that ping to go down, hit the objects and return to the transducer. Solids will return quicker...softer surfaces will absorb some of the ping. That's how it determines the density of the object and relays it into the coresponding color. Red is hard....yellow soft etc. Sounders without chirp will only read 1 ping at a time. Chirp reads every ping all the time....hence the clearer picture. The sounder is processing so much more info with chirp. Splitting your screen and running the frequencies separate is not really going to help you. Running them together will because the sounder area is increased with the 77khz cone. If chirp is functioning then it will say it on the bottom of the screen around the kHz etc. Chirp is worth it imo. If you split your screen, try the full view on one side and zoomed view on the other. I set my zoom at about 10m and leave the depth range on auto. It will then follow the bottom in a zoomed view and the full screen view will pick up anything higher up in the water. Generally do this in depths greater than 25m otherwise just leave the full screen view. There is also bottom lock. Bottom lock will leave the ocean floor flat meaning it wont drop down and come up on the screen as the depth changes. It just has a flat return and all reefs etc will rise off the flat bottom. Handy for picking up fish inside reefs etc.

Down scan is a waste of time when looking for fish IMO. I prefer the traditional view for all structure and fish sounding activities. This can take me over an hr when I go out. Like you say...no point fishing a deserted spot. If you find a strange return that may resemble a wreck or something then yes switch to downscan for a better picture but for general sounding I find the traditional is the go. Can't help with settings as I do not use that brand but I'll pass on what I would do. From a guess you have 2 frequencies. 200khz is a 20deg cone and 50khz/80khz is a 60deg cone.....or thereabouts. 200khz is for shallow water with more pings. 50khz is for deeper water with fewer pings. Want to hear the pings? Pour water onto a flat sheet of glass, dining table works well. Power up the unit and plug the transducer in. Sit the transducer in the water on the glass. It will tick away (this is how to test a transducer if you think it is not working). Now set it to 50khz. Pings should be noticeably less. I would try them both frequencies together, then try 200 on its own. The gain should have an Auto setting. If the screen is still cluttered when set on auto then dial it back manually. You only need to go back enough until the screen clutter disappears. It's a fine line but you should have a clear screen with good returns of fish and structure. LEAVE FISH ID OFF. Do not use this. This function will not decipher between junk in the water and fish. All you get is a screen full of little fish pictures. A piece of weed or plastic bag will throw a different return than a fish. So leave the fish ID off. Cheers.

Redbait....maybe.

Not a problem at all. I had one mounted in the weather in my old boat. It was the echomap 90 (no chirp). Other than that it was the same unit. You'll love the garmin.

Yeah mate. For when sounding while you're on the move. It's how I find all my good spots. You would be able to get one of those hook 9s for a k. Echomap 9 in the garmin is a touch more.

Get the biggest screen you can imo. It may be a 7 inch screen but it's only a 3.5 inch GPS and fishfinder.

Well done. That is a great catch. I remember a vid of you last year catching them off the beach. What a rush. Cheers.

Cut old stubbie coolers down to width and slide over the spool. Do it for all my leader and spare spools.

FISHHH. Was that really 6lb line? Champion effort. I did hear 30lb towards the end but maybe that was the leader.

That was awesome. I did not realise hammer heads get that big.

Snapper are like flys at the moment. Anywhere from 20m out to the shelf. Good pearlies around the 60m to 80m line. Pillies are the preferred bait rigged on a float line setup. Plenty of good ground out there. Heaps of starter marks on the net. Get a few close to where you're heading and put in some time just sounding around.

Stupid boys. Look, I can say "I hope they're okay" however with the time frame you sorta have to face the inevitable. Currents, winds etc just on the first night would create a several hundred square klm search area let alone this far along. Hats off the all of the search crews as well. Tiring relentless job. I'm guilty of these shananigans myself in my younger years. Yes it is bloody stupid....but it's fun at the time. Unfortunately these fellas most likely have paid the ultimate price. I will say though that with the conditions on saturday we would have stayed well south of where they were and definitely wearing our jackets.

That unit will do the trick. In the creeks etc you may choose to use the sidescan but offshore it is not really worth it imo. I don't use downview either unless I want a clear picture of the structure. Fish returns are hard to pick up in deeper water. Stick to the traditional sonar. Some people like the white background but I prefer the blue for visual enhancement. In deeper water than 20m I split the screen with bottom lock or zoomed view. Make the depth range for bottom lock/zoom approx 10m. This will give you a clearer picture of what you're fishing and the fish returns are a lot clearer around the structure. Head out around Humpy and sound around.