Ed.

Try the 65lb line first and  see if it stops what you want, but if you are not sure if 65lb braid is strong enough then take an extra spool of stronger braid and re-spool the reel. Worst case scenario you don't have success on the first day. Bear in mind that the drag on the reel isn't as strong as that line itself so it should slip. Not to mention, that having that much drag on your rod without a harness and a gimble belt is going to hurt you big time especially with drag at max.

When I got my Makaira 30II  I put it on a 5'6" 37kg Ugly Stik Bluewater rod, I had put a top shot of heavy mono over the braid and cranked up the reels drag to sunset ( approx. 55lb) just to see how that rod would bend, I tied it off on a tree  and I am glad I had a harness and gimbal on otherwise if it was on a boat without them, I would risk serious back, groin/stomach  and arm problems after a very short while, not to mention there would be a good chance of having it pulled out of my hands.

There was an TV episode of "Big Angry Fish" recently (a few days ago) where the guys were trying to get GT's in Vanuatu, I don't know if you have watched any of their series, but these two guys work out and have arms the size of my leg, and after fighting a GT for about 45 minutes on that same sort of gear that you intend to use, Milan? who is the smaller of the two (he still has arms 3 times the size of mine) was absolutely buggered. So what I am basically saying is that 65lb braid on high drag without a harness or gimbal is hard and painful to hang on to and after 5 minutes you may wish that it would bust off.

9 minutes ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Hey Ed.

Looks like something worth investing in.. I will add them to the list if I need a baitcaster.

Cheers Hamish

The Squall's seem to be much more affordable than the Fathoms, I tried to find some reviews of the bait casters but I think it is too early. They also seem to have a supply problem as they don't seem to be available at the usual shops that sell Penn gear.

I had 8 Penn reels at one stage , 4 overheads and 4 spin, sold off 1 each as I just wasn't using those 2, so just 6 now, I like them  though,  good value for money and quite strongly built.

For those who are interested, I have just noticed that Penn have made a new range of Low Profile baitcaster reels in up to the 200 to 400 size. Haven't found too many stores that have them though, might be because of the Covid-19  problems in manufacturing and or delivering them to Australia. It is a pity that the Fathom range is fairly expensive, almost twice the price of their Fathom range of overhead reels. Don't know if they are any better than the current offerings from Daiwa, Abu, Shimano  and Okuma and are dearer than some of the other brands.

They do them in both the Fathom and also the Squall range which are about 1/2 the price of the Fathoms. The Fathoms have dual braking, an extra bearing and more drag and the Squall has only Magnetic braking,

https://www.pennfishing.com/collections/low-profile-baitcast-reels/products/fathom-low-profile-reel-1524835

https://www.pennfishing.com/collections/low-profile-baitcast-reels/products/squall-low-profile-reel-1524830

Those voltages don't sound right to me, on my current and also previous boats when the engine was running the voltage was 14V and dropped to about 12.6-12.8V  when it wasn't. The GPS/Sounder should use very little amperage as they usually only have a 3A fuse on them and that is probably way more than it actually requires. Depending on the size of  bilge pump, if it is about the 500G/H size it  also only uses about 2.5A. If the voltage was 12.39V and a couple of hours later on the charger at your home went up to a full charge, so either you have a very big charger or something else doesn't sound right. The electric trolling motor will drain the battery a lot though so best to have it on separate battery/batteries. If using one battery for all and if  the trolling motor drains the battery then it can't start your main motor then that is a problem.

Take it to someone who can do a battery drain check,  deep cycle or AGM batteries are a little bit different to flooded cell batteries, I once had one that read 13V at rest and supposedly fully charged till I put a small load on it and it went down to 3V within 5 sec. so charged it up again, repeated and the same result.

Yesterday I ordered another battery charger as I can't find one of the ones I had (the Projecta 8A ) and I  have a suspicion that I left it behind on my last trip at the rental property when we went up to 1770, anyway this new one will put out between 2A and 12A. It shouldn't hurt to charge up the batteries after each trip, especially the trolling motor battery.

I would be concerned if my AGM batteries went down to 11V as that would mean a good percentage of my charge was used up.

28 minutes ago, benno573 said:

this is roughly correct for AGM batteries.  my 125AH is about 38kg.  the badged 110aH i got from Peter @ Battery Value on Friday I think weighs in at 32kg so just a smidge under the 0.3/AH.

What brand is your 125AH battery?

1 hour ago, jon said:

It’s actually really common in Australia all around the country to use a treble hook at the tail end of a bait and a j hook through the nose especially when floating or trolling Livies. We call it a stinger. It is most commonly used for the exact purposes you talked of, chasing mackerel it is 100% legal. I always have a few light gauge single strand wire rigs with treble stingers made up when the mackerel are about

For that purpose it is but not a treble hook on it's own with no bait  as far as I know. Although I do not know how you would prove that there was  bait on the treble if the bait just got chewed off!

Thanks Benno573, at least they are still going, but still a bit of concern what jon said regarding the owners other different trading businesses being reborn under different names if that happened.

Although my last battery from them has now expired from warranty and the last battery I bought recently was from BCF  (Century 780) so not an issue any more for me although if I was to buy another Deep Cycle I most likely would still get one from them again.

There is one thing to be careful of  which is, it is illegal to use those treble hooks for jagging fish, this is where you use large trebles and cast through a school of fish and whip it back in an attempt to jag a fish, this includes baitfish. I think it is a $200 fine and I am fairly certain it could be an Australia wide law, on a lure, trebles they are fine, but not on their own. You would have to do some asking around to see if that applies to the state you intend to fish in if that is what you intend to use those treble hooks for.

3 minutes ago, jon said:

Cheers Benno And Nog I’ll give him a call and see what he’s got that’s a good price for a 110ah. I looked a bit further the owner of Aussie batteries has had six different companies in a few years and all have gone bust then pop up again under a new name.

 

As far as I know Aussie batteries has still been trading under it's name for about 9 years that I know of, but if the owner has other businesses that have had name changes then that is not a good sign at all!

5 hours ago, jon said:

How long did you get out of your batteries In General?

Jon, if your question was directed at me, the 150A one I sold with my last boat and it was still going strong and at least 5 years old, the 135A was about 4 years old when I had a problem, turned out it wasn't  being charged up enough, so had it put on a decent charger and so after a decent charge it is now still going strong.

benno573,  the company is still advertising so don't know about the belly up thing. As for rubbish reviews every product on the market will have rubbish reviews and rarely do you see enough good ones to judge them  but how many bad ones are out there will sway someone away from that brand. For me I can only go by my limited experience with that brand and the few I have had is no guarantee of their quality or if they are a problem. Too small a sample size.

A bit like my Jeep, after the first one which was a bit of a lemon I had to think very hard about getting another Jeep, but the second one has been the best car I have ever had. So at 50% excellent and 50% total rubbish.

The only AGM batteries I have ever used are the Giant Power brand from Aussie Batteries  up at Warana Qld. They don't seem too bad, and I only buy them on special which they do fairly often. I have used the 135A and the 150A ones. The 150A is a big battery and weighs about 41Kg, (150.0 AH/7.50A, 20hr,1.80V/cell,25°C) The last time I checked the 150A was upgraded to become a 160A. Whether or not they are better than other brands I couldn't say as I have only bought a couple over the last 8 years or so. They have a 1 year replacement warranty and another 4 years pro-rata.

2 hours ago, Another Wazza said:

Oh what a slippery dark path it is, and heaven forbid Kat gets the taste of using a nice overhead, it’s all down hill from there.....

Perhaps one of you fine gentlemen down her way should introduce those to Kat, that will really confuse her.  Spinning reels or baitcasters/overheads that will be  the decision. So many choices.

Sorry Kat couldn't resist.

I actually started off with baitcasters, then on to overheads but spinning reels also have their place and I only own 3 of those now but those don't get much use.

It gives us a chance to catch up and relax so small price to pay, besides its only once a fortnight and she goes to the Gym about 3-5 times a week and I do like like Coffee and Cake. We have an exceptional place we regularly visit which has fabulous home made cakes. So have to support the local store and I am willing to take one for the team!

Some items you have to feel the item to appreciate whether they are good or not suitable. Rods in particular , most of the main rods makers are terrible in respect to where the guides are located on the blank. I have seen some from even the likes of Shimano, Daiwa and Shakespeare  where the guides are out by 15-20 degrees to where they are supposed to be. Or not enough guides so under load the line will rub on the blank. Not so much an issue with spinning rods but critical on overhead rods.  Same goes for reels whilst some may look good on specs and on the advertising blurb, some of them, the way they feel and operate just grate on my nerves when turning the reel, with loud anti reverse dawgs making a constant racket and some just feel much better when in your hand.

Stores such as BCF do not carry the full range of the brands they sell, so they only stock what they think will be popular and ignore the other models, hence I like to go and see what each has and whats new, I take the misses to the Gym occasionally so have an hour or 2 to kill before picking her up and going for a "Coffee and cake" afterwards. So in my area there are the Big 3 stores within 5 minutes of each other so I kill the time and do the rounds. Usually I do some research and know what I want to buy before going to get it anyway.

If that is the service you get from them in that store  then fair enough, but not my experience with some of their other stores.

Yes they will, but I would prefer to buy from the store that has them on special, helps to support them, if they are willing to drop their prices regularly then that is good for the customers. BCF usually charges full retail unless it is on special and then their prices are usually still higher then their competitors normal price.

Gets rid of loops/minimizes them from the line (big spool) when casting as far as I know but I have never used an Alvey.

If you want to save some money narrow down the reel/rod you like and check out the prices from the various stores , also E-Bay is good to get a feel for what those items are being offered at as most stores nowadays have an online presence. For example my Penn Spinfisher VI2500LL is selling for $219 at BCF and at Dinga you can get it for $160 including free delivery if you sign up for a free membership. My Okuma Makaira 50W was $540 at Freddys and everyone else had it close to $850, so look around and save some cash.

Last time I went to BCF was about a week ago and their range had diminished greatly due to Covid-19 and unable to get new stock from China?.

Personally I rarely just go to BCF only, especially if your budget is tight, they are rarely the cheapest and often are more expensive. I would go to them to check out what they have and then also check out Freddys, Outback Adventures, Anaconda and any others that are near you. Everyone will stock a slightly different range and have different prices for the same gear, in some cases the price difference can be huge for the same item.

As Hamish said,  practice... However if you use circle hooks you need to wait for the fish to swallow it before setting the hook.  so you may need to let the fish run and then set the hook slowly, that is one scenario where live liners are great.

You can sometimes tell by the fight the fish gives you, head shakes, a slow constant peel of line, tail slaps, comes with experience but it is still a best guess as each fish fights different. Setting a hook is also different as each fish will be different so again a best guess. Some fish if you don't strike at the first nibble you will loose your bait, others if you do that you will pull the bait and the unset hook out of their mouth. It comes with practice, you win some and you lose some.