Ed.

Apparently neither do I.

I used to have two big AGM batteries on the last boat and switched batteries overnight, either one could start the motor on its own, and one of them was the current battery that has gone faulty now. The other one went with the boat. As for buying the biggest battery I could afford, I just did as I was told it would be fine, till I got conflicting advice!

I would prefer to get another battery if that was the case (which I probably should do anyway but finances are a bit tight at the moment). Just paid for the boat repair and accommodation for 10 days at Agnes Water, the new battery and various upgrades to the boat for this trip.

When you got the boat and motor were you told to use both batteries to start or was it just a personal preference?

Just found a pic of your boat, you have the bigger 4 stoke version of the one I have, mine is a 150HP 2 stroke and if your batteries have 900 on the sides it probably relates to the CCA rating so much bigger than the battery I got so can't compare them. As I said the battery states that it is good for up to 350HP so it should be fine (famous last words) . I was thinking about taking my old one as a spare even though it is knacked it still starts the engine fine but don't really want to do that it as is another 34KG to drag around.

Are they really big batteries and do you start the motor with both batteries or just the one?

Hi Greg, when I got that 135AH AGM battery I had a 26ft boat with a 8.1L V8 420HP in it, when I got rid of that boat I put that battery into this one however this battery is supposed to be good for engines up to 350HP with it and has a 780CCA rating so don't know that 20CCA would make that much of a difference as my motor requires 800CCA, however this battery meets the 1000MCA rating that my motor requires. I spoke to a Mercruiser mechanic and he said, no problem. I tried to find out what size motor you have on your boat but couldn't find it, from memory I seem to recall you have a largish outboard on your boat, if you do, what size is your battery?

Checked out the CAT 175-4390 battery price but there were about $48 dearer (even with a 15% discount) than the Century but only came with a 12 month warranty so I put a Century Marine Pro 780 on lay-by and will pick it next next fortnight. Got the battery for $211 from BCF on a price match to Batteries Direct, ended up about $80 less then BCF's normal price. This battery is small compared to the 135A AGM that it is replacing but should do the job as I only have a small 150HP outboard to start.

As I am intending to go offshore in a few weeks time I decided to test my battery, as I had a suspicion that something was not quite right with it, which is just as well I did as it is almost dead. Funny thing is it charges up OK so I didn't think there was anything wrong with it but did get a low voltage warning on my MFD after starting the motor, most likely a dead cell in it. My existing battery is a 1100CCA size but measured when tested at 55CCA so not good, dodged a bullet by testing it. So today will be going to order a new battery. Most likely will get the Century Marine Pro 780 as it is on a good special at the moment but will also drop in on the way and see about the Cat batteries before I do, as I have heard good things about them. I inquired about those years ago but at the time they were more expensive than the alternatives, they aren't classified as a marine battery but they are much more vibration fortified than average, which is what a marine battery is, otherwise I will get the Century battery.

Same happened to me, caught a cold, rang the doc to see if I needed antibiotics in case I get a secondary infection due to my heart valve requirements, (yes, I know Anti-biotics don't work on viruses) but need antibiotics to even just see a dentist, anyway told that legally they can't see me as anyone with any respiratory symptoms has to be seen in one of these superclinics. So rock up to the nearest one with my wife, and they want me to get tested for Covid-19 even though I don't have all the symptoms, so I say sure, and now I need to go into isolation till I get the result. Well isolation for me is just a pretty normal day for me so no dramas, thing is, they didn't test my wife at all, so go figure, if the virus is as infectious as it is supposed to be then they should have tested her as well. Maybe they were thinking that if mine was positive then they would test her afterwards, still a dumb idea not to test her and put her in isolation as well. Anyway got a text message next morning saying that I was negative, well that is no surprise! As I said I have a cold. But they seem to want to treat every case as a Covid-19 infection. Waste of time and resources in my opinion, all the other hundreds of bugs and viruses haven't magically disappeared just because Covid-19 made an appearance. That is what triage is for. If i don't have the all symptoms then why test. Considering there are no active cases in Queensland I would have a higher chance of winning lotto then this virus! Anyway still have my cold and now the missus has it as well. Rant over!

Hey Hamish, tell them you are interested in becoming a Fishing writer/presenter so that way they are contributing to your knowledge and by getting a bigger boat you will experience and gain new knowledge which will contribute to your career! So it will be an investment in your education, not to mention quality time with the family (you know the father/son bonding thing) Don't be shy about laying a small guilt trip on him occasionally if he doesn't bite! As your dad will be operating it it will mean that he is also contributing to your knowledge and seamanship so in effect ensuring your safety later on when you get your own boat! It's worth a shot!!

Don't forget to mention that the more skills you will develop on your boat the more life skills you can pass on to your kids setting them up to be independently able to forage for their own food, teaching them about survival skills, reading the weather and it's consequences, increasing their knowledge and appreciation of the environment around them, lastly you need the biggest boat you can afford as it will be much safer and more comfortable for them all. Just don't mention when you are actually going to take the kiddies out. Which could be a while as you need to learn all these skill so the family will be safe when you eventually take them out! Look at this way if you get the kiddies enjoying themselves on the boat it will work to your advantage too, the kids will want to go out on the boat frequently, the missus will come along to look after them and you will also get fed in the process, and whilst they are enjoying the shallows on some beach you will be at the other end with a rod in your hand. A win/win situation, and quality family time together(for the most part). Besides @Old Scaley, it's not lying, it is just being selective in what you tell her and just manipulating the facts to fit the story! and isn't that the main requirement for staying married!!!

That's makes 2 of us. , although I am a bit hesitant in eating Coral Trout as I had a dose of Ciguatera about 20 years ago and once you have had it you are always susceptible to it, and Coral Trout, Queenfish and Spanish Mackerel frequently have it especially the large ones, but a nice Red or Spangled Emperor I wouldn't say no to!

Mine was a different problem, I had plenty of oil but as the sensor was faulty, it told the motor there was little oil, as the alarm speaker was also faulty it did not give me any sound alarms either, it's a bit like if the engine temp sensor was faulty and reading hot when your motor was really normal temp, it would do the same. The modern engines all rely on sensors so when one gives an incorrect reading, the motors are designed to try to save themselves. On the other hand should the temp sensor fail completely and if the motor did over heat for some reason then it would allow the engine to keep running till it seized up. I supposed mine was the lessor of two evils! All these newer motors have a heap of sensors which can go faulty.

I should have also pointed out that if you have a reel that has a 10kg drag capacity and you put on 4kg line, when a big fish comes along and starts to pull line off your reel, and you try to stop it by cranking the reels drag up to 10kg, once the stretch of the line is used it will break the line, all things being considered with regards to the true actual line strength as mentioned in my previous post. You also have to take in consideration of how much line you have let out, how much line is left on the spool as they will also influence on when your line will snap. So if you are down to 1/3rd of line left on your spool, your drag will have automatically increased considerably from when the spool was full, secondly having a big belly of line in the water will also add to the drag on the line as well as the angle of the line. So these factors have to be considered and you need to adjust your drag accordingly when you fight a fish other wise your line may break.

Zander Mate: These measurements are only just a guide for how much line of that size you should be able to put on the reel to fill it up. Which is a bit misleading as 1) The manufactures are usually a bit optimistic in the capacity and 2) lines from different manufacturers can have different diameters for the same strength line. As in a 30lb rated line from one manufacturer might be 0.60mm thick, another brand may be 0.50mm and another brand may be 0.43mm, so there is a huge variation in the the amount of "30lb line" that a reel can take to fill it up, so obviously the thicker the line, the less line you can put on to fill up a spool. The other thing to be aware of is the actual line class that is stated. "Test" line is guaranteed and designed to break at slightly less than the stated capacity (for record making purposes) ie; a 30lb test line might break at 28.9lb, and it is usually stated on the Line spool what it is, whereas general run of the mill line may do the same or it could break at double what it is rated it. Other things to be aware of is, that most, but not all reel manufacturers will use mono as the standard for line capacity, but some will use line breaking strain and some will use line physical diameter and lastly some will use braid as the standard as it is thinner and their reels will appear to hold more line than a comparable size reel, or a combination of all the different measurements to just add to the confusion. As the saying goes; the devil is in the details! That is why you may see claims by line manufacturers of "ours is the strongest 30lb line"... That is because it's not 30lb line, it's possibly 40-50lb line but advertised as 30lb line! So at the end of the day it is a bit of a guessing game and just a marketing ball park figure to describe the reel capacity. If you put on a stronger line than the capacity stated you should not " break" the reel. what will happen is that if you for argument sake, you put on 24kg braided line on a 2000 size reel which may only have a drag capacity of let say 5kg, the most that will happen if you wind in the drag to max, will be that the reel will hold the spool from spinning and letting out line till it reaches its max of 5kg, then the spool will slip as you have exceeded the reels 5Kg max drag max and it will start to let line out. Now that fish may stop before you run out of line or it may keep going. If it keeps going then will happen is that if it is a big fish that can pull 24kg of drag on a long run it will keep taking out line till you get spooled and then it is just the knot on the spool that is holding the line, as that particular reel is only a 2000 but you have 24kg pulling on it then yes it may break, the other situation where it may break is if you grab the spool with your hand to stop being spooled then you will still have 24kg pull on the reel and it may break as well. Hope this explains it better. Cheers Ed.

FishyBoy184: If you are after some fish in the XL size and have a live bait tank setup on board, it would certainly make your day interesting to float out a live bait on a balloon and wait whilst you do some bottom bashing. 5-10m down should do the trick! A bit like dangling a carrot and ringing the dinner bell to see who's hungry in the area. You will often see bait clouds on many of the reefs there so just use a Sabiki style jig to fill your tanks with live bait , you might also loose your jig when something takes a liking to the bait on your jigs as you pull them up so have a few spare. Cheers Ed.

I have trolled there a couple of times, caught a nice Amberjack from there but that was about 20 years ago, last time I went to that area I got spooled by something that didn't want to stop. Unfortunately I had put the 50W away and was just using a small Daiwa Saltist ST20 just bottom bashing as it was a slow day, otherwise it might have been a different story, although at the time and even now I suspect that I might have snagged a whale as there a heap of them there that day. Not that a 50W would have stopped one of those, it was one of those slow runs that didn't build up speed, no shakes, nothing, just kept going and going like something that didn't even know it had been hooked. It's one of those things that I like about fishing that side and also north of Morton Island, you never know what you are going to get.

Just check your sounder and see what you can spot on it, It's been a while since I fished there last , I was actually heading out there about two weeks ago and got within about 15 minutes of there and my motor went into limp mode so had to do a U'Turn and crawl home. But that shoal has everything from big palagic to bottom dwellers.

You can pretty much do the lot, from bait to jig to plastics and even troll around using big lures. You never know what you will get there.

Try 26.56.40 S and 153.29.20 E , that will put you in the area, just look for all the boats. You can't fish within 500m of Flinders Reef but you can outside this zone.

Isn't there a snapper ban till middle of the August!

I had a heated discussion about this on the other forum I frequent, unfortunately I think that we are only delaying the inevitable, human nature of a minority group will always ignore advice and so in the end I think that it will become widespread here as well, although not to the degree that it has happened in VIc and NSW, possibly in Brisbane and other big cities. The biggest problem for the government was the inconsistent and sometime stupid rules that they applied and people got fed up then ignored all of the enforcement's that were put out. I think that it is only a matter of time, but do we want to bankrupt the entire economy in the process or take our chances?

Like others have said and IMO as well, it is also way too small. Yes, you may be able to do that, but that doesn't mean you should, If you have no room for it then see if you can store it somewhere, maybe at a mates place. The sea is a fickle place it might be flat as a tack one day and getting out may be a breeze, but it can also turn on you very quickly and you may get caught, with boating it is not a matter of if, but when!

Yep, it costs to be a good granddad, you know the old saying, "no good deed goes unpunished" But think of it this way, time on the water with the family is "priceless!" These memories cannot be bought so get them whilst you still can!