Ed.

I have gone through a few thermo's in my day and most were underwhelming to say the least. Either fragile with mirrored vacuumed glass on the inside to stainless ones that just didn't keep the heat in. I then bought a genuine "2L Thermos" due to the fact that we ditched the old non genuine one we had in frustration, that one would not keep the water hot for any length of time (4-5 hours at most), and I must say that I am very impressed with this genuine Thermos, with out preheating it or anything, I just put in boiling water (1.8L) and after 36 hours I couldn't leave my finger in it for more an second or so, as it was too hot. Having said that if you are out fishing for a few days, depending on if you are staying onboard a boat, a small gas heater and a pot would be my next go to for coffee, plus having one on board you could also do a small hot meal as well as coffee. On my old 26ft'er we had a 3 burner portable camping stove connected with a gas bottle so hot food and coffee were sorted, had to keep the misses happy! On a smaller boat, a smaller burner would still do fine. Plus added bonus that if you catch a fish, it can go straight on to a pan. Doesn't get much fresher than that.

Would like to but unfortunately no longer living locally so will have to pass on it. Cheers Ed

Not having fished off the Sydney rocks, I and probably many others here would also not know what size Kingfish are around that area. So to recommend a rod and reel setup without knowing what the target size and or budget is a bit hard.

What budget do you have for the complete outfit and what size fish are you hoping to target? This is because there is a huge variation in getting a high end setup and a lower spec'ed one. They range from "yes I can afford that,......... to how many kidneys do I have to sell). Often a lower spec'ed one will be completely adequate and you won't need to sell your kidneys! So just need to know your price range and what size/species you are targeting.

I suppose it will be no different to the Shimano or Okuma warranty with similar conditions.

For those who may be interested, just received an email from Penn saying that they are now offering 10 year warranties on all their reels purchased after July 1st 2022. Pity all mine were bought before that date!, but still, it is a good thing for those looking to buy a new one. Cheers Ed.

Looks like you all had fun on that trip, what time of the year did you go to get the calm winds? I live now in Hervey Bay and it seems to blow continuously up here.

The actual pipe is cheap, it's the labour that is required to dismantle a heap of engine parts just to get to it, as my vehicle is a compact SUV there is stuff all room for anything under the bonnet or room to work on the engine. Last time I had the manifolds replaced, I went and fitted an Oil Catch can after I got the vehicle back, it took almost 1.5 hours just to fit it in there, not including the time to make a custom made bracket to hold it in place, that Catch Can is 110mm x 220mm in size and will only fit in one spot under the bonnet and even then it is a tight squeeze under several pipes.

"relatively simple/cheap fix", is such a broad term, it will still cost $1070, still it is better than I expected, although they are only replacing part of the coolant pipe, so don't know what that implies.

Just got an update, looks like they will repair the Jeep by Thursday and so I will be jumping on board the train back up there on Thursday night. Yay, another sleepless night sitting upright for 9 hours. Bit cheesed off that they said it would be 2 weeks before they could even look at it. If they had said a few days, we could have hung around and at least got to do the rest of the trip, we cancelled everything so we could get some of our money back, now it's too late to get the bookings back. I suppose I should be grateful that they can repair it quickly but it could have been handled better.

Actually my wife did for the trip from Mackay but the times were about the same and the prices were double the train fare. Apparently, Greyhound have an 1.5 hour layover somewhere on that trip. At least on the train you can get up and walk from one carriage to the next and they have a coffee/nibbles section, also you can watch movies at the back of the seat facing you. Anyway, it will all depend on the availability of getting a bed on it at short notice. Once the school holidays are over, I might have a better chance.

Well back home now after a 10 hour trip on the train in an upright position as all the bed seats were taken. That was very tiring as I couldn't sleep in that position. Now I just have to go back to Mackay to pick up the Jeep when it gets fixed in 3-6 weeks time, again by train, stay overnight and then drive back home over 1-2 nights. We are now trying to book all those trips and fishing charters back for next year.

Thanks guys.

Left Mackay at 6:00am and got home about 4:15pm today, unloaded all the gear from the hire car, will have to leave by 5:30am in the morning to drive back to Mackay to return the hire car. So pretty tired at the moment, have booked the train from Mackay which leaves at 7:56pm to return us to Hervey Bay next morning. All the sleeping beds were booked out due to school holidays, so we will have to sit up overnight. This is our best solution for us as at least we won't have to drive back the same day as I would have to get the missus to follow me up in her car and then drive back. I will have to look at the RACQ Ultimate policy when I get some more time.

Yep on the Jeep, it's a convoluted cooling system also involving the turbo, which may involve removing the manifolds to get to the valley part of the motor block as there is a coolant hose in there as well, which also means removing the fuel lines which are a one off use type so they have to be replaced as well, those could take a couple of weeks to 6 weeks to source, and so it goes on and on. So depending where the leak started it will be two weeks before they can even look at it let alone order the required parts. Hence the reason we can't be waiting around.

Between hiring a car and new accommodation, it would cost many thousands more on top of the cost of the repairs. Knowing Jeep the parts may be available in that time frame but probably not so it may drag on for much longer, so we are cutting our losses and returning home to wait. It would add about $4K plus fuel just to to hire a car to complete our holidays all the way up to Cairns and back to Mackay, so no go.

Well we can't take a trick, another holiday has been trashed. Missus and I left yesterday to go north. Stayed overnight in Rockhampton and continued North to stay at Airlie Beach for a week, it was to be followed by 2 nights at Mission beach and a week in Cairns with a couple of fishing charters booked out of Port Douglas and a snorkelling trip to McKay Cay. Just before we got to Mackay we stopped for a coffee, when we got back to the car there were several litres of coolant under our car. Managed to get to a Jeep dealer in Mackay who checked our car and said that they were booked out for 2 weeks and also the parts were not readily available. We managed to hire a RAV4, and transferred all our gear to it, we now staying overnight in Mackay and heading home early morning to unload. We then have to drive back to Mackay on Sunday with the wifes car following as well to return the hire car, then return home again in the wifes car. Followed by a repeat performance and to pick up the repaired car a few weeks later. So we have lost the money on the accommodation, the hire car, fuel and several thousands on the repairs. To say that I am cheesed off would be an understatement. I am investigating the possibility of catching a train back on Sunday night which would save my wife from driving all the way to Mackay and back in her car which would be better. Anyway, it is what it is so just have to accept it. This will be the third anniversary holiday in a row that we have had to cancel.

15-20cm works for me as well, the distance from the sinker to the bottom hook also varies depending on how high I want the hook above the bottom to avoid the bottom pickers, easier from a boat, not easy if you have to cast the rig out. If I am in a current and from a boat and you lower the jig slowly the current tends to keep the hooks apart, but better to have the distance between the hooks greater than the length of the two droppers so the hooks don't tangle with each other especially if your casting. Using heavier line makes the dropper loops stick out better but also makes the line much more visible to the fish, so a bit of a trade off there. When live baiting I generally only use one hook but occasionally add a stinger hook through the tail if it is a big bait.

A paternoster rig with 2 drop loops as in the pic. Just make sure that the 2 hooks are far enough apart that they can't hook each other. I also like to use a bit of light line between the bottom swivel (or loop) and the sinker so if you snag the sinker on the bottom, it will be much easier to break the sinker off and not lose all the hooks and part of the main line. Just make sure that the light line is strong enough, so you don't snap it when casting and lose the sinker before it even hits the water.

Excellent fish Kat!!

Thanks guys, hopefully I will have some pics to share afterwards.

Looking forward to my road trip next month, we will be staying at Airlie Beach for a week and then off to Port Douglas for another week. Booked a sailing trip to White Haven Beach and then two full day fishing trips from Port Douglas on the MV Norseman, plus a snorkeling trip in between those trips to the McKay Cay. So I will be going through my gear and deciding what to take and what I can fit into the back of the Jeep. With any luck I might catch a few fish to take home. Hope it doesn't turn into one of those "you should have been here last week" scenarios! Been a long time coming, so really hoping the weather is good and all goes well.

Personally, I think that might be a tad optimistic, I would be hedging towards late September/early Oct., although you are further north than me, so who knows!

For myself, I think it is the old age bit.

Yeah, I noticed that, we got 26C today in Hervey Bay but for the next 7 days it's back to low 20's.