Ed.

There is nothing like an intermittent problem to cheese you off! If something stops you can find out what it is, but when it comes and goes, but runs normally most of the time, it becomes a nightmare to track it down. Mine took a couple of years and a few trips to the mechanics without success. It was only when I took the fuel bulb off as I needed to rearrange things due to putting in a larger battery in the battery compartment that I noticed my issue.

There is another thing you can try, I had a 150HP XS Pro Merc on my last boat and had a range of problems for a while, wouldn't get high revs and when run at say 4300 RPM plus for a while (20 minutes or so) it would suddenly loose power for a split second and then continue as if nothing was wrong, however at a slower rev speed it would work fine all day long. Turns out that where the fittings such as fuel filters and fuel bulb went in to the fuel hose I had a small blockage. The fuel line I had (grey line), had a plastic liner and where the fitting pushed into the fuel line, it had sort of pushed and scrunched the plastic away from the line and it turned it into a small blockage. There was enough fuel going past it to run the motor normally but when hitting 4300 RPM it would not go past it for any length of time, after a long sustained run at higher revs the blockages were starving the engine of fuel to a point of it not being able to reach or maintain the higher revs for any length of time and also to miss a beat or two every now and then. As this motor was overpowered for my boat I usually didn't travel normally at higher than 4100 RPM for any length of time, as it meant I was travelling way too fast for my liking and the conditions, so rarely did the problem occur. Took it to the marine mechanics a couple of times and they couldn't find any issues as they didn't run the motor at high revs or long enough in the tank, so everything came up as normal and there wasn't any error codes showing up on the scans. It could be a long shot, but just take off the fittings and check inside the line ends to see you might have a similar problem. Not sure if the black fuel line has a similar liner to the grey fuel line I had. It is worth a shot as it won't cost you anything to check. Hope this helps. Cheers Ed.

I have never flipped a Cat but from what I have seen, the rigging is fine after righting it back up, new these cats are reasonably expensive but used ones seem to be quite affordable (4K to 10K). A lot of these sailers who enter comps try to get the latest designs/models, so they sell off their used ones reasonably cheaply. Cheers Ed.

A lot of the pure graphite rods are prone to do this, get your self a Gold/Bluewater series Ugly Stik as those ones are almost indestructible, their latest Carbon ones will/might have the same issues as what you experienced but the Gold/Bluewater series ones were very resistant to breaking.

As for getting caught out in the surf or sloppy bay conditions, I would rather be on one of these than in a kayak as a lot of these cats can do up to 20 knots in those conditions. Personally I am not that brave but it would be nice to know that that they are much safer than a kayak in those conditions if you get caught out. A lot of cat clubs actually have sailing competitions in those conditions.

Unfortunately no, I only have very limited knowledge of these sort of small craft and that was a long time ago, I have sailed some small Hobies on the swan river in Perth when I was younger and also kayaks, and between the two, multi hulls with a sail beat the mono hull kayaks for ease of travelling and crossing distances and stability, they do come with compromises, in that from a fishing point of view you have a mast and boom to avoid with the rods and also the associated ropes and pulleys. However, you can travel at a much greater speed and can cover greater distances with virtually no effort provided there is any sort of breeze around. Comparing them with a kayak which would barely do 4-5 knots and which you would not be able to do speed that more than a minute or so, but kayaks are more manoeuvrable in tight spaces such as in creeks and mangrove areas, and only a few restrictions for fishing. In my opinion, kayaks are more suited to close to shore activities. I have often contemplated building a 20ft or so GRP sailing cat (but with an expanding hull for ease of towing) similar in size to the Nacra 6.0 or the Hobie 20ft but have left it a bit late in my life to do that sort of thing, also a small 5HP outboard for backup in case the wind died completely. However, used models are relatively affordable and I could modify one for more of a fishing use with a trampoline in the front as well, but it would still have the restrictions due to mast, boom and lines to avoid which I could work around and I could live with that. Have a look at these sort of cats, although these are much bigger physically than the Hobie Adventure Island that "ubnt" mentioned in his opening post. So even if you don't fish from them you will still have a lot of fun sailing them, but overall in my view, these sized ones are much safer if you venture out into more open waters as the old saying goes, bigger is better!

Could be an very old Savage boat (approx 50 years ago) but not sure if they made any with stern drive legs.

Now, that's a Barra!!!

ubnt: No need to be embarrassed, better to ask and find out before hand then find out the hard way when it is too late and your 15km off shore in 2m seas. The Hobie would be better than the kayak as it is a lot more stable and you get more speed due to the wind pushing you, which would result in less time spent in the middle of the bay, you also wouldn't wear yourself out as quickly as paddling a kayak, having said that, I still wouldn't do it in either. Cheers

My 2 cents is also the same as others here, do what Junky said above. No amount of fish is worth that risk, it is a bloody long way between those two points (31Km) and then you have the return journey to tackle. Between the winds, tides and current changes, very sloppy and big sea conditions that can whip up very quickly not to mention it is about a 62km round trip without any other paddling around. If you do it, there will be a good chance that you will end up being talked about in the news, and not in a good way!

The Penn Spinfisher Liveliners are a little bit heavier than the standard version and they are pretty well sealed against salt water ingress, you don't have to use the liveliner function if you don't want to, and in which case you can just use it the same as a standard reel. I also have 5 of them, 2 x 2500, 1x 4500, 1x 6500, 1x 8500 and obviously prefer them to the standard reels. Just my opinion though, go to a store and try one out. The Penn Spinfishers have a tiny bit more resistance turning the handle compared to some other brands because of all the seals, but I quite like the feel, very good drags and they aren't as flimsy like some other brands in the same size. They are also a few steps up in the model range compared to the SSM models hence the dearer price. The Spinfishers also are also available in a non liveliner version too. One thing though is, that if you want to buy a Penn neoprene reel cover for the Liveliner models then you will need the next size up. ie; 2500 and 4500 will require the "large" cover.

If no one wants them in one more week I will be binning them. Cheers Ed.

Giveaway to existing members only: I have 3 x 8" black rubber new Keel rollers (for fibreglass boats) that I don't want, and there are also a couple of used blue Polyurethane rollers (for ally boats) of various sizes. Pickup from Ningi Qld., only. PM me or just reply in this post if you would like them. Cheers Ed.

Try this link: https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/covid-19 it should be half way down the page. I just rang Sealink, you don't have to be vaccinated to go to Straddie but you do if you want to camp there or enter any of the Sealink cafe's Cheers Ed

Thanks Brian, unfortunately, just found out that the Co-Vid restrictions of visiting Fraser will rule us out of going there, I think the same for Stradbroke, will just have to find another place to visit. Cheers Ed.

Nice videos Benno, what part of Morton Island is the camp site in? Are the rocks where you were fishing far from it? Thinking about going over for a quick camping trip with the missus.

So how did it go?

So party, party, party at your place eh!

@christophagus has a good long write up at the start of this post which explains his choice of reel size vs shark size, primarily the bigger the shark the bigger the reel. So it all depends on what sized shark you expect/hope to catch in the area you intend to fish in. Realistically, if all the sharks that are caught in that area that you are fishing in are small, then probably no point in a large size reel, occasionally you might get smoked but a smallish reel should handle most of the smaller sharks, with a bit more sport/fun rather than skull dragging them in with a large reel. If however you go to a surf beach or mouth of a large river system where larger sharks are cruising and caught then opt for a bigger reel. As you said "Spinfisher" you are referring to Penn reels so a 6500 sized reel should provide a happy compromise for larger sharks (does not mean really large sharks) whilst still be able to be used for general fishing such as for Macks, Trevally, Mullaway etc. That model range goes up to the 10500 size which are a really large reel. My preference are the Liveliners in the Penn Spinfisher range as they allow you to let the shark run then with just a little drag then strike with a full preset drag. If you do go for a larger spinning reel, then make sure you get a rod that is designed for larger reels, ie; the guides are spaced in the right positions and are of the right size so you get minimal line slap when casting. But if you are setting your sights on large to really large sharks then overheads would be the way to go, provided you are fishing in an area where they hang out regularly. They will not cast anywhere near as far as spinning reels but are better to use in my opinion. This is just my 2 cents worth. Cheers Ed.

Is this your main home now or just a holiday house?

Nice, you should be able to do some ballooning for sharks from the Amity point rock wall with those reels you are about to buy! Commuting back and forth to the mainland might be a bit expensive though or do locals get a special rate?

That will still happen, the Real Estate agent is lining up a group of people to do an inspection in the next two weeks or so, it is mainly my issue as I need to empty out the house a bit and clear up quite a bit of stuff around the house and need some time to do it. This rain is not helping! Apparently our agent has heaps of people looking for acreage in our area. The sale fell through because the buyer found out the council wouldn't sub-devide our property which is why he cancelled it. The Elliot Heads area up there is quite nice, which has a large clean sandy beach and river mouth and apparently there is approval to spend about 2.5 Billion dollars developing that area. It looks quite "fishable" but the development may make that area too populated for my liking.

Looks like the sale of our property fell through, we were driving back from Bundaberg looking at places to buy when our Real estate agent rang and notified us. Fortunately we hadn't decided on a place yet. The 3 acre property we went to look at up there would have been great, except for the serious drainage issues it had on 2 out of those 3 acres. So I suppose it was just as well we didn't put a deposit on it!

That could be a mistake, do your friends actually know how to use the gear? If not, you may have to show them how to use it first!