Huxstang

Paw paw

Very valuable lesson for us all. Summer storms can come through with winds well over 100kph quite easily. Keeping a weather eye out and hastening a retreat to shore quickly or at least getting in and hiding somewhere safe is a priority. I think running yourself aground on an island is preferable to the alternative.

EWWW well I guess I wont use my local ramp for a week or so to make sure I dont hook something nasty on the prop.

Nice work. Weather is definitely unsettled. Hope we get a run of decent weather soon

No, but motor is completely isolated from the sounders. They run off house bank and lithiums up front are isolated and only charged via 240v at this point, batteries are 12v 100ahr running into a Victron 12/24 50amp DC DC converter. Have heard of people having same interference problems with MK on Garmin sounders…no idea if its on other brands of sounders as well….only follow the Garmin forums. But from what I have read the problem is where you have a multibank 240v charger across house and troll banks. Will see how I go with regards battery life and wire in a DC-DC from the motor if it looks like I cannot do a 10hr day without charging. I’d run a solar but side console means no permanent roof to put a panel onto.

Yeah they are not low priced that is for sure. Reaility is that within a few hundred of a similar MK. $6190 is what a mate just paid in Townsville and a MK on sale seems to be @ $5900 for a 72”. Mine was cheaper but I had bought another $9k of gear at the same time. These latest generation leccys are certainly a step up, be interesting to see what the new brushless versions of the MK are like as well - but they will be as much as the Garmins in price. Ultimately I think it comes down to the type of electronics you run. I wanted to interface everything together - actually wanted the leccy mounted side scan transducer as well…but lets not get started on that saga.

Its a 75” which is just right for my boat. Garmins use brushless motors so they can be run as either 24v 80lb or 36v 100lb. Held super easy….actually the spot lock was next level good. I will have to video it to be able to show how good it is….they dont have so much a job feature as a move on spot lock…so using any of the direction arrows on spot lock just press it as many times in any direction as you want to go…move 20m left hit the left arrow 20 times etc…also does gesture steering but I havent tried that. With tide at full flow we just sat with no discernable movement at all. Happy to show you some time if you want after Xmas.

Well after 6 months wait and a change in the order my new Garmin Kraken trolling motor finally arrived (well not the one I ordered but thats a long story). Fitted it up yesterday and mate and I decided to get it in the water and calibrate it and maybe flick a few plastics. Launched at about 8.30a at Colmslie as neither of us felt the need to get up for the top of the tide and it was really just a play with the motor. Got the motor calibrated fairly easily and it’s definitely a great motor (it would want to be at the price!). Flicked a few around the gateway but other than a shark coming up beside the boat not much to be seen. Headed down stream, had a few flicks around Clara Rocks with a couple of touches and then went over to the rock wall opposite Boat Passage (I think that is the name) and had a good hit without conversion. As the tide turned went back to Clara Rocks and locked onto a solid squire at 54cm. Was using a 3.5” Z Man GOAT with a BKK 3/8th oz jig. That was about it. Overcast and a few showers kept the temps down.

Given the relative diameters of braided lines and the sensitivity they bring I dont really know if you need to change line weights on a reel between fishing adventures. I just change the leader diameter to suit the style of fishing. Same Shimano 3000 size reel with 16lb braid can fish whatever leader you choose - and survive most fish in say Moreton Bay. Go up to a SW reel and load it with 30 or 40lb line and just change leader from flouro to shock or a hard nylon depending on what you are chasing. That said I subscribe to Ellicat’s rule of - just have more reels and rods. Then you can fill the boat up with rods, trip over them, curse the lack of space in your boat but always have one loaded up ready to fish….seriously, you can have one with a soft plastic, one with a vibe, one with a different soft plastic all ready to go so rather than rerigging you just pick it up and go again.

Welcome aboard. A good bunch here, very friendly and very helpful.

Well its good to see even the good fisherman have bad days.

Nice catch. Been ages since I caught a spaniard. Trolling dead baits or lures?

Why not, will be away for the last half of the month. Go hard early

Damn thats a great mornings fishing.

Well done, I tip my hat to your dedication. No way I could do that many mornings so early….I am enjoying my post work life by not getting up so early too often

Nope, didnt fire it up at all. Used it at POB, bloody crazy where you can see the bait fish rising at your plastic.

I use aluminium spools so it doesnt matter lol. BCF also now stock a new range of Oceans Legacy rods…Stingers. The inshore and offshore spin are damn nice looking sticks for the money. @$330

Wind was up and couldnt be assed so we ended up just tossing plastics at Coochie artificial and then down at the bottom end of Mcleay in the hole. Ended up with a few squire and an undersized jew. Dropped a stonker bream at the side of the boat trying a lift in.

All of the weather models showed the change @ 11am so that was the call. I think we could have done maybe another hour but would have been a bit rougher crossing back across northern bay until behind Bribie. I wanted to head out to the FADS or Hutchies but it just didnt seem like it was going to settle down and of course why leave somewhere when you are catching. Anyway North vs South - I am a southsider but was fishing on the north side, how will that go?

Finally got back on the water in my boat after waiting a month for a service - didnt want to run too far over the first service interval. With weather reports looking reasonable we decided to launch at Spinnaker and head out into the northern bay. A bit of a later start as I had a golf function on and was pushed for time to prep boat….damn retirement is too busy at times. Any on the water at 6.15am and the usual bit of bay chop but winds were relatively light. Decided to pop into North Moreton Artificial to have a look as it didnt exist when Dad and I used to fish up this end of the bay. I just love modern electronics….the combo of decent maps which mark the clumps of the artifical and the sounder being able to clearly pick up everything meant little wasted time. Went over the south eastern clump and it was holding lots of bait with some nice bigger arches around schooling. So assumed mackies or kingies. Went to the north eastern section and it was similar so decided we would see what was around. I already had a paddle tail plastic rigged up so when I saw fish flicking under the boat I quickly dropped it in and got my first hit, second cast converted to a nice rat yellow tail king fish. Decided to floatline a pilly down and go back to casting plastics, and the pilly got belted and second king in the kill bag. The plastic was then torn by another kingy so I rerigged a pilly. Every drift was converting to fish as we drifted over the structure. Bit started to drop as we headed into @ 9.30am so got a bit more weight on and converted to a nice grassie close to the structure. Then another nice kingy. There was definitely fish holding lower but too hard to get past the kings one the drift. All up we brought home 5 and released the rest. So last night was beautiful fresh king fish sashimi followed by King Island Rib Eye grilled on coals over at a mates place…washed down with Revel Brewing beers and west aussie reds…..what a glorious day.

Nice work as always Ray. You certainly know how to find them and catch them. That old tractor may be beyond a bit of CRC and a lick of paint

I would see what everyone else is using and base my decision off what I see being used. ie are a lot in 4.5m boats or are most in 5m plus. Something like my Formosa would be nice over there as you can do most things in it. Plus a plate alloy boat is less likely to have the fatigue of a pressed alloy boat or any potential softness like an older glass boat.

I think once you have your trolling motor and can spot lock the desire to anchor will drop a lot. The anchor winch and trolling motor and batteries etc is a lot of weight up front on your smallish boat.

Mate and I are looking at heading further south than normal tomorrow to escape the likely 10-15knot slop that a trip over to the sandhills would bring based on forecast. Was thinking of hiding in and around Coochie and Macleay area to escape the wind and see if we can pick up a feed of whiting. Anyone got some starting areas we can have a poke around please? Thanks Craig

Some very nice fish in that lot. A nice mornings work