JDP

Without a photo, according to JonC, it didn't happen. He must not fish anymore!!!!!!

Anyone who hopes that the tuna fishing will open up to being legally able to do from their own boat will do better with something they can launch where the fish are, same goes for sharking really. Some of the heavy tackle needed is quite an investment, so hoping the fish will simply turn up in range of your dock every weekend would be extremely unlikely and the investment wasted. Getting out and exploring the many wrecks around the coast is a no brainer, the trailer boat would have far more options for a variety of species. Weekends away with the family exploring new waterways and restaurants in the evening might appeal to the other half too, even if he or she doesn't fish during the day. However if I didn't have the room to keep a boat at home I would consider a more permanent place to keep it but having had several boats kept on swinging moorings and pontoons I personally found it to be restrictive, time consuming and expensive, not to mention I lost one of my boats on a swing mooring to a storm. Out of my last five boating trips, only one has been from my local area.

I used to get my fish waste from a local wholesaler who sold to fish shops when I lived on the IOW. I had to climb into a big biffa bins with a large plastic shovel to fill my 20lt buckets, saved having to kill to many mackerel or have a large freezer. I hit the breaks hard once and had 4 x 20lt drums of fish snot from the back to the front of the car, maggot city!!!!!!

Gone to look a bit windy and wild, which Im quite pleased about really!!!!!!

We also have to use the boat and drags are set to the max for 24kg right from the hookup, its just that we don't use the extremely long leaders. Something else we do a little different form my UK sharking days is having 250m of line on the reels before a join. Instead of replacing a complete spool of line after a season or line get damaged etc, its just the top 250m that gets replaced. Obviously with the spin outfits these are filled with braid and top shotted with mono and normally the quicker outfits to get fish back to the boat with. The three marlin caught on spin gear have all been by for the quickest released, one being the biggest of the 11 fish and covered approx 2nm of water was released in about 20mins. The spin outfits tend to have 80lb braid and obviously faster easier to handle rods, not to mention the spin rods are normally handled in most peoples dominant arm, unlike the heavy multi's on the weaker arm.

Many boats are catching around 10 marlin per day but the way they do it isn't the way I like targeting them. When some boats find marlin feeding on bait they use very long wind on 200lb traces which as soon as they touch by hand counts as a capture. The mono is then held and pulled until either the hook straightens or the fish is handled to the boat. Its very quick and allows the anglers to pull more marlin of single bait balls rather than motor away fighting a fish for a photo like we do. Its good in some ways as the fish barley realises its been hooked and the skipper who's caught the most per day has the biggest penis☺️. If I was a paying customer, I think I would at least like a look of the fish up close rather than a quick look at one jumping some distance from the boat. Its much the same on mako comps where some boats can capture 20 sharks in a day on light line class. What are other peoples thought on this style of catch and release ? Would you like to bring your porbeagle, blue or thresher to the boat so you can have a good look but with a longer fight where you get to see it and possibly grab a few quick photos, or chase it with the boat and grab a 9m leader to break the fish off so you can get back to catching another. By the way marlin are considered pretty hardy according to catch and release statistics.

Normally we would target them but been as we have been having decent marlin action each day, we've opted for mono traces in the hope of quality fish and not sharks on the beach.

During playing with fish I managed a few albatross pic's, for those who don't like game fishing.

More pic's.

The weather was too bad to launch from my local ramp and harbour so I headed up the coast to larger harbour with a wider river mouth less effected by swell and current. Around 60 boats had all planned the same move but launching with experienced boaters means you seldom need to wait, we didn't. Having trailer boats means we can easily follow fish or simply target different species anywhere around the coast or even on the inland rivers, dams and lakes etc. Launching at various different locations keeps you on your toes in regard to navigating and boating skills, also stops the kids getting bored of fishing the same location week after week. We took just two frozen mackerel incase we couldn't find fresh bait, sure enough finding mackerel was tough on this trip. The frozen baits had been setup on the outriggers as skip baits and was was hit instantly but unfortunately the trace was sliced through, most likely mako. Luckily we found some bait, the hard bit was getting it up from 180m using big leads to get the bait jig to the bottom. Water temps were a touch high for stripped marlin, the more common at the moment, however it wasn't long before we hooked into the first black marlin of the day. We had the fish traced at the side of the boat in minutes but the young 13yr old lad couldn't hold onto to it so a deep water battle then persisted for his 15yr old older brother!!!!!...It's good getting the kids to drive the boat and do all the hard work!!!!!...by the way the kids should have been at school😶 Once that one was released it was time for my youngest daughters boyfriend to take the next fish. Again another lively black marlin was soon found using my incredible fish finding skills🤣 and he was into marlin number for his third trip and 11 for the boat. Again this stubborn little black kept wanting to fight deep using the current to help keep its head down and draw out the fight for around 40mins. Left the fish biting again and headed home with the left over baits for another quick beach sharking trip. Had today off as I was starting to feel shagged!!!!!....might be up for an afternoon trip tomorrow if the swell backs off.

Yes nicely built boats, the guy I fish with bought the 605 for his youngest boy. They wouldn't be my choice as Im not a fan of the flooded keel boats,

Cheers Andy, had another cracking day on them yesterday, two pretty stubborn black marlin. Also followed by another beach session, now needing a rest fro it all.

Yes will be out but after today I think Ive had enough of marlin, need to target something a bit smaller and worth eating. Report to come from todays catches.

I back my trailer in the water, climb the step on the front of the trailer into the boat, start motor, engage forward gear, walk to the front of the boat reach over and unclip from trailer and slip off bu putting the boat in neutral. Then either put the nose on the beach or tie to the jetty while I drive 30-50m to park. With two people or more, one simply move the boat away from the jetty and just pulls back in to pick up who ever parked the 4x4. Or I can back in the trailer, release the boat while holding about 8-10m of rope, walk the boat to the jetty alongside the ramp or pull it to the beach while I then park the vehicle. The marlin have moved approx 100km north, so tomorrow morning we will drive towing the boat 1hr north before launching at another public boat ramp. When the fish get to far from returning home each day we stay overnight or several nights or even weeks on some trips. This is what anglers who chase pelagic species do here. We will soon start targeting the bluefin approx 800km south of us, so making two or three day trips until they reach our part of the coast. Around August we head north to target warmer water species when the fishing and weather chill out locally. When I skipper the urchin and abalone commercial boat we tow the boat to what ever part of the coast suits the weather conditions for a 4 day period (about the max the two divers can do on 12hr days). This can be right on my doorstep or 3-10hrs drive form where I live. Again we stay in motels during this time and work from trailer boats also often travelling 60km by water from the launch ramps. Anyway almost midnight and an early start tomorrow.

Those are the exact reasons I have a trailer boat. After school spur of the moment decision and on the water within 10 mins of leaving my drive way. Boat filled up with fuel from what ever petrol station I choose and all my gear permanently left onboard. Ive never had to wait more than a minute or two even at the busy times of the morning at a ramp, there always seems to be a lane free when I arrive and my boat is ready to drop in the water from leaving home. I also like tinkering with the boat at home with it out of the water, even getting to know the sounder tweaks is easier while out of the water. I had boats on moorings and pontoons when I lived in the UK and feel the way I do things now far easier. I also had several boats full of rot which had been kept on moorings (transoms and stringers etc). I can understand it with poor ramps, poor trailer reversing and boat driving skills many would be put off. Also badly setup trailers where it takes two people to launch and retrieve would be a pain. Each of my boats have had a step at the winch post so I can drive straight on, auto latch grabs the boat and I step off the bow down the winch post from the bow. Of course a jetty next to the ramp saves dropping the anchor onto the shore while parking up. It's funny that most of the fast response rescue craft on the IOW were kept out of the water, yet where I live here they are on the water. I was with marine rescue for several years and found the delays unlocking the gates to the private jetty, sinking the floating pontoon and getting the rescue boat into action was incredible time consuming. A recent incident on the local bar crossing took 45mins to get the rescue boat into action by which time the person had been rescued by surfers!!!!....a passenger on the boat my daughter was skippering. Like you say though Jon, sounds like a pain but not something you have perhaps done.

At the ramp now, the first boat back in due to poor weather is this white pointer which a friend down the coast builds. Drive on bunks, auto hitch boat latch, literally under one minute on trailer and over to the 5 minute wash zone.

I tried my Navionics on my phone alongside my Garmin gps in my car alongside my calibrated scan gauge and found it to be spot on, no issues with update time in cruise at 100kh. Only issue I have is that I head offshore out of phone range, so obviously no use then but I also have the card versions for both Garmin and simrad (need to sell the simrad now I don't have the head unit).

Yes there are those but generally a marina will have big game charter boats in the 40-60ft size, even these tend to not be moored to any one marina. A game boat just like the trailer boats will often follow the fish, so a boat that's here on the south coast targeting a certain species now will often be doing another season hundreds, even thousands of km up or down the coast. There are boats which will be fishing part of the year in New Zealand then part of the year in Queensland several thousand km away. The marinas tend to have gift shops, ice creameries, wine bars, fish and chip shops and restaurants etc and open to anyone, not just club members. Most marinas have public well maintained public boat ramps with boat wash down facilities public toilets and fish cleaning tables etc, much of which is funded by our recreational fishing licences.

Rain became real heavy, sharks moved in so pulled the pin for the night. Shivering at home now with a cup of tea and a large glass of spiced rum!!!!! Really enjoying the beach fishing lately, but even considering a new rod for it. Think I might need decent wet weather gear first, heading into the colder months ahead.

Just lost a decent sized shark at the beach.

Pouring with rain, low tide, windy, yet still catching fish. Bluefish, salmon bream and a few hooks bitten off. Been here 15 mins. Update, just unhooking a little ray. If things don’t improve I’m going home.

Our ramps are busy, I recon anyone taking more that 1 minute either launching or retrieving would be up for a fair amount of abuse over here. We have areas where you stop and remove straps and put bungs in before getting in front of the ramp lanes. Its then a case of backing in and releasing the one strap, clip, shackle or quick release. Putting boats back on trailers is mostly done by driving straight onto the trailers with a slightly tilted engine. Boat trailers are normally designed with v berths to help instantly align the boats as you drive on. From our harbour we will get up around 300 boats launch on first light during holiday times mostly from one double lane ramp. The next even smaller coastal town 30 mins south of us will get around the same amount of boats launch but have two three lane ramps. These figures are calculated by the boats that log on with marine rescue before heading offshore. The small trailer boat building industry is huge here, as is the $ these trailer boat owners bring to coastal towns in terms of tourism dollars. We think nothing of driving to various ramps around the country if thats where the fish are. Totally agree though, if I was taking an hour each side of the day at launch ramps I wouldn't even own a boat, just like having to carry all the gear needed on a boat for a day when on a pontoon, not to mention having to get them out and clean them and leaving them exposed to the elements etc.

No not really as some days I consider myself as a tree.