JDP

Boat wraps are popular here but from what Ive seen many don't have a great life span, maybe the sunny climate doesn't help. Ive seen some peeling off from people who have tried applying them themselves. I google searched and found which cut and polish compounds most people were using and invested in a decent polisher after wasting money on a low cost polisher (like a 9ins grinder!!) Now Ive detailed all our vehicles and can't believe how easy and rewarding the finish is when using better gear for the job Makita PO6000C

I mix it up with so many different types but just have a quick search under micro jigs and virtually every manufacture has a some in their range. There are octopus style to small bait fish shapes like the Shimano colt sniper style, the most common are wider in the mid sectioned weighted to flutter on their sides. The black magic flutter jigs have been one of my favourite larger jigs on the bigger pelagic fish and Im sure these would be good on wrecks in the UK, especially the black and lumo colour. Things change rapidly in this style jigs, a few years back Daiwa Pirates were all the rage, There would easily be 100 styles of these kinds lures in my small local tackle store and heaps of Chinese copies on eBay.

Slow jigging can literally be a rod in a horizontal rod holder gently moving to the wave action. Lures tend to flutter and its this fluttering slow action that can turn a fish onto smacking a lure. Normally the action of the rod is a slow soft feel and reels can be either spin or multi. Line class is way more fun and better at getting good action out of lures with lighter line but you can still get away using heavier. The falling of the lure is when many of the bites come which is why light line makes it easier to detect a bite as the lure drops. A bit like slow mackerel feathering up a few turns of the handle then back down a little, constantly trying to mix up the action. A few years ago we were targeting yellowtail with the fastest reels possible and using actions that looks more like you were trying to not let a fish get the lure, this made the fish aggressive and worked well and still does. The slow action also works a treat, which is way more up my ally in terms of fishing. People around me will often do 4 or 5 fast drops to one of my slow jig drops. The verdict on which is best can be tricky but generally slow jigging will catch more species and most of the time as soon as one person hooks a kingfish everyone else in the boat hooks them too. Ive mentioned many times before that I believe this would work well on UK wrecks and am now seeing more and more people doing it with great success.

I have a good fishing buddy who is an advisor on oils to different oil companies and motor industries around the world. When I asked him if I needed to stick with Yamaha's own oil or could I use a different manufacturer with the same spec, this was his reply. There's also a link in his response for compatible oils for other engine manufacturers. Sorry about the way I copied and stuck this info together. He has since helped me out in regards to some auto gearbox oil which the particular manufacturer was going to charge $1200 to replace, he pointed out the exact same oil from Mitsubishi would cost $300, simply same oil but different manufacturer label. So these are all the oils my old Yamaha could use, not simply one that my local dealer had tried to push.

Most people here have aluminium wheels on their 4x4 tow vehicles and often try to match the boat with at least the same stud pattern, which then means you are carrying two spares rather than one. Once we start getting into remote areas the chances puncture increase, most we can fix by ourselves but I have damaged two so badly in the past that I had nothing left if I got another!!! My trailers tend to last far better than most due to spraying them down with salt-away after each trip, this is the same solution I use to flush my engine after use. Every now and then I go around the trailer giving it a spray of lanolin, or at least I normally do but my current trailer is aluminium so not much of an issue. We can get locally made aluminium trailers or kit form from China that you simply bolt together. All have to meet strict Aus standards and all trailers in most states need to be separately registered, insured and inspected every 12 months, the same as a car. Ive moved away from roller trailers as they are more problematic than simple skids. Also getting boats on and off on skid trailers is just so quick, especially where we drive on and off.

Old speaker wire twists very nicely, so thin there's no chance of it pricking soft fingers!!! Those old Lowrance hds5 units were very good, I keep one as a spare.

I should say galvanised or aluminium marine grade wheels, marinised just seems to fit both. I have marine grade aluminium on my current trailer.

No corks, I like the taste of fly's. We actually don't have the fly problem in this area, seems to be a big issue further north where it gets much hotter. We do have several species of tick that are a pain locally though, with the paralysis tick being the worse, one of which got me a few days ago while out exploring a freshwater creek. I now have a red balloon leg!!! Back on track with the haves and not have, I must admit not having electricity and internet over several weeks of the bush fires was exceptionally nice. Shops had nothing due to no transport getting through and empty backup power generators. It was good seeing a small town pull together to help each other out, many of which lost homes and friends. It was kind of like the beginning of a zombie movie but different in a way we have food swimming in the lake in front of our house. I also had enough fuel to cover at least 30 trips out to the kingfish ground giving us a healthy supply of fish to share among the community. You've had a little taste of this sort of thing when people panic bought food from shops over Covid, which can soon turn pear shaped in densely populated areas. If that supply was to stop totally

I notice you seem to run ordinary non marinised car wheels on trailers over there. That trailer above looks to have massive axles yet light weight poorly galvanised box sections.

A wide brimmed hat is a necessity over here even if you do have hair, apart from that can't think of to much.

We used to set them off as demonstrations after they had been handed into marine rescue (same as RNLI) however, work cover now doesn't allow us to. So now we play war games with them on a friends remote property, who happens to be high in the police force. Its good to be familiar with how to use them incase China invades !!!!

Ah yes missed the point because you just mentioned tackle!!!! Ive seen some pretty decent UK small tackle stores mentioned on the the other site that seem to have a surprising amount of the overseas game fishing products at reasonable prices too. Its good they sort all the tax and import duty for you, I suppose its then a case of working out if the warranty means much to you or how much sending a reel back for repair might cost in postage etc.

I used to use them and Melton tackle but for some reason tackle became cheaper here in Aus than buying overseas. For you guys in the UK, after postage, import duties and no warranty do you really save much at all.

Heres a little saltwater video from Bay marine who ran the panoptic's and sidescan in some deeper water, the same transducers Im using. Depth and width in metres, where the 260khz shows really good bottom but at the the loss of fish finding simply because of the great range. The 1120 kHz on one of Garmins other transducers shows very good fish detail but not so good in terms of range. I used Lowrance for about 20 years but found reliability and capabilities in deep water lagging well behind Garmin, hence the move. The video that follows this shows the low power 600w gt51 clearly showing good returns in 400m+. Ive seen 1kw transducers showing clear bottom in 1500m.

Not sure I get where you want to use the fairy Geoff. I assume on the trailer rollers or skids, not the tyres. The boat shouldn't slide on the tyres at all, more a case of slipping the trailer back under the boat as it winches. I put the boats back on with the trailer off the tow vehicle normally. The front of the trailer will rise up a certain amount as the back pulls down under the front of the boat.

Ive done it a couple of ways, first and easiest is simply heading somewhere where you can launch the boat and tie it on a jetty while you do the work in a car park. You need to have all the tools and parts to get the job done, easy for one person. Second method I have done with several of my boats and other people's is to slip the boat off onto grass but place old 4x4 tyres under it as I slide it off. Using tyres allows me to keep the boat in its upright position rather than have it fall to onside. It also protects the transducers and the hull from marking on anything on the ground. This way also greatly helps when you go to get the boat back on the trailer because it is already slightly up off the ground lay in the right position. Just to add I normally take the trailer off the vehicle to get the boat partly back on, this way I can allow the front of the trailer to raise off the ground lowering the back to get under the front of the boat slightly. Depending on how good your trailer rollers of skids are, you may need help sliding the boat off if you are on level ground. Ive always been able to find something to tie the back of the boat to and simply drive my vehicle forward slowly pulling the boat off. Slowly is the way to go and don't try and drive straight off in one go, hop out of the vehicle and check you are happy with the tyre placement. Almost any tyre shop that fits tyres should be able to give you 4 tyres. Trying to do this without tyres can be done but it makes it far more difficult to get the boat back onto the trailer. You will need to make sure your winch strap is in good condition and the bolts holding the winch. If the winch hasn't got low gear you can simply run the winch strap to the boat, round a pulley and back to the trailer. If the winch has steel cable you might want to consider changing to dynema rope or webbing a trailer webbing strap.

Saw a thread in regards to boat names, which got me thinking. Its funny, don't thinks Ive every bought a boat that had a name on it and its not something I would ever consider doing. Maybe its because we have to display registration details in large clear lettering that most people don't bother with naming most of the time here (a few have a registration and name). This registration lettering is what we use when communicating with authorities etc. Had around 20 small boats in the UK which were also not named. Is it a superstition thing to name a boat or is there some other reason and where is the line drawn, do people name their cars, bikes, lawn mower etc ?

Right now we have both yellowfin and bluefin tuna in acres sized schools just off our headland which have been there for two weeks. These fish are from little 30kg fish up to around 70kg specimens and readily taking stick baits on light spin outfits. So here's the thing, I simply can't be bothered to get the boat out and chase them. My daughter is pretty much hitting them everyday on the charter boat and then heading out with the same boat after the paying customers have finished their trips. Yesterday she did battle on a solid yellow fin for 2.30mins and is back out again today. I simply can't drum up the enthusiasm and feel I've been there and done this to many times before that it no longer interests me, to the point I'm considering selling up the boat and gear. Ive felt this way for quite sometime thinking it might pass but it hasn't. It's funny that when you don't have much in the way of opportunitys on offer you think how great it would be to have them but when you have them how many times can you realistically keep doing it untill you become over it all. First to fade for me was sharking, where in the UK I was obsessed, to the point it led me to living where I live now. After a couple of years of catching so many variety's of shark both beach and boat I soon dreaded hooking them. This has now transferred over to most species. I do enjoy driving boats still, especially when conditions rough up but simply driving around soon becomes boring. I know some people might think this feeling of being over catching fish might be odd but consider every trip you caught dogfish or pout, you might soon feel over them, this is how I feel. Ive been fishing for 51 years, some of which has been comercial in a variety of styles. I also drive a few dive charter boats which has tottaly lost its fun aspects for me, especially when people get stung by jellyfish or seasick etc. Being a member of a marine rescue group sounds like am adventure but in realality it's towing boats home that have run out of fuel or a mechanical issue 99% of the time. The rediculous amounts of training and government red tape involved in rescue groups takes away any fun from being a member these days, which I'm also wanting to get away from now. Anyway, there's my whinge to prove I'm still a Pom, heading out into remote wilderness with the dog now while the tuna are going off their heads out the front!!!!!!

Heres a cougar cat recently popped onto the market, roughly 80k Uk money https://www.boatsonline.com.au/boats-for-sale/used/commercial-vessel/cougar-cat-15-0-flybridge/253345

Snapper would have to be high on my list, the fact you can target them on so many styles of tackle, most of which is light makes for great sport. We have some serious amounts of game fish on offer but give me snapper or yellowtail kingfish any day. In saying that just about any fish is fun given the right tackle to target them.

I only do the basics, oil filters and impeller at a push. The mechanic I use is so cheap its not worth me doing mechanical work. It helps that he also has a commercial sea urchin boat that I often skipper for him. The thought of working in the bilge of vessels over here in the heat we get when I can simply sit above deck driving them is a no brainer!!!!... besides I rarely work these days unless its something I like doing.

Those bolt on wings look like an after thought to help with bow lift or perhaps stop it burying its nose in big following seas.

Yes but many of those costs ( repairs ) keep the boat out of action, where a trailer boat can simply be taken anywhere to fix. There's an incredible lack of diesel mechanics here, where even comercial operators have at least two weeks of down time if there's a problem they can't fix themselves.

One of the two boats my daughter now skippers. The upkeep on such vessels that are being run daily ( some days 4 trips ) can be high, as is the fuel cost to the 900hp of power. Last year I did a couple of rescues with my little zodiac that this bigger vessel skipper refused to attempt.

Personaly I would still stay bellow 6m. Boats in that range are far more adaptable to all kinds of fishing and able to be towed to most locations. Working through the hull extreme bar conditions often means small boats can get offshore when the bigger even high powered boats can't. There's also a big advantage keeping a smaller boat at home in your garage over a large vessel kept on a mooring. When it comes to handling fish, especially bigger game species, a small boat is hands down the easiest way to speed up any catch and release. If money were simply no object then I would simply privately charter any boat and let the owner be responsible for its upkeep, apart from that Ive already owned the boats I like, with the smallest travelling the furthest distances and catching the most variety of fish.