JDP

Higher frequencies will produce higher resolution but don't penetrate as deep or wide. Something to keep in mind though is the resolution of your sounder is only 800 x 480, so actually seeing any improvement in my opinion would be marginal. My choice would be the latest model in the hope it would match with newer units such as the live etc when the hook reveal gives up the ghost. As Andy mentioned, placement is critical if you hope to get high speed readings. Also depending on the hull angles you may need to slightly trim up the engine to get good clear side imaging as the motor can sometimes block part of the sidecan. Make sure you have a good clean path ahead of the transducer with no strakes or rough surfaces that might cause water disturbance at the transducer. Also the running attitude of the boat can effect the angle to position an tilt on the transducer, some boats run a bit bow high which can shoot the signal to far forward underway. How has your transducer failed, are you sure its the transducer and not the head unit ? I used Lowrance and simrad gear for about 20 yrs and got fed up of the amount of issues I had with them all so moved away from them, they are constantly in catch up mode with other manufacturers.

Species that don't get targeted fishing or spearing don't see you as any threat, also how you interact plays a big part. Being very relaxed underwater greatly helps with breath holding but also how fish interact, even the ones we do target when hunting them. You will see tv documentaries where predatory fish swim among their pray with both hunter and prey relaxed, this can be the same when you free dive with fish. When I free dive with a speargun it doesn't seem to matter how relaxed I try to be, the fish sense Im hunting them most of the time. I can dive with cameras in housing or on poles where the fish always seem to know Im not a threat, however a pole with barbs and they keep their distance. There's far more to their sensory lateral line in my opinion than we know about. Ive been going under water for well over 40yrs now and still feel amazed boy what I see and hear beneath the surface. The person I took out partner has a phobia about sharks, she can't even watch them on tv (any species). So taking him out in dirty water this time of the year when both whales, seals and great whites are common sort of had me on edge a bit with him. We do see big predatory sharks while in the water but that's normally in clearer water, my kids had a great white take interest in my daughter on her last dive further offshore and a 4m+ tiger shark the trip before, again followed my daughter to the boat. Like the fish, being relaxed in the water around things that will eat you given a chance is the key to interaction with them.

A few more been as very little is being posted, well apart from @JonC BBQ. I know how much Mr.C enjoys my pictures🤩

A few screen shots, so unfortunately no sound from the humpbacks. As you can see the water was a bit dirty, which isn't the greatest time to swim with seals obviously. The stingrays are very inquisitive as you can see from the underneath of the one on top of me. These common smooth stingrays can reach 4.3m in length and over 2m across the wings.

I can pull a few screen shots from the GoPro later, I don't think there's a way to post the video clips at all directly without having to edit it and stick it on YouTube ? I really can't be bothered with having to do all the editing stuff these days especially on videos of murky water dives. Well not unless Mr C says it didn't happen without proof!!!!!

Left the rods at home to take a newbie out for a snorkel, thought I'd better practice the tour for when Mr C heads over here on his shark wrangling tour!!!!! Mid winter water temp of 14'c again today for my part of the coast. The water has turned far dirtier than a few days ago which isn't the best conditions for snorkelling offshore among seals, it didn't help when the new fella spotted a seal on the rocks with its guts hanging out from a shark bite!!!!!...I did give him plenty of opportunities to back out of getting in which he declined. The seals were extremely excited to join us, charging around us like torpedo's. It didn't take long for the attention of several large stingrays and small port Jackson sharks to join in with the fun. After a while I decided to move us to another spot after getting a bad feeling on this one and the amount of attention we had attracted by the marine life. Second spot was very similar with poor water clarity and heaps of excited seals. A pod of humpbacks must of been pretty close as we could hear several different whales singing. Not really known by many is that we get a fair amount of green turtles here, these are considered to be more of warm water species. At one point I was down on the bottom watching a turtle graze on algae among the seals while we could hear the whales in the background. Headed home before the sun got to low and the air temp dropped even more, still got cold feet 8hrs after the dive thanks to lending my cold water wetsuit to my guest.

You're naughty!!!!!

They aren't legal for us to buy and fit them either but if the trailer comes fitted from manufacturer then they are legal here. I think they just try to stop bodgy backyard mechanics doing it themselves. It sounds like you have your work cut out for yourself, hopefully it doesn't end up being such hard work that you regret buying a boat. Have you considered trying to find somewhere to keep it where it might be easier to get on the water from and just keep it at home for the quieter months of the year.

I back up a steep drive with boats from 2.5ton to 1500kg with a variety of vehicles. My drive is a pain as I have a steep road which my drive runs down to and also have to drive off the drive to get my boat down the side of the house because my daughter keeps her boat in my garage!!!! With each of the last three 4x4's Ive owned, each have spun the wheels when I go off the gravel and grass onto the concrete drive, mostly due to the obscure angled the vehicle is at going from the main road hill to the drive hill. A couple of diesel front wheel drive cars have made the reversing seem effortless and even a Ford Focus 2lt diesel was often used on one of the boats weighing in at 1.9 tons which did it with ease. Backing up hill with a front wheel drive seems pretty easy if you keep the momentum going. Hows your reversing skills ? If not great head off to a quiet place and practice over and over. Personally a winch would be at the bottom of my list for getting a boat into the garage but if that's your only option make sure you have some sort a failsafe is something fails, you don't want a ton of boat flying down the drive into traffic.

Even in high temperatures where fire risk is higher we can literally head to any petrol station and fill any approved fuel carrying containers. For the vessels my daughter charters they have a 600lt plastic square container on the back of ute for diesel. When I head up north on remote offshore island trips we get fuel dropped on island beaches in 211lt steel drums. These are filled with with 95 or 98 octane petrol, again with the drums filled in the back of utes. The guy we pay to get the fuel fills 4x211lt drums in the back of his ute then takes them to his boat. Our next trip in September we have ordered 7 barrels between 3 boats to be dropped on the beach of a remote offshore island where we will spend a couple of weeks. Lucky for me I have the most economical boat but I still allow for 100km of fuel per day. Ive yet to hear of any fire here at a petrol station from filling fuel into drums, jerry cans etc.

What a pain in the arse, there has to be an easier way around this, can't boat owners or businesses that use more fuel get some kind of permit. No wonder the boating community is so small.

Apart from the lack of space, maintenance issues and lack of space associated with Rhib's. They are often pretty tight width wise to get in your average garage too and having to deflate to drive in then inflate each trip would be a pain even with the 12v pumps. They are however a lot of fun.

We each caught our daily bag limit, my daughter had a friend she was giving hers to and I had elderly neighbours who wanted two of mine and the young lad took his for his family. So even though 9 lobsters seems like a big haul a few abalone and muscles were added to the mix.

I tend to buy and sell boats quite often but have always found the bigger ones I’ve owned get used the least. That sweet spot for ease of use either solo or with a couple of friends is around the 4.5-5.5m for me. At this size and with a decent 4 stroke they cost very little to run. In the smaller sized boats here in Aus they tend to be manufactured so they will fit in garages, often with folding down consoles or Bimini tops etc. You can also get a trailer attachment which allows the front section of the drawbar to be swiveled, so the front of the trailer is the same length as the front of the boat. You can also turn the outboard on full side lock and angle the trailer slightly to gain even more room to get a boat inside. In terms of using small boats, depending on the boat build you can often still use a small boat in very similar sea conditions to bigger boats. When my daughter has to cancel her charter trips in the 50ft cat we often head out in either my 4.4m centre console or her 5m zodiac. Keeping your boat at home has many advantages, from keeping it of the weather to better security etc. There are also many other advantages too, such as being able to head to the garage and tinker with it when ever you please. The big thing with trailer boats in the UK is boat ramp launching facilities, or should I say lack of them. Here even in a small coastal town of 8000 people we have 13 council maintained free ramps, all with boat wash down facilities and fish cleaning tables. The travelling boat trailer communities are welcomed around the country as they bring in tourism $$$$. Here we tow boats far and wide around the country, with many of us towing boats to the far north during winter to find some mid 30’c further from our cold waters here in the south. This is another huge advantage obviously, being able to tow the boat where the fish are or to target different species around the country. Gale force winds, big ocean swells etc doesn’t mean the boat has to stay home, simply means looking for inland waters and fishing the weather protected side of rivers, dams and lakes etc, just like with the kayaks. In terms of electronics, I had been using Navico gear, either simrad or lowrance for many years but found the units constantly had issues so moved over the Garmin gps map models which I’ve been very happy with. Many of the commercial game boats here also use Garmin these days. You can get decent marine charts for most units which show detailed survey sea floor mapping. These charts will show wrecks, reefs, ledges etc etc in high detail which is a huge advantage to how most of us used to fish. Side can, downscan and traditional transducers all have their place when finding fish. There are hundreds of tutorials online showing how to get the most from sounders, which unfortunately most people decide to ignore and would rather complain it’s all gimmicks simply because they haven’t bothered to learn how to use it. If you get the opportunity, always go with as much power as legally allowed on any vessel. More power will often equate to running at lower rpm, giving better economy but can also add to better safety if outrunning weather systems when you have a heavy load onboard.

Yes out again next weekend.

Just a quick trip out for some fresh seafood for my wife’s dinner. Glamour conditions, though the water is getting cold now at 13’c.

Have you tried calibrating it ? Have a look at the YouTube videos how too, it's pretty easy. A friend was having issues with his every time his teenage son took the boat out and asked if I would take a look. Took it out on the water and it was fine but still ran through the prompted calibration settings with them. Next time they headed out they had issues so bought a new heading sensor, which again played up each time the eldest son took the boat out. Eventually I hopped onboard when the son took the boat out with his mates to find out what was going on as the dad was about to change the two 12in simrads in frustration. What the son was doing was doing was taking a bluetooth boom box speaker which he was placing to close to the electronic compas!!!!!! These ariels can be effected by very slight magnetic fields, even a mobile phone next to them can alter headings. Just make sure you don't have anything close that could be effecting it.

Yes will be out on the weekend if the weather allows.

Love it, mullet give a better account for themselves than bass in my opinion, agree on those little outfits being such fun. He's got to stop showing off with all that hair though!!!!!

Have you checked the Garmin Marine Network cable pins from the radar to the network ? Are these all connected via NMEA 2000 through a powered NMEA starter kit ? Is the software up to date. Have you checked the basics by using the menu, settings-Communications-NMEA 2000 set up. -device list. If so is the radar showing here in the device list ? If not showing check the starter kit fuse. Check the bus bars are all connected correctly. I don't use radar so not sure how the menus work but is there a pause radar like there is for transducers and if so make sure its simply not paused. Its a real pain if you have the unit setup how you like it and have to do a factory restart and make sure you have your fishing spots backed up if do a full restart. https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/gpsmap7400-7600/EN-US/GUID-D91F8D5F-FF56-4BC0-8988-63473D5F46B0.html

Yes @JonC is perfectly correct again on it not being a fish, however unbeknown to him I was missing our interactions and had only posted this to get a reaction from him. You will notice how I haven't posted any kind of report elsewhere on other forums, my angling skills got the bite I was hoping for. Just for Jon, here's a penguin which dropped from the sky after its escape from a sea eagle. Used to be known as fairy penguins, however the gay community took offence to them being called fairy penguins and are now known more commonly as little penguins. I believe Jon had some input into the changing of the name as its something he feels quite strongly about.

I haven't posted a catch report for a while as Ive mostly been diving for abalone and eastern rock lobsters. There's also been the time spent swapping engines and working through my electrical wiring replacement on the boat. My daughter has been busy with the game charters with a good run of both bluefin and yellowfin tuna over the past few weeks, with some days reaching 30-40 tuna between 4 anglers. Today she had a day off and she was keen to have a play with the re-powered boat. Target was inshore weedy (kelp) reefs for squid. Conditions allowed for full throttle some 20k up the coast at just over 40kts. I managed a three squid before my daughter had tied her squid jig on!!!!...however she hooked into a chunky big calamari as I changed over to soft plastics. The quid she hooked was taking a fair amount of line in the strong current, to the point we had to drive up on it!!!!! Poor squid was attacked by other fish during the time it took on ultra lite tackle, hence its tentacles bitten. Didn't stay out to long, just enough for a feed of squid to accompany the fresh yellowfin. Full noise all the way home, plan had been to re-power for better midrange cruise speed but full throttle is just so much fun when the weather allows for it. Just to add, we are in the middle of the humpback migration and whales are just about everywhere at the moment, over 5000 were counted during a survey yesterday. The water is teaming with baitfish which the whales are feeding on. Underwater has been magical over the past couple of weeks with massive schools of pilchards, salmon and sharks. Even orcas and sperm whales have been spotted over the past few days.

Either that or he will claim it's a random picture of anyone given we can't clearly identify the person form his whiskers only. There is quite a list of rules I believe when it comes to clearly identifying a fish and person and where are the calibrated scale shots with witnesses etc. Clearly Jon will be quoting "fake news"

Yes

A roof, why keep the sun off me, roofs are for dismal wet weather 😎