yellow door 1

2 hours ago, Soobz said:

Hmm, they wouldn't allow a drive upgrade for my wife's PP10 when I got it, not that she really needs it.

Tip, get a spare sheer pin for the rudder and keep it with the yak.

Thanks for the rudder pin tip.

There was a good deal on a PP12 at AWS in Geelong, Melbourne. So i didnt really look too closely at any others - I was curious as to whether there would be issues upgrading to the 180. But nothing was too much trouble for those guys

17 minutes ago, Plectropomus said:

marvellous!! Hope to see some posts on here of your adventures and a review of the pros and cons.

The cars electrical system started doing all sorts of weird stuff its never done before last week. Like its possessed by a demon. Its already been in the shop once and they managed to fix one of 4 faults. But last night the car turned itself off while at a stop light. I couldnt really ignore that one. So I had to take it back in this morning

So the Christening will have to wait till they can get to the bottom of it.

But looking on the bright side - at least the weather sucks for the next few days

2 hours ago, Plectropomus said:

what model did you choose?

I went with the passport 12 - its the entry level hobie but with 180kg load capacity-  I upgraded the drive to the 180 turbo fins

Specifications

• Length: 12’ / 3.6 M
• Width: 34” / 86.36 CM
• Capacity: 400 LBS / 181.44 KG
• Fitted Hull Weight: 73 LBS / 33.11 KG
• Fully Rigged Hull Weight: 83 LBS / 37.65 KG
• Hull Construction: Thermo-formed Polyethylene
• Colours: Slate Blue, Seagrass Breen, Bay Sand
• 3 Year Warranty

3 hours ago, Soobz said:

On my tray the Hobie has to sit top down as the hull bottom is too rounded, which is a PITA as loading is easier with bottom down. Actually I think Hobie says you're supposed to carry them topside down for some reason...I think maybe to do with stresses when tying down.

Yeah I got mine from a hobie dealer and he helped me put it on the roof - and ran me through how to tie it down etc - so if theres any issues  - I'll know who to blame - Thanks for the heads up

6 hours ago, Softy said:

I done similar with a length of alloy tube slid over the end of the rack end and an extended tent pole to hold it up. Might be a pic of it in my thread.. can't seem to find one on my phone.

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
 

Yeah I left it long in case I needed to add a verticle adjustable bar - but the passport 12 is only 33kg and the load is taken so close to the car with the way I load it -  all that pvc has to do is stop the yak from slipping and scratching the car

Based on early trials - I dont seem to need it to be any stronger. Its more of a "catch" to stop the yak slipping, than a load bearing bar.

Picked up the new yak today

 first piece of business involved  some pvc pipe and a heat gun

1 hour ago, Softy said:

Nice work mate.. I'm still bloody yet to catch one of them

Sent from my Pixel 6 using Tapatalk
 

Yeah I find as long as I fish 8 times more often than blokes who know what they are doing - I can keep up

2 hours ago, Plectropomus said:

beautiful picture> 

I may have cranked up the saturation a bit to bring out the purples

It looks different depending on which device I use to view the photo - on my phone and laptop  it looks almost normal - but on the work laptop, it looks like I way over cranked the saturation.

Just going to post the original untouched to see if theres a difference

Season started 5 days early this year

16 minutes ago, Mickyj said:

I was actually thinking the amount of money I paid for the reel under $100 don’t  recall exactly maybe $75 or less .  Was it worth getting fixed if we factor in postage . Then I remembered the 1000 which is smaller than my shimano sienna 1000 I thought new braid might be the way to go .

Now I looked at the Laguna 2500 bail arm and my exceller 2500 bail arm . No wonder the exceller cost me the same amount as the Samaki rod I’m using . Big differences Laguna 2500 casts further than the exceller but exceller is made with better parts it looks.

The old sienna 1000 label is peeling off but still performs fantastic .

hmm guess I’m saying the repair can wait 

hopefully the bulk braid on the 1000 Laguna than the J8 braid did on the 25000 Laguna had lots of issues with it 

Yeah things are made to break these days - its part of every good business plan And noone seems more enthusiastic about applying the theory than fishing reel manufacturers 

A light bulb that lasts for 50 years - only needs to be repurchased once every 50 years - but if you make them last a couple of years - then you can sell a hell of alot more bulbs.

There an intersting doco on "Planned Obsolescence". Its starts with the light bulb - they actually had to work bloody hard to get them to break sooner
 

Ive had very mixed experiences with Daiwa's service department Ranging from 6 months waits - reels being sent back with the problem not fixed but fully charged - reels being sent back with a part missing and them not apologising or taking any responsibility and telling me to send my reel back to them so they could confirm it was their fault - which would cost more than the part was worth ............. but on my last interaction, a new guy sent me a bearing, free of any charges, even though I explained it wasnt their fault. 

I have a suspicion that the reel you send them, governs the level of service you receive. High end reels seem to get a better level of communication and care.

I have found Penn and Shimanos service departments to be much more humble and accommodating. Especially when they make an error like sending you the wrong part. 

These days I try to fix as many problems I can by myself - the price of spare parts and postage is a bit steep - $10 postage on a $7 plastic washer that weighs less than a gram when you buy direct from Diawa, is a bit much - especially when their service department forgot to put it back in when servicing it and wouldnt take responsibility for it- but its cheaper than sending my reel back in and waiting for them to get around to fixing it.

I get the impression that if a local tournament angler - a sponsored angler - a mate of a mate - a relative - or a social media guru shows up and wants their stuff looked at - guess whos reel goes to the back of the queue. Their understaffed service department will get to your reel when there's nothing better to do.

I always grin when I hear sponsored guys or valued customers talk about the great level of service they get from service departments.

Ive seen first hand what happens when a valued customer walks into a boat mechanics and plonks a whole heap of problems on their desk - they down tools on what ever job they were on - charge that time to the other client, who's boat they were working on - and get it done.

So in short - its only worth sending the reel off if you have the time to wait and cant work out how fix it yourself. 

Last flick on the rock wall before heading back to Melbourne

New species on the wall tonight every thing I hooked had nasty dentures tonight

2 hours ago, Plectropomus said:

do they "boof" at the surface? Like salmon or barra?

Yeah its the same style of implosion feeding - My observations may differ with others in different waters - but they will raid in very small packs but often is just single boofs. And in Melbourne its the smaller fish that make the most noise and disturbance.

Its almost as if the bigger fish have learnt not to boof - or at least they do it much more rarely than the little ones that boof like mad and are messy feeders.
 

When Im catching larger perch in Melbourne, I often wont hear a boof at all - they tend to leave swirls with no audible boof. But this is when they are surface feeding with 3m of water under them.

Ive watched jewies be extremely cautious while approaching bait schools in deep water - never increasing speed from a slow crawl - thats before the hit and after - they just "cough" and continue at the same pace. I assumed they do that so the bait school doesnt disperse or get unnecessarily spooked. There are kind of like "Pick Pockets" as opposed to "Armed smash and grab robbers" -

So much so that I used to think my livies were getting hit by squid - The slow and gradual loading of the rod tip was confusing because Jewies dont hit like that elsewhere. The rod tip would just slowly arc over and then they would spit the bait. Took actually seeing them feed to work out it was just slow-mo Jewies who were trying to be stealthy and not disturb the huge baits schools also in the area

I wonder if the larger perch I target have adopted a more subtle feeding style aswell.

But down here on the coast - there seems to be some very aggressive feeding - I found a strip of bait stacked against another shallow bay last night and the Perch and bream were making as much noise as they could while hunting - savage slashes and boofs - in this scenario - keeping the bait frightened and exhausted while pushed against the dry sand probably works in their favour.

54 minutes ago, Plectropomus said:

damn pretty fish. Loads of variety down there. Do the dusky flathead get that far south?

Not sure - plenty of sand and rock flatties - my guess is there arent duskies here

And I just found out if you left your lure sink to the bottom - there’s little pinks there aswell

the shrimp weren’t as thick tonight

And this rock wall had more shrimp on it than I’ve seen anywhere.
 

in the slightly slacker water, Out the front of some weed beds, they where shoulder to shoulder covering the submerged rocks

18 hours ago, Plectropomus said:

I was doing alright this arvo….. until the tax man showed up 

I was thinking "shark? ....down there?", but it looks like Sammy the Seal. I really like oily fish, and well remember having some marvellous battered 'coutta and chips down at Queenscliff (?) in Victoria. Yet most folk seem to loathe them as wormy line-cutters. 

Sounds like a great fishing location!

Yeah Ive only eaten Couta once and it was battered and reheated in the microwave after a bloke brought me in some to work.  I ate it out of politeness but it wasnt horrible.

Yeah Port Fairy is a good little spot - the river serves as a Estuarine nursery to alot of the species in the area. Juvenile King George Whiting, trevally, sand Whiting, Bream, Luderick, Flathead and many other species can be found in large numbers in the river.

And alot of the predators know about it aswell - So they will have daily raids up the river to snack on the bait and other little things floating around. Salmon Couta are the 2 main species doing the raids.

Funnily enough I havent hooked a salmon yet - which is odd as I thought thats what Id be catching most.

Yeah that seal was a pest - He'd go out deeper and pretend he was full, by just lounging around on the surface - but charge back in when you hooked up - I had to pack it in after he stole 3 fish. I tried waiting him out but he wasnt going anywhere.

Their rep as a Line cutter is well deserve and they can be pretty fussy about wire leaders

- unless they are fully switched on - they werent hitting any lure with a wire trace - But chuck in a plastic with 10lb mono leader - and they would whack it - but you only had a 50% chance of getting it back.

 

The tax man

I was doing alright this arvo….. until the tax man showed up 

4 hours ago, MAH said:

WTF! I only fish for species that I intend to eat. When I was younger and didn't pay much attention to the lifecycle of different species I would keep bream, but for decades I haven't targeted bream; because they are such a slow growing fish. It's crap like that which really saddens me.

Yeah he knew what he was doing would ruffle the feathers of some but did it anyway

Hanging out with these Warrnambool killers has changed my perspective on things

Figured I might take a few home to feed to the Jewies. 

Been hanging out with some fish murderers

While I took no part in the killing of big old bream for yabby bait

i did lend a hand to collect some chicken food.

I got chatting to an angler on the rock wall who breeds chickens and he reckons they love a bit of couta  So when I found some, I called him over so we could both lose some lures. I was rigged for trevally so it got a bit dumb in the end  but we got enough to keep his chooks fed for a few nights

Although size is increasing slightly. I’m beginning to think this bay might be too shallow for anything but runts. It’s probably why all the mullet stack so tight against the shore line. 
 

im getting tempted to grab a few as livies and chuck them out into some deeper water

I’m down in Warrnambool for a bit so I’ve been bouncing around like a blue arsed fly, trying to find after work spots worth hitting twice. 
 

found one last night. A little bay jam packed with 2 inch bait. Little eps and bream were whacking them in the darkness at low tide. Hopefully their bigger bros show up when the water isn’t ankle deep