i am looking for opinions  / advise to help me make a decision

currently i have twin 60HP mercs on my 5.96 trailcarft center cabin both done around 450hrs (2006 make)

the engine mounts are getting to a point where they need to be repaired

i have been giving an estimate of around 2.5k per motor and been advised by my boat mecanic to just put a new single outboard on

he has suggested a 150hp vtec Honda (approx 20k fitted) and told me to stay away from the mercury.

so the decision is

- putting back towards the 20k would be what ever i get for selling my 60hp twins and the 5k on the engine mounts, then i have a brand new motor

- or just getting the engine mounts done and keeping them untill upgading my boat, which by then the motors could be in excess of 15 years old.

any other Brands, Horse power , or what would you do , or bad experiences comment welcome!

i think this decision will need to be made by the end of summer at the latest and i will just nurse these mercs untill then.

cheers Steve.

Hey guys I'm heading to Busso this weekend and hopefully going to get a bit of fishing in, what's been hanging around?

Chasing whiting, gardies etc and haven't got a boat is there much point in trying the beach?

Cheers, Nick

 Hey Guys 

I'm not going to be home for this and i would love to help but have a read of this article.

www.watoday.com.au/wa-news/crowdsourced-small-boat-armada-to-investigate-fish-deaths-at-cockburn-sound-20151203-gleltj.html

Basically old mate Tim Barlow from Tims tackle plus in Guilldford has asked if people can get to cockburn sound on the weekend and take ya boat for drive around to take pics of any dead fish and to possibly try and get some fresh samples and to " have a fish to see if anything is left alive ".

Great idea to show how many of us fisherman are concerned about the current state of the sound and to get as many eyes on this as possible.

Not sure if many will go but the link said there is already over 1000 people keen on hitting the water for this reason.

Great to see a big show of people there in support of finding out the answers.

Cheers

Crowie

 looking for a rarenium 1000 old modal, thanks

 Heads up if you read this in time- 6 oclock News. Will be interesting?

 Went fishing around success bank yesterday.  Did well on the KGs and flathead. Before I went checked fisheries and the sound was open to fishing and swimming so kept the fish.  With all these new reports getting a bit suss on eating my catch but don't want it to go to waste.  What would your call be? 

 Some photos taken on the Dunsborough Artificial Reef yesterday as a part of Reef Vision.

 Just a quick heads up, the water police were at mindarie this morning at 5am with the radar gun pinging people as they were coming into the marina. Just watch your speed as you come in.

Was the busiest I have seen the ramp during cray season EVER.
This queue went 200m out to sea.
No agro, everyone did the right thing and the line flowed smoothly.

Probably because everyone out there are serious fishermen/women so there is no dicking around at the ramp.
We got a bag today, how is everyone else going?

 http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-03/grain-spill-near-site-of-mass-fish-deaths-in-cockburn-sound/6996956                                                maybe some answers 

Sadly, I see in our local paper (The Coastal Times) a three quarter page story on just what the danger is of having a crabbing season in Mandurah can lead to when it is opened way to early, and most of the crabs are way under size at this time of the year.

A local resident has been coming across piles of dead under size crabs that have been brought to shore and when found to be way under size left to die (if they aren't already dead)on the fore shore or in the rubbish bins.
He also reports sightings of people spearing these small crabs with gidgees and then using the gidgee as a lacrosse stick to flick the crabs off the prongs of the gidgee so that they can then continue there bloody wonton destruction of the under size grabs.

I know that I'm just repeating what I have moaned about for a couple of years now, may be just may be fisheries will take notice of what is happening to the main attraction of coming to Mandurah, which is lets get a feed of delicious crabs and you don't need a boat to do it.

I hold grave fear for the future of this fishery as I have seen this wanton destruction going on for near on ten years now, and I don't believe that the destruction of these small crabs can continue on add infinitum.

One day the people and business in Mandurah are going to wake up and say gee I wonder why we aren't getting as many visitors coming to town, well guess what no crabs no tourist dollars flowing into town and just who is to blame.

In my view we the residents of Mandurah are to blame for not pushing hard enough for fisheries to keep the crab season closed until near the end of January at the very earliest. I know that a lot of the local businesses will throw up their hands and accuse me of speaking heresy just to mention having a later opening.
Mention a later opening at a social function with the towns business types in attendance and you will certainly liven up the gathering I can assure you.

The story also has an adjacent column on how the pro crabbers are being hit hard by people destroying their gear.
I have the strong suspicion that some of the flat earth brigade think the lack of decent crabs is the fault of the pro crabbers, enough said about these types of people.

If you are coming down to Mandurah to do a bit of crabbing, do yourself a favour save your petrol dollars and leave it till at least a lot closer to December at least. The crabs are just not worth the time effort and money at the moment.

Rant over

 Hey guys,

Looking for some good fishing shows on foxtel ? What channels and times ? 

Cheers 

KING SPINNER ! 

 Bit of spare time over the ban so decided to do a couple of small upgrades a new bait board and rod holder just need to try them out now

hey fish members just a quick one

i believe I can swap a cray pot at sea, as it needs to come home for repairs

as long as I pull the first one up before I drop the other one i take with me in. 

Would any one agree with that please?

 A mate and I are trying to make octopus pots. We have purchased some PVC pipes, but do not know how we can weigh them down and keep them from moving. We are land based and looking for ways to get some octopus. Also any information on what type of ground octopus like and how to set the traps would be greatly appreciated.

located NOR

There has been much discussion about the “mystery” of the Cockburn Sound fish kill over the last couple of weeks.  I have read it with interest, and have a career of dealing with pollution issues and management of hazardous sites.  I have investigated a number of fish kill instances, and have had to respond to environmental emergencies for clients to direct works so as to prevent pollutant release.

In my opinion, the fish kill was caused by an acute toxic event that was short lived.  The fish were previously healthy (undigested food in the gut) but were killed in an instant.  The event was indiscriminate as a number of fish species were killed by it, including cephalopods, bivalves and everything else as well.

When a pollutant is added to water it will mix, dependent on a number of factors.  This will create a “plume” that disperses based on the conditions that prevail.  The concentrations of the pollutant, and whether it will kill biota on contact, will vary throughout the plume.  It is a complex science, particularly in an estuarine environment.

My hypothesis is, and it is only a hypothesis, that there has been a spill of a strong acid or a strong base, or a deoxygenating substance, that has been released to waters in significant quantities.  Fish, and other marine life is killed instantly if it has to swim or exist in water (the plume) with a pH lower than 3 or greater than 11, or dissolved oxygen <1mg/L. 

There are a number of other pollutants that will also indiscriminately kill biota instantly in a plume, again adding to the uncertainty of the cause of the event.  I don’t think there is much doubt that the event is a chemical spill of some type however.

Will the Government find the business that caused this, probably not.  In a lot of situations the plume disperses and is gone and no “after event” testing will ever discover the real cause of something that diminishes to background levels over a few hours.  I suspect that this is why there has been no cause identified.  I would expect fish biologists to shed some light on the mechanism of mortality when all the detailed autopsies are complete though.    

The loss of the big breeding pinkies is a tragedy.  I note there have been further recent reports of fish deaths but I would think this is a residual “wash up” of the original event where dead individuals are only “floating” now.

Anyway, that’s my opinion for what it’s worth. 

 Wish to make a plug for MVMR group, of which I am a member. Embarassinlgy I ran out of fuel 10km offshore 2days ago ( my only defence - the fuel guage showed fuel on board of 57 litres). The recovery precedure was both effecient and professional. At no stage did any of the MVMR group make me feel like an idiot as much as I felt I was. The cost of the excersise, was my consideration of making a donation which will be gratefully made.

Given the experience, I can thoroughly recommend  membership, which at $20.00,  needs no further comment.

 4.50 am he was finally on the job booking people. Mind you they should have a 1/2 day rate.?

 Been buying really cheap lures from China off eBay lately and my collection is quickly growing. Now I need to figure out how to use each correctly !

I have caught Salmon on diving minnows, poppers and metal slices and also had some tailor action too. Flatheads on jigheads, and also some flounder.

I'm more interested in trying the small surface poppers and crankbait style lures (for bream I think). Where do these lures work the best and what species can you target with them from the beach ? Been fishing more or less solely with baits forever now and with the spring / summer weather apparently this is the time of year to be using them. Any help / info appreciated. Cheers !  

 So I dont know which way to go with this so make of it what you will. I really hope the skipper in question reads it! I'm an aussie battler too mate.

Pt Kennedy this arvo, taken my boat for a quick run after more sh1t luck! Thats another post! Anyway boat pulls in, I look into deck area thats got a few (5-6) kids and adults.

Ask how they went and they got 3 small reds, I had a bit of a chat and one little one pipes up and says " oh there is more under there!", as he is pointing to the sealed/secret compartment on the deck. THe adults looked at me sheepishly as I said " you need to otrain him a bit better if you going to do that", which they laughed and giggled.

Now I don't know if there ever was anything "hiding" under the floor but whats got up my farken nose is the fact that skipper is running a 21+ foot ali with a a very nice looking V6 four stroke yamaha. That rig must be worth a few pennies! And you are taking the little 1's out and teaching your arsehole ways of raping and pillaging.

I know the boat rego and number and I will NOT dog on you this time but for fark sakes mate, smarten up! I am really pissed off with your actions and hope you are reading this!

You know whats worst, these people are probablyy the first to pipe up when they here of "foriegners" taking undersize or illegal catches home.

Rant over

As I said, I did not see any foul play but am certain it was there!

Went for a bream fish in mandurah today with a mate, tried some canals around lunch time for no result so ended up fishing the murray. Fishing was slow to start but landed a few 34-35cm blacks, my mate then hooked up and pulled out half the snag along with a bream that went close to 40. Found another school of fish and manage 5 or 6 high 30s. In the end had a great day after nearly pulling the pin early

Hi

Been doing well inshore on small tuna as of late.

Looking to hit the FADs up tomorrow morning with the break in the weather - does anyone know the current coordinates and which ones are holding fish? (PM if you like)

Any info would be greatly appreciated

Cheers

Alex

I know it's close to XMAS now and that makes things hard, but can anyone recommend a mobile mechanic NOR? Honda 200 service.

Cheers

 i will be heading to Jurien Bay for the first time inbetween christmas and new years. Providing the weathing is good ill be dragging the boat up. Do i need to go out past the islands to get good fish or can you fish inside the shole and still get good fish in 5-10m? Also what is it like that time of year with the mackys?

Im sure this has been asled a dozen times before so if it has can someone point me to the correct forum topic so i can have a read. Thanks in advance 

 I'm not on FB and don't read the local, right-wing, edited at a Year 3 level newspaper, nor do I watch the mainstream, cat-up-a-tree/Eagles player-making-a-cup-of-coffee/12 minutes of adverts news, so just wondering if anybody has heard anything?

 Hi, running in the new Yammy 130, got home put muffs on like I've done with other outboards, started the motor but no water coming out if the tell tale.. I gave it around 15 seconds before I gave up.

So am wondering if anyone knows where to get those flush bags from?

 I have been going through the crayfishing rules and curious about a few things. Wondering if anyone can answer.

Is there a minimum age limit for holding a cray licence?

Once you have you quota of crays out of a pot are you supposed to return the excess crays to water or leave them in the pot?

Just a few questions that people have asked me lately.

 The 4 blokes that sunk there boat off Mandurah what were they doing late at night with 30 knot winds 3 mile off shore. There's a fishing band on!!! There's no way they just went for a cruise for fun either!!! I'm not accusing anyone just suspect that pots around that area get tampered with regularly 

 so i have not posted for a while now soo thought id share soome catches from the last x amount of months , most fish taken on zipbaits ssm , monsoon breakers , rigge 35 and khamsin tinys and ofcourse some baits with both bluewater and river stuff here, all fish on the boat were from the 4m tinny

 Hi Guys,

A mate and myself went on the Rottnest Safety Convoy last weekend, and it was great.

It started out at 7am launching my 5.5m Runabout at point peron ramp and meeting Sea rescue for the convoy assistance, and as I was the only boat leaving from Rocko, had marine safety as the group leader, and midway marine as a tail end charlie..

We waited to join up with the Mandurah guys, and 4 boats turned up - or 3 boats and a small ship.. one of those dream boats that you only ever get to see at the mandurah boat show, or drug cartel movies..

We headed off at about 7:30, and tucked into the wake of the 2 ladies on the mandurah marine Safet boat, and headed towards woodmans, inside the sound. the weather was fine, with about a 10 - 15 kn wind, and about 1m swell, and did good time to the woodman meeting point, regrouped and headed to the seaward side of carnac island. Visibilty was good, and we could see rotto from the carnac position, and started over.

Our boat was doing well, with the 2 stroke 90hp mercury on and we did a fuel tank change at about an hour in to the journey, just for safety sake, and it took us about 30 minutes from carnac to rotto, at about 22 knots, trying to keep up with the ladies.. Sea rescue must have noticed that we were taking it a bit fast for the swell size, versus the boat size and asked marine safety to slow down a bit during the crossing, as the side swell movement was tossing us around a bit. we settled in at about 18 knots, which was perfect, as I am just up on the plane, and about 3000rpm, which is about 75% of my rev range. we would not have been able to do more that about 12 knots, if we werent in the front boats wake.

When we arrived in thomsons bay, we made a quick pit stop for toilets, ladies from mandurah headed back, and about 25 boats arrived safely, from north and south spots. We broke into 2 teams, and headed out for the bay tours, and were shown how to approach each bay, what hazards to expect, and which bays were protected in which winds, like a 27MHZ guided tour, by the red group leader. It was very informative..

We started getting low on our 3rd tank of fuel, so headed back to thomsons to refuel and chill. the convoy leader arranged an escort back to the bay for us with one of the sea rescue boats.

We refuelled at $1,62 per litre for premium, and used $100 for 3 hours riding. about 3 standard red tanks.

We moored in Thomsons, had assistance from the safety guys there, and went to check in to the camping site.

The arvo was a presentation from marine safety on Lifejackets, EPIRBS and flares, and the sea rescue guys let off a few flares to show us what they actually looked like from shore. off for a few bevvies, some lunch and a shower, and met at the lodge for a prizegiving and dinner - great spread of all foods, good quality and proffesional service, bar available and great company. we sat with the 4 guys from rocko sea rescue and enjoyed the evening.

Off to the camp for a top up and back to the lodge for a few pints and off to bed at about 11..

We woke up and went to the dome for a coffe, packed up our gear and loaded the boat, as the 25 knot winds were starting to blow already, and the convoy decided to head back early, due to the prediction.

We followed a large Catamaran back, only running at about 11 knots into the wind, and managed to stay dry for the 2 hours it took us to get back to Woodmans, and then followed sea rescue inside the carnac area back to rocko..

We ended up playing with the trim to try get settled in their wake, upped our speed to around 15 knots and got swamped twice by running through a swell, luckily, the bilge took care of the water that we collected, but our trip was not completley dry due to this mishap - still not sure if the rocko sea rescue boys had anything to do with the unexpected swell, as the second one happened way too close to when they held up the camera to snao a pic..???

all said and done, it was a great experience, my boat went well, all my shit worked, and almost made the expense of the refurb worth it - pretty uneventful besides the 2 swampings, but enlightining to the capability of the boat, and all done with the support of a great team, which was great.

Thanks to all the guys and girls that supported the convoy, and offered assistance and advice, and to the orginisers of this great event.

LESSONS LEARNED:

* A 5.5m runabout is fine for calm to meduim sea and wind, but has its limits - 5 fathom on good days only.

* I would do rotto again on my boat, but would leave time to delay the return trip a day if the weather was bad.

* I would not take my family on that trip on this boat - the boat can handle it, but it does get scary.

* My boat uses almost double the fuel in bad weather conditions. we were prepared, but i normally only have 50 litres onboard.

* My 90HP 2 stroke has a consumption of about 25l an hour on average.

* Rotto journey from Rocko is an hour in good weather and up to 3 hours in bad.

* We have heaps of boating support in WA, and an event like this brings everyone together. the blokes and ladies of these support crews do a great job, and we should really appreciate what we have here in WA.

So, all said and done, it was great, learned heaps, met nice people, had a great stay on the island, and a great weekend.

Anyone wondering if they should give it a go, check online as they will do it all again in march..

Thanks to everyone who made the weekend very enjoyable..

Few pics added..

We are the small blue boat in the centre of the first pic..LOL!

Dave