hey guys 

im looking to purchase first boat and wanting to fish cockburn sound and maybe near rotto on calm days. 

what is the minimum sized boat to comfortably go out for a days fishing. iv looked at the quintrex explorer trophey sc but not sure if it would be able to handle the chop when the southerly comes in. 

any advice would be much appreciated.

 off shore  would you go, well maintained 70 on the back and a fairly experienced skipper

Im looking for some advice from anyone that has a Suzi 150, i have a s/s prop, 3x16x21.5, i have been told by my marine guru that the motor is overproped, this evident by the leg oil?? I have the motor on a 5.8 Coraline Oceanrunner and get around 36kn @ 5500 rpm, the motor peaks at 6000rpm WOT but i can never get to that rpm. Any ideas on a prop size? I hear good things about 4x blade props, keen to hear back from the Fishwrecked comunity, cheers.

How long do you keep your trailers before changing them?  I am sure the sun kills the tyres.

 Hi All,

I know it is a long shot but I am chasing a power trim and tilt unit for a v4 130hp 1999 model yamaha 2-stroke. Was just putting it out there in case anyone is wrecking an engine in this vintage or anything similar. I know that this same trim unit was used in the 115, 130, 150 and 200 2-strokes. Any help on tracking one down at a decent price would be much appreciated. I have uploaded a photo of my current unit which has a hole in the side of it.

Cheers,

How old is too old for a motor ?

I am selling my dinghy, had it for a year and was given to me as a present, barely used it, the motor (9.9 i beleive) is very old and doesnt even have a brand name on the hood (on the motor itself it has the mercury sign) motor works fine. Gets a fair bit of pace with one person and plenty with 2, good for rivers and close to shore in the ocean. It comes complete with trailer but wasn't sure what price tag to put on it, do people tend to stay away from purchasing motors that are in my situation id say over 20 years old ?

 Hi, I'll cut straight to it .

Been working in the pilbara for nearly a year now, been out a couple of times with the boys from work. Now got the bug for fishing.

The question is What type of boat do i need to get out to the islands and find some decent fishing spots to catch some Emperors and Coral Trout ?.

Im thinking I want a Stacer Nomad Fisher or 509 Baymaster Mainly stacer any thoughts?. 

Cheers....

 I just got a little runabout, 13-14' really old fibreglass hull and I was looking at a sounder.

Narrowed it down to 2- Lowrance Elite 5 or HDS 5 G2, both @ $849 include 83/200khz 500w transducer. The Elite 5 includes Navionics Australia gold charts. The HDS 5 does not- best price $329 delivered for platinum chart.

Does anyone have experience enough to offer an opinion on which is the better option. I believe I could expand the HDS5 with a 200/500 txr for DSI for $600 odd, but application is for Warnbro Cockburn Sounds, maybe Coventry/5FB in real nice weather so not sure that is so important as I believe the better sonar would suit my application.

I am led to believe HDS 5 is a much better more user friendly unit whereas the Elite is more than suitable for me and includes the maps. I'll post a wanted for a Navionics gold card in case someone upgraded to platinum and has a spare one going at a good price.

Thanks for any replies or opinions on this. Like everything so far, my budget was $400 and I'm comparing 2 x $849 units...

PS. I don't know how to stop the two following photos from appearing 

Hi All,

Here is a custom arch I had installed on my latest rig a Grady White 208 Adventurer I had this made up at Modlins Welding in Farmville NC for $1650usd The arch is also foldable so it folds back into the boat, I did this for towing and storage purposes but also because the boats being imported and they charge by the cubic metre. Let me know what you think! I know its different but I like the idea of having a bit more to hold on when getting around the side and also to wakeboard behind. I sent Keith the owner a quick paint image knock up of what I had in mind and he whipped this up the same day! I couldn't believe it! He still has to add the gold rod holders, spreader lights and tow point with anchor light.

Modlins welding by James Mullins1, on Flickr

Grady arch Keith Modlins by James Mullins1, on Flickr

Guys
have noticed a few people talking about imported trailers, both buyers and sellers and i thought in the interest of looking out for my fellow fishermen/women i would share some important information that should not be overlooked.
Please note -i am not providing advise here -just relaying information i have learnt and trying to highlight to everyone potential issues regarding imported trailers. (this is not a bash on imported trailers either!)
When importing a trailer under 4.5t ATM you need to get import approval - suggest most people would know this but in case you have not read the approval I have attached a copy of a recent one of mine below. Importantly i have highlighted the points that in a nutshell state you cannot sell or use the trailer until it meets WA (or other states) vehicle standards.
I have been advised by an independent legal resource (who had no vested interest in the outcome) that if you sell an imported trailer that has not been modified to meet our standards that the importer could be liable if for example that trailer was the cause of an accident.
This sounds a little crazy as you may sell the trailer as a jinker -however the import approval is pretty clear that if the trailer is not modified to meet our standards then it could be an offence to sell it and must be destroyed or exported.
It was suggested (please note this is not advise just relaying a suggestion made by someone) that if the trailer was sold as scrap and had the vin removed that it may escape these clauses - I would suggest you do you own research and do not rely on this as advise -i just wanted to highlight a potential problem!
cheers
Clint

So what are you all polishing your boats with?

Hi everyone,

Need some advice on what others think about how versatile the bowriders are. I currently have a Quinnie 420 Dory, does the job, but am thinking of upgrading to something a little bigger and family friendly for the future ( 2 year old at moment ).

I am fron Busso and regularly go out crabbing and venture out a little further fishing. would really like something  to go out 10-15km in for some bottom bashing ( not with family out this far ).

For general use is a runabout style or bowrider more versitile with 2-3 people fishing?

Do you really loose a lot of fishing space with a bowrider? have seen a couple of 500/530 freedom sports. look good but are they fishing friendly. maybe a little mroe comfortable for the family though.

Might have up to 20k to spend.

Any advice would be great

Well I thought I might as well document this while Im sorting out my trailer to help others.

I will add to this post as time goes by

Firstly: Background info

I bought a Trophy 2352 WA recently from a private seller in perth and it came with an magictilt US unlicenced trailer from New jersey

Unfortunately I wasnt fully aware of the headaches to follow, bearing collapsed on the way home only about 10 mins after picking up the boat.

Forcing me to do the following to get it home

Costings

This is what I have priced up so far

12mm Aus approved safety chain roughly $25

3500kg Trailer Coupling $60

Hydraulic Disc brakes x 2 for each axle (specified by the DPI) $800

Hydrastar HBA1600 PSI breakaway system and incar controller $1100

Flexible Brake Lines $250

LED Autolamps lighting Kit $200

New spring..?

Update 4.10.12

So I started to pull off the other side last night

Bearing was good and greased up but I wonder if anybody could spot whats missing from the picture?

Yeap there are no brakes left what so ever!!

Then also noticed this little doozy

Lucky I had the pre-purchase inspection done her......NOT!

So Im adding a new spring to my price list

Update 8.10.12

3 springs and shackles have now been replaced

Chain welded on and holes have been drilled for the coupling

Bolts have been located at a suprising struggle and im just going to get some flat plate washers to distrubute the bolting load a little better

Just a little Photo showing the old to the new

Update: 10/10/12

Ok so the update goes like this

Went to a bearing mob and could not get bearings to fit the US axle and aussie hub.

After much thinking Im getting new Aussie 45mm stub axles welded on, make this much easier if Im ever up shit creek and need bearings or other parts fast.

Bought a LED autolamps trailer kit, fantastic bit of kit and cost $200 all plug and playwith no solderings etc and all plugs have silicon inside. This also came with side markers all ADR approved.

Purchased Hydraline flexible brake line kit as well got them from a store in perth so started running those lines as well.

Just waiting for the axle and will be putting the first set of brakes on that arrived yesterday

The trailer Coupling is now bolted in as well

Update: 15/10/12

Another weekend down and she now rolls on all 4 wheel again

The new stub axles are welded on have we ground down the sleeve inside of the old axle, photo below shows new to old

Axle has been rubbed down and painted with some killrust, a nice marine blue colour

so no the hubs are on brakes are all set up just waiting on the rear axle brake kit and then ill be pulling the other axle out and be repeating the same proccess.

Update: 17.10.12

Recieved the Hydrastart Kit and brake controller yesterday

Started to wire up the Car Brake controller which looks pretty easy

signal reciever, signal sender and the POS and NEG cables

just have to finish of running them to the trailer plug and that parts sorted

Also started up getting the Brake actuator and battery mounted so I bought a piece of RHS sliced the bottom edge off and slid it over the trailer coupling and started to drill some holes and welded 2 bits of flat plate to the side to mount the battery.

Pictures to come

 Hi guys,

just wanted to see what people's opinion on servicing a 2006 mercury 2 stroke 15hp outboard were?

the motor had done very little work before I bought it as it was an auxiliary that never got used. Since putting it on my dinghy I've maybe racked up 20 - 30 completely trouble free hours and would like to service it/get it serviced before the warmer months kick in so I can get out for a fish and crab with confidence.

question is should I service it myself of pay someone to do it? I'm a refrigeration mechanic by trade and would say that I have slightly above average mechanical knowledge so feel as though I could tackle it myself, probably with the aid of a workshop manual, and maybe buying a couple of specialist tools for replacing the leg oil....

or should I just take it somewhere and get it done? If so can anyone recommend somewhere near Morley or madeley (actually quite close to all boats)

cheers

steve

unfortunately this is not a tutorial but rather a question!

I am buying a few parts for the yam out of the US at the moment (anodes/water seperator a few other bits an pieces) and want to replace the front cowling sticker as the "clear" or see through part of the sticker has gone yellowish and cracked (looks pretty ordinary)
does anyone know how to get the old stickers off without damaging the paint underneath? - dont think acetone would be a good idea, the surface is curved slightly so razor blade not ideal.... attached a pic -not sure if its clear to see.....

If all too hard i wont bother -just seeing if anyone has done this before with success!
cheers
Clint

Sooo the story goes i bought a new boat on the weekend

Ill do a full write up of it later including steps i did to get the US trailer compliant

I had a Pre-Purchase done on the boat 2 days earlier before I picked up the boat

I wont be naming and shaming just yet until I have heard back from the mechanic

Problem goes that the inspection reports that the wheel bearings were "good"

This did not compute when the wheel fell off about 10mins up the road

I ended up getting the boat and trailer home after and extra 3 hours of driving time.

What would you do?

I am under the impression that the mechanic should at least be refunding the "service"

as by the looks of the rust hole in the backing plate would have been a clear giveaway that shit aint right

and this also give me very little confidence that the rest of the 40 thousand dollar boat I purchased is actually good.

Yippy  floor done ! Now for the wiring..

hi guys was just wondering i have a 1998 115 mercury that runs on 2 cylinders at low revs was just wondering if there anyway i can make it run on 4 all the time i no its meant to run on to but surely would run smoother on 4? also would it use much more fuel? thanks

After too many flat batteries in my patrol I ended up swapping my engel car fridge for a dinghy about a month ago and have been having a ball with it ever since. Main reason I wanted a dinghy was for solo fishing missions when my mates are all at work and i'm on break. It's an 11ft gull with a 9.9hp johnson hanging off the back. Thing I like about it is how cheap and easy this thing is to take out and you can get really close to tight/shallow/rocky spots that i would be too scared to take my other f/glass boat near. Since getting it off my mate i've...

-put carpet on the seats to stop rods/reels getting scratched

-taken the old metal fuel can out and put new 20L plastic one in with new fuel lines

-installed a lowrance hds elite-4 sounder/chart combo

-added some rod holders into seats

-installed a led anchor light and a led deck light.

-strengthened the transome with marine ply (painted with dulux)

So far i've had her out as far as horseshoe reef and also little island (today) and on my last break i took it out off wedge island. I'm plannig on taking it for a road trip up north sometime over the christmas break, still undecided where to go

She's pretty rough looking but i'm not too worried about how it looks. The motor runs sweet, starts easy as and the hull doesn't leak water at all. For a whole days fishing (aprox 8hrs) it chews through a whopping 4 litres of juice

future plans are to rewire the trailer with submersable led lights, find some new wheels for it and also build a water proof box somehow for the small motorbike battery/switches for the sounder/lights.

If you see me out on the water in it come say hi if you want, i'm not worried about pingers because i have no decent spots anyway haha

I still haven't caught anything awsum in it yet so no fishy photos but here are some pics i've taken so far...

Could anybody tell me the process involved in converting a US trailer to get registered here

including if the trailer is over 2.5m

As far as Im aware

Electrics need to be re-run

Re-Place Shackles

Re-Place Tow Hitch

Hi Guys can anyone tell me if there is a ratio to work out what size anchor to the size of boat..

Cheers

585 Sounder Shot

Anybody recomend somewhere close to mandurah for a boat inspection please.

Even better if they are working saturday :P

I'm
Looking to get a new canopy on my 4.5m Ali savage safari and may be a little Ali targa bar for rod holders that can fold down
Any one out there you fellas can suggest that can do the whole job in house
South of river would be best but will travel
North

Thanks

A little while back I got a very light whiff of fuel from the bilge which I (think I) fixed from replacing the old rubber hose link between the main copper fuel line and fuel tank.

But it also got me thinking about the condition of the bow mounted aluminium fuel tank - which is getting on to 16 yrs old.

So after a pile of swearing and JUST getting the tank out of the cabin by the width of a gnat's cock I was able to check it out.

And I have to say it was worth it.

The tank is very well made from 4-5mm plate ali, but was sitting on a bed of expanding foam which obviously had got wet from condensation / washing cab floor / water in bilge - and had extensive pitting / corrosion over the area that had been on contact with the foam.  I'm talking BIG pits 3mm deep, so a major leak disaster was probably imminent.
From the amount of pitting I wouldn't be surprised if it was found to already have a pinhole-type leak.

So, my question is whether to get another tank made the same - with the bottom glassed to protect from the same thing happening (from reading it looks like most new boats have f/glass-coated tanks ?) or to get one of the oblong poly tanks that could go in the big storage compartment below the floor ?

The way I see it;

Advantages of new Bow mounted tank :

* All filler & fuel line pipe routing stays the same.

* Keeps the Extra 120-odd kg of fuel up the front of the now slightly ass-heavy boat with the new 4-Stroke Suzi

* Leaves existing floor storage space as usable.

The advantages of a poly floor-mounted tank would be :

* Won't offend the neighbours with obscene language when fitting.

* Won't corrode.

* Easy to source (lots of sizes available)

* I could make more use of the big space up front to store some non-variable weight (i.e. won't change as fuel load decreases)

* Probably fit a much bigger tank.

* Toilet options up front

I haven't even looked at comparing prices yet, but guess either option will be within $100-200 of each other - but maybe a duplicate of the old ally tank will be quite expensive as it's a pretty intricate design.
(I might call the guys at Chivers to see if they have a set of old plans)
 

I'm guessing someone else has been the the same situation at some point, so it'd be great if anyone has some words of wisdom.

Is there someone around that does CUSTOM Poly tanks ??  (i.e. get a poly tank made to replace the old ally one)

Thanks,

Dizz.

Gday Fellas,

I am chasing a cheap aluminium bait board and want to know if anyone knows somewhere in Perth where you can get them.

I have found one on ebay (see link below) but I was wondering if anyone had any they could suggest?

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/NEW-Aluminium-Bait-Board-Table-70cm-x-40cm-Nylon-Board-/360452358727?pt=AU_Accessories_Tackle&hash=item53eca28247

Cheers guys

Hi, I have a Haines Signature 600F and am having a lot of problems getting a good reading with my current Furuno 620 and transducer set up. I have tried moving the transom mounted transducer and now have a 600 W inhull transducer sitting in the bilge area which is an improvement but not great.

After doing a lot of research I would like to upgrade to a 1000 Watt unit and think my best option for this boat is to get a thru hull transducer. This involves drilling quite a big hole so I would like to find someone in Perth who has done a few of these and knows what they are doing. Any suggestions welcome, ideally someone in the Northern suburbs but not essential.

Regards Russell

g'day crew,

i've been looking online at plug-in style pedestal seats for my boat.

i'd prefer to buy them local if i can to avoid frieght costs and to make sure i'm getting what i want.

if anyone can point in the right direction that would be great, doesn't really matter where the shop is, anywhere metro is fine.

i'm after something like these:

pedestal http://www.chsmith.com.au/Products/Plug-in-Pedestal.html

base http://www.chsmith.com.au/Products/Plug-in-Pedestal-Bases.html

seat http://www.chsmith.com.au/Products/Oceansouth-Deluxe-Fold-Down-Seats.html

Hey Fellas,

On my last fishing trip on the way back in I noticed the outboard lose torque twice but it wasn't enough to be a real concern as it kept firing along nicely straight after and didn't worry about it.

Yesterday I went out and did 30nm without it missing a beat, but on the way back in (was running all day) it starting 'hiccuping' and anything over about 15 knots would see it have like mini fits.  One of them was so bad that it started to gurgle and the whole outboard looked like it was about to fall off the back of the boat with shaking etc.  After it stalled it started straight away again and ran for the next half an hour at full WOT with no issues.  Getting closer to home it started again but a lot worse than before, couldn't get over 12 knots and was happening all the time, just cruising and then spit and spurt loss of power and then would keep going again.

The temperature was fine/water etc, split pin and prop all good.  I haven't had a good look at the engine yet as I was more focused on getting back yesterday and have had to 'entertain' since then so haven't been able to check it out.  I took some video on my phone yesterday to try and assist with the diagnosis.  Don't worry about the angle of the video, just listen for the evidence.  Second video is about 30 odd seconds in.

Will be booked in tomorrow (be a few weeks wait) but would be good to get an idea before going in.

https://vimeo.com/49990530

https://vimeo.com/49990047

Any help appreciated,

Adam

Put a three strand thick rope on the front bow(loop over twice ) then run it back to the back of the boat and have about 2mtrs extra then splice on a big S/steel spring clip .This rope can be used for tying up at jetties & launching ,tying your boat to the trailer and Anchoring. With the help of another 2 metre piece of rope with a float on one end and a s/steel clip on the other you can retrieve your anchor from the back of the boat all the time ,all you have to do is clip the bow line to the end of the anchor line and the float clip as well ,drop your anchor from the back of the boat and feed it out (note I keep a 20mtr rope & a 40mtr rope in my boat depending on the depth I am fishing in ) with the float attached to it & the bow line boat will drift back and the float will slowly go to the front of the boat with the anchor  rope &  the float rope attached. TOO retrieve your anchor slowly drive your boat forward the float will pope to the surface drive up alongside your float and retrieve your float & anchor rope from the back of the boat and never having to go to the front of the boat. Float line with clip also acts as a safety thing too, if you need to get off the anchor in a hurry you can power up to the float and only unclip the bow line, leaving the float clipped to the anchor line so you can go back later to retrieve it. Lot safer this way than going to the front of the boat and you stay dry.