Beacon Bashing TSVL

[Fisher4life]

Headed out thismorning to the shipping leads out from townsville to have a go at some doggie mackeral on slugs.

First cast and i was on to an undersize model, and this continued for most of the morning with the majority of the fish being all around the 45cm mark. It was great to watch the small schoolies chase the slug back to the boat in groups of 3-4 all taking turns in hitting the lure, then in true dedication to each other, the fish would follow the hooked fish right up along boat side.

Lost count of how many were landed, and the schoolies iniliated one of my slugs beyond repair (at one stage i even had to straighten it out with pliers to get the bend out of it)

Anyways, was alot of fun and managed to pull one legal for the BBQ.

[Fisher4life]

Couple of pics....

1st one... a small undersize schoolie. NOTE: schoolies have the white mark in the top fin unlike the spotties, also the spot's are much more defined then the splotchy looking this on this fish

2nd the legal fish

3-4th... the new slug after the schoolies got to it

[BLOOEY]

Jesus they whacked the crap out of that slug diddn't they.

[Taipan]

It was a good morning Josh, I think my boat was the only one not to score a keeper. Still fun anyway.

[Fisher4life]

It was a good morning Josh, I think my boat was the only one not to score a keeper. Still fun anyway.

Yeah, that's unusual for you. If i hadn't come over to see what you guys were up to, i wouldn't have landed my keeper though.

After you left, Dan landed a good one on a lsug, and i got bitten off on the drop. It seemed that the better quality was all in closer this time.

[Taipan]

It's all good, the young bloke was stoked to catch his first mack. He did go through a few slugs though, gertting bitten and busted off. Both my deckies caught there first Macks yesterday. The day was not lost.

[Fishin_Dan]

Thanks to Scott for the trip out again today!

We started a little late Saturday morning after Scott had a small "fuel incident". All was sorted out, and we followed the other 2 boats out not too long after.

Had a quick chat and there had already been a few small ones caught and a few bite offs, so we started casting some slugs to the beacons in hopes of our own. I got a small mack around the 40-45cm mark off about the second or third beacon. Scott landed a nice 60cm specimen on a floated pillie. There was a second one the same size swimming with it alongside the boat, but it wouldn't take a slug/plastic/pillie, so Scott despatched his one into the esky.

After that it went really quiet. we ended trying all the beacons out to the second last one. A couple of them had some big bait balls on them, but apart from a couple of good hits, it was really quiet. We decided to head in after the petrol fumes got a little overwhelming in the heat....

We stopped & chatted to Taipan & F4L on the way in. Corey decided to head in and F4L decided to hit one of the closer in beacons before going back. We went for one more cast on the other one...

I think I got about 2.5 turns of the handle before a solid thump came up the line, then it started emptying off the spool After a nice little fight that got a little scary when it headed to the pylon a few times, a 92cm Grey was boated. Got to love those famous "Last casts"


Thanks again Scott for the trip. Got a tip for you about the foam for under your floor too... It's petrol proof

[Scott nthQld]

We were actually quite lucky that I had that fuel incident, as it turns out, even after I had cleaned out the tank, the little petrol that did make it managed to loosen up some more crap for the bottom, which turned out to be a very dark greeny stuff, it looked almost like engine oil, So I guess its back to square one.... As it turns out, It was my fault as when I put the floor back in, I split the filler pipe, and once the fuel came into contact, it just ate it away. All of this happened under floor level so the damage was not apparent until I got the floor back out of the boat that afternoon. So now the bottom of the boat is bare, waiting for the tank to be given yet another cleanout, new fuel line, Bilge and finally a new floor. Speaking of giving the tank another clean, is there any product I can get that will do a really good job on an aluminium tank?

But after all that mucking around on Saturday morning and finally getting to the ramp (late albeit) turned out to be a pretty reasonable day out on the water, a little lumpy, and a little intoxicating but a good feed afterwards.

Also the night before (Friday) Mozza took me out for a fish around a couple of breakwalls and out to middle reef, with the night yeilding a fingermark for Mozz and a jack @ 43 cm for me.

Unfortunatly, there are no pics as while I was cleaning out the boat, the mack was cleaned and filleted by dad, as was the jack while I was catching the mack.

I always enjoy a good feed of fresh fish, and this time was no different. The only this wrong was that the jack didn't put up the fight I was expecting.

Cheers

Scott.

PS. When I gutted that jack on friday night I pulled out a bone from a chicken leg, maybe I've found a new secret bait for them? just chuck a big ol' chook leg on the hook and wait

[kingkev]

Well done guys. Was waiting for the reports. The rock walls gave up nothing this weekend for me.

Next time

cheers

[Fishin_Dan]

PS. When I gutted that jack on friday night I pulled out a bone from a chicken leg, maybe I've found a new secret bait for them? just chuck a big ol' chook leg on the hook and wait

If you want to "high grade" you can use a whole live chook

They make alot of noise & splashing when retrieved along the surface like a popper too!

[Mozza]

Scott,

The yards give their alum. boats 'acid baths' to tidy them up. I imagine an acid bath would clean up your alum. tank the same way. I think a basic hydrochloric acid should do the job but, you should check with someone first.

Mozza

BTW: 1 bream, 1 barra, 1 flatty,1 jack last night down below Aplins...

[Scott nthQld]

Thanks Mozz, I was going to give acid a go, but I decided to give paint thinners a shot first, cos knowing my luck, if I jump straight in with acid I will leave some behind and destroy the new fuel lines I just put in. At least thinners will evaporate away and any residue will be diluted with the fuel and not cause any harm.

The under floor floatation is under control now, so all I need is some new marine ply and carpet for a new floor, and hopefully it should be done this weekend. Speaking of which, does anyone know where I can get some marine ply at a good price, or if there is any other alternative that will do the job, and be a bit friendlier to the hip pocket? Like would I be able to use normal CD ply or even form ply and seal it up so water cannot penetrate the surface and cause rot? The few places I have called the cheapest is for $110 a sheet measuring 2400*1200*12mm as this is the thickness of the old stuff, its just a pity I can’t seem to find it @900mm wide as this would suit the job perfectly and would take a bit off the price too.


PS well done at Alpins

[FNQCairns]

Scott, CD is the go, needs to be sealed though, I use polyester resin, some use outdoor paint, other more exotic stuff also, form ply has a phenolic resin as the sealer (the black stuff) it works OK not as well as sealed CD IMO, still need to seal the sides of the form ply.
Nothing sticks well to that black coating for sealing purposes. CD grade has the same glue as marine ply, has more voids, marine is made of a better class of wood -not that much better though.

CD is the way IMO.

Can we see casting decks or extra storage in the boat future or just - getting the damn thing back on the water

Good luck,

cheers fnq

[Scott nthQld]

just getting it back on the water, though I may use the leftover ply so some extra storage, as their will be a fair bit left over, and I don't want it to go to wasste.