I've always wanted to go offshore fishing, i mean about 5miles out or closer. I've read in the magazines that if have a 4meter plus bout you can voucher outside for reef fish. I myself have a trailcraft 4.85 freestyle. Is this enough to go out on good days, ( i've got all the safety gear, epirb, rocker flares and the standard stuff, plus radio.
Also, can use use a deckwash pump to power a live bait tank.
thanks
Sounds like a good setup for venturing out!
There is no such thing as the right size boat!!
Guys have been drowned in big boats capsizing on bars and offshore whilst smaller tinnies mess about and may come to no harm.
It is the guy behind the wheel who controls the outcome.
Inexperience, bravado, poor appreciation of weather, seas, sets, swells, breaking waves and much more are to some extent more important han the physical size of the boat.
Give me a guy in a small Tinnie who appreciates all the above and I will go with him anytime.
A responsible Boatie who knows when to quit, give it away or not even venture out in the first place is more essential than boat size.
The bar can be like a mill pond going out and a boiling unbroken line of breakers when you come back later on if the tide, offshore swell, wind etc. combine to rough things up a bit.
Do a bar crossing course (forgot the guys name who does them), scrounge a few trips on other boats with Boaties who know their stuff, take one out in your own boat (they all love a free trip) or go out in company of others.
Five miles offshore sounds like the 85 metre drop to me and in a fifteen foot boat that can be a very lonely place if the weather gets up - as it can in half an hour or so!
Even on a dead calm day wind wise, you can have three metre swells offshore if conditions are right.
The "good days" as you say are very, very difficult to pick and many a Boatie has spent the entire day packing the s*its worrying about how the return trip will go - been there dun that!
I'm dun!
Pink Panther well said....
oh da fox u the guru
Wow PP, I wish we could get to 85mtrs in 5 mls.
I used to have 16 ft tinny, until i nearly rolled it on the way home across Ballina bar one day. If you go out you still have to come home.
I put that boat on it's trailer & never took it out again, I bought my seafarer 2 weeks later.
If you want to go to learn to go to sea & do dodgy bar crossings & can afford a bigger boat with more power, it will be more forgiving than a small one, but no boat is indestructable.
I have plenty of mates with boats that size that go 12mls out.
As PP said, get some good advice from an experienced local first.
Muzz
The boat is fine for what ur talking about. If u have to cross a bar consider all the above advice, & watch ur weather
For your deckwash pump they are not designed to run continious as a bait pump.
A bait pump is fairly cheap & if u do a search ull find some good advice on site, reguarding setup etc.
Cheers bear
one handy feature of the trailcraft is the self draining deck... atleast if you cop a greenie you should be able to recover fairly swiftly
Timdoo,
You havent mentioned where you are heading out from. This is a big influence on the size of the boat needed. Where I fish (Sydney) I think you boat is a bit small to be going out 5 miles. Its more a large bay or harbour boat at that size. At a distance of five miles if it gets rough you will not be able to outrun the weather change and find it very hard going. I would be sticking to just one or two miles out and picking the calmer days. This is where most of the fish are anyway.
Remember too often the heads are the roughest place of all (even if there is no bar). Botany bay heads for instance can get very hairy on a run out tide with a strong onshore wind. The short length of you boat will mean it will have a tendency to broach in these sort of steep following seas.
What PP said plus... how long does a perfect weather day last?
Damn good advice PP and cheers...flatstrap
Definately agree with the comments above.
The responsbility falls back on the skipper, judgement of conditions. In saying that, I have to stress the importance of 'knowing your boat' and being familiar with its functions and the way it performs.
Also be mindful of the need to have everything in tip top order (Bilge Pump(s), Engine, Battery, Navigational Devices) and carry the right safety equipment including fresh water.
A good hull counts for a lot in open waters, and you should not go out if you do not feel comfortable about either (a) your ability as a skipper (b) the conditions (c) your boat.
If you've got them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow. JOHN WAYNE
thanks for the advice guys,
i Live in sunny queensland, i'm thinking about the Gold Coast Bar, or the bars close to it. i don't have a bilge pump as the boat has a self draining deck. i've added a bimini with clears with a ( soon to come rocket launcher at the back, this will reinforce the bimini to almost like a hard top. The trailcraft is a 4mm hull plate bottom. I think i would probably do a course in bar crossing. As for the live bait tank, i'll buy a bilge pump and work in on a timber. i think they are only $20 or so at BCF.
As for open bays, i have been out in moreton bay in some pretty ruff conditions on a 4 meter boat, but hey, it's only the bay, mite take me 20 minutes to get their but 2 hours to get back if the weather changes.
As for fishing, if i feel it's not safe i will head back, i've done that before in the bay, got to the fishing locations and headed straight back home. But better be safe than sorry.
i think once the weather is really calm, say 5knots or so, i will venture out after doing a bar crossing course and look for the crowds, i'm sure there would be heaps of boats around those close reefs with similiar or smaller boats.
Actually i only brought the boat becoz the dealer say it's ok to go offshore, Or maybe i was conned.
thanx's for the advice and will inform after my first trip.
I'm taking a workmate who goes outto the close reefs with a 3.7 meter dingy. ( thats what he said when he was age 30 now his 62.
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