THIS week will be about a couple of things that I have been asked about by fishermen wanting fishing boats that have the capability of travelling in shallow water – rivers and estuaries – and still have the attributes of a deep water vessel as well.
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I contacted a couple of jet boat manufactures in New Zealand and asked them if they were able to manufacture a Bass style boat around 4.8m to 5m without the standard windscreen, and instead incorporate a side console or consoles with a flat casting deck on the bow and a casting deck on the stern covering the motor and sides.
Instead of the standard chev motor (heavy) I suggested a Lexus V8 (all alloy) and the standard Hamilton jet for propulsion.
The very first thing that came back to me was, “how much do you want to spend?”
I gave them my figure stating that the average fisherman is a blue collar worker with “X” amount of dollars to spend, unfortunately the price came back at “Y” so this type of boat would only be available to only less than 5 per cent of fisherman.
It would be a bloody good package and you could have a heap of fun in it, but it’s just not practical.
This made me think a little outside the box and, having had a few enquiries regarding the following, I decided to ask a motor manufacturer about “jet outboards”.
These have been around for a while but have never really taken off and I started annoying a good mate of mine at Mercury about them, much to his annoyance.
I kept at him for a period of time and obviously a couple of others did as well because Mercury have now just put together (in Australia) a 65hp jet outboard and trialed it last week.
I have to say from all reports and watching the video (Can we still call them videos or am I just showing my age?) that it was quite successful; the power head is an 80hp 4 stroke EFI motor – because you lose about 30 per cent of the HP running though a jet – but at 4900 RPM the 4.9 metre hull and the hull comprised of floor and decks and two relatively heavy blokes in it, held 29 knots or 53kph.
On a normal propeller type motor you would probably get around the 60kph at the same revs, so yes, you do lose a little bit of speed, but you can sit on 53kph or more if you want to open it up and all in 15cm of water if required.
This would allow the travelling in shallow rivers, impoundments, and estuaries to be much safer and do less damage as the jet pick up is the exact same height as the hull.
Wagga Marine are having an in house boat show on October 22 and I am trying very hard to have the boat down here so people can see exactly what I am talking about.
I am also trying to manufacture a 4.3m boat and have a 40hp jet outboard on it, if I can get it across the line of the manufacturer and I’m pretty sure I can, it will be a great concept boat at an affordable price … Father’s Day is coming up, just to remind you.
Around the traps
LOCKHART Football and Netball club will be drawing the raffle boat, motor, trailer package on September 9 at their presentation night, so if you haven’t got your tickets yet you had better contact the footy club so you can get a couple – gotta be in it to win it.
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THERE was a good turnout for the Greg White Memorial Fishing Challenge at Burrinjuck last weekend with some good numbers of fish caught.
A very lucky Luke Carmody took home the boat, motor trailer package as the lucky prize – well done Luke. There was some inclement weather over the weekend, but most stayed out and caught some nice fish.
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DALE Broadford, from Albury, travelled to Blowering on the 21st and landed two magnificent cod, both were over the 130cm (brag mat only went to 129cm) and here I am fished it for 20 years and still haven’t made the magic mark. Well done Dale
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FRESHWATER lobster or Murray crayfish season finishes at the end of this month. There haven’t been huge amounts of these beasties caught this year and most of the ones have been Jenny’s with eggs so hopefully in a few years time it will be a better season if everyone keeps doing the right things.