LEE RAYNER, MELBOURNE, VIC
STYLE : Any sort of fishing – bait, lure, fly, just so long as I’m catching fish. I do love chasing marlin and tuna, while at the other end of the scale there is something great about freezing your bum off chasing trout, especially big ones.
BOAT: I’ve got my hands on a new Evolution 600 Extreme. I’ve had two of them and they keep getting better. This one has a newly designed transom, which incorporates twin live-bait tanks, inbuilt slimy mackerel tubes and, off the back, a pair of 115HP Command Thrust Mercury engines.
ELECTRONICS: This is what gets me excited about this rig. It’s got all the electronics I could dream of. Starting at the back, there are a pair of 1kW transducers in the form of a B175HW chirp for shallower water; and a B175L chirp for the deep stuff. Up in the cabin, it all happens with a Simrad NSS9 EVO 2 as a chart-plotter, and a Simrad NSS12 EVO 2 as the sounder. Incorporated into this system is a Simrad autopilot and 4G radar, both of which are products I thought I’d rarely use. Boy was I wrong! All the information runs through the BSM 3 box, which helps get better performance out of the transducers.
SCREENSHOT: This was taken at Portland while fishing for jumbo bluefin tuna. In the middle of the screen, up near the top, you can see a red line coming up to the surface. I called it as a tuna and five seconds later we were hooked up to a barrel! You can also see his three or four mates sitting off to the side at 30-40m.
LEE’S TOP TIP: Always adjust the sensitivity – too many people seem to run it on one setting. It will need adjustment depending on water depth, clarity and temperature. I also like to run the sensitivity a bit higher with a bit of clutter or “interference” on the screen as this will help show weaker fish or bait signals. A totally clutter-free screen generally means you’re going to miss everything but the most perfect or strongest signals. Also, take note of your bottom picture – if it’s scratchy and not showing detail, there’s a high chance you’re not marking what’s between you and the bottom.
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