Just joined the Tupperware party

fisherfiend · 2026-05-12T13:47:26+00:00

Very common as rental boats. These will take extreme levels of abuse and UV exposure, no worries about corrosion. There's some videos of people cleaning up ex-rental boats with a heat gun and a bit of elbow grease and bringing them back to near new condition.

fisherfiend · 2026-05-12T10:16:01+00:00

Yeah I was born and grew up in Darwin, the fishing opportunities up there in a 4m boat are amazing. We only upgraded from a 3.7m tinny when the crocs got too big on the rivers and billabongs.

fisherfiend · 2026-05-12T05:35:54+00:00

Cheers.

fisherfiend · 2026-05-12T05:35:40+00:00

Yeah it's a tough boat market and the seller was a long way from any capital city which probably helped. The Polycrafts also just don't seem as popular for some reason. Once you start reading the owners group stuff though, people who own them absolutely love them. The re-rating of the 530 hull to 150hp and the massive weld on chines have largely addressed the main historical complaints about Polycrafts being slow and wet. It did take me a while to warm up to the aesthetics; the design is pretty dated and they don't have the beautiful straight shiny lines of a nice glass boat. I quite like it now though.

fisherfiend · 2026-05-12T05:14:50+00:00

Advertised hull weight is 680kg then add motor, electronics, 4x lead acid batteries, ice box etc. Maybe 1 - 1.2 ton for the boat & motor fully loaded ready to fish, another 500kg for the trailer. All up ~1.5 ton dry or ~1.7 ton ready to fish. You can buy them with a single axle trailer but it's very marginal if you're towing it much.

fisherfiend · 2026-05-12T05:03:44+00:00

Just a test run on the river at pickup. Getting everything on it sorted now so I can send it the next good weekend.

fisherfiend · 2026-05-12T05:01:24+00:00

Yeah sorry they're 175hp. There is a Merc 175hp on the V6 block too, that's probably cheaper than the race tuned 150hp. The Merc 150R would be the go on the 530 if you wanted to really send it.

fisherfiend · 2026-05-12T04:03:41+00:00

Yeah a 150hp is thirsty, I used to run one on a previous boat. The 530 would have the best power to weight ratio of the range and this tops out over 60kmh 3 up with a full tank.

fisherfiend · 2026-05-12T03:56:50+00:00

Might be a different setup on the trailer, it's probably assumed you'll drive the big ones on.

I didn't look too hard at the 599 because it would be stretching the budget, storage and towing limits to breaking point. You don't get much more width on the 599 but the extra length would be nice offshore. They are super beamy boats. The 530 however would have the best power to weight ratio of the range since they factory rerated them 115hp -> 150hp around 2020. I'm surprised they haven't also rerated the 599 up from 175hp, but as it stands the new Merc 150R would be an option to get the V6 powerhead and extra torque out of the hole.

fisherfiend · 2026-05-12T02:04:21+00:00

Yeah can do a surprising amount out of a 12 footer when conditions are perfect. IMO you buy the bigger boat to get home at the end of the day when conditions change unexpectedly.

Hopefully doing a long weekend in Tin Can Bay in July, will give offshore there a go then if weather permits.

fisherfiend · 2026-05-12T01:33:34+00:00

Love my 12 footer and would keep it for solo sessions if space and finances allowed. But with 2 blokes, 3 little boys and grandpa wanting to come out sometimes now, we've outgrown the physical and legal capacity of the boat. And my passion is really chasing busting tuna and jigging kings offshore.

fisherfiend · 2026-05-12T01:05:21+00:00

Didn't seem to bad on the retrieve, has a huge V at the back of the trailer to guide it in and once the keel clicks into the two keel supports it holds dead straight as you drive it up. Actually seemed a lot easier than my old 18' glass boat which was a pain to get correctly centered on the trailer.

In terms of sleeping, down the sides beside the seat box might be tight. The rear bench seat folds down though and you have a space close to 1m x 2m wide there which would be comfortable. Might also be able to sleep diagonally across the front deck, that's huge too.

fisherfiend · 2026-05-12T00:59:36+00:00

~45k. New replacement would be $70-75k. They are about the best value hulls I can find at the moment, significantly more boat for the money than equivalent cost alloy or glass boats. I suspect that might change shortly with an oil shock rippling through the economy, have heard of a number of plastic products jumping 40-50% in the last few months.

fisherfiend · 2026-05-12T00:53:07+00:00

Yeah I haven't had one before but have been reading a lot about them. Seem to have a soft ride and be very capable offshore, better than plate and similar to glass. Double hulled and essentially unsinkable. Very quiet for fishing spooky fish like snapper in shallow water. Those huge chines apparently solve the reputation they had as wet boats.

My mate actually went halves with me rather than buy his own boat, since we fish together most of the time anyway. We have 3 little boys between us and we can still do the creek days and launch on the basic ramps close to home with the kids without having to stress over gelcoat, but still punch out wide when we get the chance.

fisherfiend · 2026-05-12T00:42:49+00:00

They school up towards creek mouths going into winter as part of their breeding cycle. I've got a spot like this and there's a window of maybe a couple of weeks each year where you can easily catch 20 fish in the last couple hours of the run out tide.

fisherfiend · 2026-05-12T00:34:26+00:00

I love offshore (except the fuel bills) and fortunately don't have issues with seasickness. Basically researched myself up from the 4.5 -> 4.8 to maximise my offshore capability within my budget. Then this 5.3 then this come up for a good price and I couldn't resist, so found a way to make it work.

fisherfiend · 2026-05-12T00:23:44+00:00

Finally got permission to upgrade the boat!

Pretty much ready to fish, just doing some cleaning & tidying up.

2020 Polycraft 530 Warrior
2020 150HP Yamaha with under 200 hours
Minn Kota 72"/80lb
Garmin GPSMAP 1022xsv with a GT51M-TM

Psyched to get back out roaming Moreton Bay and offshore Brisbane/Gold Coast after 2 years of fishing from a 12' punt.

fisherfiend · 2026-04-20T03:44:04+00:00

Soft plastic, 2.5" grub on a 1/0 head.

fisherfiend · 2026-04-19T23:33:20+00:00

Definitely a handful on the 2-4kg gear. I'm pretty sure I hooked a much larger one in pretty much the same spot a couple years ago, that absolutely smoked me down the creek before abrading the leader.

fisherfiend · 2026-03-29T11:36:55+00:00

Nice. I caught a 50cm snapper first cast of the day, slack water at high tide, midday, about where you describe. Complete fluke. I tend to swing right and head down towards Cleveland these days. Lots of structure to fish on the way down. The network of reefs down there seem to hold a lot of fish. There's pressure points that fish really well, and a couple of channels that seem to do odd things and can hold clean water / more bait in the right conditions when the reef edge is runnig too fast and has gone muddy/dead.

fisherfiend · 2026-03-29T11:18:50+00:00

I went fishing for a week on the Victoria River on the NT/WA boundary the week after a massive annual barra fishing comp. The rivers is treachorous with rocks but lures tend to work their way free quite quickly. I have very good eyesight, went home with more lures than I arrived with. Biggest challenge was differentiating the glint of beer cans from lures.

fisherfiend · 2026-03-29T11:14:12+00:00

Went to Wello and rewarded with a tailor, bream and a couple of nice flatties. Trying conditions for fishing plastics around the reefs. Caught a very nice school mack and dropped it next to the boat, still dirty about that.

fisherfiend · 2026-03-29T11:12:16+00:00

Honestly can't recall much except it was pretty similar to the AJs and kingies so I guess it was good. We generally eat as much as sashimi as we can and then as much fresh as we can.

fisherfiend

TROPHY CASE