Trial by ice in the UK

year round. The best baits are freshly caught wrasse or Barbers perch.

Southern calamari squid is one of the more popular species to be chasing this month, with plenty on offer all over Port Phillip Bay. A good place to start is up around Black Rock in the shallow waters over the broken ground in around 3m of water.

Using smaller jigs is the key – no bigger than a size 2.5. The better colours are green with a gold belly, and your more natural colours.

Moving down to Mt Eliza in front of Sunnyside Beach, there have been great numbers of squid caught. There is a large scattered reef out the front of this beach that holds squid in anywhere from 2-6m of water.

As per usual, Mornington and Mount Martha are still producing the goods, with reports of the larger models hanging around. This is music to all squid fishers’ ears. Yes, there is still some tiny squid hanging around, but this makes it all the more exciting because you just don’t know what size you will get with the mixed bag size hanging around at this point in time.

If you are after a larger squid then look no further than Rye! The reports have been amazing from this area, with anglers reporting that

Cliff Rossack, and caught a few casting poppers, stickbaits and soft plastics into fishing working bait schools. Taylor says most of the fish have been between Barwon Bluff and The Rip, in 30-60m of water.

• Catch a few around Geelong, Bellarine Peninsula they are bagging out in no time, and the size of the squid has been more than impressive. Using size 3.5 jigs in blue/green or red has been the go.

Moving across to the other side of the bay, Chris from Trelly’s Geelong reports great numbers of squid around the Queenscliff area. Drifting over reef in around 4m of water using 3.5 size jigs in the red colour has been productive.

Fishies Beach off Mornington has been fishing well through the colder months. Your best option would be to set up just before dark and fish well into the night off the land. You might come across some smaller fish, but the bigger schools will move through at times.

Getting in close over the sand flats around Dromana and Safety Beach at night is sure to see you getting on to a few King George whiting, by all reports. These fish love to come in close at night to hunt down their dinner, so fishing land-based is a great approach. Using a 9ft rod with a nice, sensitive tip is a great choice if you are looking at purchasing a new rod.

Fishing squid strips off the beach is a much safer option than soft baits like pipis, because a pipi can fall off on the cast and you won’t even know because it’s dark.

Getting down to places like Portsea has been quite productive also, in water depths anywhere up to 8m in the sand holes. Sorrento, in between the boat moorings, has been seeing a lot of reports lately also, with squid strips and pipi being the pick of the baits. Fishing late in the evening or early in the morning will give you the best chance around this area.

GARFISH

Garfish would have to be one of the most underrated fish that Melbourne has to offer. Most people think that they are just bait, but believe me when I say that garfish are one of the best table fish you can eat around this area! They are also quite easy to catch, whether you have a boat or are land based.

Winter is a great time to target garfish, and places like Altona, Frankston, Mt Eliza, Mornington and Mount Martha will hold them in great numbers. Silverfish and maggots are the go-to baits, fished under a float. Visiting your local tackle store is your best bet if you want to learn the rig.

Constant berley is important to get these fish in. Once you have them sucked into your berley, they will generally stay until you catch your bag limit of 40 per person, or your desired amount.

Raymarine’s testing centre in the UK provides a comprehensive range of accredited marine environmental testing, from hard drops, prolonged vibration, extreme temperatures, wireless emissions, relentless rain and spray, full submersion, and the simulation of months at sea inside a salt mist chamber. Vibration is the hidden enemy for both electronics and mechanical structures. Constant shaking across a range of frequencies can create loose connections, fatigue wires, damage solder joints and result in equipment failure. During Ramarine’s Vibration testing, vertical and horizontal shakers perform swept sine and dwell tests, subjecting items to a vibration sine tone across a broad to a powerful radiated electromagnetic field. The walls of the chamber are covered in pyramid-shaped material designed to prevent reflections, so that only the direct signal from the antenna is received.

Temperature testing takes place in specially designed thermal chambers, where products are repeatedly tested and soaked overnight to ensure they start up, restart and function over a temperature range between -25°C and 55°C, and also survive non-operational storage in temps between -30°C and 70°C.

Thereafter, the salt mist room exposes products to continuous salt spray for two hours before they are left for seven days in a warm, damp atmosphere. This process is repeated four times, taking frequency range. Where a resonance is found during the sweep, testers dwell on that frequency for two hours, then check for fatigue damage.

Following brutal vibration and drop testing, products are taken to the EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) area, where power supply tests are performed. Interference from switching on other boat equipment can disrupt the shared power supply, so these tests ensure that products will continue to work over the various voltage ranges they might experience. These tests cover issues such as voltage drops, inrush current and surges.

Products are then moved to a radiated immunity chamber, to see whether the products can still operate efficiently when exposed the test duration to 28 days. The next testing is in the wet room, where IPX6 tests are carried out. Products carry this rating if they can withstand arduous tests designed to assess an item’s water and/or dustproofing capabilities. One such test requires products to be continually sprayed with at least 100L of water per minute from a fire hose, for a minimum of 30 minutes, and for the unit to continue to function both during and after the test. Subsequent IPX7 tests determine products’ abilities to withstand immersion at a defined depth for a specified duration.

Raymarine also employs AIS simulators to test AIS transceivers, DSC base station simulators for radios, GNSS simulators, Wi-Fi simulators and more. - Raymarine or Surf Coast to Lorne recently? Send in a report to slaterfish@gmail.com with ‘FMG’ in the subject field or give me a call on 0408 997348. Please include where

Mick has been catching plenty of land-based pinkie snapper lately with this one of 50cm being the best.

(without giving away your secret spot!), when, what on and who caught the fish. Pictures are always great, but please make sure they are at least 1MB (file size).