Site stuff

The on-water giveaways will definitely start on June 1st 2013.  I have removed the reel as a prize for now but there are plenty of lures to choose from including minnows, poppers and many different types of plastics (paddle tails, minnows, tubes, worms, craws etc)  There are about 50 prizes to choose from and there will be new ones added as time goes on.

Rules for the on-water giveaways.

• You get to choose from the bag at random, you don't get to look in the bag.
• Boats must display the Seawayfishing.info stickers available for purchase from the Seawayfishing Shop
• All boats displaying the sticker that I see on any given day will get a pick from the bag.
• Individual boats can choose from the bag only once per day.
• Winners username and prize will get posted on the website.
• This is a trial run, if there isn't enough interest in it I may discontinue it at any time.  If that happens before July 31 2013, those that have bought stickers will get the remainder of the prize pool distributed between them.

Well the introductory phase of SeawayFishing's paid memberships is coming to an end, on the 1st of May the price for a full year of membership will rise to $100.00 and 7 day memberships will rise to $20.00 so if you were still thinking about it get in now before the price goes up.  Considering the content I have delivered in the last 6 weeks I think it still offers value for money.

The Guided Seaway Fishing Tutorials will also increase in price by $50.00 to $300 for one person plus $150 for another person.  Most of my tutorial students so far have gone on to catching many more fish in the seaway as a result of the time I spent with them so if you are struggling with consistent seaway catches it might be worth it for you.  Those who have already contacted me regarding the tutorials will still get theirs at the current rate($250) regardless of when we organise it.

Comments are welcome below, but keep it clean.

Paid Memberships are now available through the membership options page, please read the page fully before deciding on a paid membership!!  Paypal is accepted, as is bank deposit.  Please allow at least 3 working days for your bank deposit to show in my account. There is also a new level, Platinum lifetime membership.  Its not cheap at $500.00 but gives you lifetime access,  2 hardcover books(due june 2013) and a seaway tutorial trip.

The gold level 365 day membership(currently $50.00) will be going up in price to $100.00 at the start of April, the reason for that is to reward those who have stuck by and supported the site and not just use it as a fast track to good fish. I expect many users especially those who have never made a post or contributed in any way will leave the paid memberships until there are good fish around.

The first piece of new paid membership only content is going live on the 1st of March and it is titled : A beginners guide to successful lure fishing in the seaway.  Mainly for people new to the seaway or struggling with consistent lure catches but even experienced lure fishos might learn a thing or two.

More articles that will be released over the coming months:

• Shark Fishing the seaway
• Spotlight on individual lures - slugs, minnows, poppers, plastics - techniques for each one
• Dropshotting
• Predictability in fishing
• Trolling the seaway(yes I'm still working on this one)
• Bird Behaviour, what to look for, what to ignore.
• Fishing the split shot rig

I'll also be releasing some broadwater and seaway maps, highlighting areas of interest and what to look for at each one.

Also on the 1st of March, the SeawayFishing records page will be going live, it is finished, I'll add more species as they come in.  The minimum sizes are also set.  Claims are to be made in the forum, link is on the records page.

Most of the site is finished, I'm just cleaning up some loose ends and finishing some sections, the logo and top section is still under development as well.

One more thing, those of you who post on the front page(eg. Kane, brett, gordo, mirrors)All front page reports must be limited to paid members only.  If that doesn't appeal to you then you can still post a report in the forum where everyone can read it.

I realise there have been alot of changes in a short time but hopefully this will turn the site into a much better resource and that those of you who decide to become paid members will reap the benefits of those changes.  You all know what this site is capable of, I will be adding heaps of stuff over the next few months as well as plenty of reports but its always good to hear reports from other fisherman whose techniques may differ so I hope those won't stop.

Comments or questions are welcome below.

Those of you who have been around for a while will remember that last year  I accepted donations to keep the site running, it was a 50/50 decision between that and forcing a membership fee on everyone.  While the donations were successful in raising the needed funds it always bothered me that the few who graciously donated funds paid for the many users who utilise this site on a daily basis.  So this year I have decided to introduce a Gold Class Membership which will initially cost $50 per year or for those who don't go fishing that often a 7 day membership at $10 that allows you to catch up with the latest information.  A free membership will also exist for those who don't wish to pay.

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The differences between the membership levels will be as follows:

Gold Class Membership @ $50.00(introductory price)

Access to Everything on the site for 1 year: up to date detailed reports, recent articles, forum, seaway record eligiblity and more.

7 day Membership @$10.00

Access to Everything on the site for a period of 7 days: up to date detailed reports, recent articles, seaway record eligiblity and more.

Free Membership

Access to Reports older than 1 month, access to archived articles(6 months old +), access to the forum, seaway record eligiblity, access to other unrestricted content(eg. pictorials, condition updates).

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I have alot of interesting stuff planned for this year, but much of that depends on how many people decide to pay for gold class membership.  You see by my latest posts the direction that I am taking though there will be a bit more time spent refining livebait techniques this year.

SeawayFishing has always set itself apart from the other fishing websites on the internet by offering something that they do not; Up to date, detailed information about whats going on in a specific area.  I see the introduction of a paid membership as a necessary step in taking the site forward and unleashing its true potential.  At this stage paid memberships will be introduced on the 1st March 2013.  Comments are welcome below.

Well the modifications to the site are coming along nicely, still alot to do but I'm very happy with the result so far.    The forum keeps breaking so I have disabled it for now. Profile pictures are now available too, just to to your profile and upload an image(there is an issue with blurry profile images on the forum which I am working on).

Rain is coming.  We have had a very long stretch without a decent flood or storm event but it looks like we will run out of luck this weekend.  Over 200mm of rain is forecast and that is enough to flood the gold coast rivers and turn the seaway into a muddy brown mess.  It all depends on how quickly it falls, if its a slow steady drizzle we should be alright, but if its a sustained heavy downpour expect things to get messy.  Swells of 4-5 metres are forecast as well so use caution if you are in the seaway this weekend.

In other news I have a new camera to play with, a Gopro Hero 3 Black.  This camera will be used to take higher quality pictures, more video and take you places in the seaway you have never seen before.  The capabilites of this camera are unmatched. Watch this space..  Here's the promo video for it, the music is awesome...

I'm thinking of making some changes to the site this year, but before I do I would like to know what aspects you like the most about seawayfishing.info.  Is it the indepth articles?  The up to date reports? Anything else?  What keeps you coming back to check the site?  If you don't comment I won't know so don't complain if I change something you like.  Also what aspects don't you like?  (too hard to navigate, not enough reports, not enough detail etc).

I want honest feedback so feel free to say what you want.

Starting from the last week of September and through to the end of November I will only be online once a week at the most and that time will be limited.  During this time new registrations to the forum/message board will not be allowed.  New registrations to the main site will continue but any new reports will have to wait until I can have a look at them, that may take up to a week. If you want to put up a report then it's probably best to do it on the forum, that way you won't have to wait until I approve it. There will not be any reports from me during this time. It is a pretty good time for seaway fishing though so if you guys want info you are going to have to put up your own reports.    I should be back posting seaway reports in early december.

UPDATE: Registrations on the forum are now disabled, anyone who wants to register will have to wait until december.

Craig

Admin SeawayFishing

Hi Everyone,  Thank you so much for all your donations.  Because of your generosity I have been able to upgrade the hosting plan to an unlimited bandwidth plan so that will no longer be an issue(incidentally the site would have gone down yesterday on the old plan).  Hopefully congestion in the evenings should no longer be a problem as well.    I've removed all advertising on the site, as that has always annoyed me anyway.  I'm going to leave the donation post up for a while but will change it a bit.  All funds donated go into a dedicated account for SeawayFishing and will only be used for site expenses. I will also keep track of who donated so that if I have to make any changes later, those who have donated will get recognition of that fact.

Now that's the admin stuff taken care of, lets focus on fishing!!

Seawayfishing now accepts donations to help with funding to pay for hosting and site upgrades.  If you like using this site and wish to donate you can either pay direct into the bank account below using internet banking or over the counter deposits or you can use your credit card through paypal or paypal account. Please reference your username in the payments so that I know who each donation came from. Any issue's let me know below or use the contact form on the About Seawayfishing page.

Bank Account Details:

Bank: NAB

BSB: 084273

Acct No: 136889769

Paypal or Credit Cards click on the Donate button below.

As regular readers are no doubt aware Seawayfishing exceeded its allocated bandwidth on the evening of 20th may and subsequently the site's hosting company blocked all external access including mine.  Seawayfishing was created by me 2 years ago as a place to keep all my reports and data as well as let other anglers post theirs. It runs on a shoestring budget, the cheapest plan available(which is why sometimes during peak periods at night sometimes it wont load).  For a while now Seawayfishing has been growing exponentially with more readers and registered user's most of these are non active who read but don't contribute.  More users means more bandwidth usage and it has gotten to the point where it can no longer be supported on the current hosting plan it is on. That means it needs more money to continue.

Web sites are supported by one of 3 ways.

1. Advertising: The google ads you see running on the back pages contribute virtually nothing to the expenses of this site and I am not inclined to go out and get 'proper' advertisers who will pay decent rates. Especially as most tackle shops at the moment will be doing it tough like the rest of the country.
2. Donating:   Dontating money to a site usually doesn't work although it can raise a small amount initially, people usually don't willingly contribute money to a site they have been using for free.
3. Paid membership:  So far this looks like the only realistic option to get enough money to go forward. Although its likely most of you will just get pissed off about and it and leave never to return. At the moment I'm thinking of a small am0unt say $9.95 per year, active members(people posting reports) would get free membership for the first year.

So those are the choices I have, I'm not going to do anything straight away and I haven't decided what to do but I'll be keeping a close eye on the bandwidth usage this month and may institute changes if it gets close to the mark.  Being offline for so long willl have cut the users down a bit so we should have a bit of breathing room in that regard.   Feel free to discuss it below, but lets keep the righteous indignation to a minimum shall we.

SeawayFishing was always designed to allow users to post their own fishing reports and articles.  Up until now only one person has done that so this article will show you how easy it is.

Firstly a few things you should know.

• Only registered users can submit reports and articles
• All user submitted content must be submitted for review by me before it gets posted.  This ensures all content is relevant.
• Only submit reports from the Gold Coast Seaway, Southport Broadwater or close inshore(within 1km) gold coast.
• Landbased and boat based reports are welcome.
• Pics are not able to be added initially, but you can email me the pics and I will add them for you.
• You can post as much or as little info you want.  Obviously the more info you post the more we will all learn and the more fish we will catch.
• I reserve the right to modify the text if need be but will only do that to remove anything really controversial or to correct spelling or punctuation.

Now then, you must be logged in to post articles so make sure you are.  Up the top is a navigation bar in grey.  Click 'Add New' and click on 'Post' in the drop down menu.  That will take you to the 'Add New Post' screen.. see pic below.

1. Add your title, make sure its relevant to the content.
2. Write your report/article. You can imbed Youtube videos using the button that looks like a film strip with a heart on it.
3. Click a category for it to go in.
4. Add a tag.   Tags are keywords that describe the content.  You can choose your own tag or click on 'choose from the most used tags' to use the ones that I have used.
5. 'Preview 'your post(which will open in a new window), then if you are happy press 'Submit for review'

Once you have done all that, I will check it then if everything's ok I'll add the pics and post it to the site.  Easy as that.