david88

no, you dont need another setup. you need 3 things to land the big kings; Setup, Experience and Luck. you have the setup, you cant change luck, now just go get the experience. and when the big one comes along, dont just shit yourself and hang on for dear life, start fighting back straight away and get him pointed towards the boat, fish cant swim backwards. also learn to use your boat to help fight the fish and know how close you are to the bottom at all times. I have never even heard of a 44kg rod, but to let you know there are plenty of raiders who will be fishing with 8kg snapper rods for their kings this summer.

good on ya mate, yeah the big harbour flatties must be around seeing the reports. we managed to pick this one up toway at the western weeding cake on a yakka that had been lowered to close to the bottom. i dont know how you managed to lift it for a photo, we were too scared of getting slashed up, big powerful creature. it did not put up a fight at all, but still pretty good bye-catch haha. released to have lots of babies.

Hey Stefan, sorry to commandeer the post.. I often try and do the same thing but can never find any so i end up resorting to catching a few at rose bay wharf before i head out.. my question is what size jigs are you using and how are you fishing them, i have tried slow retrieving heaps of different yamashitas and yo-zuris over the kelp beds for nothing. thanks mate.

i launch my boat at rose bay and catch my bait there too.. around 4am when i launch theres always tons of bait and fish hitting them. must be some big tailor and small jew in amongst them. have also seen people land flatties, flounder, bream, snapper and rays here..

Hey guys, I have owned a downrigger for a while now but i have only just got an engine that doesnt stall in low revs so im keen to learn the ropes. I know how to catch bait, how to rig, how to setup rod etc but i am unsure about the exact areas to fish. I usually launch from rose bay and catch my bait around there. i can only fish the heads in really good weather. What are some typical runs that you guys do around middle head, wedding cakes, etc? i have never fished middle head so some locators would be helpful. also what depth do you run your downrigger and how far back? also if anybody has any good combinations to try, i.e. downrigged yakka, x-rap, metal slice, christmass tree etc it would be helpful. thanks guys, Tight lines. Dave

Thanks John but our old one is pretty long and should be fine, just need to re-crimp it. cheers anyway

Hey guys, just installed a new 'Reliable' motor and a whole bunch of fishing mods to our boat so we were keen to head out every day this week. Met at the boat just after midnight and off to Rose bay. Picked up about 10 yakkas and a squid at the ramp before heading out. for some reason they went off the bite pretty quick even though we had a whole school in our berley trail. The water was dead flat with no swell, full throttle across the harbour. the motor is 25 years old but started and ran like a brand new etec,we got it from a friends grandfather who had barely used it since buying it new due to falling ill. headed out to try out quarantine bay for jews (with old unreliabe motor we never really crossed the heads)berleyed up there and had a school of some kind of bait under us (thinking how good of a start we had had so far). dropped down some livies and had a couple of runs on fillet baits but no hookups (dammit!). picked up a few more yakkas to fish for kings. had to go pick up a mate from watsons bay which was a bit of a delay so we didnt start fishing for kings until about an hour after sunup. Dropped some livies off north head but didnt really know where/ how deep to fish them. no kings went to sow and pigs for a few massive port jacksons, a tarwhine, a tailor, a few leather jackets, a bunch of trevally up to 40 cm. some undersized snapper and the sweep moved in so we decided to try out south head bommy which is normally too rough to fish in our boat but was very calm today. no idea what we could catch there but wanted to try anyway. when we got there we saw how calm it was outside so decided to head to some birds a few hundred meters away. dropped some metals where we saw the birds and hooked into a baracouda which put up a great fight. awesome looking fish. saw something jumping near the cliffs so we decided to put on a minnow, a metal and a plastic and troll up and down the south head cliffs. as soon as we got close to the face we saw little bonito jumping everywhere, first pass and all hooked up. first bonitos for us and man they go hard on bream gear. as they were busting up all around us we stopped motoring and cast for them and a few more were caught, unfortunately i dropped all of mine at the boat but we were all having an absolute ball. If you do not like reading tales of woe then now is the time to tune out because this is where the 'BAD' starts. we were drifting a bit far from the cliff and out of casting range so started the motor to head a little closer, motor starts the split seccond i turn the key (something that didnt happen much with our old motor), however when i try and put it into gear the lever wont move. turns out our warmup rev lever is limp and has broken. luckily water police are cruising past and havea tinker with it to no avail, when we try again the next time the engine is in full rev. Our best fishing day yet comes to an end and the nice blokes at water police give us a tow all the way back to rose bay. before we put the boat on the trailer my 2 mates borrow my car to drop one of them off at watsons bay to pickup his car. I stay on the boat to scale our nice mixed bag, unfortunately dropping one in the water in the process. Ages later they return in my car, and inform me that his battery was flat. by this time iv picked up a substantial sunburn and was incredibly tired having not slept in 26 hours. we go to put the boat on the trailer and notice a bit of damage that we hadnt seen before, day is getting worse. winching the boat on and TWANG!the cable snaps and fragments go flying. im standing 3 meters away to the side and a piece of rusted cable hit me in the top of the head, so lucky it didnt hit pointy end first or in my eye! so tired, angry and no idea what to do we trie releasing cable, running anchor rope under it and using that to pull it on, TWANG - rope snaps. we ended up solving the problem by tying a chain knot with the cable around the boat eye and that worked, however i recieved many rusty steel splinters in my hands in the process. drive the boat home and leave my mait there to wait for someone to return with jumpers to pick him up. The feed that night was pretty good but seemed lackluster due to our tired, sunburnt states. So there it is, good start, good mixed bag, bad ending. now fishraider is where i have learned all i know about fishing so lets see if anyone can help me fill in some gaps in this story; -Where abouts in quarantine bay is good to anchor for jews (specific depth or another indicator would help) -I have heard a lot about catching kings around north head, where should i be aiming to drift or how far out should i anchor and how deep should i set my livebaits? -Do the bonito regularly hang in this area, any particular tides/ times better than others. -I know the general squidding areas inside southhead but what technique do i use to fish these areas with jigs as i have had no luck so far. -Does anyone know how i can go about fixing my control box. there are a number of parts inside it that i can adjust before i close it and i dont know if each should be slid one way or the other before i close it. is there a place i can find a diagram of how it should look befor i close it up? the motor is an evinrude 70 trim n tilt from 1985. Thanks heaps guys. interested to know how everyone else went today. Regards Dave Esber

Hey guys, i have an 1985 evinrude 70hp outboard on my halfcab which i am having issues with. 2 trips ago the warmup rev lever stopped working, it hangs loose and does not rev the engine which is fine because the engine starts fine with out it. last trip i was outside the heads and went to put the boat into gear once started and the throttle leaver would not go forward or into reverse. I soon eralised that this must be because the control box is not registering that the warmup lever is fully down. Luckily water police were cruising past so they opened it up and had a fiddle but could not fix it and had to tow us, however in fiddling they changed the positioning of a number of parts inside it. now when i turn the engine on it is in neutral but with full revs. Could anyone give me any advice as to where i can find some sort of information or diagram of what position each part inside this box is meant to be in before i close it up. i am a full time student so do not wish to purchase a new box if i do not have to. to make things worse we were having the best fishing day ever before it broke down. To make things even worse when i got back to the ramp the car would not start. to make things even even worse when i was putting the boat on the trailer the cable snapped. Thanks in advance for your replies guys, if you recieve this post as a Private Message it is because you have given me guidance in the past and i value your opinion. Regards Dave Esber.

Hey guys, I am going out in my newly restored boat for a squid session late tonight around south head, camp cove, lady jane. I intend to keep moving until i find the squid but i have never really been successfull in the past. Does anyone have any specific tips for any of these spots or other spots around here that might be firing late at night? Also if i grab a few good squid before the sun starts to rise(kingy time), is there any spots around here that would be good on a run in time to soak a squid for a jewie? i prefer not to cross the heads so somewhere around rose bay or middle harbour would be good. All private messages will be greatly appreciated and will not be shared with anyone. i have been fishing by boat for a while but i would like to start gaining some consistency. Also are there any spots at the moment that are particularly firing at the moment for sunrise kings? Cheers guys, thanks heaps for any help you can give me.

i am strongly against keeping of any undersized fish but i wonder how "i bought it at the fish markets" would go down if you got pulled over with undersized fish by fisheries..?

no one?

Hey guys, i have just bought a saragosa 8000 for jigging. Many people speak of doing a bunch of modifications to the reel such as tightening/ locking screws and filling with greese etc. Would anyone be able to explain to me how to open up the reel to tighten the infamous screws and would it void my warranty to use loctite or a similar product? cheers guys. thanks heaps.

Hey mate, i was just tossing up between spheros, saragosa and saltist and after a lot of research i decided to go with the saragosa 8000 for jigging. it is pretty much just a beefed up spheros thats lighter, smoother and made for jigging (gear ratio wise). if you want to buy them online you can get them pretty cheap but i opted to spend a little bit more and go with my local tackle store to ensure my australian warranty stands. Oh and the saltist has undergone many tests which state that they CANNOT produce 30kg of usable drag, barely even the 30lb or drag they state on the U.S website. I deduced that the ratio might be a little fast for jigging too but someone who knows more can comment on that. I matched it up to a PE 3-6 jig weight 150-250 rod. Ill give you a report after i go jigging in shelharbour in a week or so.

keep in mind that a lot of 3000 and 4000 reels are the same with a different spool size, and often they even weigh the same. make sure you check it out before you decide on the size.

Thanks for your help guys, I ended up ordering a V-fox Tblade pe3-6 after hearing some good feedback on them. i will match it to a saragossa 8000 with 50lb line.

Hey guys, I am looking to get a jigging setup for using around Sydney. I want something that I can also use for downrigging the harbour. My question is what PE line class should I be looking at for the rod? I have my eye on a 12kg 5'7 pe2-4 rod with a lure weight of 80-150 grams. I like fishing light but is this going to be too light to use 200g jigs or to livebait with. I am unfamiliar with jigging rods so any help would be appreciated. Thanks guys. Regards david

Hey guys, I am going on a jigging charter on the south coast and I would like a new rod for jigging/ livebaiting this summer so I'm after some opinions. What PE rod line class is suitable for tackling the fish in and around Sydney? I don't want overkill that will be tireing to jig with but I want something capable of downrigging livebait with. I have been looking at the Vfox Tblade rods online and was wondering if anyone has any opinion on them. I would probably match the rod with a spheros for budget and it's ability to upgrade in the future. What size would you recommend for around Sydney and does anyone hav any other recommendations for around this price range? Thanks for your help guys and if anyone knows any real cheap places to pickup reels please send me a pm. Cheers. Dave

hey mate, i have the 5-10 jewel, beautiful rod but a little stiff/short for really finess working plastics.

thanks for the replys guys. spoke to the ranger who authorised the towing of my boat. he accepted it was a stuff up and was extremely apologetic. he said he would clear all towing/impoundment fees and infringements but that i would have to pick it up myself. after a discussion i made it clear that i wanted it brought back to my house and the lock replaced and he was understanding but will have to get back to me after he speaks to his superiors. Turned out well and thank you to leichhardt council for being professional and responsible in the wake of a mistake.

I park my boat on the street outside my house in leichhardt council area. Approximately 2 weeks ago i recieved an orange abandoned vehicle notice on my boat. I called up leichhardt council and although i did not recieve any written confirmation, a council officer ensured me that my boat would not get towed and that she would notify the ranger that it was not abandoned. On friday my boat and the other trailer on my street with the nitice were removed. I have not called council yet as i wanted to find out what my rights in this matter were before i did. I have the name of the council officer who gassured me it would not be towed. it should be noted though that i do not keep my rego plates on the boat as they are attached to my removable light bar. Im a full time student and not looking forward to paying for the tow or even to replace the lock that they would have cut off my trailer. any help would be greatly appreciated raiders. cheers, Dave.

squid.. a biggie..

my method for catching gars involves both bait and lures... I tie on a surface lure (popper or minow etc) then tire a 1 foot 2lb leader to a tiny green hook which i put a bit of bread and tuna oil on. the lure attracts them and gives a good swimming motion to the bait.

friggate macks look a terrific greeny blue colour underwater and slice about half out of the water sometimes jumping clean out. you see alot around wharves etc.. i think i have seen the ones you mean and i am sure they are as said about. never stop moving really, super fast.

yeah one of the choppers did a fly by, and the pilot waves to us while anchored at sow and pigs on friday. was awesome.

count me in, im keen as mustard! only ever have success with flattys and snapper on lures, never any bream, jew or ep