REKLESS

Dynamite works well when fish are like that I have been told. There has been a few salmon around but what you encountered is more likely to be some mullet. With the water temp down and there metabolism very slow they could be enticed to feed on bread but the chances are you would just be pestered by bream and other unwantables. (Geez any one would think I was a bream hater)

The wall is the drop off from the 7.4m bit to deep water to the east of it , it drops off to around the 20m mark. Just zig zag along the wall heading south , look for the bait and the kings on your pinger. if you find the Black scourge (sweep) stay with them cause the kings usually hang out with them. There is shit loads of amberjacks there at the moment off the drop off , we saw a heap down deep along with shoals of rat kings. Slow troll yakkas with a 1/4lb snapper rubber banded to the line about 25m back , have another yakka or a garfish on the surface and you should be able to locate them . I usually mark the spot on my plotter and then motor up current and drift back down over the spot while burleying . If you have fresh squid , use strips with pea size sinkers stripping them back down the burley and get your mate to flick some large white sluggos around , work them deep . Tide change is also the key , sunday morning there is a 1.72m high nice and early - there is a SE wind puffing up , but to be honest , the bumpier it is , the better the fishing will be.

The ovens can be a great place for pelagics when the currents bring in the bait schools . B & B fishing might be better in other spots with better holding country , try on the northern point of whale beach . There is some great spots that have yielded better results then the ovens for me.

Sounds like you had some pelagic leatherjackets or toads in your trail .

John ,what a fish on a $10.00 knife jig. Mate it goes to show that right time right place ,I saw some knife jigs the other day for $30.00 each , you make a mockery of the guys in the tackle shops trying to foist japanese jigs on all of us poor fish lacking SOBS -well done.

I heard the story from a mate who was fishing the competiton , john was saying that they headed back in when conditions went from pretty awfull to dangerous .they were in a 5.4m centre console. They had heard nothing until they went to the weighing station and saw all the cops and ambo's hanging around several hours later. John also said that the competition was called off,unsure as to exactly why but it was probably done out of respect for the dead angler. This was all confirmed by another mate a few hours ago. A friend of his called simo was in the comp and fishing in a 22ft striper ,he was unaware of anything happening until he got back to the ramp and was questioned if he had seen the missing boat. He said that he had ,they were collecting bait from a big school of slimeys that had come to the surface and were fishing alongside him catching bait as well. That was 1 1/2 hrs prior ,he was able to give them the gps marks from where he had seen them. Apparently the boat had sank leaving all four guys in the water . My thoughts are with the dead fishos family -it is a sad day to have that happen doing something that we all love to do. simon

Hi Nudge,I had a mate who was on another boat out there and he was the guy who relayed for you for the SKED at SGFC.He was telling me that when the initial report went in ,they all thought you guys were having a lend,well done. From what I have heard so far ,you guys had the best day out there for the whole central zone,well done. simon

Thats good to hear that you are able to get the sattelites,is the date still wrong?.I guess that your little garmin had lost its marbles somewhere due to lack of use and had some cobwebs that needed cleaning out. How many satelites were you able to pick up?

My software is version 2.03. I think that you should contact Garmin in sydney and explain the problem.These guys are pretty good and they should be able to set you right within a few miutes. The date does sound a bit weird. Also throwing money on a computer cable is a wast of money,I have a map programme that plots off the GPS onto 1:25000 maps but to be honest with you the information is only as good as the map that you have in the first place. How much did you pay for it? simon

Hi Domza, I have a GPS 72 Garmin as well ,and its a beauty-I am not sure as to why your one is playing up but I have a few suggestions that may help. I dredged up the quick start guide to my one and try this . Stick some fresh aa batteries in it and then go outside ,turn it on and using the page button go to the acquiring sattelites page .Have a look at the rings and they should have some numbers in or around the two circles.These are the satellites along with the ID number for each.If there is none on there press the MENU button once and then scroll down to NEW LOCATION.Press ENTER and then try using the AUTOMATIC mode. Press enter and it should then show AUTO LOCATE. This forces the GPS to search for any satelites around.This may take a little time to acquire them as you are reinitialising it but it should work for you. I have also gone into the SETUP on my garmin and enabled the WAAS (greater accuracy),the UTC offset should be at +11:00.Time zone at"OTHER". Location format at hddd"mm"ss.s" Map Datum WGS 84. The interface should be on "GARMIN". I hope that this works for you.I have found these things to be almost bullet proof and this is a variant of the ones used by US forces.I can also vouch for it floating as well,with batteries in it. Let me know if this works Simon

Fantastic fish that you have there mate, If you dont mind me asking ,what size trace were you using and were you stripping out a pillie when it hit? Simon

Gidday frank, The way that we have done it in the past is by trying to locate the fish by trolling first until you have either picked one up on the troll or have seen some kind of action ,ie birds on the water or watching bait schools getting harrassed or just bait showing up on the sounder.There is not much sense in burleying where the fish are not likely to be .Also try and work two hours either side of the tide change-either side . depending on the drifts speed we might put out a sea anchor as well,then chopping up a pilchard into four - five pieces just throw one out ,wait until it dissapears then put another down,if the mutton birds are around eating all your cubes you can tell them to piss offf by putting some tuna oil out in a bottle with a small hole punched in it or as we have done in the past ,use a length of poly pipe to get it in down in the water column a little. Two or so liveys out ,one say 12 ft down under a balloon out 30m ,and another with a heavy breakaway sinker under any thermocline that ,if you muck around with the sensitivty on the sounder should appear as a dull scratchy horizontal line. Feeding baits out the back.-I use either whole or 1/2 pillies ,start with a trace that is around the 100lb mark,a 9175 SHARP mustad in 7/0.I usually only have a 2m trace and dispence with the snap swivel for just a straight BB swivel.A bit of fuse wire wound once around the eye of the hook will allow you to secure the head of the pillie on the hook with its mouth closed .I usually feed the hook through the mouth and then have the point protruding through the pectoral fins .This should allow you to get a few drifts before it desintegrates on you. If you are using trap pillies ,use them as the burley and get two blocks of "A" class WA pillies as bait. If you are using heavy gear ,I usually drop the rod in the rod holder and PUT ENOUGH DRAG ON TO PREVENT AN OVER RUN.Then I just strip into the water trying to kepp a "bow in the line".After 100m or so ,put it into strike and wait a few minutes then wind it back. I usually have an icecream bucket with chopped pillies ready to go,if you get a run,keep the cubes going as the chances are that there will be a school up under the boat competeing for the cubes.This can be hard if you are struggling with rodbuckets /etc etc. The fish can get really leader shy and we have resorted to cutting the double off on 15kg and using 4/0 snapper hooks for a hook up.A lot of people prefer 150lb traces ,the question of trade off I guess comes into play,I would much rather be hooked up with a chance then non at all. Check your line,your drags and your knots. simon

Around now is the time when you get the little makos coming up the trail and quite often will help themselves to 1/2 of what ever is wiggling in the water. They are good fun and do jump,the few things you may want to keep in mind is that when you burley offshore ,you can never be sure of what may come up the slick.Even when in 50m of water off longreef fishing for snapper I have had a few interesting encounters with sharks.If you want to target them (the little makos),you would be hard pushed to beat getting to a reef just offshore that is exposed to currents,get a 1l bottle of tuna oil,punch a small hole in it and tie it off to the boat.Then just work the burley pot a little. We usually fish for snapper /bottom fish and whatever you catch gets burleyed/used as bait.If you havent used cable before ,I might suggest that some light traces say 200-250lb ,NYLON coated with a 10/0 or 12/0 hook maybe 10ft long will handle the little critters well enough. The light cable is there so that if all else goes to crap it should snap before something silly happens. Dont bring them onboard either,sharks have cartilage-not bones and can bite there own tail,a looped tail rope or two tied to a bollard will hold them . Good luck Simon

Stick with the Penn if you can afford it. They are over engineered and are a bit "clunky",but the fact still remains that with fewer moving bits,you will have fewer problems. Also,the bearings in these things are easily replacable,you can go to any bearing shop and they will match it up for you with sheilded SS for $4 each.

Gidday all, I got out with my brother Dan on the Saturday and we had a bit of luck along with the rest of sydney with the kings.We were just off south head and were catching the things on just about everything I could throw at them.The average size was pretty small but we did manage four keepers that were around the 65-70 mark and I had it sussed on to getting a bigger fish. I did hook one fish and while fighting it on 30lb gear and was loosing quite a bit of line to what was obviously a much better one I felt a few bumps ,then a little slack and then it just took off on me,the line angled up and I was thinking it was either a Marlin or a filthy great bitey coming up to have a look at what all the fuss was about..........wrong, 8 foot of flippin great big New zealand fur seal,it had my king in its mouth and was proceeding to knock it out so it could eat him.The fur seal wa pretty friendly and came right up to the boat when we could see someones 24cm nilsmaster invincible (light blue) with all three trebles embeded into the top of his head. I can imagine that it would sting a little and he was not impressed with his new headdress either!,I was tempted to ring someone ........but who,?,I could imagine the responce would have been to humanely remove the three trebles gently and avoid 300kg+ of pissed off water dog!,still I got to see something new,I should imagine that he will remove them soon and with a little luck the hook that was in my king will pass through him ,I hope it makes his eyes water a little!!. Simon

The stuff is called DURALAC,it forms a barrier between the metals and helps to slow down electrolysis.

I had a stroke of luck for this wwekend and it looks like I will be getting out on Saturday and on Sunday,Staurday is going to be at longreef on REKLESS going for the usual culptrits ,this time I have the rigger to play with!!,Sunday I will be fishing on my mates boat out from Botany for the point score for the local GFC,the tides and the moon looks good so as long as the water temps hold up we should have a good one.There were some pretty good 3c temperature breaks over the last few days,I just hope the southerley is a wussy one!!

Gidday all,still recovering from drinking to much beer and eating to much food!,oh and a little fishing.I got down last tuesday morning to be faced with a strong wind warning and a filthy southerley that was going to pump for the next four days.We did manage to play around the heads of jervis bay for a day and caught aproximately 50+ king fish,only of which seven were legal.they were a little prolific and we had a ball with playing around with them.They really are like little puppys,taking absouletutely everything in the tackle box,this also allowed me to engage in working out some old techniques that made things a little frantic aboard my mate Grants new boat. We also had a morning session at Currarong at the bombies there and even had my mate pick up a three kilo red on a squid strip on his downrigging gear,this was on top of the 30 odd kings that had come out to play. the rest of the time was spent sitting around talking about fish and drinking crownys. One technique that is not so new but works is that we would troll with squid on the downrigger until the school is located,we were using 24kg as there was some XOS (read 20kg + models shadowing the rats).We also had a Large livebait bridled on the surface which we were hoping to get the big fellas on,however the smaller versions had big eyes and pestered the livey until it was scoffed by a slightly bigger version that could actually fit a yakka /cownyoung down its gob.The fish is brought up to the boat and we keep it on a short tether and of course all his mates are hanging around trying to get a bit of the action.Then it was a case of dropiing over a strip of squid/soft plastic/popper/chrome /shiny hook and amking it look interesting.The best lure was a little blooper that was in a $1.00 barrel,they just loved it to death!. Ideally we would drop the pick and then see who could catch and realease more.The fish only bit on 1hr either side of the tide and then would just shut down till next time.Squid was the main key ,and boy do they love that stuff!!. We didnt get to go to the canyons as it was to rough,with a 2.5-3m sea /swell pumping,next time!!. Anyway I get to go out next week and have a crack off longreef! Cheers Simon

Hi guys , got a call from a good mate of mine who is down at Jervis bay at his holiday home.He rang to say that there has been two marlin picked up from the tubes this week (blacks).His next door neighbour also was out at the canyons off Jervis and caught 9 yellowfin to 25kg, 4 t & R,they were all on bibless minnows/CD 18's ,there was a shit load of slimeys out there .This was confirmed by another mate of his who had a blinder of a day,they had a horse black on for 2hrs on 24kg and it spat the hook while JUMPING on the trace!,they then picked upo a stripey that went aprox 90kg,they then got raped by a filthy great blue that just blew them away on the first run (doubling back etc etc).They also had another two fish up that refused the live slimeys that they were towing (to full?).All fish were on trolled liveys and the stripey was tagged I am off to there tonight with my mate Grant in his barcrusher,be back on friday night . Simon. Does that spark any one up?

Gidday craig ,It would probably be a better idea for you to go and visit the website and get the location of al three that are positioned off sydney.Dont forget that there is also the waverider buoys that are available if you look at the website listing the waveriders off of sydney.I have listed both for you. The best baits are the ones that work and the easiest to use!.We usually give the fad a pass with everything out,the reasoning is that there is usually something eating the other somethings around the fad.I have pulled dolphin fish,kings, marlin and witnessed a wahoo taken off the fad off sydney.The wahoo ate a pilchard that was flicked out the back ,it swam past the slimeys to eat a pillie on a set of 4/0's!!.Incidentally it went 21kg on a 10 kg eggbeater,the first run was a doozy,there was a least three slimeys skipping behind the boat as they took off to prevent getting spooled. I like to use live yakkas /slimeys or strips of slimeys,secoundary would be pillie pieces. The sites www.fisheries.nsw.gov.au FADS www.mhl.nsw.gov.au Waveriders Goodluck ,let me know how you go

I have seen the pictures of the kings that have come in from NZ and to be honest with you they shit on just about anything that is available in australia due to fishing pressure. Still, we get to go out and have fun I guess with the barely legals but wouldnt it be good to go to a place where the barely legals are ideal livebait sizes?. I remember a story told by a guy called "Booger" ,he was doing a trip at lord howe and they were using 70cm kings as livebaits for the bigger ones,they were getting smashed on some very heavy gear to!!. The places that these mega kings hang out are very hard to get but I think that I may have found the latest place,its called the "Wanganella" banks that is halfway between NZ and norfolk island,this area comes up from 2000 ftm to around 100 and I saw a promotional video of a charter boat that went there in the middle of winter.The boat is purpose built but they were out to get marlin and they just kept getting swarmed by XOS striped marlin average 100kg +.At one stage they were able to tag 8 at the same time !!,either way imagine the kings at this place!!. got a spare $15000 anyone? simon

Hi all, Well I got out on "REKLESS" to have another crack at the kings again ,put in at bullshit "o" clock in the morning and was looking at a 15 knot Nor wester that made for at least a warm wind and headed down from Tunks park to the spit bridge .I maucked around there trying for a squid and gave up after 15minutes and headed off to Balmoral at the "island " and loaded up on some yakkas,the crew was still catching up on there ugly sleep so i had a flick around with the jigs and ended up picking up three nice double hook sized squid.The crew then rang and I picked them both up from clontarf and seeing as it was a bit windy and they had no idea about fishing I thought that prudence was to stay in the flat water and catch squid. The crew was made up with a mate and his twelve year son and after some quick directions he was catching squid and his son was getting into the yakkas on a 6lb handline.Happy as pigs in shit they were. The wind then really picked up and we retreated upstream to clontarf and I trolled the squid around for an hour on the tide change for nought. Pulled the pin and went back to his place where we ended up with about 1.5kg of squid rings.The water was the right temperature but I suspect that the westerley put the fish off the bite. I did find out that there has been mixed schools of tailor,salmon and kings that have been hammering the white bait.The are a bit fickle but I reckon if you were to get a bg tide varience with a runout tide in the morning just work the flotsam line as it goes out the harbour .This was what a mate did last tuesday and they picked up three species on plastics.,he was between the heads and found a school on the surface.Friday the 30th looks the pick.

Gidday spiza,I was wondering about the slimeys,were they the horse version?,I am taking out some newbys and I really cant think of anything more fun then giving someone uninitiated to them then giving them a 12 lb handline and a school of slimeys.I guess that they will be around the yellow marker buoy off north head as usual,has any one else encountered them?

I like pogos idea of the stinger,it makes sense as the take it appears from the average king is from the side .This also reminds me of something I had forgotten from a professional line fisho who rigged his yakkas/slimeys for kings.The hook he used was severley modified so you could troll with the hook point coming out next to the vent,with the eye in its mouth. Both phil and pogo agree that the way to go is piss off the clip and use bands.I will try out both techniques on sunday and see if I can get a better rate. DJ ,the engine is a 25 on idle and the hooks are 92554 mustads that are straightened.(ex strip baiting hooks actually),I will be swapping them for some 9175's anyway.

Thanks for the reply phil,I will have the opportunity to test it out on sunday .I think you may be right about the dropback on the bomb ,what sort of bands are you using?