REKLESS

Gidday all,I was umming and arring about putting up this post as I usually like to say that I have had at least a little success,this time all I got was a big el zippo. This trip started at Rose Bay at 0500 and I met up with Warren ,a hairy mate ,we put in without to much trouble and I pulled out the New toy .Its a Penn Fathomaster with the usual bells and whistles that I got 2nd Hand.We visited two usual kingy haunts and tried out some fresh Hawkesbury squid for only some bream bites.Went to the Baths at Neilsen park for squidly and live baits ,all we got were baby snapper.Right,then off to watsons bay where there was heaps of good harbour yakkas (perfect for JD) ,poked our noses out past the heads and punched our way to Rosa Gully .I towed a Squid at 35 ft depth about 15ft back until changing over to a yakka I kept him in a lttle closer at 10ft same depth ,This guy was bridled and sent out only to re emerge at Rosa gully looking a little frightened but other wise healthy ........damn it!. .My crew was feeling at the peak of health with the 15 knots of due easterley ,this combined with deep water bounce off the cliffs made for lumpy conditions .I asked if he was okay and he greenly said yeah he was fine,being only 2.5km from some good flatehead grounds I said we could always drift for some flatties .He was fine until I started telling him some storys about getting sea sick ,you know,the old pillie trick,fried eggs and getting pubes caught in the back of the throat etc etc . i will admit at this point that in regards to sea sickness I have no sympathy ,well at least till the bile comes up any way!. He eventually waved the white flag and we went into calm waters near quarantine trying to scare up a JD at a spot near quarantine ,all we got on the yakkas were sargent bakers ,all I got on the bait was cowanyoung and under size snapper!.Right then I said ,next move was to the Easterley wedding cake.We laid down a burley trail with th results that there was a mixed school of yakkas,trevally and slimeys .The slimeys are not the usual horses but very nice sized ones that were around the 20cm mark.They were not that thick but I was able to pick out an even dozen for the next trip out for snapper baits. We moved in to rose bay but eventually gave it away as a bad idea and headed off to go and drink beer and talk about fish. Cheers Simon I should mention that warren is the chef at Assiete restaurant,if you guys ever want to entertain the mrs ,this place would be a winner.Pm me if you want details.

Hi Bluecod, I can vouch that my personal preference is Stripeys as opposed to Macks,I have an old 10 Composite Developments (Built by Peter Morse) ,this thing is pretty soggy and when faced with the straight up and down slogging stuff that Macks can do at times ,it is like trying to fight a fish with 1kg-Why bother!.The stripeys for the most part tend to stay on the surface ,and there is nothing like the feeling when you connect and they shake there heads before hitting there after burners .Saying that ,when the macks are around 8kg and crashing bait it is pretty hard to resist throwing everything at them!

All that I can say Clutch is , we will shortly be sending you photos of Dolphin fish ,Marlin and other warm blooded fish.Even though we will have to travel 80km and fish in 500m of water .

Yep,No 2 is a freshwater version of a newell scorpion,I still have an 8' veriosn for Salt water,Dunno what the other is but it looks vaguely like something that was coming out of townsville many moons ago!.

Geez I dont know whether to wade in here or not,I am still a fan of 15ft Traces,this is just a thing that I have from my point scoring days.Nothing like a bit of HD handlining I reckon every now and then!.If you are a newby to this sort of stuff ,invest in the good stuff.There is nothing worse then blowing $200 worth of fuel ,Bait and Rigs due to skimping an extra $5-10 on some cheaper terminals.The 761gs hooks would probably be the pick,I might suggest that you pick up a professionaly made Shackle rig ,I think pakula does one in a size and gauge suitable . At least this will give you a headstart on what you will be looking for in any rigs that you will spot in the future,a benchmark if you like. Simon

Ahh well,it could be worse Joe,I am glad that you were so nice to leave us some fish to have a crack at! Cheers Simon

Taking a Chef mate out for a fish from Rose bay on Sunday,I will be trying out the new Downrigger and hopefully chasing a Kingy or two.]Simon

Gidday James,I think that you may want to check out the weather this Weekend and give it a miss.The swell is likely to pick up and I have found that the launch at Longie in a 2m swell can be bloody dangerous due to the heavy surge there.It is very pronounced when the tide is high. I have done a post before about this ramp and its behaviour .There has been a fisherman killed at this ramp when trying to hold his boat and a heavy wave has pushed his V sea over the top of him. I might say at this point that there is some very good experienced guys who fish there all the time.Early saturday /sunday mornings is a good time to watch how they do it.Most do not launch conventally.Retreival is a real eye opener,running the boat up the sand and then by using ropes they get the boat in a position to retrieve it safely.

Hi guys, DJ MAC,I to have been over the side clearing ropes from skegs and props from rope found drifting on current lines.When I say Unknown amount of rope,that means UNKNOWN to all of you guys,......but not to me,that means that I know the depth that it is in.When I say "close in" that means I am using it primarily for Kings ,thats why I am using the Poly tube ,it is only in shallow (relatively) water and wont crush with water pressure,I think that surface area is more of a consideration when in shallow water. There is a few things hanging off it that will make it safe for boats to approach that will keep the rope vertical,if and when the rope/chain breaks. The cable is there for a few reasons.,It will discourage people with snorkels and knives,It is unfriendly to Gel spun lines,it wont float,it wont allow growth in large amounts to cling to it.By the time the rope starts I am hoping tthat the water should be to deep to encourage marine growth. Dont forget it is a subsurface thing as well. The going rate for GPS locations is by Dutch auction,lets start at four cartons of crowneys and work backwards shall we?

Where were you fishing ?

Gidday james, I might suggest that you pick up a map of the area that you are about to fish.There is maps around that were from the survey done when they put down the sewer outlets that show the bottom contours really well,as well as areas that have gravel,hard reef and sand.They are a real shit to navigate off though as the lines are in a UTM metric format that does my head in when I try to convert to degrees,minutes and secounds!!.Saying that I havent even asked whether you have a GPS on board ,let alone what kind of boat you have.I can help with a few marks ,just PM me if you like. Simon

Yes you do Joe,in fact I will go one step better,when it goes in I will take a photo of the bit of water that it goes into.

Gidday,this is one for the land based guys,I was calling in at one of my customers and while parking watched these guys pull in a few blackfish,the place is the wharf at rose bay ,the blackfish were medium sized 1 -2lb and were in good nick,judging by how they were fighting . The bait can be sourced at low tide from the drain pipes in the background of the secound photo.It seems that the tide to fish is near the top of the tide. Good luck simon

Gidday all, well I have finally completed FAD mark 1,it is going off sydney somewhere that is relatively close in,-for kings.For those who are interested ,the PVC tube is filled with poly styrene foam,it is air tight at the top and there is a hole at the bottom with a stainless steel rod going through the middle of the screw in base.There is 5m of ballustrading cable leading to a swivel and an UNKNOWN amount of rope.4m of chain leads to a milk crate that is filled with concrete. It will be about 5m below the surface at Low tide,it will be going in over the northern edge of some nice reef that is away from any shipping channel.With a little luck,this could be interesting as I have just picked up a Penn downrigger ,to fish said FAD with. Simon

Yup,nothing is like being blown away by Kings,I agree with blue cod,only I would downgrade to ventetian blind cord ,6mm silver is to slippery!!.

This sounds like a good thread in the making,I have two storys about getting "hooked". 1- In the middle of a two week trip fishing for Eastern cod up in the headwaters of the Nymboida River I miscasted my Rattling spot and it hooked onto my mates chin.I still giggle whenever I hear a rattling spot rattle,sorry about that Greg!.Luckily the Guide was a trained nurse and had it out lickity split,Greg is still a friend. 2-Teaching a Newby about trolling minnows,I was getting cocky about it as we had found a school of Bonito off a little drop off.There was three on board and I had Five Rapalas out.............These guys had just bought a 6m haines and the biggest thing they had caught was a flathead previously.We had one pass and all five lures went off,the Bonnies were 3-5kg horses any way I grabbed the heavy rod and brought the first one in skipping on the water.When it came aboard I threw it in a bucket , lure and all.I was on the secound fish when the owner of the boat let out a Squeak,I turned and he had his hand in the bucket ,one treble was in his thumb,the other was in the bonito which was going off.......still in the bucket. Myself and the guys son cleared the other rods and then we turned to the poor guy,Using a pair of pliers I cut the treble off the fish first,then cut the split ring off the lure. The thing about the hook placement was that the treble had entered from the side of the thumb,and you could see it UNDER HIS THUMB NAIL.It was a CD 14,he lost the nail at the doctors place two hours later.

Gidday,I have the Same model Furuno as you mate and they rock.Until you get used to fiddling with it and you want to have a fish,just switch it on and just stay on the 200hz single screen ,leave it on Auto for now.You may find that there is a lot of "clutter" at the moment ,depending on where you are fishing.Just turn the gain down a little. I am still learning about the thing but have worked out the basics,I am now trying to ID the bottom types by fiddling with the white line.The thing is ,that you only really know you are over gravel when you throw the pick over and feel it "bouncing". Simon

My vote is ,as long as there is some nice NE winds between now and next friday-saturday,there might be some 21-22 c,on Sunday when I go fishing.Out past the 100m line

Hi all,had a quick squiz at the SST off NSW ,by the looks of it there will be some hot 24c water off sydney in three or four days time ...maybe ...... I think that SWR would be on the boil,there has alraedy been some reports of striped marlin coming in as well as the October run of yellowfin.

Two ways to make clips. 1-run a length of dacron/string off the end of the sash weight and use a No 15 rubber band as the clip,when the kings hooks up the rubber band snaps.....hopefully. 2- nick a clothes peg from the line,Using bicycle tubes or shrink tubes ,cover both jaws of the peg.If you require a sronger realease pressure,then get some red postie bands and loop them over till you have the required strength.

I dont know how well you will go there at the mud,I might suggest that you would be better off at manly wharf ,or at the aquarium. If you want to try at Longy ,go for the swimming pool at the main beach area,there is sometimes a light shining there. Good luck simon

It really depends on what I am doing at that time,if I am in tight on a very shallow reef for Snapper ,it goes off once the engine gets switched off.At anchor in deeper water it stays on ,same with drifting. You can hear the things "pinging" away and it gets especially noisy when it is at 50hz (Furuno),I have had an experience when we had dolphins under the boat going nuts just under the transducer,possibly trying to find where the clicking was coming from!. Simon

Shit,wrong photo

Hi all,this is for all of you guys who were like me , and was thinking about getting a Digital camera so you can tell everyone about what you caught. At the risk of giving them a plug there is a red and white popular drink that has a deal going where you buy two 12 packs of there drink ,send off two bar codes and ,$40 plus $10 post and handling and you get a little 3.1 mega pixel camera,a memory card will cost an extra $20.00 but it allows about 65 shots at full resolution. The thing is I sent it off over the net and just got it today,switched it on and the PICASA programme ,that is very photo friendly likes it.It took three days. Now all I gotta do is catch a fish

A bit of an update for you,I had a good yak with a work mate today,he said that there had been some reports of kings that were taking skipping Gars off the rocks to the north of bronte. They also mentioned that a yellowfin had also been briefly hooked up as well..........,with the water conditions being the way they were over the later part of the weekend ,It is entirely possible that it was legitimate. Simon