Dangas

thats some awesome pics there. i doubt any trailerboats wouldve lasted in those conditions. Great effort on10kg line, how big was the stripey?

Damn, you boys are the masters of the bay these days. Your strike rate on the kings are impressive. I was out there on friday too, but made the call to head out to the peak for a jig, only to be smashed by bloody jackets. shoulda stayed in the bay. It seems like there are still plenty of kings around. Interesting to see water temps are at 19 deg on the lowrance. Good stuff boys. Dang

Trung, thats a great article. ive actually read it a while ago and it has totally convinced me that all fish need to be bled and taken care of for best quality. i am interested to see if the spike thru the spine makes a noticable difference. we should go out and test out this theory out oneday qnd post a report Dang

where do you begin... get yourself a couple of moldcraft widerange lures in a few different colours. tow em behind your boat at about 6-8 knots, pick a calm day with little wind and head about 40km east past the shelf , then head back in. make sure you have more than enough fuel. thats the gist of it. There are fisherman have dedicated years of their lives and thousands of dollars before they were able to land their first marlin. so although the tips and advice here sounds straightforward, there are actually many vital steps in between which you will need to master. my advice is to read and study as much as you can, talk to ppl who regularly chase gamefish, and most importantly get out ther and keep trying. the more you try the more you will learn.

I agree with Hodgey. You just gotta bite the bullet and learn how to do a uni knot. Uni knot will only go tighter the harder you pull, unlike a blood knot that will either slip or break the harder you pull.

Congrats on blooding the new boat. It looks like a nicely set up rig. We went out the next day on Friday and did the same run from the Fads out to Browns and back for Zilch. The water looked nice and blue and absolutely no swell, but we werent as fortunate. Oh well thats fishing. Good to see someone getting into some marlin in Sydney.

good stuff guys. what size would you estimate that blue to be?

Congratulations Andrew, thats just sensational to catch it out of your own boat and to do it in a 450 Topender too !! thats just insane. In typical Fishmaniac fashion when you do something you always do it BIG, and landing 2 from 2 on jigging gear is big.

good stuff guys. looks like you got those kings sussed out.

LOL ... i think you may have a record there for the smallest kingfish ever posted on Fishraider. Better luck next time mate. Was out there at the fAD too on the weekend and didnt look like anyone was catching anything decent. Might try throwing around some micro jigs on 4lb line there at the FAD next time for some fun with the micro kings

Formosan, We were lucky it hit the 24kg outfit, and not the some of the smaller jig sticks we had out. The fish was caught with no harness. I have a 6m fibreglass half cabin. The boat was always in gear when fighting the fish, theres no chance of the fish towing the boat. Hi Jimmy, we definitely could not have landed it without everyone being switched on and doing their part. We were lucky that everything just seemd to fall in to place that day and everyone was on like clockwork. Im still pumped thinking about it. Grant, thats what me and "Little Hooker" thought as well. In fact showed a few ppl the pictures and most reckon it was anywhere between 60-70

Well what a day it turned out to be. Got up at 4.40am. It was pissing down rain, boat was filled with water, and i was still hungover from the night before. I came very close to pulling the pin and crawling back into bed. But by then it was too late as i had some keen fisho's already on their way to my place. Had an early start and headed straight to Bot Fad. Within 500m of reaching the first FAD the rods go off and it was a triple hookup of stripe tuna. After that did a few passes of the fad for nothing. There were about 5 other boats there all catching nothing too. Headed out to the wide FAD and again, did a few passes for 0. After that we Decided to put on the marlin lures and start heading along the 80 fathom line hoping to be a little more successful. Not long after putting the spread out we were onto a stripey. It hit the long corner Lumo skirt and started doing spectacular jumps behind the boat. Now thanks to an awesome crew (especially fellow raider "Little Hooker" who's boat driving skills made the fight so much easier) after 20mins we had it in the boat. Took a few quick photos and released her. Water temp was about 24.5 deg. Later on went to find some birds working the surface in 60 fathoms over a small patch of jellybean yellowfins busting up on the surface, ended up hooking up on one before they dissapeared, also caught a few more stripeys and bonito on the way back in. Ended up being a good day, and the sun came out too. Im so glad i pulled myself out of bed this morning.

Was out at the Botany Close FAd and Bot Wide FAd today. Hit them both once arly in the morning and then again later in the afternoon. Both times came up empty. There were about 10 boats around both fads in the morning, and looked like nobody was catching anything. Although some guys at the ramp told me they heard of someone catching dollies at the fads, but sounds rather dubious.

Thanks for the great report Trungy. Ive got these powerbait minnows which look exactly like those glassies, i might put on a resin head jighead and give it try on the bonnies next time im out on the bay. Shame about those kings, Im gonna try to get out there later this week to catch those ones you lost. Dang

Awesome effort, 24hr non stop road/fishing trip is hardcore!! Love the JM gear, and the vid looks pretty slick. Did you use a Go Pro camera to record the footage?

haha when are you taking us out on your boat for our kingy comp bro? im waiting to win that new reel from you.

Mate, the Stradic C14 4000 would be perfect and not too pricey. i like the fact that its pretty light and has a good amount of drag pressure available. I really prefer using lighter gear. At the end of the day, they are less tiring to use all day and make the fight a lot more enjoyable. The symetre would prob do the job, but go the Stradic if you want a lighter reel body, better drag system, and more bling. Maybe also look at the Shimano Thunnus C14 baitrunner if you want to throw a spanner in the works. Great for flicking lures, trolling, and livebaiting. Although the top end gear are beautiful to use (saltigas, certates stellas etc), IMO you could stop 99% of sydney kings using a decent shimano or daiwa reel in 4000 OR 3500 size for under $500. You just need to understand the limits of your gear, trust your lines and knots, and know how to play the fish. Also helps to look after your reels. Good luck with your decision Tom. Dang

Tom, the kings were caught on both Shimano Baitrunner D 3000 and symetre 3000 both with 20lb braid and 20lb flurocarbon. The 3000 Stradic C14 you are looking at would be an awesome reel for this sort of work. If you match it with a nice 6-8kg 7ft graphite rod Would be a sweet setup for flicking plastics for snapper, poppers for kings, metal slugs for bonito, salmon etc...

Hi Formosan, Boated 4 in total. Got busted off on the light gear several times by big specimens. Released 3 kept one

Hi Raiders, Just a little post to report some kingfish caught outside of Botany bay. These brutes were caught jigging off some shallow reefs in 30m using 100gm jigs. Went out in search of snapper and found some nice markings of kingfish instead. Couldnt help myself and decided to throw a jig down. The only problem was we were out gunned on the snapper gear. We got smoked several times on 20lb but was lucky to land a few, The largest one measured 100cm. Thai is scabbing a picture with my 1m Kingy the line had "More Nicks than a Greek Restaurant" ("Fishin Trip" quote from Jason Kennedy)

Hi Raiders, Was planning to spin around the headlands for some salmon however the weather and sea turned out to be much better than predicted so decided to head out a bit further to some of the deeper reefs off sydney for a jig. Had to move around a fair bit to find the fish, but we didnt mind since we were testing out the new Furuno FCV520 fitted to the boat. What an awesome sounder. It really paid for itself because we ended up with an esky full of bonitos & kings. The largest king of the day was just shy of a metre and weighed 9kg. Most fish were caught on 200gm jigs. There were also hoardes of couta and a few jackets out there as well. Overall, was a good day since we caught more fish than lost jigs. I think part of the reason was being able to distinguish to some point, jackets to other fish species on the furuno, and only dropping the jigs down to the required depth where the fish were holding instead of dropping it all the way to the bottom where the jackets are. Still trying to perfect this technique but it seems to save jigs. Luckily we decided to call it a day just in time and made it back into the bay around 3pm before a huge southerly hit. I have never seen botany bay hit by winds with such tremendous force before. It woulve been pretty scary out there if we stayed out any longer. Anyway, heres a few pics

Ive landed legal kings with as low as 4lb line. It does take a while and you have to play the fish carefully, but with a lot of luck and patience, it can be done. You just have to pray that it doest run towards structure or reef.

The kingy in the pic had some legions on the skin and parasites, wasnt very nice. There were a few rats around also between 60-63cm. The one in the pic was the biggest.

Fished just outside of botany today and found some very productive reefs and gravel patches in 20-30m. Did a few drifts and ended up with a good mix of bonito, trevally, sweep, snapper, and some kingfish. Snapper caught were between 32 - 39cms pan sized reds. Kingfish in picture measured 69cm and was caught on a 7gm TT blade on 6lb. (Kingfish was released) sorry bad pic taken on mobile All in all, not a bad day out, taking advantage of this beautiful weather while it lasts.

Hi Tony, the places i found them are no secret, deep water around the breakwall and drums. i suspected that there would be some dirty water after the rain, however thought that the run in tide would bring in some cleaner water from the ocean. I suspect that there wouldve been a few jewies lurking about too in the deeper holes where the dirty water met with the clearer stuff i saw some nice big marking on the bottom with my sounder near the top of the tide but didnt have the right bait or gear to have a go.