Mr Squidy

Onya Mate, how goods that for your second shot at them!! Especially like the fluking the COTM item into the shot. R

How was the water clarity? Was out sqidding last week on the hacking and it was like fishing in chocolate milk. Still managed a couple but not ideal. Nice work on scoring a few fish. R

Hehe, they are great fun these fish. Did a couple of trips last year targeting them, first trip i was fishing with 15 pound mono having never witnessed the power of these things, what a mistake that was. Second trip i returned with 60 pound braid and 80 pound fluro leader and that did the trick on a nice 6.5kg fish Even with that gear though i still lost a bigger model to the reef. Good luck on the next trip. Reckon we'll see a pic of you with one before to long, after all they are stong but they aint 200Kg + sharks... R

Great report mate, always facinating to read about fishing in other parts of te world. Thanks for sharing!!!

That is quality!!

Wow, you've done well to land him. I've hooked quite a few up around the 50+Kg mark on the heavy gear when chasing big Jew and they usually wear through the 80lb Flurocarbon leader long before i get them anywhere near landing. Good bit of fun when you hook a real big one as long as you dont mistake it for a Jew

Sad news indeed. Deffinitely agree with the comments so far though, its ridiculous the things that people do on our waterways on a regular basis. I night fish the Hacking regularly and EVERY night i am out there we get numerous boats go past with no lights what so ever and often at high speed. Its only a matter of time until there is an accident because of it.

I'd love to see fisheries officers and/or police start doing the rounds of the jetties and warves on a regular basis checking licences and catches. The people who litter generally have no respect for others and you can bet that the odds of them having a licence and respecting bag limits is pretty low. This would easily pay for itself in fines and I think it would have a huge impact in increasing the general levels of behaviour of some fishermen across the board.

How good is that Marlin skewering a sardine!!

Must have thought you had one hell of a mullet there for a few moments... R

I use a mix of the chicken pellets and catfood. Both are cheap and easy to store for as long as you need. R

Top tip there Musty, like the idea on the cable ties. R

HA!! Shame to take it away from its mother really.

Watched a pod of Dolphins chasing fish at the entrance to the Hacking over the weekend as well, good signs that they're around as its a sure sign that the fish schools are moving back in to the Esturies. Rich

Yep Stefan, the spot i fish has a light that goes out about 10pm. Once the light goes out If there is no moon i never seem to catch anymore squid while if there is a full moon i will keep catching the ocasional one here and there.

Squid are highly aggressive predators and grow quickly meaning that they need to eat around 10% of their body mass per day so they will feed just about whenever the opportunity presents. I do find however that my usual spot for night time squiding is always less productive on a fuller moon. I put this down to the fact that with a full moon in the sky there is sufficient light for the squid to feed anywhere in the system and hence they are less attracted to the jetties artificial lights.

From my knowledge of these fish it would be a strange move if they did change it to this. Jew are similar to Dusky Flathead in that the bigger models are the breeding females, so in some ways taking fish in the current 45-70cm size range has less impact than taking of the larger fish. This is the reason for the current restriction of only two over 70cm. I target these fish regularly and would also like to see the limits tightened to improve stocks. I would think though something like minimum size of 55cm with 3 or 4 fish in total and only 1 over 70cm would work better than a system that would see more of the breeding females targeted. R