netic

Well done Gio, just keep at it, were you able to pick up the squid jig i recommended

Good on ya, great to see the sluggo's are working well this season

Well done on breaking your kingfish virginity,

Hey guys, i just read over my post and realised that i made an error, the kings i caught yesterday were all at the western wedding cake, the one near cliffo. Sorry

I will give the harbour another try, if i cant find the bigger ones i will move into middle harbour, thats the bad thing about the summer run coming in, the average size goes down dramtically. Gio, Downriggers are a device that allow you to troll your baits at any depths. eg 1 metre of the floor.

Over the past fews years the kings have been around till May

Hey All, Went out today to get me some kings. Found getting squid hard, managed only 2 in 2 hours and scored 1 cuttlefish. Went to the eastern wedding cake to see if the kings wanted to say hello. Managed to get 11 kings, now you may say how did i manage that with only 2 squid and a cuttle, Now i have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is that a new summer run of kings must of entered the harbour this week and they are quite small in size, between 40cm to 55cm with the odd one just above legal, out of the 11 kings i got today only 3 were legal, with 1 being 75cm and the other 2 just on 60cm, the 75cm one was taken 1 hour before the main school appeared, so the larger ones are still there but you have the hope and pray that the small rats dont get to your bait before the larger ones do. I feel that the larger ones will settle into Middle Harbour leaving the rats in Sydney Harbour. Now for the good news, the school was bubbling, with gulls working and baitfish jumping (i havent seen that since 03/04) but that is not the real good news, these rats were taking anything, I ran out of squid so i decided to try some frozen squid my mate brought along, i cut the squid into tassled peices of strips and they got smacked straight away, i tried frozen squid head and that also got smashed, this all happened around the eastern wedding cake, we got 10 in 30 minutes, then i ran out of squid and had to go home. So the good news is that if you don't like cacthing your own squid you dont have to, al least not for the next few weeks, after a few weeks they may get picky. Although the smaller kings do not fight as hard they can be good fun on light tackle and a great way in introduce yourself to kings if you havent got one before. So if your looking to break your kingfish virginity get out there, these fish were all there around the top of the tide and we were downrigging for them but some others guys were very slow trolling with success also. On occasions the school would go deep but once we trolled around there last known position the rods started to buckle, Keep an eye out for other boats who may be fighting a king and troll close to them, your hook up chances will improve greatly. Good luck

Up until around 2 months ago i always had the belief that squid were impossible to get after 9-10 am, Then one day me and a mate went out around 1.00pm and thought we should try our luck, we got 14 squid in less than an hour, and it has happened a few times since then, last week i caught 3 squid in 15 minutes at around 2.30pm. Everytime i hit the water in the middle of the day now i seem to get better squid numbers, but squid are very inconsistent with their times. There are times that i squid for an hour without a hit, then for 20 minutes i get 6 in a row, then they dissappear again. I have tried to work out a pattern, Tides, Winds, Barometric pressure and there is absolutely no consistency, so i have no clue why they come and go. All i can say is keep trying and be persisitant, everyone should have a few fav squid spots that they can rotate between if a certain areas are not working for them. Squidding is hard to get right, but once you master it, it is very easy. And then just hold onto your rod once the kings hit.

To spot the weed beds you have to go in close to the shore line and check in the water, there are plenty around the harbour. I have never squidded in middle harbour but have heard that quite alot of squid can be caught there, I use a very light outfit, light 2 kg rod with a small shimano slade 2500 on 8 lb line, i cast the jig out and slow retrive, occasionally jigging. The most productive colours i have found is orange and pink

mate, beleive it or not i don't eat fish, Can't stand the taste, thats why most of my fish get tagged and go straight back in unless a family member has requested a king or 2 for dinner. I got 1 from Lady Jane, 2 from Cliffo and 4 from another spot which i cannot reveal, there is squid all over the harbour, all you got to do is keep an eye out for the weedbeds, where there is weedbeds there is squid.

Hey all, went out for a trip yesterday and got 6 kings, smallest being 63cm and largest being 89cm, all caught on live squid and the big muttha was caught in the moorings at clontaff

It is ranging between 7 to 13 metres deep at the wedding cakes, They are the 2 light house towers just before sow and pigs, one is just out from Clifton Gardens and the other is just out from watsons bay. I have tried squid bought from fishmarkets and bait shops and they never get hit, my mate caught a king last year on baitshop squid but i think that is a rare occurence. Also Yakkas are not very effective either, even though you have more chance with yakkas than bait shop squid compared to freshly caught squid or live squid yakkas are absolutely crap. I constantly see fishos using yakkas without a hit, Yakkas are great for offshore kings and seem to work well outside, but in the harbour self caught squid is the only way to go. Even sluggos dont get hit anymore, 2 seasons ago i caught so many kings on sluggos but last season and this season have been completely different to the summer of 03/04, sluggo's are not working. You will hear about fishos getting many kings with minnows or skirts but most of them are absolute rats, and i mean rats, i caught 13 kings on boxing day at jervis bay on minnows and the largest was 49cm and i have a mate who regulary using lures for kings and can only land rats around 55cm. the best thing i can tell anyone is to master getting squid and don't be lazy, work at it and trust me the kings will follow.

Hey all, unfortunately the weather isnt the best so have decided not to go out today, hopefully the weather will clear up tomorrow.

Hey all, went out today for a picnic with the family to cliffo and whilst there decided to see if any squid was around, caught 3 squid off the wharf and got permission from the wife to go out in the boat for an hour to see if i could get me some kings. Went to the wedding cake closest to cliffo and got 3 kings, 62cm, 71cm and 74cm. Got these three within 10 minutes. Have added a pic but sorry about the quality as it was taken by a phone. There is plenty of kings in the harbour at the moment, if i had 10 squid i am positive i would have got 10 hook ups. Am going out tommorow so hope fully will have some more reports then.

Hi Gio, Their are many ways to rig for kings and most will work fine, recently i got onto using trebles as the lower hook and since then my strike to boat ratio is 100%, the treble seems to get hooked much better, seeing i downrigg my squid at idle spped what i do is have a 2/0 treble hooked right where the tentacles join the head, then i have a 5/0 live bait hook just on the tip on the tube so it can maintain a natural motion in the water. Make sure the 5/0 is adjustable as the squid will always be different sizes. on most occasions the treble is so well hooked that its difficult getting it out without doing major damage to the fish, Trust me their is plenty of kings out there, just keep on trying and don't give up, keep an eye out for me, i am more than happy to chat to you out there and also give you some squid if i have had a good day getting them. and don't stay in one spot, with kings you have to find them and they move from hour to hour. Keep an eye out for my boat. Good luck

Hi onelastcast, if you want to view some of my pics you can do so on the "other" site. I have stopped taking pics of my kings mainly because 1 king looks extremely similar to another, unless i pull up a good size one meaning 90cm plus i dont bother taking pics any more, plus most of the fish i boat are tagged and released anyway so dont have an opportunity to take the pic. In regards to squidding the 2 brands of jigs i recommend are Yamashita being the first and Yozuri being the second, Yamashita are hard to find so if you find the yozuri's get them, they work well. Fav colours are Orange 1st, Red 2nd, Brown 3rd and sizes are 1.8 to 2.5, i dont use anything bigger as they sink too fast and then you get alot of snags, With your action, cast out and let it sink for around 30secs, then very slow retrieve, after about 2 meters jig twice and then let sink again for 20 secs. Keep doing this till the jig reaches the boat. if you don't get a squid in 5-6 casts move on to a new area. Hopefully that will assist you in nailing some squid.

Hey all, New to this site but have been getting kings in Sydney Harbour for a few years now and thought i might have some useful advice to add. I was out in the harbour twice this week and the kings are around in abundant supplies, i always use live squid as bait. This week i heard from a mate that runs a Sydney charter that the kings are taking Yakkas also, So i thought i would give it a go, now i downrigg for kings but thought i might just try to drop the live bait down to see what gets hit, had on yakka on 1 rod and a squid on the other, both live and the squid got smashed within a minute, this happened on 4 attempts, the yakka was completely ignored on each occasion. My advice would be to forget about yakkas and concentrate on squid, if you can master getting squid you will master getting kings, so far this season i have caught well over 30 kings and in the last week they have really heated up, there average size is up from previous seasons so we can all have a good time fighting these guys. Just do your preparation work. Good luck