fisheyes85

great report Cobba! never landed a jack, but seen some solid specimens taken off the breakwall here in forster... almost certain i've been dragged into the wall and busted off by a few while fishing for jewies. is it best to go hard on them from the get go or maybe even free spool them if they get stuck in cover?? congrats on the records! Cheers Tom

I've had mixed succes with slugs off the beach around here. Though they worked a treat sight casting to schools of salmon off the beach at hawks nest. I've had much more luck off the rocks with metals (likely due to time given to each activity) The north end of One Mile beach off the stones is good. I've spun up bonnnies, small kings, tailor and salmon with raiders from there. Its a little sketchy under foot, but good fishing. I've taken unsuccussful shots at spotted mackeral spearfishing here around easter.

awesome footage andy! you caught glimpses of some pretty angry looking terrain- cudos for getting the kingies out of there! looks like a good way of better understanding the bottom structure. look forward to seeing how your cinematography evolves.

great job on the vid fellas! looks like you guys had a ball. 90cm is a big flathead- I was with my mate last month when he landed an 86.5cm flattie while we were livebaiting for jewies- i thought it was monstrous! good work on spicing up the weekends fishing with a bit of healthy competition! Cheers Tom

Hey Beejay, I've only just converted over to circle hooks for livebaiting jewies... I've caught them on live bait hooks and suicides, but have missed many more then I have hooked- still learning the art of when to strike. I figure it will be good to do away with striking and let the powerful run and the recurve hook do the job (no proof of this for me yet, however!) There is a big post on this matter in the Jewfish tactics forum which convinced me to change over. I'm heading out this afternoon, so hopefully give you some real feedback! Cheers Tom

good job on the kings mate... were you using this outfit when you dropped the 80g knife jig down? If so, how did it handle jigging this lure weight? I'm heading out to our FAD in Forster this week hoping to tangle with some kingies that have shown up. Just got a sweet G Loomis force light 12-20lb 7'3" stick (for a bargain) and was tossing up whether to drop similar size knife jigs and 85g raiders on this running 30lb braid. I'll mainly be using it to toss big plastics at the FAD, but thought I'd give the metal option a whirl also. Did it feel like you were going to bust your rod? Cheers Tom

Hey Chewie, aggressive little guy you tempted there! I'd say your catch will trump mine in a few areas- species, consent of the fish involved, etc- but i think I got you on the size front! This guy tried to eat a 3 inch grub with his backside! Probably could have thrown him out still attached as a livie? Cheers Tom

Thanks heaps for the input- it'll all go into helping make my decision. Another complicating factor for me now is that I can see the usefullness/versatility of a Thunnus 4000 Ci4... wish shimano would make it easier for me to make a decision! cheers again Tom

Hey mate- there'd be a thousand ways to approach/answer this... I've never trolled lures for kings (mainly slow troll live baits for this), but have done so for Bonnies. I'm sure a huge range of lures would work for this, but I've found some of this simplest lures will do the trick on Bonito. Two of the simplest lures you can find which will do the job nicely on bonito are the Smith Jig: and, secondly, a 'half by quarter' (1/2 x 1/4): (That's the lure on the bottom of the picture). Both of these lures will set you back about $3-4 and will catch bonito. I'm pretty sure they have their origins in professional fishing circles. I've found the smith jigs work best quite slow around 3-5 knots depending on conditions. Troll them where you are expecting to find bonnies (around headlands and bommies, etc). Same deal for the half by quarters, just a tiny bit quicker- 4-6 knots. It might take a bit of experimenting to find the best troll speeds for your particular lures. Any metal slug, such as raiders, halco twisters etc should do the same job as the half by quarter, they'll just work out a bit more expensive. I'll let someone else chime in for advice on trolling lures for Kingies. Cheers Tom

Hey wacko- thanks a bunch for the plastics lesson... will be able to apply those techniques to the close in reefs up near Forster. the 'later in the day' options I utilise up here are reefs in upwards of 55m of water- are you cubing these sort of depths? I'll have to invest in a longer anchor rope if i want to change from drifting paternoster rigs to cubing these deep reefs. Cheers Tom I was wondering how that query might be received?!!

dangas, Firstly, thanks for the reply! Secondly, sorry for the english on the last post! Was expecting to hear you were using expensive, topline gear to land those monsters! Stella, certate, sustain... Symetre?! Only makes your catch more admirable. I was upgrading my symetre 4000 for the sustain or stradic. I'll keep thinking it through Cheers Tom

Hey Sam, been researching mid range spin reels and think I want either a Stradic FJ/Ci4 or a sustain FE/FG in the 3000 size. I'm hoping it will a good multipurpose reel- plastics for snapper and school jew; throwing chromes off the rocks for bonito, tailor etc... I'll match it with the appropriate rod for the application. Which reel do you have a preference for- the Stradic or Sustain? Cheers in advance Tom

Total cost will be about $1300 which covers airfares, charter, car hire and accommodation. Food drinks extra (eat fish so $0 !!) Wow, that sounds like a pretty mean price!!! how much are you paying for the charter? I had an awesome charter in August which was $NZ300. Hope you have a blast! Here's couple of NZ kings we caught on our charter

Sweet gory photo there noah They'd love that one on the BloodyDecks forum!! We had a similar encounter with a 4-5ft mako off forster 2 weekends back. I had my bottom donking rig on the bottom when the fish passed between my line and the transom. My mate dropped a live yakka on his head which he ate- line peeled for 5 seconds then, pop! rigged up properly in case he returned, but no love. Goes to show that we should have been a little more patient and rigged up with a circle hook and/or wire before sending a bait in. Good capture! Cheers Tom

hey dangas, sweet job on landing the metre fish on snapper gear! What gear were you using?? I'm thinking of upgrading my snapper gear to a 3000 or 4000 Stradic FJ or Ci4 matched with a decent rod with the hope of stopping something big if I encounter them. Any tips on gear that'd be up to what you just done? Cheers Tom

Gee they have it good over there in SA!! Great fish. Also looks like a nicely bent rod in the background of the top pic Look forward to the details to come!

That's an awesome haul of reds! Great work on landing the big fella on relatively light gear! Am I right in thinking that when you are sending baits down below small pea sinkers you are letting them woft in midwater with the bail arm engaged?? Are you using Circle Hooks or suicides? Thinking of going to more refined techniques then bottom bashing but still a lot to learn! Cheers Tom

Great job on nailing the big fella amongst the rats! good photo too- I assume that's the floating timber in the top right of the picture? might have to send a few wine barrels out to sea up my way! Sweet fish Tom

Fishing, footy, motor racing, cold beers... Sounds like a pretty schweet weekend! Fished that wreck a couple of years ago for xos tailor to 65cm. Great report- hope the fishing is better for you next time!

Awesome schnapper! I really have to get out a hunt big'ns like that before they shut off up here in forster Top catch and cheers for sharing where you got her!

Awesome job groper, that's an incredible looking snapper- "it's not a tumor!" great report has me champing at the biot to get back amongst it!

Hey Mick, I had one hardbody session early this year which cost me a Rapala X Rap... I've gone back to flicking SPs and live baits! Most blokes up here tend to throw big plastics (panther martin 9 inch shads, squidgy 7/8"? slickrigs, etc). They throw them upstream and let them bounce their way out on the outgoing tide- this accounts for some big fish! If I am throwing plastics I am chasing smaller fish (to 5kg thus far) with various 7inch jerkshads by working them up the face of the wall at pretty much anytime during the tide. All fish seem to be caught at my feet as I am working it up from the bottom up the face of the rocks. If I am chasing bigger fish I'll fling out a live mullet. The tuncurry side of the bridge at night does seem to be a bit of a hotspot for flatties- tasty alternative to jewies! Definitely PM me when you are up this way! Cheers Tom

Nice mixed bag- sounds like you got the same window of fishing before the weather closed in as we did up in Forster... There were hardly any boats out which is unheard of on the October Long Weekend. As they say, fortune favors the brave! That's one big stinky pike you got there!! I would have stuck a hook in his back and sent him back down for a kingy!

Hey Mike, I don't fish Sydney's South, so can't help on that front... I do however have a slight jewfish obsession myself, and fish for them pretty frequenlty from the breakwalls at Forster Tuncurry. I had a fantastic run of fish last year up to November when I nailed an 18kg model on live pike. Since that fish I've managed three small soapies on plastics in just under a year of fishing. Plenty of fruitless mornings/days/nights spent soaking hard earned livies in this time. I live in hope that they'll fire up through this month and next. All the best with the persuit!! @outdoordan - Mate, sounds like your mojo was running hot, then did a hot runner on you! great to hear you have persisted through the heartbreak! I've had plenty of unconverted runs, but to have a metre plus fish at boatside then losing it...I'm guessing there wasn't much talk on the boat after that!? Love hearing the Jewfish talk! hope we can share some stories of the big ones that didn't get away soon! Cheers tom

sounds like a top bloke! i must meet him one day and give him a race! Went back last night- took the wife this time. Unfortunately the weather closed in and we piked before the tide really turned... Oh well, maybe give it another shot tonight.