the producer

PS...just checked the fishraider record section and there is no record for blue-spot sand flathead. ??? I will submit this as one to beat. My PB. Blue-spot sand flathead is 71cm so there is a good chance someone can beat this so let this be a starting point. And they are delicious ....far better eating than the dusky. happy catching

Hi All Today was my only chance for a fish this week and what a day it was. Put the boat in just on sunrise and headed round towards north head in calm conditions to be greeted by perfect Skys and smooth seas with about 1.5m long period swell. Was planning on getting some fish out on the reefs because I have spent the last few trips chasing kings and only getting 2 or 3 fish...... a long way from the 10 or 20 a day we have enjoyed over the last few Summers. First I decided to have a quick go for squid ( always good to have a few in case you find kingies ) and within 1/2 hour and 2 drifts we had 6 good size calamari including 2 that were full monster size adults. Best had hood length of about 35cm ( 84cm total length ). I have caught them bigger, but not this summer. They don't get much past 45cm in NSW waters so these are a great size. Headed back into the harbour to grab some livies and had bonito jumping everywhere while we got a few yellowtail. So threw a little lure out and started to head out zzzzzzzzz as soon as i put it in gear a salmon hit it, a few big leaps and we kept him for bait. Not wanting to waste time on stuff we don't like to eat we decided to pull in lures and just head out to 60m. Well the fishing was steady and over the next 3 hours we landed 2 big tigers and 13 good size sandies some of which were over 60cm, and 2 nice Blue Morwong, and a couple of 6 spine jackets, and a few red spots. Best Sand Flathead was 64cm and had some nice thick fillets for dinner on it. Current was traveling south at over 2 Knts but with no wind it was easy to find the floor. I don't take many photos these days but the best squid and flathead were worth a pic next to the lie detector. Then headed in and dropped a few fresh squid baits around the heads but we could only manage 4 kings and they were just on and just under 65cm so we released em to grow a bit. Got some fillets on now so back to the cooktop.... ..........hope you all had a great weekend. Andrew

Hi ALL Headed out to 12 mile yesterday. Got a few dollies of some traps north of 12 mile... nothing huge all around 60 - 65 cm. Tried 12 mile..... lost 7 complete rigs to tha jackets. So decided to head back in for a few flathead and some kings. Got half way back and saw a nice marlin sunning itself on the surface. I grabbed my tiagra and had a livie out in seconds but it just kept swimming just in front of the boat and we could not get it to come to the back of the boat or get the boat in front of it. I have seen them do this so many times and have never hooked them in this situation. They are smart ...they know when to feed and when to relax. They will only use energy to chase prey when they think they have the best chance of getting a good feed. These in between times it can be hard to switch them on. So we came back in to 60m and I pulled this big red spot up in between a few tiger flathead. They are a very small species of whiting that I have caught along the east coast of nsw in depths between 30m and 90m. This one went 26.5cm. Massive for this species. Not sure if there is a raider record for Red Spot Whiting but this is surely rare thing to see one this size. Some of you would have caught these and most of you would have seen them at the fish market rarely exceeding 20cm. Water temps to 23 but first ten miles around the 21.5 starting to hot up out there....

Hi Dave That is called a mono argent. They are found throughout the indo pacific region. and can live in quite fresh water but prefer brackish and move into saltier water during summer. I grew up catching these in queenscliff lagoon some 25 years ago and have fished weekly ever since. andrew the producer

Your quite right............I own plenty of expensive gear - 3 Tiagra 50's + 2 International 50's + Trinadads + Accurates( which are excellent reels ) + too many TLDS & other expensive reels to count + top shelf spinning reels and I find that if you pick your reels carefully and maintain them there are alot of cheaper reels on the market that will do the job. And I have had plenty of reels go overboard over the years so around the harbour I use GOOD QUALITY basic reels with a more reasonable price tag........ BUT when I go out wide and tackle serious game fish I need quality gear because long fights on big fish put allot of strain on the gear. Some of my recommendations : Penn make some great reels that are very affordable and durable - I have hammered them 3-4 days a week for years and they still perform when you need them to. Penn spinfishers 8500ss- try and get the older metal bodied models. Penn 320 & 330 GTI - again the older models made in the usa are slightly better. Penn are great for parts so buy them second hand ( cheap )and learn to maintain them yourself. Shimano also do a great range of more affordable reels. - wait for the sales and get em even cheaper. If you are new to fishing stick with level winds and try to buy medium sized or high speed reels that take a good amount of line with each turn of the handle. happy fishing andrew

Hi everyone I just read the all the replies and I was like ....blown away. Thank you all for taking the time to reply to my post. I check out the reports every so often and just check out the pics, but at the moment I am busy with work and off course i fish allot and if I had time to post stuff i would probably fish even more !!!! The other thing is .......I fish by myself allot so I dont have good pics of all my fish. My wife says we have enough photos of fish so she never wants to take pics when i get home.java script:emoticon('',%20'smid_20') Shes probably right !.... because For the last 16 years i have worked mostly only weekend nights....... so .......you guessed it.... java script:emoticon('',%20'smid_18')I fished all week. For those interested in what tackle etc... I have slowly used heavier line over the past 10 years - I caught hundreds of small and medium kings up to 8kg on 10 kg mono until about 2000 and a few big fish lost forced me to change to 15kg mono. About this time braided lines started to get better but the knot strength was still low - this is no longer the case and modern braids are excellent. Over the past 5 years I been using both 15kg mono and Dyneema braids up to 80 lb. I have landed only 2 kings over 10kg on 15kg mono - its a tough job even when everything goes right. So last year After losing a fish exactly like the one here on 15kg monojava script:emoticon('',%20'smid_2') I began to use my braid reels more and more. So to answer the "What line question" even though "hundgie" pretty much summed it up....... 60lb braid. I like berkley line my self both whiplash and big game mono. As for trace.... I have recently changed from the harder coated ones with poor knot strength in 50lb( eg penn 10x ) to softer lines in 80lb.......they are less resistant to abrasion but have excellent knot strength - So you can put some serious pressure on em........... I caught a similar size fish last year fishing beside Des from hookem & cookem and that was on a 6500 baitrunner. But this year I have been preferring overhead reels and that day i was using a penn 330 gti -a pretty cheap reel that anyone could afford. As for rods ...........I take alot of novice anglers out and they get broken all the time java script:emoticon('',%20'smid_14')so do you think I use expensive carbon rods.......... No way .....Just cheap fiberglass models - solid tips. under $100 each. Use a rod rated 15kg. Dont let people ( even well known harbour charter guides ) Tell you yellowtail are no good. I have caught equal numbers of fish this size on yellowtail & squid. This fish was caught on a FRESH squid head. But yakkas are also excellent..... You dont need massive baits...... I prefer well presented medium size baits. If anyone has any other questions drop me a note and I will answer them. I have allot of weekday work at present so no spare time but will reply as soon as I can. Now for those who like seeing these beasts here is a pic of another nice fish I got last year at Lord howe island. If anyone would like to catch big kingfish GO TO LHI. I can put you onto a great guide if anyone wants to go ............. My wife's father grew up on Lord Howe and her uncle runs the longest running charter business. You will have seen him on Rex hunt and ET etc etc. Finally some questions from me. How do you enter fish of the month, and what is this kingy social ???? regards Andrew " The Producer "

Hi All I have been a raider member for over a year but have not posted anything as yet ............ but i wanted to share this great pic of a nice kingie I got yesterday in the harbour. I have been fishing the harbour for over twenty years and I have only pulled 5 over 10kg out of it. I have caught plenty of big ones on Lord Howe but just a few in the harbour and they are always memorable catches. Many of you will know me but for those that don't ....my name is Andrew and I am a devoted fisherman and a big fan of livebaiting in Sydney harbour. I wont say exactly where I caught it but I will say i have come across fish like this in all the regular kingfish haunts. And my best tip for those who want to hook and land big fish like this is to not fish with 10 or 15 other boats on a single spot but try other places in the same area. Hope you all have fun on the water over summer. & I hope to see you all out there one day. Anyway here is the fish.........115cm (1150mm)

Question : why would you leave a spot that has that many squid????/ WHERE WOULD YOU EXPECT TO FIND KINGS?????? yea thats right where there are shit loads of squid. I did the same thing as you guys did about 5 years ago but now I know that the sensible thing to do is >>>> stick with the bait - or the squid schools. Try it next time this happens. I dont bother much with the forums but av a quick read every couple of weeks. BUT i am on the water 3 times a week every week for the last 10 years. and if you are out much during the week you would have seen me around many times. regards andrew - the producer