PPSGT

Running twin 250 Etec at 41 knots for a hour must put a dent in the wallet, would be fun though Hate to think what they would using at your max 54 knots if you ran for a hour

Not that I've every caught a king on chicken, but the rats really seem to like it. I lost three last time i went while fishing for yakkas on unweighted chicken on as size 12 hook 4lb line didnt last long, but just long enough to cut into my fingers before it snapped like a rifle shot. The long run described does sound like a ray (especially if you bait was close to the bottom)- it probably didnt even know it was hooked, I be suprised if a king with 200 metres of line wouldnt be able to find something to wrap it around and if your drag was at 1/3 of 20lbs it wouldnt have stamina to pull 200+ metres in one run a shark would bite through or cut the line through on its skin when you put pressure on it, but a ray will quite happily pull you around until it gets bored then sucks itself to the bottom and goes to sleep Jason

Everyone has trips like that at least once in their boating career! You only ever learn from doing something wrong yourself or seeing someone else do it, and they generally dont happen again Its a nice looking rig - can the bimini be repaired? But as everyone always says - a day like that is STILL better than being at work Hope you get a nice fish on your next trip! Jason

Top Fish Off Clifton Land Based! Hell, thats a cracker fish from any of the top boat fih spots in the harbour! Hope it tasted nice for dinner Jason

Hi Raiders, With the weather seeming o bad this morning, I got up at 6am to check the weather and rng my mate to see if it was worth heading out. When i rang him from bed, he was already at the ramp and was going regardless so I git tready and met him at Balmoral. He has just bought the boat so no livebait tank or downrigger - we went offshore but it was uncomfortable not much wind, but someof the swell coming in was 4+ metres. Headed back into the entrance to middle harbour to a regular spot and lots of leatherjackets The water was brown as I've ever seen it, and told him it wasnt much hope for a king. First pillie went down, 30 secs later I'm hooked up to a nice king who's making my Tierra 2500 make bad noises then reefed. Next his outfit goes off and breaks his new rod holder, the rod is vertical at the back of the boat with the rodtip under the transom, but the fish is heading under the boat so by sheer luck his new snapper rod is saved, but he got reefed. Another bust up on the Tierra - on 6 month old squid pieces 2 more big reefings on my Saragossa 18000 jig rod We then to pick up mate and went then went to Clifton for zip Went back to MH and got a Watson leaping Bonito, Second drop a 60cm king a couple of failed hook ups. I lent my mate my Saragossa to try and stump pull one of the bigger models from earlier in the morning. A big piece of squid goes on and not long after hes hooked up to a solid king, not as big as earlier but still 80cm his biggest and a nice fish for such brown a dirty water ( not 100% on the size buy it was well over 75cm but the measurer he had onboard) Look how brown the water is! Like Willy Wonkas Chocolate river I am sure i sure Oompaloompas dancing on the river bank There were also lots of trevally in the 25-30cm range and little snappers I headed off home early and they were going back to give it another shot - so hopefully they will get another Might hit the harbour again tomorrow if the weather report is still as "bad" as todays was - it was perfect warm, not much wind and not a drop of rain Jason

They are excellent eating if the skin is removed, white, light tasting flesh with the rib bones only running a short distance behind the head and easy to remove Leave the skin on and they taste very meaty - similar to bonito but much stonger Luckily they are very easy to skin When they are on the bite you will get the bag limit of 20 with twenty drops of the lure they are super agressive, and will hit anything that is white or shiny that is moving Jason

I miss going "Snooking" with my Dad back in Adelaide They are great fun to catch on leaded lines or metal lures but using a paravane is my favourite, as its exciting waiting for it to up with a big snook or salmon splashing behind it. Unlike most fish, the bigger they get the better they taste I have caught plenty over a metre, and my wife has caught a 130cm one when squidding I have only caught two in Sydney harbour, both where only 25cm long By the look of the picture you were down south of Adelaide in the Southern Vales near Wirrina of elsewhere on the Fleurieu Penisula Jason

I hooked one last Saturday on a Saragossa 18000 and 50lb jig rod. Dropped a livey to the bottom, took it about 2metres of the bottom just as i finished lifting it off the bottom the livey went crazy and i hooked up Cranked the handle maybe 10 winds up, and the fish came up easy. Drag was set all the way, 50lbs braid and 100lb leader It then must of woke up, as the next second i couldnt even lift the rod to the gimble,it almost pulled me over through lost footing and all i could do was hold to the rod hard against the gunwhale, darg screaming and the rod tip in a u shape under the boat and gripping it hard so i didnt loose it, seconds later it was all over. I dont think i could have done much different - braid & knots held and it was cut off about 30cm from the hook I was showing a mate how much the fished pulled last night with him pullling down as hard as he coudl on the leader and me lifting as hard as i could and we could barely get the drag to tick Yet at the other end of the scale i've landed a 88cm king on 3kg line with a crappy $20 rod and a reel I got free with a magazine from an anchored boat not far from a mooring - I think sometimes its luck and sometimes its brute force Jason

I have always used a decent esky - my current one isnt that big, but with hold fifteen big yakkas without a problem I even mix up squid and yakkas and once the black ink disappears they seem to get along and i dont care if the squid are live or dead when i go to use them, but i find yakkas stay up the top and squid on the bottom. when i have target squid only they live in there quite happily - i only catch southerns not arrows so i dont know if that makes a difference. With the tank insulation makes all the difference, with yakkas it is the change in temperature up or down that kills them more than lack of water flow. Higher temp drops the oxygen level and they will struggle. My tank has the inlet and outlet both at the top at opposite ends, and i use a cheap johnson bilge pump about $30 and marine plumbing fittings cut with a holesaw. I turn the pump on and off all day Sometimes i get home, i have forgot to empty the tank and the yakkas are still alive I used a mates 80 litre beer esky on his cruiser and kept 20 yakkas just with a bucket every hour or so. Had it been in a non insulated tub, they would died very easily - with a pump running the whole time it keeps the water temp more constant which helps keep them alive. Slimies need lots more water flow, and wont stay alive if the pump is turned off for very long A round drink esky would be good - and i'd g a square cheapo esky over a round non insulated tank any day I installed an expensive one made from the same stuff as cutting board in a mates boat and wasnt that impressed as the sun would heat up the water easily ( it was in a tinny) and if you turned the pump off they would struggle The same material in a factory under deck installation out of the sun would work a lot better I made mine into a bait board over the transom with a flap door in te cutting board- works a treat and the whole thing cost under $100 water splashed against the other side of the esky makes lots of bubbles and the yakkas seem happy If you want to use slimies a lot get the biggest round tank and pump you can fit in the boat

Hi Raiders, With my boat at the mechanics all week, due to him having the flu, it looked like fishing was off the cards. As i got off the phone from the mechanic saying the boat wouldnt be ready till the after 3, there was a message from another raider Stipo, asking if i wanted to go out in the afternoon, I dialed him straight back and just said "when". We hit the water with anoter one of his mates ( one of his three fishing mates named Mick just like him )and headed out to get some livies. We got to just past long reef, and passed one of only two boats we saw out of the heads. We got to his live bait spot cto catch some horse sized yakkas. His main anchor didnt hold, so i jumped out front and swapped to offer to a reef pick and we steered into the wind to re anchor on the mark. The only other boat from North Head to Palm beach decided to anchor where we were 2 minutes ago, as we approached them we asked "wtf" to which the reply was, "if you dont know how to anchor...." then some other crap, rather than fight for the spot, we anchored 20 metres off the mark, which took us nearly 40 minutes to land our first yakka, whilst they pulled them in hand over fist on the original mark. I understand it’s a popular spot for livies, bit I’m just hoping you arent another raider, as it was pretty poor form. We filled the tank with yakkas - well they were all over 40cm+, so we couldnt fit that many in, and headed of to another mark just on sunset that might be a little less crowded. My first livie was killed by a squid, soI i deployed my special deep squid rig on my new jigging rod/saragossa 18000, while the other two continued on livies and garfish. 5 minutes later, Mick1 & Mick2 point at my rod which was jigging by itself. I start the long wind up, with very hard pulses from a large and angry cephlapod. With the rig i was using , there was no way it was getting off and was destined to become kingy bait. Stipo grabbed the net, and a massive cuttlefish was was plonked on the deck. This beast must weigh at least 6kg, and the candles were over 4 feet long. With a pay rise around the corner, and having to take my boss and his son out to get their first king next weekend, this 6kg of prime kingy snacks was a far more welcome catch than the snapper and mulloway we were targeting, so iI lost interest in fishing and started practicing my jigging technique in the dark, so I don’t look like such a noob next time I go out. I am still pretty uncoordinated, but getting better, just got to work on the fitness.... The rest of the night was spent pulling in garfish heads and debating the need for a stinger hook arrangment, and I pulled in an octopus which i jokingly told M1 & M2 i thought was a blue ring, but because it was so dark I couldnt tell, so i put in Stipo's face for a second opinion and he almost jumped out the boat. It then got off the hook and tried to hide in the boat, but we released it unharmed. Although very rough when we headed out, when we headed back around 10pm it was very nice out there, warm, low swell and very little wave action just no fish on the marks we tried. It was a great night, and also good to catch up with another raider. Got home and cut up the cuttlefish fish into bait packs. The cut up pieces filled a normal sized bucket, when i got home around 11.30pm my wife had stayed up to spend some quality time with me – which end up being helping create quality baits as I vacuum packed and froze the cuttlefish. Our freezer is now 1/4 full with cuttlefish baits. Cant wait to try them in the harbour. We caught plenty of tailor, even on my squid rig, but nothing else, and hardly had a bite all night - still beats sitting home watching TV Heres what i ended up with for bait, The two bags on the left contains pretty much just the candles and as small bit of wing. There was half a bucket of bits,skin and ink to throw away Jason

Hey Bangus, Next time PM the other raider - most tell you roughly where they were and will share a lot more info if you ask nicely in a PM Yeeros - Nice Rainbow runner! catching a fish not normal to the area is always fun, I didnt even know they got that big, on the tv shows I've only seen small ones caught for live bait If a king is a sedan, the rainbow runner must be the sports coupe version, they look sleeker and sportier than a king Did it taste much like a kingie? Jason

I haved caught squid on maggots set for garfish (hooked in the beak), high speed spinning for salmon of the rocks with metals, live baiting in 60m metres of water, while trolling with a paravane and pulled them out of the water on a hookless teaser I have even seen one dropped from a 5 metre jetty, smash back into the water and grab the jig as soon as it hit the water again. My last sqquid mission back in Adelaide at Christmas, i threw 10 casts at a school of 10 squid and pulled 8 out of the school I have seen a 5 year girl throw a squid jig on a handline from shallow beach, and without getting her feet wet threw and throwing it no more than 2 metres got a big squid on her first cast It never ceases to amaze me how they can be caught Can wait to catch one on the downrigger Jason

time, patience, the right hook and technique and these kings are easy. I have caught nearly 100 kings over the past 3 seasons on nothing more than pillies and a hook The right hook pattern, with the pilchard rigged correctly and you'll hook the kings you see swimming around the back of the boat I have put details in previous post (as have others) on how to catch them, look it up or pm me When i fish Clifton Gardens i only take pillies, and dont bother with squid or yakkas and have caught kings morninings, lunchtime or my favourite sneaking off after work and fishing till sunset Jason

Hi Raiders, Hit the harbour today with my boss and his 9 year son with his brand new fishing road he just got for his birthday ( i picked it out for my boss) Headed towards North head, bit rough for the young fella, so we trolled back from North Head to Manly. We stopped to set up his new rod with a small metal, as i tied it on and as I handed it back to him the lure dropped into the water, by the time he'd taken hold of it a Bonito had grabbed it and was off! The lure was dangling alongside the boat no more than 5cm under water for all of 10 secs So a 2 minute stuggle later and a 40cm bonnie is landed his first fish on the harbour We slowly trolled back to Manly, and my boss and his son hooked bonito on everything including a CD18 that was as big as the bonito, 80gm metal, 20g metal, 5g metal. When landed they all spat out anchovies - but it seems that wanted to eat anything. Anchored up and fed pilchards to kings that woudl swim upto the transom and woudlnt take a bait. And my boss striked out three times on the downrigger on the way back to the ramp - It woudl rip it out the clip and by the time he grabbed the rod it was gone, pretty funny though as his son well out fished him for the day Great day, and far better then the forecast - didnt rain once Even though we struck out on the kings, his son loved fighting the bonnies on 3kg and got to break in his birthday rod Jason

My Mate went out in the cruiser Sat- Didnt go as I was suppose to go with another raider But it was in a centre console and we would have just got too wet. Mate went out and had his best day ever, heaps of bonito and salmon in the harbour trolling metal slugs He also picked up a big snook - an unusal catch in the harbour, I have only catch small ones around Manly Might have to get the paravane out again Jason

The snell if tied properly shouldnt cause the line to fail. Ive hooked big smooth rays on heavy leader and heavy braid, and had them drag the anchor and straighten the hooks, but never broken the leader or had a snell fail when its happened For snapper, even big ones, if using big red hooks I would go through the eye of the hook But for any hard pulling fish like a kingy, i wouldnt, as the close off of the eye, under pressure may be enough to nick the line and cause it to fail. There are other knots to use for the trailing hook, and a slider rig you can pull the plastic pipe through the eye which also helps The snell doesnt matter if it goes through the eye or not, the knot was designed for flattened hooks with no eye If you didnt get a pig tail - the snell didnt fail It may have been stressed when you pulled it tighed through no lubrication, as it can get hot enough to feel hot in your fingers if you pull tight fast on heavy line so that cant be good for the line and may have caused a weak spot Jason

I go for walks a lot down at the figtree bridge a lot at night for exercise and to check up on what been caught. They get some thumper bream down there, the biggest i have seen was well over 50cm probably near on 60cm, biggest bream i have every seen. Looked like a silver snapper I caught a 40cm one last week on a whole squid head on a 10/0 4x oversize circle hook and missed a bigger one. I sounded around there on sat night in the boat, fairly shallow in the main channel only 17ft at low tide and a little deeper under the bridge Must be some nice fish lurking around those shallows Jason

Hi Raiders, Decided to fish west of the bridge today and down rig some squid heads in some likely spots First past - bang and up comes a small rat Then another, with 6 or so bigger mates following Then a really nice sized bream took a whole squid head, with a thumper king following it, right up to the surface behind the boat. We caught 1 more rat, and one really big hook up that pulled the hooks mid fight There were really big kings on the sounder, but after ready the reports Yakkas seem to be the gun bait at the moment, and we didnt hook any anywhere near the size of the fish on the sounder The current was really roaring and it was the highest I have seen it at the ramp, on the way back several of the lawned areas were getting splashed by waves, and the jetty near the ramp was almost under water. We stopped fishing when the rain hit I'm sure people did well today using livies Jason

Hi Raiders, Spent the night down at the Lane Cove River Using fresh squid caught 1x Flounder, 1x Whiting, 1x Tailor and 2x Fugu's all released, and of no great size, whilst waiting for the big rod to get a nibble On the big rod - got smashed by something big on a whole squid head that double my surf rod over and went on massive run then wrapped me around a mooring. I was trying for a mulloway, but it was probably a shark or maybe a ray - I could say it was a mulloway, but unlikely It pulled hard and went straight for the mooring, if i was in MH during the daytime i would have called it for a king. It was still connected on the 50lbs leader & 50lbs braid and was pulling the boat around on the mooring, I had it on for a couple minutes, but it was well wrapped around the mooring so i busted it off Then got a small run on a 10/0 4x strong circle ( i was trying for trophy fish ) and whole squid head - and landed a stomper bream. I cant believe it hooked itself, but it was pinned perfectly in the corner of the mouth - released it and packed up Jason

Hi Raiders, On holidays seeing the family back in Adelaide - Went out fishing today at one of my favourite spots, in a friends 4.35 savage. His only a beginner, but he had a squid spot were he'd caught a few quid on his $4 jigs 1.5 hours later we had got out boat limit of thirty I used my Yozuri and squid spray, and EGI technique, he used his $4 and basic style. My Kungfu reigned supreme - 26 to 4.... I had six in the boat in six casts! all squid had 25-30cm tubes with a couple upto 40cm then in overtime ( we were due back home) dropped over the side some fresh squid and scored a king george whiting at 34cm and a 32cm Yellowfin whiting Met some guys back at the ramp who had a small 9kg snapper, there was a local snapper comp on at that fish wasnt even in the running. some other mates in a bigger boat rang me and had caught 10 snapper to 12kg.... have to go back to Sydney tomorrow otherwise i'd be their anchor bitch and get some reds cooked up half of the squid and bagged up the rest to take back to Sydney for kingy baits- doubled packed in salt water. They work a treat! have over 5kgs of fresh squid heads and tubes Hope everyone had luck of christmas and got some time on the water with family and friends. haf the haul - King George whiting the BEST tasting fish in the south if not Australia lots of kingy baits Mate forgot to bring the heavy gear - we saw a 6 foot bronzie in 1 metre of water and plenty of squid bait and nothing to hook it upto. A Australian record bronzie was taken there in the eighties in 6 foot of water... and people were wadding and crabbing today just near where we saw the shark Remember Jesus was a fisherman, and not fishing over the Christmas break makes the baby Jesus cry!!

If you are targeting kings on a budget get X125/X126/X136/X135 sounder B&W sounder New you can pick them up for around $350 (superceded models) Or on blah blah poop they are around $150 I got one of blah blah poop for $49 on Sunday - as a replacement for one I lost and a backup for my HDS5 as it is the same cables. X125 I fished with for 5 years - only reason I upgraded was it went missing from my boat it is 480x480 resolution and works well in the harbour Kings show up clear as a bell as per the picture below versus the HDS5 which is slightly better and in colour - but wont make difference in catching fish Anything less than 480x480 will not give a very clear picture, and more than that is probably overkill for the harbour. Run it off a $99 jumper pack battery by terminating the sounder power cables into a male cigarette lighter plug - it will last all day off that, they only draw 500ma and still probably be able to jump start the car if you have a flat battery Most of the cheapies are 17aH so it should last 32 hours without the backlight, 20 hours with the light on I wouldnt bother with the cheaper sounders, they will only show the bottom depth, and still leave you blind to fish and structure. The X125 will show a wreck clearly and it will look very different to the surrounding bottom, the cheapies will just show a rise connected to the bottom Jason

Big Snapper take Big slimies sideways, run with them, kill them, spit them out and swallow them head first Especially in Nov when they are schooled up and breeding. I've caught them on big slimies before, and they run, stop, then run again Does look like a squid, as the flesh is still their and squid bite the back of the head first to get to the brain and kill the fish so they dont get injured themselves. Doesnt look like a snapper bite - something with more teeth, that wasnt quite sure and changed its mind

Jim - I always thought you lied about the size of the fish you catch Now I have proof! I'm going to measure every fish you pull into the boat now with my own tape measure. Seriously though - when we'd target snapper in SA the legal limit is 38cm but we'd only take them over 40cm, as they do shrink a cm or two in the ice slurry glad you didnt get a fine - only trophy fish this holiday season! Jason

Hi Raiders, We today was more business than pleasure, taking my workmates, my boss and our global CEO who’s over from the UK out for a day of fishing. My boss had told our CEO that fish were guaranteed.... Rather than take Das Boot ( my little 4.5 metre half cab ) I borrowed my mates 30 foot Riveria, so no down rigger steers, like a tank but at least we would be cruising in style. I suggested lets head out at 6am, so we can get some livies and be out for the prime time, but no - they had meeting until 3pm and they were meeting me out at the boat at 4pm SO i picked up the drinks, some nice prawns and sushi and wanted for them to get to the marina. The arsenal for the day was for four measly squid i'd caught the other night and vac-packed A block of my favourite kingy bait - freezer burnt servo pillies and some Peeled prawns ( aka the penguin technique) The crew arrived and we headed out to the harbour - got to clifton the wind was blowing hard and anchor was tough - we finally got set and didnt lose a bait in an hour and a half We ate the snacks and suggested we hit the middle harbour wrecks until sundown. We trolled all the way back to clontarf - and the pressure was mounting not even a tailor or a strike Without the downrigger - getting a king in middle harbour would be tough, but I'd brought along my paravane to at least get a squid head down a bit deeper. the boat cruised nice just off idle at 2 knots so we dropped the paravane just before the spit. As we approached the bridge it popped up to the surface - but nothing, well i thought i'd keep trying as everyone was watching that line and the sounder waiting for the promised king. 200 metres pass the spit into Middle harbour - the paravane comes back up - i was about to call it as weed and pack it in , when a big splash appeared behind it and the rod doubled over, my boss grabbed it and passed it to the CEO. Now with 50lbs braid, 100lb leader and a 8/0 circle I think he's gotta back this one. After being smoked on the same outfit the week before last with Jim77- the drag was wound all the way up So he's struggling with the fish - and my boss and two other workmates are "assisting" The fish is giving him plenty of stick - but we are in clear water and all he has to do is wind - I'm thinking its a rat, until i see it at the back of the swimdeck and realise its a good fish. So my boss grabs the line and pulls in the paravane, and then starts fighting the fish to the boat with the paravane. 1 minute later a almost 70cm king hits the deck, and everyone is happy The day turned out great - everyone had fun, and the CEO caught his biggest fish ever ( he loves fishing) The esky is a big one - it measured 71cm across the fish touched both ends - didnt measure the fish though i made it into a live tank for my friend - hence the orange spray nozzle and overflow pipe, usually its full of beer, and it was until we caught the king All filleted, skinned, de-boned and all the blood lines removed No how to eat it???? New school or old school?? Seeing I caught it on a paravane- I'll eat it old school Couldnt resist some as sashimi - I had ikijimi spiked, bleed and gutted it immediatley and threw it straight onto ice , it tasted awesome rest was done old school in fish coating mix like mum used to make ( with tartare sauce) and in southern friend chicken coating (tastes like KFC kingfish) both really yummy My boss and CEO were really happy - and everyone was involved in the capture. Now..... About that pay rise....... Jason

Hi Raiders, Sitting in the office watching lavender bay The seagulls have been working all day over really big splashes with fish leaving the water I'd say they are either really big tailor or small kings - what ever it is they are feeding on sprats as they seagulls are getting a feed everytime they surface I've seen the sprats a few times along the rockwalls in schools of about 500 , they are yakka coloured but long and thin And all right in the middle of the no fish zone Them fish is smart! Jason