livo

Sounds like a big day to end the year. You obviously made the right decision not to cross any bars today.

Good bag. Almost identical to ours a couple of days ago but ours was from about 100 kms to the north. Plenty of fish at the 50m mark. You got a keeper Red, I got a Pearly.

It's all been said.. Great fish. If entered your going to make me eat my words about my vote in Fish of the month. I thought The Poacher's kingy a couple of weeks ago was a dead cert', but maybe not.

Very fishy conditions at the moment. You must have been pumped when you were on. Hargreaves fishes well I believe. I knew a guy years ago who caught a 10 lb snapper from the corner one night. A long time ago but they could still happen.

I wanted one but we were totally outdone. But that's good in a way. Anyhow, Ive just spent 3 hours filleting, boning and skinning what we caught and it produced plenty of all edible fish. Lucky I've got the sisters coming over for a late Xmas tomorrow. Taking any more home would be foolish and wasteful. I only wish I was going out to set some lobster or crab traps to get rid of the frames. I've bagged it up and frozen it for future use as bait or burley. I hate waste. Oh, and obviously it was fish for dinner. Thanks for your thoughts Dan. Livo

I know where you were. Thanks. I've tried bait fishing the area but was plagued by sweep. I guess you need livies. We were anchored on hard reef at both spots yesterday. I know the 50m mark was hard bottom as it took quite a bit of stick from the motor to straighten a couple of prongs before the pick would let go. We often fish around that general area for mixed results. A couple of the flatties came up with dark and light bars as they do when on rock. I believe its pretty variable bottom out there with broken reef amongst gravelly bottom. There is a high round top mountain (known as the Chinaman's Hat) which we line up with the Centre to Northern Half of THE ENTRANCE Bridge and then fish along that line in water from 42 out to about 52 meters in depth. We took a GPS mark yesterday as it was pretty productive for a random drop. That's not to say tomorrow could be barron though but hey, that's fishing. I'll PM you with the digits. How big are the tailor off Wamby Beachy? I make make the trip over as I've been pulling zeros at Putty lately.

Nice kings again poacher. Without giving too much away were you close in around to the south from Terrigal? We found a massive congregation in only 25 meters around at North Avoca a couple of years back.

We don't always do that well Poacher. It was just one of those days. Often we only average a fish an hour on the water and have to move around a lot to find that. This catch was taken from only 2 spots. The mowies, pigfish, jacket and Pearly were from THE DRUM mark in 76m of water and the flatties and Trevally and the bustups were closer in, out in front of THE ENTRANCE in 48m. My first thought was sharks but we didn't see any on the surface at all. I can't think of anything else that would've cut our lines so easily though, or not that you'd expect to find where we were fishing anyway. I don't know whether large Sampsons have teeth to do that or not. We got dusted five times in quick time from a live slimey on the surface to slightly weighted floaters of whole pillies and squid, a rig at half water (25m) and one from the bottom. Each time the reels let line at blistering pace and parted without reaching drag weight. The sounder was on with fish alert and not a pip, even from the one that took the rig at half depth straight under the boat. The guys in the boat near us lost there first livey under a balloon pretty quick but hookud up on number 2. After a few minutes they had all the other lines in and the fish took them all round the boat. They had the gaff ready but seemed to spend a lot of time at the back of the boat and we didn't see anything come over the side so it's possible it was a shark and they released it. Whatever they were they gave us a big thrill for a while. I'll pack some wire and some heavier gear on board from now on.

Thanks. We were happy with the day. The Pearly was beautiful. Lightly seasoned flour and shallow fried in oil, a drizzle of LJ and a nice salad. They are a top table fish and always welcome onboard.

As we were about to up anchor and go home in 50m, a couple of k's in front of The Entrance Bridge the FIL brings in a large slimey. A quick re rig and a 7/0 livebait hook in his back, out he goes. Very spooked for a couple of minutes and then reel goes for a cracker run. I wind my bottom rig half way up and decide the livey eater is going too far too fast so I swap rods only to have the bottom rigged rod start screaming line off from mid water. Both lines are cleanly bitten through as soon as there is any pressure. Nowhere near breaking strain or drag setting so whatever they were they had teeth. Dropped another livey at the boat so out go some floater pillies and Californian frozen calimari squid (yes, and great squid too) only to have three more identical bust offs. Whole rigs bitten through after a screaming fast run. While all this is going on another boat drops anchor fairly close and floats a couple of balloons out only to be smoked up as well. He actually had a fish up close to the boat and his decky had the gaff all ready but something went wrong. The guys who hang around at the ramp said there had been a few big Sampsons caught. The current was screaming in from sea to land all day except for an hour or so around full tide which is when we got the flatties. Very Tired. Going to bed. Thanks Dave. We weren't trying to catch them. We were trying to catch up to them to see what they were. As we'd already been completely smoked at our anchored spot we would have had no hope with the gear we were fishing. They were really big fish and hooting up the coast.

more pics another pic. Pearly. Shared this fish with and yum.

What a day? This is a short version before dinner and I'll be back with details and pics later tonight. 10 Morwong (not huge but keepers), 6 big blertas (trevors to you Sydney siders), 7 flatties to 54 cm, 1 pink Pigfish, only 1 Leatherjacket (not much lost gear,......to them anyway) and my dinner tonight a beautiful Pearl Perch. Plus the usual parade of undersize pinkies, although only about 6 all day. 1 Sargent Baker was the only rubbish today. Then came the bit about being totally outdone by fish. There were some really big fish out there after about 3.00 pm and we got smoked and done over well 5 times in about an hour. We had no chance of stopping whatever these things were. We finally gave up and as we returned to The Haven we came across a school of huge pelagics of some type boiling up and jumping. We tried to chase but at 40km/hr we couldn't catch up to them. Fully leaving the water these things were 3 - 4 feet long. I've never seen anything like it. Pretty close to shore too. Post picks later plus details of bust-ups.

That's a great bag of flatties Ray. Broken Bay is a good spot and the bars fish well for them at times as you obviously know. You can fish from shore anywhere along the Esplanade from Ettalong Point back towards town and you'll pick up flatties on cut bait and whiting on yabbies or worms. People used to wade out over the sandbar from Ettalong Point at low tide but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone nowadays. The flow of water has changed and I'd be worried about a sandbar collapse. I have seen many amazing flatties and the odd jew caught from this position. Remember that the water between the sand and Half Tide rocks is the only channel for all fish in and out of Brisbane Water. I used to drive right around to Pretty Beach and walk around the rocks to fish the channel from the other side and I caught plenty of flatties, tailer and bream over there. If your prepared to drive and walk for over an hour to travel about 500 metres there are plenty of good land-based positions. However, don't do it when it's peak boat traffic time as the fish are way out of the area mostly and as you know boat traffic is greatly increased these days.

Andrew, Couldn't agree more. I have 3 Penn 321 GtI's (Lefty version of the 320) with different weight lines spooled up and they are great. Easy to service, strong enough for an outside bash and light enough to hold standing up all day. I bought my first one here in Oz and the other two I had shipped over from US for less than half the price. I also bought my father in law a 320 lever drag model as he was finding his 330 a bit too heavy to hold up all day. As far as I know the 321 is the best left hand wind overhead reel around and I'm too old to learn to wind the other way. Shimano and ABU make some smaller models but the Penn is the go for the lefties out there. I have never been to Lord Howe but my father and his new wife featured on a tourist brochure a few years back (10 or so I think) after he caught a 10 kg model off the beach on a live poddy mullet on very light gear while on their honeymoon. A local saw them walking back to the digs with it over the handlebars of their pushbike and asked if he could photograph them for the brochure. The old boy said he walked up and down the beach for ages trying to tire the fish out before he could get it to the shore. Kingies are just great fish.

Well done Producer!! It is all good common sense fishing advice. It is also great to read a report about catching quality fish using standard affordable gear. I tend to stop reading past the first couple of lines when a writer starts dropping names of reels like greek gods. All good gear no doubt and probably essential in an IGFA Tournament but I don't need to know what new reel was used for every salmon caught. You have shown here that they are not necessary. Still that's my opinion only and I'm sure there are many others who enjoy owning and sharing info about expensive gear. I wish them all well and hope they get another one for Christmas. I wouldn't say no.

There's pretty good land marks in the background of the pic. If your a harbour regular, which I'm not, it shouldn't be too hard to locate. As for how it was caught and on what I'd say it's up to the poster to disclose as much or as little as they see fit.

Andrew, Great work, well done. What a great catch. From reading all the reports of kings caught in SH over the last 18 months or so we all had to assume that these guys are in there and here is the proof. I was once told by an old pro fisherman that kingies school up from the day they hatch and remain in the same school until they are caught, eaten or die. Obviously the fish in each school are about the same size and as the fish get bigger the school gets smaller. This is apparently why large kings are often loners or in very small groups. Has anybody else ever heard this fact or is it a bit of a myth? Again, Andrew is the King. Fish of the month for December vote is decided for me unless someone can top that effort. That's if you enter it of course.

As caranx said but to put it into simpler terms, twist the line in a single stand and then fold in half. It will automatically wind itself into a twisted leader. The same principle is used to form standout dropper loops. Suggest a second pair of hands if you want to do long leaders and don't overwind it or it will buckle up and tangle. Experiment with different lengths on some cheaper line before you go wasting any decent quality leader material.

I can see a closed thread coming up here!!!! By the way, nice to hear about some tailor about. They have been very scarce over the last couple of years and you have to wonder where they went.

Too right Ceph. I love the way the word for a door handle can completely sum up some people.

I don't think it is legal for any proprieter to rent out vessels with motors above 6HP whether you have a licence or not. This is one of the limits above which you must have a licence and while I can't give exact details about NSW I do know that in Qld they made the Rules and Regs for hiring boats so restrictive that my father sold out of his business. Secondly there are restrictions about which waters are accessible for hire boats and it does not include open water. The boats available on Brisbane Water (Gosford to Ettalong Point) are not permitted past Half-Tide Rocks. I hired a boat up at Forster a few years back and as an aluminium half cabin at 16 ft it had a 10 HP motor but it had been limited to prevent speeds above a few knots. I would think that the only way your going outside fishing up here without your own boat is on a charter. Or perhaps a friendly FR will give you a run while your up this way.

Definately not. These are very similar to Saltwater flies which catch fish without bait. I've always used red beads or a short length or red spagetti on the trace with worm baits for whiting and caught flatties and bream on the same rig. The guys on the TV show catch plenty using the original marketed rig. Many fish fall to artificial baits and some would argue that they actually have more success using them. I've always been a bait fisherman but I'll give these things a go. I caught my first fish (head) on a soft plastic last trip out in front of The Entrance. A small nannygai picked up my SP and due to me not noticing, he was savagely disembodied by another enthusiastic creature. I noticed the second one but it didn't hook up. This proved one thing though. Little Nannys are a good live bait if you get one. I bought some different color tinsells today so I can mix it up a little and make some more.

Thank you jewgaffer. You are dead right about the snell I use not holding well on heavy line. I'll try playing with your other suggestions.

That's the same snell that is in most books. Not the one I tie nor the one used in the NZ video.

Having been tying Pseudo Snapper Snatchers over the weekend I'm interested to know if anyone has info about snelling hooks. I have a couple of knot books but the snell shown in most of them is not easy to achieve with the hooks being tied into a type of Salt Water Fly. I watched an old New Zealand Snapper fishing video a while ago and it had a very simple knot that had windings down the shaft of the hook but it could be tied onto a leader already top connected, ie; didn't need both ends free. It was referred to as a Long Liners knot but searches for it give results for attaching a dropper to the long line which is not what I'm after. Perhaps one of our Kiwi forum members knows this knot and can describe how to do it. The kiwi kite fishing site has a snell that works but it can come loose when not under tension with larger line. I have used my old faithful which, surprisingly, I have never seen in knot book but is so easy to tie. Looking at all the illustrations in the books it must be a type of inverted of inside out snell. To tie it I follow these steps. Thread the eye of the hook from above and pull through some spare. Make a half turn and hold the line and hook at the gape. Take the tag end back to just under the eye and start winding back down the hook shaft. The number of turns depends on line weight. ( My Grandfather told me 7 for the 7 seas). This produces a loop at the gape and the tag is threaded through the loop. Pull the main line up tight and it wont ever let go. Sort of like a whipping finish. As I said I've used this simple variation of a snell for nearly forty years but I've never seen it in a book.