GoingFishing

Gray Raiders So before I go into too much detail some context to this report, I haven't had the opportunity to fish for almost a month as personal life and work have spilled overtime into the weekends. Also missed an opportunity last week due to bad forecast so my mood was foul! Wednesday came about and the boss said to me" make sure you go for a fish this weekend", I spent the next two days trying to figure out what I did wrong !!! Turns out I'm outrageously on edge ! Friday night and the wife said to me " go for a fish this weekend and don't come back until your mood has changed" I said great see u next year !!! I took these signs as a omen and had planned to Head out sunday with the purpose of finding a feed. I had been keeping a close eye on the weather and Sunday was looking not ideal but reasonable. Woke up Sunday morning to find cloud cover everywhere- the forecast had changed from "cloudy with chance of showers" to "showers with chance of thunderstorm". I faced a dilemma - can the trip and be a sour grape all week, or head out and pray for the best. Decided for the later On the way to the boat ramp it started raining, arrived to find that I'd left the net at home - awesome start!! Headed out and arrived on location and started a drift , managed to stay there for 2 hours and catch a feed which I was pleased with. Could see some really dark clouds heading my direction so I packed up to head back in and as I got to queenscliff the rain came hammering down- I got absolutely soaked and at one point couldn't see more than 3m in front of me. Wind was howling, waves were messy and I looked like a soaked rat! Slowly made my way back into the harbour and grew concerned that my bilge pump had not activated yet, I thought surely with the amount of rain that came down it would have some work to do. Got to the ramp and let the plug out and lots of water come pouring out. So now there's obviously something wrong with the bilge pump- does anyone know how I can do a manual test on that ? I have a Quintrex renegade with a automatic bilge pump So good news - came home with a feed, bad news - bilge pump not working. Such is life At least I'm not a sour grape this week

Great report mate - I feel like it was me who lost the fish As others have said - u did well to hang onto him for as long as u did. Better luck next time !

Good question which I've never considered. Interested to hear what some of the more experienced fishos have to say

Great catch Xsite I've personally never seen or heard of kings being caught at night, especially in Botany. Must be rare.

Better luck next time mate ! I fished Kurabba wharf a lot in the previous years and if u want squid, best arrive 1 or 2 hours before sunrise and u shud have a couple in time for the Kings

Interesting topic !! If I had to choose - I would prefer to score a feed above catching the one large fish of a lifetime. That's not to say that chasing the dream catch isn't fun or worthwhile - I have certainly tried ! But I can definitely say that 95% of my effort goes to scoring dinner and 5% goes to dream catch. I think my feelings on that topic are exacerbated by the fact that I always let the larger fish go

So according to sea breeze wind forecast 15-20 knots today Live readings are at 7-9 knots What the hell - what a waste of day staying home !!!

Great fish Jim ! That's my dream fish right there - dollies are my favourite above any other to catch!!! You played the fish well and it's certainly a nice beastty Was that on a livie or a lure ?

A rare catch ! Well done I've never caught nor eaten cobia - how are they on the table ? Any fish u can compare them to?

What's everyone's thoughts on the conditions tomorrow ? I was considering a troll at the FAD but not so sure now ???

Nice work - any photos ?

Great work mate there's some great table fish there. I've never caught marble flathead do they taste the same as blue spot or dusky?

Hi all Yesterday fishing the northern beaches I found water at 24.2m about 200m offshore ! According to fish track that water should be around 22.8 or 22.9 Am I missing something or reading The charts wrong ? Thanks

Mate I only have one word AWESOME That's a great solo session on a day most would have decided to stay home.

Better luck next time Steve And as you say- at least u got your next reef bait sorted

Mate well done ! I recently started boat fishing and before that I was land based for 5 years and kurraba wharf was my go to spot. U can catch just about anything there I've even had the occasional Jew, I've seen massive whiting,bream, kings and most of your top table fish caught there. I still go there for the occasional night fish , good times

Thanks fellas We had the flatties for dinner last night beer battered Fresh is best ! They went down great. It's amazing how productive the beaches can be

Gday Raiders Today i headed out with some work colleagues who were keen to go on a trip after having listened to me winge & rant for the last 5 days about how demotivated i am at work and how much id rather be fishing ! I had Steve and his son William, Gerry & James. I dont usually fish with 5 people onboard and at times it was quite crowded, but we managed ok. After everyone convincing me to start the day at 9am and not 6am as i asked, (because apparently they have a life and i dont ? haha ) we headed out past north head at 930am. we trolled the headlands for zero but as i expected, half way between queenscliff and long reef i came across a bust up which scored us two bonito and one salmon. Steve and William had never been fishing in Aus having arrived from the UK some 8 years ago, they enjoyed playing the fish on light gear and it was the first time they had witnessed a "bust up". The guys were keen to take a feed home (some had to beg for a hall pass from the Mrs) so my target species for the day was the trusty blue spot. We did the usual drift afterwards and the flatties didn't disappoint. Total of 29 keeper flatties with a lonely flounder and probably threw back just as many undersize and a couple which spat the hook when the boys tried to lift the fish out of the water. A great feed when we split it up 5 ways ! Everyone went home with a smile on their face and some fish in the bag. highlight of the day was James getting spiked by his first blue spot about 0.0009 seconds after i had warned him. All in all a fantastic day in the water! thanks for reading

That was my favourite part !!!! Mostly because the poor bloke who "lost him "didn't do anything I also laughed at how the fishing rod fell in the water and was dragging the fish to the hatch

I had a good laugh at this video ! https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=oUwwbssCAII

Great haul mate that's some great table fish there ! Well done - was the jewie on worms too?

Sorry mate I would have been 3 yrs old then sorry I didn't witness that =p haha Jkz aside- I said it sounds unbeleiveable - not impossible

39kg.... That does sound a little unbeleivable. The only place I've ever heard of kings getting that fat and heavy is NZ

I've never actually been stopped by fisheries but from what I hear it's not that they're doing their job which is great, it's the way in which they carry out their inspections as if every person is guilty ! Again that's just hearsay!!!

Haha this has obviously happened to you too many times Yowie !!!