southerly

Dave, well done. I was pulled up at the spit as it went up with the yak on the roof on my way home from Cliefden and I hopped out and looked over the side and saw you and the hobbie paddling under the bridge. You were too far away to hail. Well done on such a consistent record on the MH kings. I have fished MH three times this season so far for donuts every time, usually to be told I should have been there yesterday. David

Hi Mike, Yep, I have done it tough in the yak in MH the last month, couple of hits but very slow in the early morning shift. I hope the main harbour fires up soon. David

Well done, 3/3 is much better than the 3/0 for me in MH so far this season. While I like getting kings out of the boat and putting the wood on them, getting them out of my yak is sooo much more fun. What time of day have you been getting the kings? Southerly

Hi Greg, Good luck, you have been so friedly towards someone without legs (in the yak), I iwll miss the fresh B&E rolls on the water, sheer luxury in the yak and the mid week updates. The fish in QLD have good reason to be very worried. I look forward to reading your reports. Don't worry we will take good car of Dan for you. David

Yes pilchards can be caught on jigs and bait as per yakkas. Yes they can jump on the surface just for the heck of it. If they are doing it with out being chased a few fish go up in pretty random paterns or widely over an area, if somethign it chasing they have much more direction as they move away from the predator. Great to hear some decent bait scholls starting to show up in the harbour.

There was a small school of very big ones on the eastern side of Manly Warfe this afternoon. David

Great stuff D&G, you guys put in the time and get the rewards. David

Well done, great fishing Dan. Hope they head south soon, my family has not had a decent fish feed for months. David

Great stuff Zenman thanks for the regular reports. I will be back in a boat at the end of the month and should be yakking again shortly after that if the shoulder allows. I can't wait, 3 months off the water sucks. David

Hi Ross, Great report, I often have kids in tow, its a great reminder that fishing is supposed to be fun, even if it is kings, toads, seagulls or whatever. Cheers, david

So kings all year again hey? Very well done gents, wasn't so many years ago that such a feat according to us eggsperts was impossible. Well done for proving what is possible again. David

Well done Roberta, nice yak fish. You've got those blackies wired now. David

Hi all, I concur with all of the above. Don't underestimate the effectiveness of a super fresh strip of slimey or yakka. very underrated baits in SH. One of the better small king baits offshore. I always have a livey down as they are the ultimate teaser/fish attractant but they do not always get the hit. At least it proves you were in the right spot. David

Nice fish well done. you didn't happen to get a water temp reading did you? David

Good luck with the squidding. Yaks are very good for that purpose, especially on the southerns in shallow water. Just expect to get heaps of ink and muck all over you and the yak, my yak and PFD have never looked the same since and my bucket is a nice shade of black. David

Hi Roberta, I would love to come up your way, the reds the yaks catch put mine to shame, it's a reasonable Sydney red though. Benzeesee: for the record I launched at Longy, too much swell to easliy beach launch for any of the surf beaches.

Well done Roberta, a yak trumping all those flashy boats . As it was you I am not surprised. David

Arrived at the boat ramp with my yak buddy Johnny on Satuday at 5.45am to a queue of eager boaties and about 8kts of Sw to SSW wind. Launched onto a glassy bay and headed out, a few waves breaking on the surfers white rock and also on the bommy 200 mtrs N of the front on the dead low tide. Started to get good soundings of bait and sweep etc near the reefs. Saw a well cleaned cuttle floating on the surface so cast an SP at it for no response, I think it was too clean. There were a few gannets searching for more cuttles so it was looking good. Rigged a squid strip on the Penn and drifted a SP on the Kix. First drop with the sqid was instantly nailed and a short but spirited fight saw a 35cm snapper in the yak. Paddled the 200mtrs of so back to my mark as I had been blown out to sea. Next drop and I hooked bottom, by the time I re-rigged it was another 200mtr paddle back to the mark. Another fast drift and another paddle back to the mark. On the next drift I was watching pickers playing with the squid strip when the SP went off. I hooked up to a solid fish that took a good run out to sea and fought hard down deep. I was hoping that it would be something better than another rat king. I finally got some colour down deep to prove it was not a king but I was unsure if it was red or jew brown. Up it popped and it was a fine red. It went straight into the net first time but didn't really fit and fell out into the boat as I lifted it. At just on 70cm and 3.6kg it is a new yak PB and the biggest red I have caught for a very long time. The obligitory couple hundred meter paddle back into the wind and a trip to Johnny for a quick photoshoot (last time off Longy Johnny got a 55cm Samson and I got none, so this was revenge! ) had me back in the water just in time to snag up both rods on the bottom. After re-rigging and paddling back into position the squid strip went off to give my new Penn Tourque 300 and Daiwa Monster mesh its first real workout, the leverage this combination creates is quite frightening. The fish took about 20mtrs under heavy drag and put me into the reef after a few minutes of fight. Johnny looking cold, he's right it was freezing, only the constant paddling kept me warm. After this it was time to go home, it was only then that I noticed the water temp was a lovely 19.5 it was also a lovely blue colour. No wonder Johnny had one of those 'bump in the night' experiences east of the drop offs. Sunday mornign and we were at it again. This time a few small kings came in up to 65cm but no snapper, a nicer morning weather wise. Had an albortros instead of gannets circling and saw a fairy penguin on the way in.

Hi Adznapper, I find salted pillies are too tough for most use. I prefer the frozen ones, they are soft but that is what the fish like. The exception is if I am fishing leather jackets offshore where the toughest bait I can find is great as they will eat everything. I have not tried to salt pillies myself just used the commercial ones and they are too salty. A light salting may be ok. I lightly salt stripey and bonito fillets and they are fine, if I oversalt them they turn to leather. David

Gee, you sure covered some water. Southerly

Nice squid there stylo. They make awsome live bait offshore at that size. Southerly

Well done Mike, nice jew. I am sure you will get your 10kg plus soon, then it will be a search for that 22kg version. Ah the quest... David

Launched at 5.30am with another yak. Could not raise any bait at Little Manly so we headed off with the plan being that we would get blown back home when the SW came up rather than having to slog into a head wind as often happens. We arrived at the bouys to find one boat there already, we left them to that bouy and did the rounds of the others. I got a small trevally on an SP which I released and a few undersized reds. No life on the kingy front. At this point it was looking pretty quiet so to try and save the day I rigged a squid jig and proceded to catch 3 small southerns close in to the rocks.I got snagged once and practically ran the yak up onto the rocks to get it off. As I was squidding a shower of small gars left the water and danced just to the south of me. I tossed a stick bait in their direction but got no response. Tossed up whether to stick with the squidding to top up my dwindling freezer supply, or have a troll with live squid. The trolling option won. I paddled back out to the bouys where the inital boat was still anchored, as I got closer I could see they were pulling a few trevally. I dropped a live squid down and it got some sizable 'picker hits' before dissapearing. Rigged another and dropped it down. This time I hooked up, I called it for a big trevally as I could feel the tail beats, however after a short fight 36cm of samson comes into the boat. These are truely beautiful looking fish when juvenille. After that it was time to dodge the ferries and head home. A lovely moring, water temp 20C. David

Love it! David

Cute little Samson Mike. No fair on the jewie, I yakked in MH for the first hour of daylight for zip apart from pickers then had to head for home. Well done, David