southerly

Hi and welcome to the site. Great report and some very nice fish there, those cowan young are huge. Thats a ripper flathead, be interested to see what you think of it on the plate, I find the big ones very dry so choose to release them these days. 40-50cm seems to be the sweet spot for flathead on the plate, anything bigger and it goes back. Let us all know how you go tomorrow. David

Ha ha, thats kings for ya. I hear that they cannot read and don't watch no no no DVD's so they don't know that they should only touch the fresh stuff. Ignorant, illiterate children.

I think it was right neighberly of Dan and Greg to take some other raiders out and share their knowledge. Thats how fishing has been forever. Good on you guys. It is always a pleasure to see you on the water. David

Nice catch in the yak. I have also seem blue ringged occys east of the Pittwater Rd Bridge so shoes are a must. Southerly

Hey Stan, Yes they bite. I have devised a method for pinning the small ones which makes them easy to pin. I have a small 15cm deep square tupperware container and I put the squid in that then I tip it over so the squid lies in one of the side corners with the his tentacles facing the bottom of the container and the top of his cuttle poking out the top of the container. I then pin the top hook without having to tought touch the cuttle then lift him out to put in the second hook. Saves me having to hold him as unlike squid they can turn there bodies around and bite you while you are holding them by the mantle. As was previously said, nasty buggers! Kings love em so I can put up with a little bit of nasty. David

Well done Swissfisho, sounds like fun and one of the better efforts from SH I have heard of today. So thats where the kings were. Southerly

Nice king and how calm is that water.

Nice king. David

Ah, I stand corrected. They are good for nuthin anyway. David

The red one is a sargent baker, nice while flesh but way too many bones to be usefull. The other (two?) look like blind sharks or small port jackson shark. The port jacksons are protected and possibly poisionous anyway and the blind sharks arn't much good either. Better luck next time. David

Great stuff, nice king. David

I turned the alam off and rolloed over a 2.45am as the wind was howling at home, good on you for persisting. It paid off. David

Headed out of Balmoral around day break in the yak. Started casting SP's around the first moring of the day, quickly hooking up to a 50cm Flathead, a few more casts and a leather jacket trashed SP had me heading off to another moring. First cast hard against the moring and a 30cm bream slams the Gulp Minnow Grub on the drop. After a solid fight it turns out to be foul hooked. A few sporadic boils around the boat but no hook ups had me decide to head round Middle Head to try for kings on the channel markers. Tried the Green Middle Head Bouy and the ding dong, some bait holding but no hits, quite a few boats prospecting each of the bouys. Got a nice hit on a SP inside Middle head but the hooks pulled. Continued to troll an SP (thanks to Johnny for that tip - also used a rack raider SP he gave me) and got a solid hook up that ripped 15mtrs of 6lb braid quick time till the hook pulled. Hooked up again while winding the SP in to check the hook but again they pulled. Cheecked the hook and it looked ok. I changed my SP to a Gulp Alive 3in Minnow in pumpkin seed and shortly after hooked up to a big fish that stayed deep, called it for a big trevally, sadly the hooks pulled again. Next cast and I hooked up again, this time to a nice salmon that just jumped and jumped, after a healthy fight 59cm of Salmon came into the yak (the fly rodders didn't turn a scale for a change). After getting organised I put a cast hard up against an old boat and get slammed again on the drop. This fights like a big trevally and sure enought 45cm of Trev is landed. This was turing out to be a fun morning, and how good was the weather. Things slowed a bit and my SP gained a cute skeletal pattern thanks to small leather jakets, as I was running out of time I decided to troll the chewed up SP as it still had its tail intact to the beach, 10 mtrs of paddling and I'm on again to another salmon, this one went 50cm and after a photo opportunity it went back into the water. The salmon tended to be deep with only sporadic and isolated surface boils, nothing on the sounder. While no kings showed their heads, it was a great moring with some solid fish for 6lb line. David

Nice Lizzard. David

Great thread guys, Glad I was not the only one who did it tough on Sunday. I can only agree with the others that bait and kigs were absent from the sounder, at least in the areas I fished. May be next week. Good to say hello to a few of you. Yours in yakhood, Southerly

Great report Roberta, nicw blackies. Good to see you back in the yak. David

Nice yak Mick, look forward to hearing about those bass in the near future. David

I crush the trebles and double hook kingie rigs that I use in the yak. Mainly to make for easier extraction from self as big fish in yak and spare hooks hanging out of their mouth is a guaranteed accident waiting to happen. I have already had a 4/0 big gun in the hand, great fun - really. Southerly

Hey fishlexic, I have been getting arrows all the way between the ramp and the road bridge. Seems to need a fair bit of current run to work though. Last year I caught a very big southern upstream of the bridge during a big fresh, the water was the colour of chochlate. Like you I have found it a bit hit and miss so do not fish it regularly, chasing kings is just too much fun, even if it is a while between hookups. David

Sweet dreams of kings off North Head in the yak were rudely interupted by my alarm and the sound of 10kts of southerly in the trees. After a brief internal debate betwen a launch and bed, I drove to Roseville to get out of the wind. The pay machine was not working so it was a good start. Headed out to a couple of holes near the bridges in the hope of a jew. Dropped a squid jig over and cast SP's. Hooked up to a flathead around legal in the deepest hole, released him for another day. No squid landed, there was plenty of bait on the sounder in places. After satisfying myself that a jew was not going to play I drifted upstream of the bridge casting into the southern shore. Near the first small point I hooked up to another flathead of 40cm in a gulp alive swimming minnow in root beer (all fish today caught on this). It went into the bag. Hooked another flathead around legal and returned him to fight another day. It quitened down so I headed back towards the ramp to an area where I have had success before. 2nd cast and I had a solid hit, after a short fight another lizard of around 40cm comes into the boat, 3 casts later and I boat another. About 10 casts later i was bored so headed to the northern shore and worked the edges and a few holes for zero. Aleast I have figured out how to catch a few fish at Roseville as my first few trips yielded only squid. Wind mellowed around 7am making the fishing easier. Some small surface action that was probably small choppers. Water was 19.4C. David

Hi all, Cuaght the ferry across the harbour today and it appears the quarantine bouy has disapeared, anyone know its whereabouts or plans for it? Southerly

Hi Jase, Good post, I saw D&G on Satuday after they had bagged that October king, I think they got the only one for the day to. Lucky b....

Fished MH on Saturday morning for a nice flounder on a jig while I fed fresh squid to the pickers. Otherwise pretty quiet.

Great report, my bet is that the prawns have started to move and woken everyone (the fish) up. Yippee.

Nice Jew, well done.