whiskey299

Some great advice there Derek. I have successfully used the 3gram halco twisty with an upgraded treble to land a fussy king. It’s stomach was full of eyes. it’s that time of the year where they are so focused on the eyes that nothing else matters. Well maybe live cuttlefish is the exception.

Nice catch Bob, where is the traditional banana pic?

Shame you couldn't catch anything legal Bob. The huge tides makes fishing so much more difficult. Better luck next time

epic catch with a bonus crab!

Just an update to this kingfish recapture. Project Kingfish apparently have a month recapture prize and I won for the month of September. Honestly I didn't even know this monthly thing existed. This is not to be confused with the Spring King Slam 2023 comp which is currently running from Oct-Nov. Anyway they contacted me and sent out this cool prize pack. Couldn't be happier with a few freebies to throw around on the water.

Nice catch Bob! I know sashimi isn't for everyone but I don't mind having it eaten this way. It has a clean and almost sweet flesh, similar to flute mouth fish if you're into that.

I have been battling Mr Donut 🍩 for the past month and finally won this round. Persistence paid off as the kingfish finally dropped in! Wasn’t the best way to start the day on the kayak, in my rush to get on the water I forgot to lock the @railblaza rod holder and it went in for a swim. I tried to use my #slowjig lure to retrieve it back and ended up catching a small bar of soap and a yakka. Guess I’ll be doing some online shopping this week. Was hard work on Sunday, actually it’s hard work most days as there’s only so much ground that I can cover in the kayak looking for the school. Squid were impossible for me to catch and I haven’t had much luck in the past few months, had to settle for yakkas instead. I tend to find the smaller yakkas get a better hookup and will always use them first. Anyway I finally have my entry into the SPRING KING SLAM competition being run by @project_kingfish, gotta be in it to have a chance. This one definitely won’t get the biggest for sure! 72cm Kingfish caught on live yakka.

What a massive unit, congrats! For someone who has never really tried to target mullet, what bait and rig do you use?

Nice catch Bob! Hope you get better soon. Flounder were born for the fry pan! I love it deep fried with salt and pepper.

Well done guys, some good sizes in the mix

That's a shame you haven't received your certificate, but I'm sure with all the fishing you have been doing you'll eventually get another chance. Another option is if you could ask them to email you a pdf file so you can print it out. I tagged 2 kings back in 2021, a 91 and 93 and still haven't heard of it being recaptured. I can only guess they are enjoying their days at liberty or have been eaten by sharks or maybe the tags have fallen off.

Yea I know it’s definitely cheating and everytime I see that happen I wonder if they tippy toe when they measure their own height! That’s a massive snapper, well done! all my frames have to be saved for my mother in law who uses it to make either fish soup or fish congee. So there’s no way the dpi will ever see frames from me!

Nice catch Max!

Yep carb free diet would certainly do that.

It's not often I get these. I thought I would also include details from the original release which were emailed to me from the Gamefish Tagging Program team. It would appear that it's shrinking 75cm > 71cm > 70cm! I suspect the original capture on the 24/06/2023 wasn't measured correctly and maybe the tail was squeezed when measuring OR the tag numbers got mixed up with another kingfish when submitting the cards. The shrinking from 71cm to 70cm is just a measurement variation which happens when we use different measuring tools. Note Tag Number has been removed from the post as the kingfish was released. Original Release Tag Number: xxxxxx Date: 24/06/2023 Location: Sydney Harbour Length: 75cm First Recapture Date: 12/08/2023 Location: Sydney Harbour Length: 71cm Time at Liberty: 49 days Second Recapture Date: 19/09/2023 Location: Sydney Harbour Length: 70cm Time at Liberty: 38 days

I have an email from the Gamefish Tagging Program about this tag and I'll quote what they said! "It appears as though the fish is shrinking but that is probably due to different people measuring the fish with technique, different eyes and different measuring devices." Original Release Tag Number: XXXXXX Date: 24/06/2023 Location: Sydney Harbour Length: 75cm First Recapture Date: 12/08/2023 Location: Sydney Harbour Length: 71cm Time at Liberty: 49 days Second Recapture Date: 19/09/2023 Location: Sydney Harbour Length: 70cm Time at Liberty: 38 days The original tag measured it as 75cm lol. What I can only suspect is that when it was measured they squeezed the tail tips to extend its true length. I used an Alvey Fish Measure Stick on the kayak which folds out to 80cm so I trust this ruler. I guess that's why some ppl measure to the fork and not the tip of the tail. Some interesting data how many times it's been captured in the last 3 months

Thanks. Tailor are good on the plate, we love it steamed with black bean and garlic sauce. We also use it for fish cakes as they are easily caught is most harbours and rocks.

Not much these days, especially when the kayak is more productive, fun and you get to fish all those spots which landbased ppl can't reach!

There seems to be more tagging going on these days from recreational anglers, it used to be done primarily by the charters boats in the Sydney area. I tagged 3 kings 2 years ago, 91, 91 and 93cm all caught on live slimy. I still haven't heard of their recapture yet hopefully they haven't been eaten by sharks and would love to know how they are going. Here's my first recapture certificate I got back in 2021, I've had to edit the certificate to keep some things private, delete the photo if not allowed. BTW the 96cm kingfish was kept and not released.

Had the morning off so I took the opportunity to sneak in a quick fish on the kayak. Bait once again was difficult to catch, 1 herring and 2 yakkas! I would need to carefully use these and ensure they were not wasted on tailor. Found a school of kingfish but these were very very hesitant to take any lures. I did get a few taps but unfortunately the jigs couldn't connect. I rigged up the smallest live yakka but they still were not interested. Moved to various locations and landed a few tailor on slow jigs, small soapie and a rat. After what felt like hours I eventually found a school close to the rocks dropped my live bait down and bingo. I was onto a decent kingfish, took my time letting it run when needed, just when I thought I was gaining some line back the hook pulled. I was devastated! Spent the next 30 mins searching far and wide for the school again, back tracking and covering new areas. By this time the heat was starting to become unbearable. Found the school again and drop my last live yakka down and it didn't take long for the rod to start screaming. Dragged the kingfish away from the rocks into deeper waters and took my time playing it. The kingfish surfaced and I could see it was already tagged, it looked like a fresh tag so I guess the fish was atleast 70cm big. Netted the fish, measured it and it was 70cm on the dot. Took some photos and released the fish to grow bigger. I've submitted a NSW DPI recapture form and will report back on the results. Wasn't the most successful day, but a no donut day is a good day!

Thanks to everyone that has responded. We have really enjoyed eating the kingfish, we normally eat it as sashimi and ceviche. But I thought I would try it fried as I've never tried it over the years since I started fishing. I guessed it would be on the dry side when fried and I was a correct, it's has a lean flesh similar to bonito and tailor. So I wouldn't recommended it for the thick slabs. Over the years I've started to steer away for sashimi with wasibi and soy as I'm not enjoying it much, maybe because I find it too salty these days. What I am really enjoying the most is my wife's ceviche sauce. She's refined it over the years and goes with almost any raw fish. Even after 4 days a well looked after kingfish will not have a fishy odour and the texture is still firm and not mushy.

Thanks As for cleaning the fish on the boat it certainly is the best way to go for sure, but, there's always a but. The captain is a very generous man, he won't even accept money to help pay for fuel costs. So it's a bit of an ask to make a mess on the boat. We would clean that mess, but he would still have to go home and scrub it entirely clean and I do appreciate a clean boat! I have tried cleaning fish at boat ramp tables and I would highly not recommend it. The public tables are full of bacteria more than you would see at home. I tried it once and the fish deteriorated very very quickly and developed that horrible fishy odour. I think the long term solution is to setup an outside cleaning table near the garden.

Apologies for the long post. The forecast definitely got the wind wrong today. We copped lots of westerly chopped while trying for live bait at artificial reef. Add in the thick smoky haze for the back burning, it's was unpleasant, we could barely see the headlands. Today we struggled to catch yakkas and slimy but we had just enough to last us half the day. First drop was rather slow but before long my mate pulls up a 85cm jewfish, a minute later I'm onto a decent fish on my light setup and I start calling it a jewfish. I see silver and I'm over the moon finally an offshore jewfish and a new PB of 84cm (4.8kg)! Caught on a spin reel with PE 0.6 braid, 20lb leader, 2/0 j hook with a tiny piece of bait to match the hook. You don't need heavy gear sometimes. Over the next few hours everyone else is struggling but I seem to be doing something right as I manage to land 6 snapper in various sizes, the biggest going 56cm. I see a jetski as we hop along various spots and snap a photo and found out later it was @Larkin, next time I will drop by and say hello! I decide to do something different since the fishing was a bit slow I setup up a paternoster rig with a small live yakka to target trag, when I say small it was only about 12cm long and place it in the spare rod holder. While I'm winding up a fish on my light outfit the live bait rod bends over and is screaming. I quickly hand my light outfit to the captain for him to sort out. This fish is peeling line like crazy, I have no idea what it is. I can't tighten the drag too much it's only 20lb and a paternoster setup which is known to be a weak knot. After many minutes of playing the fish and a brief tense moment of untangling the line with my mate's rig, the captain calls out "I see silver, it's a massive kingfish!". He carefully gaffs it and boats the beast. I'm over the moon! I finally cracked the meter after many years and I can say, fish this size are in a completely different class, the weight, the girth, the power. A few photos later and a measurement of 103cm, we give it the same treatment all fish we plan to keep, ikejime, bleed and ice slurry. Kingfish was caught on PE1.7 mainline, 20lb paternoster rig with a 6/0 gamakatsu circle hook. If you've read this far you would have heard me say "You don't need heavy gear sometimes", well I take the back! I hookup on the light outfit, it's peeling drag, I'm calling snapper but my mates are calling it a kingfish. I can only watch as my line starts disappearing and I'm starting to see the line backing on the spool. Before I know it the mainline (pe0.6 braid) pops, I think it was kingfish and it ran me into the reef. Oh well that's fishing. I didn't take much fish home but what I did take took me hours to process at home. When fish get to a certain size it's just becomes so much more difficult (but in a good way) in a standard home laundry/kitchen. Scale, gut, scrub all the blood from the spine (blood is bad and what gives fish a horrible odour), fillet, vac seal, clean tub, clean bench top, clean splash back, clean floor, clean clean clean ... lol. We also caught other species that day all on small pieces of bait: Mowie Pigfish Trevally Six Spine Leatherkjacket Bluespot flathead Scorpion fish Nannygai

Great seafood basket and your patience certainly paid off. Well done! Next time I see you on the water I'll drop by and say hi

Thanks A king did take my live yakka but the hook pulled. Squid is still the best live bait anywhere there is water! Every few season the school tend to hang out at different locations, so I alot of time is spent searching. Once located they tend to stick to the area early mornings and then move around for a feed. Yes all rats this week. Thanks Bob, there's some fantastic fishing lately you need to get out asap. Hope to have a different report later this week that doesn't involve rats.