nal

Sounds like a great day, I was wondering if you have any tips for targeting jewfish in the Hawkesbury as I’m heading up there this weekend and hoping on having the chance to land my first jewie. Thanks

Hey everyone, I was wondering if anyone knows if there are squid in the Hawkesbury ? Specifically past Mooney Mooney towards bar point? Thanks, Max

Wow that’s epic, how long have you been targeting big Jewies?

Thanks, try fresh squid or cuttlefish, preferably live but if not caught the night before often works well too.

Wow that is heavy, I caught this one on 25lb Fluro, I should count myself lucky I got it cause I was fishing an area with a lot of anchor ropes and snags

Sure did! I actually didn’t think it was anything bigger then a rat as I had never properly fought a kingfish before and had just heard that even the rats fight hard, so glad it was bigger though.

Finally, after countless hours, unimaginable numbers of squid caught and almost a year of fishing I finally caught a kingfish, bonus it was a big Sydney king going 88cm. So stoked to get this guy, taken on a live cuttlefish. It was pulling drag on a almost locked drag 5500 reel so I knew it was a good fish from the moment I hooked onto it. The early mornings and late squidding sessions all finally paid off and I’m so happy that the first one I caught was a stonker of a fish. So happy to get my first one in middle harbour where I’ve been trying to get one since day dot.

We will be on a boat but also inside the campground area. Thanks for the info! It’ll be a great help and yes I do have a pump so I’ll make sure to bring that. We’re the squids inside the flats inside the basin or outside of the shark net?

Hi all, I am heading up to the basin in Pittwater this weekend and I was wondering, if anyone has any advice for fishing the basin? I have been there Briefly when I was younger and caught a few small whiting. Does anyone have any advice? Thanks, Max

Yeah they do get that size, back in autumn a guy I was fishing with at a local pontoon caught a 30cm one land based one day and the next day he caught a 50cm one land based in middle harbour, both on squid.

On Monday afternoon I decided to head down to a local wharf in middle harbour and try my luck with a couple live poddies and squid jigs. After only getting one take on the livie (80% sure it was a big squid) I was all packed up and about to leave at around 7:30. Just before I picked up my rods I heard a splash just behind the pontoon and went over to check it out, turns out a giant calamari was cruising along the surface so I quickly put down my squid jig and it goes for it. It makes one good run towards the pylons before I pull it away and manage to land it. It turned out to be my PB squid and first ever calamari going 32cm long in hood length, very happy with it.

Yeah the spot your talking about is seaforth bluff, and I’ve seen that it pretty much consistently holds kings, but you really need fresh/live squid and on a rare occasion they might take a live yakka. For lures, a week or 2 ago a guy pulled up a nice kingie on a jig so as everyone else said it might be good to try out. Look on your sounder as you go around the bluff and you’ll see the massive amount of kingies and pinkies they hold.

Thanks, yeah recently had a dry spot with yakkas too but they seemed to have fired back up, Hopefully they stay like this.

Thanks! Yep definitely will upgrade my swivel and hooks

Thanks!

Thanks, yep swivel was definitely too small and weak and I knew that it would eventually let me down so that one is definitely on me, but my hook was brand knew and I thought was of decent strength and size, so yeah might have to upgrade. Any suggestions on good quality hooks for livebaiting?

Headed down to reef bay for a afternoon fish and turned out pretty well, as soon as we got there at 3:40 the yakkas were on the bite immediately which was an odd but welcome occasion. And once I got one I immediately casted it out as a livie and about half an hour later my rod started to go off, so I picked it up and started to fight whatever had taken my livie, but it snapped my weak swivel 30seconds into the fight (never going to use those again). I was dissapointed but still very determined and immediately re rigged and casted out another livie in the same spot, and before the livie had even hit the ground something took it, and I could immediately tell it was a nice fish. After a short fight on heavy gear, it turned out to be a pretty big flattie which Someone soon netted and got up onto the jetty. After the initial excitement and a quick measure It turned out to be a solid 70cm very fat and healthy fish. The line was wrapped around its neck and had cut deep into it, funnily enough that was the only reason i had landed it as I sound found out the eyelet of my hook had snapped in its mouth but the line stayed tied to its neck, so I was unable to release it. But a very good day overall and smashed my previous PB by 13cm.

Awesome, thanks!

Will do, thanks!

Yeah except these were fairly large and lacked the stripes you described, they also seemed to more be in a school rather than a tight ball.

I assumed so, they had the distinctive cat-like whiskers of a catfish

Hey everyone, I mainly fish off a local pontoon and I would like to grab a few tips on how to live bait yakkas and squid to target jewfish and kingfish. What rig would you guys use and how heavy would you recommend, also should I hook the live yakka in the nose or back? Anymore tips and tricks would be a great help. Thanks

Awesome story, what an experience that would have been. For me my most memorable moment fishing was when me and my mate were fishing at our go to local spot, which sometimes provides and sometimes not, after a rather uneventful day with only a bream in the low 30s to show for it a small school of bonitos came up to us right at the bottom of our pontoon. In the matter of 10mins I had caught three bonitos, each with an extremely good fight on light gear and I was over the moon, only a few mins after that I hooked onto a monster fish that wouldn’t stop running for about 3mins until it snapped me off on the light gear, I was both disappointed and excited at the opportunity to fight such a fish. A close second would have to be when me and my dad were spinning 7g metals into small bust ups down near the upper reaches of middle harbour in our tinny and we managed to pull in a 46cm and 57cm salmon which were both firsts for me.

Yeah the photo is pretty crappy, I had a few videos which would have been slightly better but I can’t upload due to duke size. I thought it could be those but I remember them being mainly brown and quite large.

John Dory, are they hanging around any structure in middle harbour? And I’m guessing your talking about yakkas as livies, I’ll have to give that a go. What time of day and tide do you recommend. I would like to catch a John Dory is that would be a first for me.