[Quick Hawkesbury report from Friday]

7 hours ago, XD351 said:

I forgot to add that I applied some scent to the sabiki jig’s little fly things and the mullet went nuts over it . The way I fished it was to clip a bubble float to the end and use it like a casting weight, this helped to keep the rug from tangling when casting and meant I could fish it horizontally. A very slow retrieve seemed to work best . You could probably tie up a multi hook dropper rig with small hooks  and use bread or worms for bait and fish it using the bubble float technique.

Nice tip XD

i never thought about putting attractant on the sabiki. 
going to try this when the yakkas are hard to catch

[Quick Hawkesbury report from Friday]

Plenty of bait there for future fishing XD! 

Im about due for a bait run too. 

[A few kings about]

On 4/25/2024 at 1:03 PM, zmk1962 said:

Nice few meals there Chris... you've certainly perfected being nimble and agile with your fishing on the jetski ... lots of target species and spots and the results to show for it.

Cheers Zoran

PS - the toads were out at browns the last two trips ... biting off 2.5kg sinkers near the surface ... B&%$%@RDS !

A lot of riding that day. Lucky it was flat. was jetting around at 45-50klm/h normally when it’s swelly can only travel around 30-35

The toads are definitely hanging around this year

[A few kings about]

11 hours ago, linewetter said:

What a killer sunrise!  Some nice fish caught as well.  How do you plan to cook up the flathead and kingy?

Thanks linewetter!

The flatty will get its usual beer battering - can’t go wrong with a crispy batter 😋 

The kingies usually get eaten raw (sashimi with soy/ginger/wasabi or ceviche) sometimes I’ll pan fry a fillet with some olive oil, sprinkle of garlic salt, parsley flakes, pepper.
But might try something different tonight with the kingy.

3 hours ago, Yowie said:

Good work Chris. A nice mixed bag, with a good sized blue spot and a couple of kingies. The mongrel toads still about.

Was a tough day Dave, with long periods between bites & a fair bit of travel. Those toads did me in - no matter how fast I was reeling.

Lucky the kings were on.

1 hour ago, jenno64 said:

Nice mixed platter Chris!

Shame about the lost king but you pulled together a great bag as usual🙏🏻

Thanks Rob!

Always good to check your lines when reef fishing. I hooked a fish earlier in the day that went to reef - bit of scraping, gave some slack line and it came out. Must of scuffed my line.

[We donutted but at least we donutted together]

No fish, but a friendship made

good luck next time fellas!

[A few kings about]

Gday Raiders,

was greeted by a beautiful sunrise this morning as I headed out for a fish.
First hit the bait grounds and loaded up on livies. 

Decided to try trolling along Kurnell cliffs - slow trolled a large slimie for an hour for nothing.

Headed up to maroubra area but not much happening around there either - just a 40cm morwong and 34cm pannie - both released. Drift was fast at 4klm/h & no baitfish. 

Left to try out deep where I had caught some large flatties in the past. Picked up a nice 55cm blue spot to take home.

Then back down jibbon way to try the local flatty drift - hooked 2 fish pretty quick in succession, but got cut off by green toads on the way up. Didn’t want to play that game today, so left to chase kings instead.

I drop down a 25cm yakka and it gets grabbed within 30 seconds. Fish does some nice runs and I get it up within a meter of the surface - can see it’s around 80cm, then my line snaps above the swivel. Line must of scraped on reef at some point during the morning and I didn’t notice. 
I was also down to my last two yakkas. Chuck out another and a chunky 70cm fish comes up - which I decide to keep.
I try and catch more yakkas, but there’s too many kings around making them skittish. I did manage to catch two after trying for half an hour. One jumped to freedom out of my hand as I was about to rig it. The second wasn’t so lucky and only lasted a minute as another king grabbed it - around 65-70cm, released.
Plenty of kings, but hard to catch bait.
called it a day.

[Georges Jew on a livey]

Nice Jewie! 👍 

what rig do you use with the poddies

[Hacking Flatties and whiting]

Like I said last time, flatty master!

well done on another good session

[Bate Bay]

Nice Red Dave!

Some nice fillets to come off that one. 
Big Bonnie too. 

 

[Catching luderick and a pb jewie]

Well done on the jewie! 👍
 

[Newbie - Kingfish success at Sydney Heads]

Looks like a great day out Bob!

[Hacking flatties]

Live poddies or not, your still the flathead master!

nice catch Rob!

[Port Hacking]

Nice report Isaac! No kings, but a bit of action 👍

When live baiting for kings with circles you only want to use 1 hook. 
The hook should be either placed through the inside of the mouth and up through the nose of the live bait. Or sideways through the nostrils. (In through one nostril and out the other)

You can also bridle rig if you want to.

If you hook it any other way you will impede the circle hooks ability to catch the corner of the kings mouth.

With your rig, make sure your snell line is exiting from the inside eye of the hook. You definitely want to snell your circle as it will guide your hook to the corner of the mouth. 
 

 

To test, drop your snelled hook into a glass and pull the line horizontally, you will see the hook catch the edge of the glass every time. You know you have rigged it correctly. 

Don’t have loose drag - you will loose fish. You need enough drag to provide resistance to set the hook as the fish runs with it. I usually tighten my drag until I can just pull line by hand off the reel. You shouldn’t be able to pull the line off easily.
Don’t lift the rod, the fish will hook itself.

When trolling live bait, you want to do it at a snails pace. Just in gear. 2-4klm/h. Much much slower than trolling lures. Use a sinker - enough weight to keep the livie down while moving forward.

hope this helps 

cheers

chris

[A very long day with Mixed Bag Between Heads and Browns Mountain 15.03.2024]

Some good sized Dollies, Well caught Zoran!
A bit of water movement out there usually gets them going. 
 

[Mullet on metal]

Decent size mullet

how’d it go on the plate? 

[This fish turned my 2 piece rod into a 4 piece rod. Lesson learned]

Nice Trev Linewetter! Those long hard fights are the most memorable.

[Bate Bay]

Nice Catch Dave!

Plenty of tailor in close at the moment mixed in with Bonnie’s from what ive been hearing.

Those trag will try and swallow fish larger than their mouths - brought up many yakkas that have trag bite marks 3/4 up the fish where the fish hasn’t been able to swallow the bait.

Enjoy the feed!

[Coogee Reefs]

19 hours ago, kantong said:

some prized catches, well done mate!!

Thanks Kantong - was a good day on the water 

11 hours ago, Scooter0069 said:

Great fish Larkin did you get the crabs outside the Hacking in traps if so do you have a map of where you are aloud to set crab traps 

Thanks Scooter!

here’s the map off the DPI website for port hacking. Areas marked with those diagonal lines are the exclusion zone for nets and traps. The area near the entrance without those lines is the permissible area. 

Please always check the dpi website for exclusion zones and what type/qty of traps are permissible as these rules can change.

Here’s the link to the dpi website.

https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/674740/Fishing-Guide-Recreational-Crabbing-Sydney-South.pdf

It is illegal to drop crab pots in open ocean waters. The line at the entrance of port hacking is the open waters limit and you can not drop pots outside this line. 

11 minutes ago, jenno64 said:

Amazing Chris!

A milestone king and some platter variety, enjoy the dinners🙏🏻

Thanks Rob! 
Crab linguine last night, battered trag and chips on Sunday, kingfish sashimi for Sunday lunch 

Been loving the seafood lately.

Rest got shared around with family and friends who are always keen to get one of my packages.

[Coogee Reefs]

2 hours ago, bessell1955 said:

What a great result, well done!

Thanks Bessel!

a few fish about outside atm. 

2 hours ago, Yowie said:

Great work there Chris, a metre kingie is what most fishos want to catch.

A few trags as a bonus, plus crabs still about. 👍

Thanks Dave! Was one of my goals

lots of baitfish outside clinging around the debris. Some logs were floating about too.

crabs still moving about. 

[Coogee Reefs]

19 minutes ago, linewetter said:

What a massive fish!  Congratulations on bringing it in and reaching your goal.  Looks like it's going to last many meals with how big it is.

Thanks Linewetter! Was a solid fight

it got shared around with family and some work colleagues.
Did a big plate of sashimi today for some friends… didn’t last long with everyone wanting more.

24 minutes ago, Isaac Ct said:

Great stuff Chris, always here if you need to give some fish away. Mum has been complaining about too much snapper, not enough variety.

Well done

haha thanks Isaac!

I hear you mate. It’s why I like switching the fishing up.

[Coogee Reefs]

Gday Raiders,

Took the JetSki out on Friday to fish the deep reefs off Coogee. Met my mate up there and we started to drop down some livies.

Plenty of baitfish around, sounder showing bait all through the column. 

After around 15mins, a good fish grabs the livie and the reel starts screaming. I can tell I’m on a good king as it goes off on multiple line pulling runs.

Took around 5 mins of give and take trying to wrestle it up off the reef.

Ive been chasing the meterie king for a while - fish went bang on 100cm and weighed 7kg. 

Brought up 3 Trag too,  gave one to my mate.

To finish the day, 8 crabs. Kept 4 of the largest and released the smaller ones.

[Fishing the harbour - first kingfish encounters!]

Nice catch! Kings are great fun. 

Land based I burley up every 5 mins to keep the baitfish around and I’ll drop the live yakka just below the baitfish. 

Tackle - I use 60lb fluorocarbon trace with a 7/0 snelled circle. (Make sure to run the snell line the right way through the eye)

Kings want movement, so if your yakka has been on the hook too long or is tired most of the time they will have a look but swim off. 
Put a fresh yakka on or try fresh squid/squid strip - ones you’ve caught yourself work best - even if frozen. 

could try shore jigging too if they’re not taking baits - the fast movement can encourage the strike

[My favourite time of year]

Nice report Mike

Some great info to help others get onto some fish. 👍

[The problem of shrinkage]

I’m curious to know what everyone thinks about the pointing of tails to achieve minimum size in species like kingfish. ie “stretching” 

Do fisheries accept “squeezing” of the tail when measuring? 
anyone know the rule on this as there can be many centimetres difference from a fish measured natural and a fish that has their tail squeezed before laying on the mat.

A lot of countries measure to the fork in these species.

[Port Hacking again]

Mate, at least you got out there! Nice capture - and a couple of good feeds.

Noticed some debris floating down river earlier this week, so got to be a little careful out there. 

I’ve been keen to get out - but this weather’s been terrible.