jim77

Do yourself a favour and try eating Dolphin fish... It is delicious!! One of the best eating fish you can catch i reckon. If you vacuum pack it they freeze ok - but definitely best fresh i.e. one day old max!

Hey mate - did you end up heading out today? Did you find any Kings?

Nice work mate.

In short - got an unexpected early mark from work. Raced home, boat in the water by 3:50. FIshing by about 4:15ish. Boated 3 Kings in quick succession. 75, 83 and 87. Lost a much bigger one by the boat just as i was about to grab the trace and swing it onboard. It was certainly in the 90s, might have even broke the metre. Not happy with that effort! Just before i was about to leave i hooked a very big fish. It took some serious runs. I fish pretty tight drags and had 80lb braid on that particular rod and this thing was stripping line hard. I managed to lose it due to being a smart arse and having too many rods in the water at once. As i was getting one of the downriggers up i eased off the tension and it managd to throw the hooks! Faaarrrkkkk! But only myself to blame... @ickhead!!! Left after that as the fish had gone off the bite. Back at the ramp before six. Great 1 and half hour session!! Sorry about the crap picture - 75, 83 and 87.

What was the water temp out there Slink? Has any of that warmer stuff got down here yet? Also if you don't mind me asking - what were you getting the Rats on? At least you got out there - better than sitting at home wishing you were out there. Not long to go before it kicks off big style.....

Definitely not Stefan. Downrigging is often a better way to get a really big bait down without it causing chaos and getting tangled around other lines or the anchor rope. It is a particularly good method around the heads and along the cliffs where it is often not that safe to anchor or drift. It also allows you to cover a lot of ground which is useful if the fish are a bit hard to come by or find. The only downside if you do find a big fish, particularly if you have the bait set very deep, is that the fish can get you to the bottom very quickly, especially if you are running a long drop back off the bomb. A good idea if the location allows is to use the boat and drag the fish out into deeper water so you have a better chance. If you want some fun try getting a small bonnie or salmon and sticking it straight out on the downrigger... At this time of year you just never know. If you have the luxury of two downriggers try one BIG bait and one smaller, or one squid bait and one live bait.

Dicko - what the sounder picks up has got nothing to do with the pixel count... The sensitivity of the sounder is governed by the power of the transducer. Also if you are wanting to do a lot of downrigging i would suggest that you get a dual beam transducer so that you can see the bomb on the screen, It doesn't matter if you can't see it, but it can make it a lot easier, especially if you are new to downrigging and a bit nervous about running your baits down deep for fear of hooking up the bottom. As Framedtrash said - save longer and buy a better quality, otherwise you will just want to be upgrading!

Big King... If only it were as simple as you suggest, i.e. low tide is at 11:50 so if you go to blah you will find Kings between 10am and 1pm. As a general rule of thumb the better times to fish are around the changes of the tide, i.e. a high or low and a couple of hours either side, although that is not to say that you won't catch fish outside of those times. There are no hard and fast rules, but the all fish and Kings in particular like current. You may have heard the saying - "no run, no fun", i.e. if the current/tide is'nt moving then there won't be any fishing action. At the moment the Kings are still fairly spread out, although they are starting to show up a little more regularly. The places you have mentioned i.e. the Heads and Long reef are not bad bets, but they can also be a bit hit and miss, particularly at this time of year. If i were you, especially as the weather forecast for tomorrow is a bit average anyway, and there will likely be a bit of swell outside, i would focus your efforts on the main harbour and middle harbour. It sounds as if you have a downrigger. Catch yourself some yakkas and squid and downrig some spots inside the harbour. Try the Old Mans hat stretch along the drop off where it goes from about 15m into 20m plus and also where the Waverider buoy used to be. Also the Yellow Buoy near Nielson Park, The Sticks off Rose Bay, The North Side of Shark Island, Clark Island Wreck are all good spots to potentially find fish. In middle harbour try downrigging along the Seaforth stretch of moorings and over the wrecks in Sailors Bay, Sugarloaf Bay and Quakers Hat bay. If you try at all of the above spots with good bait (i.e. fresh squid and or livies, Yakkas or Slimies) i would be surprised if you didn't find any fish. Good luck and let us know how you go.

What is the difficulty with doing it yourself Chris? It has a template for the transom mounting, and all you have to do is wire it in to your power, making sure that you include the inline fuse (supplied). It is VERY simple and there isn't really a lot you can do wrong...

There is the first of my predicted BIG bust offs for you Dan... Time for you guys to up the ante a bit on your gear so you get to land some of these big uns!

Well done on finding some fish guys - it has been tough out there recently so you did well even locating some fish! Interested to know what size jigs you were using if you don't mind me asking... and also what sort of depth of water you were getting them in?

Mate you are killing it on the reds atm - well done!

Stefan - if you drive along the inside of North Head from about 6:30am onwards you will be unlucky if you don't stumble across a school of Salmon somewhere along the way. Typically they will be somewhere between Old Mans Hat and Bluefish Point, often with multiple schools along that stretch. Generally they ae quite close to the shore so be careful if there is any sort of sea/swell running. I was out 3 mornings last week and i saw salmon schools everytime i was out. There are also loads of bonito around and also trevs and Kings mixed in and holding deeper if you are really lucky. Just look for the birds... Or for the patch of 4 or 5+ boats congregated in a tight patch!

Hey mate The FADs will produce for you, but they get hit so hard that to get decent fish you need to be one of the first boats there, i.e. very early/first light! Mid week is a good bet if you can get out there but even then there is always someone who seems to get there before you! What normally happens is that the Dollies are there (you can see them swimming around) but they become very shy as they see some many lures, jigs, baits etc as the day wears on and eventually it becomes virtually impossible to hook one. To be honest you will often have more success if you can find some fish trap buoys somewhere out wide that see fewer boats. If you find a good buoy or piece of debris you will get your bag limit pretty quickly! The last couple of years though the dollies have come on really late in the season. The Sydney FADs have been deployed in the last few days - but don't expect them to be any good for quite some time yet! Good luck.

Hey Stefan I used to do a fair bit of downrigging... Still a good way of finding the fish when they are a bit slow on other methods. In regard to your bomb - i don't think you mean 40g! Most of the bombs seem to be measured in lbs for some reason? A common size for the harbour would be between 4-8lb (2 to 4kg approx). If you downrig in deeper water you will need a bigger bomb. I have an 8lb and a 12lb bomb that i use. You can make your own quite easily, i'm sure there would be something on the net about it. The straighter you can get the mainline down the better - and more weight will help with this, but some blowback is inevitable. 30 degrees that you mention is much too much, indicating that you need more weight. For the release clip don't bother wasting money on one. IMO the elastic band method works way better anyway and you can get more tension on the rod. Just run a length of strong mono (100lb) off the back of your bomb (about 50cm is fine). On the end of that tie a clip swivel. Let your bait out behind the boat to the desired distance then twist the elastic band around your main line. Get the 2 loops of the band and put them into the clip swivel. Lower the bomb to the desired depth. Tighten up your main line to get a decent bend in the rod - now just wait for a fish to come along! Once you get the hang of it is really easy. Some people frown on downriggng but it is a very effective method of catching Kings - and can be good for weeding out better fish if you put on really big baits. Good luck

Thanks Dan That is pretty light gear for Kings even if you are doing most of your fishing in the harbour... You guys do pretty well in terms of numbers of fish. I reckon you will be getting busted off a lot more times this summer , at least i hope so anyway! (i mean that in a nice way as it will mean the size of the Kings has gone up again!). I have seen blokes get destroyed on much heavier gear than you are running (and had it happen to me on a handful of times). Maybe it is the mono you run that allows you to land a few more... Good luck for the oncoming season.

Nice work getting on to a few fish Dan (or Greg who caught them). Can i ask what sort of gear you are getting busted off on and in what depth of water? Fewer fish around at this time of year but there sure are some decent sized ones in amongst them... Are you not tempted to upsize your line/leader class for the next couple of months?

Nice work Ali. The one on the right looks the bigger of the 2 - what did it go about 75-80ish?? If you don't mind me asking did you get em downrigging or at anchor?

Thanks for the report mate. How big is huge?? Estimated size/weight?

Many people will disagree... But i would suggest you up your leader considerably, especially at this time of year i.e. when a lot of the bigger Kings are caught. You think you will be fine and then you hook a really decent fish and that leader won't be anywhere near enough. I have had a couple of sessions where we were getting destroyed on 80lb main with 100lb leader!

Thanks for the report. What was the water temp at the Peak and the 12? Also what do Stripies taste like? Pretty much everyone i know uses them for bait or burley. I feed em to my dog - he loves them!! Are they worth saving for a feed in the future??

Well done for finding the squid and the Kings and good to hear that they are showing up a little more consistently. Don;t be scared to put one of those big squid down whole... A big King will inhale it! What pound gear were you using when you got busted off? If you are fishing in shallow water you either need a lot of luck to drag a 10kg plus fish out, or heavier line/leader and make sure that your drag is done up tight in the first place. Better luck next time.

Good work Kel. It has been a long time since i have targetted/had a feed of flatties. Might have to take you up on that offer of a flathead lesson in exchange for putting you onto a nice King or 2! Only 1 week of school left mate

Went out again on Sunday confident of getting some good kings following Saturdays success. Ended up wasting time going to the Peak - stayed there for a while for nothing, then went out to 12 mile. When we got there we had a double hook up on jigs first drop, and then one more and then it went quiet. From chatting to a couple of boats and also listening to the radio it sounded as if they were on in numbers earlier on. We sounded around for a bit and decided to drop some livies to see if that would stir them up again. First yakka went down and within about 30 seconds it got smashed. A nice 75ish cm King boated and another livey straight back down. Again almost instantly the rod tip starts to dance around. It seemed to take forever before the rod buckled over (so hard to not strike when you're using circle hooks!) and then it was just dead weight. I wound it up thinking maybe squid or micro king, or possibly big jacket, and then this little fella popped up. I was very happy - has to be one of if not my favourite eating fish. We hung around and got a few more kIngs on livies before heading back in in great glassy conditions. We timed it perfectly because as we got to the heads the NEaster picked up. Another great day on the water and the fishing is definitely picking up quickly. Good luck if you're heading out.

Nice work Billy. Remind me not to do anything stupid next time i go fishing with you!