spongy

Is that cornet fish the same as the flute mouth fish?

Thanks Penguin and McFishin. I'll give them a shot next time.

Great work there penguin. Just a question: How do you rig up your garfish for trolling? When I had some live garfish, I had to place the hook on the arse. If I hooked them in the shoulders the weight of the hook would tip them upside down. Jeff

Nice fish. I have seen plenty of them when spear fishing. Illegal to spear though. Are they good to eat?

Geez, what a haul! How many traps did you guys have out?

Well done Dogtooth. Did you see the other boats getting into them as well? Decent dollies have been rare so far this year.

Jim, what a session! Thats soooo good, especially before work. Jeff

Very Very good session there Jim. Cant ask for more than that. Top work mate. We were out on Saturday and caught a heap of rats, very frustrating..... Jeff

Very eventful day for you and would have definitiely been exciting. With regards to the undersize issue, why is this supposed boof head doing anything wrong? If he genuinely thinks you are doing the wrong thing by keeping undersized fish, he has every right to question you. If you reversed the roles and you found someone you genuinely believed to be keeping undersized fish, then you would definitely go and politely inform them they are breaking the law. Seeing that no one has replied to confirm one way or another, how to interpret the undersize ruling of a half eaten kingie. No one can be 100% sure. The replies Ive seen to this thread are very surprising. Like tell the boof head to get a life or mind your own business. Cmon guys, its all our business to ensure no undersized fish are kept. Whether it was undersized or not is a completely different matter. I have been in similar situations down in Jervis Bay where a niusance seal kept stealing our kingies. A great sight to see and experience all the same. We lost about half a dozen kingies that day.... From a Fisheries point of view, you can see this opening up so many arguments and false claims that they would have no choice but to consider this kingfish undersized and fine you anyway. How many dodgey fisho's would land a 63cm kingfish and then cut the tail off and claim a shark took it????? Jeff

Yeah, whenever I can get my hands on fresh squid, the best part is always the head with guts attached. If its small I would use the squid whole.

Awesome week for sure. Congrats. What did the damage? Yakkas, squid, jigs?

Always awesome work from you Dogtooth.

Thats 1 awesome fishing session. I have only landed 1 legal kingy from the yak in the past year. Looks like its time to leave to boat at home and try from the yak very soon. Were you in Middle harour ? Cheers, Jeff

Great work out there Fishmaniac. All the best for the new year and hope to see you out there soon. Jeff

Very quick report on this morning's session out at Colours again. Took my son and daughter out to Colours trying to get them onto their first kingy. Got to the bait grounds around 8:30 and had 10 yakkas in the tank (mostly candy sized). Shot off to Colours and the conditions were rough and windy. Not a good start, especially with my kids onboard. Not many boats out there and even less activity on the sounder. A mate on another boat showed me another spot nearby where he had some more success. First drift and my son hooked into a nice rat kingy to claim as his first kingy - awesome to watch him experience it. It went 60cm. A couple of pics any back in the drink. A couple more drifts and my son's rod goes off again as soon as he puts it down for a pee. I grab the rod and instantly know this is a keeper kingy. I hand the rod to my girl. She hesitantly takes it and can only just hold the rod with both hands - no spare hand to crank the reel. At least she felt the power of the beast. My son's turn next and he has a great tussle with his biggest king. AWESOME just to watch him. We boated a 75cm kingy. Not much more after that so we headed back in after 30min cos it got rougher out there. Cheers, Jeff

Great work there - especially on light gear. Awesome fish!!! I was out there today. Much quieter than the other days. Very little on the sounder, but still managed a couple in not so ideal conditions. The biggest going 75cm. Cheers, Jeff

Matt, Most outboards can be hand cranked in case of a flat battery. Ask your mechanic to show you how to do it. You just need a bit of strength and a rip cord. Cheers, Jeff

Congrats Nathan. Im real happy for you. Just a tip on gaffing though. I don't recommending gaffing just legal kingies. If they end up being undersized, they arent going to be too healthy when you release them. Regardless, good onya for your efforts. Cheers, Jeff

Congrats mate on your first kingey. Bet you wont forget this experience in a hurry. We shouldnt be congratulating people for doing the right thing - as it should be the norm. Regardless, good on ya for sticking to the rules and returning your catch. Cheers, Jeff

Thanks for the kind replies. The gear I was running was a TLD25 2speed spooled with 50lb line on a 24kg Shimano Beastmaster. Glad I didnt hook it on my spin outfit - would have ended in tears. Had the kingey fillets for lunch today - soooo satisfying knowing I caught that. Jim, Caught the kingy around 11am, about an hour after high tide. Tight lines all. Jeff

Here's a report on yesterday's assault on the recent kingy school at Colours. Got to the spot just on day break looking for slimies but none found, just a heap of sweep. My buddy threw out an unweighted 6 inch sluggo and immediately hooked into rat. So I dropped a jig down as they have been doing the damage in the last few weeks. A couple of lifts and I was also on. Result was a 50cm and 64cm. A few more boats turned up and they too were getting into them. Our hook up rate slowed right down so we decided to go and collect some yakkas. 1 hour later came back to find the place chockers. The action was still slow and nothing like the previous weeks. A school of big salmon came by and demolished both our livies. Landed 2 fat salmons the biggest went 65cm. Didnt see anyone land any keepers so we took off to North Head away from the crowds. My mate had a big take on his yakka which reefed him even though he was fishing heavy, so really disappointed losing a solid king. The southerly picked up and made North Head uncomfortable so we decided to head in. Went to the Quarantine marker to find heaps of boats all huddled around the marker like it was a camp fire. Flicked a sluggo plastic and immediately had a few rats chase it. Gave my mate a go and he changed the retrieve speed and hooked up on his first cast. All rats so we moved on. We went back to Colours as it would have been sheltered from the southerly. By this time all but a couple of boats had left so we had the place to ourselves and we were out of the wind. We started burleying with yakka pieces and had a few rats come up but were hesitant to strike. 30 min later My TLD outfit has a big strike with a screaming run. I was in 25m of water and was fishing just off the bottom. In fear of getting reefed, I cranked up the drag and got back some line. This fish was real agro and the TLD was still screaming on the kingey's 2nd run. I cranked the drag up close to limit and had the biggest bend in my 24kg rod. I knew this would be my PB if only a could boat it. the fight lasted a quick 10 minutes and soon had it boat side. We forgot the net so my mate had to tail grab it. On his second attempt we had my PB in the boat. Hi-5s in the boat, and as Im measuring him, Fisheries come by to inspect the fish. Result was a PB of 95cm. We were happy to call it a day after that even though it was 5cm short of the magical 1 metre mark. Just means we have to do it again next week. Cheers, Jeff

I believe they went out last month, but I havent been out to check them out yet. Im guessing just a little too early???? Maybe a few more weeks.

Pin them in the nose or thru the eye sockets. better with an elastic band. If it s big yakka or slimey I would put a second hook in its back use a big arse snapper sinker if your gonna slow troll them. good luck

Good report mate and excellent fish. Although I wouldnt fish landbased, you're description is fantastic and Im sure very helpful to those other landbased fishers. We need more descriptions as detailed as yours...... Keep them coming. Jeff

Yeah I reckon a 300mm slimey would not last long in the water at the moment. I have found slimies only a few times around south head. Im pretty sure they are there most of the time, but really hard to find for me. Once when I found them in amongst yakkas, I used fresh cut up yakkas on a double paternoster rig and my slimey to yakka ratio definitely improved.