corro

Went out this morning with Dad to take advantage of the change in the weather. Managed to fill the bait tank at Bundeena surprisingly easily this time, they were jumping in the boat. Haven't seen the Hacking like this for a while. Managed 10+ yellow tail and a couple of slimys in under half hour plus a just legal bream and a pike. We motored over to Lilli Pilli to see a few others already parked - reading some earlier posts potentially Restyle & Yowie. It was reasonably quiet at the start, apart from a couple of gents enthusiastically cheering everytime they pulled in a rat king - potentially some of the aforementioned raiders. We were wondering what special sauce they were using until my dad hooked one on a handline with <10lb line for a fight that didn't last too long. Whilst we were talking wishing it had taken one of our properly set up rigs the next minute we had a triple hookup, one on handline, two on 10kg live bait rods; Dad managed to bring in the one on handline, I dropped one on dad's rod that wrapped around a nearby rope but brought in the one on my own. 3 hooked, 2 in the boat. These were both 55cm or there abouts. Next up, I hooked up to another king, managed to get this one to the boat without too much excitement - went 60cm. Things were looking promising, +5cm increments meant next fish would be legal according to Dad. We moved spots as we didn't get a bite for a while. Shortly after moving my handline went off, as I was busy trying to rig a livey Dad grabbed my handline and burnt four fingers on the first run. I took over and didn't do much better. As it came to the surface I managed to wrap the line in a circle around all fingers which could have ended in disaster had it not broken the line before my fingers went. It looked legal but they all do before the truth teller comes out! The "last cast" call went up and as so often happens a fish jumped on, another king, rod this time. Put up a fantastic fight until we managed to get it on board. It went 70cm. Tally for the day was 7 kings hooked 3 on handlines of which one was landed, 4 on rods of which 3 were landed. Only one legal but a great day for us!

Interesting looking fish!

Wow, great haul!

Well done!

On the home made lures again?

Nice sized fish!

Well done! Can you show us a photo of your lures, I've never made any successfully but it must be quite the sense of achievement.

Nice effort mate! Trev's such good fighters!

Raw fish that is partly cooked by the acid in citrus. It's delicious! https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/ceviche/

Cheers mate, appreciate the advice. I vaguely recall if I cut the bottom tail it'll swim down, the top and it'll swim up.

Cheers, I'll let you know how I go!

I suppose it would be a sinking lure?

Looks like a great session! What's your retrieval technique on the sluggos? I've not managed to get a hit on one yet if you're able to offer any advice!

Solid haul mate!

After Dad and I got broken off by kings earlier in the week (at least sight unseen that was our guess) we went out with a specific plan - catch some squid and turn them into kings. Unfortunately we can't catch squid to save ourselves and managed 0 at bass and flinders, windy point and jibbon. Giving up on the squid we tried for yellow tail at jibbon to no avail. Used to be a reliable spot but haven't found them there for a while. If anyone has any squidding tips they can share - the only way is up for us! Things weren't looking good but we figured we'd try back at Lilli Pili regardless. Got a big berley trail going and lo and behold the yellow tail turned up. Managed to get a few into the bait tank, popped a hook in the back of a couple and sent them down with our well wishes. The first two promptly tangled themselves, so a quickish re-rig later we were back in action. This time they managed to keep their distance long enough for my rod to get hit. It was clear it was a king but whilst the rod buckled over and there was some weight there, it didn't put up as strong a fight as they normally do. I thought it had got tail wrapped or something, however when it came up to the surface it had half the yellow tail out if it's mouth and my hook in it's stomach which explained the strange fight. Given it probably wasn't fully exhausted when it was landed it sure made a nuisance of itself whilst on the boat knocking over everything in its path. Wrangling it onto the mat on the boat I thought it was 75cm. On dry land, post death, it was a few cms less than that. Regardless, my best ever king and certainly provided a few lovely meals - sashimi, ceviche, pan fried with a green sauce and even a curry! We had a plan and it came together even if not exactly how we'd envisaged!

They came on the bite in the morning, a couple of hours after the high tide around 9-10am.

Nice one mate! You never forget your first 😉

This one came off at the swivel with no structure nearby and wasn't pulling hard enough for the line to break up there.

Until last week had been a long time between a fish for Dad and I. In our first attempt back last week we managed only 2 flathead in Botany Bay. Tried the Hacking yesterday instead which proved to be the right decision. Yowie was kind enough to leave us all some fish. Couldn't tempt any flathead on the flats which seemed unusually quiet - maybe the rain, maybe we're just not very good! After giving up drifting we found a decent hole and managed a good haul of trevally in a variety of sizes from one just over legal to one closer to 50 - at least from memory, tend to only measure the smaller ones! There were some bigger ones in the school that we couldn't tempt. We fished unweighted prawns into a a sizeable berley trail. They are fantastic fighters trevally, pulled hard enough to cut the line into my delicate office worker hands. When the school moved on I transitioned to blind casting metal slugs which resulted in one tailor and one bust off, I first hooked up but was then bitten off at the swivel. Potentially another fish in the school that the shiny swivel looked like a bait fish? Surprised it hasn't happened more often, will try to move away from the shiny brass ones to black. Managed to hook but drop a couple of decent fish (thinking kings given the style of fight) near Lili Pili one to a 2 inch grub style soft plastic the other to a fish strip bait. At least promising signs of a good summer to come! We gave a few to the neighbors, had some sashimi yesterday, fish soup with the frames and will finish the rest tonight / tomorrow.

Great feed there!

What a trip! Thanks for sharing mate.

Wow, what a fantastic adventure and thanks for sharing!

Great report and top quality fish!

Lots of smaller whiting around the sand flats in cronulla on nippers. There must be a few bigger ones around although I didn't see them!

Just drop the live nippers straight down right next to the pylons of the jetty.