slinkymalinky

G'day Robbie, I just use a single crimp and while I usually tend to get Jinkai crimps, it doesn't seem to matter when I use much cheaper ones (at the end of the day they're just aluminium that gets mushed up anyway). I match the breaking strain of line to the hook size (which is in turn matched to bait size) so with smaller baits I end up fishing a more lightweight rig... it helps present the smaller baits better and keep them healthy longer. Usually 40lb with small hooks, 60lb with bigger and 80-100lb for really big baits. Mostly 40 or 60 in the harbour.

Oh boy... I'm booked in a couple of weeks. Can't wait!!!!!!! Slinky

I wish I'd had this instruction manual 20 years ago when I got married... it would have made life a lot easier. Nice one! Slinky

Hey Kingfishercam, Jewgaffer's suggestions are spot on. There are heaps of variations we all use but they're essentially the same and often come down to personal preference. For live bait on either the down rigger or otherwise, I use 2 hook rigs. A larger top hook (I've just started using a sliding snell to attach this guy and it seems to be working really well, allowing me to adjust the distance between the hooks to suit the bait) and a slightly smaller stinger - I use either trebles or singles and don't seem to have much difference in catch rate but the singles are much easier to store as ready made rigs. Hook size for me is decided by the bait size. Yesterday we were using little jellybean Yakkas so I was using a 2/0 top hook and a 1/0 stinger... I use various brands of hooks but Owner make great, extra strong hooks in those small sizes. For bigger baits I go up to bigger hooks but usually no more than about a 5/0 top hook and 3/0 stinger. For fishing squid strips I usually use a single hook rig tied like Jewgaffer suggested but I use circle hooks (personal preference again) pinned once through the top of the bait with LOTS of hook exposure. I use either Black Magic KL's, Gamakatsu Octopus Circles or Owner Mutus... all really good patterns but the KLs are my prefferred option (I think I just like them coz they're really black!! lol). I always go out with my rigs ready made in little plastic wallets. I have a crimped loop in the end of each so rigging for me just involves tying on a snap swivel and clipping on the rig. I can swap rigs to suit different baits and fishing styles in a couple of seconds. Cheers, Slinky

G'day mate, It's hard to rig dead squid not to spin... livies keep theselves upright (but make sure you use straight hooks, not offset hooks). The best way to rig a dead squid is using a rig I found in a Geoff Wilson knots & rigs book. It involves adding a sinker to the top hook in a crimped loop... impossible to explain without seeing it, sorry... but it's easy to do. The cheats way is to use a heavy jig head as the top hook. It keeps everything upright when your bait can't do it itself (cause it's dead!). Cheers, Slinky

G'day Fisherdad, I've got a great little fishing buddy (6yo) and there's nothing more rewarding than sharing time on the water with them... hope you have many fishy days together (I'm making a few assumptions based on your name by the way. There are a couple of simple truths of fishing that will help you with whatever kind of fishing you want to try.... - Fish light (using outfits that are light for the application... like Whiting on 4lb or Kings on 14lb) will usually hook you more fish. - Fresh bait... really, really fresh, gathered yourself, will usually (although not always... like Pilchards for tailor) outfish anything you can buy. Nippers and worms for whiting that are still wriggling when they go on the hook (the frozen stuff you get from service stations is only fit for compost), squid or live yakkas/slimies for kingfish caught from the area you're fishing, etc. And if you must use store bought bait get it from a good tackle shop where they often stock much better quality bait (you'll find they also stock the same stuff as the servos too but if you ask them and pay a bit more you'll be better off) - Get on the water early or late. There are plenty of fish you can catch in bright sunshine and some even bite better in the daytime but mostly you'll get more action in the first and last couple of hours of the day when the light is low and the predators are more actively hunting. - Target a species.... fishing for 'everything' is a good way to catch nothing. If you focus on one species, set yourself up with the best gear in the best spots, the best way to catch it, you'll be streets ahead of the game. That's where this site comes into its own. There are people here who are real guns at particular forms of fishing and will give you heaps of advice... follow it until you start feeling confident enough to find your own way. If you can't get out on a charter, try to hook up with a good raider who'll meet you on the water. They're good like that. Good luck with it mate, Cheers, Slinky

It's a pretty meaty fish that can get a bit dry and horrible if it's over cooked but I really love it cooked. The best way to have it is a bit like tuna.... grill it so it's only just cooked in the middle. It's better to cut the portions so they're not too thick or they end up more stewed than grilled. Just battered and shallow fried works, particuarly if the batter is spicy. It's really good in curries and saucy dishes, and when grilled, served with sauces like hollandaise or even wasabe mayonnaise. One of my favourite ways to eat it is to 'poach ' portions in a 'tomato sauce' (basically a naplolitana sauce). It's nice 'cooked' in lime juice with of all things, fruit (mango, green mango, green pawpaw, papya, pineapple, peaches, that sort of thing) with a bit of finely chopped chilli, a teaspoon of fish sauce and dressed with a dash of coconut cream. The acid in the lime will actually cook the fish and then it ends up like some sort of deranged Hawiian/Thai crossbreed dish. They're not a sweet, delicate fish like whiting or flathead so having them grilled plain will be a bit of a disappointment. Treat it more like a steak than a fish. Cheers mate, Slinky

Hey Brett, Were you worried I might be planning to poison you so I didn't have so much competition at the Social?.... you and I will be pushing it to outfish Gemma anyway, particularly if she insists that 'she who catches the squid, fishes with the squid' Going to have to back the drag off a bit for her next weekend though... she should have her new custom rod and I'd hate to see it either go overboard or have it busted on the gunwhale.... those kings were pulling her around a bit today!!. See you next weekend mate, Slinky

You've got to be happy with a bag like that on a lazy day. I'd like to see how you go when you get serious! Nice Samson. Cheers, Slinky

Hi Nixmel, not sure what sort of boat you've got and whether it has any instruments. I was getting water under my feet at one stage and traced it to behind the dash... the speedo on my Quinnie has a little hose that runs to the back of the dial... the impella pumps water into the hose and the relative pressure gives the speed reading. The line had popped off the dial and whenever I was moving water was streaming out of the line behind the console. Easy fix. Cheers, Slinky

Hey Kiwi, Looks like you started something!! My crew today insisted I make good on my outrageous claims and sashimi a king on the water. BrettP was a bit worried py the proximity of the bait, the use of the bait board and bait knife and the general prospect of eating raw fish in a non-restaurant environment but he's still breathing. Little Slinky gobbled it down, wasabe and all. (pics in my report post) Cheers mate, Slinky

Well it started out and we thought it was going to be one of those days.... but it turned into one of those days. BrettP, Little Slinky and I left Roseville at about 5.00am. After finding brown water and no squid at the spit we went and found brown water and instead no yakkas at Balmoral!! Undeterred, we headed to North Harbour where we found brown water but Little Slinky nabbed a squid (making us big people look bad). We found a sneaky spot finally where the Yakkas were the size of jellybeans and bait-jig mad so the tank got well stocked. The worrying signs continued though... If anyone finds a spool from a Pfleuger reel in North Habour, please return it to BrettP (don't ask!!). And best not to ask about why the line load on the other spool is so much less now either... For my part, I copped a boat full of ink from Little Slinky's squid. So finally we went out to Spot X (henceforth known as Gemma's Reef)... anyone who recognizes it from the photos will be sunk if we find you there on the Social (probably everyone... it's hardly ambiguous). We thought the day was going to go from average to bad when the first hookup on a very good king on the squid, wrapped himself around Little Slinkys rig and the downrigger, then busted off. And the second one... busted off. From memory there may even have been a third and things were looking grim. But finally it all came together. Little Slinky boated her first legal King at 65.00001cm. Then BrettP picked up his first legal King at 67cm. Then Little Slinky got another. Then they just kept coming until the bait ran out. The mini Yakkas in some instances were getting snaffled before we had time to get the downrigger set. Finally out of bait, we snoozed up to The Spit where I was asked to put my Japanese culinary talents to good use and we tucked into fresh Kingfish sashimi. BrettP looked a little nervous about the food safety standards in the preparation area but you'll note from the photos that the bait is neatly separated from the food and that the knife has been carefully wiped with a fish rag before preparing the sashimi. See you all at the Social. Cheers, Slinky

Mate, I just had to commend you on having the right attitude towards aquiring tackle. Actually doing a lot of any kind of fishing is completely unnecessary as a prerequisite... all that matters is that you might, one day need a particular outfit. You might like to consider also getting a 130lb bent butt, an ice fishing pole, a double handed salmon fly rod and a few others too. Little Slinky is well trained and every time Mrs Slinky says I have too much gear, Little S says very loudly that "no I don't" By the way, I agree with the Silstar recommendations... good value for money. If you can put up with a 12' rod though you'll be much better off. It doesn't sound like much but it makes a big difference on the beach... particularly to handling your line and keeping it up out of the surf as much as possible (the long rods hurt when you have a long fight with a shark or big fish though!!) Cheers, Slinky

Hey Squidboy, You'll have no problem handling a 480 on your own if you upgrade. I've had a 480 Freedom Sport for a couple of years and I get it in and out of the water by myself with no trouble at all. I'm hanging out for Little Slinky to get big enough for a boat license (10 more years!!) Cheers, Slinky

G'day mate... I actually meant that I thought you'd like the joke based on your own posts... it only dawned on me afterwards that it may have another interpretation. You're lucky with the shoe collecting though... it makes it a lot harder for Mrs Stumpy to argue about that new fishing rod. Personally, I work on the principle of having so many fishing rods that a new one is never noticed anyway. Cheers, Slinky

Taking Little Slinky out to catch her first 65+ King I hope. Cheers, Slinky

G'day Dan, Little Slinky could tell you.... it's one of the reasons she's so keen on catching kings. As said.... the most important thing is to take care of your kingies once caught. I don't bother brain spiking them but I immediately bleed them and put them in a slurry of ice and saltwater (don't put them just in ice... as it melts the fresh water doesn't do the fish any favours). Then like you thought, just fillet them, skin them & bone them. I usually cut each fillet lengthways then slice then halve each half again so I end up with 4 'slabs' from each fillet. It all tastes the same, but the prime cut comes from the top half of the fillet (only because it is a nice neat shape). Slice the slabs across the grain into pieces about 3mm thick. Make sure you serve it chilled. I've actually found that the texture of the flesh is even better if it's been in the fridge for 24 hours. I usually mix soy with about 1/4 of the amount of mirin, then tuck in with as much wasabe as you like (the Slinkettes draw the line at wasabe). Next time we're on the water together I'll wander over if you like and do one on the spot... a little bit of sauce in a container and we can live like kings (or Emperors?) on the water. Cheers, Slinky

hey Scotty, I had a Kiwi teach me how to pendulum cast years ago... the trick is that they use pretty specific gear. As well as the technique (and believe me, I'm not even close to proficient at it), they use massively powerful rod blanks. The rod my mate was using was about a 12', full graphite blank that could handle cast weights up to about 8 or 10oz from memory (it was a few years ago). Pendulum casting puts massive strain on a rod (and reel and line) and gets extra distance by converting all that extra kinetic energy into the cast. The rest of his outfit was a spinning reel with mono main line (about 20lb), and a long shock leader of heavy mono (if you don't use a shock leader, you'll probably cut your fingers off with your line). He did a lot of fishing for snapper off beaches on the west coast and could hurl baited rigs about 120-130m. Once I learned how to do it I could manage about 80-90m with his outfit.... goes to show that the technique is critical. If you want to learn ask a kiwi beach fisho but be prepared to spend big bucks on your gear. Cheers, Slinky

Hey Dan.... if they're big enough, I might just pull them out long enough to get a photo with Little Slinky then pop them back until the Social to make me look like some kind of gun fisho! (At least it might give me a chance of outfishing my 6yo daughter)

A man came home one day after work to find his wife packing her bags. "What are you doing" he asked his wife in shocked disbelief. "I'm sick of you" his wife replied "You're thoughtless, self centred and don't treat me like I'm a prosittue. I'm moving to Kings Cross and I'm going to work in a brothel. I figure if I'm going to be treated like that, I may as well get paid $150 a time to give men what I've been giving away to you for free all these years" The man immediately grabbed a suitcase and started packing too. "What do you think you're doing?" asked his wife. "I'm coming with you to see how you think you can live on $300 a year!"

What a horrible predicament. I'm sure I read somewhere that this Friday sees a conjunction of moon phase, tide, currents, water temperature and bait migration that only happens once every 200 years and that the predictions are for the fishing to be mind-blowing... particularly from 10.30 onwards. So sad I'd love to help you out but I'm working to pay the boat fuel bill on Friday. Hope someone can help you out. I'll be out with on Saturday, so i'll be missing out on the wild fishing too... oh well. Cheers, Slinky

Welcome aboard Dandas. Love your choice of ride.... had a 685 Outsider a few years back. Nice bit of kit. You'll find the Raiders a great bunch... make sure you put a sticker on your boat and you'll find whole lots of them popping over to say hi on the water and share info. See you out there. Slinky

Like with everything else in fishing... it depends! Work on the principle though of fishing as light as you can for the conditions. Soft Plastics (even for kings and snapper) are really a 'finesse' fishing style and work best when fishing light (but its all relative). You should have no problems with 10lb leader for the fishing you described. On the rare occasion I chase only bream, I'll usually fish 6lb in reasonable open water but go as high as 15-20lb around oyster racks. I always fish lighter leaders when the water is clear, the conditions calm and the sun up. You'll definitely do better on bream if you concentrate just on them, forget the flatties and therefore fish lighter. If I'm only targeting flathead I fish 15lb fluorocarbon... they've got nasty choppers that can wear through fine leader, and they seem less fussy about leaders than bream. 10lb is a good compromise giving you reasonable finesse but a better chance on flatties. For kings around harbour markers I usually fish at least 20lb and sometimes (if its not too still and bright), I'll even fish 40lb. In open water with surface fish, sometimes I drop down to as little as 10lb just to get takes. Given that you're pretty new to it, spend some time fishing Iron Cove or Hen & Chicken bay to get used to it. The fish are prolific, both flatties and bream, the water is usually a bit discoloured so the fish are less spooky, and they're great spots build your confidence. Cheers, Slinky

Just wanted to see whether I'm the only one who loves the fact that fishing seems to bring out the best in people in a way which sadly seems to be disappearing from a lot of the rest of the world. Just surfing this site shows example after example of people selflessly helping strangers (like Team Upyago, the angels of the waterways for broken down boats!!), people generously giving their time and their expertise to help those of us with less skill and experience, people like the admins and mods working in behalf of hordes of often unknown people who just happen to share an interest, and genuine praise and respect for all and sundry for whatever small or large achievements they make in fishing. When was the last time much of that sort of behavior was evident in the wider community? On the water, complete strangers talk to each other, help each other out, share info/gear/bait/secrets, make friends.... when was the last time that happened on public transport? Yesterday, I had one of Fishraider's true gentleman (thanks Jewgaffer) share his time and knowledge after offering me his phone number just so I could have a chat about stuff that I was interested in. It may be a bit daggy but I love the fact that fishing seems a bastion of 'old fashioned values'. If the world was only populated by fisherman we could still go out and leave our houses unlocked, we'd still all say please and thankyou, we'd still all respect each other, we'd still all be tolerant and patient, we'd still all spend time with our families, and we'd still live in a community instead of suburbs. At least one community still welcomes all of us.... if just happens to be on the water and in those places, like Raider, where we can block out the real world for a while and live in a better one. See you on the water. Slinky

I got a Berkley Drop Shot 7'2" 2-4kg stick last year and it's now my favourite light spin stick. Unbelievable value at only a tad over $100. It throws little plastics a country mile but handles small metals as well... heaps of low down grunt. I now use it in preference to a couple of more expensive spin rods. I got myself a 7'6" 6-8kg Drop Shot for plastics for kings too because I like its baby brother so much. Cheers, Slinky