King slayer

I fish un-weighted when ever the opportunity presents it self, and I love it. You really know those Parra Jewies eh! Good work.

Yeah, I can't see the point in keeping sick fish in a tank for eating. if you know your fish husbandry, you'd see diseases on most fish in a restaurant window and I wouldn't touch them. They would be soooo much better straight from the ocean, or even frozen!! I kept some healthy bream once as an experiment for about six months. they ate prawns mostly, then I released them happily. I had toad fish and a couple of others which faded in captivity, but the bream were quite healthy. Kingies??? I used to volunteer at Ocean World some years back, we released heaps of kingies into the main tank and they eventually were killed off by a worm of some sort, then the sharks cleaned them up I think. It was fun feeding them from the surface though, I was worried about loosing a finger with the way they fed! Dave

yeah Hodgey, We've all felt the frustration of not getting into the fish and to read about someone else's success can be a tease, but I've learned one thing since being a member of this site, make friends first, give a little and have fun. You will improve by your own sweat, a little help from your friends and you'll be all the better and more proud for it. Guys who catch lots of good fish, rarely do it by accident. It's all about the journey. Dave

Thanks guys, I'm sure a lot of others will gain from this info as well. I'll try this out on Saturday. Just look for the post "Massive Kings everywhere!" Dave

That is pretty promising ey! I got a few some weeks back in 15.5 degrees and thought I was doing well. I've since spotted a few lurking though and didn't pickem up. Soo excited about spring/summer. Still, I don't really care if it's so cold I can't feel my fingers, just so long as the wind is good to me. Nice one Netic. Dave

Hey Brickman, How'd you do?

Hey Raiders, After reading Netic's unusually good report for the kingies on the weekend, It got me wondering about wrecks in the harbour. I know they can be great fishing, but I only know of a few. Does any one know if there is publicly available information on the location of these wrecks? I am assuming for now it's all about finding them one by one by chance or a friendly word in your ear. I did once come across a 3D image of the harbour with one wreck visible, but it was hardly comprehensive. Any body have anything to add here? Cheers all, Dave

I was sinking a beer as the storm came over and said to my mate, "This is the best time to be out on the water, I bet the predators are going nuts!". Sure enough the evidence. How close to the storm were they biting?

I'll be out in the harbour. looks like a likely Jewie type morning to me. We'll see. In the harbour as usual. My mate tells me the yellow marker is back nearhe slimey quarantine?? Sounds likely. Maybe the kings will show up anyhow! At least we know the slimeys and trevally are around if we get bored. I can't resist regardless of a little breeze since I've been off the water for two weeks and my last session was painfully short. Good luck Gary, might see you out there! What's your boat name? I'll say G'day! Ours has no name, just a 4m tinny with a shiny new mercury 30 on the back and about fifty rods in the holders

Chasing squid is on the cards for many a Sydney fisho as a prelude to a jew or kingie session, or snapper etc off shore. I only really started to get into this seroiusly this year and have come to think of it as one of the most enjoyable parts of the fishing adventure. My mates and I have grown accustomed to getting out of bed at absurd hours to jig squid from the spit and around the shores before sun up, and have often been rewarded with beutiful fish later in the day we would have not come across if not for the fresh and live squid in the tank. Slinky's methods are very much like ours and I can definately vouch for the stimulate. I have a paternoster jig set up with two jigs, one cloth body and one smooth, so the scent only goes on the cloth one. This is the one that gets hit 90% of the time, but I leave the other one on for variety. I tend to reload every 10 or so casts or after a drift. Definately good advice to have 'squid only' voyages to learn the spots, that way you're not hurrying to get to the big boys and you will learn more. Take note of depth, time of day/night, tide and movement, light levels, water temp and time of year etc etc and just like any other species, if you practice in the one area and master it, it will be worth a lot to you for years to come. Dave

Yellow tail were the first fish I ever learned to master as a small child on the Manly 16ft Skiff club jetty. My method was always to use very small squid pieces on a size 12 longshank hook, making sure the barb is well exposed and a tiny split shot sinker back from the hook with around 6lb hand line. The biggest secret to hooking them is to watch the bait closely, and as it disappears from view, give a very light lift to set the hook and bring him up. This works really well when they are finicky. Also helps to have your bait right in the cloud of burley so they don't consider it too much. When they're hungry of course, like all through summer it's sabiki down fish up and the tanks full in ten minutes!

One Meter YYYeeess!! I'm there on Friday night and for the following 6 nights. It's hard to time it right when you book ahead as we did this year. Normally I just go with my mate when it's goos as he has a house near by. This trip is family time, so it's all a bit different! I may not be having 3 Hefeweizens for morning tee each day. Dave

Sooo happy, the snow has finally come. I have a family holiday booked on two weeks and I've been watching the snow cam and nearly crying. But now it's awsome, snow everywhere. Thick, wet base snow. And top ups to come. In two weeks I'll be carving some awsome white stuff. Bring on the rock garden!! Anyone else getting up to the peaks?

Clontarf pool was producing well last weekend. It's bee so hard lately though.

Hi Raiders, I have decided to venture into new territory and try for snapper off longy. Kings too of course. The method of choice will be to find a nice drop off, possibly anchor up, and start a pilly trail. Will suspend livies off the bottom for possible kings and float baits for snapper. For all the raider who know the spot, is there a good place to try for livies? or should we just cruise around looking for schools on the sounder? Do we need to go far off the point to find good spots? I'm assuming the good fishing is close in. I shall have to purchase a gps by next week to mark the spot where I will catch the 10kg snapper and 1m King!! All info appreciated. Cheers all.

Good day out Gary, I was reading about snapper today in a new mag i bought and I've decided to give longy a crack next week. It's great to hear about kings around there too. I take it you had no livies? Does any one know of a good method or spot for livies around longy? I imagine you could just search for a school of slimeys or yakkas, but I've never fished there. My tactic will be loads of burley (pillies etc) and light weights floated for the snapper with livies suspended below. Tell me, would this tactic be better at anchor around longy or on a drift Gary? Dave

To any doubters, John Dory is an awesome tasting fish IMO. I have only ever had the pleasure in a restaurant and am equally keen to get one in the boat. To you previously successfull Dory catchers I have a few queries: I have heard that small live yakkas are the go for bait, but are they a common by-catch for the winter night time jew fisho on heavy gear? I have read that they hang around jetties, moorings and reef, so I would assume most jew grounds are also Dory possibilities? and what about broken reef like at Pickering point for example. Water depth? I'm out for a low tide Jew on Saturday and I would be pretty happy with a Dory as well, so if I discover anything, I'll put it up. Cheers raiders. Dave

Ok guys here are those pics. Don't know what happened. Hey Byron, good advice there mate. I'm generally pretty good with leaving the rods alone till they're hooked up though. We also left two other rods out with big butterflied mullet and whole pillie, but no takers there. We've been hopeless with livies of late. I think it has a bit to do with the activity on the day we go out and they're all hanging out somewhere that we aren't. We usually manage a bigger Cowan young or tailor, but those buggers are so hard to keep in place and always tangle the other lines. Still, we keep on trying. Hey..what else are we gonna do?? No more wasted calamari bits for me.

Hey raiders, Excuse the late post but I guess i just work too hard when I'm not fishing. So we started the morning at a gentlemanly hour for once (5.30am in the water), and went off to get a squid or two. Turns out we only could get one decent calamari off Balmoral and no yakkas for us for the third trip in a row for me! Anyhow so my theory was that with the super clear water the bait fish and therefor predators might have made their way up river a bit. So we zoomed right up MH with the idea to try for a yakka or slimey up in Killarney. No goods, but a guy we met at the jetty said he got a stack of big slimeys there the night before. So it was off to a new location we had been told to check out in the area. I'll say this much to all but those closest: What the Gaffer says about the green markers is GOOD advice. I would have never tried this spot. So we are off the point about 50 meters in about 12m deep water and action on the sounder at about one hour before the high. Put out the squid head with 8/0 hook and some other selections out on other rods. TheSquid head got smashed after a minute or two but no hook up and my heart is pumping now. My mate Brett is telling me to calm down, but I get so hyped, especially after a drought. The bait was un damaged so back it went with the hope of a jewie. Smashed again after ten minutes or so and after a good battle (Pulling around 7kg of drag no worries) i pulled up a fat 74cm Kingie OOOhh now I'm excited. With blood all over me and a huge smile I quickly pull the squid tube out, remove the wings and skin, over they go (everyone knows they aren't much good for bait right?) and cut up some strips. First strip down on the 8/0 and soon after....smashed and no hook up. Re baited and again after a while and once again no hook up....FFFF....shhhh...AAAhh, you know! I finally caught on that I needed a smaller hook for the kings and after switching to a 5/0 Gamakatsu my second last strip goes down and maybe ten minutes after....OOhh yeah its on again. This bugger wrapped it self around ALL our lines on the way up, but that was hardly an issue as I pulled him out. Funny thing was and this is new to me, I had him foul hooked through the eye! He was 72cms and not as fat. Amongst all this we are also playing around with the bream gear and Brett got absolutely done over on 3kg line by one of these beasts. It took a tiny piece of squid on a size 1 and reefed him after a minute or so. I reckon he did well to last that long. He did manage to pull up a nice Blue swimmer though! By this time the squid was all gone and pillies were not producing the goods. We pretty much headed home via some other spots, but with out good bait it was just beer and fresh air...Not too bad really. The final surprise for the day was the gut contents of the second King. He had in his gut: The wings of the squid which I threw out and my two missing strips in his gut that i lost before changing the hook size! See the pic below. Cheers all. Dave

Good one Zenman, That's one monster of a flattie! I agree, flattie might be boring to fight, but they just taste soooo good. We tried on Sunday with pillies and no jews for us.

Zenman, that's awsome! So much better than no action at all. I think I might hit middle harbour on Sunday if I am trapped inside by the wind (I'm hoping for a Browns mission with a fellow raider). Do you reckon a king took it? A pillie cube? Sounds like a massive jewie I reckon. You'll get him next time mate.

Mate I've been trying for years. My conclusion is that they move out of the harbour and by the millions of them in there, they must mostly get munched on their way through the heads by something big and in the mood for a tasty, spikey meal. Imagine if all those pinkies grew to 50cm plus and stuck around!! Wow. Still sometimes guys gettem big inside.

I own a tinny with a mate and we could never agree on a name. I wanted 'Mine's bigger', 'Snapper on', 'King slayer', 'Massive Rod', or 'Baby Snapper'. I don't get it, I reckon at least one of those is good!!

Wow what a weekend! God to see the hoodies are there, even if they are unstoppable. You said the rigger was at 40 feet. How deep was the bottom?

Thanks for the offer Slinky, but since then we've added so mant=y thing to the tinnie it would probably sink if we [put on one more addition , no room either. Thought is well appreciated however. Thanks again.