King slayer

Hey raiders, I was hoping for a little assistance on the topic of squidding in the harbour. Firstly I am of the impression that squid only hang out at night where it's lit up, e.g. the spit. Is this right? I've been having reasonable luck at some lit up structure at night but was wondering if there are other places to try pre-dawn. Also my squid that I always work so hard for seem to get killed so easily by bloody pickers , and i wonder why i bothered! leaving yakka's as the main bait, and as you know very quick and easy to catch. should I just stop bothering with the squid, get a few extra hours sleep and sick to yakkas? I'm talking about bait for kings here by the way. What do you guys reckon?

Yeah, we did better than ever on the squid actually, which was cool, but it all turned into a let down after not even a touch at three different spots and again back to the old favourite. Those swimmers (Bridge to beach swim) were going right past us, I wonder if that had some effect? nothing but pinkies killing our beautiful squid. Saw some other guys pulling a few in at Clifton Gardens, but they went off the bite after we arrived ..oh well. Next week eh!

Taking out the new tinny If we have it ready by then. Look out for the VERY shiny 395 stacer with 2 excited young fisho's wrestling with the harbour beasts. Going for some kings (hopefully my mates first one!) Sunday morning. Hope this race business isn't going to cause too much trouble. maybe we'll see some of you guys on the water. Happy fishing everyone!

What a fish! Great effort mate. I take it your boss isn't a raider?? You certainly picked the right weather for a day off. It's good to see people focused on the important things in life: 1. Fishing 2. Getting one over your mates

I have spoken with other aquarists in the past about this and first thing is that some fish just wont live in the fresh (Jew and crab??), but bream are ok, at least as juveniles. the method is to change it very slowly, and on way I was told was to have a very slow drip set up so it feeds into the tank and water is allowed to over flow somewhere else. So do this for a week or so and test the water with a hydrometer as it progresses to monitor the salt content. I would suggest leaving a certain amount of salt content in though. Hope this helps.

Not much of an expert here, but I have noticed recently when live baiting for kings I was using 6/0 hoodlums and my mate who had finer and smaller hooks on was getting more action with rigs that were otherwise very similar. So since I have switched to 4/0 Mustad big guns and I have certainly noticed happier and longer living livies..I'm assuming because of a thinner gauge, and my theory is that the fish will be less reluctant to strike if they see less metal. I should also mention that i have started to prefer the practice of hooking the livies through the back of the neck as aposed to the nose (because I loose alot) or further back, since i read that kings prefer to swallow yakkas head first. So this may also influence things.

That's it.. I'm buying some jigs. Very nice effort.

What a thumper! Well done. Reading stories like that makes it very hard to concentrate on anything but the next outing.

I'm assuming you have some sort of vessel for the trip?? If so, and I'm only a green horn mind you, but I seem to find 'em most times out a little further around the markers and structure in the main harbour. I hear about middle harbour kings all the time but the main harbour hardly ever lets me down. Happy Kinging!

Does every one else know where this spot X is except me?? Love a hint

Yeah there's nothing quite like our beautiful harbour right on the edge of a cracker storm and to top it off you have the place to your self. Also makes a great time for a swim too I find Nice kings. I wonder if they'll be around for the weekend after all the fresh water??

Wow it's beautiful there. There's little to top a quiet session on a country river spinning for little gems like those one'syou got. I love spinning for trout in the snowies when ever I can, it's just magic! Well done on the cod, I'll have a go on them one day.

Mate my heart was racing just reading that one. What a battle! It was an un-expected hook up like that (and a very abrupt bust off) at the wedding cake which promted me to up the size of my gear substantially so I could land 'em. You've done well.

Well done, I felt just the same after my first king, I was shaking like an exited puppy . Still a Jew virgin though. I'll get there one day..hopefully soon. Good stuff

Hi Lancer, Glad you enjoyed the show . Me and my regular fishing mate have ordered (Finally) a new tinny, which is a bit bigger, new and should be a whole lot more comfortable. Be out there in a few weeks to test her out after a bit of time in the work shop.

OK here are the pics: My double hook up (smaller one released) and broken rod The days catch

Looks like you were right next to me (did you spot the double hook up/tangle/broken rod ) Well done, it was a fantastic day for fishing the harbout today.

Yeah a new rod's definately on the cards now. What do you guys use on these harbour ledgends?

The pics are on my new phone and I haven't worked out how to get them onto the computer yet. I'll put them up if I figure it out.

Hi Raiders, Didn't quite have the spare time to attend the social today, (even though it would have been nice to meet some of you guys since i'm only a newby), so I decided to just use the precious time I had for the kings, my new favourite adversary. I was by my self since my mates all had other stuff on, so Iwent out any way. After picking up plenty of livies and one little squid, it was off to my favourite spot X (Though not much of a secret). Quickly pulled in two nice little sampsons and I would have been fairly happy with that, but it gets better. It all went quiet for a while so I thought I'd join the 500 other guys at OMH, but i got over that pretty quickly. I was almost going to head back in when I decided to give my fav spot one more go with my last hour of available time. Down go the livies and bang! I'm on to a fierce king , he went about 67cm. I wasn't really expecting it cause the other guys around were all a bit quiet. Still quite shaky from the battle I got my breath back the two lines go back down. not ten minutes passes when WHACK off goes the same rod and another even stronger beast (went about 70cms) makes it into the boat after some great runs (much respect to these fish). I thought surely that would be it fot the morning, but stuck on a couple more livies and downed lines. Was heading for the phone to brag to one of my mates who normally comes out with me and after one ring...s#@^ I threw down the phone as my rod doubles over again. By this stage a few others around were cheering me on and one guy yells out: "Mate you've got two on". I looked over and my second rod was jumping around, yelled out to the on-lookers.. Help! I think it must have been amusing to watch me struggle around the tinny like that.. Double hook up! My first on a solo mission. So I pulled up the first one which by this time was of course tangled around the other, the leader broke right at the end, but I already had my had on it by then, so in he came. with shaky hands undid the tangle and at that moment realised the second king had broken my rod and was still on! So fought him for a good while and finally he comes in and he's a biggun, well for me anyway at 76cms and my new PB Took a quick pic of the broken rod and the two kings that nearly gave me a heart attack and decided to release the first one since I already has three plus the Sampsons. He swam off happily and I was left with one broken rod, and my other with the leader detached. Had run out of time and anyway my esky was getting pretty full. So off I went back to the ramp to make it back to my dear wife by the promised time. Had a lot of fun today and spotted some raiders out too (I think). Wish I had time for the social, but will definately try harder next time one's on. Cheers all and see you on the water next time!

Tank looks great, I've built three versions over the last four weks trying to get it right, and i'm getting close now. One problem you may find is your tank might siphon back through the inlet pipe unless you have a oneway valve. For this reason I have my inlet at the same level as the out let, and If I want to direct water downways I can add an elbow, not that I have needed to.My livies stay so happy I wonder if they prefer it to the ocean . I use a 64L esky and a 500 gallon pump, works a treat.!