King slayer

Hit middle harbour last night (Sunday) in my mates tinnie for the evening high. I got to tunks ramp before my mate (Brent) who had the boat, so I started catching a few of the MILLIONS of poddie mullet that were nearly eating out of my hand. Caught 10 or so by the time Brent arrived with the boat. Added these to the two big bully's I caught a few hours earlier (couldn't quite keep them alive) and off to the spot as the tide was turning in one hours time. Sent out two livies and a fillet and waited. The first livie to go off soon after was mine and a little whaler came boat side and self released with my hook in it. Soon after I picked up the slab just to check it and up came a big male blue swimmer! Happy with that one tied up in the box, we were just talking about how good this spot is with this being the second visit and both productive....Gotta love that. The tide turned at 9pm and by 10.40 I said I'd better go soon sinc I had work the next morning at 7. Sure enough after saying that out loud, my rod gets a good hit and a miss hookup Not 5 seconds later, Brents rod goes off and he's on ....65cm jewie comes into view. At this point, and after he's safely aboad we were man hugging and woohooing quite a bit. Packed up soon after with no more hits. One thing that did strike me was that we got him 2 hours into the run out, one night after full moon, albeit in deep water. that's two rules bent if you read those books. I have noticed a few raiders getting jew in the rivers lately no where near the tide turn. I guess all rules will be broken!? This was a very special capture for my friend Brent who has put in many hours over the last year in search of a jew, and this was it. Well done buddy When asked was it all worth it? he said without hesitation, "Hell yeah!". I know what he means. Sorry no pics yet. Till next week! Dave

Mate, you're in for a great holiday. I went there with the family a few years ago. Went on a charter off KI, I'll send a PM. Big snapper and king george whiting there. Rough seas too, so take the tablets. I recomend you visit McClaren Vale too, best Shiraz in the world! Drop in to Brians olive shop in McClarenvale and tell him Dave Cornell said G'Day, he's a top bloke, big food and wine buff and my mum's cousin. Have fun mate. Dave

I wonder how long it will be till that is banned too, 'for our own safety'!!

That first kingie was well earned there mate by your smart thinking. well done. Sounds like a fantastic way to begin your addiction to the mighty king of the harbour!! Cheers, Dave

Hey Raiders, Hit the harbour yesterday with two mates. The plan was to get plenty of live squid and yakkas and try some pre selected spots for jew at the tide change and kings after that. Two of us (me and Brent-AKA BigB) started the morning at 4am from tunks and 2.5hrs later we had no squid! Tried the spit and our usual sure spots in north harbour, but nothing at all. Picked up Brett from Manly about 6.30. Brett came with a spare battery cause the two we brought were flat!! well it was flat too and poor preparation had once again come to bite us We knew of a good spot for tiny yakkas lately so picked up a hand full of them before heading of to try a good daylight location for some squid. We were more confident now as daytime is far more successful for us on the calamari, plus we has Brett on board (we call him the 'Calamari Kid', cause he usually out fishes us in that department. As were about to deploy jigs we spotted diving birds and just had to throw the pre rigged poppers at the action. First cast and Brett has been dive bombed by one of the birds which was too fast for him to pull the lure away from. at least twenty minutes of delicate surgery later, he flew off happily. We were out of time by then for squid so took our yakkas to the spot for jew. Set up and put out a bait selection of mullet head, live yakkas and pillies. First hook up was Brett with a nice 52cm Flattie, caught on two pillies pinned through the eye on a single hook. Brent had multiple big hits on the yakkas and despite trying everything from holding the rod, bait runner on, locked drag, not holding the rod etc, kept missing them. We eventually changed the hook, which was quite sharp, to a lighter gauge, but the fish went off the bite after that. I had the excact same set up on the back of the boat and it went un touched. Incidentally, the hits all came straight after I dropped a burley bomb down. We could not find any more yakkas in the vicinity, only tonnes of jelly fish, and so took what we had left to some king spots. Tried briefly and burleyed a few spots for no hits and eventually jackets destroyed our last livies. What a beautiful day on the water, and next time we'll get those buggers with some fresh squid! Big thanks to Zenman for the recent info shared which we put into practice to today. Cheers, Dave

Wasn't a squidgy jig head by any chance? I've had those straighten before, now I don't use them in the light gauge.

Interesting belt there Byron, I am just imagining you standing on the shore with hree rods attached to you thrown out in different directions to cover the area nicely I think my mate Brett would say that I should do that cause he thinks I bring too many rods....but hey, I say, Like Bayden Powell, "always be prepared". Dave

I will call him....MiniJew.

There are many many factors that will influence a bite. Water temp is a big one for sure, the moon I'm slightly skeptical of, but in the shallows with a full blaring moon over head, night fishing can definitely be harder. Also Baromatic pressure, wind speed and direction, salinity, coud cover and on and on..and then some more stuff we don't know about too. Try searching these forums on each topic as much has been said about this stuff in the past. Dave

So weak.....I'll be there at 4am with no feeling in my hands! Seriously though, I'm in. I love with middle harbour and fishing for jew there. Infact I'll be doing just that on Saturday morning if anyone want's to team up?! Dave

Hate work, love fishing. Love it even more when it replaces work! Nice catch there Ray. What a way to spend the arvo! Dave

Thanks Grant, I'll do that. Have you experienced it land based or from the boat?

Hi Raiders, I live pretty close to the upper section of Lanecove river, and I was wondering if any raiders have had success, particularly on Jew in the region up river from lillypilly bridge to the weir. There are always heaps of big and small mullet at the weir and lots of small-medium bream too. Looking at Google Earth, the river looks likely, but I have no idea about depth as I haven't fished any part except the very end near the weir, and then only for mullet. I doubt jew or Flathead would be up so far with a fair amount of fresh often coming over the weir, but who knows. A glance down river from Epping road looks like it opens up a little and might have some deep water with cliffs etc. What I'd like to try is live mullet along the river somewhere if there are likely Jew spots there. I know one Raider, Braddles had a good capture some time ago at the Lillypilly bridge with squid I think.. Anyway if anyone has anything to share on the subject, I'd love to hear about your experiences. Cheers all. Dave

Hi Musty, Swell prediction was much smaller than what came up, and it was calm and flat all day till then. Still, we are a little green and still have lessons to learn. We are generally quite safety conscious and one of us will watch the water if the other can't etc. Don't want to end up like those guys the other day.... Dave

Congratulations mate, I think you and I are in a similar place with the jew having spent the last year or more putting in all the time we can etc and learning all the way. It's a fun journey with many more milestones to come. Keep putting in the effort (if you're like me, you can't help it anyway) and you'll be tangling with the monsters. Cheers, Dave

Hi all, I decided to take a protest pubic holiday today, so me and a mate (Brett) went for a rock fish at north head. The initial target was snapper, since the rough waters had just calmed. Brett ended up with one under size fairly soon after sunrise, but that was it. I tried targeting kings but we had no livies and poppers were not doing it, nor were stick baits. We made the call to climb out of there, find some livies and try a likely spot a few beaches north where we have seen some big kings lately. Got 8 yakkas and headed off around 12 ish via Bretts place for a few tinnies. A couple of whoppers were following Bretts popper in one spot so we threw our livies out there. After some waiting my rod goes off and I spot a rat king on the end. I would normally curse at this but I have never managed a king off the rocks, having only tried a few times, so I was pretty excited. What came next was far more exciting though....The Rat was followed to the surface, not three meters from the rocks by a school of what can only be descibed as Hoodlums! A few over a meter at least and there were 10-12 of these. Some how the smallest one had taken my bait..typical.. Anyhow I kept him in the water for a bit but Brett had no luck on the followers. As I was getting ready to throw the fish back after landing him (my first off the rocks, a proud moment ), he jumped out of my hands into a crevice! While trying to save him, Brett calls out WATCH OUT! and I scrambled up high as a big wave rolled up, freeing the fish, and also my rod and reel into the drink! I threw out the popper and luckily managed to hook it back in, but that wasn't the end of the trouble........The same wave had knocked all our gear of the rocks and was floating in a rock pool behind! We could only laugh. As I retrieved my bag with phone etc all soaked and picked my jig heads etc out of the bottom of the pool I found some other peoples tackle there too! so it looks like we're not the only idiots . Oh yeah and we caught a longtom, about 50cm, not by hook, he got his beak caught in my braid! Another guy set up there ten minutes later and before we had time to warn him, his gear was floating too. It was then time to give up as the livies were gone and the kingies still being aloof. Next time those fish will have live squid in their face and lets see the hoodlums resist that ay! Cheers Raiders

Thanks Byron, Thats great information for all of us to keep in mind, and very helpful. I'll mention my recent report of Middle harbour Jew and that is none since December for me. I do try fairly often from shore in a few select spots, usually right up river, but have not had anything to report. I have ended up with PB Flathead and bream while trying though. I tried again last night at clontarf with a mate, we used mullet fillet, salted, and squid. No good. I never give up though! I need to do some boat missions to increase the odds I think. Cheers, Dave

monday looks good. Westerly and small seas. good for an Eastern facing deep water drop off. That's what I'll be doing anyhow. Decided on a Protest public holiday, since I'm the boss!!

227 Flathead!! wow. Sounds like a good time. You sure have some fishing stamina Bob. Dave

Mate, Mosman is full of pinheads like this guy. one day he'll get shoved into the water by some over aggresive dude. Good on you for holding back, I doubt I could have. Dave

Stonker Drummer mate! My mate loves the cooked prawn baits too. I thought he was mad until he pulled a great drummer up in front of me after 5 mins! They're strong fighters, dirty too. I plan to get into a few over winter. Dave

Thanks for the info guys, Seems like it's he right time to be throwing out my mullet baits eh! Let's see what happens tomorrow night I have a Land session planned. Dave

That's right, I've seen, caught and heard of a lot of good fish at those locations, and big one's too. You need to get a book or two and some dvd's (see local tackle store) for local ideas and species, this will be a very good start. My advice after that is get to know your spot well, try different rigs, baits and techniques until you crack the code, then you will start to do really well. I suggest targeting bream and flathead for starters in the shallow waters eg.Tunks and Roseville. Hope this helps a bit. Dave

Hi Raiders, I was wondering when the mulllet run happens in The harbour and surrounding beaches. I have some fresh caught bully's and am looking for the most likely spot to throw them out at this time of year for Jews. I've heard of the Mullet run, but don't know and can't seem to find dates etc. Anyone have experience with jews on mullet baits at particular times of the year or types of spot e.g.Beach in June etc? Dave

I often fish up stream at Roseville, which get's pretty brown after rain. What I have found is that the smaller fish dissappear and the big ones are still there and with less competition, so that's what I catch. I have pulled a jewie out of there in chocolate water at low tide, and a stonker flattie in water not much clearer. The advantage that the water up there might have over other rivers is the very deep water in middle harbour which takes a lot of fresh to really go brown so I guess it cleans it out quickly too, and the fish would know this and might not bother moving too far. Just theories though. Dave