Josh88

I Think the lack of posts may also have something to do with everyone going back to work and school, but you're probably right, inside the harbour it has been a bit better than this at times throughout summer but i like autumn for fishing, the fish always seem to be at their fattest stocking up before winter sets in. Cheers Josh

You certainly can mate, and they will hold on the hooks better than pilchards will. You can use any of the methods of cutting them up you mentioned with yakkas without a problem. Cheers Josh

We had Snapper, John Dory, Silver Trevs and Kingfish as Sashimi in NZ, the kings and trevs being recognised as good sashimi fish were good as you'd expect but the john dory and snapper were also very nice which was a surprise, i think the trick to it is slicing it ridiculously thin, then some good soy and hot wasabi.

Cant be true, you'd be hard pressed to find a kingfish over 60kg in most places let alone Sydney. Im guessing the 'Kg' got mixed up with 'cm'.

Hi all, Got back from our trip to the bay of islands on thursday night and it sure was a great trip, we achieved our goals of catching some good snapper and kings but unfortunately fell an agonising 1cm short of the metre king. We went out on 3 charters during the 6 days we were there all with the same guy, he was an awesome bloke and really knew what he was talking about, speaking to a lot of locals they all agreed he is the guy to go with as quite often the other boats can be a bit "all the gear no idea". Here are some pictures of our catches, I fished with my brother and step dad whilst there: He was good enough to even dive down for us and pick up a dozen of the best tasting crayfish you will ever have These were the biggest kings we got, they ranged between 95-99cm so we were more than happy. As i said it was a great trip and we're already planning to do it again this time next year. Cheers Josh

Hey everyone, We're heading to the bay of islands NZ on saturday hopefully to tangle with some big kings and snapper but when we get back we are staying at Pearl Beach for a week. Im a bit of a novice beach fisherman so any help you'd be willing to lend in relation to fishing Pearl Beach would be greatly appreciated. We'll have the boat up there as well and will launch from Patonga so will be fishing all round that area, Brisbane Waters, Broken Bay and Pittwater, I know all the systems well, just haven't fished them too frequently. So any info you could provide mainly for Pittwater would be very helpful, main target will be Kings but Im sure we'll have a crack for a Jewie at some point, hopefully i'll of gotten my hands on a downrigger or 2 for the boat by then as well. Cheers Josh

My mates know me all to well as you can see

Thankyou guys, Greg had a big party at my house last night and still not in the best shape at the moment but nothing that a few kings tomorrow can't fix up Cheers Josh

Havent tried them raw! But seen a few good looking recipes recently so may be worth a try, still prefer my kingfish though

Geez thats a bit unnerving, I swim at clontarf a fair bit Doesnt look like a thresher, tail isnt long enough and the body doesnt seem round or stubby enough.....hard to pick maybe a large school shark?? Josh

The boat had been in for a service all week so when i went to pick it up today with Bayview ramp only a minute away i couldnt resist a quick bash despite conditions. Went out from Bayview engine was running beautifully, new impeller installed and something else but i wasnt really listening to what he said, anyway headed up Pittwater and saw 2 birds sitting on the water, decided to stop and see what they were up to, sure enough a few seconds later some decent splashes appear. I couldnt pick what they were at first but a hook up first cast sure was nice, it wasn't really going so i was thinking o great another tailor.....then it woke up and gave me a bit of stick so i thought must be a salmon, got it closer and saw it circling, had some size to it so i was thinking mack tuna but turned out to be the biggest bonnie i'd ever caught. Only a 60cm fish but it was thick as, certainly the biggest ive seen up close. Not the greatest pic but i wanted to pop him back and get a few more. Got a couple more then headed up pittwater marking a few spots on the sounder, came across a stack of birds going ballistic but they were only baby tailor, got a few in...they didnt even take drag. Continued to head further up Pittwater as I'd gotten some new spray covers fitted over the front rails of the boat so we can venture out a little bit more and i was keen to give them a work out. They worked very nicely catching the spray that previously went through the bars and soaked us. Thought i may as well try and get some calamari for dinner, was certainly having luck with my first casts today, jagged a very nice squid straight away and it had a partner of similar size following it out but i didnt have another jig rigged up and in the hurry of trying to get the jig back in the water i forgot to put the lid on the bait tank and sure enough the white boat became black pretty quick. Couldnt find that squid again so tried another spot, picked up a nice little live bait size so thought i would try for kings quickly, did a few drifts but had no luck other than a bloody octopus that held onto the squid head up to the boat. Still great to get out there after not having the boat for a few days, back into the harbour kings next week. Cheers Josh

Nice work Jim, the weather certainly didn't seem to turn the fish off today, there were plenty of them around. Hopefully get into them next week. Cheers Josh

Looks like you had a good day out Doug, thats a good king how long was he? Cheers Josh

Harbour mate, the number of kings in there is certainly on the increase which is good to see. Boats getting serviced monday so will be out of action for a couple of days but straight back into it after that. Cheers Josh

Great session Jim, im sure we'll do it again sometime in the near future.

Started off great with a squid first cast, tried getting yakkas as well but sweep everywhere. Eventually got half a dozen yakkas and continued squidding, got a call from a mate that said the kings were on so we headed over to join him and got in on the action. Must of caught 20+ kings on everything from squid flaps to jigs and sluggos, it was one of the best sessions ive had in a long time. Hooking up just about every drift, mostly on rats but the odd bigger one, kept 4 fish around 70s for dinner and got dusted by a few bigger ones as well. Played with these kings for a few hours then headed back in to have a long sleep. Cheers Josh

Thought that hull and layout looked all too familiar to me

Could also consider plastic, we have a Triumph 170CC, its a good boat and its tough as hell, watch their videos it takes a hell of a lot to damage these boats in any way. The one thing that does put me off it a bit when using it are the very low sides, which make it a good estuary boat but once you're through the heads you start to struggle a bit. Cheers Josh

Thanks guys, I've thrown just about every conceivable lure i have at these salmon and certainly get more attention on the small plastics. A lot of the time im positioning the boat and my mates are the ones getting the shots at the fish and they not very experienced so it takes a while to teach them how to retrieve etc...and you end up not getting many good chances yourself. As for that bloody cuttlefish, i knew something was up because he hadn't squirted or flinched once getting into the boat or in the tank when i got him out, the second he saw a chance for freedom he took it....smart little bugger. Cheers Josh

Hit the harbour today, had to pick my mates up from right up the harbour so plan was to just go straight after pelagics and get squid later. Found a few schools early on but they were a bit scarce and it was hard to get a shot in. Eventually got a few hook ups but lost the fish, as i got those closer they looked like trevally, a bit unexpected. Anyway the tailor soon fired up and were tightly packed across a distance of about a few footy fields in front of circular quay so we chased some smaller schools outside the no drifting zone until the main pack came out, caught about 30-40 tailor all 40cm+ and made for some fun on the light gear. Went after some squid after that and managed to get one biggy cuttlefish, went and dropped anchor ready to put him to use, have him on the bait board, bend over to pick up the knife only to watch him squirt his ink and propel himself to freedom...i was less than happy seeing that was the only we had. Found a patch of salmon but they were quite picky, heaps of follows but just cannot entice them to strike...any ideas?? Cheers Josh

I wouldnt imagine its that bad, when you see people keeping half a dozen bream to eat considering they feed near the bottom frequently and would be more exposed to dioxin crap than most other fish, then you have tailor who seem to spend most of their time feeding on whitebait on the surface then i reckon you'd be fine. I just don't keep tailor as im not a great fan of eating them. Cheers Josh

They were pretty frustrating, the amount of follows from the salmon then they would shy away at the last second, it was crazy, fussy tailor as well...never thought i'd see the day. Are there any slimies in the harbour atm Greg? Cheers Josh

Hey guys, Living up life after hsc, fished the harbour today with a couple of mates, things started great we got some nice small yakkas easily and had a few kings crusing around where we caught our yakkas, then got some nice squid quickly and as we were about to go after some more squid the kings pop up, quite shy and sporadic though and we didnt get a good shot at them. Saw birds in the distance and found a really tightly packed bunch of good salmon, got follows on stickbaits initally but they wouldn't touch a single thing for over an hour and a half, moved over to another school of tailor and they were a bit easier and we got a few in, big ones about 55cm but im not a fan so back in the drink. Even the tailor were rejecting our lures which made things frustrating. Went and set some baits for kings, had a school of what i think was tailor pop up next to the boat at anchor and harrassed the yakka but didnt touch any baits. Tried a few more spots to no avail, then saw the salmon pop back up and chased them for a few hours and pulled in half a dozen or so good salmon, they were only around 60cm but boy were they thick and strong, these were 6lb fish and they gave us the run around. Hook ups were infrequent and we got a ridiculous amount of follows but just couldnt tempt them to have that last dig at it no matter what we tried. Threw a live yakka out amongst them and of all things we get an octopus...... my mate was happy to take him home so i let him deal with it. All up it was a great day on the water, great weather, stacks of fish around but boy are they fussy. Heres my mate with a few of the sambos: The pics seriously do not do these fish justice, they were the thickest salmon ive ever seen. Cheers Josh

Ye guys still just 1 lane open today, someone had dumped a whole heap of small cuttlefish there when i was retrieving, wasn't too bad today only had to wait a few min, hate to be going out on the weekend though.

Same sort of action this arvo but they were kings, fussy as and not staying up for long