Josh88

We've stayed at Cottage Point lots of times and they are always there around lighted wharves every night, otherwise i've found down Smiths Creek to be the best in the shallows. They are always arrow squid and a lot more aggressive than Calamari's. I had about 8 of them trying to eat a berkley gulp when targeting flatties. Once you have one then a few more generally follow but average size is fairly small. Cheers Josh

Cracker of a story mate. Atleast you got the kingy back. Amazing power they have. Your rod might be ok if you get it back.....not so sure about the reel.

Have a go around balmoral, apart from the spit thats probably the only productive squid spot in middle harbour i know of

They do come down around this time of year, we've normally seen the first signs of them in the harbour around late march, so perhaps a bit later this year. They follow the warm water down with other fish like samsons, cobia, spotted mackeral and frigates. Cheers Josh

Well done Jack, Thats some great bait for future outings. We encountered a smalll school of them in the harbour on Friday chasing some garfish but unforunately didn't hook any. Josh

Yeh theres a good mix of things there. We git a school shark a couple of weeks ago, and have got good kings there in the past.

lol

Was hoping to maybe go out on the harbour tomorrow seeing its my last day of holidays but the wind doesn't look as though it'll be to nice. Is anyone else going to venture out tomorrow? Or is the wind to strong Cheers Josh

Hi All, I've caught many kingfish on squid and was just wondering if anyone could explain a few things that seems to be happening atleast once a trip. Firstly i'll put out our smallest squid as a livie, then a head, guts and strip. The livie never seems to be touched before the other 3 and in the last few outings 90% of hook ups have been on the strip using a 4/0 worm hook. I'm not concerned about which baits they're taking apart from why a nice live tim tam squid is not being touched until it is dead. Yesterday a squid of total length about 15cm was out live with one hook in the top of the mantle, one in the bottom. It died after perhaps 25-30min without a mark left in it. Checked it changed the hook from bottom of mantle into head and put it back down. A few minutes later, one massive short, sharp jolt of the rod by a fish and the squid was gone and not even a run. My question is how does this happen on such a small squid with 2 hooks in it??? The only way i can think of is if a fish came through at tremendous speed swimming on its side and took the squid betweem the 2 hooks, to me this seems silly and unlikely as the rod literally jumped in the holder for less than a second without really even bending. Sorry if this sounds a bit confusing when explained but i just don't know how it happens.... We lost a couple of the bottom hooks on snelled rigs also without seeing any hits/runs, i guess this was just a shark, perhaps an eel biting straight through when having a go at the bait. 60lb Jinkai leader was being used. Cheers Josh

Sounds like a good solution Bummer about the jewie. They seem to be letting more and more of these people on the loose!!

Remember 65cm is legal size now

Hi all, Well decided to go out for a fish today, got to roseville about 545 and got the boat in the water with the water resembling sewerage up until bantry bay. Originally were going to squid at Middle Head, so much for that...Massive swell one wave nearly started to break in open water as we were heading for it . Well we got 4 squid, 3 of them a good size. Saw some garfish being chased and jumping so tied on some lures and threw around where they kept popping up, my brother got hit on his squid jig a few times, we thought they were either frigates or bonnies, didnt get a clear look. Headed off to our usual 1st spot up the main harbour, got 2 snapper on the heavy rods, both just under at 28cm so back in the drink. After about half an hour the baits were continually being hit by kings but they weren't taking the whole thing, i took my pride and joy rod/reel out the holder, felt the hits and a grab and struck and i was on. It fought very very hard and was pulling about 6 or 7kg of drag with little hassle heading straight for the wreck, however the Daiwa gear well and truly got the better of him and he came up after a shortish fight to be a surprisingly low 67cm. Thats dinner at least, fought as though he was about 80cm, when filleting it i found a nice newish set of ganged hooks right in his stomach=ouch. We then moved to the wedding cake and anchored then realised the rain was coming over a hill at Watsons Bay and Middle Harbour may be a better option. In short the rain followed us and we took shelter under the spit bridge for about 20min, then decided it had nearly stopped and were going to fish beauty point, got out the 8 knot zone and it starts bucketing down harder than it had all day , only lasted about 5min thank fully. No fish at beauty, saw a boat next to us get a small king which looked in the 50-60cm range and of course they keep it , pisses me off when people do that, it happens all too often. Anyway plenty of squid left for lunch and kingfish for dinner . Cheers Josh

It looks like it and a nice one at that

Just get a long rod with a fairly flexible tip, this will lessen the amount of pulled hooks as more of the shock is absorbed through the rod putting less pressure on the fish. The no stretch factor can be very handy with kingies especially when keeping them from structure during a fight. If you haven't got any rods and reels in mind try a penn spinfisher 850 combo, they tough, durable and i've caught plenty of kings on them and only costs about $280-$320 all up, if you go braid, 50-60lb would probably be a good size incase you run into some bigger boys. You are much more likely to feel the bite of a bream or jewie (wouldn't worry about bream on heavier gear) with braid, as for the sensitivity then leave the bail arm open if you're specifically targeting jews or set the drag low and hold the spool to strike. Cheers Josh

It looks a bit like (excuse spelling) a baubel. I know someone that has them, they're pretty intimidating but are silly and playful, its paws are bigger than big hands.

......what he said Pretty amazing these things work like that

Yeh we used the same outfit when targeting GT's on the outer reef off Dunk Island and it was pretty good, managed 4 GT's from 20lb-50lb and didn't lose any, very very durable gear those spinfishers

Its probably not the best idea to go get a $1000 reel if you aren't going to be consistently using it and using it to the extent of its capabilities, has anyone here ever needed to apply 30kg of drag on a fish? Its nice and all to have such a great expensive reel but when there are cheaper reels that still match your criteria they seem to be more worthwile. I recently got a Daiwa Catalina 4500 and am finding it a great all round reel. That cost about $600 and performs excellently and is very versatile as it can be used for baiting, luring, trolling, jiggin and nearly anything else. It holds 300m of 40 or 50lb braid which is adequate for most situations with it able to apply 10kg of drag. Compare this to the Saltiga 4500 and you have a reel with the same amount of drag, higher line capacity, same weight but lower gear ratio for $300-400 cheaper, seems pretty good if you ask me. I guess it all comes down to personal choice though and what people want to do with a reel. Good Luck with what you choose Harry. Cheers Josh

I always use a leader for whatever i'm doing, its often important for SP's as flattie's very often cut throught the line with their head shakes and teeth so heavier trace line is required to try and prevent this. It can also save you getting busted up by bigger pelagics on structure + most trace lines are invisible to fish whereas some braids put straight onto the lure can be fairly obvious in the water for the fish to see. Josh

Well that shows their intellectuality. Gotta be pretty desperate or in this case dumb to catch catfish like that, pretty amazing how they do it nonetheless

Nice work mate, was it a bit blowy out there today? Do you know what the water temp was? Cheers Josh

That thing looks like a leather jacket x Catfish x goatfish. Nice blackies and trevs. I reckon that if you put the cabbage weed in a hessian sack (sorry for spelling, the one you do sack races in, i think some potatoes come in them) and wash it in the salt water then put in fridge and rinse in the saltwater each time you take it out to use it, then it lasts for a few weeks and stays pretty fresh. The smaller jewies that i've caught all pecked at baits and then a sort of grab, so that probably would've been what was around your bait, i've found sharks tend to grab stuff in one go and head for the hills. We've used the green prawns from De Costi's and found they have worked really well. Cheers Josh

Hey Kirkby, 50 or 60lb should be adequate as a jew can't bust you up on much off the beach. Put on as much as you can fit, but make sure you get them to put some mono backing on the reel before the braid so it doesn't spin against the spool. I really like the Daiwa sensor braid i have, it changes colour every 10m so you know how much is out unless you've cast it miles. Sufix is a really good brand as well. A 300m roll of any braid will set you back about $70+. Good Luck Josh

Yeh i think it looks more like a long tail, an 18kg yellowfin would probably be a bit stubbier than that and you'd be able to notice the prolific yellow pectoral fins. Nice fish anyway, how strong was the gear you caught it on?

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