Josh88

ET was on disovery the other day, sometimes the American Bass stuff is on ESPN or fox sports but im not much of a fan of that. Fish was another show on i think lifestyle but haven't seen it on for a while.

I know that some Kingfish suffer from some sort of illness, i think it may be like some sort of worm infestation or something but its more common in QLD due to their warmer waters and is a big reason why Kingfish aren't rated as a good eating fish up there, and i know that one of the affects of this disease was the fish would turn milky and mushy when cooked, maybe this is the problem?

Well spotted Hazza. I probably should get a copy of the magazine

We have a 75 Opti and it does reduce revs and speed on its own, only when i dont have my hand on the throttle though. All it is, is the throttle slipping back when we hit a bump, nothing major but would be nice if it didn't happen. Anybody know if I can tighten it up or something? Cheers Josh

Well atleast you got some of them out the water, pain in the ass they are, it would be good if the netters somehow could only catch jackets and nothing else, everyone wins that way. Pretty sure that if you are going to fillet a fish onboard your boat it has to be for immediate use but not sure if that changes or not for fish without size limits? Cheers Josh

pm sent guys

would love to have a crack, depend on time though

Interesting, I have the 4500 and love using it on the kings, looks the same, must just be bigger. Unless there are new features on this model? Josh

At least you got some size, most people really like the look of it but as the owner there are a lot of things that could be greatly improved which often restrict how i can use it unfortunately, am looking to get something bigger fairly soon.

Might be happening in your dreams mate but we'll make sure its not a reality

Yeh we fished Clifton for a bit but it was dead as a doornail.

Well took the boat out for probably the last time until maybe September or even November due to my HSC and was hoping to get a solid king or two. The usual story really, struggled for squid and this cost us big time, only got about 4 in 4 hours of trying for them. Had trouble with pickers as well taking both dead baits and killing live baits which is a real pain in the ass, the leatherjackets are the culprit still, anyway we did land one King, only a little fella on a live cuttlefish at 57cm and he was actually a tagged fish so i assume it must be from that research day thing they had in the harbour not too long ago tagging Kings. If anybody did that and had the tag number C6780 then i caught your fish, going to ring the tag people and try to find out previous details of the fish. Plenty of other big Kings caught by people around us but they had at least 3 times as much squid as us + bigger ones and it clearly shows that is what makes the difference. Whilst squidding thought i saw a few yakkas and started burleying and didn't attract any yakkas but a school of good sized bream so threw in some unweighted squid on a handline and to my surprise hooked quite a few, size varied between just under legal to about 35cm but put all of them back in the drink. Not the best way to have my last outing for a while but it will suffice. Cheers Josh

I just bought some 80lb today Steve but unfortunately i think it'll be a while before i get to test it out properly.

Nice job Jason getting some fish and helping out, i take it their motor died and they drifted over towards the rocks? Can get a bit hairy over Little Manly way with bad conditions. Can i ask what was so special about 230 and how did you know the fish would come on? Cheers Josh

Oh man, dont do that to me mate. Hopefully get them on Friday.

Met up with Steve (Kirkby) at his MH spot today, hoping for some nice flatties and bream. Got down there and set pilchard baits, along with prawns and slimeys. Were burleying a lot of the time and had a mullet trap set and the poddies were a bit quiet at first but then a lot appeared but they just didn't want anything to do with the trap. So unfortunately all we caught today was little tailor, plenty of them and they just seemed to take the baits pretty quick so can't really tell if there were some better fish out there. Fished the last of the run out and first couple of hours of the run in, i think its probably better to fish the last of run in and fish the high with the fish up in the shallows at the spot. Still good to be out fishing, hopefully get back into the kings on Friday with better conditions. Cheers Josh

Thats nice to hear Dave, I'm doing a landbased session up there with Kirkby tomorrow, fingers crossed

Nice meeting you Kel, you were the only person i saw all day pull a fish on plastic but as i found out the last 2 trips, fresh squid is a must have if you want to be any chance of catching....sorry 'hooking' those kings, landing them is another thing. Josh

Well done, I've just had my kingie fillets, they looked and tasted as good. Still love my fresh squid though

No worries about the rigger, we were using 30-50lb outfits even though it didn't look like it, i need to get some 80lb stuff though as i found out today. Quite a lot of fish after you guys left actually, every boat there got hook ups, some landed most around 90cm mark but a lot of bust offs, seems to peak throughout the day with hot and cold periods, still good being out there and seeing the power of those more serious kings, i got too used to rats needed a wake up call. Josh

Hey guys, Took Mike (browney1) out on the harbour this morning was going to take Kirkby as well but he overslept as was at home when we were at the ramp. Went after some squid and did ok picking up 4 before we were to chase the kings in this time i copped a severe inking on the face-see pics , hoping for some 80+ kings we went to our first spot and dropped a bait which of course was devoured by jackets and this was the story at the next 2 spots, Mike did manage to hook an octopus but we just cut it off, i know its good bait but cbf to deal with it. Went and anchored at our next spot put out a couple of big squid baits and a couple of small baits for the odd bream/flatty, of course you can guess what follows......the king takes the 6lb outfit was in for a bit of fun, it wasn't a huge fish but still gave me a run around for 10min or so including around the anchor rope. Finally got it up and in the boat and right on 65cm so had some dinner for tonight and a fish on the board. Stayed a while longer, other boat had a couple of runs on light gear but seemed to be borderline legal fish. Moved back to our spot where we hoped for a bigger fish, took a while but we finally hooked one and boy did it run, absolutely peeled the drag, the reel screaming in pain and after a few min and another big run it was gone. Devastated, the fish had a lot of power and seemed like it was 90+, managed to meet Vince (VA911) and Roosterman after their downrigger caught one of our lines, no harm done though and back to the fish. Plenty of good hits on other boats and hook ups but a lot of dropped fish but the ones landed were quality. Unfortunately we didn't get another chance at a big one but hopefully next time. Great to be out there and put some faces to names. Cheers Josh

I am quite sure that the hits were from kings, definitely the frozen bait i think was the issue and why we had trouble hooking up. Hopefully can land quite a few big squid so we can use big fresh baits as i think that is the key at the moment.

Hit the harbour today for first time since january due to hsc and school and was expecting more than we got. Conditions looked good, picked up a couple of mates and we went off in search of squid, first spot normally produces but saw sporadic bust ups from kings which were too quick too allow you a shot at them and to me said that squid won't come out into the open while they're around. Moved on and picked up a tiny one, probably didn't choose the best areas to squid particularly with dirty water and a morning low tide but it effectively ruined our day. After nearly 3 hours of squidding and only 1 baby in the tank we thought bugger it we'll use the frozen ones, no luck at the first spot, only pickers then moved to the next and there was action from the get go boats around us were dropping in fresh squid and hooking up on solid kings every cast, we kept on getting hit but just could not hook up. Not having that much bait i used it a bit sparingly compared to the big bits the other boat was using and there seemed to be gentle nudges rather than big hits like they got and they always managed to get the bait off without us even realising. We did manage another good squid and tried again for the same thing, hits but no hook ups. Anybody have any suggestions? I was mainly using snelled 2 hook rigs 6/0 size in both suicide and hoodlum live bait pattern, have always worked in the past but just no hook ups today??? The bigger baits seemed to entice stronger hits but still no hook ups, very frustrating day but still good to be out there with mates. Cheers Josh

Treating your catch properly will improve its eating qualities, IMO you should kill the fish immediately either by hitting it on the head with a mallet or something or using a brain spike, depending on the fish it should be immediately bled, i do it with most fish, following that it needs to go onto ice whether it be just a straight up bag of ice in an esky or ice slurry in a kill tank, this will keep it fresh and prevent any flesh detiorioration. The fish is always going to go stiff but makes it easy to fillet unless its curled up when being frozen. Cheers Josh