Danielsan

Guys - got back from Bermi Sunday arvo. We managed more than 16+ Southern Blues ranging from 25-40kgs. No fin despite our efforts. there were football fields of fish around the boat. all south of bermi

there have been a few reports from down south about a 212Kg SBT and a few YFT to 50Kgs. I imagine the sydney run will start late April... Cheers

I'm no seasoned professional, but i reckon that if you look out for a temp break, livley water (jellies, birds blue-bottles) you'll eventually find them. We trolled 7mile NE of browns on monday. water stayed pretty stable at 17.4...then dropped to 17.1 then the shotgun went off.Chucked a big handful of pillies over the side and managed to keep them at the boat for a few minutes while we got a second. There have been other times that we've found great temp breaks and cubed for 5 hours for nothing. that's fishing i guess, but the above is what the more experienced guys do

looks like a longliners hook to me...

the circles on the fish look to me like tenticle marks... cuttles or squid the culprits!

dude - there are so many different schools of thought on this... i like to let the fish run until i feel a secondary bump on the line - i believe that this is the fish swallowing the bait propoerly, as the first hit (with yakka/slimey) is when the king grabs it and runs away from his mates. when that second bump happens, it's the fish swallowing the bait right down. Employing this technique has seen my hook up rate go from 1 in 4 to almost 4 in 4. make sure your hook point is totally exposed when you bait up AND like roosterman said, make sure that your overhead is in strike drag OR has at least enough pressure to start setting the hook from the strike. remember - big hook big fish, small hook ALL fish... don't be afraid to use 3/0 live bait hooks - they always seem to hit them mark!

just the most amazing blue colour! well done on the release mate - don't like his chances next time he hits a circle hook

fark me what a fish!!!!

hmmmm indeed

drop them at shark island

hi mate - got a few kings yesterday inside the harbour tho. outside was not too bad - found amberjacks, but only small. the kings were around the usual harbour marks

rickster - saw a couple old guys poling them in at Balmoral the other day - some in the 2kg+ variety. couldn't believe how big they were! run out tidem - overcast conditions

no such thing as a live bait that's too big. I had a 35cm yakka taken by a 60cm king. landed the king too. big bait - big fish!

you definitely want to troll as slowly as possible - 1kt is ideal. Often when downrigging, I'll drop the engine out of gear when I spot the kings on the sounder and let the livie swim unassisted amongst the fish - they normally get smaaaaaashed. with out downriggers, you have to go even slower otherwise the baits skip along the surface and unless the kings are in a chasing mood, they wont get much attention. try the knife jig idea running down to the swivel connecting your leader to your mainline. Just remember that slow is best, the kings love to chase their prey, but if they don't have to work as hard they'll be more inclined to attack. you need to use the sounder and when you see the depth the kings are holding in, you'll then be able to deploy the un/weighted baits to where they are. In addition, trolling a lure or two that rattle alongside your livies may also attract more attention. PM me if you have any questions. Cheers dan

eagle ray perhaps

jembro - I've had kings ignore live squid, live yakka, live slimey, squid strips, yakka fillets, slimey fillets. try cubing up some pillies by cutting them into chuks and throwing out 2 chunks every minute or two. it can sometimes encourage them to bite. But then again - sometimes you just cant entice them to feed. You're doing nothing wrong! just gotta be there when thy're hungry

Well done slosh! the bigguns are certainly around

Hey Mate - what baits were you fishing?

Well done mate!!! The first is always a big moment - the smile from ear to ear tells the tale. good work on the release tho; it's a moment filled with mixed emotions, but th8e feeling is worth it - even if it's a legal fish. the flood gates will most certainly open now!

What??? 3.5kg snapper in MH...interesting! Well done mate!

Frigates I'd say - there have been heaps around

Simda - if you see big marks on the sounder stop and give it a bash! you'll never know unless you try! big jew, big king shark..who knows! the way the harbour is at the moment you might even surprise yourself

great fish mate! beats my PB by 10cm's! sounds like you've become another plastics convert!

Hey mate. I use the esky scenario. not ideal, but it works, and you can get something of a watertight seal when moving to stop to much water splashing out. Yakkas are pretty hardy so consider the humble water cooler. you can get them on various sizes to suit the boat, and they're not expensive. a portable aerator will be enough to keep them alive, AND because they're insulated, it maintains the temp of the water really well. On top oif all that, they can be sat upon, locked down and fished around...not big tank to negotiate when hooked up! You can plumb them easily to attach a bilge to supply fresh water to the tank, and have an outflow where the tap attachment is... I'm putting on in my boat this week! Cheers Dan

Hi Roberta, thanks for the info. I'll be landbased unfortunately! I'm going to try to impress my friends with a feed of flatties, but a nice jew wouldn't go astray. are there any particular tides or sides of the breakwall that you would recommend? what local live/fresh baits can be caught? I've fished port macquarie a few times and am familiar with fishing breakwalls! thanks so much! Dan