ginko

Nice one! at least you remembered to pull in the sea anchor before heading back in. I wonder if hammerheads often feed at the surface: I had an experience with one that took squid off the surface. I'd had a yellow-tail out as bait for kingies, and notice it was getting munched on by a nice big calamari - I'd reeled in a bit to make sure it was a squid, and the yellow-tail/squid was now right at the surface. Before I could get a squid jig tied onto my other rod, a ~1.5m (?) hammerhead came up and over the squid and yellow-tail, and headed for the deep, taking my 30lb line about 2 meters before it snapped with a terrific recoil on the rod in the rod-holder. From the many times I've hooked them, I can say that they just go and go - very high stamina.

Sounds like Wally's Wharf is holding a few squid - was the guy catching them with a very slow retrieve? at this time, when the water's cold and clear, slow and deep is probably the better technique for the squid. I also heard a good tip on jig size: in late winter, small jigs, and then increasing size until early winter.

Went out this morning, and within 5 minutes had a big beautiful calamari for kingie bait. Put it (in strips) on the downrigger, and spent the next 4 hours trolling all around the barges, out front of scotland island, and morning bay for nothing-zip-zilsch. As far as I could tell, no one else got anything there today. Loads of yakkas, down deep at 8-15m down, and the surface was totally filled with jellies. I wonder if the kings have header out of the estuaries?

Hmm, if I can get away with it, I'd prefer a boat under 5m due to storage constraints. If you advise this is unwise to even consider, please say so. I'd also like to stay under $15k, ideally closer to $10K.. The Seaquell is a Haines Signature, and they come in a range of sizes +- around the 5m mark. I think they were later just called by their length, I note v similar boats called "Haines Signature 460" on various used boat sites. I had a look at some V-Seas - superficially at least, they resemble the Seaquell, with similar bows, freeboard, and the shape of the v at the bow. There seems to be a bit of an overhaul on the upper part of the boat around 2000? Are the pre-2000 boats any good? For storage I think I'd prefer a cuddy cabin - and my guests will be fishing, not sitting inside, and I can't really see sleeping on such a small boat. Previously I had a small (15hp) tinnie which was great for the estuaries, and on really flat days, at the inside of the heads. The only major issue was fitting in guests. I loved the speed to launch/retrieve, ease of use, and total lack of expense. While l'd like to get outside the heads sometimes, if this involves a +$15K boat +5m boat, I will just stick to the estuaries where a good tinnie is all I need.

Raiders, I'm looking to buy a replacement boat, used, mainly for estuary, but on ok days, also for inshore (outside the heads) fishing in Sydney. Mainly I fish alone, but occasionally would like to have the family (the Mrs & 3 boys) or a mate or two aboard. I'm considering purchasing a Haines Seaquell 460 - does anyone have experience with these boats for the uses above? I notice many have 50hp motors, is that a bit too little grunt for a boat of this size? While I don't intend to venture outside the heads in any sort of bad weather, I know how fast bad weather can come in... so also any info on how these boats handle the conditions off Sydney would be appreciated. Any pointers on alternative boats and or things to look for on the used seaquells? thanks, Bill

Raiders, I recently had the necessity of activating my manual inflatable in an emergency, and discovered something not in the instructions: when you test your lifejacket (by blowing into the red tube to inflate it), put the life-jacket on, blow it up, and adjust the waist strap so that it is snug, but not killer-tight. I had my waist strap on fairly tight (and I am skinny, and was wearing only a t-shirt at the time). When I needed to pull the rip cord, the inflation was VERY RAPID! This sudden inflation really over-tightened the waist-strap and also meant that the life-jacket itself blasted into my chest. This was a pretty unpleasant sensation as I'd just broken some ribs. So better to set the waist-strap so it is snug, not holding you in a death-grip.

Just a quick update: thanks for well-wishes and the offers for a trip on your respective boats. My itch for a new boat will probably mean I'm in a new boat before my body can pull in a fish. The real dilemma is what to buy...I loved the ease of the small tinnie, and so cheap to run and 360 degrees of casting. But maybe too easy to run-over. A half cabin would be great sometimes, but might be a bit much to get out as often as I fish. A yak is great exercise, and could get me to the quiet spots I love to fish. Maybe a yak with a giant airhorn and a cannon on the front. re: injuries - as mentioned, thankfully no head or back (or worse) - a broken shoulder blade and broken ribs (on opposite sides, just for good measure). About 6 weeks to heal, hopefully completely. Also a huge thanks again to those that helped out - I got back an amazing array of my kit: my eski, an oar, both my tackle bags, my anchor which was tied to the tinnie, and even one of my rods. The rod rescuer even gave it everything a good wash in freshwater and gave the reel back in amazing knick. It's in for a service now. I still haven't seen the tinnie or got the motor in for a service, but hopefully this week I get it back from the police. There may one very surprised and lucky cuttle fish swimming around the harbour - the livie that got away when the bucket he was in went into the drink! Thank God I had not already landed a kingie, 'cos I'd be very annoyed if that had been lost in the drink too. Still no word on the boat that hit me, nor the owners/skipper. Please keep your eyes peeled for a ~6m boat with a big gouge out of the port bow.

Hi all, If you see a ~6m cream or white boat, with damage to its port bow and/or damage to it's motor downleg and propellor, please contact the NSW Police with the info... On Sunday, about 2:30 pm, I'd just set up for nice kingie session, just north of middle head and east of cobblers beach, when a ~6m cream or white boat headed straight at my tinnie, and ran straight over top of me and my boat. The hit was almost straight on, and their prop apparently came through the cockpit, but fortunately hit the port side of my tinnie and not down the starboard side where I was sitting. My bow hit just to port of the their bow, so I figure there must be some good gouges in their fibreglass, maybe tinged blue from my paint. Their motor was still functional, as they sped off, but it must have some damage too. Thankfully, some yachties came to my rescue, and after a few days in hospital and I'm on the mend with relatively minor injuries. Your assistance in catching the culprits would be much appreciated - the waterways don't need boaters like that. Apart from everything else, a total waste of what promised to be a great afternoon of hunting the kings. Bill

you can get a 12v to phone adapter on ebay. they are about $5 a pop and work really well as long as it's dry. It's worth buying 2-3 since if ever they touch salt water they're toast.

there are certainly eels in the dam - I see them swimming at the edges pretty regularly - rather oogly things. but I doubt that's what bit me off - it was more like a big fish strike, so my money would be on bass, but I'm not sure whether bass' dental equipment is so sharp. will try again tonight (tied some new flies)

Headed down to manly dam for a quick evening session with the fly. Casting a brown/olive wooly bugger in close to the reeds, and pulling up little redfin perch pretty regularly. But tonight, after the rain, I cast into some pretty shallow water (~1m) where a little stream empties into the dam, landing the fly right at the edge of the reeds. I let the fly sink down to near the bottom and stripped back in quickly (which the reddies seem to favour) and got a massive hit from something that bit straight through my 12lb leader. A very clean cut through, too. The fly (not the one the picture) was brown with a bit of gold tinsel tied in, and weighted with a few wraps of lead. Any thoughts what that might have been, and how I could land one? Also, the week before, I was fishing the edge of some lily pads, and saw a fish jump up through the lily pads - it would have been about 35cm long and fairly fat looking - any thoughts on that?

what size hook is on that fly?

Yes, v slow in Pittwater atm, unless you find the fish. Look for the diving terns: last weekend I fished 4 hours for nothing (with fresh squid bait) then spotted some diving birds and caught two decent tailor, a salmon and a good-sized trevally in 20 minutes. I could have got more, but that was more than a feed. Amazingly, I was the only one fishing the school, but still had plenty of yahoos in giant boats driving right through the middle of the diving birds (and like always with the big boats, driving on between me and the shore, and passing to the left...). Thankfully, the fish seemed to be hungry. All fish had small whitebait in the stomachs, so I'll be out there with the fly rod this weekend, trying to get my first fish on the fly, and first fish on a fly I tied myself...

The $10 practice rod makes good. I've been having some difficulties fly casting, and not least because it is difficult to get out and practice. So I watched some videos - one suggested a practice rod, with just short stick with a piece of thick yarn attached. I thought I'd give it a go and tried a small (5.5 ft) telescopic rod and some yarn. I'd bought the rod for $10, but never used; it turned out to have plastic guide-slides (rather than ceramic). I tried my wife's yarn, but it was too thin and was useless as the line. But by fluke, a roll of brickies twine was at hand, so I tried that. It is ideal, def better than thick yarn. I tied a meter of flourocarbon on the end with a nail knot, and cinched a 5cm bit of brickies twine onto the far end. And Presto! I had a very good practice rod: it is short but stiff (the rod is made from cheap graphite), and casts very well. The brickies twine is highly visible, floats, is very "loose" so it really shows if you're not casting smoothly, yet it is heavy enough to cast and carry well if you cast well. After a load of sessions in the back yard (and even inside the house) I took it down to a local dam and had a go, and I have to say, the practice rod (cost: $10.01) performed as well if not better than a 9ft proper setup (cost: $more-than-my-wife-knows) on short casts. It can cast up to about 8 meters pretty comfortably and could probably go more. One thing it doesn't really handle is shooting line: the guides are too crap to let the line run through them. and of course, there is no reel - I just let the spool of brickies twine sit on the ground or in my pocket while I cast. It is great for the back yard, and the kids like to have a go (which at $10.01, I am more than happy for them to do!). But I'll also be taking it on the next trip as a back up or for places where a 9ft rod is too tall to cast. maybe I'll just replace those guides and get some less flouro-coloured brickies twine...

Allen_F. Nice Trevally - good to see the numbers are starting to pick up. Re: yellowtail (yakkas) - yes, they are generally used as bait - but I've always found that the smaller the better when it comes to yellow-tail bait. 27cm is a fairly big model. Loads of creatures eat yellow tail: I've caught kings, jewfish, tailor (you'll need a second hook behind the dorsal fin to get tailor), salmon, hairtail, flathead, squid, octopus, sharks (bronze whalers and hammerheads), and eels (ugh) You can eat them too, if you're in need. They are related to kingfish, and the flesh is actually pretty much the same, just on a much smaller scale. To prepare them, bleed them immediately, keep them on ice, and then fillet to get rid of all skin, bones, and red flesh. You'll need about 3 large models per person. They go off very quickly if they are not kept cold.

Given the super muddy estuaries, I figured the kingies were outside, and took advantage of today's offshore breeze to hit a northern beaches rock shelf. Arrived at sun-up, and didn't even make it to my spot before a big bust-up had me casting. I had on the kingie rig - 30 lb line, 60lb leader, #5 truturn hooks and salted gars (unweighted). Sadly, it was salmon, not kings. But great fun nonetheless, Landed 2, about 45cm and about 60cm. Mostly they were small, and another fisho with the right setup for salmon was pulling in a fair few of the 45cm models on what looked like half pillies. The fish went off the bite about 8:30 and the swell was showing signs of the bigger sets expected in the arvo, and we were both off the rocks at ~9:30am. Salmon miso soup for lunch. Sorry no pics - they were just salmon after all. Anyone fish in Pittwater today?

The mack tuna were out in force this morning too - although a few bust-ups were kingies. They are all eating tiny "eyes" about 4-5cm long and silvery-brown coloured. I could not get the kingies to bite (in spite of trying poppers, metal slices (30gm, 25gm,15gm), sp (white and shimmery-silver), squid strips and yakkas). I think little flies might be the go for them. The Mack Tuna were eagerly taking 15gm metal slices, both on the surface and drifted down deep. The make nice tempura-battered dinner! I did see a fisho in a yak, skillfully handling a king on 2kg line. He was over sand at the time so no bust-off on the bottom, and the fisho pedalled his yak out to clear water to play the fish. He had it on for a good 25 minutes before successfully netting it. To my eye - it looked just on legal, so a great effort on such light gear. Not sure what lure he was using. No tailor to be seen.

picked up my first slimey of the season in Pittwater on sunday - no takers for it though. the slimey was pretty big (~30cm?) and the kingies in Pittwater seem to be relatively small ATM. Has anyone tried eating slimeys? Just out of curiousity, I cooked it up, but couldn't eat it - it really smelled awful - so I'd be interested if anyone ever eats them. my excess yakka usually end up on the plate (very tasty), but unless someone suggests otherwise, in future I'll be salting down any left-over slimey for use off the rocks.

It was a bit hard to measure, as I'd had to clean it at the beach, so the head was not quite in its normal position, but I estimate it was right on 1m. (Although I did like General Zod's thinking of 1.20m!) The cleaned fish (no guts or gills) weighed 10kg. I got 6kg of nice fillets from the fish, which looks like it will be 4 feeds for a young family. Re: Rod and Reel - a 12ft 8kg rod, and a daiwa windcast baitrunner reel. The rig set up was a ~50cm trace running straight to star sinker, then another ~30cm trace that runs along the line-to-sinker trace with snelled hooks at the business end and a swivel to run along the line-to-sinker trace.

Snuck out of the office at 5:01 and headed straight to local tackle store, who advised on the best beach, the second best beach, and, well, the beach I could get to given the amount of time before the tide came in. A box of best squid and away I went at top speed. I got to the beach (central coast) and damn, there was a guy with one rod, taking the best rip, and another rod taking the second-best rip, and, well, I took the next one along. Twenty minutes later, the guy's best-rip rod goes off, and it is some hell of a fish. He'd been fighting it for a good 20 minutes when suddenly my rod went screaming off I'd been instructed "do not strike too soon" ... After 3 seconds (feels like an eternity), I struck and was into a solid fish. The guy up the beach brought up his fish - it was either a shark or a ray (later on, I didn't quite hear what he'd caught, but it had gone back in the drink). Meanwhile, my fish was swimming to NZ, and I was down into my backing before I could gain the upper hand. But then the fish came in without too much trouble - and I washed it up on the second attempt with a beautiful swell hitting the beach at just right moment. And there on the sand, I could see a huge pectoral fin flapping up and down. Jewie! Woohoo! Finally cracked it after about 2 years of trying to get a jewie off the beach. (almost all in Sydney). I haven't been able to measure it up yet, but it is filling the bar fridge in my hotel room, and for sure, the PB will need updating. Details: Caught right at high tide, just before dusk, a few days before new moon. Barometer something like 1012 (a high, but falling). about 10 knots onshore wind, and ~1m swell. #7 Konan hooks, snelled onto 60lb leader, 110g star sinker, 30lb braid. The beach has rocks at both ends, and a reef straight out from the centre, and it is a horse-shoe shape - I was in the centre of the horseshoe. I had a really good cast - straight out into the rip, and a fair distance out, so close to the bit of wash of the back edge of the sand bar of the gutter.

I've hooked a few hammerheads in my tinnie in Pittwater and around Flint and Steel.- both pups about 60cm and parents 1m+. Last year I had a close call with a mean set of teeth: I had a pillie and a livie out, and I noticed a squid on the pillie, I reeled it in, and then attempted to scoop the squid in my yabbie net. For about 5 minutes, I had my hands in the water... Then I noticed a larger squid on my livie, and I reeled it up too - but the squid was much too big for the yabbie net, so I left it there for a minute while I cut off the pillie and put on a squid jig - and in that minute, a huge hammerhead broke the surface,and went down with the squid, my livie, and my 30lb line - for about 2 seconds... ping! I was very glad not to have my hands in the water when that came up!

I've had a v good experience with a dedicated beach/rock guide in Sydney - not sure if he heads up that far north though. Principles are anyway the same - you might consider a trip to the northern beaches of Syd. PM me if you'd like further details.

is it on the starboard side? (props tend to bubble on the port side). deep enough? far enough from the motor and also the starboard chine? Next check that the hull is smooth as it leads to the transom near your mount. Finally, check that it is running straight with the water flow. If your boat's nose points skywards before it planes, you may need to compensate against that. Actually, if your sounder is type that starts with an "L" check that the transducer cable is not causing the cavitation. For some odd reason, my "L" transducer has a cable right in the flow of water leading to the transducer, and the cable is creating a lot of turbulence and bubbles. Not sure of the solution, apart from manually adjusting the position of the cable. Slightly off topic, but man! do mobile apps make great chart plotters. v glad I did not drop any $$$ on that sounder option. I just mounted my phone (in a ziplock bag) beside the sounder with a USB power-supply from my 12v battery, hey presto-a 100% option for less than 5% of the cost. It's like dedicated road navigation GP$$$ systems all over again.Best of all, I can upload my route info directly to my fishing calendar record so next year at this time, Ill be able to see exactly when, where, and how I caught what.

Pittwater also produced no squid for me today. I tried my favourite wharves, drop-offs, rocks, and structure, plus my favourite squid jigs for 0 squid. Not a nibble. Thankfully, I had one frozen squid from a previous trip - frozen to just this side of hell. I thawed it out and sent out strips for kingies - but none of them either. Never mind the kingies; when I decided to pull up stumps and move, there was a bit of extra weight on the squid strip... it'd been drifting mid-water behind a bit of a reef (so with bait set ~5m in ~10m water, just back of the reef of ~5m), up comes a nice 63cm flattie. Better than a kick in the teeth! It was very nice for dinner for the family. Otherwise, not a bite apart from the damn pinkies. It was a bit of ride home, straight into the teeth of a blowing southerly in my small tinnie. Thanks to the lady who winched my boat onto the trailer as I held it somewhat in place.

Too true with the weather. And when you don't have time to fish, it's perfect! I happened to be near Balmoral this arvo, on the water for other business. Gorgeous day and no rod to hand. Of course, there was a huge school of decent bream, blackfish galore, and to add the full insult - two schools of kingies swam by.