jamesds

Got there at 5am this morning. Already there were about 15 fishos - some had been there since 1am! (couldn't find any other raiders, although it must be said that once I got all my gear out and lines wetted I wasn't comfortable leaving my gear while I wandered around looking for raiders - next time we should organise things better. Simmo was the only other person whose number I had and he had to cancel). Immediately berleyed-up and sent down one of those pre-made yakka rigs with 'fish scales' on it. No hits for a while, so sent out my other rod with a squid rig on it. Nothing. Nada. By this time there were about 30 people fishing, although not as crammed as Clifton Gardens gets - at Pier 2 there is access to deep water all around it, although people do tend to concentrate at the end of the wharf. An hour goes by an just as dawn breaks, by yakka rig starts screaming. "Oh s**t! Not a kingie on my yakka rig?!!" went through my mind. After about 10 seconds of frantic reeling, my line goes PING. Bugger. There's a decent fish going round somewhere in the harbour with a yakka rig attached to its face. After that, I send down a prawn close to the wharf on my lighter rig, and alternated between squid and salted pilchards on my 'kingie' rig (that rod is STILL a virgin....) A few nibbles but nothing significant. After I'd been there about 3 or 4 hours my ligher gear starts screaming again (at least it seems that way in my head when I recall it) and this time I manage to land a 38cm trevally. Awesome! At this point the fish are starting to bite all around the wharf and every now and again there are screams of joy/panic/disappointment/jubilation. At some point a bloke climbs down the ladder on the left side of the pier for a look see. He claimed he could see kings in the water under the wharf as well as a few surgeon fish. I was skeptical at first, but this claim seemed to be validated by another couple of fishos. Shortly after that, a decent size kingie (guess 75 - 85cm) torpedoes along past the top end of the pier about half a meter below the surface - OK confirmed kingie sighting. Everybody gets a little excited About 5 minutes after that, there's a massive commotion in the east side of the pier and everybody goes to have a look. A young bloke lands what looks to be about an 80cm kingie! Awesome work and nicely done - looked a little dicey for a minute as the king was trying to take cover under the wharf. Same guy later gets another 3 kingie bust offs. (I want to know what he was doing to those prawns he was using as bait.) And another 2 bust offs by another guy. Then it all quietened down. I left about 11am, happy in the knowledge that I had a decent trevally. I'm going to bed for a couple of hours now. Totally knackered after 2 hours sleep last night. James

Hi Dom, I'd like to come tonight, but I've got some other commitments. Good luck with your bait catching and hopefully see you tomorrow. James. If we're using live baits (depends if we get any) then I expect we'll use some weight to stop them swimming back into the structure and creating a horrible tangly mess. If we fish them on the bottom, then a lot more weight. I expect we'll try a few things and see how it goes.

Ah, now I'm excited I'll quite happily consider big bream and blackfish an acceptable by catch! See you tomorrow!

Awesome, see you there @ 5am

Yeah, the more the merrier. Taking tumra's advice about getting there early, and the fact the high tide on Saturday morning is at 5am, I think that's what time we should aim for. We can sleep later Simmo/Tevoro : you guys up for a 5am sesh on Saturday or is that too early?

Check the fisheries web site. We're not technically supposed to eat anything caught west of the harbour bridge. I do occasionally, but I am not saying it's OK - everyone needs to be responsible for themselves. Regarding Kings - I don't think they stick around in any one spot for very long. You'd have no idea where they've been feeding wherever you catch them in the harbour. One day it may have been in open ocean, the next day it could be swimming around Gladesville. Personally, I'll eat a legal Kingie wherever I caught it unless it looked unhealthy of course. I'd take the gamble that most of the time it's not been feeding on baitfish that have themselves been feeding from dioxin-contaminated sea life, in the hope that the kingfish have 'safe' dioxin levels. That's a personal choice and not advice. Take from that what you will There's a page on the fisheries website somewhere that has a table of the relative dioxin content of different fish species versus location caught within the harbour. Essentially the closer to Homebush Bay you get the more dioxin content in the fish. And it varies dramatically by species too. I think the bottom feeding fish that feed off worms in the contaminated mud are worse off (such as bream). Here is a link to one of the reports (PDF): http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&sour...nWb0bNOzazZfQ7Q Some more info here: http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/fisheries/recrea.../sydney-closure http://www.foodauthority.nsw.gov.au/consum...rramatta-River)

Thanks for the advice tumra. I think the high is about 5:30am on Saturday - hopefully that's early enough Regarding Rod holders, what structure is there to attach one to ? I was thinking of using a piece of plastic tubing and tying it off on something. Thanks. James.

Hi Simmo, I'm up for it! During the week is tricky for me as I work up in Epping and that won't leave much daylight by the time I could get there (apparently it's a bit crappy at night as you'll mostly catch eels so I'm told). Most Saturdays or Sundays are good for me. I could probably do it this weekend. I'll PM you my number and we can sort something out. James.

I went on Sunday. I'm fairly new to boating having recently got my license and not yet having a boat I found it rather exciting Looked at some boats within my price range, checked out what the finance deals were like and came away with a much better idea of what a decent boat costs (less than I thought - had no firm idea previously). Didn't pick one up - still in the 'I don't want to rush such a big decision yet' stage. But it was a good afternoon out

I'm fairly certain you can fish off Pier 2 at Dawes Point legally. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. It's been recommended to me by a number of tackle shops as a good landbased spot for kings, if you can land them (it's quite high off the water). Here's a YouTube vid of some bloke having a go at the kings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY0lUrSNRl8 Google Maps link: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source...mp;t=h&z=16 And here's a screenshot of Google Maps with the end of Pier 2 circled: If you want to give it a crack one time, I'll be up for a session - been meaning to for a while. Oh and regarding bait, I'm not sure. I'd berley hard and try for yakkas while there but take along some fresh dead bait too for backup.

Nice work, and awesome pic of the storm coming in!

I thought exactly the same thing at first and then came to the same conclusion as you.

Mate, if my best days were as good as your slow days, I'd be a much happier fisho! Well done!

Holy crap! That is the most hilarious/amazing/bizarre thing I've ever seen.

I'm the one that brought this up in a thread a few weeks ago. It was officially (by NSW Fisheries, I think) confirmed as trawler by-catch. The leatheries aren't worth keeping for the markets so they throw them back, and they get washed up on the beaches.

Posts like yours keep me going when the weather sucks as much as it does this weekend. Congrats on a nice flatty and good report

When I first started fishing early last year, I fancied a fishing session but had no bait - but there was some out of date steak in the freezer so I used that. Caught a flattie on it on my first cast I have never tried since then, as I have gotten better at making sure I always have pillies or prawns in the freezer for an unplanned sesh, but might give it another try after the positive reports here.

Excellent. Definitely going on Saturday. Anyone want to join me? I'll be there from about 8am-ish until 2 or 3 in the arvo.

Awesome report mate! I might have to check this place out at the weekend. Is the hole accessible land-based or will I need a boat? Good job, thanks for the recon

Thanks, Jewgaffer. Nice detailed post. I'll keep that in mind for next time I'm out

At least you got a consolation jewie mate One question though what does it mean when you have 'butterflied' your pillie?

Wow, very aesthetically-pleasing kingie with Opera House shot You should send that to the tourism board or something

At that moment I think I would have produced a steady stream of brown berley and called it a day!

Well done mate, that is King-Zilla! Now, I need to go out and find one of those....

Thanks guys, some good tips there. I might try leaving the submerged gauze-covered bucket at the spot where I catch them and then just swing by and pick up the squid on the way out next morning. The advantage of doing that is not having to worry about water temp, squid inking itself etc. Cheers again for the tips!