jamesds

There's a spot within walking distance from where I live that I can catch some squid. I was thinking of trying to keep some alive overnight for fishing with the next morning. I have a bait bucket with an airator. Has anyone tried this before with any success?

Went out in the Harbour today, braving the wind. A cool bleak morning it was too. Spent some time in sheltered middle harbour for nothing but tiny nibblers. When the sun came out later, we went back into the main harbour and had a fish off Middle Head, inside South Head, near the big mooring at Clifton Gardens and caught zilch except for a trevally. And it was undersized. Anyone else have much luck? Hopefully the kings will be around for the social tomorrow. Shame I can't make it!

If I recall correctly, at the western end of Rose Bay, where the corner of New South Head Road and Vickery Ave meet there's a guy on the beach under the shade of the trees with tinnies for hire. I hired one from him a couple of years ago. Great fun (if a little on the slow side!)

Will do, cheers!

Due to an unfortunate mix up on my part, I ended up booking my hire boat for the wrong day (Saturday instead of Sunday...) It pains me to say this, but jamesds +2 will no longer be taking part. (I may possibly turn up later for the social part of the event) So instead, I'll be out chasing kings on Saturday. I'll make sure I leave you some for the social If by some bizzarre event I magically manage to obtain a boat for myself +2 on Sunday, then I'll retract but for now please take us off the list. Bummer

I've never tried from the beach, only from the rocks on the left of the beach. But you need to be careful of the wave and cast as far as you can into the deeper water. I gave up after a while because of all the snags, but this old Norwegian fella that lives in the area swears it's worth a go as they get some decent fish (kings, tailor) and near the rocks blackies. Also might be worth using a float to help with avoiding snags. Good luck, looking forward to your report

Took out a nice 150HP 6 meter center cab with two mates on Saturday morning. Met up with the boat hire company at Taplin Park boat ramp at 5:15am. One of my mates was late, so we didn't get in the water until 6am but hats off to Sean the boat hire guy for offering to wait for him before launching. Fantastic service. After a smooth launch, and with a slightly nervous never-driven-a-boat before driver went out into the harbour armed with a mountain of bait, berley, soft plastics and metal lures to go and chase kings. Luckily, my two Canadian buddies have a lot of boat experience were there to offer me a few hints and tips along the way. First stop was to get some squid adjacent to Taronga Zoo Wharf. Didn't find any there, so we zipped around to Balmoral where we got one decent size one and a single poddy mullet. After another hour of no bites, we decided to head to the Spit Bridge. On the way we slowly trolled a couple of fresh bought squid and a spangly lure, but caught nothing. After that we headed out to Quarantine, dropped anchor. There were some fish on the finder, but all we managed to bag was a just legal flounder on a 4 inch Gulp Nuclear Chicken minnow... decided to bring in the anchor and adjust our position after realising that we had been drifting only to bring in an anchor chain with no anchor on the end anymore. At least we had caught a fish! After that we headed to the marker at the southern tip of North Head, dropped the spare anchor. There were about 4 or 5 other boats around, but didn't see anyone catch anything. There was not much action on the sounder either. We dropped the live squid and the poddy mullet down to the bottom for nothing. With 2 hours before we had to return the boat, we decided to have one last ditch attempt to get some kingies on board. I'd previously avoided going to the wedding cakes earlier in the day due to being a novice at this boat driving shenanigans and the harbour was pretty busy. But what the Hell, we had no fish yet! So we set off to the wedding cake, avoiding ferries and boat races. Got my mates to rig up on the way and said just fish - I'll drive. Plan was I'd slowly circle the cake. So we got there and the sounder was showing lots of fish of various sizes, there was a lot of surface activity (which always dissipated before we got there - need to be faster!) and we managed to bag a legal flatty. So all in all we had a great day - getting out on the harbour in a boat is awesome in its own right, no argument there. It would have been better if we'd at least been busted off by a kingie, but it was a fantastic day all the same. From reading the reports though, it looked as if others were having days similar to ours anyway. See you all at the Kingfish Social next week!

Cheers mate, I'll give those a go

Hi there Raiders, I'm taking a boat out tomorrow, and I'd like to take it just outside the heads, maybe upto 2nm (not too far the first time) and was wondering if anybody would be willing to share any GPS marks for reefs, wrecks or structure that's likely to hold kings, snapper, samsonfish, tuna or bonito etc? (any decent size fish that are exciting to catch!) We might even stay just outside or between the heads if there's likely to be decent fish closer in. We'll take enough for a decent feed and the rest will be catch and release. We'll have jigs, lures, live bait (squid and yakkas) etc and a variety of tackle to cover a few options and the boat has a sounder. We won't have a downrigger if that's relevant. Feel free to PM me if you don't want to announce publicly. Any help is much appreciated Thanks guys James. P.S. Just checked the weather forcast, looks like fresh easterly wind tomrrow arvo, so will probably do this in the morning around 8am for a couple of hours and stay closer in.

Buy a berley bucket from a tackle shop to start with. You can get a robust one for under 10 bucks that will withstand a bashing against oysters and barnacles. If I half fill my berley bucket with those berley granules that you buy from a tackle shop, I'll probably end up topping it up every 30 minutes or less if there is lots of wave action as that depletes it faster. The berley will go with the current or back wash. In the back wash I expect it gets taken deep faster than it would naturally sink. Keep that in mind because you want to make sure you fish your bait inside the berley trail at the depth of the berley. The berley I buy is made my the bloke that runs the local tackle shop; it comes frozen for freshness but it's lose in the bag; it's not in a solid block or anything. The thing with berley is making sure it just gives the fish a taste but not a feed (that's what your bait is for ). Buy a berley bucket, experiment with different berley that doesn't deplete to quickly or maybe just accept how fast it depletes and bring more. I usually take a 1kg bag to last me for a session. $5 well spent if ou ask me!

I was fishing from the 'closed' wharf opposite from Thames Street Wharf and my SP was maybe 10m out from the end of the wharf in about 4 or 5 meters of water when the kingy hooked up. I didn't see any others that day, but have seen them swimming right up inside the old shipyard next to the wharf when there's no wind and you can see deep into the water.

About couple of weeks ago I was fishing for flathead using SPs on 6lb line and a rat king hooked up but busted off when he was within an arms length. That was down at Thames Street Wharf, Balmain. They're definitely around

Mate sounds awesome. You should write up a 'bass catching guide' or something, so we all know the 'where, when, what, why and how' Itching to have a go!

I have already registered but need to add +2 non-members to my boat.

Hey there Rabbit Dave, I catch way more undersized than legal - probably the case for all but the best or those with boats that can sound out the big fish. If you search for 'Thames Street Wharf' in the forums, you'll see that I just posted a list of what I caught the other day. Almost all undersized. Anyway, I'd rather a) be out of the house and catch something that I have to throw back rather than nothing at all Have fun! James.

Cheers mate! Sure I'll have a blast, just counting down the days now!

I'm a Pom and I have to agree that smoked mackerel is very good. And it's not just like kipper, it is kipper! kipper = smoked mackerel. At least in the UK anyway.

Hi all, Just obtained my NSW general boat license (woo hoo!) and will be hiring a boat next weekend to get some practice in before the social. I've never fished the harbour from a boat before and was wondering if anyone was willing to share some advice with a total boat newbie. I know of a couple of spots for kingfish (such as near the wedding cake, sow and pigs etc) but what other likely locations will I find them? The boat I will hire will have full GPS so GPS marks would be helpful too The boat will have a sounder too, so that's good. I will head to Balmoral for yakkas & squid unless there are better spots that anyone is willing to share. For tackle I'll be taking a 7 foot baitcaster rated to 8kg with 15pound braid, 20 pound mono leader, size 4 to 7 hooks. If / when I run out of fresh bait or can't catch any, I'll have some frozen squid, pillies, prawns and some soft plastics and metal lures to cover a few options. How well do kingfish respond to berley? Hey guys I understand if you wish to keep your secrets under wraps, but any help is truly appreciated! Cheers, James.

I have just acquired my NSW general boat license and will now be hiring my own boat for the occasion! Woo hoo! So I am no longer looking for a deckie position. I'm taking a boat our for a spin next weekend for some practice before the compo. Don't want to look like a complete fool in front of the 'raiders!

Ah, yes that is true. But they were little buggers - I didn't mean undersize in the legal sense. I would have kept a fantail, but these were the dinky little stripy ones.

I'll give that a shot next time I'm there, assuming I can catch some livies. Might also stand a chance of catching a kingfish too - i've seen them around there. Hi Jewhunter, Checked my fish identification book and I was definitely wrong about those 'big fish' being tailor. The fish I saw definitely did not have a V-shaped tail. It was flat, and the fish were very, very plump. They were about 2 meters deep in clear water but there was quite a bit of glare. I would estimate that they were about 60-70cm long. I could make out the shape but not really tell you much about the colour (being colourblind doesn't help either).

Thanks Warren, Nearly all of the undersize fish were taken inside the 90 minutes after low tide. The bream and the flathead were taken at high tide, around 3 to 4 hours after the other fish. I stayed around for a while longer as I saw some big fish swimming around (large tailor maybe) but couldn't catch any.

Got to Thames Street Wharf at low tide around 6am this morning. My plan was to come away with a couple of fantail leatherjackets for a feed (and to get my own back after stealing all my bait while targeting other fish). Used a long shank hook with a small piece of peeled prawn on a lightly weighted line and stuck it over the side and let it sink. Immediate hookup! One bream (undersize), then a tailor (undersize), then a whiting (undersize), then another bream (undersize)..... OK so the fish are firing but give me a decent one already! It was beginning to feel like I'd stumbled onto a Japanese Bonsai fishery.... Anyway the fish go off the bite for a while so I have a flick of the S.Ps for nothing, but by this time high tide was only an hour or two away. Then.... I decided to cast out a line with a pilchard tail on it , and I went back to trying for leatherjackets with prawn and longshank hook. Zzzzztttt!!! Something of decent size had taken the prawn, the rod U-bends, I adjust the drag and slowly manage to surface a beautiful 32cm bream! Before it goes in the bucket I hear a zzzzzzztttttt from the other line..... turns out to be a nice 55cm flathead. In the bucket it goes Score for the day: Bream 3 (2 undersize) Flathead 1 Tailor 2 (undersize) Whiting 1 (undersize) Leatherjacket 2 (undersize) A lot of undersize fish there, but my P.B. in terms of quantity caught in a single session. Sorry, no photos - memory card is full and can't find the USB cable anywhere......

Hey guys, Got myself a long beach rod a while ago and it's about time it got used for what it was designed for. Anybody fancy hooking up for a beach session one Saturday soon? Happy new year! -- james

Nice that you tried to do something about removing the hook instead of cutting the line. Totally agree with you on not encouraging the birds - I love nature and it would break my heart to accidentally kill a bird as well as giving ammunition to those that want to ban fishing in the harbour. Yesterday there was a pelican eying up my s.p. and that put an end to my session (as it should). He would have taken it - now, extracting a hook from a cormorant is doable, but a pelican - no way!