The Rev

Hi fellow Raiders, After a day on the water, here is a quick report. I often plan to write one but so often get caught up with other issues, but today I thought I must get it done!! Today, I took out the husband of one of my staff members, along with his neighbour who he fishes with on his neighbours boat in Sydney Harbour, but they never catch anything 😕 The two wives keep waiting for dinner to come home and after many trips had almost given up hope! So with the holidays here, I promised to take them out and show them a few things. On a tip off from a friend, i decided we would try and get our first MahiMahi for the season. We caught live bait - small yakkas and a few larger ones for cuts baits, and managed tp get a jumbo sized Slimey Mackerel amongst them that would be have been about 30cm+. With the bait tank full, seas smooth and not much wind we headed out through the heads at about 7:15am hopeful of a good day. In short, we managed the following. After arriving at our FAD, the first drift produced nothing, so I though go big or go home and quick lay rigged up the big slimey mackerel on my big Kingfish rod and reel (Shimano Talica 12) and dropped her in with the 2 small yakkas that we were drifting. 5-10 minutes later and the Slimey gets an inspection. After missing on the first strike I left the bait in the water and sure enough the Dolly couldn’t help itself and within 30 second took it again. This time I let it take the bait down for about 25 seconds before striking. I loaded up the rod and we were on. With 65lb braid it was a good but fight but not too long. The most difficult part was boating the fish with 2 guys who hadn’t even caught a decent bream! In the end I decided to handle both the rod and the gaff myself and had the fish in the boat after a few minutes. It went 110cm. You will see on the picture that it had 2 weird bite marks. Not sure if it was a cookie cuttter fish/shark, but definitely something had a go at it. When I cleaned the fish that afternoon, I cut those sections completely out. From there I took them to a flathead drift and we got 4 nice blue spots. We then headed in to Long Reef and sat not far off the Wall and burleyed up in 14 meters of water, resulting in 4 Sampson fish and one 67cm fat kingfish. It was now 11:45am and time to head in. Needless to say, my two companions, Mike and Frank, were both stoked and can’t wait to get out again in their boat. Tight Lines The Rev

Well done Bob - we only managed 5 Rat kings today including the smallest baby king that I’ve caught that went about 33cm! see you on the water tomorrow the rev (Bruce)

wow! awesome snapper!

Amen Bob!

We'll done Bob. No line & bait in the water = no fish!

Nice idea but unfortunately don't have such a tool!

Thanks for the reply and apologies for the late response. It's been a crazy busy year because of COVID19. I'm currently looking at my options 🙂

Hi Everyone, I have been thinking about upgrading the winch on my boat trailer to an electric one that comes with a remote to operate it. Was wondering the pro's and con's for them from any users? I currently have a manual winch for my Quintrex Renegade 4.2 M tinnie, that as I get older, takes a bit of effort to wind the boat on with. Thoughts? The Rev (Bruce)

Thanks, that is very helpful - do you use a paternoster rig?

Awesome catch - well done! How deep was the water that you were in?

Well done!

Thanks Mrs Swordie - let us know if you are up there - we going up Thursday for 9 days and will be trying to get out a fair bit. Bruce (The Rev)

Well done Bob - great to the fish biting. It has been a lean past few weeks in the Harbour Bruce (the Rev)

Thanks for this!

Thanks Tyrone - will try what you have suggested. The Rev

Well done for this time of year 👍

Hi there fellow Raiders, I am venturing up to stay at Wangi Wangi on Lake Macquarie in mid-September for a break and wondered about what the fishing was like then and any fishing tips for the lake or out off Swansea. I fish in a 4.2M Quintrex Renegade and happy to go to inshore reefs if the weather is cooperating. I normally fish Sydney Harbour and out of the heads up to 10km out when the weather is good. The Rev (Bruce)

Nice haul there - well done 👍🏼

great catch - well done!

I use Northern Beaches Marine and have been happy with them. They are in Brookvale. I go there as I have a new suzuki motor and they are a Suzuki specialist. Jon who runs it is a good guy. Here is there website http://www.nbmarine.com.au Bruce

Awesome catch and story. Looks like you will now have a son totally addicted to fishing!!

Great catch - well done. Which water way system were you fishing? Land based or boat? The Rev

Great story and report - welcome aboard. Where in the harbour are generally fishing? The Rev

I'm an actual Rev - Senior Minister at St Matthews Manly on the Corso. Cheers

Amen Bob - Praise the Lord!