Hiramasa

Hi all - Having moved to Melbourne for the last couple of years I have been struggling to keep up with the fishing news in Sydney. Who would of thought the very weekend I decide to fly to Sydney for a fish that the Social would be on!! I went to the inaugural Kingfish Social a few years back and loved it. I would love to join if possible (landbased) please. Regards Minh

Been a while since I've posted anything on Fishraider. I blame it on the poor fishing in Melbourne at the moment. Wish I was back in Sydney. Anyway saw GregL's post and thought I should throw my 5c in. The reel you are referring to here Greg is a super version of the Daiwa Tournament Ishidai which has gone through an IZE factory upgrade. The Ishidai reel range is primary designed for casting not jigging - you will notice a wider spool as opposed to a narrower type used for jigging. Ishidai is the Japanese name for a species of Knifejaw found off the deep rocky coastline of Japan. It is almost exclusively targeted by land based fisherman using very heavy gear. Both the baiting style and fight of the Knifejaw bears resemblance to Groper fishing here in Australia i.e. the Ishidai's favorite food source are sea urchins and once hooked generally for heavy cover. You will also note an electronic counter on the left hand plate. This is a distance meter used by the fisherman to cast to the same spot/reef each time. It is also handy when you want to test out your biceps The 170,000 yen price tag is certainly hefty but one should bear in mind the matching rods which go with these reels are also in the 120,000 yen price bracket and are real work of art (pardon the pun). Having said all of this if I had the money I wouldn't mind picking one up as well. Alas my home renovations have to come first. Good Luck

Greg - You probably don't need to spend the $900 first up. I would prob start with something towards the $250-$300 only because you may not actually find it works for you especially in during the first few months. It took me well over 6 months to be confident with the reel and have found it very difficult to match it up with any locally produced rod. (I bought a japanese ISO rod at the same time of purchase). The reason being is that the reel requires the trigger find to be always on the lever. This may not sound so difficult but if the rod is too heavy or butt too long, this style of gripping puts a lot of strain on the wrist. That why in Japan they have specially designed roads to match this style of fishing. The rods are long, light, soft action with short butts and have no fore/rear grips (Imagine a 16 foot bream rod configured with no grips and you will get the picture) If you can make your way to Bare Island (La Perouse) on a day with some nice swell over the front ledge you will see a number of older fishos using these sticks. They don't use the lever threadline but have mastered using the longer rod. Depending on the drift/current on the day you may actually find it easier to release the bail instead of the trigger, especially if it is running hard out/away from the ledge. But for fine tuning the drift it is superb. Some of the raiders may have seen this combo in action at Clifton g. over summer and it does work well. My best capture (weight vs line class) to date has been a 3.5kg pig on 6lb near Little Bay. H.

Thanks kingrule - Good to see your still getting stuck into the fish at Clifton. I have unfortunately moved south to Melbourne for a few years ...boy do i miss the harbour. Anyway to answer the lever brake question, yes i do have one and yes they are designed for japanese ISO fishing. ISO fishing is primarily a style of rock fishing utilising long soft rods (mine is 5.3metres - full graphite only weights 275gms), bobby floats and very light line (4-10 lbs main depending on your rod). The purpose of the lever drag is that it kind of replaces the reverse switch on most threadlines. Y u may ask. Two main reasons, the first being that this form of fishing relies of tiring the fish out through the long soft rod. However because of the high risk of line breakage whilst on the rocks ISO fishing need a system of a controlled 'free spool' if the fish decides to swim away from the edge e.g. Drummer fishing being a classic example. This allows the angler to play the fish with greater confidence. Second reason is that the lever allows the angler to release line without having to open the bail arm. Luderick fisherman would recognise this as a great feature especially as it allows you to control the drift of the float more effectively - almost like using a centrepin reel. Lever brake reels also come with either fix spool or variable drag spool setup. the fixed spool requires deft touch in controlling the amount of free spooling during the fight but provides the option of full lockup when needed. Varibale drag spools allow you to pre-set drag on top of your own ability to control the lever. I prefer this setup so that on lazy days I can use the reel like a normal threadline. the cost of lever drag threadlines range from about $150-$1000 in Japan. Hope this helps

I'm with bmar560 on this one. If you you going to fish in the harbour, especially clifton, the slightly lighter option is better. Sure you get some bigger (75cm+) swimming through at times but the majority hooked tend to go from slightly undersized up to 70cm. If you want to be sure of landing the fish without it going under then you have one of few choices: 1. Use a longer rod to help steer it clear (with this comes the option of using a lighter line class) 2. Use a heavier leader (but risk not getting hits when they finicky) 3. Combination of the two plus knowing how to fish your get to the line (including full lock up on the drag when required) On the rare days that kings are feeding on anything which comes down their way you will get away with the heavier gear. 90% of the time I'm there the kings are deep (3/4 down), refuse livies, a feed off the smaller items in your berley trail i.e. a full pilchard will be ignored in preference to a strip bait, peeled prawn, half pilchard etc. It's one these occasions that a lighter rig will get you the hits. After that is up to your skill plus a bit of luck (if the first run is away from the wharf your laughing). On quiet days when finesse is required I use a 5.3m slow tapered rod, 10 lb main and 6-10lb fc leader fishing unweighted peeled prawns (or any small bait) or under a small bobby float (again no lead). Berley is essential. This way if the kings aren't about, you will at least get some skonker trevally, bream and the old tailor. when the kings are on the surfce and actively feeding, I am using 20lb braid and 20-40lb fc leader on a shorter rod (8-9ft). Again completely unweighted. I truly beleive most people who are trying to target kings in the harboure miss out because of the lack of finesse used in their setup. Off the stones is a different story and I agree one needs to upsize a little. good luck.

Thanks Pete - if the kings aren't about then hopefully the bonito will give us a bit of fun.

All Just a quick snippet of what the lb people can look forward to on Sunday

Just like to to thank Darren greatly for his generosity on Sunday. As i am hoping to purchase my first boat in the near future I found his presentation and boat knowledge of great value. His boats are a fantastic setup and I think even I could hire something of that class and operate it without too many problems (I only need to get my license first !) I had never been on the water in Pittwater before and enjoyed the scenery and company of Pete and Darren immensely - both are true gentlemen. As for my fishing efforts, I had something of descent size straighten my TT jighead (1/0 hook) and dropped two bonnies at the boat. Fish were scarce for the first 4hrs but the afternoon certainly made up for it. Nothing being than sight casting to agressive surface feeding fish. I look forward to catching up with everyone at the social. Minh

Following on from KingRule's great efforts, I spent the afternoon at Clifton with my brother and between us and one other guy landed 2 kingfish and dropped approx 10. They were all slightly larger than your average rats but were feeding at our feet so decided to head straight for the pylons most times. Brother nearly landed one on 6 pound leader, but all of mine were caught on 20lb braid and FC leader. Bait was unweighted bonito strips, which coincidently was also caught at Clifton a couple of days prior (the same day KingsRule got his Kingfish!!) Anyhow things r looking good for the landbased fishos for the social.

I am from Melbourne orginally and used to fish Mornington Pier a fair bit. People catch large snapper off the seaward side of the pier after a big onshore blow (south-west). plenty of squid near the moored yachts. Also lots of garfish, bay-trout (juvenile salmon), flathead, king george whiting and sometimes trevally at this timne of year. In the winter there are plenty of barracouta. Good luck.,

Went out to Clifton Gardens Wharf today to have a fish with my brother who had come to Sydney from Melbourne for Xmas. I gave him my 6'6 Daiwa Procaster V with a 2500 Capricorn to use against the local trevally and bream there. I am fishing in the corner of the wharf after squid when my mobile goes off in the backpack. Brother runs over to give the phone. He is away for less than 2 min for the kit to discover on his return that its gone. No-one around says they saw a rod go into the drink, so must have been picked up by a passign thief. Not a great end to the year. Raiders pls be careful with your gear over this busy holiday period. Time to find me a second hand rod !!

I am happy to bring along the cling wrap and alfoil. Just tell me how much you think we need.

I would love to join in. I fish Clifton *land based* most weekends and have a landed and lost a number of good size kings this season already. I will love to be someones deckie as well if an opportunity is made available.

I would love to give it a go on either the 16th or 17th, however don't have any jigging gear as I've always been a land based fisho. Closest setup i have is a Saltiga Dorado M-Over80S 8 ft stick matched to a Certate 3500 HD Custom (20lb braid). I'm sure it would be great for Dollies around FADs but doubt it could do the vertical stuff with large knife jigs. Is there any more info in relation to the kit available on the boat??

Hey Netic, bad luck with the kingies on Sunday. I was the guy you saw at Clifton Gardens squidding at around 7am. The squid continued to play hard ball even after you left. Nice to meet you anf hopefully see u on the water again.