Sydney Harbour Kings

[ophet]

Well, as you all probably know Saturday was a howler of a day, literally. The forecast was for a southerly to kick in, causing the temperatures to drop and making for a tough day on the water.

Knowing all of this, with commitments not allowing me to fish on Sunday and with Kelvin’s encouraging reports, my mate and I decided to brave the forecast to test our newly installed downrigger.

Hitting the water at Tunks Park at 6am (yes, we were keen), the day was clear without a breath of wind. We both knew that this would not last, and so hurridly visited our favourite bait grounds for bait. After a couple of hours searching, we raised three squid, and a few yakkas as backup.

Heading out the heads was not an option, although we saw there were boats out there, super keen !!! So we thought we would troll middle harbour around the spit and west of. Despite the bad forecast, we were surprised to see quite a few boats fishing stationary around The Spit or downrigging. They must have all read Kelvin’s reports during the week, not sure whether there were any Fishraiders out there !! As we passed each boat we did the obligatory head nod, and asked if they had any luck, and no one had revealed any success (later on a guy in a centre console and his son, not Kelvin, told us someone scored a Jew of approx 6kgs around the spit).

After attaching the downrigger on the mount, and a quick run through of the workings, we attach a squid onto the hooks and drop it down to the chosen depth via the downrigger.

By now the southerly had well and truly kicked in, and the harbour was very choppy and messy. Trying to keep the speed of the troll at the desired speed and keeping a straight line for the troll is quite difficult, and we were constantly having to correct our line to avoid hitting the moored boats (as the gusts of wind would suddenly push us into the direction of the boats).

After several hours of trolling around a few spots, and passing a number of other boats (who were still not reporting any success) we decided to change tact and downrigged a squid head. Up and down the middle harbour moorings we went, again with no success.

There were some readings coming up on the sounder, of what looked like bait balls but for the life of me I could not determine if they were kings, yakkas, bream or any other fish. Yes, I was looking for the detached reading of larger size with a V shape, but I could not see any – not that I noticed anyway. We trolled up and down what looked like a promising school of fish, but again no takers. Curiosity got the best of me, so we decided to anchor up and see if we could tempt the fish with the squid head, pillies and live yakkas. Not a touch.

After hours of bait catching, trolling and fixed fishing, trying this and that, we were a little despondent. Our last option was to give downrigging some yakkas a go, and after 45 minutes of no action, we head back to Tunks Park with not one run.

We tried everything we knew and every combination, but we were just not good enough on the day. Reports like Kelvins make catching Kings sound easy (not having a dig at you Kelvin) but I can tell you that it isn’t, people who know what they are doing make things look easy.

It was tough going out there, and very trying. All was not lost though, in that we got used to the new downrigger, became more familiar with the middle harbour and learnt a few lessons on trying different techniques and options. The hours of experience chasing Kings is tallying up, which will only add to our abilities as King fishermen.

We were literally blown away, not by the kings of Sydney harbour, but by the southerly wind.

The Kings will have to wait until next time.

[James]

CHIN UP CHAMP.

CRAPPY DAY BLAME IT ON THE WEATHER

[big_steve]

great read mate,

im sorry to hear that u didnt turn a reel all day

the best is yet to come mate and im sure persistance PAYS off eventually...

i think your right in saying that the guys on here do make it look rather easy,

but dont forget they started off like u and me and other fellas and im sure had QUITE a few fishless trips be4 things started too come together for them...

all u can do mate is ask the questions, ask the pros, advice is always on offer, on this site as u know,

gather what info u think will work then next thing is to get out there and put it all to practice and eventually im sure things will flow..

ur on the right track, catching squid, livies ect then downrigging so all is needed is a little fine tuning and a less windy day and im sure u will produce the goods..

dont give up dude

cheers steve

[OneLastCast]

I think there are a lot of Raiders getting out and trying downrigging on the back of great reports (and tips) from the likes of Kelvin and Netic.

Those fellas do make it look easy! But heck it gives us something to aim for

Keep the tips coming guys!

I also saw some interesting readings from time to time on the sounder while downrigging in MH on Sat.

Even saw what looked to be a bunch of kings with individual fish showing up around 7 m deep. trolled through them half a dozen times at the right depth with live squid for nothing. Oh well next time.

One thing I think I may have done wrong is attaching trout trolling 'cowbells' to the back of the bomb as an attractor. It may have had the opposite effect putting the kings off - thoughts?

[namesay]

Isn't wind a real pain? It seems like everytime I go out the wind plays havoc. Just remember those fishless trips will really become a store of knowledge for the future. Driving your boat around moorings is an aquired skill.

I have a little tip for those who aren't getting results in middle harbour .... the kingies often sit just UNDER the shade of a moored boat. Especially the really old wooden type boats. When the sun is high get your baits in tight amongst the moorings. I also find that you can often incite a strike from a fish you can see on the sounder if you change depths rapidly normally going deeper.

ANother tip is that the anchor line of a mooring and the underwater structure of a mooring often holds baitfish. Hang around and do several "laps"if you see a concentration of bait. HOwever, fish that are showing right on the surface are often tailer and they rip your squid apart so stay away from those! Cheers Kelvin

[Sammy]

Keep having a crack at them champ and when you least expect them you'll get one! It's fun trying but isn't it?? ahh fishing the endless possibilities

[namesay]

I think there are a lot of Raiders getting out and trying downrigging on the back of great reports (and tips) from the likes of Kelvin and Netic.

Those fellas do make it look easy! But heck it gives us something to aim for

Keep the tips coming guys!

I also saw some interesting readings from time to time on the sounder while downrigging in MH on Sat.

Even saw what looked to be a bunch of kings with individual fish showing up around 7 m deep. trolled through them half a dozen times at the right depth with live squid for nothing. Oh well next time.

One thing I think I may have done wrong is attaching trout trolling 'cowbells' to the back of the bomb as an attractor. It may have had the opposite effect putting the kings off - thoughts?

I have a cynical view of fish attractors. I prefer the stealth approach. Quiet motors and or drift and sneak up on them I have an electric motor which I use for squidding and for sneaking up on the kingies when they are timid. Also check your set back. Pete Le Blang disagrees but for me a bait too close to the bomb isn't as effective as one further back.

WHen it comes to sounders, get them off auto and play around with the manual controls. You really need to know your sounder back to front as they are your eyes. When you silently sLow troll you will find a lot of kingies in ones and twos "asleep" and they are the one you want to get as they tend to be the biggens.cheers Kelvin

[ophet]

Thanks for the encouragement and tips guys.

I fully know that it takes time and experience to catch Kings on a regular basis, so I accept I will need to do my time. It will take more then a windy, fruitless outing to put me off my fishing.

Great tips Kelvin, I will bear that in mind next time I am out there.

[netic]

Mate the main thing is you got out there and gave it a try, As kelvin mentioned you gotta try different things and keep at it, You knowledge of DR and the area has increased and im sure you will get results next trip, with kings persistence does pay off, Just keep at it.

Kelvin, My sounder on my boat is only new and have only used it a few times and still havent had a play with it as traditionally i havent relied much on a sounder, will have a look at it this week to see if there are any settings i can play with

[OneLastCast]

I have a cynical view of fish attractors. I prefer the stealth approach. Quiet motors and or drift and sneak up on them I have an electric motor which I use for squidding and for sneaking up on the kingies when they are timid. Also check your set back. Pete Le Blang disagrees but for me a bait too close to the bomb isn't as effective as one further back.

WHen it comes to sounders, get them off auto and play around with the manual controls. You really need to know your sounder back to front as they are your eyes. When you silently sLow troll you will find a lot of kingies in ones and twos "asleep" and they are the one you want to get as they tend to be the biggens.cheers Kelvin

Thanks for the tips Kelvin. I run a 25hp 2 stroke. Not exactly the quietest of motors. On a slow day do you think this could put the Kings off? I also have an electric but havn't used it for a while.

I was picking up the bomb on the sounder when trolling really slow and it was under the boat. I saw it go through at the same depth of about 10 distinct large fish arches a number of times - lovely king candy sized live squid untouched! was running it about 2 meters behind the bomb (with flashing, twirling trout cowbells attached!).

Am guessing I should ditch the cowbells, extend bait drop back from bomb to 10 meters and dust off the old electric trolling motor...

[namesay]

Hey "one last cast" having a set back of only 2 meters is not the best. I am not saying that kingies will not hit your baits but I have not had too much success when the bait is so close to the bomb. 10 meters is OK but you have to be careful when you downrig as too long a set back will make it difficult to go around all the moorings etc. You may get a lot of snag ups so experiment. As a rule the longer the set back the better the strike ratio.

Also a long set back on a deep bait means that the kingies have an instant advantage when they hit the bait as they are already near the bottom. I can't tell you how many times I have lost fish due to them just destroying me in the first couple of seconds after getting a hit! I guess it is all experience.

Now days I fish a heavy leader and don't find that it puts the kingies off provided you use live bait. ON a lure however, it is different. I also fish alone most of the time and the best thing is to fight the fish when you are OUT of the moorings and structure. So on strike leave the rod in the holder and get the boat out into clear deep water. If you don't pull too hard it is amazing that the kingies don't pull as well so you have plenty of time to fight the fish on your own terms. CHeers Kelvin

[OneLastCast]

Kelvin thanks for all the tips.

If I ever see you on the water and you are short on squid, you will be very welcome to some of mine if I have any.

Cheers Derryn (aka OLC)

[namesay]

Mate the main thing is you got out there and gave it a try, As kelvin mentioned you gotta try different things and keep at it, You knowledge of DR and the area has increased and im sure you will get results next trip, with kings persistence does pay off, Just keep at it.

Kelvin, My sounder on my boat is only new and have only used it a few times and still havent had a play with it as traditionally i havent relied much on a sounder, will have a look at it this week to see if there are any settings i can play with

The first thing to do with your sounder is try out the manual settings. "gain" is pretty easy but most sounders on auto have the gain too low (just so that you can have a clear screen) to pick up fish sitting amongst moorings and structure. Get the gain up and sort out the clutter by reducing it when you see something interesting. It is amazing what this can reveal.

THe other important one is depth. On auto a lot of sounders will change scale automatically when you hit shallow or deeper water. This is OK if you are just looking at the bottom but kingies DON"T just sit on the bottom!!! You are after drop offs, holes, gullies etc. As the sounder jumps from scale to scale you LOSE all this information. A lot of people just get the set out and sit it on auto and drive straight past a good looking reef or drop off. So set your depth manually and if you need bottom info, get the zoom feature on.

Ping rate is another feature you need to play around with as you don't want a small pebble to look like a huge drop off. I try to maximise the ping rate for my trolling speed of 1-2 knots. I also set the ping rate differently when the boat is travelling faster. I find that when the boat is say 6knots or faster auto is OK.

The other is to know how your sounder shows reef, sand, mud or broken bottoms. Is your Ray marine a "digital" processor? The only weakness of these units is that they over process the bottom info and it is difficult to distinguish between reef, sand etc. I find that a sunken tree for instance looks different to a sunken wreck and so on. It is important to see these things as inshore fishing is all about finding these micro structures and fishing them! Cheers Kelvin

[netic]

Mate it is a digital sounder, a Raymarine ds500x, supposed to be a good unit for the price, it is quite good at showing me readings but as mentioned before i havent really played around with it all that much. Will have a play next time im out

[namesay]

After hours of bait catching, trolling and fixed fishing, trying this and that, we were a little despondent. Our last option was to give downrigging some yakkas a go, and after 45 minutes of no action, we head back to Tunks Park with not one run.

The Kings will have to wait until next time.

By the way did you have your downrigger and bait out as you were going back to the ramp? Never discount this opportunity if you still have a few baits as you should not waste precious live squid.

I have caught kingfish in the weirdest places as they can be opportunistic hunters. I even landed a kingfish on the pontoon at the ramp at Roseville!. A downrigger allows you to explore all these areas. A tip- on the way back to Tunks there are several good kingfish areas where you can normally find a few fish. THese are not moorings. Cheers Kelvin