The Rats Have Arrived!

[namesay]

G'day raiders, after reading CFD's report yesterday I had to wipe the drool off my keyboard. I had a conference with my 6year old son on the plan of action for today. We decided to head off shore via pittwater to chase the kings.

Hit Bayview in the morning and the action started almost straight away. The kings and tailer were busting up around Scotland island. I used my electric motor to sneak up on them they were in large numbers but it was hard to get them to hit our lures. A dozen or so kingfish would follow our sluggos and poppers without hitting them. They were feeding on very small bait so I changed to small metals without success, small minnows ...the same.

The only lure they would hit were the small Berkely power minnows with a resin head. We had real fun on light gear on these fish. We would land 3-4 fish per school before they wised up. UNfortunately these fish were small. Between 55-65cm.

There were some bigger fish in the schools as we had fish EVERYWHERE around the boat but the rats would beat the bigger fish to the lures.

Slowly we worked our way out to Barrenjoey but there were no fish there. We continued south to Whale beach and DeeWhy and there were schools marked by birds. These fish were easier to catch as they were more willing to hit any lure. We worked a few schools before calling it quits.

Returned to pittwater and got some squid but had no joy with them.

We got home and had a rest and decided to try Middle Harbour for some larger fish ...my 6 year old's suggestion but by this time the wind had picked up. I got to see a few fellow raiders netic and Barryrocker. Middle Harbour was very quiet with very little bait and no signs of kingies. Perhaps the boat traffic had put them off.

Anyway the surface action in the morning was great. We must have caught 15-20 fish all released.....forgot the camera so no pictures!

I guess if you are new to kingie fishing then it is time to get out there!! You don't need a downrigger or anything...just get up early!!!

For the more experienced guys, the time when the rats arrive is a mixed blessing as these rats can be either real fun or a real pain especially when you are trying to target bigger fish. For now it is great to see so many kingies hitting lures on the surface....I don't think I'll ever tire of this!!!! CHeers Kelvin

[harold]

i wish i could have gone out there today. Had to work. Congratulations to you and your son.

[namesay]

great news Kelvin,

the rats are an insane bit of fun if you want fast paced, continuous action with the good chance of pulling a feed.

if only you had some yakkas in the morning,

i found lobbing a live yakka into the middle of a busting school pretty intense, they would climb on it like piranhas, you could feel the yakka pissing himself through the braid.

found it brought out the bigger fish too.

good to hear there is some quality fish to be caught by everyone out there

CFD

Yeah I was thinking that if we had a few livies things would have been a bit more interesting but we had no time to catch them as the king were taking our attention! But there ARE bigger fish in with the rats. We saw fish that were twice the length of the rats. When we got back with some squid the action had died and we had no takers.

I once chucked a mado into a school of kings. They played ping pong with it for a while until one fish ended the mado's misery! Its a dog eat dog world down there.

Isn't it interesting that when they are busting on the surface in the mornings, a lot of the times they shut down for the rest of the day! Cheers KElvin

[ophet]

Agreed, Kelvin, the Rats are here and in force, whether it be in Pittwater or the Harbour. Not sure about Botany Bay, but I suppose the same.

I was able to get amongst the action today, but most of them were rats. Although it is still fun to catch them, I find them a little frustrating after a while, I just want to catch the hoods. I would rather catch a couple of hoods, then 50 rats. But then again, some action is better then none ....

I will post a report later tonight or tomorrow, I am still tired from fishing all day.

BTW Kelvin, we think we saw you fishing in MH, just up from the spit. I was in the Trailcraft centre console with Pageboy, but by the time we knew it was you, we had well and trully passed you. Didn't get a chance to wave hello, next time.

[namesay]

Yeah I saw you guys out in the water- didn't know it was you..... How did you go in MH? I didn't see any action after the morning's fireworks with the rats.

My son's just dropped like a stone...poor kid hasn't grown enough muscles to pump and wind. I'll give the kings another go on Wed..try to get a few of the bigger ones..they are there to be caught! CHeers KElvin

[ophet]

Yeah I saw you guys out in the water- didn't know it was you..... How did you go in MH? I didn't see any action after the morning's fireworks with the rats.

My son's just dropped like a stone...poor kid hasn't grown enough muscles to pump and wind. I'll give the kings another go on Wed..try to get a few of the bigger ones..they are there to be caught! CHeers KElvin

No good in MH, saw a couple of good readings, but could'nt get them to play. We didn't try too many things, ie unclipping the bait or your jig (more on this in my report), just went past the school a couple of times without success. We had a squid we caught in the morning and yakka on two separate downriggers. To be honest, we were so tired from jigging and slow trolling outside, we just headed back to Roseville after a little while.

[Penguin]

Well done on the Kings again even if they were a little bit

smaller than u would have liked.

[Dezmo]

Nice work. Wish i had got onto as many kings.

I was fishing out of south head this morning and managed two rats about 55cm while trolling (obviously released). There was a big school feeding on the surface on someting small and i assumed they were salmon. There were quite spooky and i had troubles casting to the school (very light jig) and i gave up. I am thinking now they may have been kings too? in which case i should have persisted!

[netic]

Good stuff Kelvin, good to see you on the water again, we also had trouble finding the kings in MH, they just didnt wanna show themselves, but hey thats fishing.

There was heaps of boat traffic in MH and that defiantely would have played a part in the absence of Kings.

Even in the main harbour there were a sh.it load of Sail boats out, made the trip back to rose bay a bumpy one

[barrykrocker]

Hey Kelvin... Thanks for those squid yesterday. After not finding much on the sounder around clontarfwe raced outside to downrig south at the colours ...The conditions were (to my surprise) the best I've had offshore in 6 weeks. there was huge ammounts of bait and big archs but no takers for some reason.... Headed north to a reef and got a a pan sized snapper and a couple of trevs going 45cm. The only exciting moment was when a live slimey got hit, with no hookup.

I was pretty shocked that we couldn't even source a king OFFSHORe with squid but what the hey. . Thanks again mate

Edited November 13, 2006 by barrykrocker

[CR@ZY OS@M@]

i went out for the first time to nowra to try some fishing there on that same day you were out and only managed a undersized king and a cuttle fish,mind you sprayed a shit load of ink all over the boat

not many people had success also out there

[namesay]

i went out for the first time to nowra to try some fishing there on that same day you were out and only managed a undersized king and a cuttle fish,mind you sprayed a shit load of ink all over the boat

not many people had success also out there

Those cuttle fish have the most amount of ink imaginable!!! It seems like they are little ink factories. They foul up the bait tank and cover you boat in this stuff. But I reckon in winter they are THE GUN bait for kingies anywhere! Cuttlefish don't live long on a downrigger in winter. CHeers Kelvin

[CR@ZY OS@M@]

very true, my kill tank was full of ink, unplugged the kill tank and was still full ink .

dredded later having to clean the boat, gave the cuttlefish to my uncle and cousin.

my uncle reckons that italians love eating pasta with the ink from the cuttle fish or even squid, strangely i have tried it and it was bloody nice.

Edited November 14, 2006 by Crazy John