Scented Squid For Kings.

[costello]

Hi Raiders.

Just at work thinking about fishing as usual and had a thought. Obviously using fresh squid for Kings is the only way to go, but unfortunately it's a bit hard to get a hold of them sometimes. I was thinking if you could scent frozen squid with pheromones or tuna oil or anything else that will attract a King? Has anyone ever tried this ?

Cheers,

Costa

Edited November 20, 2006 by costa

[chrisg]

On a similar thought the tackle shop has some 6inch long soft plastic squid that are scented. Has anyone tried these?

At $10 for three their a bit pricey for tailor fodder though!

C.

Edited November 20, 2006 by chrisg

[netic]

Mate the problem with frozen squid is the fact that the head of the squid is not tucked inside the hood, although smell is important its appearance is also very important.

Gulp has a new range of baits out that are a 6 inch squid which are scented, these things look really good and i picked up a pack the other week, yet to try them, if anything other then livies will work i think it will be these

[costello]

Mate the problem with frozen squid is the fact that the head of the squid is not tucked inside the hood, although smell is important its appearance is also very important.

Gulp has a new range of baits out that are a 6 inch squid which are scented, these things look really good and i picked up a pack the other week, yet to try them, if anything other then livies will work i think it will be these

Pickie buggers aren't they mate! I'd be intersted to know how you go when you try those out. Are they plastics?

[netic]

Yeah they are plastics, i will be giving them a go over the next few weeks

[costello]

Yeah they are plastics, i will be giving them a go over the next few weeks

I usually catch your reports mate so if you put a mention of how they go i'll keep an eye out.

Cheers,

Costa

[costello]

Anyone else tried anything similar?

[namesay]

Kings are really funny bastards. They will turn their noses up to any inferior bait. Having said that I have used frozen squid ...squid I have caught and have had success. I have also caught kings on squid I have put in a fridge for a couple of days.

These inferior baits tend to work better off shore than in the estuaries. ANd Yes I have tried the scents but I don't think it makes too much difference. I have a funny feeling that kings are more sight/vibration feeders than smell feeders.

I guess this is why they hit jigs in deep water- jigs have no smell. Also I find that I can't catch kings after dark in most spots....unless there is some artificial light around the setting of the sun ends the kingie action.

When I downrig in clear water you can see the kingies tailing your bait. Normally they follow and follow for quite a long time before either eating or swimming away. They really study what they are going to eat before eating it most of the time....so a frozen squid must stand out.Cheers Kelvin

[costello]

If only Kings were a stupid fish that hit anything that moved, i guess that's what makes them so unique and satisfying to catch.

Cheers,

Costa

[namesay]

These fish can be as cunning as foxes. The most frustrating thing is when you can see them but they refuse EVERYTHING. When this happens I feel like I need a handgrenade!

In winter we had a few 20kg + fish swimming around pittwater for about a month. These guys could be seen in clear shallow water and whenever they turned up my heart would go in my mouth. We used to throw everthing at them. At one stage I threw out a jig and hit one of them in the head!!! But they refused everything. Live squid, yakkas, mados, sluggos, white bait, tailer, pillies, metals, poppers...etc. They would tease you by following but then swimming away.

Ask Peter Leblang as he has had the same experience with the same school of fish that I did! I even threw a live squid without hooks to see if they would take it...of course they just wolfed it down!!! As soon as you put on a hook...they just looked at it and swam off. Boy these larger fish are EDUCATED. They are there but they didn't get this big in hard fished waters like sydney by being stupid. CHeers Kelvin

[zen801]

Amen!!!

Aint that the truth. I had a recent experience at the Spit were i threw my whole arsenal at the kings under my boat. They just played with me. I can relate to wishing i had a handgrenade because that was the only way i was gonna have raw kingie that day. The shrapnel would have been a pain on the teeth though. I will just keep trying.

[namesay]

Amen!!!

Aint that the truth. I had a recent experience at the Spit were i threw my whole arsenal at the kings under my boat. They just played with me. I can relate to wishing i had a handgrenade because that was the only way i was gonna have raw kingie that day. The shrapnel would have been a pain on the teeth though. I will just keep trying.

I got a friend who quit fishing after doing it for over 20 years because he was sick of watching kings after king refusing to take his baits and lures. He now goes in the water to spear them!!!! He is a great guy and recently built himself a HUGE boat to go out there and get his revenge! Cheers Kelvin

[Sammy0884]

As i always say, they don't get big by being stupid!

[netic]

I was talking to a mrine biologist guy once...he told me the larger fish are harder to catch because their optical nerves are more developed ..(or something like that)

With better site they can spot things the smaller rats cannot.

I guess it makes sense.....babies cant see as good as adults so what not fish...

[Gibbofisho]

Sounds like some of you blokes need a speargun!

On a serious note, when it comes to baits, netic nailed it, older fish see more detail and have gotten bigger and better by being pickier and more wary. As for lures though the colours and shapes used are not just meant to look pretty they are used to switch on their subconscious hunting instinct, i know for a fact that this is why soft plastics are so effective on flathead, when you jig a bright pink sp past a resting flathead, they might be full as a goog or half asleep, but when their eye's see that colour, moving at the right speed emitting the right vibrations, their little brains switch over without any control and they 'have' to strike the bait. I'd say its fair to assume that kings and lots of other fish have the same effect when a weird looking pink squid/skirt is being dragged over the surface.

[Penguin]

I had an experiance in Yarra Bay,Botany,

we were bottom bashing,and every time we would bring a

bait up to the boat Kingys would chase it but never take

it,even when we would stop retrieving our bait,they would

swim off,we threw all kinds of lures and bait at em,and

nothing, then my mate throws a peeled prawn in the water

and a King came up out of the depths and nailed it.

I then cut my sinker off and put a peeled prawn on my

hook,when this prawn got to 3ft below the surface,

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz it got hit immediatly,then this was

the way we fished for the next hour and boated well over

15 Kings,6 of which were keepers and a lot of fun.

penguin

[namesay]

I had an experiance in Yarra Bay,Botany,

we were bottom bashing,and every time we would bring a

bait up to the boat Kingys would chase it but never take

it,even when we would stop retrieving our bait,they would

swim off,we threw all kinds of lures and bait at em,and

nothing, then my mate throws a peeled prawn in the water

and a King came up out of the depths and nailed it.

I then cut my sinker off and put a peeled prawn on my

hook,when this prawn got to 3ft below the surface,

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz it got hit immediatly,then this was

the way we fished for the next hour and boated well over

15 Kings,6 of which were keepers and a lot of fun.

penguin

This is how kingies can really cheese you off. Last year we had a HUGE school of kings off barrenjoey for about 2 months solid. They were fish between 65-80cm. They would hit anything and were extremely aggressive but only if you fished for them in the afternoon!!! On one day I caught 3 or 4 kings on a grey sluggo and they weren't HOOKED. THey just grabbed the lure and got pulled into the boat!

Yet yesterday I had a school of kings on the sounder in Middle Harbour. They would rip the heads off the squid and miss the hooks. They would follow up the bait to the boat, they would follow the lures but NOTHING could get them to bite. Man was it frustration city. They were good sized fish too. I am still recovering! But I guess they are still out there and we'll try next time.....makes you come back! Should have had a packet of prawns CHeers Kelvin

[Penguin]

Clifton Gardens,August this year same thing happened,threw

lures at the jetty,only to see Kings following the lures back to

the boat then shoot back to the jetty,

Tried the Yarra Bay tactic with large peeled prawns drifted

towards the jetty and 1st 2 baits hook up 71 and 75cm Kingys,

then we were told to move away by a navy boat and therefore

ending our fun.

So maybe some large fresh peeled prawns may just be worth u

having on board next trip out.

, penguin

[namesay]

Clifton Gardens,August this year same thing happened,threw

lures at the jetty,only to see Kings following the lures back to

the boat then shoot back to the jetty,

Tried the Yarra Bay tactic with large peeled prawns drifted

towards the jetty and 1st 2 baits hook up 71 and 75cm Kingys,

then we were told to move away by a navy boat and therefore

ending our fun.

So maybe some large fresh peeled prawns may just be worth u

having on board next trip out.

, penguin

I gotta stock up on these prawns!!! This is no BS is it? What type of prawns? Don't want to be out there nextime fishing for kings with prawns and catching mados Cheers Kelvin

[big_steve]

prawns that penguin uses are

off memory ENDEVOUR PRAWNS...

there pinkish in colour and he swears by them... he usually uses them in botany bay and cleans

up on the kingys with them....

ohhhhh HOPE this aint no secret penguin?? oops

cheers steve

[Penguin]

I gotta stock up on these prawns!!! This is no BS is it? What type of prawns? Don't want to be out there nextime fishing for kings with prawns and catching mados Cheers Kelvin

No BS mate,Crazy John was fishin beside us once in Botany Bay and

saw us land 7 all over legal Kings around him,and we had plenty of bust offs

as well,he stuck with lures and sp's for zilch Kings.

Now understand me,Im not saying this will always work,coz theres no

such thing as always in fishing,just letting u know of something else that has

worked for us when other methods have failed.

We use large green endeaver prawns,peeled,on light line,and the prawn must

drift in the current at the same speed as everything else in the water for a better

hook up rate.

Big Steve,in the presence of CFD also popped his Kingy cherry using this method.

So no BS.Good luck may work for u one day when all else fails.

penguin

Edited November 23, 2006 by penguin

[Robbielites]

My introduction to Kings (this year) was drifting unweighted matchbox sized squid pieces into a berly trail over a reef, it worked a treat.

Robbie

[Penguin]

prawns that penguin uses are

off memory ENDEVOUR PRAWNS...

there pinkish in colour and he swears by them... he usually uses them in botany bay and cleans

up on the kingys with them....

ohhhhh HOPE this aint no secret penguin?? oops

cheers steve

No secret mate.

[CR@ZY OS@M@]

i can actually vouch for penguin.

that day he caught those two kings in the harbour,i was actually with him n my best man in his boat.

no bs it works guys.

[namesay]

That does it....I gotta get me some prawns. Never know with these kings. They are one really weird fish. I was told in some parts of South Oz that they fish for them at night on the bottom like jews. Seems like they bite baits set for bream. SOme of these kings are 30KGs! Where do you get Endeavour prawns? I don't want to get hawkesbury river prawns as I don't want to support those pros who rape and pillage this area.

Cheers Kelvin