Busted Up!

[Luringbream]

Hey, i had one of the worst days yesterday allround! Launched at Roseville ramp at 5am and headed towards the heads and upon arriving i came across a small school of salmon which 20 minutes later turned into one big school of frustration. I didn't see anyone hook up nor did i but it was good seeing a bit of surface activity. Anyhow decided to troll middle head in which the water was protected from that howling northely and quickly picked up 2 small kings around 60-65cm.

After a few stubborn attempts to get outside, i decided to try shallow water squidding. Im a complete noob when it comes to the shallow water stuff. The wind made it tough however i found a semi-sheltered bay and started flicking my 2.5grm jig. On my very first cast i dropped it on a squids head, i didnt even realise, there were 3 squid relaxing in the sun and i just had to cast my jig on top of them and spook them Anyways i casted back in the same spot as they didnt run too far and they then became very curious in my green jig however they did not hit. Soon enough i boated one, which gave me a facial and did a pretty poor paint job for my boat. After that i saw one more average size one and i saw plenty of baby squid which were smaller than my jig

I soon gave up and went back into middle harbour and started trolling around the boats with squid strips. With no sounder nor downrigger i felt lost however i persisted to troll the boats and rocky shorelines. I went in and out of a few bays for nothing and i even saw another boat downrigging in one of them, maybe a fishraider? I found a nice stretch along a rocky shoreline which looked fishy so i decided to try putting on my squid live. Thanks to Kelvin and Netic instructing me on how to rig squid live, although he died fairly quickly he swam straight and retained most of his colour. (He may have died quick as he was in the tank for about 2 hours before i put him on) Live squid makes a huge difference to squid strips..

In the first few metres of this rocky shoreline i started getting hit, small fish hitting the squid and trying to run off with it. I quickly pulled the squid up and everything was all intact, just a few scratches, so i put him back down and trolled back over the same grounds and SLAM!!! The reel started screaming, i was a bit delayed in striking at him and that was enough for him to have won the battle as he ran for cover to bury himself in some kind of snag. I could still feel him kicking under there but couldn't get him out and then my 50lb braid gave way. Not sure whether it was a king or not, i know that there have been amberjack and cobia caught in this area as well as Jews but ill call it as a king because my bait was suspended around 4 metres. The interesting thing was that it busted me off on the fireline not the actual leader and i had a leader of more than a metre so the fish must have been pretty deep in its snag. Still spewing about that one, but thats fishing for ya!

And with no live squid left and the temp picking up, i decided to call it quits after one quick bream flick + bust off on the oyster encrused pylons at the roseville bridge.

DAN

[netic]

Mate its sounds like a frustrating day but at least you got a couple.....Its still great to be out on the water...even in a howling NE....

Good to see you get hit by a muttha in MH.....Mate don't stress too much if the squid die on ya, they are just as effective dead as live...

Well done

[ko76]

Nicely done mate, 2 kings are better than none!

What lure did you get them on when trolling?

[costello]

Good report mate. Bad luck on the bust off but you can't win em' all. Those Salmon can be frustrating can't they!

Cheers,

Mark

[ophet]

Nice report mate, shame about the bust off. One of those things with fishing, I wonder what it was and how big it was ....

[Luringbream]

Yea it was a great day out on the water and i guess two are better than none! But it will take a while to get over the lost fish hahah

Netic, the first time i rigged the squid it swam upside down? ? So i had to re-rig and put the point of the hook as close to the center of the squids butt as possible, then it swam the right way up. (Thanks Kelvin for the tip) Its interesting what a difference it makes having the hook a few millimetres apart.

K076, i was trolling a metal slug, i think it was a raider lure and attached a squid strip to it.

Mark, i've never come across salmon as picky as they were yesterday. I've never failed to hook up on a berkley 3" BM but yesterday it wasn't good enough for them. They wernt up for long and im guessing the bait that they were feeding on was much smaller than my lures because on my last outing the kingfish spat up these tiny little baitfish no more than 1" which appeared to be tiny anchovies or the like?? (they were blueish across the top and silverish along the bottom but it could've been anything and i couldnt come to a conclusion due to its size)

445F, its definently going to keep me wondering at least until i actually land another big fish. Hopefully thats soon

DAN

[namesay]

Dan -after a bust up I need counselling for a couple of days and I can tell ya no matter how many kings you have landed, it still hurts everytime you lose one. But being busted off is par for the course. It is rarer now but still happens. By the way I think I would have more leader on than just 1meter. This length is OK for fishing at anchor but not for trolling. I have several meters of fluorocarbon tied with an albright on a doubled piece of braid.

As I have put on Shane's post, I am getting alot of second hand fish lately as a lot of fish i get already have hooks in them!! Cheers kelvin

[costello]

Dan -after a bust up I need counselling for a couple of days and I can tell ya no matter how many kings you have landed, it still hurts everytime you lose one. But being busted off is par for the course. It is rarer now but still happens. By the way I think I would have more leader on than just 1meter. This length is OK for fishing at anchor but not for trolling. I have several meters of fluorocarbon tied with an albright on a doubled piece of braid.

As I have put on Shane's post, I am getting alot of second hand fish lately as a lot of fish i get already have hooks in them!! Cheers kelvin

Kelvin that'll do me mate! Their probably ones you've caught before, i'm sure you've caught every Kingie in the harbour so it doesn't surprise me your starting to double over

Cheers,

Mark

Edited December 11, 2006 by costa

[Luringbream]

As I have put on Shane's post, I am getting alot of second hand fish lately as a lot of fish i get already have hooks in them!! Cheers kelvin

Well if you get a fish with two 10/0 hoodlums and that has yellow braid holding the tube and hook together then thats mine..

DAN

[Penguin]

Nice report and u got a couple of Kings as well,

thats pretty good going.

penguin

[Guest danielinbyron]

i was a bit delayed in striking at him and that was enough for him to have won the battle as he ran for cover to bury himself in some kind of snag.

Mate i watched the Lowrance dvd with Starlo an other fishing stars on it and they lost allot of kingies,,,..

Thing is you could do everything right and if they're too big or near a good structure{for them} , they'll do ya..Thats what makes em exciting i guess the good chance they have of winning ..