namesay Posted December 29, 2006 Share Posted December 29, 2006 (edited) Hi raiders... what a hectic couple of weeks this has been. I have been tied up with everything. Too much work and not enough fishing. Got little or no sleep in the last few days due all the engagements I had. Did go out for flathead but scored a big fat ZERO!!! It was so cold and windy over at windang. Just took the family for a walk around the beach. Very nice. I needed to get some fish so I decided today to stick with what I know. Yep-KINGS. The water currents have been interesting of late. There has been a cold current that is hugging our coast and the temperatures have dropped significantly . It has been as low as 16C. This is MAD. I have never seen the water temps so low in December. However, the temperatures in the harbour are a balmy 22C so that is where we went. Had an early start with son number 1. Got to the ramp and had a little discussion with our local guides no no no and Justin Duggan. We all were in agreement that this cold current is something that none of us can remember...and agreed that there are a lot of rats around. This is good and bad. Went to get our kingie bait-- squid. The squid are often found in patches and today was no different. The wind was also a bit of a pain but we managed to score some here and there. With the bait now secure, I went to downrig for kings in middle harbour. I found them almost straight away. Lately there have been a LOT of pickers and it is almost impossible to have your baits untouched. I have now evolved some different tactics to avoid the pickers. So far it seems to be working OK. THe first hit came with a bang. The fish wasn't big but was a keeper at 62cm. I have been told to get some fish for new years so this fish was in the bag. The second hit didn't come immediately but within 10 minutes of the first. The fish was also a small one. It measured borderline legal so I released it. Catching small fish is fun but I wanted a larger fish. SO I left them biting to look for a BIG one. I got out the largest squid and rigged it on the downrigger. My son wanted to catch the next one so he was on strike. I trolled around looking for structure and bait. As we were passing a drop off, the rod literally buckled with the drag screaming. This was a good fish. I got the rod out of the holder and handed it to my son. He was being pulled around by the fish but the drag was backed off on the Torsa and he wasn't going to get pulled into the water. I go the boat out to deeper water and he fought the fish there. The little kid did well and started to win some line and eventually the fish tired. ONce boated the fish didn't flinch as it was exhausted. I had one happy chappy. He was eager waiting for me to measure it. It was just short of 90cm. By now we had run out of squid so we decided to try for some more. On the way out I spotted some surface activity. They were some salmon. I got out some poppers and plastics and both of us cast at the fish. They followed our lures but were a bit shy. But we got a few before they moved on. I tried a few other spots for kings and scored another 2 more. I kept one as it was deeply hooked. We also got one of the pickers of our squid. It was a snapper of some 40 cm. Out on the water I saw a lot of fellow raiders. The holidays for me atleast is coming to an end. Can't wait to go back to work so I can relax! Cheers Kelvin Edited December 29, 2006 by namesay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namesay Posted December 29, 2006 Author Share Posted December 29, 2006 Here are some more photos. The smaller fish is 62cm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piss'n'Broke Posted December 29, 2006 Share Posted December 29, 2006 Hey Kevin Some lovely kingys there againnnn ,,,,, bugga me you are the KING (pun intended). Thats a lovely bruiser your son caught there mate. Keep it up!!!!!!!! regards Dan an Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namesay Posted December 29, 2006 Author Share Posted December 29, 2006 Finally NAILED one of those bait stealing sons of &^%$#!!!! He is gonna taste real good tonight! CHeers Kelvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mottyman Posted December 29, 2006 Share Posted December 29, 2006 Man o Man - what can I say. The kings we got in botany yesterday were 62ish cm's each and that bigger one you've got there just dwarfs them!!!!! Must be great to get one (or sh!t loads ) that size. I'd settle for one!!! It's all been said before but jeez, that's great. Cheers David. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjsydney Posted December 29, 2006 Share Posted December 29, 2006 Hi All Well done Kelvin Met him back @ the ramp with his beautiful fish, I had a big zero, stoll struggling to get back to finding squid in the harbour. Kelivin unloaded his picked baits to me so at least I have a shot for tomorrow )) Was plenty of salmon in the outer harbour but many boats were driving though or too close. Went outside for a cpl of hrs was very messy lumpy sea, and was solo today so slow drive back in. Wandered around looking for squid, and the usual spots seemed to b dormant. So finally wandered home fishless. Well out tomorrow going wide again in the vain hope of scoring a Dolly before the end of the year. Going to lament my fishless day with a beer now. Jon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namesay Posted December 29, 2006 Author Share Posted December 29, 2006 Hi All Well done Kelvin Met him back @ the ramp with his beautiful fish, I had a big zero, stoll struggling to get back to finding squid in the harbour. Kelivin unloaded his picked baits to me so at least I have a shot for tomorrow )) Was plenty of salmon in the outer harbour but many boats were driving though or too close. Went outside for a cpl of hrs was very messy lumpy sea, and was solo today so slow drive back in. Wandered around looking for squid, and the usual spots seemed to b dormant. So finally wandered home fishless. Well out tomorrow going wide again in the vain hope of scoring a Dolly before the end of the year. Going to lament my fishless day with a beer now. Jon Cheer up Jon atleast you weren't jigging!!! Off to WA in a couple weeks for those MEGA samsons! We have all had them before...those fishless days. Atleast you don't have to contend with the smell. Cheers Kelvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted December 29, 2006 Share Posted December 29, 2006 Well done again Kelvin,that larger fish sure looks like one bruiser of a King at 90cm. penguin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namesay Posted December 29, 2006 Author Share Posted December 29, 2006 The bigger fish are there but are getting harder to catch due to all the rats and pickers. That snapper sure tasted good though. There were kings all over the surface today. THere were several around the salmon school but once again they were small fish. I really HATE december and January!!! With all the D$#@heads on the water and idiots hogging the boat ramps and all the small kings around, it is the worst time for fishing. Hopfully things will settle down in the next couple of weeks and we can get on with the business of fishing! CHeers Kelvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OneLastCast Posted December 29, 2006 Share Posted December 29, 2006 Kelvin, yesterday we got no pickers on our squid!?!? Even pulling them through much of the harbour and MH. Thankfully the only thing that got them were kings. Luck of the draw? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netic Posted December 29, 2006 Share Posted December 29, 2006 Well done Kelvin, Very good results Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luringbream Posted December 29, 2006 Share Posted December 29, 2006 Yet again well done on some excellent fish! I dont know how you do it, i can only ever manage rats! Would you be willing to shed a little info on your approach to these fish. I know that you downrig, i remember from a past post that you said you downrig at 2-4 knots, but do you downrig before you find the fish or do you sound them out first then drop the downriggers over?? I figure that if your downrigging at that speed from the start, you wouldnt cover much ground?? DAN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CR@ZY OS@M@ Posted December 29, 2006 Share Posted December 29, 2006 another beaut king mate,well done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ophet Posted December 29, 2006 Share Posted December 29, 2006 Nice one Kelvin, you came up with th goods for New Years !!! Never in doubt. Your son is going to have huge arms when he gets older if he keeps this up, great King and thanks for catching one of the pickers. Now, can you catch the other ten thousand pickers out there for all of us? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mondo Rock Posted December 29, 2006 Share Posted December 29, 2006 As good at catching kings as Kelvin is, I reckon we've got about 10 years until his kids become the best kingy fishermen that Sydney Harbour has ever seen. 90cm king for a ten year old? That's crazy stuff - he's going to be unstoppable. Once again Kelvin, great results and thanks for the report! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namesay Posted December 30, 2006 Author Share Posted December 30, 2006 Kelvin, yesterday we got no pickers on our squid!?!? Even pulling them through much of the harbour and MH. Thankfully the only thing that got them were kings. Luck of the draw? I find that the pickers this season have been BAD. Mostly I have pulled up snapper, tailer and bream of various sizes. In winter it was the jackets and toads. I try to avaoid them by trolling around the structure rather than through it like I used to. Also the size of the bait seems to play a part. The bigger baits tend to be left alone...but that snapper molested a squid of some 30cm! Have had a few times when the pickers were under control but that seem rare now days...even in pittwater. Cheers Kelvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namesay Posted December 30, 2006 Author Share Posted December 30, 2006 (edited) Yet again well done on some excellent fish! I dont know how you do it, i can only ever manage rats! Would you be willing to shed a little info on your approach to these fish. I know that you downrig, i remember from a past post that you said you downrig at 2-4 knots, but do you downrig before you find the fish or do you sound them out first then drop the downriggers over?? I figure that if your downrigging at that speed from the start, you wouldnt cover much ground?? DAN If you want to catch the bigger fish in syd Harbour, you need to fish slightly differently. I find that the bigger fish do not like competition from the smaller fish. They also tend to stay away from bait balls. I know it sounds funny but every fish over the meter mark I have caught was caught in areas where there was NO bait or other small kings. Definitely they LOVE the bigger squid. Bigger the better as it will stay alive longer and hopfully scare away any of the smaller fish! ALso you'll be surprised how shallow these larger fish are prepared to come. I don't target the deeper water but the shallower areas. Have caught hoods in as little as 2-3 meters and the fish could be clearly seen! One of my biggest esturay king of over 15kg was caught in water only 2 meters deep. I think as long as there is access to some deeper water, large kings will willingly come into the shallow waters for a feed. A lot of these fellas have whiting and silver biddies in them....Perhaps these fish are better baits than squid?...where'my whiting rod and the yabbies!!!!! WHen it comes to downrigging, I troll slow but with the larger kings you MUST ensure that your bait is impeccibly presented....NO spinning squid and it MUST lay perfectly straight! Small kings will hit a slowly spinning squid , dead squid, squid without all its tentacles and are a bit silly but the larger ones are very wary. However, off shore things change and it is easy to get kings on second rate baits and lures. In my opinion, if you crack the estuary hood puzzle, the off shore kings are like childs play. The harbour kings are definitely harder to fool...especially the larger models. The areas to target are all the drop offs, points, reefs, pinnacles and such. In pittwater however, there isn't much structure and you can often pick them up on sand flats. That is why your sounder is SO important when downrigging. It will show you likely areas. Don't assume that your hot spot will fire tomorrow as I have found that the larger kings defintiely move! Luckily the average size of the kings are getting better year by year. This year getting 80cm fish isn't too hard so hopfully they will grow a bit more as the years go on! Cheers Kelvin Edited December 30, 2006 by namesay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namesay Posted December 30, 2006 Author Share Posted December 30, 2006 As good at catching kings as Kelvin is, I reckon we've got about 10 years until his kids become the best kingy fishermen that Sydney Harbour has ever seen. 90cm king for a ten year old? That's crazy stuff - he's going to be unstoppable. Once again Kelvin, great results and thanks for the report! He is 6!!!! Not yet into double figures.CHeers Kelvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riggem Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 well done again, keepem coming Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namesay Posted December 30, 2006 Author Share Posted December 30, 2006 Well done Kelvin, Very good results Hey Netic that squid glow spray works a treat. I think I am getting on average 2-3 squid more than I did before using it. Every extra bait helps! Smells a lot like those chinese prawn crackers. Trust the japs to come up with something like this. cheers Kelvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
netic Posted December 30, 2006 Share Posted December 30, 2006 Hey Netic that squid glow spray works a treat. I think I am getting on average 2-3 squid more than I did before using it. Every extra bait helps! Smells a lot like those chinese prawn crackers. Trust the japs to come up with something like this. cheers Kelvin Good to see it getting results for you....I know it has definately helped me out with bait gathering.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namesay Posted December 30, 2006 Author Share Posted December 30, 2006 (edited) Good to see it getting results for you....I know it has definately helped me out with bait gathering.... The only thing with this stuff is that all the instructions are in Japanese. I just hope I am using it correctly ..feels really cold when it comes out of the can. I am kind of "marinating" my jigs with it at the moment. Spray a bit on the jig at the end of the day and leave it on. I have been comparing it with ultrabite and it seems to work better. I also got some prawn spray. Costs less and smells like thai fish sauce. Will tell you how they perform. Cheers Kelvin Edited December 31, 2006 by namesay Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namesay Posted December 31, 2006 Author Share Posted December 31, 2006 By the way my number 1 son has been catching up on the squid score recently. He is using that brown yozuri to devastating effect. Always seem to be getting the first squid. I pick up the ones following. Think I'll hide that brown one and tie it on for myself. Cheers Kelvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luringbream Posted January 1, 2007 Share Posted January 1, 2007 I think as long as there is access to some deeper water, large kings will willingly come into the shallow waters for a feed. A lot of these fellas have whiting and silver biddies in them....Perhaps these fish are better baits than squid?...where'my whiting rod and the yabbies!!!!! Thanks for the downrigging tips. A few weeks ago, i was drifting the channel in botany bay and quickly pulled up a few whiting and some just legal tailor. I then anchored up at the breakwall and put both the whiting and tailor on live and the whiting got slammed and turned into a kingie, only small at around 65cm. However the tailor remained untouched, even after i pulled anchor and did the slow troll and the molinex pt drift, whereby the whiting just kept on getting slammed by small fish! I know that whiting work wonders for dollies, havnt tried it yet but just wanted to experiment in the bay first using live whiting on kingies to see how long they last on a hook etc. Dont know how they'd go on the troll though. DAN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
namesay Posted January 1, 2007 Author Share Posted January 1, 2007 That sounds great! Whiting definitely are on the list of kingie baits. But I think they are harder to get than squid. BUt if I find a whiting then it will be on a hook! CHeers Kelvin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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