The Banks...

[michaelrdoyle@gmail.com]

After a less then successful trip on Saturday, managed to get out to the banks again today with two friends. Wind was good - sea a little sloppy, with a 10-15k wind forcast - and 15k blowing steadily until later in the morning.

Hit the Crookhaven ramp at 3:30am, and attempted to get livebait around the corner - unfortunately after about 30mins of heavy burleying, no luck...so decided to head out (wanted to be there at first light).

On the way out we had Dolphins join us, and surprised several flying fish - an exciting start.

As we hit the main hump, it was just starting to get light, and the fish finder was going nuts - fish everywhere. Now - if only we could convince one to jump on the line. With a wider variety of knife jigs, both size and colour, we were hoping for Kingies.

As we started jigging, once again rat kingies would follow the jigs up - but no hits. I put out some squid strips - and almost instantly hooked up with a small kingy. Undersized.

As day broke, a HUGE ray appeared and just hung around the boat, it was heaps bigger then the boat, we thought it was 2 very large sharks at first.

This time the schools of fish wasn't just sweep - but included slimies and yakkas. I hooked up a livebait - but still no go.

Eventually the kings disappeared, and one of my guests decided to give jigging a miss, and go for sweep (which apparently are good eating?).

About 5 other boats joined us - including a trawler. No one else seemed to be getting kingies.

At about 7am the trevally hit - a quick re-rig, and we were hitting the trevs on light gear - awesome fun! All were between 55 and 65cm - huge!

Almost on the dot at 9:30 the trevs stopped, and things calmed right down. All the boats eventually left, and so did we.

All in all - no kings, but an awesome day. One of those days your can only grin at! Ended up keeping about 30fish. So - still no kings from the banks for me this season - but it's a good start.

Mike

(Photo of Sam - a friend)

Edited November 26, 2007 by Mike Doyle

[big_steve]

THUMPER trevs there mate well done

they sure go hard on the light gear

cheers steve

[gretsch]

Nice trevors...

Check out that cleaning table!!! What a cracker!!

[spongy]

Great looking catch.

Where's that cleaning table located? is it at the Crookhaven ramp?

BTW, your friend Sam looks very familiar. Can you ask him if he used to play Volleyball in high school?

Ta,

Jeff

[michaelrdoyle@gmail.com]

Great looking catch.

Where's that cleaning table located? is it at the Crookhaven ramp?

BTW, your friend Sam looks very familiar. Can you ask him if he used to play Volleyball in high school?

Will do.

And it's the cleaning table at Crookhaven ramp. Very nice table.

Mike

[livo]

Nice trevors...

Check out that cleaning table!!! What a cracker!!

I agree on both counts.

I love Trevally. One of the best fish to cook on the barbecue and they smoke up Ok too. I can't belive so many people wont eat them. As for Sweep?????

The cleaning table is a ripper. Compare that to the primitive setup at the Haven Terrigal ( the jewel in the crown of Gosford City) and you have the old Chalk and Cheese. You even have taps with water and correct me if I'm wrong but those hoses appear to be attached or are they yours?

Edited November 27, 2007 by livo

[Steve07]

your persistance will pay off for you soon as its just a matter of time before you strike it good,the banks is

a great spot for solid kings,as earlier this year in feb we caught heaps of kings up to 12kg fishing live slimies

on 80lb braid threadline outfits.Also a great time to catch black marlin there as well in feb.

But that's a nice catch of decent trevs to make up for it,they fight hard & are great fun to catch when biting

in that mood.

Well done!

cheers mate

steve

Nice trevors...

Check out that cleaning table!!! What a cracker!!

hey ceph,

the fisho's get very well looked after on the south coast in regards to ramps & cleaning tables,most places

down that way are all the same.

Its a nice way to end the day when you get back to the ramp with a few fish,& have clean water on a perfect cleaning table like that one.

steve

Edited November 27, 2007 by nexus

[michaelrdoyle@gmail.com]

your persistance will pay off for you soon as its just a matter of time before you strike it good,the banks is

a great spot for solid kings,as earlier this year in feb we caught heaps of kings up to 12kg fishing live slimies

on 80lb braid threadline outfits.Also a great time to catch black marlin there as well in feb.

But that's a nice catch of decent trevs to make up for it,they fight hard & are great fun to catch when biting

in that mood.

Well done!

Thanks Steve....

I got a 80bl from my wife for my 30th this year :-)

So I'm keen as mustard to get some big kings down there - that's my aim this summer! Kingies - and explore the Banks a little bit more.

Mike

PS and yep - generally down south all cleaning tables are like that - awesome! Place to clean your fish, and clean the boat!

[michaelrdoyle@gmail.com]

.... As for Sweep?????

yeah - I know!

My mate Sam is Korean, and he was keeping fish I wouldn't dream of keeping.

With the Sweep - he does two things:

1) Korean Seafood Hotpot. Basically, throw a bunch of different fish and seafood into a hotpot with a whole bunch of chilli, and slow cook. This is awesome. The sweep just sit there and add flavour, and the flesh will melt off the bones - it's actually very nice.

2) Simply salt up the sweep - and fry them. I haven't tried this yet - but going to this week.

First time out with Sam - but we've shared fishing stories in the past - and he's always had a go at me for throwing back Sweep and Bonito, and even Slimies (and to use them as bait? What a waste!)

Mike

[gretsch]

your persistance will pay off for you soon as its just a matter of time before you strike it good,the banks is

a great spot for solid kings,as earlier this year in feb we caught heaps of kings up to 12kg fishing live slimies

on 80lb braid threadline outfits.Also a great time to catch black marlin there as well in feb.

But that's a nice catch of decent trevs to make up for it,they fight hard & are great fun to catch when biting

in that mood.

Well done!

cheers mate

steve

hey ceph,

the fisho's get very well looked after on the south coast in regards to ramps & cleaning tables,most places

down that way are all the same.

Its a nice way to end the day when you get back to the ramp with a few fish,& have clean water on a perfect cleaning table like that one.

steve

Quite right Steve.. iI wish they would sort out some of the ramps and facilities around the Harbour. Tunks Park ramp is in a bad way and they have had construction materials strewn all over the place down there for 10 months.

Anyway.. no use complaining. I still love that cleaning table.. I might put one in my back yard!!

[coastspinna]

sweep are good eating man...the kilo ones give massive fillets .

[brendong]

I'm all for upgradng ramps but Councils need to choose the right time to do it.

In the shire the two most popular ramps are currently out of action (Hole in the wall, Sylvania into the Georges and Grays Pt in the the Hacking) why would you choose to do it in spring/summer and not July / August is beyond me.

Still I guess the funds aren't coming our of my back pocket so I can't complain too much....

By the way Nice haul of Trev's....

[michaelrdoyle@gmail.com]

pity about the kings again

but nice trevally they go hard them things

how far away would the ramp be from the banks???

chers richo

thanks Richo

From the main North East hump, it's about 15km (according to the GPS). Since (as far as I can work out), the banks is a series of reefs that move from the main north eastern hump, south west towards Beecroft Peninsular, distance will depend on where you are heading.

Mike