Botany Bay 12-5-08

[Penguin]

Hi everyone,

My mate Bill and I went out on Botany Bay yesterday for a fish.

The water was flat as, but there was not much current at all, which

made getting a berley trail going near impossible. All the berley went

straight to the bottom as did our free floating baits.

We fished the oil wharf for a heap of tiny lil pinkies and Bream, we gave

the 3rd runway a shot, and got more bl##dy pinkies.

Motored over to spot X near Moll pt, and for 1/2 an hour we got a big fat

doughnut, then my 5.5kg outfit takes a huge run and Im fighting a King, and

its a good King, 15mins of me gaining line, and then him stripping line, we

see this big green backed, yellow tailed torpedo. He looks at Bill with the net

in hand, and I tell you I have never seen a King dive away so bl##dy fast.

My hook and the mangled prawn that was on it came flying out of the water

and nearly collected Bill, this King was free and the whole bay could hear my

colourful language , so if you were out there and you heard a mad

Greek with a slight NZ accent, that was me and I apologize

The next hour of fishing produced 8 fat Trevs in the 38-40cm size, 2 Bream

30 and 33cm and a flounder just over legal size.

The real interesting thing was that with every 2nd Trev that was brought to

the boat there was a follower or multiple followers, KINGIS

Now why they were following the Trevs up is beyond me, as the Trevs were

to big to be eaten by the Kings, we would leave the hooked Trev in the water

in an attempt to keep the Kings around longer, but every time they got to within

2-3 feet of the boat, they would just dive back into the depths, we threw

prawns, pillies, and bait shop squid at them, but they were not interested.

I even cracked out some lures and stick baits, but got nothing but frustration

After this the Trevs and their followers must have moved on coz the bite slowed,

at this point we set off for the ramp.

I dropped Bill off at his place and then took my share of the catch home, here's

a pic, the wooden cutting board is 40cm in length and the white plastic one is 30cm.

penguin

Edited May 13, 2008 by penguin

[Braidbuster]

Penguin,you MUST stop eating the bait pillies.I know how much you want those tiny little legs of yours to grow,but you are messing up that nice "Black Tie" suit of yours !

On a more helpful note those Kings CAN be turned from lookers into takers

They are following the Trevs in hopes of 'stealing 'their food ,much like a bunch of seagulls will fight madly over a piece of bread while a chip lies unnoticed in the gutter. It is the COMMOTION that attracts them.

When you raise a fish that the kings follow dump in the water 6-12 finely chopped pillies IMMEDIATLY you see them,before they go back down. Then feed cubes 1 or 2 at a time with a hook embedded inside 1.

And bingo you're ON !

[CR@ZY OS@M@]

same thig happened to us 2 weeks ago.cr@zy faridations brother caught a trev and we saw a metre plus kingy follow it up to the boat,we screamed at him to leave it in the water but nothing,he swam away.

next time i will try your trick braidbuster.

good report penguin.i feel you frustration,better luck next time mate

[Penguin]

Penguin,you MUST stop eating the bait pillies.I know how much you want those tiny little legs of yours to grow,but you are messing up that nice "Black Tie" suit of yours !

On a more helpful note those Kings CAN be turned from lookers into takers

They are following the Trevs in hopes of 'stealing 'their food ,much like a bunch of seagulls will fight madly over a piece of bread while a chip lies unnoticed in the gutter. It is the COMMOTION that attracts them.

When you raise a fish that the kings follow dump in the water 6-12 finely chopped pillies IMMEDIATLY you see them,before they go back down. Then feed cubes 1 or 2 at a time with a hook embedded inside 1.

And bingo you're ON !

Mate we threw a whole block of pillies in the water cube by cube, the Kings didnt even look at them

penguin

[Braidbuster]

Finely chopped pillies IMMEDIATLY,do not feed them chunks until they come to you and eat the entree first!

You just allowed them a free lunch down deep !

Finely chopped pillies (or even just pillies scales from the defrost bucket) serve a twofold purpose,they give the Kings a 'taste' for the bait or other food,and they stimulate a lot of activity from smaller fish which in turn turns the Kings curiosity switch on.

Edited May 13, 2008 by Braidbuster

[Hodgey]

Bad luck on dropping the Kingie, John, but looks like you still managed a good feed for the day!

Some great information there from Braidbuster. Same berleying principles would apply to a lot of other fish I suppose, so I'll definitely give it a try in the future.

Hodgey

[Deschanel]

Yeah its pretty frustrating when you can see them but can't hook them. At least you got to take home a feed, well done.

[m3rush]

Great report penguin. Lets hope those Kings hang around a bit longer!

Some good advice there Braidbuster. I'd be keen to give that a go, but it would be a bit of a change of tactics for us. These days we hardly head out with bait at all - just a bit of frozen squid, bread and pellets to catch yakkas, and squid jigs for the obvious. Pretty much strictly fish with livies.