jim77 Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 With the Popes visit to town and the Rose Bay ramp being closed today as a result i thought i would go out off Botany looking for a few kings on the closish reefs. I took two young blokes that i know who have been pestering me to take them fishing for ages. One of them had done a fair bit of fishing already including a few trips on charter boats while the other one had done very little. Prior to this morning his biggest fish was a 25cm pinkie from Rose Bay Wharf. By 10am that was to change in a big way! We got on the water at about 7am and were greeted by a beautiful sunrise as we motored out through Botany heads. The sea was pretty flat but there was an annoying strength to the wind that was blowing - which was ominously stronger the further we went. After about 30 minutes we arrived at our spot. To start with we couldn't find any action at all on the sounder and the wind was making things difficult. After about 45 minutes of searching around we found a likely looking bait school. Down went the jigs and shortly after we had a double hook up on some rat kings. At 60 cm ish My two mates couldn't believe that the fish had to go back as they were both the biggest fish they had seen and caught. I assured them that there were some bigger ones around although after 4 or 5 more rats i was starting to worry that we weren't going to find any decent fish. The next thing that happened was one of the funniest things i have ever seen whilst fishing. In approx 65 metres both my mate Ed and myself hooked up. These were clearly two much bigger models and both of the drags were screaming. (Don;t you just love that sound! ) The look on Eds face was classic - a mixture of fear and amazement as he literally hung on and the fish on his line gave him some serious curry. I managed to boat mine after about 7-8 mins, a pretty nice fish of about 85 cms and quickly despatched it and put it in the Esky so i could help Ed. At this stage he had been on for a good 12 mins and he hadn't really gained that much line back. All of a sudden there was a very loud crack and the reel sheared off where the leg joins the reel seat. What the?! Ed was left standing there with the rod in one hand and the reel in the other. All of us were absolutely pissing ourselves laughing (even me and it was my reel!). After some quick thinking we managed to keep playing the fish with some teamwork. I had hold of the rod and Ed wound the reel as i carefully lifted. When it decided to run it was fairly amusing as Ed would get pulled forward by the reel but slowly we were getting some line back. After about 20 mins we had colour and boy it was a nice fish. After a couple of near misses with the engine he was in the net and on the deck. To say that Ed was stoked would be an understatement.... He couldn't get the grin off his face. It went 93cm and was seriously fat! I don;t have any scales but it would guestimate an easy 8-9Kgs. After quickly rigging up another rod we were back into the action and over the next 2 hours we boated about another 10 fish - often with double hook ups, and dropped or pulled the hooks on at least the same again. There were only a couple of rats amongst them - most of the fish were around the 75-80 mark, although we did get absolutely smoked by one fish and we lost one on the surface when the hooks pulled that would have been nudging 1m. By 11:30 we were absolutely exhausted and couldn;t wind anymore so we headed for home. A great morning on the water and the boys couldn;t believe the fish that we had caught. We ended up keeping 5 Fish between us for our respective families. Couple of pics of my fish attached. I will try and post the pic of the other fish as Ed has one on his phone. Both of the guys are absolutely hooked and have already said that they will come out wherever and whenever! I tried to tell them that its not always like that but it fell on deaf ears. At least i'll have someone to share the fuel costs with. If that is what happens when the pope comes to town he can come again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shefford Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 Wow awesome work, what type of jigs were u using, around 250g? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve07 Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 Good to see you guys getting among the kings & great fun to catch them on jigs,but pretty hard work too i bet when its a hot bite like that. Well done on a great day out!! Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim77 Posted July 17, 2008 Author Share Posted July 17, 2008 Wow awesome work, what type of jigs were u using, around 250g? Mate we were using one 350 and one 400! We started on the 250s but with the wind and no sea anchor we were moving to fast so we went the bigger ones to get down quicker. Even when the wind backed off we stayed with the heavier jigs as they seemed to be working. An awesome day - really good fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diver1 Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 AWESOME STUFF!! good on use. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray R Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 (edited) G'day Jim77 that was one hell of a story, and what a catch on a busted reel, that will have to be a keepsake along with a printout of your story. What a great day you had, I'm very jealous.. Cheers.. Edited July 17, 2008 by Ray R Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the1murph Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 Sounds like fun.... can't belive you landed an 8kg fish with a broken reel leg!! Cant wait to get out there and give it ago. Good to see there are some bigger fish out there. Jack Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Laredo Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 you did better than us went jigging found some decent marks around a fish trap got two 50cm snapper on jigs to the boat only to have them both sealed. well done to you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
connolly Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 you did better than us went jigging found some decent marks around a fish trap got two 50cm snapper on jigs to the boat only to have them both sealed. well done to you Hey jim77 Really enjoyed your report. I don't think I would be laughing if it was my reel but then I wasn't there. Isn't it great getting younger people into fishing? Sometimes it gives me more of a buzz than catching something myself. Reeltired Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodgey Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 Terrific report Jim No wonder the blokes want to go out with you from now on ... sounds like they had a ball! I would have enjoyed watching the reel episode Tremendous effort to land the fish after everything that happened Great effort and congrats to all! Hodgey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishmaniac Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 Well done on what seemed to be a fantastic jigging session! Well done on landing the fish on the broken rod-reel combo. Sounds like a fantastic day and some lovely sunshine as well! Congrats on a good catch! And ray R, love the pic Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Le Pasha Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 Hey mate sounds like an awesome session. Out of interest, what was the reel with the broken leg? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim77 Posted July 17, 2008 Author Share Posted July 17, 2008 Hey mate sounds like an awesome session. Out of interest, what was the reel with the broken leg? Glad you enjoyed the report fellas. Le Pasha - the reel was an Okuma baitrunner - a cheapy i bought off Ebay a few years ago. It had actually been pretty good and the drag was surprisingly smooth. It had flexed a few times when i'd had big fish on it but i never thought it would break! It seemed to be made of a plastic type material? I kept the spool of braid and my mate kept the broken reel as a souvenir. The Mrs won't like it but now i have the perfect excuse to upgrade to a better reel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Dan Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 well done on the kings mate, awesome session. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeh191 Posted July 17, 2008 Share Posted July 17, 2008 Well done on what seemed to be a fantastic jigging session! Well done on landing the fish on the broken rod-reel combo. Sounds like a fantastic day and some lovely sunshine as well! Congrats on a good catch! And ray R, love the pic Andrew Well done Jim, Sounds like you had a great day , you really know how to right a good report. Those kings are always great fun and i cant believe the mishap you guys had with that rod and reel, hope it wasn't the rod and reel you brought to browns tuesday. Cheers Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim77 Posted July 17, 2008 Author Share Posted July 17, 2008 Well done Jim, Sounds like you had a great day , you really know how to right a good report. Those kings are always great fun and i cant believe the mishap you guys had with that rod and reel, hope it wasn't the rod and reel you brought to browns tuesday. Cheers Mike G'day Mike No not the reel i had tuesday - although we ended up using that one after the mishap. Quite amusing watching them use a left handed overhead and having to resort to using it upside down and wind it backwards so they could use their right hand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riley93 Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 Well done Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gretsch Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 Apart from the broken reel. I am greeeeeeen with envy!! Top report and a good haul!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abiasin Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 well done mate, good kings there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanger Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 Nice work guys sounds like great fun!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james7 Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 Amazing report Jim Awesome session! Cheers Peter PS Great reply Ray. Love the photo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
riley93 Posted July 18, 2008 Share Posted July 18, 2008 awsome report mate Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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