Monday On The Harbour

[adkel53]

Unable to be at the social on Sunday but got out yesterday. Left tunks Pk ramp at 5.45 and dropped off my witches hats in search of a blue swimmer or two. Tried for squid for about 45 minutes at two locations for only one in the tank and a couple lost. Moved again and hit paydirt - 9 more in about half an hour. They were ravenous for a while then seemed to switch off. My best ever sqid catching session

Did some trolling with squid strips behind "poor mans downriggers" - a 300g knife jig and a heavy plastic squid. Tried around both wedding cakes, Clifton Gardens and from Quarrantine Hd to North Hd and back without any success. Anchored at the yellow buoy off Quarrantine where I saw some rats caught (and kept by one boat). Decided to try up in Middle Harbour, checking the crab nets along the way. Had two HUGE blue swimmers and another of average size so the basis of a great meal was secured.

Anchored at a favoured spot and set out squid heads, guts and strips. Chopped some pilchards up and fed them out in a steady stream for berley. Soon had kings, some of the at least 70 cm, feeding on the berley but ignoring my unweighted fresh squid. Tried the obvious and put half a pilchard on but they would swim up for a look and turn away again. Reduced the leader and hook sizes but made no difference. I set a live squid down a few metres under the boat and finally landed a 65cm model on that. Stayed on for another 45 minutes without any further action. Met up with fellow raider Jim77 while there and shared a few fishing experiences with him.

Tonight my wife and I are having crab and fresh calamari for dinner. My daughter and son in law are having friends for dinner so they scored the kingfish.

Another top morning an the harbour. Isn't it frustrating watching fish eat your berley but ignore those with a hook in them. Maybe next time!!

[jewgaffer]

Hi Kell

Often restrained baits of the same type you are burleying with or otherwise and, not floating or sinking aimlessly and freely, will be ignored unless fish like kingfish for example are in a blind competetive mood. .....

Catching Mullet can be used as an example.... Using light lines under a cut wine bottle cork lets the bread run loose and gives you enough swing in the cork to lob the bait naturally in with the burley......

A good idea is to have an ultra light jig head or a small sleave of builder's lead at the hook end dressed up with mullet skin over the jig head etc to conceal the shank and the lead and use fluro leader and no swivel if using braid, uni knotted etc to the leader and mullet skin used as a streamer is compatiable with the other fish pieces you are burleying AND baiting up with and gives a bit more attraction to the bait...... If you tie on a short length of mullet skin to the jig head properly the skin will last the session on an emergency rod.... and run it under a half wine bottle cork with a groove cut into the centre and three half hitches around the cork in the braid section makes a fixed stopper for the cork - you can also half hitch a very short piece of match stick or tooth pick to let it sink freely instead of using a swivel on mono as the half hitches only cut further into the match stick under pressure and the match stick also acts as a swivel......

Try this out the next time you can't get a taker after throwing everything at a school of whatever fish you strike.

Hope this helps

Cheers

jewgaffer

Edited January 20, 2009 by jewgaffer

[King slayer]

Nice work getting some legal kings!

We've been having similar issues getting the shy ones biting, but have found using less common baits and techniques to be the way to go. Kingies are definitely learners and since the recent onslaught I believe the common methods like squid strips on a running sinker rig are having less influence than say unweighted strips, Prawns or uncommon jigs that represent common food scources. Then live small squid will always be the gun if you have some. I have also found that they are super shy in one location and ravenous around the corner.

By the way to all raiders out there.. If you see someone keeping illegal fish, please call the Water Police immediately on: 02 9320 7499 . Program it into your phones, speed dial number one and don't let these bastards take away our fish!

Dave

[King slayer]

an unweighted number 4 hook and a tiny bit of peeled prawn will work 4 u everytime when they are picky like that

#4 Hook, not 4/0, right? wow, I'll try that...

[adkel53]

Thanks for the replies and advice guys. I went down to a 17lb Berkley vanish trace uniknotted to 14lb fireline, a size 1 hook and an unweighted squid wing without success. However, during the change from 30lb trace and a 3/0 hook I neglected the berleying a bit and did not see any more kings up near the top (even though, the legal one I caught came after this). Jewgaffer's idea of the half cork and no swivel sounds worth a try. I started with one rod with a 50lb trace attached via a swivel and no sinker, one with a similar trace and a sinker about 7mm across and another with the hook tied directly to the 30lb leader without any swivels or other hardware. The fish I caught took a live squid on the rod with the sinker - the floaters were ignored. I tried squid heads, wings, guts and strips and pilchard halves (both head and tail ends) without success. They would swim up and snaffle the free floating pilchard pieces, have a look at the ones with the hooks in and then turn away. great to watch but even better to hook a couple!!

The unpredictability is part of the joy of fishing. I'll be back to try again soon. May take some prawns and little hooks with me though!!

[Moyboy]

Hi guys , first post here as with work don't get out much. Being an old pommie freshwater fisherman I had this problem in the UK and they invented a thing called a 'hair trigger' Basically hook on end of line with no bait but a very fine line tied to hook shank with small bait attached the other end.

Some of these fish are smart (thats how they get big LOL) and can see or feel a large hook.

This way nothing to warn them and suck it in followed by the real hook and to late then - might work for you sometimes.

[Josh88]

Hi guys , first post here as with work don't get out much. Being an old pommie freshwater fisherman I had this problem in the UK and they invented a thing called a 'hair trigger' Basically hook on end of line with no bait but a very fine line tied to hook shank with small bait attached the other end.

Some of these fish are smart (thats how they get big LOL) and can see or feel a large hook.

This way nothing to warn them and suck it in followed by the real hook and to late then - might work for you sometimes.

Thats a good one, haven't heard it before but sounds like it could be worth a try, i find its good to always have a reasonably sizeable bait out as well as there will always be one or 2 fish that have a brain snap and hit it, this happens to me on big whole prawns even on the heavier gear.

How long should the line from the hook be?

Cheers

Josh

[Starman]

Hi Kell,

Went fishing in Boatany bay on the weekend and had rods out with squid and live yakkas targeting Kingfish and a couple of rods out for Bream/flathead. Kingfish (rats) were taking prawns on a No. 6 long shank hook on the bream rods and totaly ignoring the heavier gear with the live bait. Lots of fun though on light gear.

Had some success though with the bigger rods once the rats disapeared. One 76cm model.

Light gear seems the way to go.

Cheers,

Gabe

Edited January 20, 2009 by Starman