Sydney Harbour

[fishmaniac]

Hey all,

Over the last few weeks i have done plenty of fishing out of the harbour for kingfish and there are certainly plenty of them about in the 60s through to the 80s. On some of the better days we have been landing in excess of 15 fish.

Some of the highlights include two personal bests for my gf and younger brother.

About a week ago i was out with the gf fishing at a bommie near manly beach where we found a patch of good fish in the mid 70s to 80s. The surface bait seemed to attracting smaller fish and so i gave her a go on my saltist connected to the downrigger. Within minutes the release clip had popped and she hooked up. I continued driving while clearing the deck and getting the bomb out of the way. At this point in time the fish had been following the moving boat off the reef at which point she frustratingly exclaimed "why do i always get the little ones" (her previous pb being 63cm). At this very instant the fish took off and she was literally hanging on for dear life. After a nice tussle which heard plenty of groans the fish surfaced and i traced it aboard. The fish went 78cm and after a few pics we put her back to grow a bit more.

That day we landed 5 fish over 75cm of which we kept two. All other fish released. Below is a picture of one of those fish:

The following day i went to the colours with my younger brother who had never fished offshore for kingfish. To put a long story short, we had a great day and caught a heap of fish. He landed a pb of 76cm and lost a fish near the boat due to a pulled hook which i would estimate to be in the mid 80s. He was dissapointed to say the least. Nonetheless, he was ecstatic at how many fish we were catching and it was hard to convince him we had to get going due to some big NE chop that was picking up.

To put this action into context, i found fishing quite tough yesterday (NYE). We trolled all the way up north and south head (to the colours) with yakkas and only landed 3 kingfish of which two were legal. But on that same note, we saw a bloke in the harbour getting plenty of hookups and bustoffs near one of the markers on squid. We hadn't bothered catching squid yesterday so continued on our way home.

Andrew

[kris]

Awsome fishing mate what nice conditions to be offshore!! I cant wait for my first 2010 kingy

[greg123]

Hey mate i have a similar sized boat and am looking to head out to the colours on a good day, may i ask how you located the reef? Do you use a gps or just a sounder?

[spongy]

Great work out there Fishmaniac.

All the best for the new year and hope to see you out there soon.

Jeff

[Dusky]

great fish - good job . Where did you launch from? as I would like to try those areas soon.

[fishmaniac]

Thanks for all the replies,

I launch from drummoyne ramp (i hate driving through traffic on the way to a fishing spot!) and it usually takes me around 30mins to get outside the heads. I do the return trip on about 12 litres of fuel. One full tank is more than enough.

I use a gps to go to particular reefs and am currently fitting a little sounder to the boat.

Went out today with the objective of getting my dad onto a kingy. We found the fishing slow compared to previous weeks but got him onto a 67cm kingy on the downrigger.

Andrew

[robust]

awesome fish there mate.......how do u find it going out in the tinny? does it handle ok?

Cheers,

Rob

[fishmaniac]

awesome fish there mate.......how do u find it going out in the tinny? does it handle ok?

Cheers,

Rob

Rob,

I find the tinnie handles fine. If it does get choppy you have to slow down and make sure there is enough weight up the front of the boat to reduce banging. When i first ventured out i was a bit nervy but as time has progressed i have become familiar with the capabilities of the boat and my own capabilities of driving in challenging condistions. Generally speaking though i keep an eye on the weather and say, if a strong NE is predicted i will usually fish north rather than south so that i can ride the waves in rather than bashing against it.

Andrew