Sydney Harbour Kings

[gobbledock]

Went out sydney harbour on easter monday, things started out pretty grim with only 3 squid in 2 hrs, luckily two of them being 30cm hood length. To put the best day fishing this season in short we ended up catching 4 amberjack and 7 kings, lossing 10+ fish on 30lb PE braid and 40lb black magic leader ( which i struggle to break off when i snag up) Nothing could stop these kings having qaudropale hook ups and they would pull the drag without a single wind of the reel then bust us off, the pain....Hodlems were the winners on the day, time to upgrade my gear. Never had a problem with that gear even with 90+cm fish. Just a question to the raiders out there... what is the strongest knot you can tie to a swivel using braided line??? As alot of fish were lost due to knots??

[g.t.]

Congrats on what sounds like a great day. Nothing like getting smoked to feed the obsession!!!

In terms of a knot for tying to a swivel, I like to first make a double in my braid using a bimini twist, then attach this doubled line to a swivel using a cat's paw. The cat's paw is a piece of piss to tie, but you might want to youtube tying a bimini twist if you haven't tied one before. They're pretty straight forward once you've been shown.

Cheers,

Geoff.

[gobbledock]

Cheers mate... i did you tube but for the cats paw LOL

[wacko]

Nice fish mate!

My suggestion for your connection would be to tie your leader straight to the braid using a good knot (Reverse albright is easy).....once this is done cut your leader in half and pit your swivel in between using a 4 turn Uni-knot......mega strong and gives you a chance to land those hoods.

If you really want to tie your braid straight to a swivel......just use a uni knot but make sure you use plenty of turns (Like 10) and lubricate well.

Cheers,

Wacko

[fishmaniac]

I agree with Wacko,

Tie some leader material to your braid. I use a slim-beauty but there are many similar knots with their respective pros and cons. Then tie the leader, which acts as your shock trace to the swivel and from there tie your leader.

Goodluck

[jim77]

Nice fishing mate - but you are kidding yourself if you think you are going to land some of the monsters that are around at the moment with 30lb main and 40lb leader! Depending on where you are hooking them there aren't many spots in the harbour where the water is over 20m deep - more likely 10-15m, so structure and potential bust offs are never far away. You can't afford to give them much/any line there as they will get you on the bottom.

Go big and set your drag high! You might skull drag a few fish under 90 but when that big one comes along at least you have a bit of a shot instead of getting done straight away.

I was sceptical of the above advice but it has been given to me by a number of people who catch BIG fish often. Even following their advice I had a session a few weeks ago where a mate and i got smashed 5 times in a 20 minute period on 80 main and 100 leader. These fish were just unstoppable and that was with some serious drag and in deeper water!

There are some huge fish around at the moment - 15Kg +++ easy. Unless everything goes your way you will struggle to land one of them on 30/40. Some will argue that you may not catch as many fish as you will with lighter lines and leaders - maybe... But big baits will get you the better fish.

As to the knots - i go with Wacko and Fishmaniac. Albright to a long leader and then if you need a swivel put it somewhere in your mono leader. I don't have a problem tieing braid to swivels etc - you just need to put more turns in than you would with mono.

Good luck!

[woody]

Sounded like a good day out, pity you couldnt land any of the bigger ones.

Better luck next time.

Woody

[david88]

spiders hitch to doubble up your braid, then a simple uni knot.. not only extremely strong but easy and quick to tie..

what are were you fishing in? id like to go after some kings this friday.

cheers.

[framedtrash]

best to stay away from a spiderhitch

it no way near as strong as a bimini twist or a plait

sure its easy to tie but you better off learning to tie a bimini or a plait

just my 2 cents

[lighthouse2k]

If you really want to fish heavy tackle braid, two best knots are FG knot and Yacutan. You want to put some braid to mono first, then to swivel, then to leader. If tied well these are over 100% knot strength. 80lb leader you can still use probably 4 turn uni knot. Once you get heavier probably nail knot depending on the line you are using. If you tie these knots well you will will never have a failure. I never have, had swivels fail though so use good quality swivels as they can let you down!

Edited April 7, 2010 by lighthouse2k

[prawn*]

jims on the money u are much better of using atleast 50l/80lb braid to land hood's and use the albright knot/with glue 2m of 100lb leader which will wind back on to your spool and pass the guides with out catching then use a sinker swivel/snaplock for your rigs ive been using this method for a while and it gives u atleast 3m of leader with your rig/leader with alot more strength so u dont get reef'd as easy... ive got mates who are using 80lb braid 150lb leader and getting bricked, on thats with 30kg of drag so there are a few monsters around atm

[damobows]

Mate as everyone has said put your swivel in the middle of the leader and use an FG knot as your leader Main Line conection.

Good stuff on finding the big fellas.

Cheers

Damo