Sunday - Struggling With Kings

[TheDon]

Hi Raiders, this is my first fishing report here.

Went out in Sydney Harbor on Sunday Morning. Launched at Rose Bay just before 6am with hope of getting on to some kings as we haven’t caught any since we bought the boat 4 weeks ago.

I invited my father-in-law to come with us who is visiting from overseas. He knows nothing about fishing,

Went to a couple of bait spots and managed to get 1 good sized squid, and about 8 yakkas.

Tried quarantine point with yakkas. We kept losing them without hookups. Got a couple of pulls here and there but definitely were not kings.

Tried Middle head next. The sounder showed a bait school and some larger fish. Again we lost our last 2 yakkas without a hookup. I had tried hooking through the nose, through the mouth or in front of the dorsal fin but didn't help. Then we changed to fresh squid strips.

Had three rods out and of course the lightest rod that my father-in-law was holding gets hit hard (20lb braid with 40lb leader). The fish was pulling hard and he was struggling to hold the rod. After a couple of strong runs the main line went “ping”.

I rigged him up with another squid strip and again he gets hit, but this time it was much more manageable. He landed a baby King (under 50cm) and a 1st for our boat. Quick look at it and then back in the water. None of the heavier 50lb gear got touched.

It went very quiet after that, pickers were pulling apart the rest of our squid. Tried a couple of other spots but got nothing.

Got back to the boat ramp and, you wouldn’t believe, as we were winching the boat onto the trailer, the winch post broke off. Luckily I was able to drive it on and then a very nice guy at the ramp knew some good knots and helped us tie the boat to the trailer and we managed to get it home in one piece.

Cheers

TheDon