Loads Of Kings In The Harbour, But None Would Take A Bait

[Cramzzz]

Hi all,

I'm a relatively new boat owner and headed out today for about the third trip in my recently bought tinnie .. we visited a few spots in the harbour, and caught loads of decent trevally (they were everywhere today), some mid-size snapper and lost a monster of a squid at the boat ... Around 11am we headed to middle head and burleyed up ... within minutes the boat was surrounded by fish ... there were literally a dozen Kings ripping through the burley trail, smashing up the bits of pilchard and old bonito we were crushing up ... but none would take a bait ... we tried floating strips back to them, but they all seemed too smart to take a bait ... what's the trick? We had pretty much every bait, barring the elusive fresh squid ... they were clearly on the bite, but just wouldn't eat anything we put in front of them?? Live yakkas, pilchards, cubes of trevally ... Pretty exciting stuff nonetheless .. would have been even better if we could have brought one home ..

Anyone got any tips for next time?

Cheers,

Cramzz

[jordan.widz]

hi cramzzz,

the exact same thing happened to me one day in pittwater. i was fishing for squid when dozens of kingies busted up right around the boat and nothing we showed them would get a bite. the only thing i could suggest is to use fluro carbon leader (about a rods length) if you wern't already.

[bongie555]

hi cramzzz,

the exact same thing happened to me one day in pittwater. i was fishing for squid when dozens of kingies busted up right around the boat and nothing we showed them would get a bite. the only thing i could suggest is to use fluro carbon leader (about a rods length) if you wern't already.

yeah it's happened to us quite a few times in pittwater. you create action by burlying up the baitfish,kingies come but will not even look at anything you throw at them with the heavy gear, throw in an unweighted bit of pilly on the bream gear and hold on,good fun. we have melted and destroyed some of the kids outfits doing this so make sure they're not around if you do...otherwise a live squid never fails...

Edited June 14, 2010 by bongie555

[kajiki008]

Try using an unweighted prawn. We did that and it worked a treat as the kings would come up on the burley trail and scoff all the burley but refused the offering on a hook.

[framedtrash]

i have had this happen a few times in pittwater

as said already drop down to your light outfits and fish unweighted baits

you want your baited hook to sink down at the same speed as the rest of the burley it it sinks faster or slower it will look abnormal and the kings wont touch it

ive also had luck dropping a knife jig down and jigging while they are around the boat

[Cramzzz]

Cheers for the advice .. was unbelievable watching them so close to the boat .. Gotta pack some lighter gear, or maybe some plastics next time ..

[prawn*]

try jigging them up from deeper water and also un weighted live baits. ive never had this problem but i use squid 99% of the time,