Success again

[nosquid]

Well after a very successful day on the Wednesday I decided that I just had to go back and fish for those black-fish. Just making sure that it wasn’t a fluke. The initial plan though was for me to try to get some live squid and then head to Manly. Well let me say that when I arrived in the morning at 3am I quickly got 4 arrows in quick succession. The Issues I had was to try and keep them alive. Now not the best ever home made contraption,… I used an onion bag tied to my bucket and let the squid swim in there with it hanging over the edge. I normally put then in the bucket but I loose a lot of time changing water so anyway out of the 4 , two died still and the other two well survived the trip. By 5am I decided that well since no other action was to be had, I would gather up some weed. What I did not plan on was that the weed was very hard to come by. There was not very much around and well I thought that with what little I had, I would still give the blackfish a go… and since I still had my 2 live squid, I can only hope of those kingies.

Anyway I setup the rod and well it was still rather dark and not wanting to kill the live squid yet I decided to put on one of the dead ones. First light just started to come up and I could see my float just bobbing around. Looking into the water it was clear but not a fish in site could be seen, then while I carried on Squidding I looked up and saw my float just go straight under. Now before I tell you what happened next, let me ask… Am I too adventurous with this outfit… I have two 7 foot fen-wick single piece rods which I normally used for bream, flathead and Australian salmon. The line is 6.5kg breaking strain, mono.

Well let me say, after seeing the float disappear, I turned to the rod and just saw the line and rod go, thank goodness for lightening my drag. Now the run was just spectacular in that the fish just speed off with out stopping and also from my last few encounters with a live yakka usually I did not want to tighten up on the fish until it actually had got the whole squid down its mouth so I just hung on a little. Now the water was just so calm and all you could hear was my screaming drag….. Well I then decided to load the rod and set the hook in …This just made the fish angrier and well let’s say that my line was now beginning to disappear a very quick rate. So I did the next best thing, tighten the drag. As soon as this happened the line started almost to slow down but you could hear that high pitch sound of your line starting to stretch…. Well you guessed it I was just about to untighten the drag when pop goes the line. Man I was in just shock and misbelieve that whatever it was, was so powerful. Anyway I quickly rebaited the other dead Squid and threw it as soon as I looked up to see the float it had gone under but the line was not moving, hey was the squid too heavy for the float I was using.. I was using these pencil floats. Anyway I decided to wind in the line a little and then all hell broke loose. The hook I am sure was set and the fish just took off. The same thing almost happened but within 5 seconds as soon as I tried to tighten up and turn the fish, yip line just parted. Now the little diawa reel I have has about 200m of line, Well Lets just say that I now know that two fish are swimming around with long lines in their mouths attached to a float. Hmm I do feel for these fish and well hope that they do survive…. Does anyone know what the survival rate is for fish with 2 hooks in their mouths, line trailing behind and a float would be?

So looking at my reel with very little line on it . Decide to use a hand line (string) that I had in my bad… I was given this by a friend a long time ago and still laughed at it because what was I going to catch with this. The breaking strain was 12kg and was .50mm in diameter. I rigged up the live squid with a crappy round float. I could not loose another pencil float.. And made an attempt to throw out the live squid. Well doing this by hand does involve some skill and well because I hadn’t peeled enough line from the roll well the squid did not go very far. So while I began to strip more line off the roll I saw the squid still swimming under the surface. It was completely terrified as the next thing I saw was a school of kingies all racing towards the squid. Literally there were about 5 fish just staring at the squid then one of then launched forwards engulfed the squid. The squid were not small but I could see this fish in front of me almost chewing the squid and then realizing that something was wrong. It took off and thank goodness I had stripped off more line from the roll. The line quickly disappeared and I began to fight the fish. Now I know that this some might frown upon this form if fishing and that some might say that fishing actually involves you playing the fish from a rod and proper reel but hey this is all I could do to at least stand a chance at catching these kingies. Well the battle was very short as I know that the fish had no real chance unless he managed to get me around some sort of structure. I finally got him on shore and was over the moon. Well next thing I measured him and well it was 67cm. I was over the moon. I quickly put on the 4th squid on, also alive and well the same thing happened. Well being just so sure that I had the fish in the bag, I really regret rushing things…. The fish made a final dash just before the shore and my line just parted and yip with the float. It definitely looked like a big ger fish. Anway you could see the fish was heading in one direction as my float just then went under out to see.

So the time was now 7:30 and since no more squid.. Well I thought that I might as well try for those black fish…. Well after missing countless downs and hooking into 3 fish. All were list while almost lifting them p off the water. The line did not break but the hooks just pulled loose. Oh well, it was none the less a great morning and the fresh sashimi king fish was fantastic. I will be eating that kingfish in 3 separate dinners this week. 

Well hope you enjoyed the read. Also can anyone tell me what breaking strain line does one need to catch these fish of this size and weather or not I can actually still use my bream rod and reel and just put the thicker line on it.

cheers

Squid_Jig

[rikkigilbey]

nice read fella, any pics??

Gilbey

[Guest hawkesbass]

Can land kings off the rocks with 30 pound braid 60 pound leader and a rod around the 10 foot plus mark.this set up is what i use and have landed them to 8 kilos and 90cms