no fish landed

[nosquid]

Well what a sad Weekend. I decided to go and fish for some squid near Manly and well I had managed 1 squid and 1 cuttle fish after a fair amount of time. Then had a bright idea of targeting the king fish on my one piece graphite rod which has caught kings before. Anyway went to 40 B and threw out the cuttle first. A short 5 minute wait and then tap, tap and then Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz I let the fish run and promptly set the hook. The fish ran and actually swam back towards me on the jetty and as I quickly reeled in the slack line and followed it, actually saw the fish. It was a fairly big king fish. Suddenly he changed direction and headed out and well from that point all I could do was hang on. I As I put more pressure on him the dreaded Snap was heard but not the normal snap of the line but rather … As I looked in shock, the snap of the tip of my rod. He was still on at that point for a further 20 seconds and then nothing. Reeling back my line in, I expected a break but I still had the hook and attached to it was a small amount of the cuttle fish back bone. Well what more can you do except look in disbelief and feel utterly violated by a fish. Well I might as well then throw out the other squid and see what happens. The squid head was attacked in no time and not much after that.

In between I managed to catch 2 largish yakkas (almost 22cm) and decided to throw one out. Now I pinned him through the nose and sent it out and in no time he was going crazy. Then nothing. I wound in the line and saw that he was still on but almost dead. I decided to still throw it out and in less than 15 seconds the line goes straight. There are a few short runs and I finally decide on setting the hook but nothing. I wind it in only to see the yakka s head completely destroyed and the full back and belly devoured. No too sure what that was and can only think that it might have been a cuttle fish or a large squid. I then proceeded to throw out the other yakka and this time also after a short wait the reel goes Zzzzz, I let it run and then set the hook. I was playing the fish for about a minute (having 2 other runs in it) when the line goes slack. Reel in the line and yip I still have the yakka attached to the hook. Am I doing this wrong when live baiting as I seem to not be getting the hooks set properly.

Well after that I gave up and decided on trying for the luderick that were quite abundant but as I had thrown just about all my offerings of Bread and Sea weed at them to burly them up, they constantly just ignored my fresh weed that I collected. I only had some cabbage weed and they would see it and then turn. Very frustrating and well not much after that except I did manage to catch another southern calamari that proceeded to elude and tease me the entire morning.

[dwan8337]

Well what a sad Weekend. I decided to go and fish for some squid near Manly and well I had managed 1 squid and 1 cuttle fish after a fair amount of time. Then had a bright idea of targeting the king fish on my one piece graphite rod which has caught kings before. Anyway went to 40 B and threw out the cuttle first. A short 5 minute wait and then tap, tap and then Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz I let the fish run and promptly set the hook. The fish ran and actually swam back towards me on the jetty and as I quickly reeled in the slack line and followed it, actually saw the fish. It was a fairly big king fish. Suddenly he changed direction and headed out and well from that point all I could do was hang on. I As I put more pressure on him the dreaded Snap was heard but not the normal snap of the line but rather … As I looked in shock, the snap of the tip of my rod. He was still on at that point for a further 20 seconds and then nothing. Reeling back my line in, I expected a break but I still had the hook and attached to it was a small amount of the cuttle fish back bone. Well what more can you do except look in disbelief and feel utterly violated by a fish. Well I might as well then throw out the other squid and see what happens. The squid head was attacked in no time and not much after that.

In between I managed to catch 2 largish yakkas (almost 22cm) and decided to throw one out. Now I pinned him through the nose and sent it out and in no time he was going crazy. Then nothing. I wound in the line and saw that he was still on but almost dead. I decided to still throw it out and in less than 15 seconds the line goes straight. There are a few short runs and I finally decide on setting the hook but nothing. I wind it in only to see the yakka s head completely destroyed and the full back and belly devoured. No too sure what that was and can only think that it might have been a cuttle fish or a large squid. I then proceeded to throw out the other yakka and this time also after a short wait the reel goes Zzzzz, I let it run and then set the hook. I was playing the fish for about a minute (having 2 other runs in it) when the line goes slack. Reel in the line and yip I still have the yakka attached to the hook. Am I doing this wrong when live baiting as I seem to not be getting the hooks set properly.

Well after that I gave up and decided on trying for the luderick that were quite abundant but as I had thrown just about all my offerings of Bread and Sea weed at them to burly them up, they constantly just ignored my fresh weed that I collected. I only had some cabbage weed and they would see it and then turn. Very frustrating and well not much after that except I did manage to catch another southern calamari that proceeded to elude and tease me the entire morning.

Hey mate had this problem before when we were livebaiting Yakkas off the rocks at Bluefish. Unless your yakka is bite size, alot of the times they seem to grab the underbelly of the yakka...and you have no way of telling if its hooked or not until you set it or in your case it just let go?

[redpump]

Awww, I can understand the feeling of frustration which is evident in your report. All I can say is, better luck next time! That's the fun in fishing

[cameldownunder]

My theory:Small Yakka (up to 15 cm) hook in the nose, or If the belly goes, (here comes the thoery-as never done) double hooks one through the nose, the other with a rubber band at the belly. Big yakkas gets filetted.

[Kooks]

Am I doing this wrong when live baiting as I seem to not be getting the hooks set properly.

I'm no expert but I had that issue a while ago and now always have a stinger hook. This second hook that sits near the tail seems to be the one that gets more hook ups (bonnies, salmon occasional king) for me. Below is an image of how I roughly pin the yakka. personally I put the rear/stinger closer to the tail and not so deep in the flesh. The only down side is that it lessens the life of your yakka. So you need to counter this by catching extra bait.

That's my 2 cents

[Novicefisherman]

I'm no expert but I had that issue a while ago and now always have a stinger hook. This second hook that sits near the tail seems to be the one that gets more hook ups (bonnies, salmon occasional king) for me. Below is an image of how I roughly pin the yakka. personally I put the rear/stinger closer to the tail and not so deep in the flesh. The only down side is that it lessens the life of your yakka. So you need to counter this by catching extra bait.

That's my 2 cents

Sounds more like you bait is getting attacked by squid.

Edited April 2, 2012 by Novicefisherman

[boy53]

I think squid might be taking your yakkas cuz your yakka was 22cm and if king takes that, you will get a good run and maybe even get smoked hard

[eastwood1980]

Sorry to hear that dude but you know what.... i konw the truth....

I was the one that played around with your bait... couldn't resist

how yummy the yaka looked, just had to take a bite out of it.

[Twinfisher 4.9]

I agree, if the back of the head was chewed out, it was squid. When that happens, leave the yellowtail out there close to the boat and throw out a squid jig and try to catch the devil, much better bait for the kings than the yakka.