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Kings of Balmoral


dacosta74

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Been having a bad run with fishing lately, a lot of zeros.

Headed out on my kayak at 7.30am from Clontarf, trolling an Xrap slashbait - 6ft diver, paddled all the way to Grotto point and round a bit, nothing.

Headed across to Balmoral. Attached myself to bouy in middle, nothing but nibblers. Tried pumpkinseed minnnows, and swimming grubs, and a VX40.

Dropped back to the eastern edge by the rocks, by the last boats. Again, nothing but nibblers. The I caught possibly the smallest snapper in the world - it wasn't much bigger than the SP. Funniest thing was just as i'm brining it up a squid grabs it... nearly got him on board with the live bait!.

Nothing else happened. Set off, cast the Xrap back out to troll for home - Clontarf.

Just as I leave the boats and into open water I hear this noise, turn around and my rod with the Xrap has gone!!! I see it disappearing into the blue...so glad I brought a rod leash and had it attached... I grabbed the rod and bang, the rod goes in two and the force of the fish starts pulling the nose of the kayak round. I'm using a fairly light set up - 15lb braid and 12lb leader... had to tweak the drag to let it take some under control. A couple of cracking runs later, and up comes my first kayak kingie! with a mate! It was only a rat at no more than 45cm. Strong fish bearing in mind the kayak is 40kg, and my fat arse comes in just shy of 100kg and it pulled us around.

I unhook him and chuck the xrap over the side. So I'm taking care of the little fella, releasing him, when bang the rod buckles over!! His mate has picked up the lure that's just laying in the water...!

This one went even better, aggressive deep diving runs, and a couple of mins later it was also boarded. Marginally larger than the first, it went back to fight another day. With a stupidly large grin and shouting 'yes!' I paddled on (I hope no one saw!).

Trolled all the way back for zip.. tried SPs and the VX40 through the bays on the Balgowlah side for nothing. And a last bash amongst the Clontarf boats with SPs and VX40 also drew a blank.

Still can't put anything on the table this summer, but it was an awesome trip just for the 10mins of mental action.

Tight lines boys and girls.

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Great work it's amazing how you fish for hours and catch nothing and then get five mins of mayhem and it makes up for it.

You should try paddling around a live bait you will get much better results . Put two rods out a live bait and your xrap I bet you next trip you will come home with a legal king

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