Kings in Harbour

[fragmeister]

I was in two minds whether to go out Friday with rain and possible thunderstorms forecast but the warm water won't last forever and I haven't had my fill of Kingies yet this season.

I went to Camp Cove to catch some squid but the wind was whipping up a bit of chop and I never seem catch squid there unless its calm so after 30 minutes without a hit and the dawn threatening to break I headed over to Clifton Gardens to burley up some Yakkas.

Half an hour later I had just two large Yakkas and I was getting nervous. I had some squid I bought from a new bait shop and although frozen, the supplier guaranteed me that they were very fresh. They were individually packed in sealed bags with a good dose of ink mixed in with them so I thought I would try squid strips and settle for two livies.

I motored across to the markers on the eastern side of the harbour and the scanner showed they were all holding a lot of good fish.

It was daylight now and usually, and since the kings are most active for the first two hours I thought I would hang on to the yakkas for a while and cast squid strips at them without any luck. A couple of young guys in a tinnie were getting busted up on small yakkas.I tried to tell them they were too close to the markers and if anything they were going to have to wind the drag up to stop the kings busting them off on the structure. I reckon they got bust off half a dozen times before the Kingies went off the bite.

I rigged up a yakka and tossed it over at near the marker where the sounder showed the kings were holding up. After 5 minutes or so I reeled the bait in and with the 10 metre leader just coming out of the water the Yakka was smashed by a Kingie. This was a good fish and , inspite of my advice to the young fellas I quickly found myself busted off by allowing it to run back into the structure.

I rigged another live bait and cast off to the side of the marker and I could see that the yakka was on the surface. I was wondering whether the kings would be interested if the fish was not in the water column where they appeared to be feeding but as the thought popped in my head it was smashed on the surface by a king which I reckon would have been in the 10Kg class. I put the pressure on this on early and kept him away from the structure but after yet another hard run I felt the disappointment of a the line going slack only to find when I reeled it in that my hook had snapped half way down the shank!

That was the end of my two yakkas so I raced over to Clifton Gardens to see if I could catch some more. I quickly got a dozen or so small ones but the kings had gone off the bite. They were still there on the sounder and they would appear in the burley trail every so often picking small pieces of pilchard but ignoring anything I dropped in front of them.

I guess there are a few messages here. There are some larger kings around. They are taking live yakkas pretty freely, even the best frozen squid is a second rate bait and probably most importantly, wind up the drag and pay attention to your terminal tackle.

Incidentally, it bucketed down later in the afternoon and I had to clean the boat up in the rain ... but it was worth it.

[bennoz]

good read and nice work heading out on friday - wasnt the best of weather, but its always easier when there fish are biting

[thefisherman6784]

Sounded like an awesome day

Bad luck on the big king though

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[Stash]

Mate, hard luck having a busted hook

[adventureman]

well done mate! I learnt to tighten my drag in the same spot. Are you willing to name and shame the hook?

[fragmeister]

Hi Adventureman

I am not confident I know the brand of the hook but I reviewed my entire gear after that session.

I think in reality I am fishing a little light for the size of fish and probably didn't have a much of a chance of stopping the first few runs on 10Kg gear anyway.

The water depth is only 8 to 10 meters and if the king takes the bait 20 meters away and 5 meters down it won't take much for him to get into some structure and bust you off.

I am moving up to 20 kg braid and a 30 kg leader terminated with a good strong live bait hook.

I am going to quickly set my drag with some inline scales and make sure I have it loaded up enough and stop them in their tracks!

And then... all prepared ... I won't get a single bite!

... but thats fishing.

Edited April 6, 2014 by fragmeister

[Busy-livin]

Unlucky bud!

It's always the way I find that when i have everything prepped and ready for the day like your saying I won't get a thing!

Throw some light gear out having fun on bread and butter fish and that's when I get hit by bigger fish! Can't win!!!

[fragmeister]

Unlucky bud!

It's always the way I find that when i have everything prepped and ready for the day like your saying I won't get a thing!

Throw some light gear out having fun on bread and butter fish and that's when I get hit by bigger fish! Can't win!!!

You're not wrong there mate!

I have caught (and lost) many a good fish on tackle designed for other species.

One that sticks in my mind was a horse of dusky flathead that I caught off the spit in Port Hacking. I was fishing for whiting with nippers on 2Kg gear and

I fought this fish for 20 minutes getting close to beaching it twice. I could see the red long shank hook was not quite clear of its mouth and was worried a head shake would cut the line.

Well it did right on the edge. I leapt in and tried to grab it but I had no chance. The damn thing looked like a bloody croc!

Bugger! I said... actually much worse than that.

Cheers

Edited April 9, 2014 by fragmeister

[Butts]

Where about were you fishing exactly? Still learning my way around the harbour....