fragmeister Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 (edited) Hi Raiders, Took my son (15 yo) out this morning with a plan for a quick fish and then off to Clifton Gardens for a kick of the football , a swim and couple of sausage and onion sangas cooked on the porta stove.... one of my favourite ways to spend a Saturday. My son is not an early starter and not super keen on fishing but he loves the out doors so we got into the harbour at around 10:30 and headed straight over to one of my favourite markers only to find a couple of boats already there. I find that the kings hold up in one very specific area around this marker and the other boats were really not on the money so I positioned my boat up current and hit the spot lock on the Minn Kota. I had bought a half Kilo of cooked prawns that morning to check how good they were again based on the yesterday's results. I said to my son ( he has never caught a Kingie) "toss this unweighted prawn right against the marker and just let it sink naturally but hang tight to the rod because you will be surprised how hard they pull. 10 seconds after the bait hit the water he was on. However, even given that warning he was not prepared for it with his hands far too low on the rod and with no leverage on the fish the rod was up against the gunnels in no time flat and the fish was running him all over the place. To make things worse I he was using my 20Kilo rig with the drag wound up pretty tight as I wanted him to keep the fish from running into the structure. 5 minutes or so later after much hooting and hollering he had the fish at the boat so I lifted it out. It went 73cm and I thought of keeping it but it was the start of the day and I only had the little food esky with me. The fish would not have been in optimum condition by the time we got it home so we sent it back on its way. I gave the boy a few tips on better hand position and the pump and wind action and he was away. In the next hour we swapped the rod over each time a fish each time a fish was landed and ended up with 8 each but no more legals after the first one. He is now well and truly a Kingie fan! So, how did the fresh cooked prawns go? The other two boats perhaps caught 3 fish between them in the same time. One guy was using SP's and the other boat was using weighted squid baits. I think I was in a better position but they were not that far off the mark for it to be a problem. Its hard to know whether there were any larger fish that were ignoring the baits but at least for rats and the occasional legal fish unweighted fresh cooked prawns are pretty effective... and if you get hungry you can eat them! Incidentally, the guys in the second boat had a pretty unique reason for keeping an undersized fish... earlier, apparently, they caught a 68 and a 70cm king and threw them back so it was OK to keep the undersized one! After this we headed towards Clifton Gardens and moored close to the beach. We walked to the end of the wharf and checked out the action. This was about 12:30 and high tide or thereabouts. The most successful guy had a few salmon, a kingie and a bonito all about 55 cm so there is a bit of action there too... but not a lot of room which is typical for a Saturday. Bundles of small baitfish around A great day all round with the boy. Cheers Jim Edited January 11, 2015 by fragmeister Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Sounds like a bit of fun there Jim, especially for your son, and I usually keep the first legal fish - in case there are no more to be caught !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike2153 Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Good work mate I was amongst then to and can guess exactly where you were, as for the guys keeping the undersiZe ones a few snapper leads thrown straight at there boat as you drive off would work quite nicely! People like that really annoy me! Especially when you get people such as myself who use large live bait hooks which hook the fish in the corner of the mouth and change all my lures around to single hooks, and do everything I can including Tagging fish to ensure there survival and future survival. Makes me sick to be honest, if love to see some of these people at the boat ramp. So has your son changed his mind about fishing a bit you think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big Neil Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Good one Jim. Looks like you have a covert. Hope so. Neil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big Neil Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 convert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryder Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Well done again, and great that you put your son onto his first. You'll have to pack the big esky next time. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NaClH2OK9 Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Nice work AGAIN jim. Sounds like you've nailed the technique. What a great result putting your son on fish like that. He'll remember that outing for a lifetime. I carry a fold up esky bag on the boat for just such occasions ( not that there are many of them). I've alway used raw prawn but will be cooking up a few tonight for tomorrow's session to test. Thanks for sharing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 When I was a youngster, only a few years ago , I caught a few fish on the cooked prawns. Bream and the bigger fantailed jackets would swim for miles (well, maybe 5 metres) to feast on them. Small pieces were all that was needed. Some of the fishos caught jewies on the whole cooked prawns as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fragmeister Posted January 10, 2015 Author Share Posted January 10, 2015 (edited) Nice work AGAIN jim. Sounds like you've nailed the technique. What a great result putting your son on fish like that. He'll remember that outing for a lifetime. I carry a fold up esky bag on the boat for just such occasions ( not that there are many of them). I've alway used raw prawn but will be cooking up a few tonight for tomorrow's session to test. Thanks for sharing. I was thinking of a fold up esky that I could store on the boat. Do you remember where you got it from? Cheers Jim Edited January 10, 2015 by fragmeister Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fragmeister Posted January 10, 2015 Author Share Posted January 10, 2015 Sounds like a bit of fun there Jim, especially for your son, and I usually keep the first legal fish - in case there are no more to be caught !! I want to but 4 hours later without adequate cooling would have make it disappointing on the table I suspect. Next time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NaClH2OK9 Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Got mine from TW. It's like a baby brother to a marlin bag Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Rev Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Grea report Fragmeister One question... Do you use the prawns peeled or unpeeled? And are these just the standard king prawns or school prawns from Coles? The Rev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fragmeister Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 Grea report Fragmeister One question... Do you use the prawns peeled or unpeeled? And are these just the standard king prawns or school prawns from Coles? The Rev Well, I would call them a small king prawn. They were $15 kilo from Woollies. I had half a kilo so it was not an expensive trip. I just take the heads off. more for burley than anything else, thread a hook from the tail end down and out through the legs. Toss it in unweighted and wait for up to a minute. My experience is that Rat Kings will take most things in the burley trail but ignore anything with a hook in it so as long as you hide the hook and use a clear leader. This is particularly apparent in bright conditions nearer the surface. It think there are which as at the moment and just hungry so not a lot of technique is required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fragmeister Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 Got mine from TW. It's like a baby brother to a marlin bag Thanks, That looks like the goods. Cheers Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Rev Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Well, I would call them a small king prawn. They were $15 kilo from Woollies. I had half a kilo so it was not an expensive trip. I just take the heads off. more for burley than anything else, thread a hook from the tail end down and out through the legs. Toss it in unweighted and wait for up to a minute. My experience is that Rat Kings will take most things in the burley trail but ignore anything with a hook in it so as long as you hide the hook and use a clear leader. This is particularly apparent in bright conditions nearer the surface. It think there are which as at the moment and just hungry so not a lot of technique is required. thanks :-) the rev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sydneyfisher12 Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Great work mate some nice fish there sounds like they've moved into the harbour can't wait to get out and chase them might have to buy some of those prawns Cheers Sydneyfisher12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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