fragmeister Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 (edited) Hi Raiders, High tide was around 5:30 which was also the time of first light with sunrise at 6:00 There was no wind and the water temperature was 24.1 Degrees. I decided I would drop a few squid baits before getting into the harbour so I stopped for an hour off Balls Head. After an hour of inactivity I finally got a hit and with no fight at all it was at the boat in a bout 30 seconds. Just a school jew of about 50 cm that was barely hooked. He saved all his fight for the last minute and dislodged the hook while I was fumbling of the net and saved me the trouble of removing the hook. I continued on into the harbour and anchored up near one go my favourite markers. I could see kings on the sounder hovering around the 5 M mark so I tossed an unweighted cooked king prawn towards the marker and let in sink and waited. It wasn't long before a rat Kingie of about 60 cm was in the boat. It went back of course. I keep on going back to these markers anticipating that a larger King will stumble across my bait but today that wasn't the case again but it is still a lot of fun. There are so many hungry rats around (I boated and released at least 20 today ) I have been using circle hooks with the barb flattened down to make it nice and easy to release them. There were a lot of boats on the harbour today and the Wedding Cakes looked like Pit Street. Talking to other fishos there were reports of Rat kings on every marker and on the surface at Barmoral. Didn't see many boats on North Head but I could see the swell making that a bit bumpy so perhaps people were avoiding it. About 11:30 I went over to Clifton Gardens for a swim and I took the opportunity to check the action out on the wharf. I saw a few under sized Kings and two or three Bonito in the fisherman's buckets. I thought a bout giving them a lecture on KingFish legal sizes but I suspected a language barrier. Checked out Wedding Cakes but there were way too many boat there so I moved around the markers and ended up with a few more kings all, again under lead limit. I didn't have any of my cooked prawns left so I used squid and some pillies and they all produced although not as quickly. A lot of time on the water, a lot of boat traffic... I'm still moving up and down as I type this report. Great day again... beats working any day. Cheers Jim Edited January 16, 2015 by fragmeister Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busy-livin Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Sounds like you had a great day out I was at the wedding cake Clifton side until 1030 managed 5 rats in an hour , there everywhere in the harbour it's great!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dacosta74 Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Thanks for the report. This is probably a totally stupid question, but are the prawns shell on or shelled? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
burnsie Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Well done jim sounds like an awesome day on the water! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stephanb79 Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 Nice job !!! I want to take the wife there on sunday and try our luck I still haven't caught a kingy yet .. any tips Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ojay Samson Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 (edited) That sounds like a really fun day on the water. now im itching to take the boat out and get in on some of the action on these plague proportion rat kings in the harbour. should be really fun on light gear. ive never caught a rat king before in the harbour as ive only ever been on it a handful of times on the boat, but would a 2-4kg rod with 8lb mainline braid be enough to have some fun with these kings or is that too light for a complete amature as i would like to get the mrs onto her 1st king and was wondering if her flick stick is enough for them or would it be safer to use a 4-6kg rod and 4-5000 size reel and 20lb mainline? also, it seems like bait'n'wait is the key, would using lures and soft plastics be an unnecessary exercise, as it seems the kings are hungry for anything they can get?also i dont mean to impose but if you could give me some ideas as to where generally i should be checking out via PM as i come from far up the parra river and would like to know if my efforts are better suited to try launch at rose bay boat ramp instead to save time and fuel or if the ramp around hunters hill is also ok? bear in mind it takes me a while to get anywhere due to small engine and its an absolute mission to get anywhere far haha.Keep the reports coming, for now i am living my boat fishing life vicariously through others.Cheers, Ojay. Edited January 16, 2015 by Ojay Samson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest stephanb79 Posted January 16, 2015 Share Posted January 16, 2015 That sounds like a really fun day on the water. now im itching to take the boat out and get in on some of the action on these plague proportion rat kings in the harbour. should be really fun on light gear. ive never caught a rat king before in the harbour as ive only ever been on it a handful of times on the boat, but would a 2-4kg rod with 8lb mainline braid be enough to have some fun with these kings or is that too light for a complete amature as i would like to get the mrs onto her 1st king and was wondering if her flick stick is enough for them or would it be safer to use a 4-6kg rod and 4-5000 size reel and 20lb mainline? also, it seems like bait'n'wait is the key, would using lures and soft plastics be an unnecessary exercise, as it seems the kings are hungry for anything they can get? also i dont mean to impose but if you could give me some ideas as to where generally i should be checking out via PM as i come from far up the parra river and would like to know if my efforts are better suited to try launch at rose bay boat ramp instead to save time and fuel or if the ramp around hunters hill is also ok? bear in mind it takes me a while to get anywhere due to small engine and its an absolute mission to get anywhere far haha. Keep the reports coming, for now i am living my boat fishing life vicariously through others. Cheers, Ojay. hey im in the same boat in catching a kingy im want to give it ago with the wife on Sunday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KayakPat Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 haha I've taken to getting my tape measure out walking up measuring it and saying it needs to go back. You can flash your fishing licence and for some reason they think your official... funny because they should all have one just like it in there pocket... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrsswordfisherman Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 haha I've taken to getting my tape measure out walking up measuring it and saying it needs to go back. You can flash your fishing licence and for some reason they think your official... funny because they should all have one just like it in there pocket...Hmmmm impersonating a fisheries officer isn't real clever - it could be an offencemrsswordfisherman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KayakPat Posted January 17, 2015 Share Posted January 17, 2015 Hey I never said anything about impersonating anyone... just showing them I'm upto date with my size and bag limits... If they don't recognise a licence as a licence I'm not sure it's my fault... I've thrown a few people's rats back, only after letting them know it was undersized of cause. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fragmeister Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 (edited) Thanks for the report. This is probably a totally stupid question, but are the prawns shell on or shelled? They were not shelled but not actually sure if that makes any difference. Having said that, I think the kings can be a little hook shy particularly when the sun is high in the sky so when the shell and legs of the prawn are still on the hook ends up hidden somewhat in the legs. Cheers Jim Edited January 17, 2015 by fragmeister Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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