Barrenjoey Wide 17.011.2021

[zmk1962]

G'day Raiders,

Been a while since my last report ... in-fact been too long between fishing adventures! Here's a report of Wednesday's sesh.

Seabreeze forecast for a reasonable day - bit lumpy with 1.1m seas but the wind was down to 5kts and the period was up around 10sec - so it was a thumbs up from Wayno and myself to finally get out there for some fresh scale. Target species flatties.

I had some salted pillies and tailor fillets in the freezer from the May fishing trip... hmmm looked a bit dry, but I thought that would be good enough bait to get us started ... then as I was packing the boat, I found a pack of flattie fillets that had somehow fallen in the back of the freezer - dated February ... hmmm ... well won' be eating that.... so it went into the bait esky as well.

We left home at 5am on the dot, and were in the water at Parsley Bay ready to go 5.50am. Picture perfect start to the day with the sun just coming up on the horizon.

All looking very promising. We passed one boat on the way out, circling around the live bait grounds east of Barrenjoey and kept going to hit the 40m grounds by 630am . The swell was quite a bit higher than seabreeze forecast. Closer to 1.5m with some big 2m rollers coming through in the mix.

We were the only boat out there.... quickly set up the gear, (we fish two rods each - Wayno is a lefty so his reels had the handle reversed), checked the drift (easterly 2kmh, so dropped the anchor just enough to lightly drag and slow us down), baited up with a strip of flattie fillet and first drop ...bang ...a  50cm flattie was cooling its tail in the esky! Wahooo 🤙.

Next drop another 50cm model. 👍 The flattie fillet bait and plastic combination was working !

At this stage the session was looking to be very promising, but then the next two drops produced f$%#@n tangles. Spent way too long looking down trying to unpick braid .... 🤢

Anyway, gotta keep soldiering on ... next drop double hit... on Wayno's rods ...both doubled over with lots of weight... .so I leave my rods and try to manage Wayno's lefty rig to avoid another tangle. 5min later after much effort up come two massive banjos .... F&^%^$$K ... more time looking down.... 🤢 🤢.

Thought I'd give you a photo of the "lefty".

Finally back at it .. when you feel 🤢🤢🤢  it feels like eternity .. but we're here to fish so  rebaited and kept going.... by 730am we had 5 flatties all over 50ccm in the esky. We'd run out of fillet bait and were now into the old salted bait .... bite went dead. By 10am we'd only managed one more keeper flattie... and I had finally released sufficient internal pressure to start thinking about a cup of tea ... wasn't quite up to having it yet, just thinking about it. 

We changed spots, tried the 50-60m grounds, just tiddlers, back to 40m grounds again juveniles ... By 11am we concluded we'd had our run, blamed it on the old bait and tossed the lot out.... and I managed a peanut butter sambo with a cup of tea ... success!

In addition to feeling much better, the swell had also died down and I noted the water temp was 22.3C... so we switched the flattie terminal gear for trolling headed to try  the headlands from Whale - Bilgola.  On the southerly run we used hardbodies for zilch interest... then swapped them out for some pakula 6in skirts on the north run heading home .... bingo ... action at last....

Double hook up on rat kings - one at 60cm and the other at 57cm ... but still lots of fun.

Well that's it from me until next time. We caught a feed, had some fun and faced what ever the ocean threw at us 🤢 ... to come out on top. 😋

Tight Lines.

Cheers Zoran

PS - who reckons Wayno looks like Johnny Howard ???

[kingie chaser]

Nice report mate, looks like a great day out for the 1st day back 

 

Got to love a double hookup 😀

 

Thanks for the detailed report, hopefully those kings grow a bit more in the next few weeks 👌

[mrsswordfisherman]

Great report Zoran and John (haha) 

We can say we have a fishraider member who was a PM 

You had fun and it was nice weather 

[frankS]

Yes I can see the likeness to Johnny. You gave it a shot and got on the water and that's good.

I have sent you a PM .

Frank

[Isaac Ct]

Sounds like a nice trip. Well done

[Rebel]

Great report and Super photos.

Well done.

[dlvbw]

Great report mate. 

[BigHorse]

Great report and photo's 

Super video as well!

[Yowie]

Good work there Zoran. Not a lot but good sized over the 50 mark. Better than sitting at home doing bookwork, or twiddling your thumbs. 😂

[Larkin]

Well done Zoran, always a great day when you get to go out on the water.
Enjoyed your video - how good is it when those reels start screaming. 

[61 crusher]

Good report, video & photos Zoran gotta love a good rat pack attack & a feed of flattie fillets 

That’s a great sunrise photo of the boat with it’s new motor & little Johnny doing post duty 😁

[Pickles]

Great report and pics Zoran, (hey Wayno, maybe throw your hat in the ring for PM, there is an election next year and introduction “safe distancing on the water” might swing the vote).

Those Blue spots are a great feed and always fun getting onto kings.
if you haven’t already, there would be great interest in your “Zoran flattie rd roper rig”.

Interestingly, I’ve had very limited success with trolling hardbodies on kings and much more success with skirts and Christmas tree lures. (A down rigger revolutionised my kingfish trolling).

[big Neil]

Great report and video Zoran. What speed (approx) are you trolling at? bn

[zmk1962]

On 11/19/2021 at 8:22 AM, kingie chaser said:

Nice report mate, looks like a great day out for the 1st day back 

Got to love a double hookup 😀

Thanks for the detailed report, hopefully those kings grow a bit more in the next few weeks 👌

Thanks KC, yeah lets hope the kings grow, the weather fines up and my sea conditioning is permanent 😁 ... roll on clear summer weather.

On 11/19/2021 at 10:08 AM, mrsswordfisherman said:

Great report Zoran and John (haha) 

We can say we have a fishraider member who was a PM 

You had fun and it was nice weather 

Thanks Donna, little Johnny is out of Sydney at the moment .... but I'll pass on that he should become a member ... and I think we all agree what his fishraider handle should be 🤔

 

On 11/19/2021 at 10:09 AM, frankS said:

Yes I can see the likeness to Johnny. You gave it a shot and got on the water and that's good.

I have sent you a PM .

Frank

Cheers Frank... I've replied to your PM. 

 

Thanks @Isaac Ct, @Rebel, @dlvbw, @BigHorse ... it was a good day in the end .. and with flatties at $79.99/kg the 6 we caught were well appreciated!

On 11/19/2021 at 7:43 PM, Yowie said:

Good work there Zoran. Not a lot but good sized over the 50 mark. Better than sitting at home doing bookwork, or twiddling your thumbs. 😂

You're not wrong there @Yowie ! ... it was great to blow the cobwebs out ... not sure I ever just sit around and twiddle my thumbs .... but I've been known to twiddle up some paternosters, and some plastic sinker jigs 😇

On 11/19/2021 at 10:05 PM, Larkin said:

Enjoyed your video - how good is it when those reels start screaming. 

Thanks mate.... yeah how good is that sound ... you can never tire of it or get enough of it ... instant shot of adrenaline.

On 11/20/2021 at 5:50 AM, 61 crusher said:

Good report, video & photos Zoran gotta love a good rat pack attack & a feed of flattie fillets 

That’s a great sunrise photo of the boat with it’s new motor & little Johnny doing post duty 😁

Thanks Dieter ... there are usually a couple of special moments on a fishing trip ... for me one of them is ALWAYS launching at the ramp, the start of all the possibilities the day may hold. I find that whenever I look back at those boat ramp photos it brings me right back in the moment ... 

 

4 hours ago, Pickles said:

Great report and pics Zoran, (hey Wayno, maybe throw your hat in the ring for PM, there is an election next year and introduction “safe distancing on the water” might swing the vote).

Those Blue spots are a great feed and always fun getting onto kings.
if you haven’t already, there would be great interest in your “Zoran flattie rd roper rig”.

Thanks Bob, I'll speak to Johnny about what policies he plans to campaign on ... 

I've posted previously about the flattie sinker jig .... my go to rig for offshore flatties, is a 2 hook drop loop paternoster rig (tied on my paternoster board), I use a SP 10cm minnow on the top hook, bait on the bottom hook and the SP sinker jig clipped on to the loop for the snapper lead sinker. The pickers demolish the bait (and it acts like burley) and most of the flatties are hooked on the top SP or the sinker jig. ... even the banjos were both on the sinker jigs.

Here the link to the paternoster board .. BTW, I now twist the loop about 7-8times before pushing it through and forming the knot, it ends up with the loop staying closed due to the twists.

 

4 hours ago, Pickles said:

Interestingly, I’ve had very limited success with trolling hardbodies on kings and much more success with skirts and Christmas tree lures. (A down rigger revolutionised my kingfish trolling).

Yeah, I must say I have to agree with you Bob ... the hard bodies have just not worked for me either. Resin and metal head skirts seem to do the damage consistently.

2 hours ago, big Neil said:

Great report and video Zoran. What speed (approx) are you trolling at? bn

Hey BN, it depends. The hard bodies have an optimum speed depending on their design... and the speed is relative to the lure travelling through the water not the boat speed - so it depends if you are trolling into the current or going with the current - I just watch the vibration of the rod tips to gauge when they are working (swimming) the best. But in general, the shallow (<5m) divers have small bibs and swim well in the  6-9kmh boat speed range, but for comparison the halco bibless will go to 20kmh boat speed and can be mixed in the spread with skirts.

The skirts are far more forgiving and I troll them 11-16kmh... love them cos you get to cover more ground. We got the hits in the video around 12kmh. I also troll the resin heads directly behind the boat and the metal heads to the sides... that way if we stop the metals will sink to each side of the boat and not onto the prop.

Cheers Zoran

[kingie chaser]

1 hour ago, zmk1962 said:

Thanks KC, yeah lets hope the kings grow, the weather fines up and my sea conditioning is permanent 😁 ... roll on clear summer weather.

it was a good day in the end .. and with flatties at $79.99/kg the 6 we caught were well appreciated!

 

 

 

 😲😲😲

 

That is ridiculous!

 

 

[GordoRetired]

Sounds like a fun day. A trick I was told about when I used to go wide, 20 miles+ chasing Marlin, with no chance of heading in was to drink a can of Coke. Have tried it many times and it really seems to settle the stomach. 

[kingie chaser]

1 hour ago, GordoRetired said:

Sounds like a fun day. A trick I was told about when I used to go wide, 20 miles+ chasing Marlin, with no chance of heading in was to drink a can of Coke. Have tried it many times and it really seems to settle the stomach. 

If I am going for a one off deep/wide/shelf trip for an occasional day which is usually the case I will drop a Trava calm before leaving just in case as I wouldnt want it to spoil my day. 

Candied or naked ginger works as well, I'll sometimes take some of either with me as well.

 

 

 

[Scratchie]

Great report Zoran. Sounds like a great day fishing with political royalty 😂😂😂

You still caught a feed despite the tangles and at $80kg that’s worth the trip. 
 

cheers scratchie!!! 

[zmk1962]

17 minutes ago, Scratchie said:

Great report Zoran. Sounds like a great day fishing with political royalty 😂😂😂

You still caught a feed despite the tangles and at $80kg that’s worth the trip. 
 

cheers scratchie!!! 

Thanks Jeff ... .. Little Johnny has already told me he has another term in him 🤣... so can't wait for the weather to clear to head off again.

Cheers Z

[GoingFishing]

Great report Z - good to see you get out and enjoy a day on the water.

PS thats not Wayno - that IS John Howard 🤣

[zmk1962]

44 minutes ago, GoingFishing said:

Great report Z - good to see you get out and enjoy a day on the water.

PS thats not Wayno - that IS John Howard 🤣

Hahaha ... thanks Sam ... well ... I did enjoy part of the day ... definitely planning more now that the sea legs are conditioned. 

Cheers Z