Raiders at it again. All hail King of Kingies Pickles

[GordoRetired]

After out last trip out bagging out on Flathead Zoran and I wanted a lesson from the King of Kingies, Sensei Bob.  So a plan was hatched. It was decided that I needed to get my passport out and travel to the wilds of Western Sydney to meet the boys at Ermington Boat Ramp at 5.30am and we would hit the Kingie spots. So I was up at 4.00am, packed lunch and headed west to meet the boys.

Just after 5.30 the boat was launched and we were ready to go.

We had an enjoyable cruise up the Parramatta river up to the main Harbor with Barrycuda sitting effortlessly at a steady 55-60kph most of the way, it was my first time along those waters which made it interesting.

As we were targeting Kingies it was essential that we get some live bait so we hit the first spot for Yakkas, one of my burley bombs was deployed and we watched as a nice steady stream of burley drifted out the back of Barrycuda. At this stage we were supposed to see thousands of Yakkas eager to jump on our bait rigs but they refused to play the game. 20 minutes later, I don't think we had landed one Yakka, it was time to try Bob's 'special' spot. I would tell you where it is but if I did Bob would probably send a hit man to take out me and my family, so mum's the word. 🙂
Arrive at the second spot and in goes another bag of burley. We then waited eagerly for the Yakkas to come out to play. Hum, something wrong here as the Yakkas just did not want to cooperate. After a while it was time to head to a highly recommended spot, used by none other than the famous Fishabout tours. This one must be spectacular we surly can not fail to get Yakkas here..... Wrong... Nothing.

So after some persuading from Zoran and me Bob agreed to let us go and try off Balmoral. So we get to our 4th spot of the morning, burley in and hey presto, there are Yakkas at the back of the boat. That was the easy part, getting them to take our baits was not, we tried jigs, hand-lines with unweighted hooks, hand-lines with weighted hooks, unweighted hooks off rods, you name it we tried it. Over the next hour we did actually manage to get a decent supply of Yakkas but I do not think I have worked so hard to get bait ever. 
As a bonus Bob did land a nice Bream that took a liking to his live bait rig.

By now it was mid morning, Bob suggested that we head up to Long Reef but with the forecast Southerly Zoran though it best to head South so that we would be running with the winds on the way back, it was due to start blowing around lunchtime. So we snuck out around South Head and headed towards Bondi. So much for the wind picking up around lunchtime, we got no more than a mile or 2 from the heads and after dropping off the back of some vicious chop a team decision was made to see if we could find Kings in the Harbor. Time to about turn and head back inside.

We started the hunt in near Watsons Bay, Yakkas were rigged using a combination of Single hook through the nose and a 2 hook rig with one through the nose and a stinger hooked in near the tail. This was when Bob got careless, Single hook through the nose and he started to keep loosing his Yakkas. They were there one minute and gone the next. Tricky little buggers getting off like that.

Fortunately we had a rod down with the double hook set up and after a while trolling and drifting around we got a solid hook up. There is a video but I can't get it off my phone so hopefully Zoran will share it in the comments. I was fishing 50lb braid with quite a lot of drag but the fish seemed to be more in control of the situation than me, but with some coaching from Sensei Bob the King of Kingie catching, we boated a solid 68cm Kingie.

We then headed to another location, top secret spot, and dropped anchor. Yakkas were deployed and we waited. After a while off went a rod and another Kingies made it on board, 65.1cm so into the icebox it went. Interestingly both fish were hooked on the stinger, not the main hook. Shortly after that we were moved on by the water police, apparently the Sail GP boats wanted to come through and we were in a restricted area.

So we then headed to our last spot on the Western side of the Harbor Bridge. Unfortunately that was the end of the catching, we trolled around for a while but could not entice a hit, even though we were marking what looked like good fish on the sounder. So it was time to head back to the ramp and call it a day. We had 2 nice King Fish on board so even though it had been hard work we did succeed in catching our target species and we are all looking forward to a nice King Fish dinner.

When we got back to the ramp I finally discovered why we have been fighting so hard to catch fish, Someone, no names mentioned, had a banana with them on the boat and all fishermen know that will scare fish away 🙂 🙂

      

A day out with these 2 is a great fishing experience, swapping stories, discussing techniques and generally figuring out how we were going to get the fish to bite. Then traveling around the wonderful Sydney Harbor on Barrycudda an excellent fishing boat. (it's for sale if anyone is after a really well set up fishing/family boat).   
Can't wait for the next trip. 🙂

Tight lines all and Merry Christmas to everyone.

Gordo

EDIT
PS, just had King-fish fillets lightly sprinkled with Cajun spices and pan fried in butter and olive oil. They were delicious. 🙂 

 

Edited December 16, 2021 by GordoRetired

[Isaac Ct]

Great stuff mate, sounds like a pretty nice day. 

[Yowie]

At least you managed a couple of legal kingies.

Zoran once took me to his secret yakka place - it was so secret I caught the only yakka there, the other yakkas were not told about this secret spot. 

[Pickles]

An honour and a pleasure to spend the day with you champions. It was indeed a hard day on the water, but you saved the day Gordo landing both the Kingies that came aboard and suggesting the spot that produced the live bait.

 

[big Neil]

Well that was a quality report. More than anything it emphasises the point that the fish have the last word. If they don't want to play, even the collective experience of 3 gun anglers is inadequate. Great to see that you did manage to get a couple to come on board. Out of curiosity, what was the water temp?

I'm sure you will all be keen to give it another crack and turn things in your favour... maybe leave the bananas at home Bob? (LOL).

Tight lines next time, bn

[GoingFishing]

Great report fellas. Sounds like it was a fun day in the water !

My theory about the yakkaz is that they are best targetted before and just after sunrise.

They become very finicky after that.

[masterfisho7]

Top report well done lads 

[zmk1962]

Here's a short video of the action: 

Cheers Zoran

[zmk1962]

13 hours ago, GordoRetired said:

After out last trip out bagging out on Flathead Zoran and I wanted a lesson from the King of Kingies, Sensei Bob.  So a plan was hatched. It was decided that I needed to get my passport out and travel to the wilds of Western Sydney to meet the boys at Ermington Boat Ramp at 5.30am and we would hit the Kingie spots. So I was up at 4.00am, packed lunch and headed west to meet the boys.

Just after 5.30 the boat was launched and we were ready to go.

We had an enjoyable cruise up the Parramatta river up to the main Harbor with Barrycuda sitting effortlessly at a steady 55-60kph most of the way, it was my first time along those waters which made it interesting.

As we were targeting Kingies it was essential that we get some live bait so we hit the first spot for Yakkas, one of my burley bombs was deployed and we watched as a nice steady stream of burley drifted out the back of Barrycuda. At this stage we were supposed to see thousands of Yakkas eager to jump on our bait rigs but they refused to play the game. 20 minutes later, I don't think we had landed one Yakka, it was time to try Bob's 'special' spot. I would tell you where it is but if I did Bob would probably send a hit man to take out me and my family, so mum's the word. 🙂
Arrive at the second spot and in goes another bag of burley. We then waited eagerly for the Yakkas to come out to play. Hum, something wrong here as the Yakkas just did not want to cooperate. After a while it was time to head to a highly recommended spot, used by none other than the famous Fishabout tours. This one must be spectacular we surly can not fail to get Yakkas here..... Wrong... Nothing.

So after some persuading from Zoran and me Bob agreed to let us go and try off Balmoral. So we get to our 4th spot of the morning, burley in and hey presto, there are Yakkas at the back of the boat. That was the easy part, getting them to take our baits was not, we tried jigs, hand-lines with unweighted hooks, hand-lines with weighted hooks, unweighted hooks off rods, you name it we tried it. Over the next hour we did actually manage to get a decent supply of Yakkas but I do not think I have worked so hard to get bait ever. 
As a bonus Bob did land a nice Bream that took a liking to his live bait rig.

By now it was mid morning, Bob suggested that we head up to Long Reef but with the forecast Southerly Zoran though it best to head South so that we would be running with the winds on the way back, it was due to start blowing around lunchtime. So we snuck out around South Head and headed towards Bondi. So much for the wind picking up around lunchtime, we got no more than a mile or 2 from the heads and after dropping off the back of some vicious chop a team decision was made to see if we could find Kings in the Harbor. Time to about turn and head back inside.

We started the hunt in near Watsons Bay, Yakkas were rigged using a combination of Single hook through the nose and a 2 hook rig with one through the nose and a stinger hooked in near the tail. This was when Bob got careless, Single hook through the nose and he started to keep loosing his Yakkas. They were there one minute and gone the next. Tricky little buggers getting off like that.

Fortunately we had a rod down with the double hook set up and after a while trolling and drifting around we got a solid hook up. There is a video but I can't get it off my phone so hopefully Zoran will share it in the comments. I was fishing 50lb braid with quite a lot of drag but the fish seemed to be more in control of the situation than me, but with some coaching from Sensei Bob the King of Kingie catching, we boated a solid 68cm Kingie.

We then headed to another location, top secret spot, and dropped anchor. Yakkas were deployed and we waited. After a while off went a rod and another Kingies made it on board, 65.1cm so into the icebox it went. Interestingly both fish were hooked on the stinger, not the main hook. Shortly after that we were moved on by the water police, apparently the Sail GP boats wanted to come through and we were in a restricted area.

So we then headed to our last spot on the Western side of the Harbor Bridge. Unfortunately that was the end of the catching, we trolled around for a while but could not entice a hit, even though we were marking what looked like good fish on the sounder. So it was time to head back to the ramp and call it a day. We had 2 nice King Fish on board so even though it had been hard work we did succeed in catching our target species and we are all looking forward to a nice King Fish dinner.

When we got back to the ramp I finally discovered why we have been fighting so hard to catch fish, Someone, no names mentioned, had a banana with them on the boat and all fishermen know that will scare fish away 🙂 🙂

      

A day out with these 2 is a great fishing experience, swapping stories, discussing techniques and generally figuring out how we were going to get the fish to bite. Then traveling around the wonderful Sydney Harbor on Barrycudda an excellent fishing boat. (it's for sale if anyone is after a really well set up fishing/family boat).   
Can't wait for the next trip. 🙂

Tight lines all and Merry Christmas to everyone.

Gordo

EDIT
PS, just had King-fish fillets lightly sprinkled with Cajun spices and pan fried in butter and olive oil. They were delicious. 🙂 

 

Thanks for a great day out guys! A special thanks to Bob for sharing his kingie wisdom  and to Gordo  for the top write up. 

Now regarding the write up I must comment with some observations. Firstly there appear to be some serious implications maligning bananas in that report, but as I recall it ... at the first few yakka spots we were using Gordo's secret frozen burley logs.  Now if you recall the last trip - Gordo is partial to mandarins and other citrus on the boat 😳  🙀  - and it was only after we had run out of Gordo's secret burley and resorted to burleying with a frozen pike (that I brought along), some fish frames and other yakka bits, that we started to catch yakkas. Hmmmm  now what exactly was in that burley mix 🍋 🍊 ?    

Running out of Gordo's secret mix also happened to coincide with us now being at Balmoral ... and as I recall it, someone (guess who) had a very very pressing need to be urgently dropped off at the Balmoral public warf for a few minutes !!!!!! Was this a case of yakka spot sabotage all along ? - just to ensure we ended up at Balmoral ?  Hmmmmmm 🤔

12 hours ago, Yowie said:

At least you managed a couple of legal kingies.

Zoran once took me to his secret yakka place - it was so secret I caught the only yakka there, the other yakkas were not told about this secret spot. 

Ahhh here we ago ... another fanciful mis-recollection.

If I may correct your recollection of the said events officer Yowie ... WE followed Jerry to the north head bait grounds but the sea was pounding the rock face  - WE then lead the way to the "Artie" (artificial reef off sydney) - hardly a secret spot . Now officer Yowie, if you continue with promoting this mis-recollection I will be forced to show "the video evidence" that you requested never be show - the said video where someone threw away a perfectly good gem-fish ! Hmmmmm. 

Now in all fairness, I do agree with your recollection that you caught the ONLY yakka - but then again - I note you failed to mention it was caught on a PLASTIC sabiki bait jig !!!!!

Cheers Zoran

[Scratchie]

Great report! What a great collaboration of raiders. Live bait can be like that at times. Temperamental buggers! But alls well that ends well. 
 

cheers scratchie!!!

[Larkin]

Well done guys. A bit of effort, but paid off.

[Rebel]

Super report. Well done.

[Yowie]

4 hours ago, zmk1962 said:

Ahhh here we ago ... another fanciful mis-recollection.

If I may correct your recollection of the said events officer Yowie ... WE followed Jerry to the north head bait grounds but the sea was pounding the rock face  - WE then lead the way to the "Artie" (artificial reef off sydney) - hardly a secret spot . Now officer Yowie, if you continue with promoting this mis-recollection I will be forced to show "the video evidence" that you requested never be show - the said video where someone threw away a perfectly good gem-fish ! Hmmmmm. 

Now in all fairness, I do agree with your recollection that you caught the ONLY yakka - but then again - I note you failed to mention it was caught on a PLASTIC sabiki bait jig !!!!!

Cheers Zoran

1.  I did not throw away any fish, gemfish or otherwise. It fell off the hook.

2.  Yes I did catch a yakka, the one and only one, on a silly piece of plastic, but I had fishy fingers when I touched the jigs before dropping them over, so technically, it was caught with BAIT.

[GordoRetired]

6 hours ago, zmk1962 said:

 Now if you recall the last trip - Gordo is partial to mandarins and other citrus on the boat 😳  🙀  - and it was only after we had run out of Gordo's secret burley and resorted to burleying with a frozen pike (that I brought along), some fish frames and other yakka bits, that we started to catch yakkas. Hmmmm  now what exactly was in that burley mix 🍋 🍊 ?    

Running out of Gordo's secret mix also happened to coincide with us now being at Balmoral ... and as I recall it, someone (guess who) had a very very pressing need to be urgently dropped off at the Balmoral public warf for a few minutes !!!!!! Was this a case of yakka spot sabotage all along ? - just to ensure we ended up at Balmoral ?  Hmmmmmm 🤔

Ahhh here we ago ... another fanciful mis-recollection.

Cheers Zoran

In my defense your honor I promise that there was no citrus in the burley, a bit of bolognese sauce maybe, but no oranges, and on this trip I only bought apples with me. As for the pressing need, I seem to remember that Bob wanted a coffee 🤪😁

Top day Mate. 🙂

[zmk1962]

3 hours ago, Yowie said:

1.  I did not throw away any fish, gemfish or otherwise. It fell off the hook.

2.  Yes I did catch a yakka, the one and only one, on a silly piece of plastic, but I had fishy fingers when I touched the jigs before dropping them over, so technically, it was caught with BAIT.

1. Hmmmm... it definitely looked like you tossed it when you saw it had a lumo plastic squid in its mouth 🤣

2. Wait a minute ... we didn't touch bait or catch a fish yet ... very fish story about fishy fingers !     BUT ...did you actually admit you caught a fish on plastic !!!!!  WOW 😱 😱 😱 

Donna ( @mrsswordfisherman), I vote we create a new badge ... a YOWIE badge to be handed out to anyone that catches their first fish on plastic. We need to absolutely make sure this momentous occasion lives on.

Cheers Zoran 

[zmk1962]

1 hour ago, GordoRetired said:

In my defense your honor I promise that there was no citrus in the burley, a bit of bolognese sauce maybe, but no oranges, and on this trip I only bought apples with me. As for the pressing need, I seem to remember that Bob wanted a coffee 🤪😁

Top day Mate. 🙂

Ok .. I will admit someone agreed to a coffee to help justify the detour ... 

Cheers Z

[big Neil]

I figured out why you had an "average" day on the water. Bob didn't have his lucky hat on. bn

[61 crusher]

Great read & report of the day out on Barrycuda 😎 considering the tough conditions you guys did well & succeeded not only in getting yakkas but also the target species. 
Love the banter on this thread 😆

That 4th photo looks like @Pickles went out fishing with a couple of little munchkins🤣

Looks like you guys had a fun day out 👍

Edited December 18, 2021 by 61 crusher

[Pickles]

Little Munchkins they are, but blinking good blokes.

[zmk1962]

2 hours ago, 61 crusher said:

That 4th photo looks like @Pickles went out fishing with a couple of little munchkins🤣

That photo accurately depicts the relative king fishing knowledge between the " master sensei" and the "grass hoppers".

Cheers Z

PS - Dietz .... regarding munchkin size ... people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones ! 🤔🤣

[GordoRetired]

3 hours ago, 61 crusher said:

Looks like you guys had a fun day out 👍

Would be hard not to have a fun day with those blokes. 🙂

[61 crusher]

4 hours ago, GordoRetired said:

Would be hard not to have a fun day with those blokes. 🙂

Agree totally, I’ve had the pleasure 

 

6 hours ago, Pickles said:

Little Munchkins they are, but blinking good blokes

 I’m of munchkin stature to I believe when I become a grandpa I’ve been informed I’m going to be called Papa Smurf 😂, haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Gordo though 

 

5 hours ago, zmk1962 said:

That photo accurately depicts the relative king fishing knowledge between the " master sensei" and the "grass hoppers".

Love it, Big Bob the …“Kingy Wisperer” 

 

5 hours ago, zmk1962 said:

Dietz .... regarding munchkin size ... people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones ! 🤔🤣

As said above,I’m vertically challenged happy & proud to be one, a munchkin that is  👍😄

Edited December 18, 2021 by 61 crusher