Larkin Posted July 5, 2023 Share Posted July 5, 2023 (edited) Gday raiders - headed out today with a couple of my jet ski mates for a livebaiting session. Loaded up on livies over on the artificial reef in Yarra Bay and & headed up Maroubra way. Plan was to livebait the reef bottom for trag, kings, dory & whatever else we could find. I Ended up keeping 5 good sized Trag ranging from 50cm to 62cm. Had 2-3 more hook ups on really good fish but lost on the way up. One felt like a good king and the other two really good trags - they were on large yakkas 20-25cm - so decent fish - pulled the hooks. Also caught 2 small snapper - a couple of cm over legal, that went back. Mate below wasn’t having any luck, then out of the blue he starts yelling out. Fight was on and landed his first king ever - and what a whopper for his first Kingfish! Went 110cm and 10.1kg! My other mate got a nice 75cm + Frigate/Mack (guessing it’s a frigate as no spots) on a slow jig, 2 good size trags and a grey morwong. All in all, conditions today were great out there and the fish were on the bite! Edited July 5, 2023 by Larkin 20 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XD351 Posted July 5, 2023 Share Posted July 5, 2023 Nice fish ! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted July 5, 2023 Share Posted July 5, 2023 Good work there Chris, nice bag of fish. The tuna has a relatively long pectoral fin, which may indicate a frigate. No spots below the pectoral fin, though I have caught small mack tuna with the faintess of spots. Frigates reported to grow to 60cm, so this one is big. See what the others have to say. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zmk1962 Posted July 5, 2023 Share Posted July 5, 2023 (edited) Excellent catch Chris - beats my efforts of last week hands down 😞 cheers Zoran Edited July 5, 2023 by zmk1962 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankS Posted July 5, 2023 Share Posted July 5, 2023 My thinking would lean towards a Mack Tuna , the spots fade with death, the rear dorsal shape gives it away for me. and of coarse the size. Great catch and that's a really nice Kingie. Frank 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larkin Posted July 5, 2023 Author Share Posted July 5, 2023 5 hours ago, XD351 said: Nice fish ! Thanks XD! was a really nice day on the water and some good fish were caught! wish my first kingy was like that lol. 1 hour ago, Yowie said: Good work there Chris, nice bag of fish. The tuna has a relatively long pectoral fin, which may indicate a frigate. No spots below the pectoral fin, though I have caught small mack tuna with the faintess of spots. Frigates reported to grow to 60cm, so this one is big. See what the others have to say. Thanks Dave! Was trying for dory as I’ve heard a few have been catching them lately on the deep reefs with livies. Very happy with the trag - one of my favourite eating fish! My first thought was Mack Tuna - but then noticed I couldn’t see any spots. I think another way to tell them apart is the space between the two dorsals. 1 hour ago, zmk1962 said: Excellent catch Chris - beats my efforts of last week hands down 😞 cheers Zoran Thanks Zoran - conditions were really good - drift speed was perfect and fish were on. Tried something different by live-baiting down low. 3 way shogun crane swivel 1.8m 20lb line to 6oz or 8oz snapper lead. Short 50cm 50lb line to 7/0 live bait hook. Keeps the livie in strike zone off the bottom while on the drift. Lost a few sinkers, but that’s why I use the 20lb break away line - saves the rest of the gear. 22 minutes ago, frankS said: My thinking would lean towards a Mack Tuna , the spots fade with death, the rear dorsal shape gives it away for me. and of coarse the size. Great catch and that's a really nice Kingie. Frank Thanks Frank - mate was very happy. Can’t beat that for a first kingy! That was my first thought - Mack Tuna, but thrown by the lack of spots. That esky is 70cm wide, so probably pushing 80cm to the tip of the tail. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big Neil Posted July 5, 2023 Share Posted July 5, 2023 A great report of a very successful day on the water with some mates. Fabulous first Kingfish. The clarity of your photos is exceptional, were they taken with a phone or camera? Cheers, bn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larkin Posted July 6, 2023 Author Share Posted July 6, 2023 17 minutes ago, big Neil said: A great report of a very successful day on the water with some mates. Fabulous first Kingfish. The clarity of your photos is exceptional, were they taken with a phone or camera? Cheers, bn Thanks Neil! I was full on cheering for him - could see he had a big fish on - yelled out to him to keep the tension, pump and wind. Hook fell out of its mouth the moment it came on board - luckily he kept the tension on. First photo is off my go pro - it films in 4K. the next 3 photos are taken on my iPhone 12 Pro. Bottom two pics are from my mates. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebel Posted July 6, 2023 Share Posted July 6, 2023 Top report & photos. Great haul. Nice Kingie. Well done Team. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac Ct Posted July 6, 2023 Share Posted July 6, 2023 Great team effort there Larkin, well done. Cracking fish, good feeds to be had 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenno64 Posted July 6, 2023 Share Posted July 6, 2023 That is a cracking day out! Nice trag and that king of your mate's is epic...what gear did he get it on? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larkin Posted July 6, 2023 Author Share Posted July 6, 2023 8 hours ago, Rebel said: Top report & photos. Great haul. Nice Kingie. Well done Team. Thanks Rebel - it was a great day out 2 hours ago, Isaac Ct said: Great team effort there Larkin, well done. Cracking fish, good feeds to be had Thanks Isaac - it helps when there’s a few of us as we spread out and communicate via handhelds. If one finds the fish, we let each other know. 1 hour ago, jenno64 said: That is a cracking day out! Nice trag and that king of your mate's is epic...what gear did he get it on? Thanks Rob! He got it on a saltist jig rod pe4-6 40lb braid/50lb leader. Baitrunner 6000 reel - said the reel was crap and struggled with it. Under the strain it was warping/flexing making it very hard to reel up. Funny thing he had both a Stella and Saragossa set up with him too, but put the livie on the Baitrunner not thinking he’d get a fish of that size. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kantong Posted July 6, 2023 Share Posted July 6, 2023 cracker of a session, well done! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bessell1955 Posted July 7, 2023 Share Posted July 7, 2023 What a top Kingie! Well done. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larkin Posted July 8, 2023 Author Share Posted July 8, 2023 On 7/7/2023 at 8:48 AM, kantong said: cracker of a session, well done! Thanks Kantong - been getting some decent fish out there lately! 23 hours ago, bessell1955 said: What a top Kingie! Well done. thanks Bessel! been trying to find those big winter kings! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yelmarb Posted July 8, 2023 Share Posted July 8, 2023 That's an impressive haul of fish, well done! What sort of depth were you at? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larkin Posted July 12, 2023 Author Share Posted July 12, 2023 On 7/8/2023 at 6:08 PM, yelmarb said: That's an impressive haul of fish, well done! What sort of depth were you at? Hi Yelmarb, This was around 60m on reef Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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