Not too late to the party - Sydney pelagics

[lhan]

Hi raiders,

Didn't fish much for the past month or so. Yesterday I was lucky enough to get the chance and give it a real go down to the harbour for a proper shore jigging session - it's raining I know but they say "grab the chance and seize the moment". Grabbed my Shimano Hardrocker BB S83ML+ paired with Daiwa Fuego LT 4000 with 15lb braid, I was planning to get some... whatever I can get.

Arrived at North Sydney at noon, it's been quiet for an hour or so, tried quick normal jigging, one pitch jerk, and various speed retrieve with normal jigs and blade jigs. With the recent burst of reports catching tailor, I got a bit frustrated I didn't even hook one. I decided to switch to one pitch slow jerk jumping around the bottom - maybe it's daytime so fish are not that active. Surprise surprise my third cast with a 20g slow jig, rod bent nicely. It didn't run at first so I was thinking it's just my good old friend flatty. I set the hook again to reduce the chance of losing it from flatty's iconic headshake while it wake up somehow. OMG it's the familiar feeling of that unstoppable strength and endurance, it is a king for sure. And judging from my reels' screaming, it's a decent one. It was a good fight for a minute or so until the line gave up - leader is gone so it definitely rubbed my braid to some structure. Really disappointed since it feels much more achievable this time with my heavier setup. The last two encounters are all with my bream gear, I did feel I had a chance for a while.

Carefully re-tied 20lb leader with my shaking hands, I went back to the game and snagged 2 jigs due to careless bottom jigging. Tied a cheap one thinking give it a final go since the rain is getting bigger. Still stick to the bottom most of the time but with a steady retrieve when it's close to the bank to avoid snag. After a few times, I hooked on sth - it wasn't a smash or whatever but it moved quite a lot. It just feels like a undersized bream using bream gear. Reeling it in for a closer look, I saw some silver flashes - trev or tailor I was thinking. Suddenly it gave a few really good rush, not on par with what I had with the king but still it's an athletic fish. The reel gave some line out but it's far from dangerous. It turns out it's a frigate (NOT a ~~mac tuna~~, thanks for pointing out @Green Hornet), my first and naturally a PB 😆. The ease of getting fish really puzzled me how big the king I hooked earlier is. But on the other hand, I do have a good feeling that even medium gear nowadays is quite capable for the harbour for landbased fishos, and it's great fun!

Bleed it on site and gave it to one of my fishing buddy who I donuted a lot together with, hopefully it's a good encouragement (sarcasm that's actually what I mean hahaha) to him.

I knew it was late to the party but glad I can still catch at least during my first pelagic season here in Sydney.

Thanks for reading and tight lines,

Henry

Special thanks to @Little_Flatty and @DerekD always open to my spam and giving good advice. It's impossible for me to achieve what I did today without your great knowledge and mentoring.

Edited May 4 by lhan

[Little_Flatty]

Nice one there @lhan. I’ve never shore jigged in my life. Shame about the kings. I’m 0-2 so far with kings on lures. Very hard one to win!

[lhan]

1 minute ago, Little_Flatty said:

Nice one there @lhan. I’ve never shore jigged in my life. Shame about the kings. I’m 0-2 so far with kings on lures. Very hard one to win!

Thanks @Little_Flatty. If you ignore all the mkt bs and give shore jigging a go, bream/flathead gear with micro jigs work well in the parra for flathead/tailor/trev - it covers a lot more ground than SP/hardbodies. I even had bream biting my small-profile jigs so it definitely works. There are some retailers really pushing hard to finesse this kind of fishing style but it's actually pretty easy to start and very effective at the same time. Good gears feel better for sure but it's not a must.

[Green Hornet]

Nice going though a shame losing the king.

Could be just the photo, but are you sure your fish isn’t a big frigate mackerel?
They look similar but mac tuna have a few dark spots around the pectoral fin.

[lhan]

3 hours ago, Green Hornet said:

Nice going though a shame losing the king.

Could be just the photo, but are you sure your fish isn’t a big frigate mackerel?
They look similar but mac tuna have a few dark spots around the pectoral fin.

I think you're 100% right. Double checked my photo and cross checked on search engines - it's a frigate mackerel for sure. Thank you!

[faker]

23 hours ago, lhan said:

Hi raiders,

Didn't fish much for the past month or so. Yesterday I was lucky enough to get the chance and give it a real go down to the harbour for a proper shore jigging session - it's raining I know but they say "grab the chance and seize the moment". Grabbed my Shimano Hardrocker BB S83ML+ paired with Daiwa Fuego LT 4000 with 15lb braid, I was planning to get some... whatever I can get.

Arrived at North Sydney at noon, it's been quiet for an hour or so, tried quick normal jigging, one pitch jerk, and various speed retrieve with normal jigs and blade jigs. With the recent burst of reports catching tailor, I got a bit frustrated I didn't even hook one. I decided to switch to one pitch slow jerk jumping around the bottom - maybe it's daytime so fish are not that active. Surprise surprise my third cast with a 20g slow jig, rod bent nicely. It didn't run at first so I was thinking it's just my good old friend flatty. I set the hook again to reduce the chance of losing it from flatty's iconic headshake while it wake up somehow. OMG it's the familiar feeling of that unstoppable strength and endurance, it is a king for sure. And judging from my reels' screaming, it's a decent one. It was a good fight for a minute or so until the line gave up - leader is gone so it definitely rubbed my braid to some structure. Really disappointed since it feels much more achievable this time with my heavier setup. The last two encounters are all with my bream gear, I did feel I had a chance for a while.

Carefully re-tied 20lb leader with my shaking hands, I went back to the game and snagged 2 jigs due to careless bottom jigging. Tied a cheap one thinking give it a final go since the rain is getting bigger. Still stick to the bottom most of the time but with a steady retrieve when it's close to the bank to avoid snag. After a few times, I hooked on sth - it wasn't a smash or whatever but it moved quite a lot. It just feels like a undersized bream using bream gear. Reeling it in for a closer look, I saw some silver flashes - trev or tailor I was thinking. Suddenly it gave a few really good rush, not on par with what I had with the king but still it's an athletic fish. The reel gave some line out but it's far from dangerous. It turns out it's a frigate (NOT a ~~mac tuna~~, thanks for pointing out @Green Hornet), my first and naturally a PB 😆. The ease of getting fish really puzzled me how big the king I hooked earlier is. But on the other hand, I do have a good feeling that even medium gear nowadays is quite capable for the harbour for landbased fishos, and it's great fun!

Bleed it on site and gave it to one of my fishing buddy who I donuted a lot together with, hopefully it's a good encouragement (sarcasm that's actually what I mean hahaha) to him.

I knew it was late to the party but glad I can still catch at least during my first pelagic season here in Sydney.

Thanks for reading and tight lines,

Henry

Special thanks to @Little_Flatty and @DerekD always open to my spam and giving good advice. It's impossible for me to achieve what I did today without your great knowledge and mentoring.

U and I need to have a rock fishing session or shore jiggingsession.  But 15lb is dodgy on rocks. I run at least 20 for light perlagics and go to 50lb. Hope you have gear. 

 

 

[lhan]

2 hours ago, faker said:

U and I need to have a rock fishing session or shore jiggingsession.  But 15lb is dodgy on rocks. I run at least 20 for light perlagics and go to 50lb. Hope you have gear. 

 

 

sure thing mate. I'll message you when I got the chance next time! My heaviest line is PE2.5 (37lbs), no skull drag but it should be fine with a bit of luck

[Pickles]

Thanks for sharing @lhan, you’ve got good mentoring and it paid off. The Bonnie’s certainly give you a run for your money, but Kingies more so. But sooo much fun when the rats and hoods come out to play.

[faker]

19 hours ago, lhan said:

sure thing mate. I'll message you when I got the chance next time! My heaviest line is PE2.5 (37lbs), no skull drag but it should be fine with a bit of luck

2.5 is good enough. But need to up leader for sure to at least 40