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It’s time to wish all raiders and families a very Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year. I want to say a big thank you to my moderators here for helping keep this forum the best, most reliable and informative forum in Australia. Thanks @Scratchie @Rah @dirvin21 @Blood Knot for leading our community - always a fabulous effort and I appreciate you all greatly. A mention to @Blackfish who moderates the Aquarium. To all the great members in this community. There are way too many to thank individually. Raiders know who to go to for information and help and these members are who they go to. Members ARE fishraider forum for without you all and your reports, comments and pictures there would be no fishraider. Let’s hope for a great 2020 and that the drought is broken soon. No more fires and some great fishing adventures. Fondest wishes Donna (Community Manager)

Fished Sat and Sun on the long weekend in and around port Stephens, launching from good old tea gardens. Started early sat by getting some live slimies and searching for bait balls inshore, along with 3000 others, with the slow trolled Slimies finally paying off around 11am with a solid hookup on a bait ball about 3km south of Broughton in 40m above a reef holding bait A quick but intense fight saw a female mahi mahi (could not find the bull😢) at 120cm and around 10-12 kg on board. Have caught mahi mahi else where this size but beat our port Stephens best by about 80cm haha, was definitely a surprise this close to Broughton Sunday the wind picked up, no game fish, but still managed a decent bag of blue spot Flatties, 11 between 45 and 60cm in close around 45m on cut baits. Very satisfying to get a decent feed this time of year with all the traffic. Bring on the marlin the next few weeks 🤞🤞🤞

Headed out yesterday with @Woodsy1 and step son! Smacking day out there!

Gday Raiders Thought it might be useful to put together a short discussion on my experiences bottom bashing off Sydney, hopefully to help other raiders improve their results and catch some fish ! Bottom bashing is a very easy and common method of fishing. Most of my fishing involves bottom bashing, and it can be a very productive way to fish. I certainly wont say that i know everything, i am sure there is a wealth of knowledge out there that can add to the info below and alot of it may vary. But i can say that what i have outlined below works for me, and the way that i fish on my boat. Location Probably the most important aspect of bottom bashing is the location (DUH). Of course one would say thats very common sense, but very often i hear "fish on the 50m line infront of that lighthouse" or "Line up that headland and this that on the 30m line". As such it does appear that some fishos dont really spend a tremendous amount of time actually researching where they are about to drop their baits. It therefore doesn't surprise me that some people will land on the fish by chance, and others wont. I am sure that this advice stemmed from the days where fishfinders and electronic GPS didn't exist, and this worked OK back then and really there was no other choice. The reality is we now have access to a wealth of information online and GPS chart plotters that can tell us exactly where we are. Certain parts off the seabed off Sydney can be perpetual sandy deserts, and often setting up anchor or a drift an extra 200m away from the reef/structure or kelp beds can be the difference between catching some fish, and not. My advice is to do as much study, and as much trial and error to find the locations where the fish are likely to be. This requires a combination of online research, reading and then trialing outside. For the first year or so i had very hit and miss results, however as the years have gone by and my database of locations has increased, i more often than not will find the fish on at least one of the spots which are known to produce. In terms of what to look for i would suggest sandy or gravel bottoms adjacent to reef/structure & kelp beds. I have caught fish seemingly in the middle of no where with no structure or reef in sight, but this is normally the exception and not the norm. As an example in the image below you will see that there is a lot of sandy bottoms (Orange) interspersed among hard/reef bottom (Brown) east of bluefish point, the sandy bottoms between those reefs would be the places i would be looking for. A decent chart plotter should be able to show you the reef ridges and pinnacles and allow you to mentally formulate a 3D image of the seabed in the area. Once you find a patch of fish, mark the spot, drift over it again or if your biceps are big enough, drop the anchor !! A good test of time for me is about 30 minutes. If i haven't had any strikes in about 30 minutes its safe to say there is nobody home. This is of course redundant if your method is to anchor, burley and wait for the fish to come to you. Bottom line, you will always catch something, but if you want to produce good consistent results, spend the time and energy to learn the underwater seabed topography, where the reefs are, get a handle on what reefs fish best in what conditions, currents and the like. Drift Speed & Direction For me, the next most important aspect of bottom bashing is your drift speed. This can be rather complicated as the right answer for you will take into account the type of boat you have, the depth your fishing, the type of rigs your using and the conditions on the day. Whatever your circumstances are, the two most important things to consider are: 1. Your drift should be slow enough to allow the lead/weight to hit the bottom and, 2. Your drift should be slow enough to allow prospecting fish to see, inspect and attack your baits or lures. (ie, no point having 9 ounce leads but drifting at 4km/hr!) The ideal drift speed for me is between 1km/hr and 1.5km/hr. Any slower and i find that we dont cover enough ground, and any faster i find our hookup/catch rate declines. When bottom bashing Always have a sea anchor on board, appropriately sized for your boat. In respect of drift direction, and circling back to the earlier discussion on locations, my ideal drift is one that travels parallel with the reef structure, but note this is not always possible due to current and wind. If a parallel drift is not possible, i prefer a drift starting about 200-300m away and drifting towards the reef/structure. Just keep your eye on the chart plotter as i have lost many rigs to the reef by drifting straight over it. Rigs My go to rig for bottom bashing is the humble paternoster with two droppers. I usually allow about 70cm from the lead to the first dropper, with a size 5/0 or sometimes 4/0 octopus hook. The next dropper can be anywhere between 50cm to 80cm further away from the first one. Another rig i have been trialing and found to be successful is a hybrid paternoster/snapper rig. This involves a 1.5m trace from the lead to a single dropper. The dropper is extended at about 30cm in length and has two 5/0 octopus hooks. This will allow a whole pilchard to be snelled with a half hitch over the tail, or even a larger fish strip of about 15cm in length to be rigged. I have found this rig to be quite deadly on the snapper. Another rig which is also good for snapper is the snapper rig (DUH), which essentially involves a ball sinker in varying weights straight to two snelled hooks. Again this will allow a whole pillie to be presented with a half hitch over the tail. The snapper rig is better used when at anchor and with a burley trail out. For water below 30m in depth i usually use a 3 or 4 ounce lead and for water over 30m in depth i usually increase to 5 or 6 ounce lead. Some things to be mindful of: 1. A well presented bait can go a long way to enticing a bite 2. Whatever bait you are using, always expose your hooks. Fish will very often swallow a bait, try to swim away and then spit it back out. An exposed hook will increase your chance of hook up. 3. Size 4/0 and 5/0 hooks are best, for larger baits you could even go larger. I also like to have multiple rods out, all with different configuration in terms of rigs, hook size, bait ,dropper distance separation and the like. If i find one configuration producing more than others on the day, we would generally swap the others over gradually. Bait Mix it up, fish can be inexplicably choosy preferring one bait over another on certain days. For an average bottom bashing session i will have a mix of pillies, squid and prawns. Medium to larger prawns work best, especially in deep water. If a sargeant baker, pike, barracoutta, slimey or yakka come onboard as bycatch, they make excellent fresh strip baits when filleted and presented. Freshly caught and/or salted bonito is also very good bait. You can always try a soft plastic too even on the paternoster rig. Again, i will usually have a different bait on each rod, and keep an eye on which baits are producing, if one is producing more than the other i will usually use that bait more or until it runs out. I put all my baits in an esky with ice to make sure whatever i dont use on the day is still frozen or semi frozen by the time i get home. Dont forget, If your fishing at anchor a burley trail is mandatory !!! Thanks So there you have it raiders, i hope this has been informative, and that it will help you all catch some more fish !. Thanks for reading Sam

Early start and up to Broughton this morning. Fished the southern side of the island with 7 inch plastics until 1pm. Swell was about 2m and water 19 degrees. I put in about a thousand casts and Rodney(the rod holder) got the only hookup on a snapper fish at about 11am on high tide. The fish went 59cm and was caught at The Boundary - thanks for the spot Scratchie!

Had a flick Sunday night. Land based, Sydney Harbour. Fished from 8:30pm through until midnight. I managed 2, and dropped one. Not the biggest, not the smallest. Bait used with live yakkas (which were ESPECIALLY finicky...). Smaller model fought very well - thought it was a much nicer fish than what eventuated - turns out it was foul hooked, hence me thinking it weighed a tonne. Bigger model fight was odd, to say the least. Thought i had a big squid / octopus / cuttle on the end of my line, so played him super super light (thinking it wasn't actually hooked!). Got him to the pylons, see colour before he realises he is hooked. Few darting runs, and a few nervous moments later we got him up. Happy days.

Hi Raiders, Been a while since I posted, main reason no fish I guess, so makes it hard to do report. Saturday before last I ventured out to beautiful Broughton Island with my son, full of hope and eager to get onto some fish and was really confident we'd get onto a few, but as per the norm we had an absolute shocker of a day and didn't land anything, so naturally after so many failed trips of late I was down in the dumps and considering selling my boat and my fishing gear and just be done with it. While I was out I had a call from Scratchie as he'd seen I was out and was checking in to see how we'd gone. I told him we'd had a crap day and that I was done with fishing... Jeff said Noooooo don't give up mate, you just need a couple of good sessions to pick you up and go again, "how about we organise a day out and I'll show you a few spots and techniques that I stick to, that produces me fish more so than not"? - Scratchie didn't have to ask me twice! So through the week Jeff checked the weather, swell and wind, all was in our favor so got a call from Jeff on the Wednesday night, and we planned for a morning sesh on Sunday and then plan to be back in by lunch... sounds simple enough hahaha not with me!! Told Geoff I needed to look at my bearings to make sure they were doing OK as I hadn't checked them in nearly 12 months. So Saturday I start to pull off one side on a trailer I'd only just bought just under 12 months ago, and was shocked - disappointed and p@ssed right off by the state of it in such a short time, but this is a post I need to put up for others so that they don't buy this particular brand - but let me just say anyone looking at a Spitfire trailers, please PM me first and I'll fill you in on them and tell you what mine looks like in under 12 months!! But back to the story, so basically I pull the right side off the bearing is OK by the looks of it and just needs a clean and a repack, got it done, start the next side and it looks like milk and needs to be inspected closely, so I get started on it late Saturday arvo as the young bloke had footy in mid-morning, but I get started, this side is worse than the other for some reason, the hub and bolts are rusted quite bad and you'd think the trailer was 8 years old not less than one! So while trying to take the brake assembly off I brake a bolt, it's now I think 5 - 5.30 on Saturday evening and I'm no hope of getting it done in time to go out fishing early the next morning, so I call Scratchie and fill him in - he laughs because most times we've been out, I've either forgot something or lost something while on the water. I tell Jeff I'll be up early to go get a replacement bolt, and if finished early enough I'll buzz him and see if we can salvage a trip out. So get the boat all done and by now its 9ish in the morning, I call Jeff and say mate are you still keen? to which he replies I was just casting in my pool hahaha, he says lets go get'em and refresh a few things for ya. Meet Jeff at the boat ramp around 10am, the bay looked a bit choppy to be honest and the temperature was a bit cool from the wind, I was worried he might pull the pin and say we'd missed the window, but Jeff said the wind would be dropping off and we'll be sweet, so off we went. First stop was to grab some bait, so we stopped off at cabbage tree island to grab some livies, sounder showed a heap of bait but most turned out to be garfish that were absolutely everywhere, skipping on top of the water and nudging the bait jig but we could only manage to get one and Jeff wanted yakkas and more so slimies, so we moved to another spot and Jeff found what he was looking for yakkas and plenty of slimies! Got what we needed and then hit up the first spot. Once we got there Jeff basically threw all of my leader and braid away hahaha - that's rubbish, don't buy that again, that leader is crap, use this stuff, then he tied my leader to my braid, and then my leader to my jighead with a few nice looking knots, went through where he positioned the boat and why he did it that way, what he was looking for on the sounder, the structure where the bait was holding up etc. So once we were set up, well Jeff was he had all of his gear rigged and ready to go like any good fisherman haha, so once he set my gear up :-) he said lets get into them! Well you wouldn't read about it, my first cast was in the water for a few seconds and bang, I'm on! Couple of nice head shakes and a short tussle and I pull in a nice 40 cm red. I no longer had the hook out of its mouth and Jeff's livie that he puts about the back goes off, it bends his rod over, it's a decent fish, real decent, Jeff gets a little line in and then loses some, gets some in again and donk, its gone he loses it. While flicking the livie rod goes off again, but this time Jeff calls it for a bonito which it turns out to be, and quite a good sized one too. So after a few more cast in this spot we see the bait has thinned out and the wind has picked up a bit again, so Jeff takes us to another spot to have a crack. Next spot we start our drift and Jeff is getting heaps of hits on a colour change of his plastic but can't seem to hook one, but all of a sudden he thinks he's nailed one I turn around see the bend in the rod, at first Jeff gets a little line on it but then this thing just goes bang and heads straight to the reef and snaps him off! After a few choice words and a look of devastation we continue on for a little and then reset our drift in a spot close by and start again. New drift and I decide to change to the plastic that Jeff is having success with and straight away I hook up but because the fish is swimming at me I didn't set the hook and it spits it out and I miss what I predict is another good size pan red, Jeff says I told ya pull that rod back and set the hook! Yep he did and he was right, I didn't yank it back, so I was a bit dirty on myself, but did what Jeff said he's motto is "just keep casting" so I continue on. About half way through our drift Jeff hooks what looks another good fish. It straight away peels line and Jeff pulls hard and sets the hook, a bit of a battle and this thing is big you can tell it is, at one stage Jeff thought he'd lost it as it seemed to adjust and take a massive dive, he thinks its going to reef him like what happened earlier but persist to let the shimano gear do its thing, he starts to win the battle and then you just see this beautiful big red behemoth start to come to the top. I'm filming the fight but had to stop and grab the net for the big girl, think I would have jumped out and swam back to the mainland if I'd cost him this one after the other 2 big bust off haha. A few high fives and a couple of pics, I was so pumped to see this big thing landed, it was 1 o'clock in the arvo too mind you, was just so pumped to see him land this thing! We start flicking again, Jeff brings in another pannie and keeps getting bumped but not hooking, so with the wind dying right down, we basically have no drift and we decide to have a quick flick for some squid near the island, we only half seriously tried for 10 mins and then decided to drop into a few other spots on the way back and try micro jigging, but the wind had kicked up again and the current got petty strong underneath so we couldn't really get into the strike zone and decided to call it a day. Was a bit windy and choppy heading back in but we cruised back at about 35kms an hour and was back from Broughton to the ramp in about 22 mins. Once back, we beached the boat and by this time the wind had really kicked up, so getting the boat onto a trailer on the ramp was going to be hard on its own, but actually getting it off the sand if you beached it was another! We spotted an older couple struggling to hold their boat and control it in the strong wind, it was beached but turned side on in the strong wind and waves, so it couldn't be moved. Jeff being the great bloke he is was straight over there to help them out, but even with him and old mate they couldn't budge the boat off the sand. We sorted mine out first, got it up out of the way and then helped these guys out, the entire time Jeff talking old mate through what he needed to do so he didn't damage his boat, as he looked like a novice boater with an absolute beautiful boat. After both getting quite wet and sandy we got the boat onto the trailer. To finish off was a top day on the water with a top bloke. Jeff has a real passion for fishing, but an even bigger passion for showing others how to do it too. I personally appreciate the times you have jumped on board with me and the young bloke mate. Nearly 5 years ago I moved up to beautiful Port Stephens, I had a boat and fishing gear, but no clue on how to use either of them. I reached out to you on fishraider and within a week you took me and the young bloke out and got us started. That was the start of me falling in love with offshore fishing and the start of a friendship. Thanks heaps for sharing your knowledge to not only me, but anyone who asks!.... and yes mate ya got the fire in the belly going again!! haha Hopefully we can get out there together again, sooner rather than later. Thanks for reading Raiders, and can't wait to meet a few of you at the Snapper meet up, hope this report fires you all up!! Geoff Pic of Scratchies thumper below, unfortunately I didn't take pics of the others.

G'day raiders, Headed out Anzac Day morning 6am from Drummoyne for a flick around the harbour. We were met by a spectacular sunrise as we stopped at South Head for our first crack at some Squid - a fitting moment to remind us just how lucky we are to enjoy this beautiful country. Things fired up right away as we boated 3 green eyes only to unfortunately drop a few more near the boat. Within the next 5 minutes we got busted off twice by what had to be giant cuttles by the sheer weight and power of the tugs on our 1-3kg set ups. Happy with our quick half hour session we made our away along south head towards bondi with two livies out the back hoping to snare a nice king. Not much action along the coastline so we scooted over to the reef outside north head to see if we could pick up some fish for the table. Fresh squid strips were the order of the day as we got a nice mixed bag of maori/crimson banded wrasse, sargeant bakers, red rock cods, jacket & a nice 55cm grey mowie. A quick few casts of a 3g yamashita live into the wash behind us & we topped off the little session with a beautiful giant cuttle. Much debate over the quality of some of those species on the table but my mate on board was licking his lips. A chef can always see things some of us fishos don't! Another crack at the kings at the centurion wreck was our next point of call. We picked up 5 good size trevs which were sent back before a double hook up of rats on light gear got the blood pumping. Both came in just under at 62cm & 64cm so a sashimi starter was unfortunately off the cards. Two more kings at 60cm and 62cm were landed and sent back into the drink. Boat washed and beers cracked by 3pm as we enjoyed the afternoon and the feed to come. Doesn't get much better than that. A few photos below of our catch & subsequently tasty feed. Cheers, Dan Chef's Table for the night: - steamed wrasse & morwong with chilli, soy, ginger and shallots. - cuttlefish ink linguine with cuttle meat & zucchini flowers - grilled red rock cod in a sea urchin sauce - zuppa di pesce (fish soup) featuring the bakers and jacket with fregola pasta, tomato and some added mussels/vongole

Left the ramp at 5am for 1 mission and 1 mission only, successfully hook a kingi and get it in the boat for my cousins first king(and let him fight it). Grabbed some Pillies on the way to the ramp and as soon as we got there we headed to spot x and gathered some squid, one decent squid in that spot and off we were to another spot, got 6 squid out of that spot and 3 were humungous so we had enough baits for the day. Fished for more squid cause there was still 2hours till high tide and nothing. 2hours later headed to the kingi spot near north head and as soon as we got there every boat was hooked up, dropped a bait in 14.2m and BOOM the rod buckles like a freight train hit it and unfortunately lost that fish as my cousin wasn't that experienced with kings he didnt know they ran straight to the bottom and he got cut off. Next fish was a massive ray and maritime came near us and took a pic of us fighting the machine on the end of the rod and posted it on facebook, hook pulled and off it goes. Next bait was a hard fighting kingi and the rod almost slipped out of my cousins hand😄😄. Pulled it up and this was the result. 58cm was the length and released it. Next bait dropped and if we hooked up it was my brothers fight and we did, quickly tought him how to use and overhead reel and 2mins later we had a king in the boat. 57cm was length and released it. Next was my turn and always save the best for last and landed this 60cm rat. Fishing was quiet soon after and headed to one white drum in the harbour and bait was dangling from the boat and a king came topwater and we were on.. for 1 second. Kings were everywhere on the sounder and 1king soon after. Called it a day as we had no more bait and actually forgot about the pillies so we left and headed back to the ramp.

Weather forecast for last weekend was not good but there were windows of opportunity. Took the grandsons out on Port Hacking after school on Friday till dark. Both caught caught fish. One a nice flathead the other his first ever legal snapper. Out again sat 9:30 when the weather had a settled back at the ramp at 2:30before the wind. Another first with a legal king 2.44 kg on 4kg. Plus bream, tailor and a 62cm king released. The flathead won the junior section .96 on 1kg

G’day raiders, Just a quick report from up here today. Headed out with @back cruncher and his brother Paul early this morning. Left in total darkness knowing there was a 2m plus swell but we had faith in the Haines and arrived to pick up some livies. There were plenty of them but very reluctant to bite. Well, we’re throwing plastics anyway, so let’s go! Got to our first mark and the swell made it almost impossible to fish properly, so after I landed a rat king we moved. The drift then took a few different paths but we managed to work it out and I came up tight on a good fish. Phewwwww, something for the box. Same drift and I landed another for the esky and things went quiet. Changed areas and Mick picks up a nice panny. Changed areas again due to constant weed and finally Paul comes up tight on a panny. Still plagued by red weed we move again and first drift, Mick comes up tight and lands the next size model and fish of the day! We kept working the area, hoping to get Paul his first snapper on soft plastics and on our last drift, bang!!!! He loads up and into the esky it goes! Considering the swell and overall conditions, pretty happy with the days efforts! We seemed to have done better than most. Thanks again for the day Mick!!! cheers scratchie!!!

Hi All, This will probably sound like both a fishing report and an Oscars acceptance speech. After nervously watching the waves and wind conditions leading up to Friday last week Mark, Mat and myself made the decision to head offshore in the hope of getting big kings. A launch at Terrigal, a bit of manoeuvring around the swimmers at the boat ramp and we were at the bait grounds. We found the yellowtail pretty quickly and started filling up the bait tank with some nice large specimens. Running out to the fishing grounds we spotted both whales and dolphins. I dropped my head at the wrong time and missed a sting ray jumping about 2m out of the water. When we have fished the area previously sometimes the kings have preferred live bait and other times jigs have been killing it. We took a bet each way Mat dropped a live bait and I started with a jig. Due to the wind Mark concentrated on keeping the boat in position against the wind. It is about 140m deep and with the drift it was a challenge getting to the bottom while keeping clear of the boat. After a few drops I had a big hit and then realised the line had snagged the motor. Took a while to unwrap but unfortunately I lost the line and jig. We kept switching roles so everyone had the chance to hook up but it wasn’t happening. I had a second rod set up for live baits and started sending live baits down. I lost two live baits after feeling some bumps. Mat spotted a ball of fish about 110m down so I wound my line up from the bottom. The jigging braid with its line colour changes every 10m made it easy to judge depths. A little while after line started peeling off. Tightened the drag and I was on. We kept Mark’s bait nearby mine in the hope of a double hook up but no joy. Mat was wondering if the king was actually legal as I was looking pretty relaxed and didn’t seem to be struggling. The gear I was using was a NS Black Hole Amped Jig S-52 rod PE4-8 rated for 200-400gm lures and a Saragosa SW20000 with 80lb jigging braid. It had weight so I was sure it was 80cm at a minimum. My two biggest fears were pulling the hook or being sharked. I deliberately didn’t go super hard as I could afford to let the king take some line without panicking it. At this stage the advantages were mine. It took about 20m of line but I was confident I was still at least 10m from the bottom. I kept the pressure on and kept bringing it towards the surface. At 10m below the boat I was expecting the king to spook so I backed the drag off (really didn’t want to lose this fish). It ran but as I was able to keep it away from the boat I still wasn’t stressed. We could see colour and it was big. A few minutes later Mark netted it for me. Was my best king to date but had a cracked the meter? The measure on the boat went to 90cm and the king easily cracked it. It looked to be a metre based on a visual assessment but I couldn’t be 100% sure and my tape measure was in my other fishing bag. As it was the only king so far it went in the esky. On another positive our fear of being leatherjacketed hadn’t happened and Mark also hooked a leatherjacket which went in the esky. We stopped for a quick photo opportunity at which point I realised how broad the shoulders were of the king and how heavy it was. We were visited by some small whales and an albatross. Mark hooked up the line I’d lost and back came my jig (I’d rather have lost the jig and kept the line as it costs $110). With no more hits we made the decision to head in via some other marks on the GPS. I dropped a live bait and lifted it about 5m off the bottom but managed to snag up on something odd. There was some give but I couldn’t get the line back. We drove it off and I was very glad just to lose part of the leader. Damn that Amped rod was strong. One of the yellowtails came back with slashes along its flanks. Short while later a couple of barracouta came up. Time to move on. We got the boat back to Mark’s and out came the tape measure. 102cm and I’d finally joined the metre club. Mark’s wife was cool enough to let Mat fillet the king on the kitchen bench. Those fillets were big. It was an awesome day with a couple of fantastic mates. It was two days later sitting in the car on the way to the fishing shop (had some braid to replace) I realised how big an impact chasing that king had had on my life for the last 15 or so years. My first proper introduction to kings was a pre-production video by two Sydney mates showing how they caught kingfish. With a couple of mates (Chris and Tom) I lost my kingfish virginity in middle harbour with a 61cm fish (when legal size was 60cm) and a second one within an hour. I was hooked (so to speak) and I wanted to learn so much more. I bought more kingfish DVDs and learned to catch squid. Fishing around Sydney harbour I made a great group of fishing buddies (Todd, Ollie, Mat, Tom, Andrea, Andy, Felix and quite a few others). As I got better I helped a few people lose their kingfish virginity (Marnie, Eric, Ollie, Nano, Bronwyn, Vlad, Tom B, @anthman, @big Neil, Hannes, etc). I’ve had a lot of fun researching gear and wandering through shops looking at what might work. With a group of mates we bought some Hobie fishing kayaks and have also headed out on a charter or two. I work with 2 Finnish guys that have both cracked the 1m barrier. I watched one of them, Mikko, fishing a stick bait off the ocean rocks tease up a king. The fight was a brutal tug of war which the king lost. 1.2m and 15.6kg and it left me re-evaluating my gear. Gave me an excuse to head into the shops to get a Saragosa and another NS amped rod. During kingfish related discussions on Fishraider I’ve made some good friends (@Mike89, @wazatherfisherman, @savit, @HenryR, @krause, @big Neil, @Ragnar and others). There have been magical days on the water seeing wildlife in their natural environment. The pursuit of the kingfish has given me so much joy and allowed me to put the occasional feed on the table. This was a pause for reflection and certainly not the end of a journey as a I’ll continue to chase them with a passion and I still have many kingfish goals on my list – the biggest being a 1m plus king from the kayak with a fly rod (my holy trinity, my golden goal).

Wild windy conditions made fishing interesting to say the least managed 8 nice blackies pulled hooks on 2 didnt break rod all good all the fish are in primo fat condition with some still carrying roe or milt they are feeding fairly aggressivly caught these in 1 hr 15 mins then dolphins came in and goodbye fish no bites after that so went for a beer good day out now what to do tmrw ????

Got out at 7:30 to my local rock ledge yesterday morning first cast & was on & thought I was going to have a great session but ended up with 3 takes & 2 squid just shy of 30cm hood length for 3 1/2hours, decided to have another crack this morning arriving around 8am (should’ve been there at dawn for both sessions) first cast & on again, this time 4 squid from 4 hits There aren’t many around but they are a good eating size, should be a couple of tasty meals in those half dozen 😃

Finally something........

A great day on the water today with Tony and Lachlan. Bait was easy to collect and perfect “Kings Candy” size. Water Conditions were a little choppy off shore, but water was blue and warm - 25 degrees. There were lots of schools of Bonito eager to swallow baits of live Yakkas, salted slimies or strips of fish flesh. Tailor got into the act also and these were XOS size and I had to re-rig several times before swapping to ganged hooks. Kingies were all rats and released of course, but we were “smoked” by two kings fishing 40lb which was too light on Sydney harbour shallow reefs We Stopped in at Middle Head to restock with Yakkas then to North Harbour for a few more kings, but couldn’t find any slimies in the harbour - they were thick at the artificial 2 weeks ago - not sure if they have moved off shore or further into the harbour. I caught up with “Tony”, a fellow Fishraider and we shared some intel - hope he posts his awesome day on dollies.

Hey raiders, For the uninitiated... yes you read that correctly, flathead on topwater. After seeing some decent success online and on a few of doclures' podcasts I thought I'd give this crazy trend a try. Picked up two crossfire 115 lures and tried my luck a few times in the past week. They are sort of like the bent minnow lures but a larger profile and a very slow float back to the surface. Finally had success yesterday afternoon when I landed a 57cm lady. She looked very healthy and even scored a nice aerial display as she took the lure! Gear used was my 7" Daiwa TD Zero rod, stradic ci4+ 2500 reel spooled with 8lb kairiki braid and 12lb FC rock leader. Fun fight, she had a few decent runs and was safely released to swim around another day. Definitely going to keep at this new trend. I'll keep you all posted on any further success! tight lines, chris

Howdy Raiders, Well after the "Tenacious Tuesday" ... which really became "Turn-around Tuesday" for Maria .... I'm happy to report today was "Far-out Friday !!!" . Yup Maria went to the shelf.... Browns Mountain 40km east of Sydney. About as far-out as she'd ever want to be. It was her first trip and she was armed with the electric set up - which apparently now is "hers" ... and I have approval to go buy my own... but on this trip I was relegated to the old trusty Alvey Reef King. We launched at Davidsons Park Forestville. It was a very early start. Salted pillies and squid for bait. A really bumpy ride out to Browns in the morning and the conditions for the first few hours were pretty ordinary, but the weather gods put on the best mid-morning to late afternoon that I have seen in a long time. Just glorious calm offshore weather. On the way out, we saw a whale broach, and for most of the day there was a pod of dolphins some where in sight, so there was plenty to keep us distracted. Anyway, back to the fishy details..... turns out electric powered Maria scored 3 Gem fish.... to manual powered Zoran's zero. Hmmmm. ... maybe some payback there for the 6 flatties I scored on Tuesday to Marias zero !! .... just sayin'. So here I am pictured with the gemmies.... not because I was trying to kind of claim they were mine ... but because I was about to gut them.... It was a slow day at Brown's, 9 drifts for 3 fish. Also, on the first drop Maria had the braid bitten off with 57m to reel in ... I conclude there must have been something stuck to the line that attracted a jacket. But regardless guess who had to re-rig the FG knot etc etc etc ! Also two of Maria's 3 gemmies fought to about 20m off the surface and then spat the hook.... only to bob up a few meters from the boat bloated....guess who gaffed or drove the boat to net them ??? Maybe 2 gemmies are a shared catch after all ... 🙄 Yes there is just a bit of rivalry between us ... but what a great day to share together. Cheers Zoran PS - We stopped at 12Mile on the way back... to have two rigs bitten off by JACKETS !!!!! ...... which convinced us to pull stumps to run back home and face the Friday arvo traffic. PPS - water at Browns 20.8C. Current 2-3kts running N to S.

Fished all day saturday into the night then before daylight till mid morning at broughton is and a reef further north my mate came with us in his boat to say it was hard to find fish is an understatement...i tried a few different spots fished floaters...livies...plastics and scraped up my bag limit..biggest red 63cm next best 55cm lots of 35 cm pannies never lost a live bait the whole time...i was goin to edith breaker but changed my mind and after talkin with guys at ramp that went there im glad i saved the fuel they had less than me...a combinatoin of westerly winds and changing currents...and currents flowing wrong way made fishing difficult.....right on dark sat the current actually stopped flowing uphill turned in 20 mi s and started running downhill under the boat which ruined peak time before high tide next wknds weather doesnt look flash so not sure bout goin now might come up and fish in bay for a jew or longtail at the heads and still do the meet n greet fri arvo couple of bad fotos

Many many moons ago I was fishing at Pt Plummer beach when I saw some activity close in the shore break. There was a surfer close in amongst it all then he dives in and starts wreastling a fish ashore which had almost beached itself chasing baitfish. After a few tense moments we come out with an ankle slapper length kingie. Yes caught by hand. This was around 1980. Jim...

My grandsons have been very keen to try and catch a dolphin fish, with several trips aborted because of weather being not suitable. Yesterday the weather gods smiled on them and they got to go out wide. Launched from Grays Point at 7:00 am tried a couple of spots before we managed 10 live yellow tail baits. Moved out to Jibbon bommie for a while trued for kings while we checked out the sea conditions, a little bit of north east slop left over from the night before. Time to go younger one was a little concerned when we went over a couple of hollow waves and the boat landed with a bang as only a tinnie can. After about 5 Kim the seas flattened out and a much smoother ride. Saw plenty of dolphins on the way. Couple of stops to refresh the bait and we arrived at the fad, couple of boats but not much action visible. Stopped about 100m before fad and baited up the lines, a 3kg and a 4 kg mono outfits. Both live baits deployed and I cast out a Pilchard on a 3 kg out fit. Tripple hookup on light gear fish going in all directions around each other, carefully going under and over each other managed to land all three fish. Mine went straight back the boys both landed there first dolphin fish. Stayed about hour and a half boys landed plenty and kept 4 each 65-70 cm. On way back in came across what we think was a pilot whale it stood out because it was white. We could not get close enough to get a photo it was moving north fast and very shy. Stopped at the flathead grounds for a quick drift and kept enough for a meal for those who don’t eat dollies. Back home boys want to know when we can go again. thanks. Bruce

The weather and family commitments aligned on tues and I made my first Dollie trip for the year. Went and caught my live bait on Monday arvo to save time on tues morning. Got to the FAD at 6:45 good conditions and first boat there. Didn’t see or catch any big fish but content with a steady stream of fish 55cm to 67cm. Kept 7 then left the FAD at 9:15 and headed in to fish for some flathead. Caught 10 keepers in an hour and headed for the ramp at 11:00 after an on water safety check by water police (all in order). While at the Fad said hello to the next boat that arrived and went over before I left he had kept 3 thought a quick flat tie fish on the way back in sounded ok. Never know who you will bump into out on the water.

There are a few gutters at the northern end of Wanda beach that are good for fishing at low tide. The only thing is you need to arrive a bit late at somewhere after 10 am so that you won’t be harassed by the hundreds of dogs enjoying the free run. (Leash free time). This weekend, I made a mid day trip each on Saturday and Sunday. About 3 hours fishing each day finishing about 2pm, just before high tide. Generally fishing is good when water is low and gets slower when water is higher. All up for the two trips, I caught 5 good Flathead (ranging 40-50cm), 7 tailor, 1 bream of 32cm, 1 flounder of 38cm (could have been my PB), one Trevally, and one tarwhine just made into the legal size at 24cm. I was fishing with pilchard and again limiting to 10 pilchard each trip. I used a light action 12ft beach rod I bought last weekend. Yesterday I used a $25 reel spooled with 15 lb mono and refuced the line to 12lb today. The light line worked a lot better and it could be still a bit lighter. The goal was to catch bream. With one bream caught and complimented with a flounder, no complaints at all. Attached a photo of today’s catch. cheers Charles

Such a nice looking fish.

Took the grand kids for a fish to finish off there holidays and will take their older brother tomorrow as he has an extra days holiday. Jew fish, bream, flathead, mud crabs and blue swimmers made for a great day.

Launched at Parsely Bay and had a very bumpy ride out to the flathead area about 4nm out. Caught a few flathead on pillies and cuttlefish going over a spot which appeared OK. Then the motor refused to rev up. Checked the prop and fuel feed and all was OK, waited a while to see if overheating was a problem but still no revs. Gave up and called Marine Rescue who came out and towed us in. While we were waiting put out the sea anchor so we would not go too far and could get going quickly when the tow arrived and drifted the right way back towards Barrenjoey. Picked up a few nice flathead while waiting Thanks to Marine Rescue for the tow. My mates boat had recently been serviced and once on dry land we took the cover off to find the same problem I suffered following my service several months ago. When replacing the fuel filter on the early 75 Mercury is easy to knock the linkage slightly out of its connection to the throttle so after a bit of use it falls out and the motor wont rev. Same outboard mechanic serviced both motors. I was fortunate the sea was kinder when I was out and I was able to increase the revs manually leaning over the motor while my mate steered to get back home. No way in todays seas. Manually increasing the throttle I dont think is a good idea as I think the timing is altered by a different linkage, but some experts might correct me there. My mate did 3 years on the job with Marine rescue at Cottage Point so understands the work these volunteers put in.

Went out for a quick arvo session with a mate from work. Went out the front of tomaree to try for some livies, first drop a nice jacket on the jig. Got a couple of yakkas and gars . Hit cabbage tree and gars were thick, loaded up and got some slimies. Found the wind had strengthened a fair bit from the north east so wasnt what i was hoping for. Flicked some light weighted fillets around and managed s few pannies before it got dark. Anchored up and berleyed but got nothing more.

Not me but my grandpa many moons ago, was fishing out of Wooli one morning in his little 4.5 meter tinny out near Solitary Islands. The way he describes the story is he had just caught a kingfish on a handline and bled it straight away before he threw it in the boat. There was a boat fishing near by with a bloke waving at him frantically. My grandpa thought the bloke was nuts so continued fishing. He then lent over the side of the boat to wash his hands and there was an eye which he said was the size of an ash tray. He had a look over the other side and there was another eye on the other side. Turns out the bloke waving was indicating there was a large great white shark that was at least 4.5 meters had been attracted to my grandpas boat by the kingie and had come up underneath the boat. Grandpa then says he turned the boat on and flawed it without even pulling in the anchor which luckily hold as he prob would have been thrown into the water.

For those of you interested, I’ve just written an article on fishing for snapper with soft plastics that I hope might help.

Well after an early start at work yesterday and a few hours under the belt, I decided I would go down to the boat and give it a wash and thought we might throw a couple rods in the back just in case. Haven’t had a chance to get out on the water for weeks due to work commitments and with the weather being so good we couldn’t help ourselves. So off we went for a squirt to long reef and throw some soft plastics around. Got to longy in no time, flying down the cost from palm beach at 30knts! Wasn’t much happening so change of plan and off to the washes at north head. 10 casts later, and a nice cast into the wash, 2 twerks later and got hit by a steam train! Had to work very hard to get him away from the washes. 10 minutes later after the typical dog fight we had it boat side, a quick photo and back in the drink to harass everything else in the area! Those Stella outfits are unreal.... Sorry no specifics around size and weight but he was bigger than the esky and prob around 5ish kg. I’m a 120kgs if that provides some scale:) haha Quite a bit of bait around at longy and north head, water temp 21.8-21. The phone wouldn’t spot ringing so felt like We quickly achieved our goal for the day and time to belt home and give the boat a was down. Thanks for reading!

Raiders, A good start to the long weekend with a GOOD CATCH on GOOD FRIDAY. No complaints on size. Left town at 5am, arrived around 6 ish with boat in the water nice and early. Great weather, maybe 5 knots wind in some areas and plenty of fog. Was not to cold and great chance to test out the new minn kota. My buddy Drew from Brizzy come down for the weekend (bit of a regular thing on easter). Seen plenty of bass on the sounder as well! Smashed the first Bass (40cms) on about the third cast with a cicada lure. My main man Drew had caught his first decent bass on a zman grub in the ledges measuring about 45cms. Knocked off around 11am. All fish were released! No anticipation but looking to find some more over the weekend.

We headed out to copeton dam for the weekend with the aim to fish, fish and fish some more. I have fished Copeton for 20+ years and it's still one of the few waterways I approach with very little confidance of catching fish. Over the years I've caught lenty of good yellabelly from Copeton but the copeton cod has always eluded me. We arrived just before dark with just enough light to find a campsite by the water on the upper end of the dam (wunnulla bay area) the dam was low at 11.7% but still looked pretty good. We set u in the dark with the aim to get up in the morning and get into the fishing. Didn't take long in the a.m. to get the rods rigged and the kids had baits in the water straight away, and nothing hapened to struggle to lose a worm in copeton to a spangled perch is near unheard of signs were looking bad. Got the kayaks on the water and got into the lure casting Amy wasted no time getting out there We started casting large soft plastics for no result, Amy changed over to a spinnerbait and within no time was hit in some deep timber unfortunetly didn't find the hook, we kept casting and casting trying hardbodies, plastics and spinnerbaits for Amy getting a couple of shortstrikes Atleast the scenery was spectacular as always fished on and off all day into the evening even tried surface for no result Late in the evening the kids managed a small catfish and a couple of spangled perch on worms but otherwise this was a regular copeton trip Basically frustration got the better of me, I'm under the impression I muttered a few curse words about copeton and as usual vowed I'd never return. With Amy away from camp for awhile and me sitting by the fire drowning my sorrows decided to cast a small hardbody on light gear to try and catch a spanglie or anything basically, about 10 casts in it gets nailed by something whatever it was probably a cattie or yellabelly pulled a heap of drag before pulling the hooks, despite the missed fish a bit of confidance resurfaced. With Amy returning I grabbed the baitcaster tied on a chatterbait and started casting again, Amy was just picking up her rod to join It happened so fast, I landed a cast right on a single small tree in the moonlight 2 turns of the handle and it was slammed before I could react line was stripping as I'm deserately trying to turn the fish I'm yelling at Amy to get the torch and lip grips which I immediately thought was premature and I'd just jinxed it, I knew it was a good fish, somehow he steered through the maze of sunken timber and the fish was beached on the edge I could see in the moonlight it was a good fish, once the torchlight hit it i realised it was far bigger than I thought My first copeton cod measuring 92cm I've dreamed about this fish since i was a kid, after a few snaps the fish was carefully placed back in the water and we stood mesmerised watching it swim off into the darkness I stood dumbfounded afterwards trying to get my head around what had happened, copeton messing with my head that was my only fish for the trip but have to say I didn't care Amy spent many hours casting for a few more hits but no fish atleast she's got a true taste of copeton or better still lake misery the next challenge is to crack the metre at copeton cheers for reading Dave

Just noticed in a thread which has been shut down where someone was under the misunderstanding tailor don't grow over 4 kg in NSW, which is completely wrong. We've had them to just under 7kg from my local beach and others have been weighed during local comps over 7 kg. Unfortunately I can't get to the one my daughter caught during a comp a few years ago as it's on photobacket, however here's a shot of one over 4kg taken on plastics and 4lb line bream fishing recently. Just north of us in the JB area tailor of over 7kg are regularly landed. The biggest tailor I've personally seen have been around the norther solitary island on the north NSW coast, these have been around the 10kg ( in sanctuary zones). They can reach 120cm 14 kg on the east coast, according to fishing world. Ive caught some consitant bigger fish in western Aus around the Kalbarri area but I can assure people there are a few on the NSW coast too.

G'day guys, it's good to be back! I've just been very busy and I've been meaning to post for a long time. This is linked to Stewy's previous report where we chased kingfish. This report is like the part before we hit Molly point where we chased squid. So consider this Part A 😃 It was a nice morning and it was great to catch up! I've got some pics of the little squid bash we had just prior. The squid were hungry and hitting jigs high up the water column. I think anybody could have caught a squid that day ... especially with a little green squid jig. Here are some nice pictures of the morning!

Ross, stoked for you on your 1st Jew. Anyway good things to actually make it a report would be to give some more details like general area & maybe gear used, otherwise its something better posted in here- https://www.fishraider.com.au/forum/16-brag-board/ Reports are supposed to help out the rest of the community not just showcase your catch.

Must admit I quite like not fishing myself and letting the youngsters do all the work.

My lovely wife (Susan) and I have made it to Murray Cod opening 2019 so we are heading off to the river. Hopefully there will be enough water to go fishing for a few hours. Report to follow. Big Neil and Little Susan...

Hi All, First post! Took my 2 boys out for a fish on Sunday in Botany Bay, crap weather but they were keen and you got to jump on it when they are keen. With recent skills obtained from a charter I was keen to get the boys onto some action. Pretty rough and ugly conditions @ Trevally Alley meant our luck for Trev's was not great... hard going trying to sink the baits and burley. Just too rough for catching squid so tried trolling with servo squid for kingies along the wall without any luck. Drifted the sands on Kurnell side of Towra for a nice 48cm flatty... then off to chase the tailor smashing up outside the Georges River sailing club. If the frenzy are all small choppers, fire your bumpa bar metal lure into the mix, BUT let it sink before retrieving as their can be flatties or other species catching the bits and pieces below the bust up. Sure enough a solid trevally 40cm was doing exactly that. And then out of all the small ones we found a decent tailor. Good day in crap conditions. Happy kids (no2 son now keen as no1 for fishing), and a solid feed for a family of 5. cheers Andrew

Hi, this is my first fish report. I fished the airport side of Cooks River from 4PM-6PM today. I was casting only about 10m out from the land. It was my first time fishing using a soft plastic. There is a lot of places to cast from along the river, but most places require you to step in some mud to get close enough. I was inspired to fish Cooks River and using soft plastic by watching Shroom's videos on YT. I landed an awesome Flathead about 15mins in. I didn't get to measure it, but it was about 40-45cm. It was released as i'm told you shouldn't eat anything from Cooks River. I had some other "bites", but did not catch anything else. I used the Zman Grub 2.5" in Watermelon Red. Thanks

Ok Raiders, This is my first report so you will have to endure the excitement of an eager newbie who managed to catch a fish. My father in-law and I have recently got ourselves a boat and headed out for a quick session yesterday evening. We got to South Head around 5pm and anchored up just inside. It was pretty quiet til the light started to drop then we started seeing a bit more action on the sounder - bit of bait around and some bigger arches on the screen. We were fishing a variety of shop bought baits, pichards, squid and prawns. We started getting a few nibbles before this fella took a bite. Measured in at 52cm. Yep, it's just a flathead but for a newbie like myself it was SOOOO much better than coming home empty handed like my last couple of outings. My father in law got one too, but it was just on the limit so we put him back. Gear: 2-4 kg shimano rod, 2500 Sienna reel. 6lb braid and 12lb fluoro leader. Hoping to have a few more reports to share as we head up the coast in the coming weeks. Cheers

I just want to extend a big thankyou to all who responded above. We had a wonderful relaxing weekend. Stayed in America bay. Caught octopus, tons of eels 🤣, some cracker flatties and soooo many bait fish (kids were stoked and completely addicted!!!!). We lost a sweet rod and reel to some cheeky fish, and dropped a mobile phone as we came home 😭. So if you catch that rig, enjoy hahaha We will be back Brick is determined to get himself the elusive jew, and I want to kayak and explore. Kids will provide all the bait we can dream of I am sure. What a beautiful and mysterious place!

I always loved & was drawn to the water as a Rugrat but didn’t get to fish as we lived inland in my birth country of South Africa. My first fishing experience which got me hooked was at aged 11 when we arrived in Sydney there was a wharf near school, I used to watch an old Italian man catching yakkas, one day he gave me a hand line to use & before long mum was suspicious as to why I wanted to leave for school before 7:30, before long I was catching handfuls of yakkas & the odd fantail, mince meat was his bait of choice, 1 1/2 years later we moved & I had a say in the area we settled in because it had a wharf nearby😃, at age 13 I was fishing under fig tree bridge one hot humid Saturday with my trusty JW black queen outfit using cooked king prawns which I pinched out of the fridge, the bite was quite slow & being peckish started eating the bait but saved one for the hook, tossed it out dead on high tide into the muddy water no more than a minute had passed when my rod buckled over & line was screaming off, saw the back of my spool a couple of times in the ensuing battle which seemed to last forever with a lot of head shakes , I managed to get the fish to the sandstone wall twice with huge tail swirls at my feet, nearly beat it went for one last run under the bridge & being inexperienced instead of standing my ground I moved & tried to poke my rod tip around the concrete pylon which was to short & parted ways, I was gutted & on a high at the same time,for weeks after I was dreaming of me riding my bike home with a big jewfish tied to my old Malvern star, my friends & family got sick of my fishing stories because I became obsessed with fishing & that was all I could talk about, that was Christmas 1973

Hi raiders, after all this talk about vintage Alveys I though it would be great to have a bit of show & tell thread about them. I continually read on here members asking questions about them or other members giving suggestion for different fishing applications so there must be something to them right! So show us your Alvey's whether its a strictly stays in the display cabinet reel or where in current use smashing up some Aussie salmon or jews off the beach & what your favourite moment was fishing with them. For me my association with Alvey is from fishing long ago with dad off the beaches north & south of Sydney, or when he was fishing for Luderick off the breakwall of Nelson Bay, pretty much an Alvey's in his hand if he had a line in the water. While I used them on occasions I was more of a spinning reel guy I actually threw one of dads rod into the surf when I was about 6 years old, He was down the beach with another set rod & I pulled the rod out of the holder & walked up to the rolling surf & tried to cast it but threw the whole rod into the water. I can still see him running up the beach waving & yelling at mum , of course I see it slow motion 🤣 He jumped into save it but couldn't find it, he was devastated & pretty angry at the same time.........…………...as you would be 🥺 Basically I inherited dads gear when we had to move him into a nursing home, there is something about looking at a lifetime of accumulating/collecting/hording fishing gear of all sorts, including things like Japanese roped glass buoy's to vintage sinker making gear, even unopened packets of hooks & tackle going back to the 1940/50's era. Anyway I will have to look through some photo albums to see if there is any of him casting from his favourite Alvey's but for now I'll start it of here with is just a couple from his collection, This picture even show's a few of the floats made from wood & cork for the Luderick he would hand make. Will post move as we go, Cheers Adrian

Hi All, Just looking at the current record for Aussie Salmon on lure at 72cm. Unfortunately we did not measure this Salmon my son caught but I estimate it was well over that. My son is 145cm tall. This was taken before Christmas in the Hacking on a metal. We caught two others after this which were only a fraction smaller by our estimate. I guess records don't count without a tape measure?

Just like to share this photo of my Pb estuary perch. Went 41 cm, was caught on a zman slim swim and was a good fight on 4 pound. This was one of many perch me and my mates caught over the a school holidays last year. Every session targeting bream we’d keep getting perch, until we could only catch perch (which is a good thing). I’ve done another forum on this before but I’d REALLY like to know some reliable perch spots in Tuggerah lake for soft plastics, surface or cranks. These perch were schooled up so they were very easy to catch, now I just want to catch one!

Yep, I had it coming... 😃 😭 😭😭 I was out the other day on the Parramatta River chasing bream again using a light outfit consisted of 2-4kg 7' rod and 2000 sized reel using 6lb line. It started off well, catching a few fish - flatties, tailor and even a nice legal bream all on Zman plastics on 1/16oz jigheads. I was fishing near this pontoon and suddenly as I was about to wrap up the session, I spot a group of kingfish cruising the other way. That changed my course as I started casting ahead of them. I couldn't get the initial hookup after a few false strikes and now the group of kingfish was getting perilously close to the pontoon (and on course to swim straight under it)... Yep, you guessed it! That's when I hooked up! The fish was literally like a metre or two away from the pontoon and the ensuing run saw it run right under it! I don't know how, but somehow I turned it's head and brought it out to the open. It then proceeded to blast me away... Gone! Oh well, I guess the fish had to win sometimes, especially a few reports where I got extremely lucky to land a kingfish in similarly trying conditions. I hope you enjoyed the read!

Left rose bay boat ramp at 5am,picked up live yakas in no time and headed the boat north past the heads. 37 kilometers later found a private fad that we were looking for first bait down 77cm dollie and then triple hookups, landed 27, best going 85cm and smallest 50cm. Dollies disappeared after a striped marlin appeared in the mix and wouldn't touch a live yakka. Love to show pics but dont know how to post pics. Dollies are thick, get out there while u can