craigbutcher

Hi Raiders, Been a while since I've posted anything and thought I would update the last few months of offshore Sydney. With the warm water still around, there is the mix of kings, Trag, Jews, Groper and a slow start to Snapper season offshore (water needs to drop a lot for it to fire up)! Hoping the water starts to drop and the cuttlefish start to die, so the big reds move in close from the wide regions. Butch

HI Raiders, Been a long while between reports, usual just use FACEBOOK now. Weve got a few nice reds, groper and other aquatic hero's along the way over the past 3 months during the cold water. As per usual, SYDNEY produces good reds if you fish hard and low light! And just north of Sydney, within 1.5hours...

G'day mate, nice Jewie bra! Well done! I fish for Jews offshore in Summer, and one thing to note about Jews is, they don't pull hard offshore to be honest, they usually blow their swim bladder quickly and slow up, plus they aren't naturally a dirty fighter like a King or even a solid Red (Yes, had plenty of 6kg to 7kg Reds offshore run me into the kelp, and I nearly gave up on my 7kg red off Sydney as it had me bricked for a few minutes)... I guess in shallow water the Jews don't blow their swim bladders and keep their steam up! Good luck bra, very cool!

OFF THE CHART zander moot!

Awesome Rev! Yeh I've heard the odd tale of them, however, never encountered one buddy.

Yeh good fighter, however, the first run is not as fast as snapper of its size!

Hi Raiders, Went fishing this morning for reds down a berley trail. Reds didn't play the game, only kings and a spangled Emperor. 55cm beast. Kings only small, 70cm was the biggest. Pretty unusual for Sydney! Butch

Hi Raiders, Went offshore chasing live squid with a plan to catch some kings in the arvo after we get a large bag of live squid... The squid were very slow and tough, however, we managed 6 after working really hard. Luck my mate Zander had the right colour, they were switched off all other colours, water was really really murky after all the rain! Ended up berleying some squid chunks to get the kings around us, after around 20mins we had some boiling on the surface along with some reds and amberjack. We got a good feed, 4 x kings, 2 x Amberjack and 2 x snapper. Tough day though! Also, took my 3 year old crabbing and we got a good feed! Yew! Butch

Yeh Papas, lets do it very soon buddy!!!!!

Hi Raiders, Offshore, the reds are around, nothing huge yet, not until the water temp starts to fall, however, good numbers! Also, hit the estuary chasing Jew Tuesday night, however, only managed a few bream, nice bream though, 43cm and 43cm. Both too an 8/0 CIRCLE hook with a squid strip Butch

Thanks for the all kind words guys! Yeh Jett loves his fishing, we do so much of it together. My ex-wife has bi polar and cant really be with him, as she just gets so stressed and upset - so he pretty much just hangs with his dad! We fish and watch fishing videos all night! He just loves FISHING! Especially catch Snapper too and lots of Kingfish! Butch

Hi Raiders, Been having more and more summer fun on kings with my little man! He's been seasoned now, catching a heap of kings (inside the heads only for now, for safety reasons). Yew Butch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eYSnnk9sWk&feature=youtu.be

OUTSTANDING BROTHER!!!!!!!!!!!

You catch live squid and you are 90% chance of kings. Without it, scale down that probability! Personally, live squid bait is my real indicator of a successful trip in my books offshore for kings. In terms of snapper, a big oily berley trail and you will often entice some fine reds. Again, fresh baits can be the X FACTOR. In terms of soft plastics, well your variability's are not fresh bait (obviously), but the drift speed/wind and ocean currents. To allow you to the fish the strike zone etc. Especially when deep water snappering around the 50-60m marks! Wind and current play a huge role!

Hi Raiders, Short video of my son on his 63cm Kingy. My boy is only 3 years old, and loves it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwPtnPo2bVw&feature=youtu.be Butch!

Hey Groper, your wife looks like the funnest and coolest fishing wife ever bro! So good to see a happy marriage!

Hi Raiders, Been a huge amount of smaller kings offshore recently, so so many! Saw every boat bagging out. Only babies around the 70cm mark, but still a lot of fun, these creatures pull so hard! Butch

Hi Raiders, Took my 3 year old Jett for some rat king fun! Nearly lost him overboard, hahaha! Just jokes, he was fishing a mini jigger and not too much drag, Had a ball with baby kings! He's turning into a king wrangler, next stop, out wide for some Hoodlums with his old man! Butch

Yeh the renegades go well buddy, I have another boat, this is my mates boat. But yeh, nice soft ride for an alloy boat buddy and stable at rest...

Hi Evil borris, Nah mate, this was a Jewfish buddy, just the angle of the photo. Trag don't get that big buddy, they max out around 7kg and 1m. This photo might show a better angle. As you said, trag have a concave and Jewfish a convex... Another element is Trag are slightly purple with yellow mouths and big Jews offshore are silver with white mouths. Below are trag. See the difference offshore... Butch

OFF THE CHAIN PAPAS! That is amazing shit!

Cheers Scratchie, yeh got some good marks mate, spent years catching zero fish offshore before I began learn the ropes. My GPS Marks and not categorised by name, I just mark them as follows; 8KG JEW, 7KG SNAPPER, TRAG GROUND, 10KG KING etc so I know where to go when I want to chase a certain fish.

Depth we fish for Jews ranges from around 30m all the way down to 45m. But with Jews, always need a big edge / drop off. With Trag, they will hold up on broken ground, no dramas!

Hi Raiders, Went out on round 2 of the Jew mission 5 days after the last lot. Landed a heap of solid Trag and finally got through the Trag to slam a nice JEWFISH!!! All around that magic tide change offshore around 4-5km - Sydney! My Jewfish A handful of solid trag like this one... Butch

Paternoster rig, large 12ounce sinker to keep the livie on the bottom.