R_Zee

Cheers Stewy and Donna! Glad you guys are well. Catch you soon. Tony

G'day Raiders, It's been a very long time since I've logged in... Probably over 10 years. Bought a boat recently and I've been out half a dozen times in the last 2 weeks. Looking forward to being part of the fishraider community again. Tight lines

Juvenile Amberjack

well done Andrew! Excellent result!

Thank you for the replies and PM's.. If i had one tip to catch kings it would be to fish the popular spots when you don't see anyone there.. the kingies are everywhere, and they do shut down when 2 many boats are around ie 15 boats anchored around the yellow marker at quarantine.. you know the kings are there but you wouldn't waste your time fishing for them especially on weekends.. Catching big kingies is different though, you have to be specifically targeting them, your gear has to be flawless and you have to be ready to keep the fish under serious pressure until it's gaffed /netted. I don't recommend you tow little squid around,and go around other boats in circles. AVOID THE CROUDS! I ALWAYS leave the spots i am fishing immediately if one boat approaches. I do not like fishing next to other boats especially when there are good fish around... I got that particular fish on a lure, but i am sure it would have preferred a livie, most guys i know get them on slimies and good size yakkas, especially offshore. Location wise, we had meter + kings at the tripod for a few days a couple of months ago, i remember getting busted off 7 times in a row in 10 minutes on serious gear. I remember last year i fished the yellow marker one afternoon and got several 90cm+ fish. 2 weeks ago we ran into a good school that was around a pinnacle inside north head for a period of 10 days or so, or at least i could say they were there every time we fished for them. Most were around the meter mark. I caught that fish off Sydney, offshore. i could not disclose any specific locations for obvious reasons. the fish was hooked on the only 50lb outfit i had, i was armed with 80lb outfits on 2 x 20000 stellas and a saltiga exp 6500. I was using a saltiga 40z spooled with 50lb bionic braid and a 100lb galis absorber leader. The rod is my all time favourite, a custom made cts blank that i couldnt leave home without. the little saltiga overheads are unreal, but they dont seem to hold enough drag, the bigger fish tend to peel that 13-14kg drag (max drag), and boy have i lost fish that way. If you are serious about stopping them, use the big eggbeaters and heavier braid, i have not lost many fish using them. Get out there and have a go.. see you on the water. Tony

Hi guys, I had a tiring week at work last week, late hours until past midnight every day.. by Friday mid day i was dying to get out for a fish. I knew there were some big fish lurking. I went home for lunch, looked around and i said to myself stuff going back to work i'm going fishing! Hit the water around 3, back home by 6 as i knew i had a big weekend ahead of me.. managed one fish over the meter mark and a couple around 80-90cm. I had a chat to Kelvin on the way home, he couldn't come out the next day and he reminded me how he got dusted several times days before. We have recently started fishing 80lb braid.. 50 has not been enough! he gave me a tip on where the bigger fish have been biting as i had not fished for a couple of weeks. I took my uncle out and managed to pick up half a dozen solid fish, the biggest went 113.5cm on the brag mat.. a new personal best for me The fish fought extremely well, but i was lucky enough to land it.. i think it only took a couple of minutes to land fishing very heavy drag. Fished on Sunday with Ophet for nothing but rats.. and a tsunami warning I can say i am really looking forward to Fiji.. i think it's time to hit the gym! See you on the water.. Tony

good go Amine!

Looking forward to the first hook up on jig on a doggy.. I CANT WAIT!!

the skipper of Donko brothers sounded the fish and he drove away from the jem fish to avoid getting bitten off.. he then spotted a blue eye which appeared the be in a feeding mode.. its mouth was wide open and it was standing on its tail looking up.. The drift was positioned so that the jig will hit the fish square in the mouth and it did... and then all i had to do is wind

thanks guys. I have been thinking about doing it for a while. When i jigged Samson fish in WA with Al Bevan, he told me about deeper reef systems where they jig hapukas regularly in water up to 250m deep. I have caught a hapuka at browns once on bait. I've always wanted to jig browns and have tried a few times before by tying 2 x 400gm jig together and sending them to the bottom with no success of hitting bottom due to wind and current. On sunday we started a cube trail a couple of miles east of the mountain at midday. after 2 hours of cubing i realised that we only drifted a few hundred meters. We were drifting north east with the slight westerly. there was absolutely no current. We went for a troll for a couple of hours and i was keen to have a jig as i knew it was the right day to hit bottom, and i knew a 400gm jig will do the job. i reversed the boat every now and then to keep the line as vertical as possible. i think it took something between 3-5 minutes to hit bottom - i did not use any additional weight or bait, i am a purist when it comes to jigging i didnt jig too quick, 20m up then back to the bottom. The fish had a go twice before it hooked up. People who bottom bash browns with braid will tell you that you feel EVERYTHING. I must say i was very nervous about losing the fish half way up ... i would have cried! I am rigging up an outfit for my next personal challenge... hopefully it will come to plan.. Tony

Thanks for the replies guys. The gear i used enabled me to feel the bite and every head shake. The Saltiga is loaded with 50lb bionic braid. i think i had 50-100m of line on the spool when it hit bottom. I got over 30 albies on jigs in the last month including a trip to Bermi 3 weeks ago. I only managed 1 yellowfin this year, i'd say around 30kg, 150m deep fishing a charter boat at Bermi. Tony

Hey guys, been jigging deeper water for albacore and yellowfin.. Jigged around the bottom of browns yesterday arvo between tides and picked up this blue eye. Went 25lb on the bogas.. The jig of choice was a Mejiyume SL 400gm, on a daiwa saltiga S-Extreme 600. Needless to say it took every breath of me to land it. Fought well near the bottom, can't wait to get out and do it again. Tony

on ya Sammy! good to see you got it!

G'day the same thing has happened to me a couple of times.. i put live squid in their faces and no takers. the funny thing is they put their noses in the ink for a sniff before they took off. fascinating...

i suppose you will get some sort of warranty on the reel. if anything goes wrong you could pay some more and upgrade. i am sure you will get a reasonable preformance out of it but everything breaks. i just changed the washers on my stella 4000. i have had it for under a year although i must admit i used it the most out of my reels as my 20lb casting outfit. i have owned 2 sustains for over 3 years and they are still OK as i hardly ever use them. i am sure it will be good out of the box. not so sure about how long it will last jigging and catching yellowfin. let us know how you go.

Stewy, I just had a shower and im getting ready for bed. LOOOONGGG DAYYYY!!! I will put a detailed report tomorrow.. Just briefly, We brought home 4 small fins to 15kg, a respectable dollie around the meter mark and a couple of stripies to be cubed over the weekend. I will post some photos and tell a story of how i barely got away with keeping my thumb after a hook up and long battle with a large YFT. Thank you for the day out guys... great company! stay tuned. R_zee

The day we had 50lb iron braid wrap around the motor while fighting a small black. Someone had to jump out of the boat to untangle the line!! and we still landed the fish!! cant wait to do it again this year

Hey Greg after the first half a dozen no one was responding to the "get the gaff" call... we wer gaffing our own fish.. and yes we had some close incidents and a few pulled hooks as we couldnt wait to land the fish to get another one. it was action packed for a couple of hours. i wish i had taken a couple of pics of the marlin so close to the boat... i think people are getting bored of kingfish reports. We will be targetting YFT and may be some snapper on plastics in the next few days when the weather wont allow us to get out further. I took stewy's advice and rigged up my 50w tiagra with 37kg line and some heavy traces with size 20 hooks incase another beakie turns up. i have bought some heavy metal traces with suitable crimps as well... i think the Donko brothers are getting abit of a feel for the deep blue... i also wiped the dust off my outriggers.. my diary at work has never had so many cancellations and rescheduling. there's a chance i will be out there tomorrow, thursday, friday arvo, saturday and sunday.. i think im beyond addicted R_Zee

HA HA very funny! kingies aren't too bad The tuna were hitting the jigs on the drop every time.. I can't wait to do it again!

Hello guys, fished off sydney this afternoon aboard Donko Bros with skipper Kelvin and our friend Sean. Tried to get out around mid day but we had to turn back due to big seas. Fished the harbour for 4 kingies then headed to 12 mile as the conditions got better and jigged half a dozen kings. We were running out of time if we wanted to put the pillies we had in the kill tank to use. after second thoughts due to sloppy conditions got to our mark and started cubing at 5:15pm. about an hour later a school of stripies bust up was greeted by our casting outfits and we had 2 on as soon as the poppers hit the water. While we were hooked, one of the livies takes off, 2 minutes later a jelly bean of around 10kg was boated. I checked the other rod to find the livie has been robbed. Big bust ups behind the boat indicated there were more fish.We could see the fish feeding on the cubes.We were all on in no time. After landing half a dozen fish i dropped a 250gm knife jig and i was on! After a couple of hookups on jigs i was having a drink and i see this mass approaching the boat.. A big striped marlin was right on the surface 5m away from the boat. the fish was lit up and by then we had ran out of livies. Kelvin had colour on a yellowfin around 10kg when all 3 of us saw the marlin take the jelly bean whole and take off. Kelvin had him on for about 3 minutes until the 70lb leader wore through. We were fishing with our jigging braid outfits and we didnt have any bigger leader to suit a beakie..not that we were going to leave our cube trail in a hurry. All up we hooked up about 30 fish, landed 20 or so and kept enough for food. Thank you to Kelvin for great company and a magic day out and for Stewy for the tip last night... i made sure i stocked up on pillies and all up we went through over 15kg of cubes in 3-4 hours. They are out there go get em! R_Zee

Nice Fish Anthony! nothing beats landing a big king especially on relatively light line. what gear were you using? must have been a hell of fight good on ya

A big thank you to Stewy and Donna and the FR crew for organising the event. Congrats to everyone who passed. I recommend all members who do not have a licence to do the course and get licenced.. a good eye opener and definitely worth the effort. I have learnt so much and i it feels good to be on the radio when you know what you are doing No more "over and outs" for me! Tony

all types

i dont know about now i think they started to get them but im not sure. early jan they're gonna be ducking for cover

stop mentioning that Kelvin! i am trying to forget about it and do some work between now and then!!! i CANNOT wait!