mrsquid

great work mate!! and it only took 2 months that's not so bad don't know where you were, but I've had to work really hard to get squid over the last two months, things see to have be really quiet at my local spot, 2 months ago you would be disapointed to only take home 7 or so no your stoked if you get 3. I find using the smaller jigs will increase your chances too, the biggest I use is a 1.8g yammashito natural yellow with dash of pink on top, saying that I've seen allot of guys getting good squid on black jig, even well into the night. whenever i drop a squid i just stop retrieving and 9/10 times it will be taken again. But you found your spot now hopefully it will produce regulaly and you'll have plenty of candy to catch the monster fish. great work, i hope you keep getting them.

Thanks mate, no such thing as a dumb question when your chasing jewfish! I'm no expert and have only recently started using yakkas as bait for jewfish , but I've had more success with butterflied bait! When I'm out I normally use squid but sometimes 1 live and 1 butterflyied yakka, every time i get the fish on the butterlied bait, but then again I've dropped allot of fish lately so it's here nor there I guess! one theory is you will defiantly get the attention of passing fish sooner due to cent trail, but then its up to the fish if its presented well enough or the fish is'nt been fussy... Got to love this game there's defiantly no set rules just some general guideline, you just try everything till you find what works! Thanks for the comments guys, tight lines for all

Hi raiders I was itching to get out Friday night but the weather gods were having none of it and after spending 2 hours squiding in the rain with fellow raider Herdsman (HI mate) my fate was sealed, with only one small arrow in the bucket! It was going to a night at home taking orders from the boss! Saturday night couldn’t have come fast enough, I wasn’t as prepared as I would have liked but the weather had cleared , stars were paying the occasional visit and at 1230am I was idling away from tunks armed with only 2 two small frozen squid, 2 loafs of Coles finest white bread and a few kg’s of pilchards for burly . I’d been doing lots of research on Middle harbour over previous week so with lots of fresh places to explore the game was on! First stop was close to the spit bridge to see what bait life was around and maybe pick up roaming king or jewy but after half an hour of hard work I moved on, still needing some livies! If I had any chance of success tonight I was just going to have to work harder! Next stop was the drop offs around Bantry bay entrance, I anchoring up and burled hard with bread and pilchards, after half an hour…. nothing!!!! Ahhhh although its only 230am i'm stressing! if I didn’t get good baits in the water soon I was going to miss the big one! Next plan was to head out of the dark and into the light of Roseville boat ramp. Always the optimist I tie up and throw out some bread…… 5 minutes later…NOTHING. “This won’t do!!” I Untie and follow my gut to my old reliable. Maybe I had been a little quick to leave Roseville and give up on the exploring but after only five minutes of been anchored up in the dark of middle harbour I was on the bait!!!! Toma!!, minutes later I’m dropping over the side my first butterflies yakka on double snell 4/0 hooks. Same again on my other heavy duty rod and just for a laugh I put a small butterflied yakka on my 2-4 kg rod armed with 10lb braid, 10lbfluro leader with 4/0 gangs hooks  (i’m only new to tying snell knots and it’s hard in the dark!) After an hour of burying and catching yakka’s I get my first hit which would set the tune for the night. I strike; feel the weight of the fish and it’s over ahhh. At about 400am and coming towards primetime, I had dropped 2 fish so I brought out the big guns!!! I replaced a yakka for a full squid on one heavy rod hoping this would break my bad luck or dare I say bad technique. Minutes later it’s not my squid but my 2-4 kg rods that roars into life! seems the old gang hooks had found there target. First feel and there’s plenty weight, my drag is screaming as the fish makes a run and adrenalin rages round my body! but after 30 seconds without any great pressure the fish just seems to give up and I slowly reel in a heavy lifeless weight (for this rod anyway) it wasn’t until I see silver did the fish sense its fate and spark into life, for a few nervous seconds my drags strains and the fish darts under my tinny, but again it chucks in the towel and before I know it, it’s on its side next to my tinny, armed with a new gaffe I secure the fish and it’s in! Wooo Hooooo. Ok it’s not the monster I wanted but @ 62 cm I was pumped and it was only 4am still plenty of time for more action! Just as the light starts to creep into the sky, my heavy rod with butterflied yakka bends over, I rush to grab the rod from its holder but i’m too late all over! It didn’t hurt as bad this time with one fish on board, but still!! Something was letting me down!!! With daylight pretty much here and my baits been attacked by every small tailor in middle harbour it’s not long till i’m staring at my last 2 yakka’s!!! I hadn’t expected to use so many and was kicking myself for burying up 3 maybe 4 ahhhhhh and to make matter worse I dropped another run. With the 2 big rods baited and waiting I piece together a mixed bag of yakka parts onto the ganghooks on my 2-4kg rod, just as the bait reaches the bottom bang I’m on woo hooo this fish has some play, I carefully guide it away from my anchor rope and after what’s seemed an eternity I’m shocked to see not a jewfish but nice snapper (that will do)! As I had been fighting the snapper the other fish were tearing my baits apart taking close attention not to get hooked and before I know it i’m baitless. This wasn’t an all-time session but I had landed one small jewfish and a small snapper! I pulled up anchor a tired but happy man and with the sun breaking through the clouds I returned to tunks. Good luck everybody Fast facts: Fish size: 62cm Jew Water temp: 20.4c Bait: butterflied yakka Line/leader 10lb braid/10lb fluro on 2-4 kg rod Rig: swivel and light sinker running to 4/0 gang hooks Weather: overcast Burly: pilchards Tide: jewfish 1 hour before low. snapper just after turn Moon:????

Awesome catch dude!!!

Hi Raiders Bit of a late report but better late than never, Sporting a lingering hangover from Friday night i Took off in my mitey tinny from Tunks park about 2am last Saturday night loaded up with some nice fresh squid caught that afternoon, Plan was to go straight to my know jew spot and catch the tail end of the low tide that had just passed then go look for some big Jews around middle harbour. It was dark night with no moon just stars above me and god knows what below me, I pulled up at my first point to find dirty but warm 21d water, I put out 2 rods each loaded with full arrow squid on 4/0 circle hooks and backed up by 40pd braid and 60 fluro. With everything set above and below, I started burying heavy with lots of old fish carcases and pillies but to my disappointment the yakka’s were nowhere to be seen! After an hour of waiting for something or nothing as the case was to happen, I decided to pull up anchor, thinking I could drift down my own burly trail and surely there’d be something around! Now for the fun top begin, after drifting for half hour or so zzzzzzzzzzz screams my reel on the 15kg rod! I pick up the rod and strike! Straight away I know this is something bludey huge!!! With line tearing off my reel faster and faster, I was still giving myself half a chance of landing this beast which hopefully is mother of all jewfish! But this run is not stopping, I try put on the brakes a little more but still it goes, I think my tinny was making wake at the point as beast dragged me away from Bantry bay entrance towards the spit! By now im thinking this is a shark for sure because surely a lazy jewfish would have chucked in the towel by now, I remember what I had been told about fighting kings and sharks that the more u gave them the more they gave u so I let the fish run only taking line whenever it stopped or slowed. 30 min later i had half my spool back and all was looking good! The fish would stop give me ten meters or so then take off with as much power and force as the first 10sec of the game, but each stop was getting longer and runs shorter, soon it was doing circles around my tinnie but I still couldn’t see anything and straining from this epic battle! It must have swam 10 wide circles around before I saw a big tail splash the surface of the water then dive deep again taking another 5 meters of line but as it came up again, this time broad side to my tinny I got to see the full scale of this creature!! This bull shark was easy the length of my 3.4 savage maybe a little under but in the dark I was standing precariously in the middle and from nose to tail seemed to be the size if not bigger but this is all afterthought because at the time when I saw the size I wanted it as far from me as possible!! I’m not normally afraid of sharks but been in my tiny tinny in the middle of the night hooked on to this monster I was scared shitless but first thing I did was get that leader close and cut that monster away! With adrenalin making me shake I was amazed at the catch and spewing my camera died in last week’s bad weather but I was also very happy it was over. I cruised back towards Roseville looking for holes or anything else holding fish but with a few fruitless stops along the way I arrived back to where I would anchored up and wait for the sunrise and high tide! No longer after anchoring up I had a few runs that didn’t take then bang one rod bends over and I bring up a small jewfish at 50 cm happily release my catch and set up again to catch its mother! But as the sun rises so does the crowd and it’s not long after the first water skier gets going too so with a big smile of the night’s action I call it a day and head back home. Short story today as ive been heaps busy and right now I,m gonna go get some squid! tight line all. Fast facts: Fish size: big scary shark and 50cm Jew Water temp: 21c Bait: fresh squid whole Line/leader 40lb braid/60lb fluro on 10-15 kg rod Rig: swivel and light sinker running to the hooks Weather: clear rising pressure Burly: pilchards and fish carcases Tide: shark caught 2-3 hours after low and jew 1 hour before high Moon:???? The jewfish was landed using whole squid on 2 4/0 circle hooks

Hi again Raiders Well the weekend couldn't have come fast enough this week, with lessons learnt from previous weeks catches the plan was to re visit the Middle harbour hotspot that hadn’t let me down since breaking my duck, with low tide coinciding nicely with first light on Saturday morning and a seemingly perfect break in the strong winds there was going to be plenty of long days and sleepless nights before the weekend came. As usual first priority before any Jew hunt is to spend hours in the week before collecting your golden baits!!! but as murphy's law would have it the Squid this week have been really slow (for me anyway) maybe a combination of low tides at dusk or strong winds and my favourite theory, the increase of predators in middle harbour have sent the squid into conservation mode. After a fruitless 3 nights of squiding, its Friday afternoon and I still don't have anything to present on my hook! Then things get desperate after watching the squid been caught all around me, an hour after dark with a the tide slowly coming in I reel in my only freshy for the night a small arrow about pinky size ahhhhhh with the outlook of rain and no fresh bait a sleep in was looking likely. Then again there's more than one way to skin a cat!! New plan, instead of sleeping and getting a 4am start I’d head out super early, or late (I get confused! either way). With the lovely Diana (just in case haha) far from impressed with my new plan some serious negotiating was in need (begging). But Diana been the beautiful reasonable women that she is, wrote out and signed me permission note Woooo Hooooo and after a few hours of guilt and the loss of all rights to the tv remote forever I was on my way again. I arrived at Tunks at 130 am the tide had been going down for an hour and a half and the weather was looking good, almost no wind and a large moon breaking through the clouds. I had one goal bait!!! there had been plenty of yakka’s on the go in middle harbour this week so I headed straight to my jewy hotspot with the intention of anchoring up and burlying hard with 4kg of pilchards, slight over kill you might think but my rule with burly is more is ALWAYS better, I like to keep a steady stream of small cubes running down current, maybe 1-2 pillies every 5 min. Over 6 hours something’s got to come by!! After only a few min I had 3 yakkas in the bucket, I don’t have much experience with yakka’s for bait but the first rod to go went into the deep with a live yakka, tail chopped off using 6-10kg rod, 30lb brain, new upgraded 60lb fluro leader, as per some good advice from fellow obsessed jewy hunters! About 2 meters long with small 10gram lead bead running between swivel and double 4/0 hooks. Seconded a large butterflied yakka on a super heavy 10-15kg rod 40lb braid, once again 60lb fluro leader setup but using 5/0 circle hooks (first time circle hook user) I was saving my favourite, all be it a little under gunned 2-4 kg rod with 20lb braid and 40lb flour leader for my one and only pinky size squid which I planning to send out on first light. For me it takes a pretty awesome wave, probably involving a nice barrel to top the feeling of having rods set in the water, plenty of good bait in the bucket and now the anticipation of what's to come. Not long back this anticipation was the only thing I was bringing back to the boat ramp, but now things were different with fingers crossed, prayers said and ritual sacrifices made let the waiting game begin. Good times eh!! Well not for long, just before 3am the first of what went on to be regular fixture for the night set in! Sometimes like a fog moving slowly into a valley! But not this time, just big heavy rain drops and a cold wind driving the dampness, attacking any warmth I had left under my raincoat! Meanwhile back inside my head I’m thinking it’s all good!!! jewy's love the rain 'yea it’s going to be AWESOME' Just not for another few hours After a few hours of checking, adjusting resetting baits and the all-important bailing rain water out of the tinny, nothing was happening the only high light was been joined by a fellow raider who's name escapes me (sorry mate send us a mgs let us know how ya went) 530am came and the pale light struggled to light up the dull grey sky. With the dawn of a new day the rain stopped and things started to get interesting! I through out my one squid GUN bait and checked the yakka’s only to find the livey chopped in half and nothing happening with the butterflied yakka. Rods set again and the cold slowly leaving my body a few tugs hit the butterflied yakka then quite again for 5 min before the heavy duty reel screams into life!!! ahhhhhh this is what’s it’s all about. A heavy dirty fight followed by multiply runs and I had the beautiful jewfish side on next to the tinny I reached out to grab the tail and without notice it roars into life almost pulling the rod from my left hand luckily I’d backed off the drag! but without a net and 3 more attempts to get the beauty on board I was getting very very nervous! last resort was to wait till it was side on them slid my hand up into the gills hahahaha it was on board groaning away on the tiny floor awesome another jewy and looking like a Pb and it was going 76cm, I hadn’t noticed before but the jew'y had swam around the livey's line and now I had 10 or so meters of brain tangled around the leader. With the excitement of my catch I just cut the braid and tied the line still attached to the livey to my oar for later collection while I sorted out the mess and got bait back in the water! 5 min later I get about retrieving the livey but as soon as I go to pull in the line I feel a heavy bite/pull then nothing... ok maybe just the livey giving a last ditch effort to escape but as I retrieved the line, out of the depths come silver!! A whole lot bigger than my livey but with no fight!! Up comes an incredible looking small soapy at 55cm, I’m more amazed than anything of the randomness of the catch! And even better I was going to release my first jewy hahah awesome!! I put her back in the water and held her there for a min doing what ya see on tv haha cpr for a fish, but when I let go it just turned on its side and nothing, another release same! Does anybody know why jewfish seem to throw up their stomachs when caught, because all the fish I have caught have had that symptom (all 23 m deep) maybe barra trauma???? Any methods to save these fish? I ended up keeping the soapy but I would like to make sure I can release the next one! I kept looking at my catch proud as anything haha more jew'y action and this time on Yakka’s awesome another lesson learnt and more mistakes made. I ran out of yakka’s and burly at about 730, with the action disappearing and traffic increasing I pulled in my line and prepared to head off, with a fellow raider doing the same! Said goodbye and powered back through the showers to tunks awesome!!!! Awesome!! Going to treat the lovely Diana to a nice Sunday so will have to wait till next week to head out again but already can’t wait! Sorry there’s no photos I brought the camera out with me was sadly was taken away by the rain gods, next time! I hope everybody is a lucky as me and thanks for reading tight lines!! Everybody! Fast facts: fish size: 76 and 55cm Water temp: 19.6C Bait:livey and butterflied yakka Line/leader 76cm: 40lb braid/60lb fluro on 10-15 kg rod 55cm: 30lb braid/60lbfluro 6-10kg rod Rig: swivel and light sinker running to the hooks Weather: rain overcast Burly: pilchards Tide: fish caught 1 hour after low tide at 630am Moon:???? The jewfish was landed using butterflied yakka on 2 5/0 circle hooks

Mate that's an awesome catch! nice work, feels great to finally break duck!

Hi Raiders I couldn’t have imagined a better start to the weekend! Started by hooking up with my mate for a Friday afternoon Bait collections session. Although there’s nothing worse than placing the outcome of your entire weekends fishing on one nights squidding! Luckily after 3 hours of playing the squid game we wound up with 10 in the bag and high hope for the morning! We Made plans to meet at tunks at 4am, but when 12am ticked over I couldn’t wait anymore, with everything sorted all I had to do was jump in the van and go! Before I knew it I was idling away from the boat ramp nothing but stars and glassy water in front of me! I Headed straight to me new favour Place in the entire world, not too far from Bantry bay in about 23 meters of water. I dropped anchor just as the tide turned, so with 6 hours till daylight and high tide all I could do was wait, daydream of the big Jew that was going to take my bait any second now! And of course burly burly burly..... I had just curled up on the front bench seat (more like awkward foetal position) and closed my eyes, maybe dozing off for 5 min or so when without warning both my rods buckled over under serious strain!! Corking my knee on one of my oars as I leaped up I grabbed the closest rod and as quick as it began both rods went dead!!! Ahhhh I had kept my drag fairly tight hoping that the fish would hook themselves, not letting them run had seemed to work for me last week but that fishing! More burly and 20 min later with drag set to allow them the freedom so swim away and take the bait deep inside. What started as a slow taking of line of the spool quickly started to accelerate, I’m shaking as I pick up the rod! Straight away the weight and power of the fish load my rod and with one powerful run it stripped at least 50 meters of the spool. With my reel making all the noises I don’t want to hear I loosen the drag to let the fish run without testing my gear to much as I tried to retrieve it, With the initial run over slowly but surely I’m bringing it to the surface.... adrenalin is making me shake like a rattle snake, i’m trying to keep my cool, be patient and let the fish find its own way to the surface. All is looking good, even better than good! until tragedy strikes. I caught a quick glimpse of a slender shiny fish in my torch light, but just as the fish see the boat it makes a powerful run towards my anchor rope and with no time to get the pressure back on the drag I feel my worst possible feeling...snagged! Line pulled tight but clearly wrapped somewhere around my anchor rope, and within seconds it was all over!!!! AHHH devastated and bewildered, I’m starting to think I had used up all my luck last week and when after the next hour all was quite I pulled up anchor and heading back to Tunks to collect Mattie as planned! With Mattie still half asleep and complaining about how cold he is and how he regrets not wearing shoes and how Hungary he is bla bla bla ...... (Mattie doesn’t like morning) we’re back on the spot! With More burly and extra rod in the water all we had to do was wait! And we didn’t wait long. Before I could get comfy my rod loads up again and line screams of my reel. I was thinking maybe a big king but with 30lb braid and 40lb leader on a 6-8kg rod this fish wasn’t giving an inch with almost half my spool empty in a minute all I could do was hold on and put as much pressure as I dare! Again the fish started to let me take back line but every so often it was roar back into life taking back my last minutes effort and some more! With my arms burning and most of my line back on the spool I’m just starting to think I have won the battle! ... but ahhhhh just I see the dark profile of the small shark under the tinny it makes another powerful drive to the deep and my line breaks cleanly above the hook!!! Now this is getting out of control!!!!ahhhh fishing!!!!! As the light slowly spreads over the sky Matty wants to move over to where the sun will hit soon but I’m having none of it!! If there’s one thing I have learnt it is u got to be committed! Even though it was now allot colder than it had been during the night I was determined to see this through till the change of tide and beyond if necessary!! Finally Matty’s spirit rises when a lone kingy starts working its way around the cubed pillies, like a kid in a toy shop he rummaging through his bag looking for soft plastic of some sort! After a few casts and retrieves, the surface of the water is busted. Just as matty lifts the plastic out of the water, cm’s no mm’s behind a nice kingy makes a dramatic turn! Spewing missed it by seconds!!! But this was great fun. Meanwhile my bait has been soaking for 10-15 min or so without anything happening, so I half expected anytime soon it would be game on and boy was I right! Again there was a slow take of line of the spool which I let go for 10 or so seconds, I picked up my rod turned up the drag and struck!! Wow again the power of this fish is taking line like there’s no tomorrow and with the experience of the last 6 hours matty’s yelling let him take it! Let him take it!!! With the fish swimming away from the boat I felt safe enough to give it some time, keeping constantly pressure the fish turns and come back in the direction of the boat my second rod was still out to my left, but with matty on my right it would have to stay there! All I could do was hope it doesn’t get me into too much drama! I was now taking back more and more line but this fish wasn’t finished yet he must have been half way up the water column when he turned directly into my worst fear! The fishing line of my second rod. Matty yells it will be ok, my heart is pounding!!! My body shaking… but the fish turns again to my right this time away from the line. (Thank you god) Matty reaches for the gaff with sort of expectation of what’s about to come but straight away I say it won't be necessary. Seeing him gaff in hand make me nervous (as much as I love ya matty I can’t risk you losing my fish on your first ever gaff experience!!) and just then, a long silver flash darts sideways in front of us with my drag backed off once again to avoid any last minute disasters I get the beautiful JEWFISH up to the side of my tinny! Holding the rod in my left hand I reach out with my right and grab the powerful tail, securing my grip I pull the `glorious’ fish into the tiny! With hoots and high fives we celebrated my third ever jewfish! @71cm it was 6 or so cm bigger than my previous PB set this time last week hahaha AWSOME!!! I had lost everything up to this point but all was forgiven and forgotten this was turning into an epic all time fishing adventure. With more high fives and school boy antics we got the bait back in the water! This time I had on one full large arrow squid about 15 long it was all or nothing on a 10/0 hook!! Again unlike all my previous fishing experience, after a 2 min soak Bang it’s off!! haha (this is awesome) with a firm but relaxed strike I set the hook and the fish runs….. POP line goes slack ahhhhh (all I can do is laugh at this point!) I retrieve the line to see the knot with a no hook at the end, the eye of the knot had given way! Just another valuable jewfish lesson I had leant among many this morning! With traffic and noise from a wake boarding boat increasing and with big smiles from an awesome session we decide to troll back to tunks, and just in time, as I start my new u bute outboard the wind picks up from the south (my timing was hot today) We get back uneventfully, tired but feeling more alive than ever we pull up at tunks triumphantly again! (I could get used to this) What an epic session! Although I lost pretty much everything, even without my awesome catch I would still be stoked because I was crawling slowly along the learning curve that is Jew fishing. I think with more experience there could have been 4 or 5 good jewfish in the boat today but all is good, sharing the experience with a mate and feeling the action is priceless! Cheers for reading guys and good luck to all! Fast facts: Water temp: 19.1C Bait: fresh whole and squid strips Line/leader 20p braid/40p fluro on 6-10 kg and 4-6 kg rod Rig: swivel and light sinker running to the hook which is 4/0 and 10/0 Weather: clear Burly: pilchards/ jewfish carcasses Tide: fish caught 30min before high tide at 7am but there was action through all the tide stages from 1am to 8pm Moon:???? The jewfish was landed using squid strip on 4/0 hook but today everything was been attacked with big baits not an issue, there was lots of bait fish action on the sounder

Thanks for the great feed back guys!! still on a high and reliving the action in my head any chance i can. Heading out tomorrow nice and early to hit up my lucky spot it should be interesting to see how active the fish will be with High tide not long after sunrise (opposite to last week ) but i know i wont sleep tonigh with all the anticipation!! On other news squid around middle harbour have been slow for me this week, but managed enough for sat/sun. Tight lines to everybody and i hope i have something to report on sun night good luck all!

Hi Raiders This is my first post! But after such a magic morning it would be bad karma not to share the love! I have been chasing Jews unsuccefully now for over the last few years, spending more nights with the rats on the rocks or sitting in my tinny than with my misses, not to mention I used to be quite the party animal but those days ended when the Jew fish obsession kicked in! My report begins with leaving Tunks Park in my tiny tinny at 430 am Saturday morning loaded with some fresh squid from the night before at my local squid haunt. I messed about among the moorings on the way to Bantry area but with the sun coming up and not allot happening I move further down towards Rossville/Bantry area, I pulled up in 23 meters of water with temp a balmy 19.4C and started drifting back towards the spit in the run out tide, the morning was amazing, already warm at 6am. After about 5 min of drifting I got a few bites and thought it would be an ideal place to anchor up (I do tend to change fishing techniques on a whim) After messing around with a tangled anchor rope for 5 min I looked around and could see small fish getting busted up on the surface no more than 50 meters away, with excitement growing I put out one med duty rod with squid strips on 2 meters 40 pound fluro leader and 20 pound braid I sent the bait to the bottom and put out another light rod at 10 pound braid and 4 pound fluro leader with no sinker and squid strip to float back in the burly trail. No sooner had I put out both rods did I see this amazing flash of colour swimming past the boat, only took 1 sec to register a kingie but when I stood up I could see more than 20 or so rats and bigger schooling around the boat(very small tinny) I immediately started dicing up some pilchards, no sooner had pilliy chunks hit the water the kingies would suck them in with anticipation of more, their mouths sitting cm from the surface I felt like I was hand feeding them!!! then my hunter instinct kicks in and I reeled my heaviest rod to the surface, after a few inspection by some barley legal kings I let it float down to about 3-4 meters and a much larger specimen comes over, noses the squid strip, turns, then goes back to the bait and BAM im on!! Straight away it dives into the deep and with this rod no match for this fish I had to back off the drag to avoid snapping the rod, but after a min or so bang and it’s all over. With adrenalin pumping hard and my hand and body shaking the little rod goes off but only for a sec! 4 pound leader even with lightest drag was never going to cut it. So now i'm still surrounded by kingies and trying to tie new rigs with my hands shaking feverishly, when I do get the hooks back in the water the kings were having none of it! They were happy to eat my pillies but that was it! I put a sinker back on the heavy rod and sent a squid strip down to the bottom, after playing silly buggers with kingies for 5 min or so bang again the rod bends over and drag starts screaming!!! WOW how good is this i’m thinking and the fish obously not as powerful as the kingie was still taking line, I felt confident enough to put a bit more pressure on the drag and after 20 sec or so I felt I now had the upper hand! It wasn’t till the fight was over and I was raising the fish to the surface did I experience the almighty jewy head shaking All the way up I was wondering what on earth was happening, Did I foul hook this fish?? But as soon as I saw colour it all came clear! my heart jumps and tension levels went through the roof I didn’t have a gaff or net with me and there was no way I was losing this fish but as the fish came to the surface on its side I reached out and slid my hand up into the gills I didn’t care about the gill rakers and in 2 secs flat I had my first jewfish in my tinny!!!!!! hahaha what a feeling although small by jew standards @ 65cm I was holding back from jumping up and down as that would have surely meant going for a swim!! With sun shining grin ear to ear and fish at my feet I quickly get the rod back down there! at this stage the kings had moved on and after 30 or so min I was too happy to sit any more I headed back to the ramp and home to celebrate a day which I had waited 2 years for!!! That night I resolved that I was going out again to try the same spot in the morning! Got to the spot at 530am and started burlying pillies the setup was the same as Saturday with a little more wind blowing it wasn’t the dream morning of the day before after 30 min or so I reeled up my first catch of the day a 40 cm red gurnard which I tried to release but was blown up too much so it ended up back in the bucket on the next drop I picked up a monster stone fish that looked me up and down daring me to try and remove the hook so after a quick snip it spent the next min making strange noise under my tinny! back down to the bottom again and a few bits and pulls later BANG the rod bends over again with drag screaming the run is longer than the day before but again comes up to the surface on its side and head shaking all the way up!!! In the tinny the fish measures only 56cm but i’m soooo happy thinking I might have cracked the jewfish code! I promise myself I will release the next one this size but i’m sorry I have dinner plans for you!!! It went quite after that and feeling top of the world I headed back triumphfontly back to the boat ramp. sorry for the essay but hope it helps somebody out there break there jewy virginity Fast facts Water temp: 19.4C Bait: squid strips fresh line/leader 20p braid/40p fluro Rig: swivel and light sinker running to the hook which is 4/0 Weather: warm clear Burly: pilchards Tide: 1 hour after low Moon:????