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Keflapod

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Everything posted by Keflapod

  1. Hey BN, I reckon we humans have underestimated the complexity of fish behaviour. When we reckon we have cracked the code yet come up empty on days when we should have got a few, is an indication we have not understood something, therefore our equation is not quite right. I test software for a living and I analyse things in detail to understand how they work before I test a theory. The best I can do is keep a spreadsheet of my captures and data over the years and come up with "general" guidelines. Kingies are also known for their fickle behaviour so when you combine that with a host of environmental variables, it's hard to come up with an exact answer. That's why the pros used to dropline for kings with a variety of baits on the lines to see what is being eaten on the day (if anything) and jig while waiting for the lines to give them an answer. Sometimes they would smash everything, sometimes only the jigs would get them, but never used live or dead squid.
  2. A snapperfin tuna? Mate, that's it - I'm painting my boat black. Awesome catch and, ahem, awesome whiskery bustoff Scratchie. Next snapper you will catch will have a bill on it and jump around. Well done gentlemen.
  3. Yep - a mad fan I am (sounds like Dr Seuss). As for the livies, I would cast the bait some way out (gently) and walk the shore as the tide moves the bait (if the tide moves the bait depending on how far up the shore of the georges you are fishing). The idea is you use a float that has a weight in it - styrofoam cone thing - unsure of the correct name. It provides the casting weight. Use a 1m trace or so and a float stopper on the line set at the right depth. The float stopper is a little rubber ball and can be wound onto the reel if required. Set the depth so the livie is near the bottom but not on it. Trace should be heavier of course - say 6kg fluorocarbon. Sinker should be very small - just enough to pull the line through the float until the stopper hits the float. The only issue is to bring more than 1 livie in case a bait is lost. Then poddy mullet may be a better idea but give the little local red spot whiting a go until you get the logistics sorted and see if you are liking it. If you are going to wade into the water to cast a line, can I suggest wearing gum boots - there are a lot of sting rays, etc in the water there. I have been catching a lot of them lately so be careful. Ivanovic for starting striker I reckon - give the youth a go.
  4. Maybe a sandbar might launch him into outer space? Seriously isn't he worried he will hit one? There are lots in the hacking, right?
  5. This is the dilemma, You can target bread'n'butter and risk hooking something worthwhile or target bigger fish and risk getting bored. If the kingie bug needs to be fixed, I can suggest catching a small live red spot whiting that would be common there. It has no size limit (I believe). Use it as live bait and target big flatties, jewies and of course kingies. Losing a good kingie is like losing LeFondre, DeJong and O'neill...
  6. Hi Big Neil, In the words of the indeed great Julius Sumner-Miller "Give the gentleman a hand". To the uninitiated, Professor Julius Sumner-Miller" was a very nerdy looking "mad professor" type of person who was actually quite charismatic when conducting experiments live on film. He was famous for getting a chicken egg into a milk bottle without breaking the egg. Well OK, some trickery as well as some physics involved, and the quote above was aimed at young students who were observing his experiment and correctly answered his perplexing questions. So now we give you a hand BN. You have openly praised other fishraiders for them making such a positive impact to your fishing career. You have given them some recognition which I'm sure they will enjoy. So the travelling of 20km extended your time by 45 minutes? I think car GPS systems are worse at predicting ETA than weather forecsters are at predicting weather. Either that or you were driving in reverse. Or possibly the rotation rate of the earth has changed by 20% thereby confusing the 24 GPS satellites in orbit at the moment. In any case, if it knew there was a traffic jam, why the hell did it send you that way anyway? Car GPS systems hate people I reckon.
  7. Well done Scratchie! And you didn't even have to use live pike. You got them using your old faithful techniques - the sweet taste of vindication right there. On a more general note, I just wanted to say that people like yourself are all too rare. I don't mean your prowess at catching big reds on a regular basis, rather your caring, sharing and giving nature where you take people fishing on your boat, show them your spots, techniques and put a smile on their dial that you could not wipe off (not even with Chux super wipes!). Only one question remains. . . . When are you gonna catch whiskers? He's still out there...hehehe...
  8. Great catch again Pickles. Very nice reds and nannys. Fully agree regarding pike - I have enjoyed eating them for years. But the mowies I have not found a away to negate the iodine taste. Any ideas?
  9. Hey again fishy, Lots of trips for you mate. Don't you work? Living the dream you are. When I first read the story, I thought you got a huge piece of cardboard and furiously folded it up into a boat at the ramp. That's what I thought Origami was - paper folding. Then you went and caught a hoodlum out of it and didn't sink and actually landed the fish! Of course it was too big to fit in the esky and yet you still want a 2m king now. With luck like yours you will probably get it so I reckon you should buy a second origami boat and turn it into a big floating esky - tow it around so you have somewhere to put that 2m monster into. Mate your adventure was amazing. Broken rod to begin with, totally apathetic about the expectations, fishing in a paper boat, hooking and landing a proper kingie and making it home alive so you can have some sashimi. How do you compete with that? I'm not gonna break all my rod tips before a trip... Seriously impressive fishy - love ya work mate.
  10. A Rockhopper fishing on a beach, with lures then with bait. That's what I call versatility ! Beautiful fish you got there - I'll take quality over quantity any day. I wonder why the fish would not go for a lure and did go for the bait? Can you get a lure that looks like an injured pipi? Lol you can tell I ain't a lure fisho. I'm not patient enough to go beyond the basics of bait - seems twitching a rod every 2 seconds, cast after cast is too much like hard work. I would get RSI of the shoulder before I caught a fish. Fresh fish over coals - now that's what I'm talking about. I just had breakfast and I'm hungry already!
  11. Hey fishy. I lived nearby to the wharf from 1965 to 1977. I go there once very few years as a nostalgia thing. Last time I was there about 3 years ago. I lost a 40+cm bream at the wharf edge on a yakka fillet - shame - I wanted to get a photo and release. That day one guy was chucking a big popper at the moorings coz a mate of his told him some decent kings also lurk there. These days I fish in my 6m boat in Botany bay - yes that's right - big boat in the bay like a big baby - lol.
  12. Hey Fishy, That's Yarranabee park, my old stomping grounds. I grew up there. If you're interested, here is what i used to catch there: 1. Early morning, catch some yakkas from the jetty and put them on for live bait for john dory. 2. The yakkas are also good as crab bait for blue swimmers 3. Cast out lures or yakka fillets as close to the yacht moorings for big bream and the odd legal reddie 4. Peeled prawns under the jetty often has some nice fan-belly jackets BTW, very nice flatty, I never got many as a kid there and hope you get many more😁
  13. Bananas are my good luck charm as well but I never thought of bringing a whole bunch and stuffing them in my mouth in one go like that. Mate that is gold. Looks like a banana moustache the village people would be proud of. Is that the coogee trag grounds you're on? I used to fish there a lot in my younger days and the pros used to work it as well. Nice to see there are still a lot of bananas there, oh and lots of fish too.
  14. Hey Gundi4, You know what you gone and done now don't you? Sending Scratchie out to find the best live pike grounds! Well done - thinking outside the box and trying stuff because the 'usual' isn't working is a sign of genius.
  15. Hey crusher, That's an amazing story. It reminds me of when that happened to me when I was in my early 20's. A local guy helped me out, donated a float and gave me some pointers. Our friendship grew over the years and he eventually game me hundreds of floats, techniques that few people knew about, how to select the best bait, how to bait up, read current lines, how to strike depending on the type of the down, washing fish out, burleying and how to fish the trail, keeping the fish alive, cleaning, filleting, cooking, you name it. The only thing he didn't do was to eat the fish for me. I repaid favours by entertaining the group with ridiculous jokes and kept them smiling when they started to yawn. It was a great 20 years on the stones. We stayed good friends for 30 years until he was no longer able to fish and I spent more time on the boat than the rocks. I was well watered (thanks for the prov reference Pickles) and these days I am happy to water others. Occasionally I walk down to bare island and remember the good old days. Nostalgia is a wonderful thing. Befriend people like these and repay favours generously - the next 30 years will be amazing for you as well😄
  16. Who the hell named the fish seargeant baker anyways? Can you imagine if you're amongst some not-so-fishing mates and you get asked what are your goals in life, then you state loudly and proudly "I love to get my hands on a good sargeant baker"? They are gonna tell you they are happy that you finally came out of the closet. They will probably ask you if your boat is named "the closet". Should have called the fish RED GOLD.There are are more people out there competing for biggest baker than there are for snapper I reckon. And when you get a good one, there are more cheers for that fish than there is for any other fish.Everyone is laughing and congratulate you on a truly fine capture. Some fishing clubs even have a trophy for it. OK seriously now - that's a nice bunch of fish there and obviously a great fishery. Also you got a lot of enthusiasm to travel all that way for a day in the hope of a world record baker. The things we do for a fish.
  17. My old blackfishing mentor used to say "Good fishermen catch everything". ...and you did 🙂
  18. What's the record for a tailor at FR or even in Australia? The 97cm fish would be up there wouldn't it? BTW did it jump? You would have thought it was a jumpin jewie ! Maybe it's a stray American bluefish
  19. I've caught them from 0.5m to about 70m at the peak off sydney. Yep they are everywhere and often save the day when other species are not around. I actually love to eat them - fresh, bled, skinned, filleted, deboned and lightly fried in your favourite herbs/spices. Add a greek salad (olives+fetta cheese) and crusty bread + a nice white wine and you have a beautiful meal that won't break the bank.
  20. That's a true hunter-gatherer instinct. It gives me the greatest sense of achievement to look at a spot, analyse the available data, devise a strategy, execute, make some adjustments and catch fish. I don't do it very often but when I do my head gets so big I can't stand upright. I do the same when I invent fishing rigs or tools. Eg I invented a stingray hook remover for when I'm in the bay and the rays are bad. No more lost hooks and safe from being stung. This sense of achievement is one of the biggest attractors for me to fish so kudos to you for your success on the blackfish.
  21. Hey Yon, The info I'm using is: 1. the fight lasted at least several minutes. 2. the fish made short powerful runs. If it was a king: 1. The fight would be over very quickly 2. The run (probably only need one in reefy country) would be sustained until the reefing If it was a shark: 1. Likely a bite off quickly 2. If no bite off, the shark skin would scrape up the mono for at least a metre above the hook before biteoff 3. The runs are usually powerful and sustained (makos, bull sharks, bronzies and maybe other species) 4. They don't reef you If it was a ray: 1. Depending on the ray species, they can be sustained or short but always powerful 2. The prominent species of ray off the rocks is the black ray and they are powerful but I'm unsure if their fight style is short runs or not. 3. Rays don't reef you but because they swim mainly across the bottom, they might accidentally rub you off Also curious to know if that monster did you 3 times in the same session or once per session in 3 sessions? Conclusion: Probably a huge SNAPPER !!! Er no sorry I mean a large ray 🙂
  22. Did you get a weight on that fish? It looks very fat - way over 80kg
  23. Peeling the skin off required first to run the knife between the skin and the flesh, from front to tail, on the top of the fillet and the bottom. You need a narrow blade knife for this. Then you grab the skin with pliers and slowly strip it off. When the skin is gone, you fillet the fish - so easy.
  24. Brings back memories of my 20 year stint fishing the stones. I got a bit tired of eating the fish plain fried and a friend of mine showed me a more tasty recipe. Clean the fish: Bleed them, head them (scales on). Skin them (peel off skin with pliers). Fillet them (leave the rib bones on the spine). Cut out the lateral line bones. Cut the fillet into cubes and fry in a tom-yum paste. Serve on a bed of steamed rice. The tom-yum covers most of the stronger flavour of the fish. It worked well for me for many years until I gave up fishing the stones. Divers and fishos became bitter rivals with lots of fights. Also some shady shore-based onlookers stole stuff (gear and fish) so I left the stones and got back to my boat fishing. Well done Keith - your reports are unique here and are very much appreciated.
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