huntman

chris paul, i am biased though.

I was there in the first two weeks of feb, we fished hard for not much. Lots of stingrays off the beaches, and there was a red weed which fouled our lines and made fishing hard. Blackfish seemed to be the most staple fish in the system although we did pick up a couple of nice bream and a big flatty in the river from the boat. The rock wall is a good spot.

post up a photo. It should be fine to eat, but there is no way to be sure unless we can see what you are talking about.

Hey guys, this has been posted a while ago, but there is a DPI kingfish catch and release study being performed in the harbour on the weekend of the 21st-22nd of feb, and they still need a few more boats. The research will be used to help scientists have concrete data on how many fish survive after being caught. A similar study was conducted on tailor and very few died, so I expect this will be something worthwhile to get involved with that will help show that size limits and bag limits are effective ways of managing fisheries. I will be there helping out, and if you are keen too shoot an email to paul butcher on pbutcher@nmsc.edu.au pretty much all you will be doing is catching kingies, there's not a lot else that will be required, just a few formalities. Looking forward to seeing some raiders there, make sure you let me know if you sign up so I can say hello!

my biggest is 95cm. I reckon its a baby compared to some of the brutes in the harbour.

I know a few commercial fishermen, one uses nets, the rest use lead lines for kings. There is heaps of dodgey stuff that goes on in the fishing world, and they'll never stop everyone from breaking the rules, but what has been done for kings is working, and kingies are in plague proportion in the harbour this year. I think there are other species that you should get more worried about if you want to get a bee in your bonnet about something. Like tuna for example. The tuna stocks are rooted especially southern bluefin.

I have done it successfully. The most important factor in keeping them alive is actually water temperature. If you have an aerator that is usually enough for water quality (provided the squid has settled down and not inked itself) but if the water in the bucket gets too hot then the squid will die. Same thing goes for baitfish. Depending on how hot the night is, you might need to cool the bucket down with whatever you can. I'm thinking of trying river water ice cubes, but in the past we have also just thrown a frozen bottle of water into the bucket for a while unopened. Hard to do while you sleep tho... You're probably better off getting up early to be honest Fish are easier.

sad to hear you guys didn't manage any good kings to speak of. I hope the day was fun anyway.

they don't have everything ready yet I presume. The study was supposed to start in december, but it must be running late. There's no point in them collecting kings at the social if the sea cages and stuff aren't ready BIGREDMAN: I go to uni at coffs, I've spoken to paul butcher a few times. Are you involved with the study? If so I might know you

it would be good except the research starts february I know some of the guys involved in this research, they were classmates of mine and doing it for an honours project. I spoke to paul about it earlier in the year, and I was wondering what had happened because it was meant to get going in december but it must have been running late. It will be interesting to see the results of the research. Get involved and help these guys Similar stuff has been done with snapper and tailor I'm told.

wow that shovel nose is as big as you!

I read a scientific study on jewfish behaviour and there was some interesting things that were observed about how jews live, what they eat and other things. In this study which was estuary based it was foun d that each fish actually has a single home that they establish themselves in, and they will pass over seemingly good habitat to find one they like. Once established, they mainly eat prawns until they are just over legal size (which is why many jouvenile jews are caught on prawns). There may be several fish in the one hole, but not a large number. Once the jew grow to a large enough size they require a different diet and ambush small fish from their holes. They also have been known to travel large distances up and down the estuary to find food, always returning to their hole. They feed on small fish primarily at this stage. The feeding tends to happen at slack tide, but it can last for several tide changes sometimes, and jews have been known to cover up to two thirds the length of an estuary/river system in one feeding session. The study tracked resident estuary jews and not jews that come into the system seasonally to feed, but it provides some clues as to the behaviour of the species. These are the conclusions I drew as a fisherman from reading the report, many of which are similar to what people have experienced: * If you are fishing on a hole in which a jew resides, you can catch them at any tide, at any time of the day, particularly on moving baits or lures as they will strike at it to protect territory or as an easy meal. This will often be a smaller fish, less than 100cm. * Fish the tide changes in thoroughflow areas to maximise the number of jews passing your bait. This is why bridges are good. Not only do jews reside at the bridges, but many feeding and immigrating jews pass there as they are usually built at narrow points in river and estuaries. * if jews are schooling up it is usually the immigrating jews, not the resident ones, and they are found seasonally. * flesh baits and squid strips are an easy meal and will do well for fish that are roaming around for food. I am studying marine science at uni and all the fishermen in the course spend every lecture break talking about catching jews and kingfish. If you want to regularly catch jews you have to put in time regularly into catching them with a single method, and refine, refine refine. As you meet old weathered secretive jew fishermen at bait grounds and out on the water fishing if they see you are a regular they will help you out. No one is going to go the extra mile an help a weekend warrior get onto a jew, because the culture is one of putting in the effort. All the best jew fishermen I know have been at it a long time refining their technique. One of my friends from uni has basically nailed down catching jews from a breakwall where he lives up north. He has got it so refined that he averages about one very nice fish (10-15kg) in every two trips, but he started out catching nothing for ages, and just trying to watch the old masters of the trade and see what they do. I think threads like this are great because they fill you in on the stuff you need to know before you even go out at all, but it's still perserverence that will get you over the line. If you really want a great jew, read all the stuff all the old fellas in this thread have to say, then get out there and keep trying everything until you nail one, then keep refining. Your jew spot will require slightly different methods to everyone else's but there's already more than enough info here to get most people started. My aim for '09 is my first beach jew. I've only landed them in the rivers thus far. I had one very promising run off a beach last year on squid, but no hookup as I was fiddling with something else at the time Good luck to all the raiders going after jew!

woah imagine if you packed up a half hour earlier

I've been using fins for a couple of months and i love it. Only one wind knot so far, and that was when a friend of mine who doesn't fish was left casting it unattended.

One kingfish that was over 100cm long was found to be only four years old. Growth rates and size vary a lot, and as you can see from those stats from the paper above, one fish that is 80cm may have had babies, and another that big is several years away from reproducing. The legal limit for most fish is set at the point where 50% of the fish have reached sexual maturity, so you are still allowing them to spawn before they get eaten. With kingfish, when they set the limit of 60cm originally they had no idea when they matured, they were just like "thats pretty big, should be ok". Then they did some research and realised it should be closer to 75cm or 80cm, so i wouldn't be suprised if they slowly work it up to 75, maybe over 5-10 years, especially if no marine park goes ahead around sydney. That might seem pretty harsh if they jack it up to 75, but the kings grow fast, and you'll just get more bruiser kingfish residing in the harbour over winter, and 1m kingfish will not be the holy grail of inshore kings, they'll be pretty common. Especially as angler technology gets better, because there are a lot more 100cm+ brutes being hooked and lost due to shoddy gear or inexperience.