Mike89

It's tough out there sometimes! Always good to get out for adventures.

Awesome fish mate well done.

This is another major reason why I love blackfish. Any time of the day will produce, no need for those 330AM kingfish starts!

I have the older 475B Blackfish Special reel, very similar to the new one that is now available. I would highly recommend it as a halfway towards a true centrepin. When you first hook up to a nice fat one and feel the spin of the spool in your fingers and palm as the fish starts to lunge you will see why this style of reel is so popular. Also makes drifting the float out along long drifts and ocean rocks much more smooth. You will get the hang of it!

Great pics Jon as always. Looks like some good fish among them. Enjoyed the report, top read!

Unreal. Must have been some blistering runs. Did you assume kingy? Great report.

That's a bloody ripper mate, well done. I love blackfishing but have never caught a drummer. Tried a couple of times but no luck as of yet. Which are the safer ledges around Sydney Harbour? Nice work on the release.

Good stuff Dez.

Hey mate didn't check in last week how did you go? I threw some baits out a few nights back for zilch. Used to smash the area quite often with livies for kings, salmon and occasional jew so it's worth it if you can get in there during the day. Think it has been a bit quiet lately though.

Some fat boys starting to show up! Good stuff.

Top action on the fly mate! Also like the haiku.

Nice haul there!

Cracking snip snap mate. Well done.

I used to fish the rock wall around Chiswick for blackies. We had some good consistency there and would see the kings shoot through on occasion (once witnessed a bloke simply net a 70cm king as the school jetted past - probably not legal but the kings are sefinitely there!). Cheers for the tips mate, will be sure to check out a few of the places mentioned in this post. Tight lines bud!

Hello raiders! I've been seeing some reports lately of some big juicy winter whiting being caught off the beaches and am determined to give it a red hot crack. Trouble is in my 3 years of fishing - from trevs to blackies to kings and jews - I have never had much luck or any kind of consistency with whiting. Any areas or general tips on targeting these guys? I'm not great with finding gutters but willing to put some time in. Also have a nice long noodley rod for the beach paired with an Alvey. Thanks in advance!

Ripper fish considering the weather as of late! Well done. Interesting to see you on the Alvey there.

Wow, incredible fish on light gear. Good work.

Awesome. What was the leader?

Bad luck on the flatties. I've also found it easy to lead them even on very light leader. Nice pic of the cornets. So this is different to a long tom? I've had a chase on plastics at the Lake from something that looked like a long tom.

Good stuff mate.

There are a couple of options that I would use targeting kings with live baits. 1. Use a float: use a largish float (go to the tackle store and tell them you need a float for kings) with a decent sized sinker to get your cast out and to balance your rig. Above the float you should have a stopper. My preferred depth would be around 3-4m with a trace from the swivel to a 4/0 beak hook (live bait hooks I find to be too thick and likely to kill your bait) of 60cm. 2. A sliding rig with a clip holding an 80g sinker (stars are good but you can also use a snapper lead). Your trace here will be slightly longer (a metre or just under). Again, a 4/0 beak hook. As for rigging your livies, you can pin them through the top lip (this will make it less likely you will kill them when you reel them back in), in the back on the fleshy part just behind the head (kings like to take baits head first) or towards the tail through the back (they will swim more freely however you may kill them if you reel them backwards through the water). If you are hooking them through the back, don't ever hook them below the lateral line. If you do, you'll get into their guts and they will die. If you're using yakkas the lateral line is easy to spot - it's the yellow line across their body on each side from head to tail. 20-30lb braid and a 30lb leader should be right for you if you are targeting these fish for the first time. Good luck!

Hoping one (or more) of the raiders out there might be able to help on this one. I was thinking of picking up a new outfit for live-baiting for kings over summer. Baits are yakkas up to 25cm but usually around the 20cm and under range. Not sure what that might end up being in grams? I wanted to get a nice sturdy rod around the 7-8 foot length that can handle throwing out these baits. I've seen some guys using the Saltist Hyper and I really like the look of the rod. Trouble is it comes in so many different lengths/weights that I'm not sure which one is suitable. My goal is to find a balance where I can fish light enough that it's not complete overkill but heavy enough that I can cast the baits I'm looking to throw out. Generally I would throw out a yakka with an 80gm sinker. I'm looking at a 6000 or 8000 Baitrunner D to match. Is the 8000 too much? My thoughts so far for the setup would be to get the 702MH and match it with a 6000 Baitrunner and stick some 30lb braid on it. Any reason I should take it up a notch and get the heavy 792H (PE 6, same cast weight) or the 82XH (PE 8)? Could be a nice setup for sharks/LBG if I was interested in giving that a go... Obviously kings are possible on far lighter gear but this setup would be mostly for pitching out livies with kings as a main target.

Beautiful jew there. Looks like it all came together. Curious how you rig the beach worms up with you are targeting jew? Good work!

Nice work on the king. The Terez really shouldn't have snapped in half like that. Happy to hear that Shimano helped you out. Plenty more to come!

That'll keep you going back for more! Good stuff and nice flatty. Too bad about the big one!