BIGG DADDA TREVS

planning to head out this weekend and try for kingfish with livies, looking at 12mile and the peak. Any advice would be greatly appreciated TIA

About two months ago i caught my first kingfish on lure, havent visited fishraider for a little so havent posted. Reading @DerekD‘s post about his central coast kings got me fired up again since originally Derek taught me the retrieve for kingfish along with lots of other important info about kingfish which definately helped me with getting this beauty. I was out with two mates and after getting a few flathead, decided to come back inside cos i wasnt feeling too great. Came back into pittwater and fish some pilchards, fish didnt hit so i decided to put on a little lure after seeing some whitebait getting spooked. I still reckon this was mostly luck but i was just hopping it on the bottom and suddenly just took off. Line was a little frayed from flatties so took it easy. Got it up and my mate scooped it up. While i was unhooking it my mate picked up my rod and dropped it down to try his luck, hooked up almost instantly to a good sized trevally. My other mate then had a go and got a flounder. What ive taken away from this is that correct lure choice is key, these fish were keyed in on small baitfish and wouldnt eat a pillie. Very happy with this catch and an awesome day out on the water.

Thanks for that Derek, one hell of a read. Great fish there and seems like u had lots of fun. Awesome effort

i own and use a 4000 stradic fk, i usually fish 4-6kg of drag on it. It is rated at 11kg of drag, personally my opinion is that the actual drag system has the ability o produce 11kg of drag. However, the reel cannot handle that, at around 8-9 kg the bail i think would start flipping open. But 4-6kg is plenty for most species inshore species as the ci4 is meant for inshore light game rather than metre kings.

Are they still around or spread out and cleaned up already? Thx

Ye man the reel was so good to catch a fish on. Really put the drag to good use but still need to really test them on hopefully kingies at port stephens this weekend. Does anyone know it they still around or could provide locations thx. Ye man the bonnies busted first around 830-9 and then later at 530. They were caught on a cheap 30g metal. Kingy was just in arvo around 4.

Do u go cg often mate? I fish there frequently and i might have bumped into sometime

A pic of the flatty cause couldn't include it in the main section PS, does anyone know how to rotate the image? Thx

Went with 2 buddies and @Pattherat to his place north of Sydney for a few days of fishing and crabbing. Got there thursday morn and decide to go fishing. I fished plastics while everyone else a mix of bait and plastics. No action on the plastics so decided to help my mates who new with this type of fishing. Had them on a tiny hook with a longshank to try for the numerous dink bream there. To everyones surprise the little bait rod goes off, screaming drag running around the boat into broken branches. The he stops moving, he was proper snagged. Pat smokes in his lure to help me with the fish and there was a very nice flatty behind it, he though that it was the fish on my line so he yanked the lure out of the water. We try to wiggle the fish out to no avail. We know he's still on as every now and then there's a few headshakes. As the weather was rather hot and the water was very nice and cool I decide to hop in and try to get the fish out. Since it rained the day prior the water was pretty mucky and clarity was not the greatest. We tried for quite a while following the line down and digging around unsuccessfully, I was ready to give up but pat insisted on 1 more dive. Deep breath and straight to the bottom this time, instead of trying to untangle the line I yanked the branch out and pat got a good look at the stick. The bream was tangled up everywhere in the branch. Got the fish out and we went for a swim in the creek. Before that though we dropped 4 pots with bonito heads and frames around the mangroves to try for muddies. Swam around, messing about with some half-hearted fishing mixed in and 2 hours later we pulled the pots. First on up had an average sized crab, around 10-12cm vertically across the back. Second pot came another at the same size. Third pot was empty and the fourth had one large crag and another regular one. Thanks to @rickmarlin62 for the tips of having the entrances of the pots parallel to the tide. Very happy with the result we took the crabs up to the house and let them clean themselves out in the bathtub. The pots which still had bait were left in, we had dinner and headed out to check the pots again. The very first one we pulled housed a large crab and a ray. The remaining 3 pots were all empty, we think that the yield is dictated very much by the tide. The first drop was through the high tide and the second was low running out, hence the less successful second attempt. next day was far too hot for any fishing or crabbing during the day so we just stayed inside and watched some movies. Then as the sun began to lower we set 2 pots loaded with bait. Checked them 2 hours later and one was empty the other had 1 very respectable size crab measuring 15 length ways across the shell and another average size crab but since we already had so many crabs we let that one go. We left the one untouched pot overnight to see what it would yield. Third day we went out at high tide to pull the pot left overnight but unfortunately the bait was gone and the pot was empty. Just a question, does anyone know if we should check to pots more often and not leave overnight cause the crabs get out? We took the chance at high tide to pull the boat out and get it clean for the trip back. Since the big boat was out we took a little rowing boat down to our usual spot and tried for flattys. Cast for a while with nothing, suddenly I get a nice hit. A decent flatty around 40. Not too long later pat picks up my rod to try the different lure, second cast he hooks a nice 43. We keep casting but nothing. Out of nowhere a massive hit and I rip the rod up, fish on! Very nice fish, able to peel line of my 4000 size reel (I know its a little overkill for flatties. 30lb leader too but pat assured me the fish in the creek were pretty dumb). 4 or 5 series of runs later we land this absolute monster for a little creek such as this. Measured 80 on the money. Left the next day and thx to pat for letting me nick those 2 muddies of ya! Ate them that night and they were crackin! Great fishing and crabbing trip up the coast.

I've caught them at bobbin head on sabikis but only been there once and only time I've really consistently caught alot. Also caught them on sabikis at night in narrabeen lakes. Lots of people catch em on fly since thats their natural diet and also floating bread works apparently. Don't know if I'm any help but if u want any detail I'm here.

When you say the gear doesn't matter there is a lot of truth there, however factoring in the boat and all the tackle that's big bucks. All in all very nice day and great result, I started my fishing with all k-mart gear and still have my pb bream on that stuff.

I'm not familiar with fishing up north but it does look like a GT, the tail and overall shape matches, however all the coloration is different and the eye is very large, looking like a greater trevally caranx sexfasciatus.

Pics of the bonnies

18th December, I decided to spend a day down at clifton to see how the fishing is, what a great choice it was! Got there around 730 to fish the high tide at 830, 1 dink trevs and that was it. Decided to wait it out and fish later into the arvo. Spoke with another kid who was there with who i think is his older brother or friend, pretty serious anglers they were, stella 8000 rigged for livebaits and a sustain for smaller whateverbites. They had live prawns and were pitching em from the jetty and managed a few very nice bream which went back in the drink, one of which went 37. We chatted while trying to entice some of the monster whiting around there, tried live prawn, yabby lures and worms but the were just not interested(please help if anyone know how to catch these!). Just killing time until finally every went from 0-100 reel quick. Big bust ups withing casting distance and he had the whiting rig still on his ultra-light when he pitched in a pillie chunk, as soon as it hit the water zzzzzzzzzzzz his reel screamed. Being on my mission for first sp pelagic i cast in a slapstick and get bites left right and center but somehow manage to not hook one. The busting stopped and it gave up to help him land his fish. What we thought was a bonito turned out to be a ripper salmon, 20 min fight and he was on the steps. Didn't measure but i estimate around 60, a great catch on 2lb leader and size 12 longshank. Then rocks up a guy with 2 saltigas, starts absolutely cubing like mad and hooks up straight away with a big bonnie he gave away. Then comes a salmon he savagely flips onto the jetty and another bonnie shortly after. During this I fished some weightless pillies for trevs, hook 3 absolute huge fish all around 50 but pull hooks on all of em trying to skulldrag em from under the jetty. I switch over to 30lb leader and a 1/0, bait up a really nice tail piece and I pitch it in to hook up straight away. What I thought was a tiny trev comes straight to the surface with a big stripe across is face and a forked yellow tail. Set the hook a little extra and he realises he's hooked, takes of with a strong run towards the other side of the structure and i run after him. I flip him with my little 1.8m rod and i have landed a very healthy kingfish. He flips 2 and one of his keeps. Stopped fishing after that to head home after a very long and grueling day. Tuesday the 19th, expecting a good day ahead with my mate PATTHERAT we arranged to meet at clifton around 9. I got there 830 and managed a tiny trevor and a dink tarwhine. thats all the fish i ever caught that day. Pat arrives and we begin fishing. All kinds of techniques to no avail, finally we resort to micro fishing. He gets a tiny jacket, the smallest trev I have ever seen and a fish i have never seen before, later identified as a silver biddy. Fishing was very slow and toward 4 pat hooked 4 consecutive little PJs. 28th December I wanted to try my luck with early morning jigging and to get first first fish on the new setup, a stradic 4000 on a raider 742. Get to clifton around 530 and start jigging, bonito bust ups and they keep following the lure but couldn't get them to eat. nothing happens for a long time until the afternoon. Bonito busting again and i cast just past the school and begin the retrieve thinking if I don't get one i swear.. didn't get one. Keep casting well after they stopped busting and on the pause i get smashed, whip m rod up and i feel the hooks dig in. The stradic gets its first smoking, ripped of third of the spool and finally give in a little. Start pumping, get some line back and it starts charging me, winding as fast as I could i get to below my feet and I flip it straight over big bonnie. Nothing for 3-4 hours, so went for a swim and came back to cast a bit more. Nothing so i decide I should call it, my family was with some friends and they had finished their picnic get together so packed up everything leaving just the jigging rod because i still had to rinse it, decide to have one last cast. One last cast straight out in the middle of the bay and mid retrieve fish start busting at my feet, guy next to me pitches in a pillie but miraculously didn't get eaten. I smoked my metal back and jig it infront of me. Watched a silver flash and absolutely smash my lure screaming drag and a very exhilarating fight results in a shorter but definitely thicker bonito. What a last cast! great way to start up the holidays with a few more trips planned, one to the upper hawkes and another to the entrance. If there anyone i could get some help from at the entrance i would be very appreciative, I'm there 8,9 and 10th. Happy holidays.

very nice setup mate! the only thing is that ive have shimano kariki parting, the strength is still the same but just gets annoying when I'm tying knots. See if u have the problem too as u start to wear the line.

I'm looking to head up there aswell, looking to fish flatties during the day and hoping to try for my first prawn. As fishoo said I'm into any and all infor. Thx

Ye ur right, past the 90-100 mark isn't as good as smaller ones.

Love shovel nose sharks and all the other ray Sharks, super easy to catch and really good fun on light tackle. Just fry em up fish n chips style and wack on some lemon and ur sweet mate! Was actually planning to go out this arvo with PATTHERAT but called it off cus the rain.

Was it not a slimey mackerel? They get pretty big, great for bait but very dry and crummy cooked. Sashimi is pretty good.

Sounds like a really psycho sesh mate. That last pic of the flatty up close reminded me of one of my most memorable fish on lure, sightcasted a flatty and have a pic almost the same as ur's.

If you're starting out a really good species to target is flathead. They are pretty easy to catch and the techniques is not super critical. Just cast out and let it sink to the bottom, lift rod up and let ink again, continue until you get kit and set the hook hard Best way to learn is to find someone to go and fish with for a session or two, usually you will figure out the rest yourself from time but fishraider is always hear to help. Good luck!

I normally use a sabiki with diced chicken or prawn and if they're biting hard just jig the bare sabikis and they will also bite. In terms of spots in the harbour I like balmoral or clifton and most wharfs in the mosman area are infested with them. Very fun for beginning anglers cus the action almost never stops!

Normally if I fish for bream and trevally I would use a size 2 to 1/0 hook on a weightless rig. That's just the main line joined to a leader-usually quite light for these species(around 10lb +-) This method will almost always outfish bigger hooks with yakka fillet. Trevally also prefer baits like pilchard, slimy and prawn. Keep trying mate.

Exactly, I normally fish landbased lure but for when I use bait i use 1/0. But I do think that 4 or 5/0 hooks should work better offshore for snapper.

Yep, it is pretty small but I've only tried for snapper landbased. What size hooks would u suggest using for bigger snapper in the harbour. I'm heading out with some friends in the holidays to try for some.