Pickles

Is anyone able to provide any links to where “tempo” Centrepin reels are able to be sourced. I was told there is a fellow near Swansea who makes them. cheers bob

Great report scratchiest, don’t apologise for posting about snapper - keep the reports coming

Aorangi, could you explain the “hybrid rig please”

Great reportGeoff

Great report Plummo and very comprehensive (a pic of the Jew would be good - probably too dark though).

Hit the water both Sat and Sunday. What a difference. On Saturday, a SSW and fairly choppy early and lots of boats on the harbour. The squid easy to find and Kingies around in numbers, but lots of rats and only a few in the 70’s. Sunday windy early, I thought it was going to be one of those “ I should have stayed home and mowed the lawns days” then wind dropped it was flat and calm and sunny - as good as the harbour gets, but squid slow and hard to find. Both days small Yakkas were hard to find, but bigger ones easy (but the smaller the Yakkas, the more the Kingies like them). Overall a great weekend - several keepers and several between 70 - 90cm and lots returned toget bigger for next year.

Nice effort, good report and well deserved

Steve - one of my buddies was keen to catch a Kingie, having never got one before. HE does a bit of beach fishing and gets salmon and tailor, but never hooked a king. Phil has been out quite a bit with me, so knew what to expect. i was pretty confident we’d get at least1/2 dozen (which was what we ended up landing, as well as Salmon) if the water temp was around the magic 18degrees. (My experience is the smaller kings under 80 cm seem to either shut down or go offshore below this). We had no trouble getting squid - the big winter green eyes are showing up and we got one Kracken around 60cm (didn’t stretch the tentacles out or would have been over 70), but small yakkas were hard to locate. We didn’t waste time filling up the bait tank with squid as they have been so easy to get. The squid were off The southern headland which was protected as a strongish 15-20k ssw on Wednesday, hence I didn’t go outside to Long reef, 12 mile which was the plan. The rough water seems to appeal to squid which seem to like this “troubled water”, wasn’t fun and the wind was pushing towards the rocks - Praise God for Minn Kota’s. The kings were all caught down rigging live squid. The water temp was 14 degrees on outgoing tide and 18 on in coming and they were pretty sluggish. I had to go lighter as the sounder showed lots underneath us but they wouldn’t look as 80lb or 50lb leaders and ones we caught and landed were on 20 and 30lb, but we did loose two, but toss up at this time of year - do you go light and loose them or heavy and get no hits? If you happen upon a big and hungry unit, then even 80lb is too light. I keep a rod ready with 60lb braid and 130lb Fluoro, but it’s a 1:10 chance. No kings were caught on the Yakkas, but there were salmon and tailor that took the Yakkas and trevally on strips of yellowtail. By lunchtime the sun was out, rain gear off and the harbour was “bootiful” We are indeed blessed to have such a magnificent place with such a healthy marine environment. Keep our harbour clean raiders and pick up any discarded rubbish, plastic bags and waste line - we’ll all benefit if you do.

Hit the water on Saturday to chase Kingies (- love those big string pulling brutes). The weather wasn’t ideal and there were very few boats in the car park - very different to last Lo weekend, but it is winter. it amazing that Kingies are still around in good number, especially given the water temp varied from 15 - 20 degrees, here’s praying they hang around all winter. yakkas were a little hard to find and most were caught on fresh cut baits (yellowtail) and not the livies. John, Chantelle and James had a ball with a Tripp.e hookup at one stage. We got busted up several times as the kings became more wary as each fish got caught and we were going lighter and lighter (6lb on light spinning gear made for good fun). The girls won the day with Chantelle bagging a 68cm dusky showing very good angling skills.

I’d be interested in folks rod suggestions (what is currently available) for Ludderick. I’ve gots a Sportex 662 and Butterworth- both blanks I built over 40 years ago and need something for boat use (9-11’) thanks in anticipation

Dollies on both days about an hour after sunup - 7.30am

Went out early on Monday chasing late season Dollies after getting half a dozen a few days before. U fortunately they had moved on, but there were Kingies around, but just not interested I love baits or jigs. As wind and storms were predicted mid morning we headed back inside and the Kingies were going nuts again and we bagged 3 in a few minutes, but as a low pressure bought storms, strong winds and rain hit, the kings just disappeared - completely shut down. This supports a long held belief that air pressure effects fish behaviour. On the way back to the ramp, stopped of for a quick bait session and the sun came out, kings came back and a school of red bigeyes came our way.

All fish legal (don’t keep anything that isn’t - ever). pretty sure the bream were black bream - pretty u usual at the mouth of the Hawkesbury. there are some stonier tailor cruising around Barrenjoey at present

Toss up between chasing Kings in the harbour again or trying the Hawkesbury for snapper. Tne Hawkesbury won and the weather and sea was brilliant. After getting a swag of livies at West Head we headed for flint and steel - the results were a mixed bag of 40 fish including 12 snapper 8 black bream, a dozen tailor, 2 squid and a 1 50 cm hammerhead on a soft plastic and 2 Kingies.

Decided to give my shoulders a rest and see if any Dollies still around. Yep here still there and the bigger legal ones keen to take big Yakkas (couldn’t get any little ones). After a weekend when squid were easy and Kingies finicky, yesterday (Monday), the squid were really hard and kings still around. Following g screen shot is in north harbour. Yakkas were also extra big, so not the best Kingies baits, but a few went off, but most were boated on cut baits - weren’t interested in squid today.