Pickles

Well done Crusher - good on you picking up the rubbish “Keep Australia beautiful”

Well done Bryant, you deserved that big bream for braving the conditions - were the seas big?

Good fish Longy for inside. The Port is an area I’d like to know a lot better - always some great reports of snapper.

Ha ha, Noooo, don’t do charters, but keen about sharing the passion of fishing with others and always willing to take blokes out and share the magnificence of Gods creation. My only hiccup is, although I have a licence and drive I need someone to pull my 5 m tinny, but there’s always someone happy to tangle with Kingies, dolphin fish or Jewies, which I tend to target, who will pull the boat.

Cheers Dunc

Try bridle rigging with a rubber and. If you haven’t done this before, You’ll need a live bait needle and no 12 or 14 rubber band from Office works. There are Youtube videos on how to do this. Pass the needle through the membrane in front of the eye, without piercing the eye, there is a soft cavity, there should be no blood. There should be a loop with half of the rubber band on either side of the fishes eyes / head (so two loops on either side of the head). Pass the hook (livebait Mustad hoodlum no 6 is my go to hook for Kingies) through each loop of the rubber band and twist 5 times and pass the barb through the twist. The harbour Pilchards (red tails) drop their scales very easily and don’t live long as a live bait. hope this helps. Check out those YouTube clips

Onya James. Try a Tiemco black cicada, cast and leave it without touching it for 20 seconds, then a twitch, leave for 5 seconds, twitch again, then slow retrieve (and hold on).

Great report MR Swordfisherman. Thanks for sharing. Kings are such a buzz, even the little guys punch above their weight. Keep on posting and “sharing the love”

Never get tired of catching Kingies, but wanted a change of diet, so decided to target bream and Jewies. My mate Steve fishes Broken Bay area a lot, so we decided to play “show me yours (Broken Bay) and I’ll show you mine (Sydney Harbour). We put in at Berrowra for a run to Broken Bay. I hadn’t used this ramp for 10 years and forgot what a lovely ramp and area it is (and Café with good coffee nearby). Only downside is - no wash down area like my usual spot at Roseville. The bays on the way out sounded up bait fish - not sure if there is any squid in these bays (does anyone know - a PM would be great), I guess they would be arrow squid ? We fished Patonga shores on sun up for small (but legal) bream, but only kept those over 40cm. We fished very light 8lb, which was like spiders web compared to my usual Kingie gear, but it certainly did the job. I hooked and handed over to 10year old Jensen, who did an artful job of getting a 63 cm Jew to the side of the boat and backed up with a soapy still in nappies shortly after. Tides were small, so minimal run - always good for bream. After being bitten off again and again in between bream, I swapped from wide gape 1/0s to long shank no 2s and started getting 25-45 cm tailor We moved to Flint and Steel and then the middle grounds. I put out a slightly heavier line 15lb with ganged rig for bigger tailor with a slab of salted Bonito and was smoked after a long run with several head shakes. Hard to call, but Was probably a big Jew but more likely a shark (I’ve caught many Blue,, Mako and Hammerheads in past years around Lion Island) Steve and Hayden also we’re smoked after a long run twice, but on 8lb, so possibly snapper or Jews. I had a “farewell” back at Baulkham hills so had to leave the water at 10 am, but it was turning into a stinking hot day, so didn’t mind getting into an air conditioned car. Lord, bring on winter. A great day in Gods creation with mates and flathead, bream, tailor for dinner, but no jewfish (all released of course)

Yakkas were easy again today and again a perfect size. Squid have been “on one day, off the next” and variable size, some big green eyes and some small “Kingie Candy” size. Water was 24.6 - 25 and perfect clear blue and warm. Conditions were perfect for trolling the headlands, nice calm conditions and low winds. The Kingies obliged, so did the Bonito and patches of birds working Slimies , all keen to take a bait or 20gram jig. We stopped a few times to throw at the schools and Bonito smashed slabs of yellowtail and even whole livies intended for the kings. Pete’s first time out fishing for Kings and Steve’s first legal (70cm). a great day on a great waterway.

Yakkas were easy again today and again a perfect size. Squid a bit harder though, probably due wind chop. Water was 24.6 degrees at the heads and BIG Kingies came out to play in beautiful blue “fishy” water - so different to a few days ago when the water was grey. Within 20 seconds of putting the Minkota down and pot locking, a strip bait on 2/0 hook for slimies was monstered and the first Kingie stripped 30m of 15lb line in about 7 seconds, turned for the bottom and then the inevitable bust off - smoked. I upgraded to a 50 lb outfit on a small overhead with a livie bridled up and fed back in the burley trail and again - smoked. This time I had it on for about a minute and thought I was going to have a “metery” on board, alas again smoked on the bottom. I love Kingies - they fight hard and dirty and it’s uplifting when you get one onboard. Peter put out a livie on a big overhead and ugly stick on mono. The stretch saved the day and he boated a 94 cm hoodlum. Total Kingies for two days = 10, gotta love living in Sydney

A great day on the water today with Tony and Lachlan. Bait was easy to collect and perfect “Kings Candy” size. Water Conditions were a little choppy off shore, but water was blue and warm - 25 degrees. There were lots of schools of Bonito eager to swallow baits of live Yakkas, salted slimies or strips of fish flesh. Tailor got into the act also and these were XOS size and I had to re-rig several times before swapping to ganged hooks. Kingies were all rats and released of course, but we were “smoked” by two kings fishing 40lb which was too light on Sydney harbour shallow reefs We Stopped in at Middle Head to restock with Yakkas then to North Harbour for a few more kings, but couldn’t find any slimies in the harbour - they were thick at the artificial 2 weeks ago - not sure if they have moved off shore or further into the harbour. I caught up with “Tony”, a fellow Fishraider and we shared some intel - hope he posts his awesome day on dollies.

Blue spots = yum

Brilliant Bruce, many thanks. I’ll have my boat - you’d be most welcome to come outside if weather is good and bar behaving itself

A good feed, were you fishing light?

Top effort Bruce - a really nice mixed bag of eating fish - I bet the ray gave you a hurry up on 2kg gear

After 38 years of leaning my rods up against the wall, I finally got around to building a storage rack for (most) of them. its a bit sad (my wife thinks obsessive) but there are 27 rods and reels not on the storage wall (68 in total). Am I “sick”, obsessed or just a keen fish

Top effort JonD - dreaming of “little kings” of 85cm

Great report Dunc, a good feed there mate

Great report Peter, I’m heading up in a few weeks, hope the bait grounds are performing better by then

Gold

Brilliant Scratchie, you’re a legend

Hi Anthman, sorry to take a while to reply. I get most of my kings on fresh (live or recently killed) squid or cuttlefish. At the moment they have been taking smaller jigs (1.8 -2.5) Mostly they have been plentiful, but windy days are harder than others.

Caught up for a fish with John (hadn’t been out with him for 2 years) who had a Flexi day on Friday and “Hutch”, a school mate. ”Raiders” are a great bunch of blokes and had feedback from several FR buddies on the water. We shared intel and got a heap of ”slimies” In between he heads, we kept a dozen of the bigger ones for a feed (if the throats are cut and they on ice immediately they are great - smoked or BBQ are my favourite). The perfect conditions meant a run outside and we were headed for the fads to chase dollies, but the sounder interacted our plans and we ended up with a bag of Pannie reds and suffered a “rat attack” of little kings, which monstered anything of any size that hit the water. a good day out with mates - perfect weather, flat conditions and heaps of fish “”Thank you God””- life doesn’t get much better.

Haven’t been to Broken Bay for a while, but heard the bream were going nuts, turned out I couldn’t find the hungry hoards, so targeted my favourite Kingfish and boated 7 rats all in the 60-70 cm range just of West Head. Lots of boats collecting bait (Yakkas) and everyone seemed to be getting busted off by rogue rats hitting jigs I tended for the Yakkas. Plenty of bait around and swell and wind good until 11 am. Tried outside at several of the offshore reefs, but boated all the little kings inside at Pittwater. Got a good feed of flatties, but all little (40-50cm) Squid we’re not hard, but only little green eyes. - No pics as we’ve all seen little Kingies. The boys hard a good time on light gear and lost as many as boated.