Newport Nuffy

I was surprised @Picklesto only see around 10 boats or so at the 12. Made for learning how the new boat drifts a lot less stressful. All boats were putting good size fish on the deck - have been there many times and have never seen the kings so reliably big and all were fat!

Agree @blaxland - absolute rookie error. Turned out OK, so the learning is there without too much pain!

So I have been offline for several months as I sold out of my last boat (Boston Whaler 250 Outrage) and have recently purchased a Pursuit 3000 Offshore - needs some love, but a great layout and hull. Finally found a weather window to head out last Sunday and test the "new" boat. Headed out of Newport around 6.30am with a view to pick up some livies around Barrenjoey Heads and then go to 12 Mile. We would make the call there whether we would then go out to the shelf and chase tuna. Could not find any bait balls, so rather than keep driving around in circles, decided we would head to the 12 and jig for Kings. Boat performed beautifully - very dry ride, very comfortable but quite noisy sitting on top of 2 x 285hp diesels without any sound deadening installed! That said, we ran at a comfortable 23 knots and was there in under an hour. On board was myself, my 18 year old, a mate of his and his dad. Mate and dad hadn't jigged before so my young bloke was giving a demo on the first drop and bang....rod bends, line starts to scream off the Gosa and he brings up at 86cm king from the deep. First fish on the boat had to be ike jimi'ed, bled and put straight in to the kill tank. Great start. Through the next few hours we boated probably another 8 kings above 75cm, one rat and one Leatherjacket. Dad had yet to land one....so one more drift with he an me jigging and we are both on. I am on a PE0.8 overhead setup and my rod tip is below the water line. Dad fighting hard for his first ever king. Both get on to the boat, mate's dad goes 82cm, mine goes 90cm (a PB). Both go back to breed and fight another day. Head out to the shelf, dragged lures around for a while with nothing happening - couldn't even see a bird. Head back home, starboard engine dies 18 miles out so nurse back home on port engine running at about 10 knots - fortunately it was a very nice day with a few whales and dolphins to keep us company. Turned out to be low fuel put air in to the line and engine passed out. Was speaking to my mechanic while out there....his view was keep heading in on the other engine rather than shut everything down and try to diagnose. We followed that, got home safely on what now was apparently fumes and enjoyed filleting four big fat kings over a beer or two. All in all, a great day out. Plus a good learning to keep the fuel tank filled up!! Very happy with the new rig....only issue was caused from user error! No fish photos, but photo of the boat!

Probably right Zoran. There was apparently 25+ degree water further out. So it is a case of wait for the warmer stuff to come in hopefully in the next few weeks or head out another 10 to 15 miles and find it now.

As with many, I haven’t had as much opportunity to get out lately mainly due to weather, and those times I have looking for decent size kings haven’t produced much. So my guide (aka my 17 year old son who doesn’t contribute money to fuel) checked all the rip charts and was certain the marlin would be running in the warmer water that is moving down from the north. So, I mortgaged the house and fuelled up the Boston Whaler 250 Outrage and headed east out of Barrenjoey Heads about 6am for about 20 miles or so to a depth of 80 to 90 fathoms, found warmer water at about 24 degrees, set the spread across three Tiagras and a Talica, teasers out, sunscreen on and then we headed north at about 7 knots in search of birds, bait balls and hopefully marlin. We found some floating debris early, trolled past it a few times and saw hundreds of baby dolphin fish chasing the lures but none big enough to set a hook. Encouraging signs, but we move on heading further north. Long story (day) short, we drove around the ocean for 6 or 7 hours, caught one random dolly (which was consumed that night with a mango salsa - awesome!) and two very random kingfish but no elusive marlin. Came back via the Sydney north FADs where this time caught a couple of undersized dolly’s but the FADs look too shiny and new to have enough growth to attract the bigger fish. Whilst no marlin, it was an incredible day on the ocean with amazing encounters with dolphins throughout (my video is too big to post here). Will try again after Christmas as it is quite cathartic setting the auto pilot and driving around in the sea always anticipating that stripey or blue smashing in to the lure spread when all hell will break loose. We heard several other boats out same day who went south and were able to mark marlin on the sounder but nothing was caught. Good luck to all who head out over the holidays!

Texas is about 10 miles off Terrigal. The good thing about it is it is a big area....the bad things is it is a big area!

Before the 10km and then 5km Covid ring descended on Sydney, I was able to get out to Texas and see if the old body could sustain a day of jigging in 100m of water to chase bigger Kings. With a great forecast (the week before was also a great forecast was turned out bloody horrible!) we rounded Barrenjoey just before sunrise, went looking for a few slimies in case the body fell apart and I had to resort to bait fishing, but couldn't get anything to take the sabiki. After half an hour, we gave up, i prepared myself mentally for a day of hard work, and we set off to Texas in a very slight following sea. Once there, saw a few boats around so worked out our drift to go over the top of the peak and on first drop hooked up. Didn't fight like a King but still had to bring it up the 100m or so to see a Couda on hook which pleasingly unhooked itself just as I was about to risk losing a few fingers. I tell myself that is a good sign (not sure what logic I used to come to that conclusion!) but we moved a bit, marked a lot of predator fish on top of bait balls and then it went off. Virtually every drop we got a hit and landed around 30 Kings over the next three hours with all but one over 65cm...the majority in the 70s with the largest going to 78cm. We kept 8 and released the others - blooded and iced immediately after getting them on the boat. All the boats around were having the same type of day and all boats managed their drift well so everyone could get on to the spot (except for one guy who had his Minn Kota locked on a spot, which caused several minor drift collisions...but his own fault for not playing the team game) Used a pretty standard setup with about 240-270g jigs, 8/0 hook and a few different reels (Gosa 20000, Gosa 14000 and Ocea Calcutta 8000F towards the end to have a bit of fun). Neighbours were happy with a few Kingfish fillets for their sashimi, son was happy that he had a day out to brag about, and I was delighted to have "one of those days"! Body held up for the three hours (we were both cooked by then so decided to head home a few hours before we had originally planned), and the sore muscles for the next few days were just a nice reminder of a great day out. Get vaccinated so we can all get out there again!

Was in about 30 to 40m

Thanks GF....out of the haul, only kept 6 as I only ever take what i ant to eat for the next week or two. So, no brag photo today! When I finally get that Kingie that comes home with me, I will definitely post it. The Barracuda scared the you know what out of us, so no time to get a photo of that!

Headed out this morning with my son and one of his mates with a plan to fish Longie and maybe some flathead on the way home. Got ourselves half a dozen yellow tail livies on the way past Barrenjoey Heads and made good time down to an empty Long Reef. Had a great couple of hours with Kings hitting baits and jigs, snapper and a good size sea bream. Probably caught 20 plus kings, but again not the elusive "keeper". But, lots of fun. Then went to our usual flathead grounds.....seems today was a kindergarten day as out of probably 40 flathead caught, only one was worth keeping at about 45cm. On the run back we decided to stop at a GPS mark from the previous owner of the boat and then it really came together! Started with a few snapper, then the salmon came through and then we got hit by a school of Barracuda which cost us two jigs and a paternoster rig but we did get one to the side of the boat before releasing it. Thought we would catch a few of the livies to run the downrigger and ended up catching a Kingie on the sabiki rig!! We estimate we boated over 100 fish today between the three of us! Photo is of what i think is a Sea Bream....can anyone confirm? Was an awesome day!

Hi Raiders, not sure if this is the right area to post this, so admin please feel free to move me!! Looking at heading to either Texas reef or 12 mile this weekend. Wondering if anybody knows how they have been fishing lately...be good to have some confidence before burning a heap of fuel! Thanks......NN

That is great advice Paddy!! Now going out tomorrow arvo so will try this out!

Hi all, I am new to down rigging - will be giving it a crack this Thursday for the first time. Bought myself a Scotty 1085 with a 7 pound bomb. The question (probably not the brightest one ever posted on Fish Raider) is, should I disconnect the bomb from the cable when I am underway? Logically I would say yes and stow it away in a drawer or something similar so as to not put stress on the arm or risk a smash against the gel coat (if it bounces out of the cup holder for example), but the connection clip is incredibly tight and difficult to use. Apologies for the basic question, but I hope someone can set me right before I head off!

G’day Pickles, went straight past Newport and down to Longie. The ocean was so nice we just kept going!!

My son and I took on the run up Pittwater and out through Barrenjoey Heads with the thinking of having a go at Newport Reef - just got the boat back from some major works and wanted to get out as well as test a couple of new Saragosa reels. Coming up to Barrenjoey and a huge quantity of muddy water could be seen streaming out of the Hawkesbury and heading out to sea. Once rounding the heads, the mud kept going in the direction of Fiji so we turned south down hugging the coast where the water was surprisingly clean. The ocean was dead flat and no wind, so even if we didnt catch any fish, it was great to give the boat a good test after the repairs. As the sea was so nice, we decided to keep going down to Long Reef. Passing heaps of floating debris which was a bit further out including what looked like sofa, we were greeted with a very busy sounder so dropped a few dead baits of various sizes (no chance to get any livies in our usual spot as it was covered in mud). Second or third drift and the Saragosa 8000 goes off with a decent 60-odd cm King. Next drift, the bigger 14000 gosa gets smashed but hook did not properly set. Had been using a large calamari on a two hook rig - what ever it was took the hood but left the head and my son, always the optimist let it go back down with only the head and tentacles on one hook. A few minutes later, got smashed again and this time the fight was on. After a very good battle, my son landed a monster snapper at 70cm - a PB by a country mile! Next drift, a couple of kings and a 50cm snapper (now on lighter gear). Headed back, dodging sofas and buckets, filleted the fish and had a very enjoyable meal with enough vacuum packed and sealed for another 4 or 5 dinners!