Larkin

Live poddies or not, your still the flathead master! nice catch Rob!

Nice report Isaac! No kings, but a bit of action 👍 When live baiting for kings with circles you only want to use 1 hook. The hook should be either placed through the inside of the mouth and up through the nose of the live bait. Or sideways through the nostrils. (In through one nostril and out the other) You can also bridle rig if you want to. If you hook it any other way you will impede the circle hooks ability to catch the corner of the kings mouth. With your rig, make sure your snell line is exiting from the inside eye of the hook. You definitely want to snell your circle as it will guide your hook to the corner of the mouth. To test, drop your snelled hook into a glass and pull the line horizontally, you will see the hook catch the edge of the glass every time. You know you have rigged it correctly. Don’t have loose drag - you will loose fish. You need enough drag to provide resistance to set the hook as the fish runs with it. I usually tighten my drag until I can just pull line by hand off the reel. You shouldn’t be able to pull the line off easily. Don’t lift the rod, the fish will hook itself. When trolling live bait, you want to do it at a snails pace. Just in gear. 2-4klm/h. Much much slower than trolling lures. Use a sinker - enough weight to keep the livie down while moving forward. hope this helps cheers chris

Some good sized Dollies, Well caught Zoran! A bit of water movement out there usually gets them going.

Decent size mullet how’d it go on the plate?

Nice Trev Linewetter! Those long hard fights are the most memorable.

Nice Catch Dave! Plenty of tailor in close at the moment mixed in with Bonnie’s from what ive been hearing. Those trag will try and swallow fish larger than their mouths - brought up many yakkas that have trag bite marks 3/4 up the fish where the fish hasn’t been able to swallow the bait. Enjoy the feed!

Thanks Kantong - was a good day on the water Thanks Scooter! here’s the map off the DPI website for port hacking. Areas marked with those diagonal lines are the exclusion zone for nets and traps. The area near the entrance without those lines is the permissible area. Please always check the dpi website for exclusion zones and what type/qty of traps are permissible as these rules can change. Here’s the link to the dpi website. https://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/674740/Fishing-Guide-Recreational-Crabbing-Sydney-South.pdf It is illegal to drop crab pots in open ocean waters. The line at the entrance of port hacking is the open waters limit and you can not drop pots outside this line. Thanks Rob! Crab linguine last night, battered trag and chips on Sunday, kingfish sashimi for Sunday lunch Been loving the seafood lately. Rest got shared around with family and friends who are always keen to get one of my packages.

Thanks Bessel! a few fish about outside atm. Thanks Dave! Was one of my goals lots of baitfish outside clinging around the debris. Some logs were floating about too. crabs still moving about.

Thanks Linewetter! Was a solid fight it got shared around with family and some work colleagues. Did a big plate of sashimi today for some friends… didn’t last long with everyone wanting more. haha thanks Isaac! I hear you mate. It’s why I like switching the fishing up.

Gday Raiders, Took the JetSki out on Friday to fish the deep reefs off Coogee. Met my mate up there and we started to drop down some livies. Plenty of baitfish around, sounder showing bait all through the column. After around 15mins, a good fish grabs the livie and the reel starts screaming. I can tell I’m on a good king as it goes off on multiple line pulling runs. Took around 5 mins of give and take trying to wrestle it up off the reef. Ive been chasing the meterie king for a while - fish went bang on 100cm and weighed 7kg. Brought up 3 Trag too, gave one to my mate. To finish the day, 8 crabs. Kept 4 of the largest and released the smaller ones.

Nice catch! Kings are great fun. Land based I burley up every 5 mins to keep the baitfish around and I’ll drop the live yakka just below the baitfish. Tackle - I use 60lb fluorocarbon trace with a 7/0 snelled circle. (Make sure to run the snell line the right way through the eye) Kings want movement, so if your yakka has been on the hook too long or is tired most of the time they will have a look but swim off. Put a fresh yakka on or try fresh squid/squid strip - ones you’ve caught yourself work best - even if frozen. could try shore jigging too if they’re not taking baits - the fast movement can encourage the strike

Nice report Mike Some great info to help others get onto some fish. 👍

I’m curious to know what everyone thinks about the pointing of tails to achieve minimum size in species like kingfish. ie “stretching” Do fisheries accept “squeezing” of the tail when measuring? anyone know the rule on this as there can be many centimetres difference from a fish measured natural and a fish that has their tail squeezed before laying on the mat. A lot of countries measure to the fork in these species.

Mate, at least you got out there! Nice capture - and a couple of good feeds. Noticed some debris floating down river earlier this week, so got to be a little careful out there. I’ve been keen to get out - but this weather’s been terrible.

Good haul of bream! 👍 A few feeds from that lot.

Nice couple of catches scooter! lucky you didn’t run into the puffers out there. They were chewing off rigs when I was out.

Nice catch Albert! love the Dory! Top eating

Plenty of fishing, looks like it paid off this time. Nice feed mate!

Well done mate! it’s nice when they come on like that - even if it doesn’t last for long. Decent sized reddies for inside.

Nice session Mike! can’t wait for you to hook a stray king!

Hi Fishkent, I look for baitfish on the reefs then drift a live yakka through them. Just below the baitfish (bottom 1/4 of the water column). I use a 1.5cm ball sinker, 80cm of 60lb trace with a 7/0 circle hook. on a kayak, inside the hacking I would be slow trolling a live yakka using the above rig. Through the main channels, along the drop off at Lilly pilly (off the dude of the sand flats), down the Channel that leads from Lilly pilly into southwest arm, the Chanel between gunnamatta and buraneer bay, the Chanel into gunnamatta, and the circular 8knot area that leads to grays point. Personally I find the kingfish more active on the last two hours leading into high tide. But they will be active all day. Thanks Welster! The wife tells me to just bring flatties lol I like to switch it up. Thanks Bob! Was happy to get a mixed feed. those toads are terrors! Glad you got a feed of Dollie’s! Not too long left in the season.

That sux! looks like I’ll be seeing you at the tackle store too. I think they follow the boat & come hang around when they spot you. Only way I could escape them the other day was speeding off in between every drop - and then drop down quick within seconds of stopping. Wind up crazy fast too. Easier to do with a JetSki.

Nice catch Dave! some good eating in that lot. Trag still about - thought they may have move on by now. I did see some marks on the sounder that looked like them yesterday, but maybe the livies I was using were too large. enjoy the feed!

Turned it into a nice lunch today! Haha, I’m in there too often

They tend to be most active early morning. I’ve never fished for them at night. Never seen them that ravenous, I couldn’t land bait. If I didn’t wind up super fast they’d get snatched every time. Over 20 livies got grabbed. A few flatties atm, if you can get past the puffers. Will make a nice lunch today I was hoping it would calm down as my mate was waiting up north - he’s got an even bigger set than me - ended up punching out to the fads on his ski. Good luck at port Kembla! Thanks Zoran! seems they’re everywhere outside. My mate saw them at the peak too.