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Great haul again Yowie! Do the trag ever make the way into the system or are they always only ever outside? Cheers

The biggest thing I've learnt with lure fishing soft plastics is to slow down. I catch way more fish when fishing slow - the lure spends more time in the water, works more of the water column, gets down deeper / to the bottom etc. As you say, you're getting the most interest on the drop - so make sure the lure is spending some time in that zone. Also, don't go too heavy on the leader. What leader are you currently using?

Awesome! Must be quite the feeling to trick a fish into catching a lure of your own making!

Nice, that's a great feed!

Great fish mate!

I caught flathead on a very similar lure so they do work

They certainly worked this time, let's see how well they hold up! Perfect for the table!

Good to hear the kings are returning!

There seems to be a few flatties around at the moment!

Good feed of whiting there!

They were delicious as always! I have the most success on them! Cheers mate, tis the season!

Never caught a bream on a lure so you're outdoing me! Nice one.

Gave the hacking a go yesterday with Dad, the intention was to target whiting on nippers. This turned into targeting whiting on prawns (as we were too disorganised / didn't have any time to get nippers and the tide was too high for me to fancy jumping in once we were on the water). We tried the channel between Bundeena / Cronulla for no luck on the prawns apart from small reddies so I switched to lures. I am a predominantly a lure fisherman but have only really had success on soft plastics so tend to stick to what I know especially when the vibes are $20+. That being said I saw some knock offs on one of the online Chinese retailers so thought I'd give them a go - it was ~$25 for 3 slow blatt jigs and 2 prawn vibes delivered that would have probably been $25 each here. Whilst I try to do most of my shopping at local tackle stores, I can't justify $125 on lures. Anyway, shopping stories aside, I tied on one of the prawn vibes and hooked up to a flatty first cast. Second cast I hooked another smaller flatty that threw the hooks as I wasn't being careful. So clearly they work even if I didn't actually know what I was supposed to be doing retrieve wise. I just used a fast high lift and let it drop back to the bottom. Every time they were taken on the bottom once the lure had been completely stationary for a second or so. The second legal flatty came on board in the same spot, same manner. A very light take off the bottom, almost as if it was curious as to what it was as opposed to trying to inhale it. We tried the flats in Lilli Pilli but didn't have any luck despite there being big schools of largish baitfish (didn't get a look at them but they were like a black cloud swimming about). Nothing was harassing them as far as I could tell but they were skittish. We thought we'd try the slow jigs in the deeper water off Lilli Pilli having had some success in Hinchinbrook on our recent fishing holiday. No luck on the kings but the third flatty did hit the 20g jig when it touched down to the bottom. A good couple of hours out on the water!

Went all black everything. Probably fell for the branding more than anything, think Daiwa puts more effort into that side of things than anyone else at the moment. Daiwa TD Black 4000 & Daiwa Supercasta. Will report back after they arrive!. Thanks for the help!

Looking for a new set up for lure fishing for kings from a boat in botany bay. Hopefully you can help me make a decision as I've got analysis paralysis. Originally had a Samaki zing 7-15lb rod with a stradic 4000 which I loved to use. The only issues were I managed to get salt water into the stradic so it was slightly noisy on the retrieve. Then, entirely by user error, I also managed to snap the zing whilst casting too heavy lures in Broome on a trip (probably double the recommended weight just had a brain fart and didn't think about it - won't be making that mistake again! Also, not a size of lure I'm likely to use back in Sydney). I replaced it the broken zing with a penn conflict that could handle some heavier lures but didn't have the same whip and wasn't as accurate casting. The penn managed to fall out of the rod holder near Bundeena last week so now I'm in the market for something new. I'm looking at c. $500 on a combo but slightly flexible if I need to be. I would like something that can cast well, can handle kingfish (from a boat), entirely for lures. Ideally up to 50g but the vast majority of times lures would be 40 and below. I saw someone recently using a daiwa combo and they were getting more distance than I land based using the stradic/penn conflict combo. Is there a holy grail rod that is great for distance casting, can handle 15-50g lures and a reel that is slightly more water sealed than the stradic? Currently considering reels: Daiwa td black mq 4000 Stradic 4000 Rods: Samaki zing Daiwa td black supercasta Daiwa saltist (although this will break the budget) Thank you for any advice you can give!

What size jig was working for you?

Went for a fish on Thursday afternoon in Botany with dad. A bit more wind around than expected but pretty good conditions otherwise. Launched in Sylvania (is Kurnell fixed or is still a giant sand pit?), tried the shallow areas near the bridges for flathead but nothing was interested. Motored across to the tugs to get some livies got distracted by the giant bust ups throughout the bay, schools of birds and what looked to be predominantly tailor but none of them were interested in the 10g metal lures we were using. Only bite happened when one ate my swivel, so potentially they were feeding on fish smaller than me lure. Having wasted the best part of an hour we gave up and continued on to look for livies. Quiet at first but managed a couple, dropped them down in yarra Bay but they were left untouched. Things were looking pretty bleak until we tried the schools again just before sunset. Then it was a fish, or multiple fish, per cast. Not sure what changed, as my lure hadnt - but as long as the cast landed in the bust ups I was on. Multiple times I would hook up, fish would jump off and another jump on, all the way up to the boat. A couple caught me completely by surprise they were so close to the boat. All of those I hooked, bar two, were 31-34 cm.

Very interesting report! Never would have thought trout and flathead in the same session to be a possibility.

Keener than I getting out in this!

Congrats, great fish!

You're going to need some decent sized trays to bake that one whole!

Congrats mate!

Wow few great meals there!

Down near Jibbon beach but pretty unreliable!

May have seen you guys, Hacking fishing very well at the moment. Lots of kings around.