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XOS Sydney Kings CRAZY!


wacko

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G'day Raiders!!!

Well what a day!! I'm knackered, bruised and busted up but nothing can wipe the smile off my face

This might be a long one..............

Good mates Bill, Tarek and myself experienced some truly memorable action on some XOS sized SYDNEY kingies today!!

We met at our usual boat ramp and after some quick preparations we made haste to the squid grounds.

The squid proved fairly productive and in no time we had a 'school' of them zipping around the bait tank.

The call was made early to venture outside the harbour to downrigg and Popper some locations........what a call this turned out to be!!

I will explain the days events in point form, cause' each fish had a story to tell.....

FISH 1:

We had been downrigging for around 20mins with not much doing when suddenly I marked a big shape close to the bottom on the sounder..... as the live squid passed it got hit almost on cue and ALOT of line was loosing off the Saltiga reel!

I had control of the rod and pumped-up the drag to 'scary' settings, trying all the while to regain some line and control of this fish.

It ran where it wanted to and all we could hope for in the shallow water, was for it to run ALONG the reef and not INTO it!!!!

Bill was driving the boat out to sea when our worst fears eventuated.........the fish had made it to reef and I could feel the taut line being stretched across it!!! :1yikes:

In a split second, I backed the drag off a fair way and Bill spun the boat 180 degrees and headed straight towards the rampaging king.

I wound line like a mad-man and we ended-up straight ontop of the brute......this did the trick and we managed to get his head and our line off the bottom. I cranked the drag and worked this fish hard as we all knew the reef was only 12mtrs under us!!!

A few more big runs and huge headshakes and finally this fish was coming out way

The rest is history.........119cm and 15odd kgs

Video of this fish will be posted soon.

Fish 2:

After the high-fives we set-out again and started to slow troll another squid.

It was Tarek's turn and the downrigger bait got SMACKED big-time.

Line was spewing off the reel and it was hard to control this big king. Tarek did really well hanging on as Bill again, gunned the boat out to deeper water.

This fish was in a different league and no matter how hard the pressure we applied, the fish had made to reef and completeley destroyed the leader!!! We estimated this fish judging by the fight and drag pressure, around the 20kg mark!

FISH 3:

With shaking hands we set out another bait and it got hammered almost straight away.

Much the same as the previous fish, this one had Bill pinned to the gunnel and was taking line off basically a locked spool!

Another monster king and Bill put on immense hurt on the fish while I drove to deep water.

80lb braid and 130lb leader stretched to the max!!

This proved futile and we had another monumentous bust-off!! This guy felt way bigger than the other two.....who knows 20kg+???

The braid and FG knot held fine......it's the leader being run through the reef thats the problem.... We might start running 200lb and hope that it's not too heavy that they won't take a bait??

Thats 1 big one landed and 2 huge ones lost so far!!! Crazy stuff.

FISH 4:

With fear of spooking the school by trolling yet another bait through them.....especially as there were two 'lost' fish freaking out down there....we changed tact and headed right along the cliffs to stick-bait and popper.

My 1st cast into the wash was uneventfull.......my 2nd cast and a few big pops later a HUGE bow-wave followed my popper but no hook-up.

I 'twitched' the big River2Sea popper almost like a Bass lure to entice the strike.....it sat on the surface stationary for only a second and then was engulfed by a monstrous king!!

The big king stripped line off my popper outfit and we all went super hard to land this thing!.........Bill drove and towed the fish out to safety, I hung on and pumped the king with a whole stack of drag.

Line kept pouring off a near locked drag reel.....but somehow, in only 11mtrs deep of water, we stayed connected!

The fish eventually succumbed to the pressure and 'followed' the boat out to deeper water. A few more heart-stopping runs and power head shakes and finally we swum the big boy into the net, which broke by the way! and into the boat.

For the record.......it measured 131cm and was weighed on certified scales at 22.4kg :1yikes:

By far the best SYDNEY king I've poppered!

FISH 5:

I'll keep it brief......Tarek lands a Beautifull king at 109cm and approx 10kg

FISH 6:

Bill has a go at poppering and hooks a great king of around 1mtr. We wanted to release the fish and with a broken net, I had to try and leader it into the boat. This did'nt turn out well, as the hooks pulled out boatside. Oh well, early release......nice if I got photos though.

FISH 7:

Another Big king landed around the 1mtr mark!!

In the end we caught 11 big Sydney kings.......we topped it off with a couple of 70-75cm fish in middle harbour in the afternoon and a couple of rats.

What an amazing day!!! :thumbup: Thanks to Bill and Tarek for a top session . Sydney's got some big kings lurking.....I reckon it's getting better every year. :biggrin2:

I'm totally stoked with a king over 20kg IN SYDNEY and on a POPPER.....and in shallow water.....what a rush!!! :yahoo::wacko:

I have video footage of some of the action....especially the 22kg king on popper. I will try and upload it soon guys.

Heres some photos for now......

post-13416-054769000 1323263591_thumb.jpg

15kg King

post-13416-058694400 1323263622_thumb.jpg

Tarek and a nice one

post-13416-037789300 1323263676_thumb.jpg

Big King head and R2S popper

post-13416-080608000 1323263738_thumb.jpg

131cm....22.4kg King on Popper!

post-13416-036245000 1323263787_thumb.jpg

post-13416-043098300 1323263832_thumb.jpg

Tarek and 109cm, 10kg ish

post-13416-028457000 1323263881_thumb.jpg

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post-13416-054735200 1323264010_thumb.jpg

Monster king!!! hehehe

post-13416-019234200 1323264043_thumb.jpg

post-13416-024194700 1323264087_thumb.jpg

Cheers,

Wacko.

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I thought I was dreaming when these beasts where being hauled in. I could not believe it. It looked like a scene out of a NZ fishing charter.

Locked drag on Saltigas and they were pulling like steam trains and not being stopped.

Thanks for a memorable day out jacko!

You've produced the goods time and time again.

Bill

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