Broken Bay 26.12.2007

[garth]

Hit the ramp at bayview pretty early.

Tried to jig squid for a while @ bj and failed.

Trolled skirts around bj and caught a 60cm sambo. it went pretty hard. trawled along rocks @ south palm - nothing.

1 small snapper and some festy reef fish then school of yakkas and slimies showed up. caught a few but bait tank not hooked up so the condition of the bait was pretty poor by the time we hit flint and steel. sent three out. butterflied one.

nothing.

tried a few moorings for kings ..... nothing.


pretty successful day for us. never even caught bait down here before.

i was full of optimism after the livies thinking we'd def hook up. but nothing.

Learning everytime tho.

Anyone know where we went wrong?
Can the livies ever be too big?
Some of the yakkas and slimies were solid.

still waiting for my first king.

Garth

[fishboy45]

mate your doing everything right but what you could do next time is have a bearliy trail with picheads and squid flient and steal.

[BONECRUSHER]

mate you did the right thing staying away from sydney harbour. Watched the syd to hobart from dobroyd oval. so glad i was not out there.

[Dog Catcher]

Can the livies ever be too big?

Nope not in your case
[eg] a kungy or say sambo, bonito etc of around 2 kg would not hesitate to scoff down a cowan young or good size slimmy.

& a kungy of around 8 kg has no probs scoffing a 2kg bonito

still waiting for my first king.

Think you read to many stories :violent1:

Unless the kungs are there on the day you've buckleys of catching one

[imnotafish]

What went wrong garth? ..... probably nothing..... yesterday was hard yards out of pitty and out the front of broken bay, as was today (i spent a couple of hours for bugger all today and a few mates also struggled yesterday in pitty). Dont get downhearted, if you want a King wait for the summer run rats to arrive and fish Bot bay or the harbour this summer....
As for your qns - Its true Kings prefer small to medium sized baitfish over large ones (big cownyoung are spikey and harder to eat - have to be swallowed head first and can put off smaller kings), and slimies over yakkas usually, but really if you get squid you will be in with a better chance for kings, (we found some round the joey in deeper water today) but pitty is hard to find kings at the best of times. A charter with Pete Le Blang is your answer there....
Also trolling kings up on lures is hard yards unless the rats are in abundance. Better off slow trolling livies round the headlands than lures. There isnt much action out the front either - a few decent flatties, and some nannygai @ 70m and not much else.
Dunno how the jews been going at flint some of the boys might, but it is a place where you need to get your spot exactly on - the reef is big and the jew spots are small. Flint is not really a fishable place for kings though they do occasionally show up there so it is always worth having a livey out there..

Hope this helps Garth

Stef

[son of joe]

Don't worry Garth, you were doing everything right....the bastards are not there.

I have spent the last 3 days down-rigging around Barrenjoey, Whale Beach, Clareville moorings and a lap of Scotland Island for not even a touch.

[garth]

stef,
do you mean you got a few squid in the deep or kings? (i think u mean squid).

does that mean the summer run of rats has not arrived yet?

When trawling a live yakka or slimey for kings what is the best technique?

I dont have a downrigger but could rig a live off a fat sinker easily to get it deep or alternatively just trawl with no lead on surface.

When trawling yakkas or slimies for king do you just pin hook through mouth and go slow? OR do you have to bridle them? cuz i dont know how to bridle them.

Do kings reside at the valient?

[garth]

thanks for all replies.

joe im keen to try whale soon.

also have to catch myself a mahi this summer and have a question about traps.

What do fish traps look like on the surface? to the north of broken bay i came across a string of about 10 white buoys the size of a head. Are they fish traps? Could you get mahi that close? i doubt it? I was about to trawl by em but my dad felt sick in the guts even tho there was NO swell.

also, saw a pro with 2 traps (think they were traps) driving south out of broken bay. He had a 15ft boat. and could only carry 2 traps. How is this economically viable? I dont get it. And what fish do the traps target?

[imnotafish]

Garth dollies will hang around all and any structure in the water, all buoys and markers and even floating logs should be investigated, but the water needs to be 22 plus and the traps need to be far enough offshore to hold dollies. 5 miles is usually enough.

The pros trap snapper mowies etc etc, dunno if it is even viable but they make a living out of it i guess.

As for trolling 4 kings yeah a downrigger is best but lead or paravane will work to a lesser extent. I also like to troll one on the surface with no weight. you can hook the fish through the nose or jaw, but the fish must be able to open its mouth or it will drown. btw bridling is easy to do n worth getting to know how.

sometimes kings are at valient but the pros get em quickly when the bigger ones r there. worth a look usually though.

weve had one dump of summer rats with bluewater about a month or more ago, but not substantial amounts of them. Should see more in the next couple of weeks.