A top kingfish season all winter, but over the last week or so they’ve gone ballistic. Toby writes:

 

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Andy, cheers for the heads up re 12 Mile on Monday, me and some mates headed out on Wednesday and had a blinder. Kept 2 each between 3 of us and released a bunch of them, none smaller than 80.

 

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Not at all Toby and glad it worked so well for you. Track reports on Facebook? I’m doing almost live updates there now, as friends and clients send real time pics from offshore. Friends and clients like Matt Reid, from Raptor Charters:

 

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‘Take the pic quick, I want to get back into them!’ Still putting your clients onto some nice ones, Matt. Oliver Evans out there too:

 

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Landed 9 fish between 3 (anglers) I was using your jigs and landed the most fish including an 85 on 40-pound on a T-Curve rated to 150

 

You mean someone wasn’t using our jigs, Ollie?? I WANT NAMES. J Small ones are even biting inside the Harbour. Pretty crazy when you think it was 14.9° C there, a couple of weeks ago. Sam Higgins’ mate Nick:

 

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Hey Andy, got out yesterday for another harbour sesh. Got heaps of slimys big ones too, from the cammeray wreck which was a bit of fun to start off with. Again though kings caught on floating pillie chunks, and no hits On the live slimys or yakka for that matter ! Nick Powell got the only legal of the day we were all stoked! Top weather too!

 

That looks like a summertime pic, Sam. Anyway, I better not fill the report with kingfish pics. There are other fish in the sea you know, Andy! Well  … maybe one more, wouldn’t hurt. Ben Foster and his team:

 

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Hey Andy. Went out off Terrigal on Friday and boated 30 kings and a few snapper, all kings over the 90 mark and a few cracked the metre! Every mark produced all day on livies, butterflied dead baits and jigs!

 

Okay that’s a hot session. When they’re on fire, why would you fish for anything else? Except maybe these. Kayden Dhyon:

 

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Hey just wanted to show two fish we caught today off Sydney, one went 42kg the other went 38.5kg,managed two others around 5-10kg and saw plenty of fish bust up feeding on bait fish was a great day overall

 

Four yellowfin, I’d call that a great day overall. Thanks, Kayden. In western Vic regular reporter Andrew Westlake headed offshore:

 

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Hi Andrew, managed a nice school shark and a mixed bag today off Port Fairy.

 

Good one Andy and nice to hear from you. To boats, and Ben Squire sends an amazing time lapse video of a bloke who takes an old neglected clunker, and turns it into an immaculate offshore weapon. Definitely worth a look:

 

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Norm Midcalf selling one of his boats:

 

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Hi Andrew I am selling my little Stacer I bought it in April last year I had it converted to a quarter console. Put on a rear casting deck, an Ipilot, a sidescan Humminbird sounder gps combo, A stereo with Ipod connect it has a 30hp merc on the back and it is electric start. Live bait well and kill box. Stacer Rampage 4.29 I am looking to get $12000 for it. Test drive ok.

 

Joe Soto selling his Jopalo. These boats renowned for toughness, they look great too:

 

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Electric trim tabs, Suzuki 4 stroke engine 225hp 2010 with 800 hrs and a 250 litre fuel tank in the floor. Maximum speed 34knts (always serviced every 100hrs at Hunts Marine Corrimal). Most of the hours are from trolling for game fish. Extra storage hatch in the floor approx 200litres. Rego on boat & trailer until April 2014. Binnacle control, Lowrance GPS HDS8M hooked up with NMEA to the motor & Autopilot (Ray Marine with remote), Furuno 585 sounder plotter with 1 KW transducer, rod holders x 8, bait board with storage shelf, live bait tank underneath the bait board (approx 200litres). Rocket launcher with 10 rod holders on roof, Reelax outriggers. Deck wash, auto bilge pump, kill tank 250 litres, CD player & speakers, VHF and UHF radios. Cabin sleeps 2 comfortably with storage under the bunks. LED lights everywhere. Aluminium trailer with skids easy to drive on and off, retreiver mate (put the boat on & off on your own), Alko suspension, Hydrostar electric brake away with disc brakes on all 4 wheels. Brand new Lewmar 1000 electric anchor winch, rope & 10m chain, Sarka anchor. $87000 joe.soto@bluescopesteel.com  Mobile 0413494446

 

Over my humble budget, but that’s a nice rig. Good luck, Joe. Interesting visitor Wednesday afternoon, an inventor who's patented a saltwater fly reel. Looks good, feels good, but the special feature is that it retrieves at a 2:1 ratio - without gearing. Taking him fishing with it next month to find out more:

 

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Still on reels, and my main supplier (who’s a pretty good guy) says we should be selling this one:

 

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I replied that very few clients ask for overhead jig reels. Maybe, one in twenty? But he insists I’m going to fall in love with it, and has sent a sample by courier. First job will be an internal examination by Spiro to check tolerances, then I’ll take it out to the reefs. Dan A says (on Facebook) it’s pretty close to his Jigging Master reel:

 

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Hey mate that reel looks pretty similar to my Jigging Master pe6. What's the price tag on your reel?

 

Around $275, Dan? Lots of testing and inspection first, though. Any feedback or suggestions very welcome indeed. Big Dane had some leverage issues working against him last weekend – a solid kingfish, long rod and heavy reel. Klaus tells the day’s story:

 

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Hi Andy, a very good friend of mine by the name of Chris Adams lent me his boat and 80w electric last Saturday. So myself and 2 mates ventured out to Browns.  Gems were a bit slow, only pulling up 1 at a time, but got our bag limit in a few hours.

 

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Headed into 12 mile where the fun began. First drop Triple hook up (your jigs work a treat) Most of the King fish were around the 68-70 mark.  And one of the boys Richard pulled up a 85.

 

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We departed 12 mile approx 5pm as Dane had a wedding anniversary dinner for 7pm at Sydney Tower. Apologies to his wife for him smelling like a gem fish.

 

Hubby smelling like a gemfish, she’s a lucky girl. Glad to see you had a big one Klaus, we had a ball at The Twelve last week too. The day started at Roseville ramp in the usual way, with elevated excitement levels as we checked out the albacore frames lying underwater, next to the pontoon:

 

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The crew was a bunch of regulars being eldest son Jeremy, Ed Aspden & Jay Kim. Around to the Spit bait grounds, to be confronted with a drowned possum in our burley trail. You never know what you’ll see next, in this fishing caper:

 

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With a few livies in the tank we headed straight for the Twelve Mile. As we came off the plane I saw Team Timpon were already in action, with Rob from Jig Star giving us the thumbs up:

 

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Down went the jigs and we were straight into them, the only difference being that the kingies were way bigger than usual at this hard fished spot. In the background, a pro dropliner:

 

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What a morning. Ed and Jay, with a couple of nice ones:

 

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Here’s the results of a quadruple hook up, two 90cms there:

 

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Kingfish holding high in the water column, some 40 metres off the bottom:

 

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After an hour of non-stop arm stretching we were putting 90cm/7 kilo kings back over the side. And that don’t happen often! Our new jig spin reel – which we’ve been testing for three months – worked like a dream.

 

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It’s the Tokushima 750 which has 13 bearings (!) meaning it’s super smooth, after market reel knob, carbontex drags and 250m 50-pound colour change braid. Reel is 4.5:1, ideal. It’s supplied with matching five feet six inch jigging rod, rated to 24 kilo – for $245.

 

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We caught a mako on it last month:

 

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Drag was smooth and combo worked a treat, throughout the forty minute fight:

 

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But what it’s ideal for is kingfish.  Tokushima combo including rod, reel and line weighs 750 grams, super comfortable to jig with:

 

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Tom P gives the combo two thumbs up:

 

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Hi Andy, the Tokushima reel and rod combo is fantastic, much, much better than what I’ve been using.  Only things we jigged up on Sunday was XXL slimies off the artificial reef using the 100g jigs.

 

Call or email for more details? $245 for rod, reel, colour change braid and carbontex drags has got to be a good deal.

 

 

To politics, and thank Heavens the election is over. The Greens had a shocker, losing over a third of their votes:

 

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Ben says, on our Facebook page:

 

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Good news Ben because voters in her home state thumped her even harder, 9% swing against:

 

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Here’s Christine, radiating the warmth and compassion for which she’s renowned:

 

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Got a bad case of campaign burnout and happy to get back to local issues. Cue Gary Pryke:

 

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Who do I chase up about the boat ramp at Norah Head. It's a 2 lane boat ramp that about 3 years ago one side was closed for repairs still not open. At the time they said it would be close for 6 months. 3 years later still closed. Every time I call Wyong Council they give me the run around transferring my call from person to person and they all say its not their department. As a rate payer you start to get angry. I also know that when ramp was closed the Waterways at the time gave a grant to help fix the ramp.

 

Well mate I called the contact number listed on the sign. So did James Rapa:

 

Andy, so i did some ringing around and found out the person in charge of getting the Ramp fixed is Boyd Mcillian from Wyong Council, His direct line is (02) 43505513 he will be back in the office from 9am on Monday 9/9/13. I think everyone from the Central Coast should get behind this and call this guy and try and get this RAMP FIXED.

 

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Good on you James. I called too, but a voicemail said he’s away until 16th September. Now Gary I am going to speak very frankly, which I hope won’t give offence. To get this boat ramp reopened or better, upgraded, is going to take more than a call to Council. They’ll just stall until you go away, they’re experts at that. There is a way forward that will deliver results but it will be a hard (yet successful) road. Regular readers will recall our two year campaign over the Laggers Point boat ramp, at South West Rocks:

 

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Although shallow Laggers Point is the only truly safe launching option at SWR. So the local Parkies took it on themselves to close it at their own discretion. ‘Closed for visitor safety’, what a sick joke. Closing this ramp dramatically reduces visitor safety:

 

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Closure meant boaties were left with the often white knuckle option of traversing the Macleay River bar:

 

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Local identity Les Palmer kept up the pressure to reopen the Laggers Point ramp and we supported him wherever possible, knowing that sooner or later someone would lose their lives if the Parkies’ arrogance went unchallenged. Tonight he reports progress, after a meeting held with stakeholders this week:

 

….some of the options presented were;

 

 

-The possibility of widening the exit road under the (Heritage Listed) Trial Bay Gaol. Not carried.

-The possibility of creating a new access road to the boat ramp. Not carried.

-The possibility of dredging Back Creek and use the Back Creek boat ramp rather than using Laggers Point boat ramp at all. Not carried.

-The possibility of using the beach toward SWR as a beach launch area. Not carried.

-The possibility of widening the road to allow for more boat trailer parking. Carried.

-The possibility of using a boom gate at the ramp. Carried.

-The possibility of boaties to have seasonal pre-purchased access swipe cards for late arrival and return boat ramp usage. Carried.

 

To paraphrase, the boat ramp WILL be accessible 24/7, 365 days of the year, with exceptions.  During, and only during, the holiday periods, the ramp will be inaccessible from 9.00pm till 7.00 am. It will be manually re-opened at 7.00am and will be manually closed at 4.00pm. In the event you wish to use the ramp after 4pm until 9.00pm for either launching or retrieval your pre-paid 'swipe card' will operate the boom gate, something similar to a car-park I'm guessing. The cost yet to established, but within reason.

 

What a fantastic result Les! I admire you mate, I really do. You’ve proven that persistence is the key to getting these nonsensical decisions overturned. If anyone else has a local issue (like at Norah Head ramp) Les has shown us the way forward. Until next week and as I always say, please keep the pics, reports, boat news, political updates coming in. I get the credit which is due to those who contribute, and for that I’m very grateful. Cheers,

 

Andrew Hestelow

Managing Director