G’day lads,

Matt Reid from Raptor Charters is the bloke you need in Sydney Harbour if you want to catch your first – or hundredth – kingfish. So when he asked me on a run last Friday I couldn’t say yes fast enough. Also aboard was Ian Treseder, from Hooked On Sydney:

We launched at Cammeray and headed straight round to Chinaman’s Beach, in front of the huge crane. Bait marked well:

It didn’t take long for the tank to fill:

I was still getting over losing the biggest Harbour kingfish I’d hooked in years, the day before. So we kicked off downrigging at Nielsen Park, the scene of the action:

But after an hour with no strikes and nothing on the sounder, it was obvious the kingies had moved on:

Off to Long Reef, intending to be established before the high tide. The plan was one that’s worked well for us. Downrig one big live bait and one small live bait, and as soon as possible after a strike drop down a jig, or work a popper. That worked a treat:

Ian hooks up:

We got about 20 kingfish during the morning session:

Mostly undersized, but the better ones up to 85cm:

Ian got some great video for our next DVD too. Check this out, brilliant work, only 1 minute 40:

Thanks to Matt and Ian for a great morning’s fishing and I’m up for that whenever you’ve got a spot available.  The next day – Saturday - was the first of our annual downrigger clinics. Something I do this time every year, taking out new downrigger owners or those who are having trouble getting the hang of their unit and hopefully, showing them how it all works. There’s no charge so they are usually pretty popular, but half the time I get a bigger kick out of watching people catch their first king than I do, getting one myself. Anyway, Scrat Rat kindly volunteered to be deckie and arrived bright and early in the morning. We hooked up the boat trailer, did a 3-point turn, and CLUNK! Tore the stub off the axle.

Thankfully all sorted, managed to get a marina berth for January.

Great pic, in this months’ Fish Life magazine. Bloke fishing up north for barra, a pistol in his hip pocket.

Better safe than sorry, in croc country.

 Rocket sent in a pic of his big teraglin from Forster:

Gidday Andrew just a quick thank-you from Gina and myself for the experience today around Sydney's waterways lots a fun we are so looking forward to spending that day at long reef in the near future . Your readers may enjoy these couple of pics for the next news letter cheers all the best Rocket

Not at all champ, I enjoyed it enormously.

Rocket’s fishing mate Gina sent a pic of her solid northern blue from the Whitsundays:

Thank-you for the information, demos etc, it was nice just to be out there with someone who knew the area, even if the Kingies didn't want to play, I would love to have the opportunity to join you again, photos from our epic trip!

Don’t even mention it, I really enjoyed the day.

Mick has been working on his own range of large SPs. Begging him to go into full production, but he’s a busy man:

Hi andrew i finally got around to doing a mould to reproduce soft plastic, here is the outcome

Mate, we need those for this summer! See what you can fit into your busy schedule?

Markus from Germany bought some carbontex, then sent in some pictures of the monster carp he and his buddies catch over there. These are gigantic:

Andrew Carp Hunters Dream 34,8kg. Big Lakes Big Carps. Look at the Link.

Amazing, Markus.

Andrew W is a thinking fisho, who’s been using his camping light to attract squid:

… the red is an onion bag with burley in it, had heaps of little salmon buzzing around it, yes that's my squid bait in the light, I had a good one to the surface right in the light, but the jig didn't pin him well enough. I was impressed with the penetration into the water, it's a good metre away from the surface to the jetty

Righto Andy, you’ve inspired me.

Will give that a go off Clifton Gardens wharf over the holidays, using our camping light:

Fitz is pleased as punch with his new purchase, a Melonseed rowing boat from the USA. She has a beautiful profile:

When I was a lad, I worked on a commercial net boat, I did a lot of rowing then, still love it, so I am going to fit the down rigger on the boat and see what happens.

Good O Fitz, that’s a work of art.

From the Wacky Things Happen Offshore Dept, Peter G has an encounter of the feathered kind:

This one would not let go and it took us 5 minutes to shake it off the lure including a few dunks in the water....and it was not even hooked … and it took the lure down at 7m off long reef.

Sheesh. At least it wasn’t an albatross. He also had a pretty amazing pic of the boat shown in the report from two weeks ago.

The one that went up on a rock at Broughton Island:

Andy, here is a photo of the damage to the hull on that Noble boat that hit the rocks.  There was actually very little damage for someone that hit the rocks at 20 plus knots

Impressive! Those Nobles are tough, Pete.

More mayhem, at Port Stephens. Bruce Vaughan:

I know you love photos of boat carnage so here are some pics for you.

My boat is stored in dry storage, which you kind of expect to be pretty safe. However when mother nature unleashes herself there is b+gger all you can do. A couple of weeks ago we had a twister come through the Western end of Port Stephens.  One of the boats in the yard recorded wind speeds of 180Knts before the wind gauge was ripped off the boat.

Several boats were thrown off their stands. I was lucky mine was full of fuel and water, which is probably what saved me. The guy next door to me was not so lucky.

That’s horrible, Bruce!

Peter G sends in pics of a small one:

The smallest kingfish EVER on Ed's boat off longie last week.  They were in plague proportions which is a good sign for later in the season

Exactly, Pete.

Chris Sun sent in some pics of a big one:

Yellowtail hasn’t been overly successful on the kings. I don’t bother downrigging them, because the hit rate has been about 1-10 compared to freshly caught squid. What I’ve been doing instead, is downrigging 2 squid on the downriggers and leaving a live yellowtail on the surface hooked up with a 6/0 gamakatsu octopus, 40lb fluoro trace, on a light flick stick. I’ve been getting nice big squid and salmon on the surface yakka

Good advice Chris and thanks for sending.

Hornsby Seafood had some fresh garfish this week, the first time in ages they've been available. Cryovaced some up for a run next week, plan to use them with Head Starts:

Nice Bar Crusher 680 at Roseville on Saturday. Owner Richard very pleased with his new rig:

Maybe 20 years ago we fished out of Sydney Harbour, first thing on New Year’s Day. Rounding North Head we saw yobbos had chucked the Porta-Potties set up for the New Year’s Eve fireworks crowd over the cliff, to be smashed on the rocks three hundred feet below. Would you believe remnants are still there? The green plastic is part of the dunnies, the metal frame probably is too: