Bonito overload

The bonitos seems to love the Sebile Stick Shadd alot. It works better than the plastics or metals this morning.
Sydney Harbour water temp was around 19 degrees, in the upper Parra it was 20-21 degrees. The water still looks green.
Cloudy day with some light rain
Didn't see any kings all morning but the bonitos sure kept me occupied.

Sydney Spring Fishing 2010

Between my Lord Howe trip and October I hardly fished probably went out once and caught that barramundi while looking for breams.
October marks the salmon schools showing up on sydney harbour. They like to hang around north head. They were still there last week when I went outside the heads.
Bonito schools mixed with tailor, trevally, kings and some salmons are also showing up well inside the harbour.

The summer looks promising, if only the weather will be nicer, it's been a week rain and then a week of sunshine followed by another week of rain.

The lures that have been working for the salmons are the 4 1/2" sluggos in white or salt and pepper colour. I use the Nitro jigheads in 1/6oz. Sometimes you can get them every cast and some days they just wouldn't take what you offer them.

The kings have certainly make their appearance, they're certainly bigger this year

Baitschool in Sydney Harbour 2009

Shot in one of the bays in Sydney Harbour.
The baitschool were basically hiding under our boat with the salmon eating them. You can see the solid arches which are the salmons on the sounder

EPIC Videos

Lord Howe Island 2010

April 2010 I visited Lord Howe Island with a big group. Lord Howe is about 2.5hr away by plane from Sydney.
It's a beautiful place I wish I can say the same thing about the fishing when we were there. Quantity was not an issue a normal day will be catching 30-40 kings but the average size was only 5kg. Some wahoos about but only 1 landed. The bigger kings were around the 12-15kg but only a handful were caught.
The highlight of the trip for me was Neds Beach where you can feed 20kg+ kingfish and drummers at your feet, simply Amazing !

Anyway I'll let the pictures do the talking:

EPIC report Part 2

Day 3:
The weather looks a bit shabby with heavy overcast, slight drizzle and some strong winds, but in search of the big ones we soldiered on. It turned out to be the day of big kingies. When we first started the day Carl indicated that he forgot to bring his camera and this will be day when we catch the big ones and he was absolutely right.

Rob buggered his left shoulder and had to take a few minutes rest. He refused to take the painkillers that Carl offered I borrowed his lighter setup and managed to get an average sized king on it. Shortly after I borrowed his heavier setup Smith AMJ52EX and the Stella 20000FA. On the way up I felt a hit but the fish didn't connect, so I dropped the jig down again about 5meters started jigging again and BANG !!! the stella started screaming !, I palmed the spool to slow the run and tightened the drags a few clicks. The fight took about 5 minutes and the fish ends up being a ~20kg my new PB. Taken on a cheap jig I bought from ebay.


Marinco then puts on my sydney angler jig in "mean green" colour and he hooked up to a monster that absolutely maxed out his Saltiga combo. I quickly retrieve my line to allow him to play the fish out. Holding him by his gimbal belt, we all gave him a bit of moral support. The fish was a stonker that Carl estimates to be ~30kg. It turns out to be our biggest fish of the trip. It was taken on the downriggershop jig in "mean green"

After we moved to another spot, Marinco hooked up to another monster of 25kg taken on the same jig.

Some Shots from Day 3:










Day 4

The mood was relaxed and the seas were quite lumpy, but at least the skies are clearing up. I spent the day trying out the new jigs that I bought yesterday and testing out some of gear that's available onboard. Allan and Rob hooked up a few decent kingies. We also went clubbing with a few Coutas which was quite entertaining. It was a slow day with the kingies with a few that were foul hooked on the belly. I guess the fish knew we're going back to Sydney and it was a good warm down from our first 3 days. Highlight of the day for me was tying the PR knot on boat in 5 minutes.

We ended the day with some snapper fishing. Marinco landed one that went in the mid 60s

Some pictures from day 4.

2009 Tour De EPIC in NEW ZEALAND

Hi All.

Here's the full report of our recent trip to NZ.

We arrived at Auckland Airport picked up by the "Big Red Bus" to get our rental car. We barely had any room to move with 2 Bazukas and luggages for 5 people. After a few wrong turns (bloody old GPS map) we finally made our way to Tairua the scenic green hills of New Zealand made the journey enjoyable.
Reaching 8 Paku Drive in Tairua we had Carl that welcomed us and gave us the good news that we're going out the next day. We're all pumped and eager to catch that XOS kingies that NZ is famous for.

Day 1:
The seas were quite calm and we made our way out of Tairua Harbour. Marinco was the first one to hook up but it was short lived, the fish got away and upon retrieving the jig back we realized that the hook snapped !! ok.. I've never seen that before and after that Rob hooks up with the fish that was destined to be our dinner.

The whole day was just mayhem we caught about 35 kings with the biggest one ~25kg landed on a Catalina Combo by Allan. He did have trouble lifting the fish up for photos after the long fight. There was a few double hookups and even a triple hookup. The kings were taking any jigs that was offered.
A few times when I was buggered and about to retrieve the jigs with just a constant wind and BANG !! whaddya know I'm on another fish. This was my best fishing trip ever.

I was using the Jigwrex 508 aka "broomstick" and I've never seen the rod bend so much. When we first started the day I started of with a double wind and pump action and then changed to a slower single wind technique which resulted in more hookups.

We ended the day with some snapper fishing in the Alderman Islands. Rob hooked up 2 on the squidgies, both fish were kept for dinner.

Some shots from Day 1:
The Saltiga getting tested..

FAIL!







Day 2:


With a fantastic Day 1 we were in very high spirits and started the day with high expectations. My biceps and wrist was feeling a bit sore but as soon we started jigging all of those disappear.

The seas were slightly rougher and the plan was to jig for half the day and fish for snapper the rest of the day. We still managed to get a few kings around 20. Carl also went clubbing with the Coutas a few times. Those bloody coutas are just pest and kept nicking our leader and assist hooks. We managed to get a quadruple hookups on that day and Rob shouted "This is Epic..... " it was unreal and something that I'll never forget soon.

The snapper fishing was rather tough and the scenic Islands kept us entertained. There were thousands of leatherjackets that kept chomping up our Gulps. I think Rob managed to get a rat king from the shallows that put up a decent fight on his snapper gear.

Some of the pics from Day 2: