[Davey G]

Up at 4.30 thismorning and at Kurnell (Botany Bay) next to the oil wharf for a 5.15am launch. Conditions were calm with a strong breeze expected to pick up mid morning.

Trolled a Rapala CD9 and a Rapala X Rap lure over the shallows and around into deeper water through the heads off Cape Solander.

First troll past some likely looking water and the CD9 goes off on my heavier rod (6-8kg Silstar with my new 4500 Baitrunner reel). A nice 60cm king comes to the boat after a short fight and is easily hoisted aboard. He's made short work of the lure which is firmly down his gob, so this fella goes into the fish bag for dinner.

Another troll and another hit on the same lure. This ones putting up a better fight, might be a bigger king . But, no, a good size Aussie Salmon comes up from the depths and takes off again. A great fight and just as I'm about to land him, he gives one last kick and busts the line, taking my favourite lure with him.

As this lure seems to be the one doing the trick (no action on the X Rap yet), I grab my lure box as I know I have another CD9, but I'd taken it out last week and had not replaced it. bugger. To my dismay I've only got smaler lures which I don't think will do the trick, so I re-rig with a large soft plastic (6" Saltwater Assassin) and drag that around for a while.

There's a few birds diving and a bit of surface activity ahead so I start winding in the rod with the plastic in readiness for a cast into the scholl ahead when BANG, the plastic gets nailed only metres from the yak. 8) As I look down, I can see the culprits, a school of kings cruising under the yak. Another good fight (geez the baitrunner has a nice drag!) and this fellas hoisted aboard as well. Slightly smaller than the first one (about 55cm) so he's back in the drink to grow up a bit.

The wind starts picking up earlier than expected (6.30am) and I decide to have a few more trolls. The rod with the X Rap goes of this time and a good fish starts peeling drag and turns of a few aerial jumps. Salmon!.

After a a good stoush (geeez they go well) he's lifted aboard for a pic and let go. Another troll produces the same result, a hefty salmon ( a new Salmon PB at 66cm) that's really thick across the back and flanks. I decide to keep this one for a curry or similar later on.

Decide to paddle back to the launch spot into the teeth of the now howling sou-wester. Takes me half an hour to paddle about 500 metres due to the wind and waves.

A good day and off the water by 8am with a couple of fish.. 8) Gotta be happy with that.

 

[Davey G]

A few more pics

 

[Peril]

Top stuff Dave. A coupla kings and a few sambos is a memorable trip. Well done getting out with that wind too. It was bad enough at cricket.

 

[RedPhoenix]

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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[Peril]

Dave, which do you think gives the best fight for its size, the salmon or the king?

 

[MangoX]

Top report mate!

love that shot of the CD9 vs Kingie.. :shock:

did you manage to troll around where you had planned ??

I wanted to get out for a paddle today as its been like 4 weeks since my last one...

might give it a go tomorow

 

[Milt]

You're a sensation Davey!!!

Well done mate.

 

[Rod L]

Excellent Dave!
Love those pelagics

 

[YakAtak]

Nice fish Davey, well done mate, great pics too.

 

[Dodge]

Dave, which do you think gives the best fight for its size, the salmon or the king?

Dave a good fun outing and a few piscatorial challenges to answer with the salmon and kingies.

Notwithstanding Gatesy's reply I would also like another opinion on the relative performance of each fish, as salmon are foreign to my experiences but have caught kingies

 

[fishinswing]

Great report and great photos Dave, glad the new reel you won has already caught you some good fish. Also can't wait to hear the fighting abilities between both fish.

 

[bazzoo]

great report dave and sensational piccies, glad to see kurnell is fishing well , it will be on my hitlist when i get the espri , makes it hard to sell the tarpon after a session like that, what kayak do you intend to buy?

 

[SharkNett]

I have to side with Gatesy. While salmon gain points for thier aerial display, pound for pound I think kings pull harder than just about anything I have caught.

Rob.

 

[Daveyak]

Geez Davey, your report & pics have got me twitching again, thinking of some pelagic action. A great effort, well done.

Now to check the weather forecast for tomorrow & see what the possibilities are for some similar action around my area.

 

[Russ]

First thing I thought of when I got out of bed yesterday was DaveyG :shock: it was houling wind and I remember thinking that he would be pissed that he could not get out for a fish. The results speak for them selves top effort Dave and I am now looking forward to my Melbourne cup day bash in the bay. Is that PB Salmon got the weirdest Dorsal fin you have ever seen & if I'm not mistaken is wearing a sandle :roll:

Top effort mate in sh*ty conditions.

fishing Russ

 

[JT]

Sweet trip Dave. What a blast that succession of Kings and Sambos must have been. And to think I was sitting at home putting lures into plano boxes lamenting the fact that I couldn't get out due to the wind. Just goes to show huh :roll: meanwhile Dave is out cleaning up.

Great effort Dave.

JT

 

[PoddyMullet]

Bloody nice fish DaveyG ...good and thick shouldered...love ya work

 

[Davey G]

thanks guys for the 'well dones' etc... I consider myself lucky to have made the early start as if I'd turned up at 6 or 6.30am I wouldn't have gone out at all due to the wind. Luckily the area I was working was quite sheltered behind the high cliffs and as the swell wasn't too bad I was relatively protected.

it was also good to break a bit of a 'fish drought' as I haven't caught many decent fish for quite a while. it was great to feel the terrific hard slam of the rod bending over in the rodholders when a good fish whacks the lure.

to answer the question on fighting ability kings v salmon I was also contemplating that while out on the water yesterday, and I actually realised that the salmon were giving me a hell of a lot more stick than the kings.

its worth noting however that I caught both the kings on my heavier 6- 10kg 8 foot long rod and I caught all the salmon (apart from the 'one that got away') on my smaller rod - a 6'6" Uglystik 4-8kg. The Salmon were also larger (longer and thicker) than the kings. So it probably wasn't a 'fair' comparison.

I have caught kings before and I always thought that they were the hardest pulling fish I'd caught, however I'd have to give it to the salmon on this occasion. Apart from their aerial leaps, they also pulled a hell of a lot more line off me and made repeated bursts in all directions, working high up in the water then diving deep, changing direction etc. It took me probably 2-3 minutes to get the salmon into the yak as opposed to around a minute or 2 with both the kings. The kings made a couple of early bursts but then they gave up reasonably quickly as they tired. There weren't even any 'last minute bursts' at the side of the yak like I've experienced before with kings.

Hard to say what the winner would be if the size of the fish were identical, but yesterday showed me how well a salmon can fight....

Now, bring on the 80cm kings and we'll see how well they go!! 8)

 

[Davey G]

gatesy, if you'd asked me before saturday which fish gives a better fight I would have told you kingfish no problems. but these salmon on saturday really put up a good show.

also interesting is that I was chatting to another guy fishing the same area in a stinkboat, he had also caught a rat kingfish and also noted that he thought it was a tailor as it wasn't pulling 'like a kingie'.

whether it was just this particular school, or whether they are still a bit sluggish due to the early time of year I don't know.

Also, my previous experiences with kingies have been catching them on lighter rods (2-4kg) with 6 lb line so having the heavier gear certainly made the fight a lot shorter.

anyway, keen to catch a few more over summer as they are certainly good fun!

 

[beefs]

Nice work Dave, that PB list in your signature is starting to look quite impressive! Could you see the fish/schools on your sounder while you were trolling?