Kings and Mahi
THURSDAY. Met up with Corey at the ramp for an early start:
Scored some yellowtail in Pittwater and headed straight up to Terrigal FAD. That’s fifteen miles from Barrenjoey, and makes for a great break in the trip to the reef - if the mahi are around. They were – but small:
Another ten miles north to Terrigal Wide. We've caught some nice kings over the summer here and some friends had a massive session four days earlier on a different reef but at similar depth so, hopes were high. How’s this for a screen shot? All kingfish:
But we weren’t seeing that much action. Dropped down the jigs – which at this spot they always seem to prefer, over live bait. Scored a nice keeper on our 250 gram jig:
But pretty quiet generally, both on our boat and others. Time to try something new. I had made up a little portable FAD which connects to the downrigger. The idea is, only deploy it when something was happening. Not intended to be used in the hope that something would turn up. With the boat on Spotlock I ran it out twenty metres down current. You can see 2 x 3 metres of shade cloth streaming behind the PVC pipe:
The kings we hoped for never showed. And I heard later from a friend on the Facebook page that the bite shut down, just as we arrived. Kind of disappointing because the bait stacks and the water temp were impressive:
There was lots of action, just not from our primary target. Tiny mahi and big long toms – we fished for the long toms and got some strikes, but as so often with this bony mouthed species it was hard to stay hooked. Time for a new plan. We headed back in, looking for some lobster trap buoys. The wind backed off fast so Corey broke out the fly rod:
The only result on the fly was small amberjacks. Mahi were interested but wouldn’t connect. So we switched to lures. They were small, but they were keepers, and lots of fun on 3 kilo. Mahi grow an inch a week so this bite is only going to get better and bigger:
I tied on a 10 gram jig with the thought being, jigs that flutter down catch their eyes while sinking. Mahi have huge eyes, and the water out wide is super clear. They follow it down without striking but then, as you lift and flick the rod tip, they can’t help but strike. Where there’s one mahi there’s another dozen and if one misses the opportunity they know another fish in the school gets dinner. It’s worked for me so well, in the Harbour:
And it worked on Thursday too:
Deadly. Two or three quick flicks with the rod tip and I was on - almost every cast. We took a few home for the table. The good news is, these were all the same size, they’re going to keep growing, and will reach 80cm by the end of March. As to ten gram jigs, here’s a link. Note that these need to be fished with a 7 or 8 foot tippy responsive rod? A 3000 size reel and 6 kilo line is more than enough:
Back out this weekend and if anything interesting happens will put up a report! Thanks for reading
Andrew Hestelow
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