Kings 'n Mahi

December 17, 2023

After a fantastic day on the wide reefs last Thursday, I couldn’t resist another run on Tuesday. The clincher being the ideal weather forecast. With the weather off Sydney being (mostly) absolute crap this winter, the forecasted one foot swell and sub 5 knot winds was too good to miss. Regular crew members Alex and Oscar were available for the day too, which was a plus. Straight to the Valiant wreck off Barrenjoey where live bait weren’t easy to get. But with twelve baits in the tank we got the CJ up on the plane, and we headed for Terrigal FAD at 20 knots:

They weren’t there last Thursday! But with Tuesdays’ water temps at 23.4, compared to last week at 22, the mahi had arrived. Not big fish and not big numbers but looking forward to chasing them all summer. After a quick sesh we headed for Secret Reef. That name is a joke because the marks were given to me in total confidence but last week, when we arrived, there were 5 boats already there. On Tuesday, just one other boat, but the strong current was making even heavy jigs to sink on a 45 degree angle. That little issue overwhelmed by the fantastic marks on the sounder. Here’s a school of bait being attacked by kingfish from below:

The current was a bit of a problem last week too. The mark is small and you can drift off it very quickly. I thought about how to deal with that factor a lot over last weekend. Solution. Take one of our Dragon 7000 electric reels. That way, I could drop down a live bait with a two pound sinker. And because my Dragon is spooled with only 30-pound braid, it doesn’t get caught in the current so much. Pinned a yellowtail on a paternoster and dropped it down deep. We didn’t wait long. Alex was on strike:

This 90cm marked the start of a magical morning of fishing:

Soon after, Oscar hooked up. This chunky king went into the fish bag I bought on Monday afternoon. Why I didn’t get one years ago I’ll never know:

What a session! Perfect weather, only one other boat on the mark, hungry kingies, and good company. Confession time! we lost three big ones, for all the wrong reasons. Here’s a short clip of the action:

DOUBLE HOOKUP

On one, the knot failed. On another, the FG knot failed. Oscar tells me I have to do a Rizzuto knot when finishing the FG, not just two half hitches. And on the third, I just couldn’t keep him off the bottom! The line came up with the leader shredded. Which kind of surprised me, because I expected that the reef would be covered with soft coral. Lesson learned. The big surprise of the trip was the electric Dragon reel:

Being an old boomer who sits in front of the computer most days, winding up a heavy sinker time after time from 140 metres is something I don’t look forward to. With the Dragon, you just press the up button:

Note that, when we hooked up, we didn’t use electric winding? It’s still a fair fight. These are a quality reel with warranty for only $700, and you can put them on just about any 15-24 kilo overhead rod. But we’ve only got seven left in stock, which is why they’re not on our web page. If you want one or you want more details, give me a call or send an email? The huge plus with these reels is that you can fish deep water in a strong current right through summer – just by using a bigger jig or a heavier sinker. With 12 hooked, 9 boated and 5 kept, we had an absolute ball:

Decided to pull the pin early and go check if the lobster trap field off Terrigal had been deployed. Yes, it has:

But the mahi weren’t on the trap buoys yet. All good! We found them at the FAD on the way home. With the nor’ easter building on our tail we scampered the 20 miles back to Pittwater and gave ourselves an early mark. Thanks to the great crew and looking forward to doing it all again soon
Andrew Hestelow