Two Mornings at Long Reef

Down to Roseville boat ramp in Sydney last Friday meeting friends Chris and Ed. Two top blokes building an empire, buying and selling prestige cars. Always interested in fishing and got a good deal on a Quintrex 490. The lads stopped by for some gear and asked if I’d like to come for a run on the new rig. Couldn’t say yes fast enough. First stop, Centurion wreck for bait:

Then straight to Long Reef and praying that, after all the bad weather, we might find some clear water and a king or two. Answer? Yes:

The current was pumping and so were the kings:

But I’d made a rookie error. Figuring that, with the lads not having much kingfish experience, and Long Reef usually swarming with 60-70cm kings at this time of year, we could get away with 10 kilo light jig gear. Dead wrong:

The place was swarming with sharks, kings, and cobia at one point Ed hooked a solid king and after a mighty battle had it nearly at the boat. Suddenly it put on a huge burst of pace – which came to an abrupt end. Shark. We even saw a few fins swimming around our burley trail. The lads had a great time but we had a crazy number of bust offs and shredded leaders:

Five days later and I’m heading to Longie again, this time on my own boat:

Very pleased with the way the new paint job turned out, and grateful to the lads on Facebook who recommended Empire Blast & Paint at Maitland:

Up to Long Reef with top bloke Wayne, except this time we were fishing 80 pound main line with 130 pound fluoro carbon leaders. Keen to try the heavy model threadline from TICA. It’s got 20 kilos of drag:

Only downside? The current had backed off. There were still plenty of fish around, but not the big stuff we had planned for. We put a big yellowtail out the back under a balloon and floated yellowtail strips down the burley trail. That produced a steady stream of quality fish, particularly solid bream and trevally:

King of the morning went just under 80:

The TICA? I was shocked. It basically reeled the king in the way you reel in a live bait on a sabiki. I’m ordering five of them this week – with matching rods - because their performance is incredible and the price is incredible too:

Will keep you lads informed as always and thanks for reading
Andrew Hestelow

Plan your next Long Reef session: Use the two-morning tackle lesson in our guide to finding fish, fishing live bait and changing the plan.

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