New Tackle

Great News ! The Sakana Website will be up and running next week ( finally )
At the moment they will be advertising their Rod Range including some pretty neat Jigging Rods. We have been using The Sakana Saltwater Pro Overhead No. SP5610JH. This is a 5ft6 Rod Rated 30 to 50lb for Jigs to 250 to 400gms. We have fishing this on a Daiwa Saltist 30t. This is a great outfit for
50lb tackle. Its a very easy outfit to use due to its light weight and also narrow spool width and has accounted for several fish over 8kgs in the last few trips.
The Sakana Jigs will hit the market in the next 14 Days. We have put a lot of time into testing these Jig Patterns and Colours to get them just right. THEY ARE THE BOMB !

Today I caught up with Fred from EJ Todd ( Loomis Distributors ). He had a sample of a Jig Rod called a "Fake Lez 50H" . This is one of the best Jig Rods I have ever seen.

The prototype Sakana Jig Cranker Rods we have been evaluating on the boat are up there and these should be ready for next season.
Keep an eye out for the new Daiwa Sacrifice Sticks, they will be back on the market ( Hooray ! ) sometime before Christmas.

Update !

Sorry about the lack of fishing reports but I have had a few issues mainly with miserable weather not letting me out but also with boats following me after reading my reports. This week in particular really pushed me over the edge with a commercial drop liner from Sydney setting his gear after watching me for an hour or so. He steamed straight over to our spot and set his gear right on the patch of fish we had been jigging on all morning. There was a fair bit of yelling from yours truly before he decided to leave us alone...P.S Lucky Eugene the jigging machine was with me for back up !!
But back to the good stuff..Bag Limit catches every trip ! We have been releasing heaps of nice ones but the average size is 4 kgs with enough nice ones mixed in to keep us one our toes.

We had a group of Humpback whales pay us visit last week , we had to stop fishing for an hour or so because they were so close. They we taking turns diving under the boat and rolling over and looking at us. At times dragging their tales along the keel of the little freedom. We were crapping ourselves !

The pictures are not in any particular order as I lost track who was on the boat
each day.

Things are looking great for the next few weeks with the lowest winter water temperature we've had for a few years. This will hopefully extend the jigging season into Oct/Nov.

F%#K'N JACKETS

We got a weather window yesterday, and ran to the grounds with a cool westerly wind, that dropped to nothing by mid-morning. The first hour the guys released a few rats well under the 65cm limit. I found a patch of nice size kings that were eager to bite, but they were mixed up with a big school of jackets that were also willing to bite.

We started fishing with about 8 or so outfits. Buy the end of the session we had only one rod and reel that had enough line left one it to reach the bottom, and that included re spooling 3 of my reels and 1 of the guys. Add to that 25 plus jigs, flouro leader and snaps. The jackets would bite you off on the drop, on the retrieve, even when fighting a king.

The final count, 12 nice keepers around 4/5kg, with 2 good ones over 90cms, 1 bonito and only 1 jacket. We just made it in before the wind and rain, it could be a couple of days before we get out again. Meanwhile I'm heading to Freddy's Fishing World to restock the boat with line and jigs.

Highs and Lows

Talk about the highs and lows of fishing ! Sunday saw us battling ugly conditions with 25 knot SW winds pushing up against southbound current and waves up to 3 meters. I had to idle around between spots and the strong winds made staying on the spots hard. We only caught 1/2 dozen Kingys and a few Bonito. Unfortunately the sloppy conditions bought on a few cases of sea sickness and the boys decided to return a little bit early.



Monday was the best weather day of the whole season and the fish really turned it on ! We kept our bag limit with heaps of nice ones over 5kgs. Some Bonito and Samson Fish made up the by catch and we released heaps of Kings to fight another day....
The Jackets however took a toll of mine and the boys Jig collection and several spools of line. We watched Jackets following up the Jigs only to peel off and swim over to the lines still in the water and snip them off , losing
100 metres of line , leader and Jig. F*#K'N JACKETS was the cry of the day.
Daiwa Speed Jigs and Turkey Sliders are still the main producers, unfortunately I am down to my last Sacrifice Stick. I think I will retire it to my office before the jackets get to it. Best colours seem to be Pink and Silver.

Yesterday fishing was tough AGAIN. ! Heaps of little one though around 60cms have moved in and its hard to pull a legal one out. We ended up keep around 10 and a few Bonito , Amber-Jack and Trevally.