# NSW: Southside Jewels



## Wrassemagnet (Oct 17, 2007)

Quick post, more later.

Last night, Port Hacking River. 9:30pm, 20minutes and 60m fight. PE 0.6 braid, 6lb FC trace, 1-3kg slow action rod, 4.5g blade (kinked one of the trebles).

84cm, 10.5kg Jewieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. 1st from yak.

Stoked and still smell of jewie.


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

nice. very jealous...


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## garmac (Oct 5, 2008)

Great fish - good effort!


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## wopfish (Dec 4, 2006)

Fan bloody Tastic mate - well done Jim. !!!!!


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## madfishman (Dec 10, 2007)

Good effort , nice Jew.


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## 123SHARKY123 (Jan 15, 2008)

i think your smile says it all onya jimmy VERY VERY nice fish top catch !


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## padfoot (Jul 9, 2008)

20 minutes? You've got nerves of steel. Well done!!


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## shiznic (May 14, 2008)

nice stinker, didnt last night just scream jewie, scored one in a water way near you last night will get the photos soon , your was better but mine is still out there waiting to get to the magic 1 M . Bloody well done on poping you stink cherry.


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## Southerly (Apr 20, 2007)

very nice


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## Wrassemagnet (Oct 17, 2007)

Thanks for that guys,

I had the day off yesterday so I wanted to get out for a fish. As usual when I have a day off I end up working anyway and wasn't able to get away until after 5pm. I wanted to check out some spots I thought might hold bait and jewies from the charts in the Hacking. I would have been happy just getting a chance to get out on the water and adding a few marks to the GPS but I did want to try and catch some squid and then use them as livies. It was low tide at 6pm so I didn't hold out much hope as I suck at squidding anyway so I took along the light gear as well to just prospect around any likely structure or arches that showed up.

I was right about sucking at squidding as it was just too shallow at the weedbed I found and by the time I had worked that out it was too dark and I had no squidding light. I tied on an sx40 for the fun of it and stuck it out the back starboard holder and just forgot about it - some of the best fish I have caught have been on this fire-and-forget lure, especially snapper seem to take it when it's dead in the water.

Anyway I spent the next 3 hours prospecting with heaps of good structure including drop-offs, pinnacles and bait schools marked for future reference. I reach a spot where there are a school of big fish but nothing happens when I troll through them so I have a chuckle and replace the squid jig with a tiny golden vibe and see if I can stir the hornet's nest a bit.

Nothing.

I figure they're not actively feeding so I go looking around for the one that is. The tide was running in by now at about 21:30 so I meandered over to the little seaward promontory figuring if I was a hungry jewie I would sit in the lee and wait for dinner to float by. On the way I was just trolling the blade under me, stopping to jig it a few times if I saw any arches. Well there was this one arch that was lying real close to the bottom (the others were more mid-water) and I must have hit him on the head coz he got pissed enough to strike and it was game on!

My little 2004 daiwa whizzed away (daiwa drags are so cool, no screaming here) with probably a meter every tailbeat so I started packing it thinking I was definitely going to get spooled. Then I remembered the peddles and started to chase. Every time he stopped I sucked as much line back in as I could just dreading the next run and the "ping" of death. For a second I wondered if I should bring the sx40 in but thought stuff it I'm going trolling speed anyway so probably won't get tangled and always the optimist I was hoping for a second jewie to jump on :twisted:

He went for the deeper water and I knew I had the advantage of mobility without snags to bust me up so I kept my twitching fingers and palm away from the drag although tightening up is a hard instinct to fight off. I just tightened the sphincter some more instead and clenched the iron jaw muscles as the drops of cold sweat started to roll down the forehead.

The little celilo from okuma is a slow action feather of a stick and it did a fantastic job absorbing the sudden accellerations and even the headshakes next to the yak when I finally went for him with the boga grips. I dragged him in and put him on my lap, secured his lower jaw with a clip and then started shaking a bit. I love the jewie eyes when they first come out of the water and he didn't disappoint.

I took him back to the ramp after bleeding him and was greeted by a few blokes who were fishing there and said they could smell the jewie as I was coming in and I can still smell him on my hands this morning. The jewels are being kept warm in my pocket and every time I pull them out I relive the satisfaction of having a plan come together and am very grateful to be alive.

Thanks for reading.


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## wayner (Jan 7, 2009)

well done with a very nice jewie there and on the light gear as well........

wayne


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## mcbigg (Jul 14, 2007)

What a Jew to pop your cherry on! Very nice work.

Welcome to the club: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=19626&p=344193#p344193

Cheers,
Paul.


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## yakattack (Jan 12, 2008)

Well done Jim that is a beauty, may it be the first of many more to come.

Cheers Micka


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## sbd (Aug 18, 2006)

Great work Jim, a lovely specimen. 20 mins is a long nerve wracking time on silly string.


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## grinner (May 15, 2008)

top looking fish they are, much congrats pete


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## yaktopia (Nov 30, 2008)

Great Post Jim and like me you will look at photos of the beast and caress the jewels and remember what a hoot it is to catch such a fish. Isn't the smell something they should bottle for fishos? .....Jewey (pronunced 'szouay') by Chanel


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## quaddy (Nov 3, 2008)

Fantastic stuff Jim. Been chasing jewies in the port for ages but doing no good. Have not been out at night in a kayak yet but plenty of times in a stinky. Used all sorts of hb and softies (tailor been smashing me with the softies) and you score one on a blade. well done.

Signed 
Very jealous


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## Wrassemagnet (Oct 17, 2007)

Quaddy I think it's easier to hunt jewies in a kayak than a stinkboat so although I am still stoked I reckon anyone could do it.

I think what I did right was: being in the right spot at the right time - as the tide was running it made sense to hunt for jew in the lee of a promontory. Secondly pedalling real slow and quiet with the little blade already in the water on the troll (no splashes when cast, blades don't cast well for me anyway as the trebles get tangled more often than not and spoil the vibrating action). Thirdly I stopped for the arches and let the blade drift into the strike zone from behind like a little baitfish just moseying along down minding it's own business. When it reached vertical I would start the double twitch and long draw straight up just as if that little fishy just saw a nasty big jewie and was trying to exit the vicinity soonest. Even if the jewie hadn't seen it while it was moseying (I doubt it though with those eyes) the vibrations would definitely draw attention in the dark hence I think the blade made more sense on a really dark night than a plastic. Fourth by going really light it would be harder for the jewie to see my line and as long as I kept the drag light I wasn't going to pull the hooks or bust the knot and the really light bendy rod would absorb any headshakes. Fifth the area I was fishing was sandy bottom so I didn't think I would need to turn his head so light gear didn't really have a disadvantage in that sense. Near a bridge or snaggy bottom it would be much more challenging to subdue a big jewie from a kayak. Fifth it didn't matter that I didn't have much line capacity (although at the time I thought I had been a bit too clever and was definitely going to get spooled) as in the kayak you can peddle after the jewie at a fair speed and limit the amount of line he pulls with each run. Again this wouldn't apply if I were near structures the jewie (or towed yak) could bust up on. Finally I didn't rush getting him up off the bottom when he was spent, I think he must have done a dozen circles under the yak on the way up as I very gently pumped and wound. Even so he managed to straighten the treble so I was not just lucky I was damn lucky.

So overall I think a little blade on light gear makes a lot of sense in an open environment during dark conditions in a kayak when you are using a sounder to locate the target fish.

Having said all that I won't know if what I just wrote is just hot air unless I can reproduce it a few times and boy am I looking forward to that! ;-) Besides I hear Chanel is now paying top dollar for Mulloway frames, something to do with a new scent designed to appeal to bleary eyed unshaven fishos and cats :lol:


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

so what's with the stink? You mention the aroma - do mulloway smell extra 'fishy' or something??


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## Wrassemagnet (Oct 17, 2007)

Davey G said:


> so what's with the stink? You mention the aroma - do mulloway smell extra 'fishy' or something??


It's just standard fishy smell but 'loud' Davey, ie seems to be noticeable a long way away from the jewie and hang around on anything they have touched the day after. It's not unpleasant though like pike or barracuda, more truffly I suppose. "Stinker" is therefore a term of endearment, like "pig" or "grunter" (they do tend to grunt similar to but louder than leather jackets). A lot of the smell comes from a sort of oily coat they have (not slimey like Wrasse), less noticeable the more mature they are hence the younger ones can be "soapy". I did notice the blood was much more pungent than other fish I've bled on the yak too. I would defer to the jewie masters on the forum though about the soapy bit, I have also heard they're called soapies because the juvenile flesh is soft?? This one had really quite firm flesh, tougher it seemed than any other fish that I have filleted but cooked up was really soft, flaky and moist like a cross between snapper and flathead. Another thing I noticed was the skin around the lips was also really really tough although at the same time very loose and I remember thinking no wonder it is so hard to get a big gauge hook to stick when striking with a bait or heavy lure. I think the really fine gauge "sticky" trebles on the blade therefore helped the hookup.


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## sbd (Aug 18, 2006)

They have a definite odour, I've heard it described as a cucumber scent, though I think that's a longish bow to draw. Some liars allege they can smell them in the water. It's common for the slimecoat to have a distinct odour, apparently the smell of "stinky" pike is all down to their slime & they're actually not bad eating (blech).

I might have to cook up a pike & jellyfish smorgasbord for the next dinner party - there were some pretty purple jellyfish off Longy yesterday & I picked up 2 pike on the one Rapala (front & rear trebles).


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## Wrassemagnet (Oct 17, 2007)

Dave I am usually fishless except for bycatch so I often stoop to stinky pike (and wrasse) and have always found them bloody delicious filleted and skinned then shallow fried in a very light flour or batter coating accompanied by a nice cold Blonde on the table and a brunette on the lap ;-) I'm game for purple jellyfish too (perhaps after more than 3 Blondes) if you are :twisted:


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## grumpy (Oct 7, 2009)

Top fish well done 
Cheers Grumpy


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## keza (Mar 6, 2007)

hey Jim,
mate you're a star !


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