# Long Reef Wall 12/8



## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

I was the late shift today. Headed out at 10, expecting the wind to be abating after I'd turned off the alarm very early because of the wind. Passed Tugboat and Redfin who were heading in because they judged the wind to be strengthening. Hope they'll post their reports.

Headed out to the general area of the wall, trolling some small divers for no success (a patriot and a glass shad rap). Swapped over to a nuclear chicken 7" gulp jerk shad on 1/2oz 5/0 jig, lime tiger 5" gulp jerk shad on 1/4oz 2/0 jig and a pumpkinseed 4" power minnow on 1/8oz 3/0 jig. Drifted the first two and cast the third ahead of me. Was drifting with the wind at about 2-2.5kph. On about third cast came tight and pulled in a 36cm pinkie. Something for the comp and the plate.



At the end of that drift paddled back past a boat with four guys chucking big lumps of bait into the water for no reward. Started drifting again with the same setups and approach. Wind died down considerably then swung around from NW to S. Just near the end of a retrieve of the power minnow it came tight again. A short while later I see silver and start thinking trev. Then I see yellow .... and a brown stripe ... King! Only a little tacker and was spirited but not strong. 50cm so back in the water with it. My first ever.

Then the wind strengthened considerably (15kt gusting to 20) so I headed back in. At the ramp by 12. Short session but a pleasing result (except the pinky's not big enough to feed the horde). Some big reds and lizards on the fish cleaning table. but they were taken 4-6km out, too far given today's conditions.


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## justcrusin (Oct 1, 2006)

Very nice snapper there Dave lovely plate size. Didn't get a photo of your first King ?

Nice work on a comp weekend

Cheers Dave


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## sbd (Aug 18, 2006)

Well done on the snapper Dave, and congrats for your maiden kingie. May there be many more.


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## sunshiner (Feb 22, 2006)

Life wouldn't be the same without snapper, would it... Nice one


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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## JT (May 25, 2006)

Well done on the Kingy Dave. I recall that that was one of your goals for this year.....another notch on the old fishing belt 8)

JT


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## Dan A (Aug 29, 2005)

Nice one Dave, nice size for the plate too.

Congrats on your first Kingy.

Dan


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## hairymick (Oct 18, 2005)

G'day Dave,

Nice pinkie mate & congrats on the first kingie. Bloody beauty!! GOODONYAMAAAATE.


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## bazzoo (Oct 17, 2006)

Hi Dave , congratulations mate on the pinkie and the kingie , even at 50 cms those kings put up a tussle dont they ? , ahhhh now you'll really have the kingfish bug , and just in time too


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## Redfin (Jul 10, 2006)

Belated fishing report........

Tugboat and I went out this morning and met up at balmoral beach as we were a bit concerned about the strong winds. Balmoral was flat so we thought we would try Long Reef as we had fished it couple of weeks ago and knew the GPS marks.

Long Reef had much more wind, but we were there so had to go out. The conditions were actually much better than expected, they were pleasant compared to my first long reef trip 2 weeks ago. The sea was not too choppy and I stayed dry for the first couple of hours. The temperature was really nice for fishing, no frostbite this time.

I was fishing salted salted slimy mackrel on the drift with a small drouge. Pretty quickly I had a 34cm Pinky which put up a pretty good fight. I then got an approx 25cm pinky (released), a sweep type fish (kept- I saw a post on another forum of someone saying they were ok to eat so I thought Id try it), a wrasse (released, did not know what he was) and a 33cm Trevally (which I was a bit dissapointed with as I was expecting a bigger fish based on the fight).

The wind really picked up at about 9.30 so we had one last drift and headed in. The chop picked up and I ended up wet from spray.

We saw Peril coming out as we were heading in. Nice pinky - there must be a few around.

I think I am hooked on Long Reef fishing. I think I am over my apprehension of being offshore now. Did not really bother me at all this time....although I have still yet to meet the sand monster. One thing with long Reef is that there are some strange Unidentified Fishy Objects that I have pulled out in the two times I have been out....I have not touched them. What fish should i really stay clear of both eating and touching in this area? I can look them up on the web to make sure that if I see one to stay clear.

Cheer,
Michael


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Gatesy said:


> Dave
> 
> In the nicest possible way............ABOUT BLOODY TIME WITH THE KINGFISH
> 
> You have worked very hard to catch one of these fish and it nice to finally hear you've landed one. So was the wait worth it?????


Yeah, I've contrived a few ways to stuff up my outings chasing them.

Must say I expected more pull from the fish. I got it on the 10lb gear, and I set my drags fairly precisely. I'd say it pulled less than a similar length snapper, salmon or even bonito, all of which have taken lots of drag from me on 10lb but this one didn't. However it did keep pulling after the others would have given up. Looking forward to taking on its bigger siblings.

No photo because I'm saving that for my fist legal king.

Michael (redfin), most of the fish from Long Reef are edible, though not necessarily palatable, and easily handled. The only exception that I've taken from there are the rod cods - these have heaps of toxic spines that inflict a lot of pain. However the boiled flesh is known as poor man's lobster. Good in a stew but be careful handling them, alive or dead. I've also heard that sweep are ok to eat, but not tried them. Grant even says that the wrasses aren't bad to eat, but I'll wait till I hear other reports


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## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

Dave a great result for an office hours start mate, and Michael good to see you got a feed as well


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## onemorecast (Apr 17, 2006)

Well done Dave. Not the easiest time of the year to catch Kings either so particually good effort!


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## Jeffo (Sep 10, 2006)

Nice snapper Dave & congrats on your 1st Kingie

Cheers

jeffo


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## RedPhoenix (Jun 13, 2006)

Unfortunately, due to the change in ownership of this web site and the lack of response by the owners to my requests to remove my email address from all administrative-level notifications and functionality, I have decided to remove my posts on AKFF. Thank you for the great times, the fantastic learning experiences and the many many fish. If you are desperate for the old content of this particular post, it is available below base64 encoded and bzip2 compressed.

Red.

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QlpoOTFBWSZTWeHP9YUAAB1fgAAQUKWACgAJDAo/7//gMADWUMMjTTTIwmRgmgMEU9GTTUaGkxM1DRtCPUGqeEmEDKNlMg00yZF4pMdu89GNhKhB4czcuVU5wm5BOm9iAt1iLq3XmtVZpSBTKlM2Zda088RWq7KurswYbtHwi3MIxXutdyRkkEDZsgNlZto2x+D9StYAb7803UGgP3IxJeE2F8aCGRW/Rx0C1H5MrRuNBiS1GCC918DkIgkc3g7iRlgEbgsGvODYnTuHTkiCMuZYtUpxMgl16KEECSquaoQe/8KNMVuuciBuI6KP4u5IpwoSHDn+sKA=


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## tugboat (Nov 15, 2006)

Great Pinkie there Peril...

As Redfin noted, conditions were very comfortable this morning.
The winds were bearable and assisted in drift fishing with a medium sized drouge.
I decided to give the SPs a good work out and I was rewarded, however It was the Gulp 4" Minnow that did all the damage, the other SPs I was using didn't even get a touch. Definitely something about the Gulps that work.

I ended up taking home a 34cm Snapper and released another 2 which were a touch under 30cm. The Gulp Minnow also got harrased by a number of Pike. All in all not too bad a morning as I ended up only using the same Gulp Minnow for the whole session and have something for dinner.

When I get a chance will post a few photos.


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## MangoX (Feb 18, 2006)

Well done guys...

congrats on all the yummy fish for dinner...


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## Dave73 (Dec 3, 2006)

Well done Dave on the kingy and the pinky. Plenty more to come also i'm sure.
So you're using 3 rods? 2 drifting and one casting! And your pretty decicated to plastics also. Do you ever get fish to take one of the drifted plastics without much action? I've been finding the drifting plastic left alone gets nups and the one I'm retrieving gets hit 95% of the time.
Wouldnt mind hearing your thoughts?

Cheers Dave.


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## fisherdan (Apr 17, 2007)

Good on you Dave, Tugboat and Redfin!

Nice to feel tight lines with the sun shining, pity about the wind.

I was out on Pittwater draining water and fuel out of my mates outboard carburetor, wish I smelled of fish instead of fuel...


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Dave73 said:


> Well done Dave on the kingy and the pinky. Plenty more to come also i'm sure.
> So you're using 3 rods? 2 drifting and one casting! And your pretty decicated to plastics also. Do you ever get fish to take one of the drifted plastics without much action? I've been finding the drifting plastic left alone gets nups and the one I'm retrieving gets hit 95% of the time.
> Wouldnt mind hearing your thoughts?
> 
> Cheers Dave.


Dave, I've caught most of my snapper on the drift with the rod in the rod holder. Although today I didn't get a touch on the drifted plastics


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## tugboat (Nov 15, 2006)

Gatesy said:


> The put the rod in the holder and leave it alone is the Dave Liddy patented method for producing snapper


And it works!    The first fish I caught was when I left the rod in the rod holder whilst setting up my second rod :shock:


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## Flump (Apr 17, 2006)

Dave, congrats on the Kingie, hopefully a bigger one next time mate :wink:


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## Y-Knot (Sep 26, 2006)

well done fellas on the days session...

Big Congrats Dave on the Kingie, you must be pumped chasing your 1st legal now


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