# Balmoral Surface Smash 06 Feb 07 pm



## Flump (Apr 17, 2006)

Set out from Balmoral beach at 1.30pm this arvo. Decided to go and have a try for the Kings in the harbour. Trolled a CD7 and a SX40 from Balmoral right round Middle Head and into Obelisk Bay for nothing :evil: :evil: :evil: . The wash from the boats, combined with the chop from the wind was pretty bad so decided to go for a bottom bash with some left over squid from Long Reef. Set a drift from Middle Head to the point in the middle of Balmoral beach. Had several strikes, but nothing would hook up. Came across a Boatie working just out from the point who said there was a big school of Bonito working the surface and he told me to follow him on the drift, which I duely did.

First drift produced multiple follows using a very fast retrieve with a 4" Berkeley Minnow SP in pink right up to the side of the yak. Second drift resulted in a hook up, but it wasn't a Bonito, it was a nice Tailor of 44cm, which was dispatched for tea         , first ever keeper Tailor.

The next two hours saw me chasing the school around getting absolutely knackered resulting in around six or seven hook ups, but no more landed :evil: :evil: . Two runs had me very nearly spooled, before I just had to use the good old hand on spool and pray routine :shock: . Both fish busted off :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: , but only at the hook (probably sawed through the line with teeth) so I still had line  .

At 4.30 I spotted a blue Hobie heading out towards me, it turned out to be Lloyd. He was going to go for a troll around Middle Head, before I told him about the school. He duely went round and round me as I was knackered and he hooked up fairly quickly (very amusing, but I'll let him tell you about that :wink: ).

Eventually found enough energy to do some more trolling so out went the SP and the CD7 and eventually hooked and landed a 46 cm Bonito on the CD7. This was also dispatched for tea. Had one more hook up just after the Bonnie on the same drift, but got smoked and the hook pulled out.

All in all a great afternoon, but I need stronger hooks and line as I think the unstoppable fish were probably Kiniges that were swimming with the Tailor and Bonnies, sure there were a few Salmon in there too! They were busting up all afternoon and I left Lloyd chasing them at 5.30 (yes I saw you chasing those jumping fish :wink: just after I got onto the beach, they looked huge mate, did you get one of them?) Only one photo (as the others would spoil Lloyd's story).

Both fish have been BBQ'ed and are now being digested :wink: , they were fantastic


----------



## Duckman (Jan 8, 2007)

Sounds like a sweet trip. Shame about the bust offs though.


----------



## Duckman (Jan 8, 2007)

How heavy were you fishing??


----------



## bazzoo (Oct 17, 2006)

Hi Flump , great work mate , gee the water looks nice , a bit choppy but nice and clean , i didnt know you could eat bonito, used to catch them off the rocks and put them back , what type of sailing boat are you going to get , or more probably build, gee that kayak of yours is nice , well built mate, would love to have a go at building one,ah well , one day


----------



## Flump (Apr 17, 2006)

Was fishing with 10 lb flurocarbon straight through, which is usually enough to stop most things.


----------



## Crikey (Oct 30, 2005)

Nick, pretty much covered the trip except for my pantomime antics. Just after meeting up with Nick I dropped a fish quite close to the yak that I had called for a bonito. Continued to troll and there were a few surface bust ups happening on a scattered basis.

Called to Nick that I just saw a group of Kings bust up maybe 5 metres from the yak and cast a squigy flick bait at them for an immediate follow and hook up on a 3kg threadline outfit. This thing went off like a scaled cat ahead of me I was fishing a fair amount of drag so I am underway. Sods law dictates that the 3kg baitcaster I am still trolling goes off big style about a minute or so into the Kingey fight, it goes off in the opposite direction at 100 miles per hour. At this time I am contemplating a double simultaneous spooling.

I concentrate on the Kingey as I am sure that is what I have on the threadline meanwhile in the melee whatever is one the other rod has managed to do a lap of the rudder so god knows what the braid is sawing through down the back end.

I netted the Kingey after what seemed an eternity, luckily we are out in the middle of Balmoral bay so there is no structure to worry about.

Whatever is on the other rod is still there and the line is wrapped around the rudder so I move over to Nick to get him to clear the rudder for me, the fish is still there but not so feisty as when it started out. A combination of its fight then being towed round for god knows how long has done it in.

Fish number 2 is a 42cm bonito. The kingey went 62cm. The kingey had sufficient go left in him to warrant C&R after being measured and photo'ed, I hope that Nick has the king photos as I still have not any photo evidence of ever catching one.

A top afternoon and it was good to meet up with someone on the water. I came in at 7.00pm without another fish or even strike.

It really must have been right place at the right time during the early afternoon.


----------



## Flump (Apr 17, 2006)

And here are the rest of Lloyds photo's and I've finally got a comp entry 

Barry, the sailing boat is called a puddle duck racer (do a google for pdracer) and is very easy to build. Its been "nearly finished" for about 3 months now. I must do some work on it soon :wink:


----------



## Crikey (Oct 30, 2005)

Nick,

Thanks for the photos I was sweating on it that you had not got any of the fish.

I forgot to mention in my post before that when I peddled over to you to get you to help me out with the rudder someone was trolling their landing net at the time, and I had to stand off until the net was brought back inboard never did get an explanation for that one.

Top day out though, I have never been much of a fan of arvo trips but I might have to rethink that one.


----------



## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Sounds like a great session guys. Nick, congrats on getting onto some new species.


----------



## Zed (Sep 18, 2006)

> At this time I am contemplating a double simultaneous spooling.


YYYYYYYES! Stereo screaming drags.

Cool report.

Z


----------



## Crikey (Oct 30, 2005)

Hi Gatesy,

I had 2 about the same size, within minutes of each other fishing up at Warriewood Head with Phil and Paul Welsh on NYE 2006. Caught them on the same SP but on an 8kg threadline outfit close to the rocks so it was a case of putting a lot of pressure on them to stop them reefing me.

It was great to catch that one yesterday on 3kg gear right out in the middle of nowhere regards structure so reefing was not a concern. One of the reasons I like bonnies, lots of fight on light gear with no dirty tricks.


----------



## 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.

----

QlpoOTFBWSZTWf8j8JYAACrfgAASQOeAELEFFYov796gMADBg0IamJknpCYmaQ8k9N6qeoYAZNNBkMENMRowJVP1Im9QmJ6TJkaaBiYQZFARdeY0nqnZZ4V2fftvon6md2BoFEglz6jPhRQ3v4K0FUw8JwrCbXtjpN/RDMjyk7M040avM1qaHueCoZYiLrCEQZLPH1P7Wu2t7VKykVAOKPj1u99VUatO4ZG6dQn8cQ3yz5YraUC7Bje+TrUGsB0hQRUZO3pH1Wn5+8SKYaoVLjielNIwRlC5uie6FiFMFrxyXRHW8TSiijTx4fxdyRThQkP8j8JY


----------



## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

That is a sweet report and great result guys, well done  It must have been exciting casting to surface feeding fish of mixed species, not being sure what you're going to hook up next :shock: The only fish we get in Canberra which bust up on the surface are stinking carp :x


----------



## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

Good to read of an active arvo fellas, well done


----------



## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

How about entering those fish into the comp guys? Carna Blues!


----------



## Russ (Feb 24, 2006)

Great report fella's nice fish. Will be on the Harbour Fri 16th so leave some for me.

 fishing Russ


----------



## Kevin (Aug 29, 2005)

Exciting afternoon had by all accounts. Good teamwork in regards to getting that 2nd fish off the rudder.


----------

