# Balmoral 4/3



## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Met YaknDive at Long Reef, saw shore dump, we headed to Balmoral.

PaulB was already on the water heading to the island for squid, I guess. Kraley was seen shortly afterwards. Later I encountered JT and a very happy Devo!

My day was very quiet. Trolled out around Middle Head but it was very sloppy so I headed back. Decided to try upstream as there was no surface action. Turned left past the spit bridge and tried squidding for a while, and practiced my bait-casting technique. One hit. Gave up and trolled back to Balmoral to try more squidding around the island. No action and too many paddlers getting in the way. Gave up when a horde of nippers on boards were directed my way. Caught up with JT. Headed in and caught up with YaknDive, Kraley and Devo. JT came in and the birds finally started working - damn you JT :lol: JT, YaknDive and I couldn't resist but it was to no avail for me and was getting too hot.

Another fishless comp day for me. Still a good paddle (about 12km) and the other guys proved the fish were there


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## justcrusin (Oct 1, 2006)

Bad luck peril it was the same up my way, the alminac said it was the right time, but to no avail. Better luck next time Mate

Remember a bad is fishing is better than a good day at work.

Cheers Dave


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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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## 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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QlpoOTFBWSZTWc5biEIAADffgAASUKOAGqApGCo/7/6wMAD7WIap5MlHkm0YmiGgADIKJ6amQ000ADQDQAGgSZDRqGmTQDJoyaC2ZSCmdSspT3Y5ZMPdYOOiP7wuwoZVTwcA0cWzXWdyhgOdDnzGSAh6YBBbDvyCRjVi1oliuSzyVxEEWqwCkMr5zRxUOAzpS/eaMYayVb3FyMWS4KIVKakmkY8z1ts+nkBD15RHT5SStZWmZx2AUe5iVb3yZowGCTFCvCLS+79N+DlScHrZWkIxSGuTCP2cmbaBpKqGAFo35gNHN7mYsxbF4HPQpghB+R9cwUnC6md6iJXZVzqQyej7EnkxgMjYwIfbXgVST8AYSYnYU1xlMAn8XckU4UJDOW4hCA==


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## onemorecast (Apr 17, 2006)

Been debating all day about whether to try Balmoral tomorrow morning as I don't have to be at work (Crows Nest) until 10 am. After reading Ken's report I think I'll give it ago. 

Banging the fish with the lip grippers, reminds me an all time favorite book of mine... Anyone ever read The Curse of Lono? :wink:


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## Flump (Apr 17, 2006)

Unlucky there Dave and great one Ken. 2kg line and a 49cm Bonnie must have been fun :shock:  . Who else got amongst them?

Guys, when I was out on tuesday i found that trolled lures were not quick enough for the decent Tailor. Small metals ripped back ultra quick were the only way to go. I tried slowing the retrieve down but the lures just got refused, wierd. Obviously Bonito don't play the same game  :wink: .


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## Clarkos (Oct 11, 2006)

Nice work guys.

Better to be on the water, than sitting at home, wishing you were out there.

That's a nice little Bonnie there Ken.

Cheers, Steve.


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## Davey G (Jan 15, 2006)

good reports guys and a few welcome fish. btw - nice bonito ken, and as always - a cracker of a report!


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## JT (May 25, 2006)

I hit the off button on the alarm clock at 5:00 am, went back to sleep and finally hit the water at about 7:40. As Ken said we stopped for a quick Pow Wow and to watch some Kingys doing their thing not 15 meters from the waters edge. Bid Ken fairwell and proceeded to work my way past the Navy Wharf and out to the heads while dragging a slightly weighted 7 inch Berkley shad and while throwing a Halco 10 lb twisty around. The birds by this time had gone home and there wasn't much happening :roll: .

Bumped into Devo who looked like he had just won the lottery  . "Are you on the forum"? he asked. Yep I said. He then held up a great looking Kingfish that still had some life left in it. Devo was chuffed to say the least and couldn't get back to the beach fast enough to show his wife and kids. Well done Mate. PM me with your email address and I'll send you the photos.

Headed back in with YaknDive and Peril and had a chat on the beach. All of a sudden the birds started working the water out wide so back we went and started to throw some slugs around. Bugger all happened but the exercise was good.

Peril headed in and I started to make my way back to the bay. This was at about 9:50. I happened to look up at the sky at this point and noticed that the clouds were forming in such a way to make a face. As the face became clearer I noticed a torso and an arm. It became clearer still and all of a sudden I realised that "my God it's Flump" and he was pointing over to the eastern side of the bay. I removed my sunglasses and rubbed my eyes and looked again. By this time the clouds were just a mess of clouds and Flump was gone. "He must be trying to tell me something" I said to myself. I made my way over to the eastern side of the bay and noticed the gulls starting to work the water.

Out came the 10 lb Halco twisty. First cast bought in at medium speed. Tap, tap, tap and boooomm :evil: . The line started to peel off and my light 3 KG Shimano rod went over. In came the first Tailor of about 33 cms. Out went the Halco twisty again. Tap tap Bam!!! The reel screamed again and the rod bent over. 2nd Tailor boated at about 28 cm. A quick measure on the paddle ruler (thanks DaveyG) and back in it went. At Tailor number 12 YaknDive appeared and started to cast his lure about. At this point I am scanning the beach for Peril willing him to return to help us work this Tailor school.

I stopped counting at Tailor number 26 when my trusty Halco twisty got impossibly tangled with the end of the rod. I took 7 Tailor home for dinner and lunch the next day and the rest went back into the drink. All this not 70 meters from the beach. I saw Ken and Platypus cruise out at about 11:30 which was my prompt to check my watch and head in. YaknDive and I packed up and headed for home. Beautiful day out there to boot!

JT


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## Squidder (Sep 2, 2005)

Wow, great pelagics, great reports and great pics guys.   I dream about having a session where I can catch 26 hard fighting fish one after another :shock:


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## Peril (Sep 5, 2005)

Squidder said:


> Wow, great pelagics, great reports and great pics guys.   I dream about having a session where I can catch 26 hard fighting fish one after another :shock:


Me too! Great stuff JT and YaknDive - persistence paid off


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## JT (May 25, 2006)

Squidder said:


> Wow, great pelagics, great reports and great pics guys.   I dream about having a session where I can catch 26 hard fighting fish one after another :shock:


It was quite literally one after the other until the end of the session when it was only one in two or one in three casts. A little like Flump's earlier comment the only thing they would go for was the slug on a quickish retrieve. With this kind of intense school based fishing I would definately crush the barbs on the twisty for those fish going back. After you have enough for a feed it is just fun and sport and returning those going back with their gob intact is only fair I think.

Thanks for the AKFF POTD medallion Ken. I have printed the silver medallion, cut it out and am wearing it around my neck in the office today. Anyone foolish enough to ask what it is for will be forced to sit through a blow by blow account of the hour and a half between 9:50 am and 11:34 am Sunday morning. :lol:

JT


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## devo (Sep 12, 2006)

After getting a load of grief from Mrs Devo as to why I had to bring all the fishing gear and it would be a waste of time , ( she of little faith! ) I eventually hit the water around 8.00AM
As I paddled of leaving said wife and 3 kids on the beach , I was already dredding the return journey in case I came back empty handed.
I started trolliing towards the naval base with a CD 7 - saying a quick g'day to ken on the way who proudly showed be a very fresh bonito. After a good 45 minutes or so trolling between the navy wharf and the point I switched over to the rapala xrap 9. I was heading in from the headland back towards the navy base markers and than BANG. The line screamed out and I just sat there mesmorised like a deer caught in the headlights thinking @%*# Ive actually got a fish on !! It was all over in about 10 minutes and I had my first ever kingfish sitting at my feet. JT paddled past soon after and I had my first victim who I could tell my fishing story to. He was also good enough to take a few photos -so thanks again JT. 
I than headed back to the beach still grinning from ear to ear and over the moon that I did't have to do the " paddle of shame " home with Mrs Devo waiting to say " I told you so !!"
The official measurement came in at 62 cms ( I think i told Ken , Peril , JT and Mark it was 65cm but hey, they always look bigger in water haha.)
Anyway , I know Ive rambled on - but I was that excited about catching my first ever kingfish I had to share it.
I will try and post some pics when I get to work.
Devo


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## Tim (Nov 11, 2005)

Nice one.



> paddle of shame


Love it


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## paulb (Nov 12, 2006)

The day started at around 5.30am on the water, when I went off chasing squid around the enclosure and island - but by around 6.15/6.30 had caught zilch. 
I'm pretty sure I saw Ken disappearing towards the headland and was about to head off after him, when I saw a few seagulls swooping around the moored yachts near the launch point. 
At first I suspected someone had just discarded their eggs and bacon breakfast overboard and the birds were fighting over the scraps, but seeing as a few more gulls were honing in from further away I thought I'd paddle across and take a look see. Couldn't see any surface action for the first few minutes other than the occaisional gull diving for some hapless baitfish, then the first fish broke the surface........
I cast my X-Rap in the general direction of the fish and began rewinding steadily - I was hit almost straight away and up came a Tailor. Every second or third cast then resulted in a hook up, with a fastish retrieve giving the better results. 
On my fourth hook up, I noticed the line was moving across the water very fast, though very little weight/resistance, so I just wound in as fast I could assuming a small Tailor. As the slack was retreived the fish started fighting - much harder than the Tailor, with line regularly being pulled back off the reel. Finally got to see a glimpse of the fish - it saw me at the same time & proceeded to dive again. Knowing it was either a Kingfish or Bonito, I patiently played it in, eventually landing 44cm Bonito (Dinner!!!).
I continued following the schools around the moored yachts and at times found myself right in the middle of a bust up, with Tailor jumping all around. I ended up landing 9 or 10 all up, before getting a into major tangle towards the end.
Not long after, the action subsided & Ken arrived & we headed out towards the Naval wharf chasing seagulls in vain. 
That was as far out as I got that day, before heading back and having a quick chat with JT before calling it a day.
I'm glad JT stayed around longer and got into some more action.


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## Flump (Apr 17, 2006)

> Peril headed in and I started to make my way back to the bay. This was at about 9:50. I happened to look up at the sky at this point and noticed that the clouds were forming in such a way to make a face. As the face became clearer I noticed a torso and an arm. It became clearer still and all of a sudden I realised that "my God it's Flump" and he was pointing over to the eastern side of the bay. I removed my sunglasses and rubbed my eyes and looked again. By this time the clouds were just a mess of clouds and Flump was gone. "He must be trying to tell me something" I said to myself. I made my way over to the eastern side of the bay and noticed the gulls starting to work the water.


Ha ha ha ha ha ha, cheers JT. Glad you got among them Tailor       and great Kingy Devo. Nice to know there are also some Bonito mixed in there now too Paul.


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