LBG at JB '23-'24

[DougieK]

I know I don't post on here much anymore but I thought I'd try and write fairly regular reports about the LBG situation up here at JB.

Watching the currents drift down the coast and the warmer water start to arrive, Cam, Sammy and I decided it was time to start putting in some significant effort off the rocks.

Two Sundays ago we dropped into a school of rat kings, and spent the better part of 6 hours hooking and releasing them on lures, live baits and floats.

After a couple of salmon and a livebait vanishing without a trace, Sammy nailed the first king of the year and her first on lure with a 25g gillies glow baitfish.



Being a relative newcomer, getting the first fish annoyed the f out of Cam and I. Not to worry.....

Cam was next on a float with a chunk of salmon.



Wanting to show the youngens how it's done, I put my rod down and Jedi mind tricked one out of the water for myself.



This went on, with metal lures being the preferred method, for the better part of the afternoon and into the evening. The final tally was Cameron 7, Sammy 4 and Dougie 3.

Just as we'd finished packing up, my one remaining livebait went off, and it was on like donkey kong.

https://youtu.be/-nIUmH2oPFY

Easily dropped a PB. This is a great sign for things to come this year.

Dougie's king tally after day one is 3.

[DougieK]

Inspired by the weekends success, I returned the following Thursday out to the same spot in the rain. Messaging a friend of mine who fishes a bit from his boat, he agreed to meet me out there when he finished work. Pushing through the wet and heading out to the ledge about 3pm, I spent nearly an hour messing around wondering why it was so hard to get a live bait. Finally deploying a yakka, I picked up my spin rod and banged a 70g oceans legacy slingshot out into the grey.

The hookup was instant.

I spent he next 3 hours waiting for Mick, and landing rat kings one after the other. The tally by the time he arrived was 11, and by the end of the night was 19 for me and 7 for him.

This was his second go at rock fishing with me and his first ever kingfish.

Feels good.

https://youtu.be/03bz58s6n4c

This brings the season's tally to 22.

[Tackleberry]

Excuse my ignorance but what or where is j b

[maxmikoo]

Excuse my ignorance but what or where is j b

Jervis Bay if i had to guess

[Sebb]

Inspired by the weekends success, I returned the following Thursday out to the same spot in the rain. Messaging a friend of mine who fishes a bit from his boat, he agreed to meet me out there when he finished work. Pushing through the wet and heading out to the ledge about 3pm, I spent nearly an hour messing around wondering why it was so hard to get a live bait. Finally deploying a yakka, I picked up my spin rod and banged a 70g oceans legacy slingshot out into the grey.

The hookup was instant.

I spent he next 3 hours waiting for Mick, and landing rat kings one after the other. The tally by the time he arrived was 11, and by the end of the night was 19 for me and 7 for him.

This was his second go at rock fishing with me and his first ever kingfish.

Feels good.

https://youtu.be/03bz58s6n4c

This brings the season's tally to 22.

You're making it looks so easy.

Excuse my ignorance but what or where is j b

Jervis Bay if i had to guess

Yup.
Dougie loves his LBG, he moved up there for it.

[maxmikoo]

I know I don't post on here much anymore but I thought I'd try and write fairly regular reports about the LBG situation up here at JB.

Watching the currents drift down the coast and the warmer water start to arrive, Cam, Sammy and I decided it was time to start putting in some significant effort off the rocks.

Two Sundays ago we dropped into a school of rat kings, and spent the better part of 6 hours hooking and releasing them on lures, live baits and floats.

After a couple of salmon and a livebait vanishing without a trace, Sammy nailed the first king of the year and her first on lure with a 25g gillies glow baitfish.



Being a relative newcomer, getting the first fish annoyed the f out of Cam and I. Not to worry.....

Cam was next on a float with a chunk of salmon.



Wanting to show the youngens how it's done, I put my rod down and Jedi mind tricked one out of the water for myself.



This went on, with metal lures being the preferred method, for the better part of the afternoon and into the evening. The final tally was Cameron 7, Sammy 4 and Dougie 3.

Just as we'd finished packing up, my one remaining livebait went off, and it was on like donkey kong.

https://youtu.be/-nIUmH2oPFY

Easily dropped a PB. This is a great sign for things to come this year.

Dougie's king tally after day one is 3.

Hey dougie, i remember chatting to years ago about lbg for kings when i was about 14 because i heard you were the man to go to. Well i'm 18 now with a license and genuine opportunity to get around and target some big species this year, even by boat. I've gone ahead and bought an 8" pe4-6 spheros rod and was looking to be pointed in the right direction regarding reels to pair with it and their sizing. I'm looking at the saragossa 10000, Spheros 8000 and Penn slammer but i'd really appreciate if you (or anyone else) could offer me some advice.
Cheers, Max

[Tackleberry]

If money isn't a problem for me it would be the saragossa 10000 and 50lb braid .

[DougieK]

I finished work at 11am yesterday and got out to the same spot for some more.

Pretty ordinary conditions found me in a crosswind with a bit of rain as I was rolling up to the ledge, soaked head to toe from the only shower of the day on the 30 minute walk in. I could see some bustups and I was climbing down to the fishing zone.

The good thing about casting 70-90g metals is they go ok in a crosswind. Swapping between the PE10 and the PE5 (mostly the smaller) I picked up another 16 kings. We have dialled them in beautifully this year to a running tide, overcast conditions and some decent current pushing past the headland.

Best fish for the day was 73cm, which came home and was smashed for tea.

I probably could have picked up a bunch more little kings but was focussing on trying to drift a live 1.5kg salmon out under a balloon to target a bigger fish.

Hey dougie, i remember chatting to years ago about lbg for kings when i was about 14 because i heard you were the man to go to. Well i'm 18 now with a license and genuine opportunity to get around and target some big species this year, even by boat. I've gone ahead and bought an 8" pe4-6 spheros rod and was looking to be pointed in the right direction regarding reels to pair with it and their sizing. I'm looking at the saragossa 10000, Spheros 8000 and Penn slammer but i'd really appreciate if you (or anyone else) could offer me some advice.
Cheers, Max

The rod is great. Anymore than about 9 foot and you'll get tired casting it. My PE 10 zenaq is a beast of a thing but it's also 10 foot long, and with a 14000 certate is a handful for more than about an hour. I'm a considerable unit as well.

I don't have any experience with Penn Slammers. Either of the Shimano reels you mentioned would be fine. I have had two 14000 saragosa which got the job done. A 10000 or an 8000 aren't really that different, i'm not convinced it matters.

MY PE5 stick is a shimano ocea plugger pe5 802, with a stella 6000 running PE3 ocea braid. This is getting the job done on kings up to about 80cm but I haven't hooked anything bigger yet. Best advice is buy the highest quality reel and braid you can afford, but I don't think it particularly matters which one. Look for 6.2 gearing and as much sealing as possible.

You absolutely don't need super expensive gear like this. We have a loaner setup for visitors that's a samaki zing pe 6 (about 130 bucks) and a Saltist reel I think Cam paid 200 for on sale. We both don't really do much else with our spare cash so we roll with some nice gear.

That's 38 kings in 3 sessions. Heading back out tomorrow.

[maxmikoo]

I finished work at 11am yesterday and got out to the same spot for some more.

Pretty ordinary conditions found me in a crosswind with a bit of rain as I was rolling up to the ledge, soaked head to toe from the only shower of the day on the 30 minute walk in. I could see some bustups and I was climbing down to the fishing zone.

The good thing about casting 70-90g metals is they go ok in a crosswind. Swapping between the PE10 and the PE5 (mostly the smaller) I picked up another 16 kings. We have dialled them in beautifully this year to a running tide, overcast conditions and some decent current pushing past the headland.

Best fish for the day was 73cm, which came home and was smashed for tea.

I probably could have picked up a bunch more little kings but was focussing on trying to drift a live 1.5kg salmon out under a balloon to target a bigger fish.

Hey dougie, i remember chatting to years ago about lbg for kings when i was about 14 because i heard you were the man to go to. Well i'm 18 now with a license and genuine opportunity to get around and target some big species this year, even by boat. I've gone ahead and bought an 8" pe4-6 spheros rod and was looking to be pointed in the right direction regarding reels to pair with it and their sizing. I'm looking at the saragossa 10000, Spheros 8000 and Penn slammer but i'd really appreciate if you (or anyone else) could offer me some advice.
Cheers, Max

The rod is great. Anymore than about 9 foot and you'll get tired casting it. My PE 10 zenaq is a beast of a thing but it's also 10 foot long, and with a 14000 certate is a handful for more than about an hour. I'm a considerable unit as well.

I don't have any experience with Penn Slammers. Either of the Shimano reels you mentioned would be fine. I have had two 14000 saragosa which got the job done. A 10000 or an 8000 aren't really that different, i'm not convinced it matters.

MY PE5 stick is a shimano ocea plugger pe5 802, with a stella 6000 running PE3 ocea braid. This is getting the job done on kings up to about 80cm but I haven't hooked anything bigger yet. Best advice is buy the highest quality reel and braid you can afford, but I don't think it particularly matters which one. Look for 6.2 gearing and as much sealing as possible.

You absolutely don't need super expensive gear like this. We have a loaner setup for visitors that's a samaki zing pe 6 (about 130 bucks) and a Saltist reel I think Cam paid 200 for on sale. We both don't really do much else with our spare cash so we roll with some nice gear.

That's 38 kings in 3 sessions. Heading back out tomorrow.

Cheers for the reply mate, think i've decided on the spheros 10000. Decent drag at 11 kg (maybe even 12kg) and gearing. Epic report, cant imagine how flat out u must be casting and landing and casting and landing. Keen to try myself.

[purple5ive]

Sensational work dougie. And good to see cam smashing them too.