1. Rocky Creek
2. Claustral
3. To Be Decided

Resolution No. 2

I will catch the following game fish in 2006

1. Bonito
2. Mulloway
3. Yellowtail Kingfish
4. Tuna
5. Brown Trout

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Goal Species No 2 - Yellowtail Kingfish
The Land Based Game Addiction - Darryl hooked up to a shark as the sun rises    Kingfish  www.julianrocks.net   Kingfish www.amon.net.au Kingfish www.amon.net.au Kingfish www.amon.net.au	LBG Sunrise The Current Goal - Just one of Darryl's many LBG Yellowtail Kingfish captures Darryl traces Richard's 5 Kg Kingfish Richard is ecstatic with his 5 Kg LBG Kingie

Wednesday 3rd May 2006 - This morning I am back on my local platform before dawn, and stand alone with my thoughts watching the waves as the magnificent sunrise unfolds.  It's just a wonderful way to start the day.  I have the place to myself and I can't believe my good fortune.  The rod I normally use to catch yellowtail is in for minor repairs - I damaged the inserts in a couple of guides.  I am using my MT 7144, a 7-wrap beach rod better suited for tailor and jewfish than yellowtail.  I still manage to land a well-and-truly keeper yellowfin bream, about a pound and a bit in weight.  It took a small cube of fresh mullet.  I send the bream back out wearing an 8/0 and a part-inflated balloon, and continue trying for yakkas. 

Amazing myself, I manage to land a yakka, and it's a horse, almost cowanyoung size.  I swap the bream over (great stuff - bream for tea!) and get braced for some action.  I know from experience that the first yakka to hit the water here is almost guaranteed a hook-up.  This morning is no exception.  After a few minutes, the yakka starts to vibrate madly, and gets very boisterous & excited, and even starts to take a bit of line against the ratchet.  The balloon doesn't release, and the yakka is not behaving like a normal kingie hook up.  The balloon slowly heads south, and I'm sure something is a bit awry.  I don't want to strike and risk killing the precious, hard won yakka for nothing, but I have to see what's going on.  I retrieve the line to within 20 feet of the platform, and can't see the yakka. 

Bugger it.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.  I strike as hard as I can, three times.  I laugh like a madman as I pole a massive Australian Salmon onto the platform.  It lets out a burp and regurgitates the poor yakka, completely scaled and just alive.  The Salmon wasn't even hooked, it was just holding onto the yakka.

This is a very interesting point.  I know that I had the hook point really well exposed.  I always double check the hook point is well clear before casting the yakka out, to be sure it was free of scales.  I am well aware that a single scale over the hook point can very easily prevent a decent hookup, and cost me a king.  The yakka was swallowed headfirst and probably just wedged.  Was it the balloon that prevented a solid hook-up?  Chris tells me he hates using balloons because they have too much resistance when the fish are being finicky.  It will be interesting to watch our success rates.

Speaking of balloons, when I was in Kiama last, the local in the tackle shop said that kings have a definite attraction to balloons of certain colour shades - purple and maroon.  At the time I thought it was just sales talk - they were selling pre-rigged black magic traces specifically for kings, complete with 8/0 black magic hook and a balloon.  Surprisingly enough, the balloons were all either a dark maroon or purple colour.  A lot of the locals were using maroon balloons at the Kiama blowhole.  Is this a local Kiama belief/correlation, or just what the local tackle shop had in stock? 

I remember seeing an interview with Ron & Val Taylor.  Val was saying that most whaler sharks have a definite attraction to objects that are bright yellow.  I have a background in the life & earth sciences, and have to be skeptical about colour preferences until I see enough data to be able to draw clear and repeatable results.  A lot of animals are insensitive to the colours that we humans perceive, and can even see shades that we cannot such as in the UV wavelength.  Throw a bright red toy for a dog onto green grass for example, and there's a good chance if the dog isn't watching, it won't see it - dogs are red/green colour blind.

The balloon I used this morning was a bright yellow colour.  I'll keep records of balloon colour to species hook-up. 


Sea temperatures
Tuesday 2nd May 2006
Image from CSIRO
              

Click Here for my trips targeting kingfish during April 2006

Click Here for my trips targeting kingfish during March 2006