# Fish of the month 'Kingfish'



## wopfish

Theres a reason why they call them the KINGfish !!!


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## spongy

Gatesy said:


> Name/UserName: Gatesy
> 
> Where I fish: Sydney Harbour and around
> ....


Gatesy,
Highly informative post and some great advise on kingies.
Kingies are my No1 target most of the time Im out there. I have the best chance of interesting kingies by using fresh squid, especially the head with the guts connected. I normally employ the poor mans downrigger as well with the squid head on a 2 hook sliding snell set up. In past years I have had an equally high success rate using big soft plastic stick baits, and ripping them back fast off the bottom. However, for some reason this year has been crap using the soft plastics.
I like your idea of leadlining method and will give this a try next time.

Cheers,
Jeff


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## Davey G

Gatesy has covered it off quite extensively and I dont really have much else to offer however theres 2 types of kings.

Surface feeding kings and Invisible Kings...

the surface feeders are obviously easiest to spot and form anything from small subtle boils on top of the water, to full blown fin and tail slapping as they chase small baitfish. If you come across these guys its your happy day as these fish are super aggressive/hungry and will usually attack anything thrown at them and anything that skims across the surface is chased down and eaten. Surface poppers, unweighted soft plastics, small metals, hard bodies and even unbaited hooks are all fair game. Unfortunately 99% of the surface feeding fish also tend to be undersize (rats) with minimum size of 65cm most fish are usually 63cm :twisted: GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

The Invisible kings are there all summer but are more wary and hang in low-mid water and dont often venture up to the surface. Weighted soft plastics, left to drift slowly down the water column, live baits downrigged or flesh/strip baits such as squid, butterflied yellowtail/bonito/slimy mackeral are all gun baits and its a matter of slowly paddling around with a trailing bait waiting for something big to gobble it down. As these kings are usually bigger and closer to the bottom, your chances of getting reefed are much higher. On the flipside, kings dont usually shy away from heavy leaders so you can usually go quite heavy on the gear and give yourself a chance on these big units.

Finally, due to their speed, power, aggressiveness and table quality, Kingfish are a terrific sportsfish which are great to catch and pretty good on the plate as well. If you live in an area which offers kingies then take my tip and have a crack at them - uits the most fun you can have sitting down.. 8)


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## sbd

Finally, a FOTM I can catch ;-) . Some worthy words there from Michael.

Kings are big, strong, dumb mothers, that will make you look stupid given half a chance. If you're not ready, even the small ones will do you, exacerbated by their love of perilous terrain - reef, structure & shallows. Mostly they want to go DOWN, and usually it isn't very far 'til they can find a convenient sharp edge to end the argument.

I've fished with liveys & downriggers & whole squid & caught kings with each of them, but I tend to fish short sharp sessions before work & find that catching live bait & fiddling around with downriggers eats up too much time. Hardbodies will work, but in my opinion are a low percentage option. This is how I do it from the yak...

Three outfits, 8lb braid (too light but has caught my best fish), 15lb braid on a nice plastics rod (I use a 6'6" Loomis with a Certate 2500R) & 30lb braid on a light jig rod (Shimano Jigwrex with a Catalina 4500H) with 20lb, 30lb, 40lb & 60lb fluoro leader.

Plastics - big ones, 7" gulps, 6" stickbaits (I still have a few of the infamous Salt & Pepper Mojos), 5" plastics of all sorts & the odd smaller one just for giggles. I like (in order of preference) white, clear fleck, clear, pink & black, but in all honesty more or less any colour will work. Cut Woolies squid hoods into stickbait imitations for variety.

Jigs - 80g -100g, silver, pink, any colour, rigged with single 5/0 - 7/0 assist hook at the top.

Jigheads, strong, range of sizes & weights. I use Nitro Saltwater Pro, but other people will swear that their favourites are better. I rarely use unweighted worm hooks as I prefer the extra casting range, even when sight fishing boils on the surface, but worm hooks with a range of different sinkers are a flexible combination.

Plastics work with all sorts of retrieves, from dead sticked to ripped back at top speed, and everything in between. Watch for follows, vary the retrieve, try a slow, jerking troll.

Jigs should be worked fast & furious, but try slow passes as well. When they're taking jigs (not always for some reason), it's the most fun you can have sitting down.

Trying to outmuscle kings (even rats) on light gear is a lost cause. Try to lull them up & fight them down. Lead them up, don't pull them up. On jigging gear I pull harder, just 'cause it's fun.

Hold on, & use rod leashes!


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## wopfish

Finally let me tell you bout the tale of the yellow mist,

A virulent disease that creeps up upon anyone that tussles with the pescadores of the yellow tail variety.

Those that have been burnt in the face of these powerfull fish will spend endless hours in the evenings and late at night wondering how to lure the magic meter mark of a fish.......


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## Levi

Awesome info guys. THANKS!!!  
Perfect timing for this warm weather!

A few Quick Q's? 
I often get squid LB, and just this week got a few beauties, i have kept and frozen the guts and heads for bait to use next week on my first ever try for the elusive beast.....
*How do these fresh caught, instantly frozen baits compare to squid you catch that morning?
*And also, can you easily just rig a head and guts (whole or in half) onto a jig head, and should you remove tentacles for a seperate bait?
*what is the lightest 'acceptable leader' material? 
One rig i have has 20lb braid, on 20lb leader.... the other is only 8lb with new 14lb fluro, will this suffice?

Sorry for so many Q's.

THANKS, GREAT INFO!!!!!!!!


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## wopfish

Yes Frozen that you have caught is second to best

You dont need to rig the head and guts onto a jig head - but a bean sinker all the way down to a hook is fine - use a sharp hook and dont be afraid to make it big - make sue the barb clears the bait - keep an eye on that rod as Ive seen big baits snatched and snapped in a second,

Lightest leader - maybe 20 / 30 / 40 pound and upwards - if you want to catch rats go light - even you want to catch hoodlums go very heavy. But if you do go heavy I would hold the rod and be totally focused on the bait and rod.

I think some of the king fishers here have stories to tell of mayhem from multiple hook ups to big smokings from extra large fish............ so its up to you.........


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## soggypilchard

I am more at home Land Based Game fishing for kings than kayak fishing.
actually haven't had one yet in the kayak, been mostly chasing bream and bass.

however, have caught many and seen many lost off the stones.
One mate lost a spool of 50lb mono on a tiagra 180, he suspects was a resident king on a famous south coast ledge.
I have heard / read that some large rivers dont produce kings because of the muddy fresh that comes out of some (newcastle) where others like sydney harbour that dont have as much fresh produce more pelagics.

Just recently while in a mates boat i was reunited with kingie fishing using an expensive bream rod and 8lb braid tied straight to the metal lure. (we were in a hurry to get a line out) and scored a nice (undersize) 55cm rat king, great fun on small gear.

some people put the fish back on a heavier line and let the other kingies school around it, though some may say this is cruel.

anyone noticed that as the legal size limit increases, so does the maximum size of the rat kings?
when it was 60cm we would get 59cm ones, now its 65cm we get 63cm etc.
anyway kings are awesome fun and great Adrenalin rush.

I cant wait to see what a king feels like to strip line in a kayak.

i have in front of me an okta lure by gillies, anyone had any success on one of these yet?
i am used to live bait and metal lures. 
cant wait to hear what the kayak guys have to say about this awesome fish.


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## keza

the problem with Kings is that you end up with a huge amount of tackle that you never use.
The year the Kings were going made on mojos, you could only buy them on the black market (hence the 10 or more bags i still have stashed  )
At another stage, i couldn't go past the large nuc chooks.
Alas these boys are fickle. For me at the moment they are loving a very small metal that i picked up for salmon.

If you are using anything with trebles on, REMOVE THE BARBS. 
They don't make any difference to the fish staying on and not having barbs sure makes releasing a rat King easier.

I usually have 3 rigs with me, 20lb, 30lb and 50lb. My best fish have come on my light gear.
This is because you have to play them gently. You can slowly raise the to the surface, they see the yak and run, then you slowly raise them again.
Most of my reefings are on my 50lb kit and that is because i try to lock them up and they don't like it.

Strips from a big squid or cuttlefish would be my favourite bait, attached to a spoon jig or something that gives it a bit of movement when slow trolled.

last thought:
if you have a second line in the water hanging under your yak and you can't get it in whilst fighting a fish, make sure you loosen the drag right off.
I made this mistake only once but it was the closest i have come to going for a swim on the yak :shock:


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## johnny

troll jig-weighted line to leader to squid strip-troll n quick short pulls--little bights then bang..
near the bottom of the water this gets snapper..

1/0..2/0..1/6 oz 3"punkinseed gulp..wriggler squidgee n sauce bounced off sea floor........

ditto to the above techniques...bait right in structure[pylons etc]not near will get a bight when near ain't good enough...


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## mustrumr

soggypilchard said:


> anyone noticed that as the legal size limit increases, so does the maximum size of the rat kings?
> when it was 60cm we would get 59cm ones, now its 65cm we get 63cm etc.


Interesting - that would suggest that the size limit changes are having the desired effect - more fish are surviving to reach a greater size than before the change. If so one would think that in a season or two you will start getting more fish in the desired range.

Not that it makes any difference to me - kings are rare as hen's teeth around inshore Perth. You get some rats out around Rottnest, apparently, with the occasional better fish, and there have been reports of a few rats caught from kayaks up around Lancelin, but most of the good kings have come from waters that are all but inaccessible to kayaks.

Pity - I'd love to have a chance at these magnificent fish.

Cheers,


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## dru

Question

How do you approach a king boil? Thought yak stealth would allow me to charge in - foolishly ignorant it appears. So what technique do you use to squeeze in among it?


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## keza

i see what direction they are heading and come up beside them.
I only go as close as i need to to get a cast in.


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## wopfish

It also helps to be up wind so you are casting with the wind behind you - if you can cast over the top of the school ( the back end of the boil) and rip it through the school then your on for some fun - the best thing besides sex with Britney   Just hold on and let the games begin !!!


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## yakattack

wopfish said:


> It also helps to be up wind so you are casting with the wind behind you - if you can cast over the top of the school ( the back end of the boil) and rip it through the school then your on for some fun - the best thing besides sex with Britney   Just hold on and let the games begin !!!


Hmm Britney, no thanks surface fishing for kings any day :lol:

Cheers Micka


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## keza




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## onemorecast

I have little wisdom to offer on this most excellent fighting fish. But i had some modest success with them last summer on some larger SPs others mentioned.

While I still use jigheads, I have generally opted towards wormhooks with bullethead sinkers in front. I find the advantage with these are that I can experiment with different weights without having to pull the SP off the jighead if I want to change weights.

Also if using non scented stickbaits like sluggos (a favorite of mine for kings) I don't toss the front half that comes back after being bitten through. I've superglued a couple of halfs together and caught kingies on these. They're not the first thing I will throw out in the morning, but if the fish are on and hitting the full sluggos, they usually go after these too.


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## Rstanek

Kerry. Never again, please! It takes me weeks to recover each time that pops up...


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## blueyak

squid tentacles rigged on jigheads as if they were soft plastic stickbaits are deadly on kings.


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## avayak

blueyak said:


> squid tentacles rigged on jigheads as if they were soft plastic stickbaits are deadly on kings.


Right on! Cuttle fish tentacles work like squid on steriods if your lucky enough to pick one up.


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## avayak

Gotta say a sounder and a GPS improved the success rate heaps for me. Most Kings I see are not on the surface but on the fishfinder screen. I'd be taking pot luck without this gear.

I take marks every time I hook up so I can go back to the exact spot. If I land a fish I can be up to 150m from the mark before I have a line in the water again. I've found that Kings can be patchy and hang in a tight school so it's important to make the mark quickly after hookup. Ive got my GPS mounted right next to the sounder. If your GPS is in a side pocket or jacket then you can't be quick enough. Most time the fish will be within 10m of the mark and this is where the sounder helps. You can be right back into the action.

Although Kings can be here and gone tomorrow I always take a run over marks I've made before. Sometimes the fish have been in the same spot a week later. When they are not or the fish are not surface feeding then it pays to move around until something appears on the sounder. This opens up another form of fishing, jigging. Kings go nuts for jigs. I love watching the jig decend on the sounder right though the bait ball. Again take a mark and you can stay in the zone.

Previously I'd troll around until I got lucky or beeline over to someone else who was hooked  up and hope. Remember x-mas is coming.


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## soggypilchard

avayak said:


> Gotta say a sounder and a GPS improved the success rate heaps for me. Most Kings I see are not on the surface but on the fishfinder screen.


Gday avayak, what do kingies look like on the sounder?
cheers
Marcus


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## avayak

Marcus, on my sounder (Lawrence x67c) they appear as red thin arches scattered. Sometimes they merge in with the bait so I usually give any significant bait ball a shot as well.


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## soggypilchard

thanks avayak


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## Saltiga5

I find they're either very touchy or in a feeding frenzy!


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## johnny

they seem to travel in a herd quickly covering known haunts/structures/bait....and come back again..very cool to see a loner doughnut around a marker buoy and hoon away....


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