King Fish Tactics Chat

[Sharky]

I thought I would start a thread to discuss tactics for locating and catching "Legal Kings" In botany bay.

I have been on a few fruitless trips of late and I know many other raiders are in the same boat. So lets talk tactics.

Why are they almost all undersize. The beginning of the kingfish season saw plage proprtions of king outside the heads, A lot of these were 57,58,59 cm and just undersize, given the 3-4 months they have had to grow why are they still undersize??????

When the kings are on there on in a big way. Maby they have wised up and the prime times are the only time you will get them interested, from what i have heard from reports tide changes and before dawn seem to be the best.

Locations well theres always good old molineux point the third runway surprisingly has produced a few and I think theres a few more locations in there that havent been mensioned that have produced a few kings during the last 4 months.

Every king I have caught with Brett and Brian this season has been while trolling Skirts and Sunami lures. What about trolling other spots in the bay. Watts Reef the hot water outlet. Bear island bomme The drums

?????. Are these spots producing kings on the troll?

What size leaders is everyone using. I use 20 lb fluro carbon and have only been busted off once. Perhaps a change to a lighter leader is needed.

And last but not least I havnt seen any huge bait balls with birds diving and fish going nuts on the surface this year at all. Is there enough bait in the bay to keep the kings around?

I have many more ideas on what would be worth trying as well as live baiting ideas as well. Who knows just thought Id start the ball rolling to see if with our combined input we can solve this jigsaw puzzle that is the elusive legal botany bay kingy.

[TunOFun]

Wish i could put the boat in on Friday.

There are a number of options which i would like to give a go.

Havent heard any reports of kings from the drums this year. Might be worth a shot.

The Kingies have ceratinly wised up on the lures so next time i go out i might try live bait round the drums or markers scattered throughout the bay.

If you were going to try trolling i would give deep divers a go, forget the skirts in BB. Theres not much wave action in BB and thus not much white water for the fish to hide in so they usually hold a bit deeper.

Anyone else got any ideas

[Gibbofisho]

I have a secret advantage, taht is i get to have a dive for them off the container wall during the week before work, earlier in the year the kings were hanging around moilinoux point, but they seem to be hanging off the chanel markers close by, i know for a visual fact that there are some good 5kg kings schooling around a marker that is very close to the aforementioned location, have those drags set however and you'll be taken on a tour of the barnicals pretty quick. Oh and the bait of choice is medium sized squid strips and large peeled prawns, and you've gotta fish very light!

[big_steve]

any more thoughts gentlemen?

ive trolld skirts just out of the bay for no result,

tried floating peeled prawns in a berley trail at moll point and 3rd runway for ZILCH,

HELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLP

cheers steve......

[Mondo Rock]

It's a bit hard for me to speak on this with any authority as I've never actually caught a King (don't have access to a boat), however I am as avid a reader of every bloody Sydney fishing report that is posted on the net as anyone and, as such, have detected a pattern to the stories of big King captures. I have also attended a course on catching big Kingies and Jewies held by Dave xxxxhhhggg and Greg Joyce - which imparted much useful information (should I ever manage to actually buy a boat).

My 'research' has lead me to believe the following:

1. Big kings almost always get taken on bait. I have read some reports of captures on big deep diving lures but they are in the minority compared to yakkas, slimies and squid. Dunno about softies.

2. Big baits catch big fish. If you put out a three inch squid strip or peeled prawn don't expect to get a big king. If you put out a whole squid or fish bait then hold on tight.

3. You must fish deep for consistent catches of big Kings. The rats appear to haunt the surface, thus unweighted baits floated down a burley trail/trolled skirts etc will almost always catch rats. As the fish get bigger they seem to hunt deeper (Sharky - this may explain why the kings aren't getting bigger - it's not that they aren't growing, it's just that once they do they hunt deeper in the water column). Find a reef, drop the bait to the bottom, and then crank it back up 5 metres or so, or alternately invest in a downrigger to troll baits deeper. That's where the big fish seem to be.

4. Get as close to the opening of the bay as you can (boat size dependant), or better still fish a reef outside the bay. The big kings don't seem to appear that much unless you're at the mouth of whatever system you're fishing (middle harbour apparently being an exception to this rule).

5. Fish heavy. From what I've read Sharky, a 20lb leader will not last long against a good sized king. When you read stories of people consistently getting big Kings on 100lb handlines you realise that a big leader 'aint gonna hurt you too much.

6. Lastly - be patient. A good day fishing for big Kings will see maybe 5 come to the boat, a great day would be 7. When the rats are swarming it must be SO tempting to flick at them and get a hookup every five minutes, but I imagine that it is at this time you must be most patient, and keep putting big baits out underneath the school looking for big daddy.

That's all I can tell you from what I've seen/read. But don't forget that we have a regular poster to this site who seems to be one of the better big King fishermen in Sydney and he will surely have superior info to little old me.

Eastcoastin - where are you mate?

Mondo

[sluggo]

That's all I can tell you from what I've seen/read. But don't forget that we have a regular poster to this site who seems to be one of the better big King fishermen in Sydney and he will surely have superior info to little old me.

Eastcoastin - where are you mate?

Mondo

he's too busy entertaining his new deckie from the gold coast !!!

[mrsswordfisherman]

Good Luck all, we will post how Danielle goes this weekend because thats all anyone really wants to see now

Ummmm some of us are not THAT interested . On a serious note, Danielle is always welcome to join the forums and post her own reports of course!!!

Cheers mrsswordfisherman

[Gibbofisho]

On side note, i saw lots of kings in botany bay this morning, took one home for dinner, felt bad as he had two hooks in his gob and leader in his mouth, ahh well, survival of the fittest!

[domza]

im no expert but

i hear there is a new rapala lure that dives down 30 foot would be good for the kings

also if u get a king and know its undersize sometimes the other fish of the school

come up with the hooked fish leave the hooked fish in the water

and put another line jig bait etc in quick and u may get lucky and hook another king this time maybe legal

also kings like speed so dont be afraid to wind your lure jig fast as it turns them on

and doesnt give them time to think if it doesnt look quite real

i have caught a few kings while fishing for snapper on snapper rigs on the drop

as i said speed turns them on

also always use the freshiest bait u can get

would u eat a frozen prawn???

the kings dont hang around a spot unless there is food

try and match the bait they are or might be feeding on

this goes with any fish

good luck

see yas sunday in the social hope there around

u buggers got me worked up now

u can never know to much

the more u know the more chance u have of getting one of these critterz

some good tips here, i cant really add anything because ive only caught rats in large schools on lures..

by the way the social is on saturday

[domza]

THIS IS A BOAT EVENT

DATE = saturday 25/3

STARTING TIME = none

FINISHING TIME = none

MEETING PLACE = the beach on the south-eastern side and right next to the oil wharf in kurnell, still part of silver beach but more eastern (see above pics)... BYO lunch

MEETING TIME = 1:00pm

all details ..here

wow that could of being disappointing wrong day

Edited March 20, 2006 by domza

[clutch]

I would have thought that inside BotanymBay would be a too shallow for the big fellas??

You've seen recent posts with downriggers being used

but I have a feelin mine will be on a livie from the rocks

[TunOFun]

Top pic clutch, fingers crossed we run into a few about that size this weekend

Edited March 21, 2006 by TunOFun

[madmac]

I would have thought that inside BotanymBay would be a too shallow for the big fellas??

You've seen recent posts with downriggers being used

but I have a feelin mine will be on a livie from the rocks

Botany bay is 80 foot deep in places

[Sammy0884]

Top pic clutch, fingers crossed we run into a few about that size this weekend

i'm looking forward to christening my boat Brett!

[pekingduck]

thats a great pic.

did you take it yourself ?

[squidgie]

You would be surprised to see how shallow you can find big kings...hooking up and landing them is a different kettle of fish though.

[netic]

Hey guys, thought i would add my 2 cents worth. During last winter i invested in some downriggers for my boat, bought 2 scotty depthmasters 1050's.

The season of 2004/05 i caught around 20 kings, largest being around 75cm.

This season with the downriggers i have caught well over 50, Largest coming in at 94cm, approx 7.5 kg.

I always tend to get the larger ones around late December to early January before the blue water brings in the rats.

Downriggers make a major difference, if you purchase a downrigger make sure it can handle a 7kg bomb, the small lake trollers just dont cut it.

Also bait is very important, In the estuaries the only bait i will use is live squid, works a treat, Kings see them as candy and cannot resist them. Yakka's will produce the odd king here and there but if you want multiple king days in the estuary squid is the go.

Yakka's work very well outside, perhaps even better than squid, dont know why but offshore kings seem to prefer yakka's.

Well hope that helps guys.

PS: if you are going to buy downriggers and get them from your tackle shop they are a rip off. I bought mine which are sold at around $550 each in Australia for $200 each in the states. Need any info just msg me.

[Sharky]

Thanks all for your replys, There are plenty of Ideas I am going to put into action. Heres hoping I have a pic of my very own monster kingy very very soon

Edited March 31, 2006 by Sharky

[bennos]

For big kings (close inshore) you cant go past live garfish and after that live frigates (and pike), and it really is amazing the places they hang out. I spent a lot of time fishing from the ovens and caught a lot of kings there, but the unlikley spots are best for the bigger ones such as south palm beach (shallow, look more like drummer spots). Greg Finney wrote an article many years ago titled 'Pike in Plain Places', I found this holds true. Live frigates at spots you wouldnt expect can really turn it on as can live garfish hooked behind the bum and drifted as far as you dare then brought back in across the surface (backwards). Unfortunately I only ever fished 15kg LBG so didnt land any of the truely big kings (20kg plus) but they are out there.

Basically use big baits and 100lb trace minimum. Not sure about big ones in the bays though, cant crack em.

Cheers

Ben