To The Eye It Was 67cm-

[klainz]

G'day raiders,

Headed out in a mate's boat on the weekend. We had a set plan - the same plan most boating raiders and non-raiders have engraved into their psyche - get live bait consisting of squid and yellowtail and then use these to produce great fighting, great looking and great eating kingfish.

We were employing the poor man's downrigger - awaiting my mate to upgrade to a formal system. I had an ezy rig with a hookless 85g raider attached. Figure the metal could provide a bit of teaser bling for the yellowtail being dragged behind (I know guys who use this technique off the beach - use the raider with treble or single in situ as a sinker then when you want to check your bait, high speed retrieve the rig back in hoping to hook a tailor or salmon on the return - maximising time on water philosphy!)

7hours later (with a pre-dawn start) and the sun busting through the 30+protection we had managed a 30cm king outside the heads. Usually at this point we call it quits, head back in and use the bags of bait that just keep getting refrozen over and over again to try to salvage the session with something for the table - even a leatherjacket is success at this point. One of the bags of prawns we had I suspect was actually left over from a session in autumn!

However, we resisted that 'admission of failure' option and stuck to the plan and finally, in calm water, mid tide, in the middle of the day and in casting distance of people's backyards the rod bucks in it's holder. For a moment I think the yakka is caught up but then the rod starts a thick oscillation which equals (usually) an okay fish. After a surprisingly tough fight, it only measured 67cm (a PB for me actually!) and 2kg. The absolute elation at finally landing a keeper king after hours and hours (and many other fishless sessions) of targetting them was just great! If it had been a metre I'm sure that fact would not have added to the awesome feeling of success from what seemed like guarenteed failure. Going over the same area, my mate had a massive hit but his 60lb leader was snapped off like it was 2lb.

[ORES]

Good on ya mate, persistance is theway to go.

Keep your eye on the prize.

When the temp raises there will be more posts of the like.

[hook'm]

well done buddy!!

Nothing beats that feeling of completion when

it all finally comes together and you land

your first keeper king!

Now the addiction begins in ernest

as you realise your methods actually

produced and can potentially produce

more fish!!

cheers

[Ray R]

G'day Klainz, mate that was a good read, very enjoyable, you stuck at it and you got your reward, sounds like me, never give in.. Cheers...

[gretsch]

I am glad you had some success. You certainly were persistent!!

[Tackle Junkie]

Well done Mate!!

Now just keep upgrading the PB

Cheers

Josh

[claxton]

Well Done fella

this summer has to be the summar of PB's esp on the kingies. managed to have a rod pulled over the sid elast year and still havent popped the cherry ! it is becoming an obsession for me, i think reading a few of the threads i'm not alone!

Get some

Claxton

[choad]

Nice fish. Congratulations on the pb. Shame about your mate busting off on a good'n.

Now that you've popped the cherry i'm sure you'll continue to rack for the rest of the season.