Cant Stop The Kingys

[cronullafisher]

Gday guys,

Ok ive been following stuff on this site for about a year and finally got it all right on the weekend chasing kings.

Got some live squid, found a bait ball off cronulla and dropped the live squid into the millions of yakkas.

I was geared with a heavy duty overhand rod n reel with 60pound mono.

7 kingy hooks ups – no pulled hooks. But no fish.

They were just too big. They either run so hard they cut me off on the bottom, or they break the line if I tighten the drag too much to try and stop them.

Can anyone give me an idea of how big these fish were if I couldn’t even stop them at all?

And more importantly, what pound leader I need so I can get them next time?

(I ended up putting on a steel trace but then they wouldn’t touch the bait)

Exciting, but VERY frustrating too!!!

[gretsch]

Dude,

You need to up the gear!!

Ditch the mono and spool up with 80lb braid and run 100 pound fluoro leader. Use a heavy gague hook amd tighten that drag right up.

When fighting the fish, do short pump and winds to prevent the fish from getting his rythym going. If they are getting you on the bottom, you need to stop that fish from running. You can also use your boat to drag them up in the water column by accelerating away once the fish is hooked.

Good luck!!

Edited April 12, 2010 by Cephalopod

[SZ1]

Good work on getting the hit, it is always beeter to have faught and lost then to not hooking any.

As stated above ditch the mono you can get away with using 50lb braid, the idea is short pump and winds and once you have the fishing heading up you need to go hard and keep the prussure on, don't give them breathing space or you will regret it later.

Cheers

[prawn*]

hey buddy,

if they are reefing you it could be due to the stretch in the mono.

We have been using 60lb braid with 80lb leader and that seems to do the trick..

We set the drag at around 5kg.

goodluck

5kg drag with 60lb line u 1/3 the breaking strain which is about 9kg with braid u can much higher them mono so u would want to try around 15kg i use 80lb mainline and crank the drag up to about 20kg with minimal hooks pulled due to longer leader..

Edited April 12, 2010 by mc fishn

[wrinkley]

20kg drag ?? bit of an overkill.

Ceph is on the money, 80lbs braid, 100 lbs leader. Set the drag so its bloody hard to pull of with your hand, ( that will be alot less than the 20 kgs as previously mentioned )

I prefer to leave the rod in the holder, and let the fish hook itself.

For those that just have to hold the rod and cant leave it alone, make sure you resist the tempation to strike too early. If you feel a decent nudge, do the opposite, instead of striking the fish, drop the rod and go with it till you cant go any lower, then hit the fish.

Wrinks

[Tangles]

Listen to all these guys. Get rid of the mono & get yourself some braid. It costs alot more, but is worth it in the end as you will have more chance of landing big kings!

[prawn*]

20kg isnt over kill for bigger kings 1m+ a 85cm king will pull 15kg drag of your reel with no trouble. It really depends on what depths u are fishing and what structure is around to how u set your drag and what line class 2 go for its always good to have a couple of outfits handy if u do get busted of on the lighter gear change to the heavy outfit...

[matt84]

had a 20kegger come up an snatch a bonnie 1m off the boat in 8m of water on the weekend... nothing was gonna stop that. as other have said 50lb braid 80lb leader does the trick for me.

[cronullafisher]

thanks for all your replies guys - i really appreciate the advice.

i was crazy out there, i dont know if anyone else found the bait ball but they were so thick my sounder was saying it was only 1m deep in 20m of water, because it couldnt interpret the bottom from the thickness of the fish!

they covered around 100sqm of surface area

hopefully someone got into the kings lurking below?

[netic]

20kg of drag....dammmmm.....have you ever tried that much drag, it will pull most men off the boat and tired out even the biggest guy....

As previously said get braid, and the key to catching bigger kings is turning there heads, dont let them run to the bottom, pull the run back hard to turn there heads or free spool your line to make the king feel he is either running away the wrong way or free spool till you can get your boat into a better position and away from the reef

Edited April 13, 2010 by netic

[adjustedpete]

I only wish I had that problem..... My setup is 50lb braid with 100lb leader. Yet to be tested this year.

Edited April 13, 2010 by adjustedpete

[rippinlips]

Hi mate,

To give you an idea..today i had a mate at the front of the boat and we were pitching baits to structure and holding boat there until hooked up. The first fish hit the 50lb braid outfit and did us somewhat easily, even with the boat doing some serious backing out as well. should also mention that this outfit doesn't do 50lb braid justuice and requires a fair bit of thumbing which my newby mate struggled with. I actually really enjoy this outfit as i find the thumbing a lot of fun!!

We upgraded to the 80lb outfit (torsa 40)and the next hookup followed soon, once agian the boat was used to get his head pointing up along with some serious rod work on drag of well over 10kg. we got this fish in the boat at 95cm, in only about 12m of water.

Both fish were hooked on 60lb flouro. i can't see too much point fishing heavier traces as if they get you down there they will usually slice up whatever you are fishing and you get more hits the lighter you go (talking bait fishing here not jigging).

Go 80lb braid and run a trace depending on conditions on the day....

Cheers,

Edited April 13, 2010 by rippinlips

[Hotzy]

You are certainly doing the right thing getting 7 hookups, shame none hit the boat though. I have been smoked by kings on 30lb mono so I know the feeling but it is a better feeling getting smoked than not getting a hookup. Goodluck after the gear upgrade.

Cheers

Pete

[g7g7]

try not to battle the fish straight away, instead gently pull him away with the boat in drive into clear water. Then stick it to him.

[Captain Spanner]

try not to battle the fish straight away, instead gently pull him away with the boat in drive into clear water. Then stick it to him.

Not meaning to hijack but i think this is definitely within topic.

We got smashed by 2 big kings downrigging along a 10-15m ledge on the weekend (1st hit whole fresh squid, 2nd hit fresh strip). 1st one on 50lb braid on a 6500B Baitrunner, couldn't get the rod out of the holder and it busted off (drag too tight, line probably cut itself on the spool). Second one i fished with my rod in hand at the ready while connected to the downrigger. When the fish was hooked up i upped the 14000 saragossa a few turns to max drag which is apparently 20kgs (not deliberately max i just turned it that far in the heat of the moment) and we started to drive for deeper water, (80lb braid, mid knot to 4m of 80lb leader to 6ft of 150lb trace). the fish bolted stripping maybe 50m of line at pace like it was nothing and rubbed me off on the bottom, it nearly pulled me over the bait board as i only weigh 65kg and i wasn't letting go of the rod or backing down. Line cut just a foot or 2 above the 150lb trace.

Do you guys think in this situation i should have set the hook and then opened the bail arm until the boat was well clear of the ledge (but still only max 20m deep but cleaner bottom) and hope the fish goes for the deeper water too or only had the drag at a few kgs until i was in clearer water and then up it to about 14kgs? Or do you just do the same again and hope that next time the fish swims the other way or that you can turn it in time? We normally troll with a bit more line out than the water is deep, so he can reach bottom without having to pull any drag at all if he goes straight down.

Any guesses for the minimum size of the king to pull that much drag like that? It was definitely the biggest king anyone on the boat had seen hooked.

I'm hoping that your advice will help me get those hooks back this weekend .

[fishbog]

I’m sure 1 or 2 members have watched “TVS Adventure bound”

Fishing for kings off jervis bay.

The host (RIP) tried to softly drag the fish away from structure every time he got a hookup.

Sometimes it worked but when the big kingies moved in he got smashed time and again.

Some days it just depends on “the fish gods” whether or not you go home empty handed.

maybe your current line is below par

Get new fishing line.

if you like mono stick with it 60lb should do the trick

uv rays deteriorate it so keep it away from sunlight when not in use.

braid and 20kg of drag will stop some fish but maybe you’ll pull the hooks a few more times as well.

This is why we all love fishing for the masked bandits.

They require some finesse sometimes and strength of a giant others

[cman71]

Don't even bother with the mono, 80lb braid is a must if your on too the big hoods and 100lb fluro BlackMagic also.Everybody has there own way of taking on kings so do the hard yards and learn from your bust offs and do what you think is best for that situation. Jigging is different to live baiting and off the stones well thats just a full on kick in the ass fight giving everything you can give em.

[cman71]

Bridle a big bonnie and you won't have trouble pull it around . But a down rigger will kill em with a fresh squid.

[PPSGT]

I hooked one last Saturday on a Saragossa 18000 and 50lb jig rod.

Dropped a livey to the bottom, took it about 2metres of the bottom

just as i finished lifting it off the bottom the livey went crazy and i hooked up

Cranked the handle maybe 10 winds up, and the fish came up easy.

Drag was set all the way, 50lbs braid and 100lb leader

It then must of woke up, as the next second i couldnt even lift the rod to the gimble,it almost pulled me over through lost footing

and all i could do was hold to the rod hard against the gunwhale, darg screaming and the rod tip in a u shape under the boat and

gripping it hard so i didnt loose it, seconds later it was all over.

I dont think i could have done much different - braid & knots held and it was cut off about 30cm from the hook

I was showing a mate how much the fished pulled last night with him pullling down as hard as he coudl on the leader and me lifting as hard as i could and we could barely get the drag to tick

Yet at the other end of the scale i've landed a 88cm king on 3kg line with a crappy $20 rod and a reel I got free with a magazine

from an anchored boat not far from a mooring - I think sometimes its luck and sometimes its brute force

Jason