My first Kingfish

[Cooper Stewart]

I have been having a lot of trouble catching my first king in the harbour and was looking for some pointers. I have hooked a few but they have managed to get away as I am using a light setup. I have been using almost only lure and want to know if going live bait will work better I also have a big 50lb setup that I could use for that. Are there any spots or things to look for I have been in sugarloaf bay in the morning when they are everywhere but cant seem to get a bite, however I do have lots of followups. There is also the spot outside sea forth not sure of the name but fishabout charters and the flyfisher always seem to be their hooked up.

[bessell1955]

Welcome to this site.  There is a wealth of talented and knowledgeable members, who freely give forth advice.  As a starting point browse our search tab.  I wish you all the very best and I am certain, after being armed with the knowledge gleaned from here, you will indeed catch your first King fish.  

[frankS]

10 minutes ago, motiondave said:

@Cooper Stewart , do a search for sure, plenty info, just have to navigate through it.

im also on the kingfish hunt, and have been practising a lot of techniques, mostly with live bait, burley, and looking for spots, now its winter, Im more prepared for going for them when weather warms up.

Dave. I should have the Scorpion all ready to go by September so I will take you out on the harbor and get you hooked up to some Kingies. Can't guarantee they will be keepers .

Frank

[onearmedfisho]

squid, squid and more squid!

[Will1702]

If you're a diehard lure fisherman and refuse to use bait for kings like me, then heres my advice.
Use metal jigs and vary the size (approx 30-80g) and colours of your lures. Rotate the lures every 5-10 casts and see what works.
I've found metal jigs catch more kings in the harbour than topwater lures and minnows, they cover more of the water column and often match the baitfish better.
However, in winter it will be much harder to catch them.

Edited July 16, 2021 by Will1702

[DerekD]

Had a query several years ago about kings in the moorings. Read through some of the replies here:

Curious why you are losing them. Are you landbased or on some sort of watercraft? If on a boat, even with light gear you should have a good chance of landing them.

 

[Cooper Stewart]

In regards to losing them originally it was due to a uneven drag that would lock up straight away and recently of land I lost one after it swam to the other side of Barbour in the upper reachers past Roseville bridge and shook out the hooks not sure if this is a sign to upgrade trebles or just have more drag.

Cheers Cooper

[Cooper Stewart]

3 hours ago, Will1702 said:

If you're a diehard lure fisherman and refuse to use bait for kings like me, then heres my advice.
Use metal jigs and vary the size (approx 30-80g) and colours of your lures. Rotate the lures every 5-10 casts and see what works.
I've found metal jigs catch more kings in the harbour than topwater lures and minnows, they cover more of the water column and often match the baitfish better.
However, in winter it will be much harder to catch them.

How about would you work these jugs and do you have any recommendations on which ones.

cheers cooper

[Tunastrike11]

live squid they smash them if they are around

[Will1702]

1 hour ago, Cooper Stewart said:

How about would you work these jugs and do you have any recommendations on which ones.

cheers cooper

In the case of shore jigging, it's similar to spinning with metals. However, specially designed jigs have much wider range of actions than standard metals. There are plenty of resources online or on youtube detailing this style of fishing, search for "shore jigging". Otherwise if you're from a boat, I'd imagine the techniques are very similar but without the cast, you'd just drop the jig straight down.
First cast/drop the jig and let it sink to the desired depth...

3 basic techniques are:
1. straight retrieve (jig swims straight and tight)
Simple, just reel in the lure.
2. one pitch jerk (jig swims side to side widely)
Tuck the rod under your arm with the rod pointed down, lift the rod vertically and when you start to feel the weight of the jig then drop it back down, it's almost like you're lifting the slack in the line instead of the jig. 
To make this easier, lift the rod when you're rotating the reel handle in the up position, therefore both arms are doing the work.
3. high pitch jerk (jig darts around tightly with each jerk)
Tuck the rod under your arm and start reeling, when the rod handle is the down position, jerk the rod a little to the side, repeat this action. 

You'd switch and combine these 3 techniques on a cast to induce a bite. Don't forget to pause every now and then to let the jig fall, sometimes you get hits on the fall.

Two jig's I'd recommend for beginners would be "The Dax" and "The Smelt", they're made by a Japanese company.
There's a few tackle stores around Sydney that stock them, have a search online "The Smelt jig".
Having a few of these in various weights e.g. 30g, 40g and 60g in different colours is important as sometimes you need to downsize your lure or change the colour to get a bite.

[Pickles]

Hey Cooper, stick with it and upgrade your gear and you’ll be pulling them in if you follow advise of those above - Will, Derek, Dave, One arm Fisho …. some great advice. If you’re really serious, get a few mates together and engage a charter operator (pm me if you want some good ones, I’m pretty good buddies with a few of them), or once this COVID season is over, I’m happy to take you out, I’d jump on FRANK S offer - he posts some great stuff, experienced and top fisho’.

As everyone has said  live squid = Kingfish, but Live Cuttlefish = Kingfish and more kingfish. If you’re not good at catching cephalopods, put some time in as it will revolutionise you’re results.

upgrade your gear though. 50lb is the lightest id be fishing and  I usually go 80lb leader as a minimum and 50lb braid. However there have been days when 20lb braid and 30lb leader have done the job, but usually get smashed if anything decent comes along).

I’ve caught plenty on lures, pipers and jigs, but live bait is more consistent. It’s always worth a few Yakkas or slimies as sometimes these are preferred over squid (but these days are not common)

[nal]

On 7/16/2021 at 9:21 AM, Cooper Stewart said:

I have been having a lot of trouble catching my first king in the harbour and was looking for some pointers. I have hooked a few but they have managed to get away as I am using a light setup. I have been using almost only lure and want to know if going live bait will work better I also have a big 50lb setup that I could use for that. Are there any spots or things to look for I have been in sugarloaf bay in the morning when they are everywhere but cant seem to get a bite, however I do have lots of followups. There is also the spot outside sea forth not sure of the name but fishabout charters and the flyfisher always seem to be their hooked up.

Yeah the spot your talking about is seaforth bluff, and I’ve seen that it pretty much consistently holds kings, but you really need fresh/live squid and on a rare occasion they might take a live yakka. For lures, a week or 2 ago a guy pulled up a nice kingie on a jig so as everyone else said it might be good to try out. Look on your sounder as you go around the bluff and you’ll see the massive amount of kingies and pinkies they hold.