Kingfish live bait presentation with yakka and technique

[faker]

So today i was fishing around balmoral with live bait and i know that kingfish are around and they were chasing yakka but they refused to take the live bait despite ten of them under the wharf. I legit was seeing them chase school of yakka away.

 

I was using a 1 hook rig with live yakka under a float

 

1.Should I use float as wharf fisher?

2. Should i bottom fish them with live yakka?

3. what type of rig should i use?

[Rebel]

Take a couple of rods with you, & try different things. What works one day, will not work the next day.

That is what fishing is all about.

Good luck

[Green Hornet]

Back when I fished land based game down on the south coast, live yakkas were the worst kingfish bait ever and I can honestly say I never caught a king on one, though plenty of times I saw them harassing a yakka, just like you describe.

Live garfish, mullet or squid are far better baits in my opinion. Fish them about 3 meters under a bobby cork just large enough to support the bait and don’t let them drift too far from structure the kings are hanging around.

When a fish takes your bait, let it run on a slack line for about 10 seconds before setting the hook and hang on tight. They’re dirty fighters and will try and bust you off on any hard surface they can find.
 

[JimT]

big kiungies love live trevally.... lots of memories at "The Tubes" Jervis Bay in the late 1970's and early 1980's. We club juniors would  have lots of fun catching blurters up to around 1-2 kgs then the seniors would put them (the blurters) under a balloon and then waited and hold on!!!! Big kingies, tuna, sharks and also saw a marlin landed there too.

Jim

Edited April 7, 2023 by JimT

[Flickking]

I’ve had a similar experience at balmoral a couple weeks ago, I was fishing with a live yakka under a float as we saw a couple kings swim under the wharf and they swam straight past and didn’t even notice my yakka. I changed to a fresh unweighted whole squid and as soon as my bait hit the water the king ate it

[faker]

On 4/13/2023 at 10:56 AM, Flickking said:

I’ve had a similar experience at balmoral a couple weeks ago, I was fishing with a live yakka under a float as we saw a couple kings swim under the wharf and they swam straight past and didn’t even notice my yakka. I changed to a fresh unweighted whole squid and as soon as my bait hit the water the king ate it

Mmm they seem to hate squid slices. Ah well will try again next time

[campr]

A few weeks ago I fished an ANSA comp at the Hacking.  I was using live yakkas on 1 and 2kg pretest line trying for a big flathead but the kings drove me crazy as they are hard to stop on such light line.  They were from 40cm to over a metre long and I could only land the little ones. In frustration I put  10kg rod out and landed a little 69cm job that I kept to eat.  Maybe the trick is to pretend you don't want them to take your bait????   Ron 

[Marky mark]

I think best kingie baits in order are:

1. Live squid
2. Day light
3. Fresh, fresh squid strips (especially with a bit of gut)
4. Garfish
5. Little live yakkas
6. Butterflied fresh yakkas

A live squid will out fish pretty much anything 9 times out of 10 but some days they just do the exact opposite of what they are supposed to.