PB Kingfish 103cm and PB Jewfish 84cm

[whiskey299]

Apologies for the long post.

The forecast definitely got the wind wrong today. We copped lots of westerly chopped while trying for live bait at artificial reef.

Add in the thick smoky haze for the back burning, it's was unpleasant, we could barely see the headlands.

Today we struggled to catch yakkas and slimy but we had just enough to last us half the day.

First drop was rather slow but before long my mate pulls up a 85cm jewfish, a minute later I'm onto a decent fish on my light setup and I start calling it a jewfish.

I see silver and I'm over the moon finally an offshore jewfish and a new PB of 84cm (4.8kg)! 

Caught on a spin reel with PE 0.6 braid, 20lb leader, 2/0 j hook with a tiny piece of bait to match the hook. You don't need heavy gear sometimes.

Over the next few hours everyone else is struggling but I seem to be doing something right as I manage to land 6 snapper in various sizes, the biggest going 56cm.

I see a jetski as we hop along various spots and snap a photo and found out later it was @Larkin, next time I will drop by and say hello!

I decide to do something different since the fishing was a bit slow I setup up a paternoster rig with a small live yakka to target trag, when I say small it was only about 12cm long and place it in the spare rod holder. While I'm winding up a fish on my light outfit the live bait rod bends over and is screaming. I quickly hand my light outfit to the captain for him to sort out. This fish is peeling line like crazy, I have no idea what it is. I can't tighten the drag too much it's only 20lb and a paternoster setup which is known to be a weak knot. After many minutes of playing the fish and a brief tense moment of untangling the line with my mate's rig, the captain calls out "I see silver, it's a massive kingfish!". He carefully gaffs it and boats the beast. I'm over the moon! I finally cracked the meter after many years and I can say, fish this size are in a completely different class, the weight, the girth, the power. A few photos later and a measurement of 103cm, we give it the same treatment all fish we plan to keep, ikejime, bleed and ice slurry. Kingfish was caught on PE1.7 mainline, 20lb paternoster rig with a 6/0 gamakatsu circle hook.

If you've read this far you would have heard me say "You don't need heavy gear sometimes", well I take the back! I hookup on the light outfit, it's peeling drag, I'm calling snapper but my mates are calling it a kingfish. I can only watch as my line starts disappearing and I'm starting to see the line backing on the spool. Before I know it the mainline (pe0.6 braid) pops, I think it was kingfish and it ran me into the reef. Oh well that's fishing.

I didn't take much fish home but what I did take took me hours to process at home. When fish get to a certain size it's just becomes so much more difficult (but in a good way) in a standard home laundry/kitchen. Scale, gut, scrub all the blood from the spine (blood is bad and what gives fish a horrible odour), fillet, vac seal, clean tub, clean bench top, clean splash back, clean floor, clean clean clean ... lol.

We also caught other species that day all on small pieces of bait:

Mowie

Pigfish

Trevally

Six Spine Leatherkjacket

Bluespot flathead

Scorpion fish

Nannygai

 

 

 

Edited September 15, 2023 by whiskey299

[JustJames]

Great report and awesome pics!

 

FWIW, scaling and gutting on the water is the way to go.  Chuck all the spare parts back into the ocean where they will go into the food chain rather than land fill, and no scales sticking to everything in the kitchen to cause domestic strife.

[kantong]

wow! quality report and fish there. well done!

[bessell1955]

What a feed!

[dlvbw]

Epic mate! Well done!

[Larkin]

Cracker king mate! And over that magic meter mark for a nice PB!

I use a paternoster for the livies too - with a lighter breakaway line to the sinker in case of snags.

Enjoy the feed!

[Isaac Ct]

Great stuff mate, day to remember for a long time. 

Well done.

[Fried Rice]

Awesome catch and feed.

I also agree with JustJames above. At least gut & gill ASAP. Easier and IMHO better for the eating quality.

[Bryant fish]

Great day well done 1to remember 

[Little_Flatty]

Great report and great catch!

It’s always when you downsize your gear when the big fish come along🤬

[Bardy]

OUTSTANDING.... A meter King and a decent Jew from the same fishing trip is bucket list stuff ! Well done  

[blaxland]

Very nice a day to remember

 

[jenno64]

That is a cracking outing Whisky!

Congrats on the m + king, 2 twin Mulloway and a cracking red👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

that is a seriously successful day out👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[Yowie]

Certainly a great day out, and a kingie past the metre mark. Good stuff.

[Basil D]

DAMMM

Got to be Happy with that, Unreal

[Welster]

What a cracking day, congrats on the great fish and PB’s.
 

For cleaning fish I use one of those moulded tables on the back lawn, not that I have a quality bag like that to process.   Only thing is longer legs on the table would be easier on the back. 

[GordoRetired]

What a great day out with some lovely meals to come. 🙂

[whiskey299]

On 9/15/2023 at 11:58 AM, JustJames said:

Great report and awesome pics!

 

FWIW, scaling and gutting on the water is the way to go.  Chuck all the spare parts back into the ocean where they will go into the food chain rather than land fill, and no scales sticking to everything in the kitchen to cause domestic strife.

Thanks

 

As for cleaning the fish on the boat it certainly is the best way to go for sure, but, there's always a but. The captain is a very generous man, he won't even accept money to help pay for fuel costs. So it's a bit of an ask to make a mess on the boat. We would clean that mess, but he would still have to go home and scrub it entirely clean and I do appreciate a clean boat! I have tried cleaning fish at boat ramp tables and I would highly not recommend it. The public tables are full of bacteria more than you would see at home. I tried it once and the fish deteriorated very very quickly and developed that horrible fishy odour. I think the long term solution is to setup an outside cleaning table near the garden.

 

 

[whiskey299]

Thanks to everyone that has responded. 

We have really enjoyed eating the kingfish, we normally eat it as sashimi and ceviche. But I thought I would try it fried as I've never tried it over the years since I started fishing. I guessed it would be on the dry side when fried and I was a correct, it's has a lean flesh similar to bonito and tailor. So I wouldn't recommended it for the thick slabs. Over the years I've started to steer away for sashimi with wasibi and soy as I'm not enjoying it much, maybe because I find it too salty these days. What I am really enjoying the most is my wife's ceviche sauce. She's refined it over the years and goes with almost any raw fish.

Even after 4 days a well looked after kingfish will not have a fishy odour and the texture is still firm and not mushy.

 

 

Edited September 17, 2023 by whiskey299

[Yowie]

Quite sometime since I have been to Lord Howe Island. The last time I was there, there were fish fry ups with kingfish fillets, cut into serving size portions, and, the kingie was a much better flavour than the kingies caught on the mainland.

I froze a couple of fillets, brought them home on the plane, still frozen in Sydney so into the freezer again. When thawed, still the same great taste.

[Ross_P]

With Kingfish, Tuna etc the trick is not too overcook. Leave the skin on, generously salt and pepper , fry skin side down and cook until turns white almost to middle, flip and similar . If only just cooked to the centre or slightly raw, fish will be moist and tasty. Fry some onion beforehand and remove then throw them on top, drizzle olive oil and lemon juice to serve.  Works well with pink salmon too.