Kingfish recapture

[Yowie]

A kingfish weighing about 30 kgs was caught, tagged and released in Sydney on 8 November, 2021.

On 23 September, 2023, the kingie was caught and released in Port Augusta, S.A. (it had travelled 2,120 kms from Sydney).

24 days later, the kingie was caught and released again in Port Augusta, the tag still in place.

It just goes to show how far the kingies migrate during their lifetime, and the importance of tagging.

[Mike Sydney]

Crazy isn’t it. 
A fisherman in Yamba caught two the same day previously tagged from South Australia AND New Zealand! 


The one from SA - a stocky 1.3m - had been free 249 days. That’s about 10km a day on average but I’d imagine there’s some days they must be pushing 50km particularly if they’re crossing open ocean

https://www.nzfishingworld.co.nz/posts/kingfish-movement-insights#:~:text=The fish spent 1296 days,tagged kingfish in Australian waters.&text=All three fish were originally,Bay of Plenty%2C New Zealand.

[Yowie]

A long way to migrate across the ocean, so, do the kingies know to head somewhere in particular, or are they just cruising about looking for food?

Plenty of toothy critters crusing the ocean looking for a feed, though I would think the oceanic sharks would be hard pressed to keep up with a lively larger kingie.

I have never caught a kingie at night, and not heard of a similar capture. What are the kingies doing at night?

[JustJames]

Not content with claiming Russel Crowe, Crowded House and the Pavlova, now those kiwis are trying to claim OUR kingfish!

[BaitDropper]

I find it quite amazing when Tagging records are revealed and incredible migration distances are revealed.

Yowie, we quite regularly caught Kingies of a night, this was in NZ, especially while dangling a live bait while anchored overnight. It would be in a sheltered bay, anchored up, while we slept. We always left Livies out with generally one keeping an eye while others slept, Whether they were attracted to the lights, not sure, but once one bait was taken, quite often a great Kingy session would be had during the night hours following. They can be the most finnicky feeders and quite often follow lures/jigs right to the surface just giving them a nudge then turning away. I used to target Kingy's quite a bit and one thing was definitely certain, that nothing seem to be certain with them.  Our best ever session on the kingy's was in the wee hours, which was out wide on the east coast on NZ, a place called Major Island, where 3 monsters were landed ( I missed out ) but they tipped the scales at an average of 35 plus Kilo's, even though I wasn't one of the lucky ones, it was exhilarating watching others in battle. So they definitely feed at night and the larger ones seem to travel in packs. I think it's a marine reserve now where we used to anchor up..

 

 

[Yowie]

6 hours ago, BaitDropper said:

I find it quite amazing when Tagging records are revealed and incredible migration distances are revealed.

Yowie, we quite regularly caught Kingies of a night, this was in NZ, especially while dangling a live bait while anchored overnight. It would be in a sheltered bay, anchored up, while we slept. We always left Livies out with generally one keeping an eye while others slept, Whether they were attracted to the lights, not sure, but once one bait was taken, quite often a great Kingy session would be had during the night hours following. They can be the most finnicky feeders and quite often follow lures/jigs right to the surface just giving them a nudge then turning away. I used to target Kingy's quite a bit and one thing was definitely certain, that nothing seem to be certain with them.  Our best ever session on the kingy's was in the wee hours, which was out wide on the east coast on NZ, a place called Major Island, where 3 monsters were landed ( I missed out ) but they tipped the scales at an average of 35 plus Kilo's, even though I wasn't one of the lucky ones, it was exhilarating watching others in battle. So they definitely feed at night and the larger ones seem to travel in packs. I think it's a marine reserve now where we used to anchor up..

 

 

Well, there you go, they do bite at night, however, it was in N.Z. 🤣

Never did it here in Aus.

[BaitDropper]

Well, we see that some of the KIwi Kings actually head over here on there journey, So the only thing different, from what I can ascertain, is that it's just the conditions and habitat.

While I haven't targeted Kings much over the last 20 years, the occasional outing at Eden always seemed to produced after a day out on the billed Variety, I'm sure in the future, king numbers will increase, as they seem to be returning now in Victoria, after years of trapping.  It's a funny thing, same fish, in fact exactly the same fish when you look at Mike's Post, it has to be conditions and habitat.

In a couple of weeks, I'm actually flying over the ditch for a quick catch up and holiday with my NZ half of the family,,  Pryor to booking the tickets, organizing which day was best to head out for a day on the kings was confirmed. Of course, it's hard to look that far forward with regards to weather conditions to get to the areas we hope to go too, but here's hoping !!   ☺️