Kayaks and kingfish are always a recipe for adventure, as experienced paddler Stephen Tapp knows only too well…

Well known for their never-say-die attitude, even ‘rat’ kingfish have the capacity to cause mayhem when hooked by accident. As for bigger fish, their sheer brute strength and penchant for finding the nearest bit of foul make them a real handful when hooked from any craft.
So go into battle from a kayak and their pulling power and dirty tactics become legendary. This makes them one of our most desirable captures and definitely worth the effort involved to specifically target and land them.

Kingfish can be fooled into swallowing a hook in a number of ways: live or dead baits; active surface lures such as poppers or stick-baits; trolling (if your arms are up to it); and jigging. Arguably the easiest of these techniques is jigging. It’s certainly productive, doesn’t require any kayak additions (such as a live-bait tank), and utilizes short rods and tackle that give us a reasonable chance of success (long casting rods working surface lures are fun, but staying right side up while applying maximum pressure certainly makes the challenge much harder).

The jigging tackle and techniques I use from kayaks are virtually identical to those used from larger craft, with the only real change being a preference for lighter rated rods. My ‘go-to’ outfit is based on a rod rated at 200 grams and jigs of 300g. This has seen heavy service on kayaks targeting monsters in locations such as the Three Kings and White Island, and over the years I’ve lost track of the kingfish and deep water species it’s accounted for.

The reason for using a lighter rod is that it takes some of the shock out of aggressive strikes, especially when fishing coastal waters without the depth of more exotic offshore locations. The ‘bendier’ rod gives more time to react to changes in pressure, and surprisingly makes it easier to pump really big fish to the kayak; as the rod folds away and points down the line, more direct leverage is applied to the fish. In turn, this sees the 37kg braid keeping the kayak directly above the fish, ultimately making it easier to recover line with quick, short pumps.

One risk with this technique is ‘high-sticking’ or causing a point-load break if the rod is lifted too high. It’s very tempting in the heat of battle, especially as you start to recover line, to keep lifting the rod a little higher with each stroke. This gives the impression of getting more line onto the reel after each lift, but even top-quality rods can only take so much. Once the fight turns vertical, it pays not to lift the rod much more than a few degrees above horizontal.

A series of short, rapid lifts with a quarter crank of the reel handle each time is easier on the gear, and usually gets the fish to the surface faster than bigger high-angle lifts. Bigger lifts mean dropping the rod through a bigger arc, and these longer drops can sometimes be enough for a kingfish to get its head down for another run. This, in turn, not only has the potential to make battles longer and harder, but also increases the chance of that fish making it to structure – soul destroying if you thought you were just starting to make ground.

The rod angle is another reason why I typically don’t jig from kayaks with larger fixed-spool reels. The new-generation spinning reels perform wonderfully well and have a number of benefits that really appeal (especially keeping line level), but as they are attached underneath the rod, they tend to clash with the hull if the rod is lowered too far. This considerably limits the range of movement once over the top of the fish, and again results in an instinctive tendency to ‘high-stick’ the rod.
Good quality assist rigs

I’ve become very particular with the quality and condition of the assist rigs I use. These are the heavy-duty links between the end of our line and our quarry, and they cop a massive amount of abuse from both the fish and the large hunk of metal flailing around. The hooks need to be bright and sharp to make sure even a tentative swipe is pinned, and possess the durability to last over long and hard-fought battles.

Kayakers usually invest considerable time and effort being in the right place at the right time, and there’s little more frustrating than feeling hits on the lure but no hook-up. It’s utter heartbreak though if the fish suddenly wins its freedom, and you recover a jig with a tatty piece of Kevlar without a hook attached!

As already mentioned, assist rigs come under tremendous pressure from both the kingfish and the heavy hunk of jig flailing around, especially as the short length of assist cord means there’s little to disperse the sudden shocks and pressure loads. Then there’s the abrasion created if the hook has lodged inside the fish’s mouth. Finally, the assist rig needs to be strong enough to allow us to grab the jig and drag the king on board (the jig makes a tempting handle when sitting so close on a kayak).

As a kayak angler, this means assist rigs cannot be an area of compromise. Before heading onto the water, I inspect each one: hooks need to be razor sharp and rust free, and the cord shouldn’t show any signs of wear (paying particular attention to the area at the top of the hook). I also like to check the solid ring doesn’t have any scratches or burrs that could cause wear on the Kevlar cord or make tying to the leader difficult. If there’s any question, I replace the assist rig without hesitation; I’m investing too much effort placing my lure in front of fish to worry about missing or losing them afterwards.

Using a longer leader
When jigging from a kayak, my preference is for a long leader – typically somewhere around 9.5 metres. I find this offers two primary benefits:
1.    By far the most important is that this means the braid to leader joint is on the reel during the final stage of landing the fish. At this stage of the fight everything is being pushed to the limit and even a PR or FG knot can hang at the rod tip with enough force to keep the fish just out of reach or put you out of balance enough to go for an unwanted swim.
2.    The telltale vibration of the braid-to-leader join coming over the guides acts as an early warning to stop working the lure. With a kayaker’s butt sitting at sea level, the rod tip is often splashing at the surface during the retrieve, and this can make it very difficult to tell when the jig is about to arrive. An early warning to stop can save a damaged tip and the frustration of an early end to a jigging session.

Fluorocarbon or mono?
This is a topic that sees considerable debate, but in the context of jigging for kingfish I have to say I prefer mono in most situations. I’ve not been able to detect any significant difference in my strike or hook-up rates (despite regularly swapping between materials during many sessions), so base my choice on handling characteristics. I routinely choose mono for most of my jigging for the following reasons:

If I need to re-rig in a hurry on the water and want to tie a knot (Slim Beauty or one of the modified Albright knots) rather than create a PR or FG knot, I find I get more consistent results with mono.
Because mono is softer and more supple, it’s less likely to unexpectedly wrap or tangle in the close confines of a kayak cockpit when landing a big fish. Likewise, I find it less likely to tip-wrap the rod, which can create a nightmare situation if a thrashing fish ends up back in the water!

I find the slightly thicker mono easier to grip when tracing big fish, meaning that in most situations I don’t need to take a wrap, something I REALLY like to avoid on a kayak.
Top quality mono leader material is significantly cheaper than fluorocarbon, so I don’t mind tying on new leaders on a regular basis to keep them in top condition.

The one area I find fluorocarbon unbeatable is in ‘tiger country’, where there are sharp rocks or shellfish to shred lines. In these situations the denser and harder nature of fluorocarbon gives it an edge if you’re hauled into the foul.