Slide baiting for kingfish

Introducing Kaleb Care from ‘Outdoor Adventures with KZ’. He says he’s simply another fisherman sharing his journey with anyone who’s interested. He’s also very mindful of the fact there are many different ways to go about slide-baiting and that the following is but one way to deploy this particular method...

Slide-baiting has expanded the potential for surfcasters (and some boat fishers) to tangle with big predatory species, enabling us to position our live baits much further away and more effectively than previously possible. And, because the break-away sinker holds the mainline in position, everything stays put until a predator comes along and eats the bait.

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This method also lets anglers fish the whole water column, with the sliding clip enabling the live baitfish to slowly work its way down the mainline from the surface all the way down to deeper water near the bottom. And, by varying your cast lengths, it’s also possible to cover in close and out wide. Better still, you can deploy multiple live baits at once, even in a small space, and not worry about tangles.

This rig really comes into its own around rocks, wharves and sand, but plenty of people have used it from boats with great success, too.

Constructing the rig

A typical slide-baiting rig consists of two major parts: the slide bait clip with trace and hook attached; and the backbone – your mainline with a strong swivel attached to the end, also attached to a sacrificial line-link which, in turn, connects to your break-away sinker.

Remember to add a sliding bead to the mainline below the slide bait clip. It might be small, but it acts as a shock absorber for the slide-bait clip and protects the knot. When selecting beads for this role, go with one that’s slightly bigger than the clip’s connection, so it will not slip through afterwards. The best ones are slightly squishy to the touch, not hard.

The BOS sinker is even more vital. This brand of break-out sinker holds the ground firmly, enabling a tight line between the rod and the sinker to be maintained, so the live bait can swim its way downwards.

I suggest using a length of trace line to the sinker that’s lighter than your mainline when fishing into reefy areas or off the rocks. That way, if a kingfish is hooked and the sinker snags, the sinker line can easily be snapped, leaving the angler still in business. 

Getting underway

When using the rig, the steps are simple. First, place a free-running soft bead onto the mainline before tying it to the sinker trace. Next, cast out to desired distance and depth, before waiting for half a minute or so afterwards for the mainline to cut down through the water and settle, so the sinker and line are better positioned to achieve a good grip when you slowly tighten up on it afterwards. No good? Cast out and try again, as this part’s really important.

Now you need to place your hook into the live bait – the usual ways (depending on the baitfish species) through the upper shoulder or through the nose just in front of the eyes, are fine for this. I personally like to use specialist live-bait hooks, but other anglers have different preferences that also seem to work well.

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Time now to secure the slide-bait clip to the mainline; make sure the clip’s swivel ends up angling towards the water and that the soft bead placed on mainline first is ahead of the clip, as it can sometimes slide up the line.

To secure the clip onto the mainline – as illustrated in the photo below – the line needs to be pulled between the clip’s arms and slid around the wire coils so it can run freely up and down the mainline.

Now, with the clip and bait attached, simply let the rig slide down the line and swim from view – you’re fishing now!

Challenges

One of the challenges of using this rig is setting the hook, due to the fact it’s tied to a sliding trace rather than fixed on the mainline. I therefore tend to strike around three times when the weight is on to help ensure the hook finds the kingfish.

Mixing it up

One of the greatest things about slide-baiting is its versatility. It’s possible to fish this type of rig next to river mouths, from the beach into the surf, off a wharf, from the rocks, or, as mentioned earlier, even from a boat. The method allows fishermen to graduate from fishing for whatever comes along (not that there is anything wrong with that!) to targeting a specific species or type of fish – and to do so more successfully.

Where possible, I recommend implementing slide-baiting alongside a second outfit with a live bait under a balloon too, and, if possible, with two livies on ledger rigs. It also pays to carry a topwater setup, so if kingies turn up and don’t want your live-bait offerings, they could find a lure difficult to resist! 

For more information, check out the Outdoor Adventures with KZ Facebook page and watch the videos on the YouTube channel

   This article is reproduced with permission of   
New Zealand Fishing News

September 2016 - By Kaleb Care
Re-publishing elsewhere is prohibited

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