I picked up the softbait rod as i may aswell do some softbaiting while i drift around, cut the hook off then zzzzzzzzz clicker goes off on the mackerel then stops, in a not so orderly fashion i put the other rod in the holder behind me but nothing an the livebait didnt seem overly fussed down there so picked the softbait rod up again an zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz time to strike!
Strike time! hook set an holy shet theres some weight there, it didnt do any huge runs initially just a huge weight that i couldnt lift off the bottem, pulled the drift chute in and it just towed me around, every now and then id get it up a metre off the bottem and it would just go back, thought bugger its probably a shark as a kingi this size would have smoked me by now or maybe its a stingray but surely the livie was faster than that without a balloon slowing it... oh well ill see where this leads...
Hours went by, I know this as a mate commented on the photo of the bay id shared earlier on facebook about 5min after id hooked this thing, Id travelled some distance now but luckily it was south then back north not far from where id started.
I was starting to feel it! at one point i put the rod butt under my gut and rest the rod grip on my knee and had a drink of water and a rest. I managed to snap a couple pics and answer a ph call during my break!
These pics are a little blury from phone being inside its case.
Not sure why those top two photos come out drunk?
Another hour later and the fish was getting tired, i got him up to 10m, feeling like i was finally winning he simply took it all back, this went on for 20-30minutes with still no idea what it was!
Then all of a sudden it went from under the kayak to 30-40m ahead of me then shot to the surface, i thought it was going to jump.
It didnt, it did a huge half circle run across the surface an i saw a large dark shape, F$#k its a shark! ohwell ill get it close an cut the line. I thought i must have hooked it in its dorsel fin as it should have bitten me off by not and i hadnt felt any head shakes, nor had it done any huge runs.
Im then towed to an island to the north where it was showing 8m on the sounder so i add one more click on the drag as he was going to bust me on the rocks or i was going to leave him with as little line dangling off him as i could.
This helped a little, the mono was making all sorts of scary noises! Amazing how much pressure you can put on 20lb! i was finally getting him up, saw him at 4m on the sounder so i risked being unbalanced so i could have a look and F#$k me it was shiny silver! a monster king! I eased the drag back off.
wtf was i going to do once i got it up! it was so big i could get its head to bob on the surface then just the weight of it going back down it was strip line off the reel, then it was huge death circles on the way back up, i had it beat! but then the same, get it to the surface and it would just head back down to the bottem where all the rocks and weed were! Sphincter muscle was tight to say the least...
Finally i had my shot, gaff went in through the lip... Now what? id managed to get a 15kg king on the kayak previously but i could hadly move this beast. so i timed it with the swells, i put my legs over the side and slowly got its head on then used my leg to get the tail end over the side.
Wooho! im sure the houses in the bay could hear me yelling and high fiving myself, i was ecstatic. This baby was going on my wall! I didnt care what it cost it wasnt just a trophy, it was an adventure, a memory.
I could hadly lay my legs beside it in my kayak, they were up on the edge. Ive gaffed a few kings around 25-30kg and they had nothing on this fish. It was easy 35kg an possibly nudging 40kg (amateur guess)
But all hell broke lose, it decided it wanted to live and started thrashing around like crazy managing to get half way off the side and that sort of weight on the side of a kayak will tip you so im leaning the other way when it manages to slip back over an that combined with me leaning the other way so do i, luckily the kayak stayed upright so i was back on it in no time but the rods gone, Its hard to describe the feeling of being on top of the world to this.
I picked my stuff up out of the water, drink bottle an jar with my tackle in it an thought hopefully it snaped the line an the rod fell in when i did so i paddled around for a little an in disbelief theres the kingfish near the bottem, i could see the silver.
I quickly put the anchor over so the kayak couldnt float off an striped off the lifejacket an clothes an in i go, 8m deep.
I must have gotten within 3-4m of the rod then the king freaked out again an the rod come out of where it was wedged and all i could do was watch this magnificent fish swim off with a rod trailing behind it.
I got back on the kayak an just sat there for a good 10min gathing myself for the paddle back and the drive home, i was sulking thats for sure but to be honnest i think the thing im most guttered about is the thought that the kingfish couldnt snap the line and its now dead.
I can only hope that it has broken the line and its still out there, it really deserves to live after that.
Lesson learnt, disengage drag and tie a rope to the fish and tow it to the nearest land where it can be taken care of. Hopefully this helps someone else be prepared.
Going by the times on my ph and facebook comment it all lasted just short of 4hrs in total. Two days later an my arms are still sore.
This will forever stick in my memory and be one of those fishy tales everyone thinks your talking shet about because its just a story, no pics, no proof and no one else saw it.