Fishing Reports

 

Warming Waters: The kings have arrived! Before the long weekend big packs of kings were feeding like mad out around Cape Brett. In glassy sea conditions they were a sight to behold. I witnessed several ten kilos kings leap more than three metres out of the water as they pursued baitfish of several different varieties. Smaller rat kings were cartwheeling out of the water in their eagerness to crash the helpless bait. For two or three square kilometres you could see kings working - some big, some small, but all feeding like mad. Getting near them was the hard part. They were up and down like yo-yos and moving fast. On fly they were frustrating, on jigs - almost impossible (apparently an attendent horde of 'couta lay underneath). Only one boat I know of caught anything out of the work-ups and they targetted snapper schooling beneath it all right on the bottom. Interestingly a friend reported working kingfish on the same day further south around the Hen and Chicken Islands. Must have been a day for it! As tough to connect with as these fish were, it heralds the beginning of the 'season' when these great fish begin to move inshore. Rivermouths, marker beacons, mid-channel reefs, and any harbour area with strong current is a likely kingfish bet from now on. I like to fish them with popper flies tied on big long shank Gamakatsu Hooks but the Aussies are experiencing some success with deeply fished clousers in yellow and white or blue and white. The biggest trouble with kings can be connecting with them on the strike. Everybody talks about striking by yanking on the fly line when swoffing, and this is correct, the only trouble is kingfish often eat a fly and then just sit there with a stupid look on their faces. If they lunge in and turn away from you there is no problem but when the fish is still facing towards you, or indeed, swimming towards you with the fly in it's mouth, setting the hook can be difficult. Pull on the flyline- the fish opens it's mouth- and the fly pops out. I find you really need a good strong rod, something like the Composite Developments Saltwater Fly Down-Under series, to really whack the hook home in a simultaneous rod lift and line haul. All the experts say this is the wrong thing to do but you'll find by changing the direction of the hook point into an upward trajectory more solid hook-ups are obtained. Believe me - the first kings you lose on fly will not be the fish that reef you but the fish that spit the fly. Get around this problem and then worry about losing your flyline!! 'Til next time.......

 

From Craig Worthington

Report type: Saltwater

Report date: 25 October 01