Auckland-based charter skipper Nick Jones rarely heads out chasing kingfish on a Hauraki Express charter without a tank of live baits…

Don’t get me wrong – you can have great kingfish sessions on jigs or stick-baits, but I find the most consistent way to fool our distinguished inshore gamefish in the Hauraki Gulf is with the real deal – you can’t beat natural baits, especially when they’re strongly wriggling!

Catching live bait

My favourite live baits are jack mackerel, slimy mackerel and small kahawai. Secondary options around Auckland include small (but legal) trevally, yelloweye mullet and piper. Kingies love piper, but they are very fragile baits and only suitable for using close to the surface. On the other end of the durability scale are jack mackerel, which can survive repeated drops to depths exceeding 50m like a walk in the park.

However, unlike areas such as Whangaroa Harbour or the inshore Bay of Islands, which are basically big baitfish ponds, catching your live baits in Auckland waters can be harder to secure than the kingfish you’re chasing!

The best places to catch live bait in the Hauraki Gulf tend to be semi-sheltered areas in depths of 10-30m of water. I suggest searching between Rangitoto and Gulf Harbour, between Motutapu and Waiheke, northern Waiheke, around Rakino Island and the Noises, around the bottom end of Waiheke and associated islands, inside Kawau Island, the Coromandel harbours, as well as Great Barrier’s Tryphena Harbour and Port Fitzroy.

Your fish-finder will generally prove invaluable, but also look for birds on the water (gannets, terns and/or shearwaters) – your best new friends. Generally, you will find the baitfish schools holding on open sand/mud areas, especially on the edge of reefs or over drop-offs. As a rule of thumb, the deeper the water the bigger the jack mackerel; having decent-sized livies can prove the difference between a wonderful day or a shocker.

The sign will either show up as big balls in the water column or small, scattered shapes around mid-water. When the bait is compressed into dense balls, it is likely predators – usually kahawai, kingfish or snapper – are in the vicinity.

Once the sign shows up on the sounder, try to hold the boat over the school using reverse gear so your anglers’ chances of hooking up are maximised. If you have baitfish balls below, but are not catching anything, it’s likely the baitfish are anchovies.

I only use un-baited sabiki rigs to catch my live baits, and some brands are definitely better than others. Generally you get what you pay for, but Wasabi is the best cheap option.

If anchored up for the night and catching your bait under lights (a very effective method), try the small pink-coloured shrimp sabikis first, as they’re usually very effective. I prefer a relatively heavy sinker (2 or 3oz) to get down to the zone quickly and reduce tangles afterwards, as the weight stops fish from swimming the whole rig upwards. A descending sabiki rig is the most effective, so I tell my clients to simply drop to the bottom, then wind up and repeat. It often pays to have a range of hook sizes depending on the size of baitfish available and what they are feeding on.

Some anglers think you need to use fresh live baits caught that same day, but I’ve had some great sessions using baitfish kept alive in the tank overnight with the pump running or hung over the side of the boat in a keep-net. Not convinced? Go onboard the charter boat Pursuit with legendary skipper Rick Pollock and his accomplished deckie, George Kittow. Rick often keeps his ‘pet’ mackerel alive for in Pursuit’s giant tank over the Three Kings season, with George feeding them leftover scrambled eggs every morning – and I can tell you that the scraps disappear in the blink of an eye!

However, the key to keeping baitfish in good condition for multiple days is having a large tank with rounded corners, allowing the baitfish to move freely around the tank, coupled with good water flow.

Finding the kingfish

The inshore Auckland kingfish fishery is heavily influenced by the seasons. Late spring, summer and early autumn are the prime times to find kingies, as they populate the inshore reefs and coastline right up past the harbour bridge. However, don’t write off a spot just because it’s winter, as good-sized kingfish will still be cruising around the inner Gulf coastlines – just not in the same numbers. (Common exceptions to this rule include the inner coast and harbours of Coromandel, the Leigh coast, and eastern Kawau, where winter kingfish action occurs throughout the year.

When hunting for kingfish, I look for current, structure and baitfish. Areas of current and structure can easily be determined by a quick perusal of the Hauraki Gulf charts and include: Channel Island, Simpsons Rock, Mokohinau Island pins, Great Barrier’s pins and headlands, Little Barrier headlands, Horn Rock, Ti Point, Leigh Reef, Shearers Rock, Maori Rock, Fairchild Reef, Flat Rock, Takatu Point, Anchorite Rock, Port Jackson Reef, Coromandel’s headlands and islands, Pakatoa Reef, Shag Island, Gannet Rock, the Ahaas, the Noises, Crusoe Rock, along with the numerous mussel farms and harbour navigation buoys.

Unfortunately, being so close to NZ’s biggest city, the other element often in close proximity to these spots is other boats. Consequently, an early start or sneaking off on a weekday can pay dividends in the Hauraki Gulf, allowing first crack at the kingies before they start to become ‘gun-shy’.

On a more positive note though, the Auckland kingfish spots can also be excellent john dory and large snapper spots – both ‘bycatch’ species are suckers for live baits and more than capable of making your day in their own right!

The other scenarios likely to produce good kingfish action are right in the middle of a work-up, where they will be feasting on pilchards, or where you are catching your mackerel live baits, for obvious reasons! I therefore like to put out a cheeky live bait during bait-collection time, especially if you can see some big shapes hounding the baitfish schools on the sounder.

One memorable experience at Port Fitzroy, in the middle of winter, involved catching 15kg kingfish hand-over-fist in the sheltered confines of the harbour around huge schools of slimy mackerel.

Targeting His Majesty

When I pull up to a spot, I always have a look around at the structure and sign on the sounder, irrespective of the water depth. Keep in mind that kingfish move around reefs and pinnacles depending on the tide, generally holding on the up-current side, where upwellings and eddies often hold the baitfish. Consequently, it pays to focus on either good baitfish sign or kingfish marks themselves. When kingfish are schooling in deep water, they tend to swim in a vortex and are easily identified on a decent sounder. (Having an intimate knowledge of your sounder through time on the water is hugely beneficial, allowing you to differentiate between what is worth fishing and what might well be a waste of time.) You will find that kingfish often come on the bite over the change of tide, when prey species alter positions in preparation for a new current-flow direction, becoming more vulnerable in the process.

Having secured the livies and found your kingfish spot, it’s time to look at suitable tackle, live-bait rigging, fishing techniques, and boat handling – the subjects of the next feature!

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