So, tonight I caught my first kingfish!

Its brought into question my gear..
It was only a rat (60sh cm)

Landed on a okuma revenger 7ft with a 6-10kg weight rating. It was originally bought for snapper and kahawai but I've been live baiting recently. Rod is matched to an okuma revenger baitrunner.

The reel itself seemed to handle, the rod though I'm not so sure.. Any advice?

I'm a firm believer that a rod is capable of far more than its factory recommendations if the angler plays the fish well.

But I think I need to upgrade. Would thr same rod with a 10-15kg rating be ok?

Or should I be looking to get a heavy ass rod. Keep in mind I love fighting on lighter gear..

Any tips would be awesome,

Thanks in advance,

Reece

yes line weight should be in line with rod rating so you wouldnt want to be running anything over 20lb mono on that okuma set you have.. if you have livebaiting i would recommend bumping up to a 15kg set.. not just getting heavier rod as you will imbalance the set you have and also stress your reel. i have a couple of toriums which double as both snapper strayline sets but also live bait sets as i run 20lb and 30lb line on them. both on 15kg rods. also have a 24kg tyrnos setup when things get serious. but in your case a 12000 size baitrunner on 10-15kg rod maybe a good next level or even tld 25 ob 24kg rod.

Nice first kingi, almost tasty length.
The rod and reel depend entirely on where you are fishing...for instance over sand in the Hauraki Gulf, small reel of 2000-2500 size is plenty, and a rod of 3-6kg as well. Elsewhere these would be barley be noticed by a kingfish as it reefed you.
Good on ya and best of luck with the next fish.