It's been a very tough fishing for kings on the flats this season compared with past seasons. Don't really know what to make of it. My hours of fishing effort has been comparable with past seasons, but with each season, my catch rate of kings per hours of effort is declining. This season started with a flourish, but during the warmer summer months there was a decline in kings seen on the flats. Water temperature may be a factor, having an affect on the kings, the bait fish, the food of the bait fish, or perhaps all. Five years ago, the majority of the short tail stingrays carried multiple riders. This season, the number of ray riders is well down, with most of the short tails being empty. One day during summer, I counted 50 to 60 short tails while wading, and none were carrying kings. About a third were carrying half a dozen or so medium size kahawai and I had a few days of action with the #2 catching these. Most of my kings this year have been caught on or close to channel edges, a mixture of riders and freeswimmers. There are two commercial fishing operations within the harbour, one that targets piper and grey mullet, and the other which targets trevally. The guys netting piper sometimes catch hundreds of kilos of these fish on each daily outing. The other operation targetting trevally, uses a drag net and gets a by catch of kings. The commercial size limit for kings is 65cm. There is a lot of recreational pressure on the kings from boat fishers, and shore based lure and live bait fishers. Not all fish caught by the latter group are kept which is encouraging. Two of my mates who primarily fish with piper have caught over 30 kings this season and all have been tagged. I don't believe the population of harbour kings is particularly high. Some of the tagged fish have been caught multiple times. As winter approaches, attention will be on the channel edges where the piper congregate and eventually get smashed by kings. For future seasons wading the flats for kings, who knows?