Really depends on situation kayak pretty much lock em up as safely as can and stay over top of them, you are not going to be pulling a decent king anywhere on a kayak.
Trailer boat with live bait you have a few options, preference is don’t lay into a big fish straight away and try to slowly tow it away from the foul with moderate pressure (often surprisingly easy), trying not to spook fish, and increase pressure once away to stop it returning to reef. Have towed odd big one out and then pushed pressure right up only to have it wake up and go back to reef. When you lose fish that way, you think should towed it out further out.
Jigs and stickbaits they are going to go berserk immediately, so full drag is best for that and sometimes pumping rod when can to unbalance the fish’s swimming rhythm can make a difference.
We hooked a big one on a jig in 40 meters right in close to a very nasty reef (never fail at back of mercs) around New Years. We locked it up and towed it out at a fairly fast pace with it resisting the whole way, was very lucky to get it.
I bought a 20k saragosa ( the old model) for $349 at marine deals today.. new toy. And had it spooled 550 meters of pe5, and have just topped with 4 meters of 120 lb black magic supple using an FG knot as an initial leader, will add heavier bite leader depending.
It’s a significantly bigger and more powerful reel than my other jig reels... and I don’t just have kings in mind for it. New reel is paired with a 350 jigstar rod I’ve had a few years ..a brutal little stick. Now just need to find something big enough to test it on.