I am booked in on a Three Kings trip in 2015 and busy gearing up the tackle box with 300-500g jigs.

Saltiga S Extreme 56 XHFS (PE 8-10) & Saltiga 6500

Wilson Venom PE 5-8 & Saltiga LD40

Both spooled with 80lb braid, 150lb leader

Feel free to comment on their suitability. 

My question is what brand and size hooks do you recommend on the jigs?  I have a stack of  Shout Kudako 5/0 hooks which I use on Kings in OZ (a big one is 15kg)  Do I need a bigger or stronger Hook?

Cheers

Make sure you have some form of protection for your join knot to solid ring eg jigstar knot sleeve/plastic tubing or plastic thimble.

As for hooks(if you plan to make your own assist rigs)= I use a tuned gammie 35(prefer) for 300 gram jigs or Jm monster hook 11/0  and for 420 to 500g  i use a gammie tuned 40(prefer)) or a jigging master monster hook 13/0(easier to find and evil looking hook!))............Jigstar kevlar cord in either Medium or heavy has never let me down.....make your assists fairly short......def no longer than hanging one third of the jig......i prefer more a quarter of the way down the jig(when holding vertically....if you know what i mean.

If you prefer buying complete assist rigs....I took some of those assist rigs from shout kudako to Ranfurly(cord is white)......they looked pretty mean and were short too.......6/0 and 7/0 would cover you......the 5/0 would be a bit small i reckon....although you could use on the 300's i guess.....attach to a 9 or 10mm decoy split ring and you would be sweet........everything needs to be strong for kings up there......make sure braid is packed on tight(at a shop is best)....PR knot tied properly......if you get queezy ...take provisions for over night travel to the kings......its a fair hike out there....who you going with?.............Good luck

I have never been so excited before a trip as this one.  I am going on Enchanter.  The vids on you tube are just awesome.  It is a genuine "trip of life time".  I have caught plenty of kings before (PB 12kg) but to see lots of fish over 30kg that keeps me up at night! 

I agree, take some 800g jigs, gets to the bottom fast on the currents, and also means that you get to drop first to the fish before the others!! Usually you are only jigging the bottom 20m in the deep with 800g jigs so it is not too bad.

On my last trip on Enchanter, everyone hooked massive fish, but only one guy landed every big one that he hooked. He was from Sweden and used PE 10/12 gear and he landed two Kingfish over 40 kgs. I felt under gunned with 80lb braid on a few occasions.

Go heavy; hooks, terminals,leader and braid in my opinion. Take at least one elephant set, then one or a couple of lighter sets also I think. Really handy to have mutliple sets to use when it is a hot bite and you get tangles, bust offs etc. Put one rod in the rack and grab the next one instead of retying knots etc.

You will have a great trip.

As mentioned a spare spool of braid....I took two......one for each rig(PE6 and PE 8) ....as back up......

         A buff is handy as well/gloves or you will get torched by the NZ sun.

The shout kudako 7/0 will be good for 400 plus jigs........you will need smaller for your 300 grammers.

In the 400+ jigs you will be better off with tail weighted jigs to get down quickly.......you can use your 300 grams in shallower water and can use centre weighted like zest hardy long.....they flutter and stay in the strike zone longer and are a very very long jig for 300 grams!....gammie tuned 35 would be my pick for hook on that jig....What about squid squirts? Do you plan on using those or not?.....Good luck.

that should do it

For me I use AG chain knot to jigstar grommet (with protection knot sleeve), and owner split ring/jig/assist set up off that.

Tested on hanging scales and it is very strong. Have a look on youtube on various knots v chain knot for jigging in direct comparison tests. Crimps do work well and are strong but the chain knot provides a cushioning effect as it can stretch slightly and spreads the load over say 5cm where some other knots/crimps can result in the load being very concentrated on one small area of line/join I have found in my experience. Only my opinion and others will have other ideas.

This rig saves me getting yelled at by Lance.

My mistake, reread the post & you are right Kaveman. AG not good for mono. Not a fan of using mono for jigging myself.

I assumed wrongly that we were talking about fluorocarbon.