Chasing Kingfish with TT Lures Jig Heads.
I don’t think there has been one angler who I have talked over the years that doesn’t at some time during their lifetime want to catch a kingfish. It doesn’t matter how old or young you are, when it comes to tackling with kingfish you need to have the gear that is going to stand up to the punishment that they can dish out. Sure, you can catch them on light gear, I have. But to start off you will need to have a decent rod, reel, line and jig heads, if you are going to boat a kingfish.
So, in this article I am going to do is give you a outline of what jig heads I use and what type of tackle and line I prefer to use when chasing kingfish when using TT Lures jig heads.
This young angler didn’t stop smiling for about an hour after he caught this 70cm kingfish.
He was just feeding the soft plastic out the back of the boat in the berley trail and the
kingfish jumped on it. The Hidden Weight TT Jig Heads are ideal for doing this.
Where they are found.
In Australian waters kingfish are distributed from North Reef in Queensland, around the southern coast to Trigg Island in Western Australia. They also occur off the east coast of Tasmania and around Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands.
They tend to live in inshore and continental shelf waters where they are associated with some kind of structure. This can come in the form of reefs, jetties, marker buoys and pylons, just to name a few. Adult kingies can be a solitary fish or found in small schools near rocky foreshores, reefs and islands. Schools of juveniles are generally found in offshore waters, often near of close to the continental shelf.
Clive Firth caught an 88 pound kingfish at Bermagui way back in 1938, and it still stands as an Australian all tackle record. The largest fish most commonly caught are about one metre in length, but they do grow to at least 1.9 metres in length and can weight up to 70 kilos.
Estimating their weight.
Now if you have ever caught a large yellowtail kingfish and released it because it may have been a breeding female, or you didn’t have any scales to weight it, but didn’t keep any record of the capture (photo). What you could have done with the aid of the table that was supplied by Steffe et al. (1996) at the NSW Fisheries is to estimate the weight of it by just measuring the length of the kingfish.
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Weight to length equation for Yellowtail kingfish. |
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Weight (grams) = 0.017234949 x Length (cm) to the power of 2.92134 |
Structures
As structures can come in many different shapes, sizes, forms and compositions, which can be formed naturally and made by man. You will find them in bays and dams, throughout the estuary, river and creek systems, offshore, the beaches and the rocks. These natural or home made structures are home to many different species of invertebrates, crustaceans, molluscs, which inturn attract many different fish species like yellowtail, slimy mackerel, mullet, garfish, prawns, bream, snapper, and luderick. All of which inturn can attract the kingfish.
Types.
There are a number of types of structures that I prefer to fish for kingfish. They are breakwalls, natural or artificial reefs and fixed or floating navigation markers or buoys.
BREAKWALLS.
A Breakwall is a barrier that is either naturally or man made. It usually extends out into open water of a sea, ocean or bay. It will provide a breaking point of the force of the waves and also create a calm water safe harbour. Right around the coastline of Australia you will find so many different types of breakwalls that have been either made of blue metal boulders, rocks and pre-cast concrete blocks. Now if you were to draw a line where the bottom of these rocks, boulders or pre-cast concrete sits in the sand or silt you will have found the fish highway.
The weed, cabbage, small crabs, prawns and cunjevoi that grow and live on these breakwalls will inturn attract hordes of mullet, yellowtail, slimy mackerel, pike, whitebait, mados, sweep and stripes. It is these breakwalls that give the baitfish some kind of protection from their larger predators and kingfish being near the top of the food chain will patrol up and down these structures keeping an eye out for that next meal.
Techniques
Boat – anchored: I have found that the best way to fish for kingfish off breakwalls is to have two anchors. One will be attached to the breakwall and the nose of the boat the other will be anchored in the channel. This will allow the boat to be positioned at 90 degrees to the wall. Once you have positioned the boat you can then start laying out a berley trail, while at the same time feeding out a lightly weighted soft plastics. The same as you would if you were fishing bait in a berley trail. The kingfish will come up the trail and pick up your offering and take off. So be ready to engage the drag so that you can try and stop it from getting to the rocks.
Try using either the 1/8 once in a 5/0 or 7/0 HW matched up with a 5 inch Power Jerkshad or a 4 inch Power Minnow from Berkley, a 9 inch Sluggo or Squidgy Stick Bait.
Boat – drifting: Position the boat so that you are directly over where the bottom of the breakwall meets the sand. This is usually done with the aid of an electric motor. You could also achieve this by keeping the motor running and just put it back into gear to re-position back over the bottom of the breakwall. This way you can bounce the weighted soft plastic along the bottom.
Try using either the 1/4 or 3/8 once in a 5/0 or 7/0 HW matched up with a 5 inch Power Jerkshad, a 4 inch Power Minnow from Berkley or a squidgy 4 inch Shad.
Shore based: Cast the weighted soft plastic up current and allow it to slowly sink down to the sandy bottom. Then slowly lift the rod tip so that the jig head bounces off the bottom about 50 to100cm. Once the line is at ninety degrees to you, you will need to start letting out line. This will allow the weighted soft plastic to work the edge of the breakwall. If there are no other anglers on the breakwall you could walk the plastic along the breakwall.
Try using either the 1/8, 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2 once in a 4/0, 5/0 or 7/0 HW matched up with a 5 inch Power Jerkshad or a 4 inch Power Minnow from Berkley, a 9 inch Sluggo or a Squidgy 4 inch Shad.
When chasing kingfish you will nee to have a selection of soft plastics and a selection of jig heads. This
will enable you to either up size or down sized. Depending on what the kingfish are chasing at the time.
The jig head may seem too large for the soft plastic, but when you target kingfish and the baitfish they are
chasing are small you may have to up size your jig head.
This is a 9 inch stick bait with a 7/0, 1/8 once Tournament Series Jig Head.
NATURAL OR ARTIFICIAL REEFS.
Reefs come in all shapes, sizes and depths, making them one of the most sort after structures for the boat owner to find. These reef can be both natural or artificial and made up of a variety of materials. It doesn’t matter what depth of water the artificial reef is in, because you can either anchor near or on the reef and lay out a berley trail to bring the fish to the back of the boat or just drift over it.
Techniques
Non-retrieve while drifting: This is a great technique when fishing kingfish. All you need to do is let the weighted (to suit the current and drift) plastic sink to the bottom and then wind it up a 2 to 4 turns of the handle. Stick the rod in a rod holder with the drag on and wait until a fish takes the lure. You could either tie the jig head straight onto the end of the line or use a paternoster rig.
If you are using the paternoster rig you can try using the 1/8 once 5/0 or 7/0 HW, but what you will need to do is to put a piece of foam on the line just in front of the jig head. This will allow it to float, keeping it away from the mainline.
Jigging: This method can be used when you are either at anchor or drifting over a natural or artificial reef. Just drop the weight plastics down beside the vertical structure. Once it has reached the bottom, you will then start to jig the plastics back to the top. Only stoping to take up the slack line. The trick to it is to vary the speed of the lift of the rod.
This size of the jig head when using the jigging method will vary on the depth of the water, how fast the current is going and whether you are anchored or drifting. The object of jigging is to get it down to the bottom fairly quickly so there is no slack line. So you will need to experiment the weight of the jig head.
The author caught this rat kingfish (58cm) while shipping soft plastics over the Hot Water Outlet
in Botany Bay, Sydney. He was using a 5/0, 1/8 once Tournament Series Jig Head.
FIXED OR FLOATING NAVIGATION MARKERS OR BUOYS.
Kingfish just love to hang around navigation buoys or markers. This is mainly due to the fact that this is where yellowtail, slimy mackerel and other baitfish will hang out.
Over the years I have tried many different techniques when it comes to fishing around fixed or floating navigation markers or buoys. I have suspended dead and live baits underneath a bobby cork and with a well-directed cast, placed the bait and the bobby cork right beside the marker. If there is a kingfish hanging around the marker, it won’t take long for it to go off.
But, what about if you could bring a dead bait or a soft plastics to life when casting it at that same fixed or floating navigation markers or buoys. It isn’t that hard. All you need to do is use the correct jig head that suits either the dead bait or soft plastic, along with working out what type of retrieve the kingfish will respond to.
The author snared this lovely dolphin fish on a 2/0, 1/28 once, HWS Tournament
Series Jig Head while fishing one of the FAD’s off Botany Bay, Sydney.
Techniques.
Cast and a hard retrieve: Select the structure that you wish to cast to and cast about 3 to 4 metres pass it. Allow it to sink for a few seconds, and then wind in the line so that you have no slack line on the water and the tip of the rod is near the water. Then it is a matter of jerking the rod back towards you fairly hard. This will make the jig head and plastic race through the water and fall for a second or two.
Lift and twitch: After you have cast the plastic out and allowed it to sink to near the bottom, you will need to only slightly twitch the rod tip, so as to only move the jig head and plastic about 30 to 50 cm at a time. This will take a lot longer than the cast and a hard retrieve method. The bite may be just the tensioning of the line or a hard take. What ever way it happens you will need to be ready to strike to set the hook.
This technique can also be carried out as the plastic is falling through the water column.
Shaking: You will need to cast out pass either where you can see or think the fish are holding up and then start a very slow retrieve, while at the same time moving the rod tip so that the jig head and plastic will dart through the water column where the fish are. If you get a follow and the fish doesn’t take it, you could try stopping the retrieve and allow it to sink slightly and then start again.
Whether you are trying out the cast and hard retrieve, lift and twitch or shaking method you could try using a heavy or light jig head in the 4/0, 5/0, 7/0, 8/0 or 9/0 hook size. The best type of plastic to use here would be a reasonably slim line type. Sluggos, Stick Baits, Jerkshad or a Power Minnow would be somewhere to start from.
Gel Spun Lines.
Many years ago braided lines were usually made from either Nylon, Linen, cuttyhunk, Dacron or other similar materials. They are simply the interweaving of individual strands of these materials into one continuous fishing line. They were more expensive than monofilament, but possess characteristics that justify the extra cost.
Now you have GSL, which are made by spinning polyethylene to realign the materials molecules and create very fine strands or fibres. This fibre is then braided together to form thicker strands, or it is simply twisted together and fused or melted using heat.
It has a very low stretch qualities. You can feel the slightest of takes from a fish in great depths of water, you can feel when a lure or bait is starting to get snagged up on the bottom or a snag. The angler can achieve a much greater casting distance, some of the braided line are Hi-viz and float giving the angler the ability to see the take of a fish before you can feel it. Another great advantage is that the great strength for thickness and is also very resistance to abrasion.
Fluorocarbon.
To understand what Fluorocarbon line is you have to realize that it is not a nylon monofilament. It is actually a polyvinyl material called “polyvinylidenfluoride”, or simply “PVDF”. It is one of the most chemically inert materials known.
Fluorocarbon fishing line has several characteristics that make it very useful to anglers. The first of these is its light refraction. The light refractivity index of fluorocarbon is lower than that of nylon and much closer to the refractivity index of water itself.
Light shining into the water is reflected more by a nylon line than by the water it is sitting in. Fluorocarbon reflects less light than nylon so it is less conspicuous. The bottom line is that fluorocarbon lines have a better chance of not being detected by spooky fish. I’ve tested this over the past few years and, in several fishing situations, have found that fluorocarbon has out fished nylon.
Because fluorocarbon line is much tougher than most nylon monos, it makes great leaders for fish that have teeth or that live in places where the terrain is unforgiving. Another advantage of fluorocarbon is that it is thinner than standard mono - almost half the diameter for a given breaking strength. It will probably take time for fluorocarbon leaders to be fully appreciated by some anglers, but my experience with the line over the past few years is that, despite the high price tag, serious anglers sooner or later discover that this stuff is definitely worth it.
A COUPLE OF OTHER TECHNIQUES THAT YOU CAN TRY OUT.
Casting: When you come across a school of feeding surface fish, the first thought that comes into most angler’s head is to chuck a lure into the frenzy and start retrieving. I have caught many a kingfish by allowing the lure to sink for a few seconds and then start the retrieve. You will find that the pieces of chopped up bait that the surface fish have left behind in their feeding frenzy will slowly sink to the bottom. This inturn will attract other fish species, so allow the lure to sink for a number of seconds and then start a slow retrieve back to the top. You will be surprised what you can pick up.
Surface retrieve: Instead of rigging the plastic with a weighted jig head, put a hidden weight jig head on and thread a stick bait onto it. This is then cast out over or near the structure the fish are holding up at an. Once it has hit the water you will start your stop start retrieve, just like you would with a surface popper.
Over the past 6 months I have been using a Pflueger Contender 60 spin reel loaded with 10 kilo Fireline and a 15 kilo Platypus leader, matched with a Pflueger Medalist 7 foot, 6 to 10 kilo HMT Graphite rod. The second outfit has been a Pflueger Medalist 50 spin reel loaded with 15 kilo braid and a 15 kilo wind on leader, matched with a Pflueger Medalist 7 foot, 6 to 10 kilo rod. Both of these outfits have been able to handle all the above techniques, while at the same stopping all the kingfish I have come across.
Hopefully this small insight of the techniques and the tackle that I use when targeting kingfish with TT Lures Jig Heads I use has given you the urge to get out there and try some.
As you may have noticed I have now written 3 articles for the TT Lures web site. Firstly on dusky flathead, secondly on bream and now on kingfish. If you have any further queries on fishing for these 3 fish species when using TT Lures Jig Heads, just email me at gbrown1@iprimus.com.au
NEW DVD
During the early nineties I teamed up with Scotty Lyons and started running on the water fishing classes at Hunts Marine, and it was during that time that Gary and Scott decided to put together this DVD on “A Day on the Bay”.
The DVD covers how to catch live bait for yellowtail kingfish, techniques on how to target dusky flathead with soft plastics, bait fishing for yellowfin bream and silver trevally and lure fishing for tailor, places where to fish on Botany Bay and even how to clean your catch. It also covers what type of baits to use and how to rig them, the type of gear we used, plus much more. There is 55 minutes of running time, plus 20 minutes of extras.
If you are interested in getting hold of a copy you can contact me and I will let you know where you can get one.
