The search for southern kingfish Pt1 by Jarrod Day

Of all the highly prized saltwater species, yellowtail kingfish are undoubtedly the most prestigious.

In recent years, kingfish have made a mammoth return to our waters and anglers can now enjoy this rejuvenating fishery on Melbourne's own backdoor.

Increasingly they are also becoming a key species in Tasmania, from Flinders Island all the way down to the Derwent River onto Hobart's doorstep.

Back in the mid 70's and 80's, kingfish were a popular species amongst both recreational and commercial anglers yet this fishery suffered a dramatic decline from commercial overfishing in NSW.

Within the last five years, each season has seen more and more kings return to the once productive fishery and now from December until March, increasing numbers anglers are out targeting and catching some real quality fish.

TACKLING UP

Depending on where you're fishing for kings around the coastline, one thing to note is the majority of fish are being caught by live baiting. In saying that, lure fishing enthusiasts also catch their fair share of fish but ultimately, it is the live baiting method that results in the larger of the species being caught.

For the most part, the fish can range from legal size of 60cm right up to and over 12kg. While these fish are brutal fighters no matter that their size, your fishing tackle should reflect being capable of landing such fish.

While the common 7' 8-10kg fibreglass snapper rod will suffice, you do lose a lot of strength and control. Through this, hook setting can become a major problem as the rod will load before there is enough butt strength to set the hook firmly. This can result in the hooks pulling or the fish spitting the hook during battle.

Ideally, a 5'6" jigging rod is ideal in this situation. Jigging rods can support an immense amount of strength but being shorter, allows the angler more control and capable of putting more pressure on the fish when required. With most of the fish being caught in relatively shallow water, the need for such strong tackle is extremely important; otherwise your one shot at catching a king could be lost.

Personally, when live baiting for kings, I use a Wilson Venom 250 jig rod with a PE 8 line rating. This is coupled with a Shimano Stella 18,000 and 50lb braid. The reason for such heavy tackle is to aid in the initial hook set plus having the strength to pull them from any rocky feature and away from the reef quickly. For those that think this is too heavy, connect with a king and tell me any different.

For all my plastics work, most of the fish have been around 60cm and 4kg which can be handled on much lighter tackle as they don't tend to bury you immediately on the lighter stuff. For this, I have a Blade 'n' Tails X Heavy rod which is rated around 10kg. This is coupled with a Stradic 5000 that's spooled with 30lb braid. Smaller fish are often schooled up in numbers near a bommie or on the bottom. Hooking them is one task, dragging them from it is a totally new ball game.