One of the most exciting species in the ocean, The Yellowtail Kingfish which are associated with floating objects in the ocean and pylons and jetties within bays. They are commonly caught up to 1m long, around 15kg in weight but can grow up to 2m long 70kg monsters in the deeper waters.

The Day

“””It was a cold Saturday morning, 5am to be exact, wet grounds, water colour was not as clean as id like due to the storm we had the night before. I decided to head down to Northwood Wharf, NSW Australia for a change to test out my luck. Luckily enough the day before i had cought alot of yellow tail just incase this morning was a quite one with catching bait. It was pitch black, sunrise on the move, alot of movement on the water already from the boats as the tide was coming up. Sent out all the big rods, 2 on the left and 2 on the right side of the wharf covering all angles, while targeting leather jacket with the small rod in my hand.

While i managed to catch a few leatherjackets, one of the big rods on the right takes off like it’s never before. Loud, fast screaming reel like you wouldn’t believe. Ran and quickly locked it in by striking hard and tightening the drag straight away because i knew it was something very big and most probably a kingfish being so early in the morning. Kingfish are one of the toughest fighting fish in the ocean and once hooked on they make a run for the bottom or any structure and try to rub against reef and other sharp objects. So i knew i had to be quick and aggressive, while left some drag tension for a “just incase”.

As i was reeling it in left to right going back and fourth, as the fish was trying to reef me, i saw 2 others around it swimming in the same direction as the one that was hooked on. Couldn’t believe my eyes, was over excited and the rush in my body was all over the place as i started to get tired and sore. After 5min of fighting and finally seeing the true size of this beauty, luckily the wharf had steps that goes down to the water real close and with a net i easily grabbed the monster while still fighting with the rod in the other. It was a lonely moment to be over the moon but the picture sais it all. this is where a GoPro footage would have been epic. It was fat, beautifuly healthy coloured and turned out to be 91cm long to be exact.

Gear Setup & Bait

While live bait is the ideal bait for these monsters, i was struggling to catch some that morning. So the bait that did the damage was a big chunky fillet of yellowtail on the Daiwa Sandstorm 12ft rod that’s paired with the Penn 950SW reel. As always setup is a simple one, 30lb main line, sliding sinker, 1.2m long Black Magic Fluorocarbon leader with a size 6 MUSTAD hook. Out of all 4 rods and hours of patience, this catch was the only one worth writing about.””” 

Angler: Sarks