Gear for kings of land

[Bilo]

Hey guys, could someone point me and my mate in the right direction for what gear to use for kings. 

What size real and what rod to match.

We got no idea. 

Cheers 

[James Clain]

Do you want to target big kings or do you wish to catch more kings of smaller sizes. Also where will you target them?

[Bilo]

2 hours ago, James Clain said:

Do you want to target big kings or do you wish to catch more kings of smaller sizes. Also where will you target them?

I was looking to catch anything i could get.

I would like to target them around the Sydney harbour from land

[kingie chaser]

Plenty of info on this already on the site.

 

Life is like a box of chocolates...………………...

[Green Hornet]

As others have said, you really need to supply more info.

Are you planning on using live bait or lures?

If lures, stickbaits and poppers, plastics or metals.

[DerekD]

How about a budget too.

Doesn't need to be stupid expensive but an extra $50 here and there can make a nice jump up in the gear.

Do you want to muscle them or will you learn to play them? I like to play them and the gear can be a lot lighter. I like catching small kings on 2-4kg bream gear. @JonD has been picking some awesome kings on pretty light gear too - have a look at some of his posts.

Edited December 1, 2019 by DerekD

[James Clain]

6 hours ago, Bilo said:

I was looking to catch anything i could get.

I would like to target them around the Sydney harbour from land

Well the different fishing setups are used individually to utilise different fish catching techniques. You could march around the harbour for a few months throwing soft plastics you would probably catch lots of bream and when you spot schools of kings you can usually get into them @nbdshroom makes youtube videos where he has caught kingfish on bream gear. You could also go and buy a larger spinning reel like a Saragosa and a long rod and march around the headlands of the harbour throwing much bigger lures with heavier leader trying to catch bigger kings. 

The positives of using the bream gear is that you will catch lots of bi catch like bream, flatties, tailor, maybe a whiting and then every now and again hook into a King. If you throw the bigger gear you will catch nothing for the majority of the time you fish but eventually you will have the chance to hook into a kingfish and depending on the lure size it will probably be a very big one as well. 

What I do is catch live bait land based on bream gear, setup a live bait and then use the bream gear to have fun while I wait. When I say bream gear Im referring to light spinning tackle like a Stradic spooled with light braid or very light mono and a thin flexible rod that is soft enough to absorb lots of vibrations.

[Volitan]

Yep, the question is a bit vague so I’ll tell you what I use and maybe it will apply.

i do a lot of fishing from land for kingfish.

the reels I use are

Penn spinfisher 750

Okuma Hardstone (about the same size)

shimano TLD 20 overhead.

the rods are a 12 ft ugly stick at 8-12kg line class

and a 9 ft 5-10 kg line class (name forgotten)

all fairly cheap gear.

i use 50lb braid mainline or 40lb mono around rocks.

i use 30lb mono trace, going down to 20 when necessary. It would be great to use a stronger trace, but where I fish they are too leader-shy - even the 30lb is marginal.

For kingfish you need a strong drag, not big capacity. They usually don’t go far but just start hunting for something to bust you off on immediately.

with rats (just-legal size kingfish) I try to stop them immediately - tight drag and zero run, keep them thrashing in open water for a while, and bring them in once they are a bit tired - otherwise they are very likely to bust off on the rocks at your feet.

bigger fish are much harder. I get the odd one in but usually it’s a short-lived affair.

if you can find fish somewhere where there is no structure then you could go lighter. When I had a boat, I used to fish around the channel markers using a 9 weight fly rod and 10lb trace, which was quite adequate, but it’s different land-based because there is usually structure around.

 

the most important thing to know if fishing for kings from land is that if you don’t pull them they won’t pull you - which applies to most fish but with kingfish is a very strong trait. So you can just drop the pressure off and lead them gently away from structure - if you are sufficiently calm and in control (I’m usually not).