Winter kings, Sydney

[Kyle_9173]

Gday all, looking to chase kingfish land based during winter and help or advice would be greatly appreciated. I am down to use lures or baits just want a kingy. Am able to fish Sydney harbour and middle harbour at the moment my land based out fit is a 9’6 crostage pe 1.5-3.5 and a spheros 8k spooled with 40lb braid

[JAKSShark]

If u know how to catch squid thats a hugr advantgae going for kings

[Kyle_9173]

11 minutes ago, JAKSShark said:

If u know how to catch squid thats a hugr advantgae going for kings

Not sure where to target them in middle harbour, close too a kingfish spot they are an excellent bait though 

[JAKSShark]

Yes around spit bridge and the wharves near the brifge at balmoral or just around at clifton in the weeds towards the rocks, any of those places at dawn u can get some if your lucky..... sure other raiders will have other spots as well

[GoingFishing]

If you want kings the best way to get them is to send out a live bait under a float. have the bait suspended somewhere in the middle or upper portion of the water column. Squid or yakkas go down well, as do cuttlefish and slimey mackeral.

If you cant find live bait, fresh bait will do, but i suggest you strip it to flesh baits to get the blood/juices out to get the Kings interested.

Whilst your waiting for a kingie to hammer your bait if you have a second rod dont be afraid to throw some lures around, surface poppers and sugar pens go down well with kingies.

[Kyle_9173]

42 minutes ago, GoingFishing said:

If you want kings the best way to get them is to send out a live bait under a float. have the bait suspended somewhere in the middle or upper portion of the water column. Squid or yakkas go down well, as do cuttlefish and slimey mackeral.

If you cant find live bait, fresh bait will do, but i suggest you strip it to flesh baits to get the blood/juices out to get the Kings interested.

Whilst your waiting for a kingie to hammer your bait if you have a second rod dont be afraid to throw some lures around, surface poppers and sugar pens go down well with kingies.

Cheers mate, anywhere I should try out I don’t mind a trek as long as it’s safe to do so, able to fish land based only.

[JAKSShark]

Are you limited to middle harbour? Just thinking of what kingie spots u can go to

[Kyle_9173]

23 minutes ago, JAKSShark said:

Are you limited to middle harbour? Just thinking of what kingie spots u can go to

All of Sydney harbour is good for me anything outside of that isn’t doable 

[JAKSShark]

Ok so just a few spots i can think of...balmoral, clifton, spit, bantry bay (altho hard to access from shore) any wharf near harbour bridge, the piers next to harbour bridge (some one else will have to elaborate on that coz i have never been there...altho know it is a good spot for kings), cremorne wharf and around watson bay area.....Hope this helps and hope others join in with spots they know and have experience at😁any of these a live slimy yakka squid cuttlefish etc. Should produce a king if your lucky😁

[JAKSShark]

Also there are plenty of good spots off the rocks in the harbour...i just listed the easy to access one

[Kyle_9173]

1 hour ago, JAKSShark said:

Also there are plenty of good spots off the rocks in the harbour...i just listed the easy to access one

Me and some mates are considering going here with our 9foot rods to float out cuttle strips or live squid if we have them

[JAKSShark]

Yeh looks good if u cant live just buy fresh squid but not servo squid, fresh squid from the fish shops...if u cant get more than a couple of squid u could use the heads and strips off the hood....

Good luck and feel free to post what happens in reports section😁

[Kyle_9173]

6 minutes ago, JAKSShark said:

Yeh looks good if u cant live just buy fresh squid but not servo squid, fresh squid from the fish shops...if u cant get more than a couple of squid u could use the heads and strips off the hood....

Good luck and feel free to post what happens in reports section😁

Cheers mate, will use my some of my mates 3kg cuttlefish from yesterday we are thinking of going next week if weather and tides permit, what tide is best in your opinion 

[JAKSShark]

Yes sounds good, i reckon going up to high tide , say high is at 10am i would get there 8/830 am, but if the tides doesnt suit then if it was a 2pm high i would get there in high and fish for 3 or so hours.....those times were just an example obviously but dawn or dusk is best....next week the tides are gonna be perfect times with early morning and arvo tides....just remember 1.5/2 hours before or.... high tide to 2 hours after high is best...

Also may as well put a strip down on the bottom incase of a jewie cruising thru😁

[Kyle_9173]

40 minutes ago, JAKSShark said:

Yes sounds good, i reckon going up to high tide , say high is at 10am i would get there 8/830 am, but if the tides doesnt suit then if it was a 2pm high i would get there in high and fish for 3 or so hours.....those times were just an example obviously but dawn or dusk is best....next week the tides are gonna be perfect times with early morning and arvo tides....just remember 1.5/2 hours before or.... high tide to 2 hours after high is best...

Also may as well put a strip down on the bottom incase of a jewie cruising thru😁

 Cheers mate legend 

[DerekD]

9 hours ago, Kyle_9173 said:

Cheers mate, will use my some of my mates 3kg cuttlefish from yesterday we are thinking of going next week if weather and tides permit, what tide is best in your opinion 

Are you talking about tides from an access point of view or from a fishing point of view. The kings move around. In middle harbour it has never seemed particularly dependent on the tides.

Or to put it another way, the whole of middle harbour doesn't suddenly fire up at X minutes before or after high/low tide? If that was the case it would be easy and a few more of us would have cracked the code long ago.

Where tides might make a difference is Spit bridge as it is a choke point where a lot of water will pass through in one direction or another.

Just get out there - the method of floating strips under floats has been very effective for my group of fishing mates over the years (when the kings are around).

[Kyle_9173]

50 minutes ago, DerekD said:

Are you talking about tides from an access point of view or from a fishing point of view. The kings move around. In middle harbour it has never seemed particularly dependent on the tides.

Or to put it another way, the whole of middle harbour doesn't suddenly fire up at X minutes before or after high/low tide? If that was the case it would be easy and a few more of us would have cracked the code long ago.

Where tides might make a difference is Spit bridge as it is a choke point where a lot of water will pass through in one direction or another.

Just get out there - the method of floating strips under floats has been very effective for my group of fishing mates over the years (when the kings are around).

More so for a fishing point of view, always found a bit of current is better then none when chasing pelagics on lures (salmon, tailor) but as for kingfish in middle harbour I’ve never tried it 

[JAKSShark]

I can see what Derek is saying and mostly agree😁but i just find around the high they are more active in looking for baitfish? I may be wrong..in saying that i have caught plenty on low tide😁

[Kyle_9173]

38 minutes ago, JAKSShark said:

I can see what Derek is saying and mostly agree😁but i just find around the high they are more active in looking for baitfish? I may be wrong..in saying that i have caught plenty on low tide😁

I’m gonna assume it’s more of a patience game sometimes, I know how finicky and tormenting kings can be following your bait up and leaving it 

[DerekD]

3 hours ago, JAKSShark said:

I can see what Derek is saying and mostly agree😁but i just find around the high they are more active in looking for baitfish? I may be wrong..in saying that i have caught plenty on low tide😁

About 2 summers ago we had a whole lot of kings move into Middle Harbour. They were frequently hitting at least 2 bays I know off as there was a good school of bait fish in both of them. There were a group of us hitting those areas shore based whenever we had spare time. We found the tide didn't matter. We had a bit of action at the first dawn (sun starts sending light over the horizon) and then at the second dawn (when it got over the hills) and this would continue till about 11am. This was happening daily for several months so wasn't tide dependent. Word got out (damn the application fishbrain) and it started to get busier and busier. On one morning there were at least 10 of us on the wall alongside the water. As a group I think we were pulling in 20 to 40 kings daily (all shorebased).

About 1/3 to 1/2 of the hook ups were on squid. Slapstix and 3" minnows probably picked up another 1/3 and the rest were on a combination of hardbodies and surface poppers.

Edited July 10, 2020 by DerekD

[Kyle_9173]

54 minutes ago, DerekD said:

About 2 summers ago we had a whole lot of kings move into Middle Harbour. They were frequently hitting at least 2 bays I know off as there was a good school of bait fish in both of them. There were a group of us hitting those areas shore based whenever we had spare time. We found the tide didn't matter. We had a bit of action at the first dawn (sun starts sending light over the horizon) and then at the second dawn (when it got over the hills) and this would continue till about 11am. This was happening daily for several months so wasn't tide dependent. Word got out (damn the application fishbrain) and it started to get busier and busier. On one morning there were at least 10 of us on the wall alongside the water. As a group I think we were pulling in 20 to 40 kings daily (all shorebased).

About 1/3 to 1/2 of the hook ups were on squid. Slapstix and 3" minnows probably picked up another 1/3 and the rest were on a combination of hardbodies and surface poppers.

Slapstick’s seem to be a killer lure for a kingy been wanting to try them for a while now

[DerekD]

On ‎7‎/‎10‎/‎2020 at 1:15 PM, Kyle_9173 said:

Slapstick’s seem to be a killer lure for a kingy been wanting to try them for a while now

For the group I fish them with they have been very effective. There are other brands out there such as Lunker City which make a similar style plastic but value for money the Slapstix (6 or 9 inch) seem to be the best. Our preference is the pink or the white at equal first with the clear/twinkle in third. Do not buy the blue ones - there is something about the material that they use which means it seems to tear open a bit more easily and especially when you insert a jig head.

When I first started with them the preferred rigging method seemed to be with worm hooks. Very effective in their way but for me it made it difficult to work the water column effectively. I started using TT Tournament jig heads with the bullet head. I worked out a retrieve which allowed me to get a sub-surface walk the dog action which when mixed with pauses turned out to be very effective in firing up the kings.