Rod Lawn from Adamas Fishing Charters was pleased to announce quite a good bag of good red kingfish during the week.
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I have said many times in the past that kingfish are one of the best fighting fish pound for pound that you can catch.
Kingfish fight hard and they fight dirty.
They will use every trick in the book to evade capture.
They will use the sharp edges of a reef, and will use their amazing strength to spit the hook.
They are known as hoodlums because of the fight they put up and if you do manage to land a big kingfish you will know that you have been in a battle.
Kingfish are known to hang about near structures and reefs.
They can grow to over a metre and can weigh in at 15-20kg.
They are also a great table fish and can also be served like tuna as sushimi with wasabi.
Kingfish are found around reefs and rocky outcrops and when hooked, will dive for the shelter of the rocks, which will mean that nine times out of 10 your line will be smashed on the rocks.
If you’re lucky enough to avoid the rocks, the kingfish will fight you all the way to the net if you can get it that far.
Kings can be caught in a variety of methods.
Live bait, small whole squid, a variety of lures including bladed jigs.
I once asked how to recognise the bite of a kingfish.
Rod just said that it will be like your arm is being pulled out of its socket; in other words they bite hard.
Kingfish are not unlike an Australian salmon in shade, but they are bigger and have a distinctive colour band along the length of their body.
Kingfish can be found along the south-east coast of Australia and into Tassie and South Australia as well as over the Tasman around New Zealand.
Rod said he was still bagging whiting in the bay as well as resident snapper off the heads.
He said that he was also catching flathead on the sandy bottom and salmon on the run-out tide in the rip.
Rod said further along the coast to Portland and the border the bluefin tuna were schooling and fish between 10-30kg were common inshore while the bigger fish were further off the coast.
These fish were slowly moving north and Rod expected them to be off Barwon Heads towards the end of the month.
There are two methods for fishing for tuna; trolling lures, these are mainly skirted types but some hard-body lures are also used. The other is cubing, where lumps of baiting are dropped with one being attached to a hook. Both methods work well.
I prefer using lures, but that is just me.
I will stick with saltwater fishing north of the border at Eden.
The seas abated and according to John Liddell at Eden, the inshore reef fishing is providing answers with snapper, morwong, leatherjacket and some kingfish.
Meanwhile yellowfin and southern bluefin tuna are starting to appear off the shelf.
It is the same at Narooma, which is a little further north, according to Graham Cowley.
The only difference being that the shelf is a lot closer to shore.
Just past Montague Island down south at Flinders Island, James Luddington said that albacore tuna are off the shelf as well as bluefin tuna; and in the deep, Tassie trumpeter can be caught; he said that flathead and gummy shark were biting on the sand.
I know I call myself a saltwater snob but that only relates to eating the fish that I catch.
Don’t get me wrong, there is a great deal of pleasure involved in hunting and catching freshwater fish despite the fact that I let them go.
In fact, carp aside, I can’t remember the last time I kept a freshwater fish.
There is something relaxing about sitting on the bank of a river or stream listening to the water passing over rocks and other structure; add to that the songs of native birds and the hum of insects; it is great.
So I do gain pleasure from freshwater fishing, I just don’t eat freshwater fish.
The Goulburn River is as good a place to fish as anywhere at the moment with plenty of juvenile cod, yellowbelly and silver perch to provide action.
Then there is the Murray, and the Broken River, before you even head into the north-east for the rivers and streams in that part of the world.
Of course picking a fishing spot to fish in our region becomes a chore because we have so many good locations to pick from. However I have several that I like; not so much for their results but they appeal to my enjoyment of the whole occasion.
The ease of access to the water and the general appearance all play a part.
And you must agree from humble Lake Victoria to the mountain streams of the north-east and Dartmouth Dam in the high country it is a hard choice to pick the best.
So stay safe, enjoy fishing and I hope you have good luck.