Last week! Clement and I excited to be invited offshore by Corey and Kingston, who I fish with in Cooktown. Launched at Bayview, filled the live bait tank at West Head, and a long run offshore to the deep reefs. Kingy scored the first king, a 98 cm fish taken on a 150 gram jig:
Fishing was generally slow and I spotted no kings at all on the sounder. But good shows of bait on the screen were worth a drop and persistence meant results. Here’s Corey with a one metre king taken on a live yellowtail:
Here's a short video showing the action:
Really quiet out there, only three boats. One of them being skippered by an old mate, Murray. Glad to see one of his crew boated a good one:
A week goes past and Clem and I are heading for the same reefs, aboard Sascha’s nine metre walk around. Lucky us! Lots of yellowtail at West Head so we caught our live bait quickly:
The plan pretty much the same as last week because why change tactics, when they're working? Clement was first to hook up on a live yellowtail but unfortunately, it turned out to be a shark. Lots of them out there recently:
The reef we fished was not an underwater block, like the Peak or 12 Mile. It's a submerged plateau, depth ranges from 85 to 140 metres. That's deep. Kings and other sought after fish hold around pinnacles like the one in this pic. You need a fast sinking jig to get down to them before you drift off the mark - especially when there's a current running. Going to a heavy 400 gram jig is one option, but who wants to spend all day winding up a heavy jig? I know I don't:
So with the last jig order we placed, I asked for the longest slimmest 250 gram jig they could supply - with prismatic sides to reflect light, and a well defined eye for the kingfish to target. The thinking being, long thin jigs are going to sink fastest:
First fish aboard for me was a small amberjack - Not much bigger than the jig!
Full story here! We weren't there for long but while we were, it was pretty hot fishing:
Took that 90cm king in the video to a mate who runs a restaurant. He converted it into delicious sashimi:
The jigs? $95 for ten in Australia. Fantastic deal and we’ll send you the new model. Thanks for reading and check them out here, Andy