Kings on the Jigs

Out on Sunday from Bayview boat ramp in Pittwater. Top crew aboard being old mate Drax and new super keen guy, Jeremy. Straight to the Valiant Wreck to load up on live bait. Lots of transducer interference from nearby boats but we filled the live bait tank pretty quickly:

On the topic of live bait, Greg Stevenson asked on Facebook what type of sabiki I’m using:

This one:

Straight up to our mark – which is 25 miles away. Nasty chop right on the bow, meaning it took some time. The seas improved the closer we got. The lads got stuck in and we had some early success:

Jeremy opened our innings with a beautifully conditioned king:

This spot is kind of weird. Even though it’s in deep water, it holds top water – perhaps in transit – bait. When the bait passes over the reef, the kings rise up the water column to hunt. The next hook up came from Drax:

Result, a chunky 95cm. Look at how fat this fish is:

I persisted, live baiting with our light electric reel. Don’t use the motor for fighting! But it does make things easier, when you need a two pound weight to get to the bottom in a current:

Just by the way the red tape on the rails above show legal length for kings and mahi. Really speeds up return of undersize fish. Don’t want to give the idea it was easy! We fished hard, boated six, and kept four. And just like almost every trip to this spot, we lost a stonker. That will be remedied on the next trip. With the nor’ easterly picking up and a long way to go, we decided to ride it home. But on the way we found a private FAD:

Jig rods were left in the rack and we swapped to seven or eight foot casting rods with little jigs. The current was running nicely and the mahi were hungry. But too close to the legal limit so we let them all go. Back out again this weekend chasing more of the same. Thanks for reading
Andrew Hestelow

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