Popping Kingfish
Down to Roseville ramp last Friday and looking forward to a top morning’s fishing:
Taking out someone I've been inviting for eight years! My medico, Doctor John. He's a fly fishing only bloke. The plan was, get him his first kingfish. That worked:
Kept it simple. Along the cliffs at 4 knots, trolling our purple Zuker clone. The original is supposedly the most popular trolling lure ever. And when I was offered copies by our main tackle supplier, I couldn't resist. They’re deadly:
It didn't take long for John to get into them. The kings were super small but on the light gear, it didn't matter. Here’s his first one ever:
Can't recommend them too much. More details here. Four for $50 delivered is a deal that can't be beat:
Back out under the cliffs this morning, on an absolutely beautiful day. Same spot but looking for some keeper size kings. Kicked off the innings with two spreader bars running off the downriggers, and set two swimming garfish on Head Starts just behind. Nothing! Probably because the baits were Z grade, washed out white, sunken eyes, and river - not sea - garfish:
Change of plan. Out a couple of klicks to the artificial reef, where we caught some slimy mackerel on sabikis. Only concern, they were massive. It would take a ten kilo king to even get one down. Back to our spot and set two on the downriggers, running shallow at 6 and 8 metres because there's so much reef at this spot. Nothing happened after a couple of long runs, but I could see odd patches of kings on the sounder. Time to spice things up:
Our mini black popper. This lure’s a copy of something too deadly to ignore, too. Back when I fished Cooktown a lot in the 80s, I bought the original at the famous Lure Shop. Super basic. The originals were made from chair legs, and sprayed black. Black has always been my go-to colour for poppers. Just figuring that when a fish down deep in its watery home looks up to the surface it's looking at the sun. You can't have more contrast than a black popper, which is why I use them on everything from bass to GTs. Grabbed a light outfit, clipped one on, and ran it back twenty metres behind the boat. Going slow, because of the live baits, so we chugged it along with some extra action. That worked:
The kings were small, but legal. Which was good, because Mev wanted some fish to take home:
Our black popper. What a gem of a lure it is. Even bonito were hitting it this morning:
They’re a steal too. Also $50 for four, delivered to your door:
Out next week and will report in if anything interesting happens. Thanks for reading
Andrew Hestelow
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