Your One Stop Kingfish Shop

I often get asked, ‘what’s your favourite fish, Andy?’ Truth be told I don’t really have one, and I’m happy to fish for anything. But if I had to make a decision I guess kingfish would be number one. We all know their good qualities. Hard fighting, great sashimi, top eating if properly looked after. But I reckon the best thing about kings is that they’re widely available. Out in 150 metres, at reefs like Allmark. West of the Harbour Bridge, at the red can next to Goat Island (which is where they’ve been this week, up to 94cm.) That wide availability is important because not everybody has a boat that’s offshore capable.

Now is the time. They’re on the move. They’re hungry, now the water is warming. Spring time is king time, reports from friends and clients prove it. Let’s start on Norfolk Island, where Bruce Clarke scored brilliantly after booking with Greenwood Charters:

Hi Andrew, last week I was on Norfolk Island for work but managed to fit in a charter trip with Scott Greenwoods fishing adventures.  I landed the biggest Kings of my life including this 22kg, 130cm beauty.  When asking about the rod that I caught it on - surprise surprise - it was one of your jigging rods!!!

All up I got 3 and Scott got 2 before we fished for Trumpeter and Cod. Unbelievable fishery and Scott is a great guy to go out with.

So impressed that I’m heading over there next week. Fishing with old mate Jay Barker, who’s starting a charter operation on Norfolk. He’s still scoring big kings on thrashed 250 gram jigs he bought from us years ago:

On nearby Lord Howe Island, new charter operator Brad took advantage of a good weather window and scored bigly with our 40 gram jigs:

Had a fun day out yesterday with 40lb gear and the 40g micro jigs and small vibes got some lovely fish with 6 king's landed over the metre mark and 3 over 130 many of which were caught on the jigs. Now I just need to order some more to replace the ones I lost! Thanks mate Brad

Queensland kingfish are early riders, as the East Australian current starts to crank up. And that’s already happening! Dolphin fish are on the Coffs Harbour FAD already. Here’s Chris Hardy, in Ballina:

Hi Andrew the 420g knife jigs working well at Ballina.. this one caught 8 kings and an AJ..not the best photo i know! nothing big but plenty of fun an a great fish to release.. 5k current in a 100m they drop nicely..

But it’s not all about New South Wales! Winter and spring is ambo time, in SEQ. Amberjack being one of the four members of the Seriola family. Ed from Keely Rose Fishing Charters doing well at Rainbow Beach, with our 100 gram jigs:

Hi Andrew, one of many solid amberjack caught on the Keely Rose Fishing Charters on your 100 gram knife jigs.

This 40kg amberjack also caught on one of your 100 gram knife jigs:

Blimey! That's borderline scary. Amberjack, Samson fish and kingfish make up the three species of the seriolafamily, found here in Australia. Tony Nguyen headed to South Australia for some Samson action. Before departure he invested in some of our new 100 gram jig models and a yellow V-Top PE2 overhead jig rod. That combo was deadly, on the trip:

It was a spur of the moment decision to chuck a slow jigging rod I bought from Andrew at the Downrigger shop into the kit for the recent Kingie trip. How was I supposed to know that it would be an epic Samson trip with 2+ fish a drift and that that rod would save me from newbie jigging hell?

Trying to jig a 50lb outfit all day is an invitation to the chiro - so I switched across to the lighter gear at morning tea and had a ball for the next three days. Lots of big fish - they just required locked up drags and thumb callouses. Had to take a photo with the rod and one of the $6 jigs that did the damage.

That’s fantastic and thank you, Tony. Us? Not much to report. Two trips only chasing kings, in the last four weeks. Jervis Bay offered beautiful weather but the fishing was dead for every boat we saw:

Last week we headed out downrigging on Sydney Harbour. There were a few around but we couldn’t get them to bite. Horizontal line is the downrigger weight:

Others had more luck. Here’s Adam and crew on Rejuvinator:

But all good, we had a lot of fun with salmon, busting up around Clifton Gardens. Once again our 40 gram jigs did the damage:

Heading off to Norfolk Island on Monday to test out our new range of stickbaits, deep divers and poppers. Very excited! If anything interesting happens, I’ll post pics and videos to the Facebook page. Thanks for reading,

Andrew Hestelow

Managing Director

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