Spraypoppin'

So I’m guessing most of our readers would be familiar with commercial tuna poling? Fishermen stand side-by-side on the deck and haul tuna out of the water using bamboo poles - and a short line directly off the rod tip to the lure. A combination of water sprays and live bait burley drive the tuna into a feeding frenzy. Here’s how it works on striped tuna:

And here’s how it works on yellowfin tuna:

The key is the water sprays, which make the tuna think bait fish are skittering on the surface trying to get away from predators. There are hundreds of these clips on Youtube. Being always interested in new techniques I wondered if this might work on kingfish? There are many places around Sydney where kings gather and the thought was, use water sprays to turn on the bite. We started with cheap Ozito 12 volt pumps from Bunnings, and an old bilge pump:

It worked so well! Small kings – which had been driving us mad, because we were on the Nothbridge live bait grounds at the time – raced from the burley pot to where the water was splashing on the surface. But the little pumps gave a very weak flow and I knew more power was needed if we were going to try the technique on bigger kingfish offshore. So like I always do, I asked for advice on the Facebook page. Big big thanks to Rowan Nicks who got me sorted with a 5.5HP Honda mated to an Onga pump - for next to nothing. Pickup and spray hoses included:

Had a run planned on Friday for the first serious test. At the same time, country client Stuart phoned to order a couple of downriggers. He had booked a rental boat for Saturday and Sunday and needed them for that mission. I had both good and bad news for him. The good news being that we were out of downriggers, but our next shipment is only 10 days away. He could borrow a couple of mine for the weekend, until his arrived:

DOWNRIGGERS

The bad news was that the forecast was great for Friday, but heavy rain and gale force winds were predicted for Saturday and Sunday (yesterday.) Why not leave a day early and come out with me on Friday? We launched at seven, picked up a few live bait at Obelisk, then headed straight for South Head. We kicked off with some uprigging. That is, running two spreader bars off the downriggers, with baits and lures set just behind. But the water was cold and murky green. We pulled the gear in and headed for the Peak:

Dead as a doornail. Ten boats there when we arrived, and five left within the hour. In all that time I never spotted a kingfish on the screen. Drifting live baits through the clouds of small fish only produced disappointment:

So it was back to South Head to use our secret weapon – the spray. Drifting across one of my favourite spots – with the spray going, and throwing in cut pieces of pilchard. Very similar to what you saw in the Youtube clips above. And it worked just as well, although with smaller fish:

Kingfish and bonito - with Stuart’s father Harry taking his first king ever. What was particularly exciting is that the fishing generally was lousy - but the spray triggered a bite. That was confirmed when other boats came close trying to figure out what we were doing. I didn’t see anyone else hook up. What a great day. And what a great discovery. Some tweaking to be done this week, including a new muffler for the way too noisy pump. But I’ll be out again in a few days, this time popping through the spray. Will let you know how that works! Thanks for reading
Andrew Hestelow

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