smoky bay kingfish

flicker · Post by **flicker** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 10:59 pm

got some pics sent to me from a mate who has spent the last few days over in smoky Bay SA chasing big kingies and he managed to score a ripper at 45.5 kg.
they were trolling live squid behind his new fangled electric downrigger that in conjunction with the sounder can track the bottom and wind up or down to stay however far of the bottom that you choose.
They put in a lot of hours but got a trophy fish and another big bustoff to keep them keen for another trip.
He's a big bloke at about 6'3'' 6'4'' to give an idea of its size.

Cheers Flicker

Post by **Matt Flynn** » Mon Aug 18, 2008 11:52 pm

That's a ripper. Used to fish for kingies in SA off Rapid Bay jetty, never had much luck. If you were lucky enough to get one to take a bait they just slammed you under the jetty.

So instead you caught stingrays and gummy sharks, and a zillion tommies

Apparently kingies were prolific off SA last century but were fished out.
Making a bit of a comeback now.

meter_seeker · Post by **meter_seeker** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 12:53 am

Whooaahhhhhh!!!! man that is a monster kingie brudda, old mate has done real well

, i always get promised one when i go see family friends down that way, buggers still havent put me onto one.

John Whitegoods · Post by **John Whitegoods** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 8:15 am

they are awesome awesome fish and that is a ripper.

used to do a bit of fishing off rapid bay jetty as a young tacker with the old man. drop down some maggots on a hook and up comes a tommie rough easiest fishing ever. anyway was once having an 'epic' battle with a larger tommie when a kingy came up from under him to have a go - being a young lad my first thought was 'thats my tommie not yours!' and i reefed the hooked fish out of the water just in the nick of time (luckiliy as i was definiatley not rigged up to go toe to toe with the kingy !) an older guys standing next to me saw the whole thing and his eyes almost popped out of his head - that was it for him he was chasing that kingy for the rest of the day - with no luck !

Faulksy · Post by **Faulksy** » Tue Aug 19, 2008 9:21 pm

Awesome fish. Thats about as good as it gets for kings.

Daisy · Post by **Daisy** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 8:26 am

Wooohooo

, hundred pounder straight to the top of the Kingy class

bigglen · Post by **bigglen** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 7:04 pm

yeh being born an bread in SA you get the urge to go in search of some big powerful fish an the kingy sure is one of them abont 4 year ago the farmed kings from port lincon some how ended up with a hole in the side of the net an estimated 20,000 kings escaped most jettys on the yorke an eyre peninsulas were riddled with rat kings to about 6 or 7kg an an early morning session for an hour or 2 would see a dozen or so fish landed on soft plastic jigs if you werent holdin on tight say good bye to your rod an reel an ifyour plastic ventured any thing more than 8ft down kiss that good bye too they would have to be one of the dirtyest fighting fish in the sea but you have to love every second connected to a big king