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Bluewater Magazine Article - Page 4 of 4

UNSOLVED MYSTERIES
Nowhere else have I experienced such bizarre kingie fishing. In fact,
before this trip I had never even heard of anglers catching them at
night. The fact that no one caught a king during daylight hours made
this nocturnal fishing all the more intriguing. Looking back over my
notes it was interesting to see that all the fish were caught on fresh
squid heads (caught the same night) and not livebaits, which were also
fished every night. Additionally, we never had a multiple hook-up,
which is so common with kings, and in most cases the bites were
about an hour apart. None of this behaviour seems normal for the
species, but it certainly raises a few questions for new techniques to
be employed on kingfish populations in other areas. I can assure you
that I rode a steep learning curve on this trip and came away with a
new-found respect for them.

Day three dawned grey and overcast, and despite fishing numerous
reefs the samsons still managed to avoid us. This was certainly
through no fault of the guys, who worked their bums off trying to find
the fish - but as all good fishos know, some days it doesn't seem to
matter what you do. Luckily, at day's end we found a school of SBTs
and after a couple of runs over them we tallied up four fish, including
one for yours truly. Somehow I ended up cranking in the lightest outfit
in the spread and it got nailed midway through the retrieve. Now, I have
no patience for drawnout battles on light tackle, so when the tuna
decided to do a lap of the boat I was forced to follow it bitching and
moaning all the way. Ironically, despite having travelled all over the
ocean that day, we found the tuna a few hundred yards from our
anchorage!

RESOLUTIONS BROKEN
One our final night at Greenly everybody who hadn't cracked a mega
king vowed to stay up. However, when it came to the crunch most of
the team (myself included) had crashed! When the strike finally came,
only a few souls were persevering. Graham took the strike and quickly
set the hook as the fish charged away. Unlike the other kings, this fish
decided to play dirty and powered off to sea before abruptly changing
directions and sneaking around the bow. With no alternative, our poor
old angler stumbled around the side of the boat and disappeared into
the darkness. After a lot of cursing and swearing he reappeared, rod in
hand, on the other side of the boat to continue the battle in the
cockpit. Wind-on leaders are absolutely essential for fishing from
large,
immobile boats like a mothership - particularly during the final stages
of the fight. In Graham's case he had to lead the fish around the boat
and then back into the cockpit to put the finishing touches on it.

A few last-ditch dives for the bottom, which saw the wind-on snake
through the Aftco guides a couple of times, and it was all over for
another South Oz king. Weight-wise it was certainly a beast, pulling
the scales down to 31kg. It seemed fitting that we opened the kingy
account with a 31kg specimen and ended it with one exactly the same
size! With the weather deteriorating we decided to edge our way back
home. Along the way we visited the Hummoc Islands, scoring more
SBTs as well as some huge blue groper on the bottom. Our final night
was spent in Memory Cove, which is the same place Alf Dean used to
hunt the huge white sharks for which the area is famous. It seemed an
appropriate end to the trip. You may not be able to fish for the whites
anymore, but South Australia still has some monsters worth catching.
Get down and have a look!