 There
are as many techniques and philosophies as there are
boats on the water, but when we want or need to catch
big kingfish, we go stealth. Smaller swivels, wire,
hooks, line, fluorocarbon and less drag can be the difference
in boating average fish or the fish that will fill a
picture frame or make a pay day.
Are
there exceptions? Sure. Have anglers caught big kingfish
on heavy tackle? Sure. But as an overall rule, we feel
the big fish come on lighter tackle. Our reasoning based
upon a couple of facts.
Kingfish,
as most predatory fish, have excellent eyesight. We
feel that kingfish know that something is wrong with
the bait. As natural as we try to make our spread, it's
not as natural as schooling bait. Maybe under certain
circumstances they don't care. Regardless, the lighter
the rig the bait has to fight and the less visible the
rigs, the more it improves our chances of our bait becoming
kingfish lunch.
Second,
kingfish are a slow-growing fish. A 40-pound female
kingfish may be 16 years old, and a 50-pounder as old
as 20 years. These are fish that have seen a lot, and
have survived. Most average fishermen haven't even had
a strike from a fish this big. Even though it is tough
to fight a large fish on light tackle, we feel that
we may not have the opportunity with bulkier tackle.
Okay.
What do I mean when I say light tackle? In some circumstances
I don't mean less, just smaller. A perfect example of
this is the Spro power swivel. Spro manufactures extremely
small stainless steal swivels that are incredibly strong
for their size. The most popular among tournament fishermen
is the tiny 50-pound swivel and the, even smaller, 35-pound
swivel. To draw a mental picture, the 50-pound swivel
is smaller than a BB, and the 35-pounder is 30 percent
smaller than that.
When
selecting wire for our rigs, we look for #3 and #4 as
dark in color as possible. We use the #3 for our lead
and the #4 for the stinger. Because of the way kingfish
usually attack the bait, the fish will usually be fought
on the stinger hook. So we use a little heavier wire
on the stinger. I've not been able to tell a great difference
in the toughness of different brands, but color will
vary between brands and even packages of the same brand.
We feel that the darker the wire, the less visible it
is to kingfish.
There
are many different beliefs on how long the lead wire
should be. Some say 36 inches, and some only use 12
inches. We feel that 18 inches gives us what we need.
That is enough to protect our line from the king's sharp
teeth, but doesn't keep us from being tail-whipped.
Many fish are lost when the fish is running and catches
its tail in the line. The strong tail of the kingfish
can part the line if not protected. To solve this problem,
we incorporate fluorocarbon as part of our leader. This
leader material is almost invisible under water and
is extremely tough. We've not been tail-whipped since
we starting using fluorocarbon three years ago. Normally,
we will use a 10-foot section of this leader between
the mono and the swivel connected to the wire. There
are a few manufactures. We like the Yo-zuri pink fluorocarbon
in 20 pound test because it seems to be more flexible
to tie and is tough as nails.
We
use a small diameter hybrid fishing line made by Yo-zuri
in 15 and 20 pound test. This is a very tough and durable
line with great knot strength. It is expensive, but
because it is waterproof, the line retains its durability
much longer, so we don't have to change line as much.
The benefits of smaller diameter line is less drag in
the water, which gives us better feel when fighting
a fish, and making it easier to keep the trolling spread
in order. Because we use the fluorocarbon leader, we
don't feel the line color is very important as long
as the driver is able to see the line when someone is
fighting the fish.
We
like using small black hooks on our rigs. Our basic
pogy rig will have a #1 or 1/0 live bait nose hook.
The stinger hook will be a #6 treble. We like the Gamakatsu
2X treble. It is really the size of a #5, which we feel
is the perfect size. It is a strong enough hook to do
the job and very sharp. One trick I like to use when
using skirts put a treble hook in the wire behind the
skirt to allow the eye of the bait to be seen. I will
add the treble 3 to 5 inches in front of the nose hook.
When the fish is fighting, the more hooks it can find
the better the chances we have of landing the fish.
We use a variety of Cape Lookout skirts, depending on
the area and water clarity. Lots of anglers don't use
skirts. We feel that we might not catch as many fish,
but better fish come on skirted rigs. Similar to bass
fishing, it is known that more fish can be caught fishing
a worm, but larger fish come on plugs and spinner baits.
When
fishing lighter rigs, it is a must to fish with a reel
with a quality drag system and to know how to fight
a fish on 2 to 3 pounds of drag. Kingfish have a boney
mouth and head. This means, more than not, there will
not be a good hook set. Putting too much pressure on
the hook set will cause the hook to pull. Because of
their superior line capacity and drags, we use high
speed Penn reels. This allows us to let the fish fight
the drag when it is running, and retrieve line quickly
if the fish is running toward the boat or we are chasing
the fish. As a general rule, we let the fish fight the
drag only until we determine how well we have the fish
hooked. The biggest mistake we see anglers make is to
lose their patience, and fight the fish prematurely.
Let the fish run, and use the boat to catch up. After
a few runs, the fish will tire from fighting the drag.
It can be hard to make yourself not fight the fish,
but we are more successful landing fish using this technique.
As
stated before, there are plenty of different feelings
out there on catching large kingfish, but this is what
seems to work for us. Smaller can be better. Go stealth.
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