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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!
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