Wildside - Kingfish

Hail to the silver torpedo kingfish
 

© Zane Mirfin, Wildside Column, Hail To the Silver Torpedo Kingfish, Nelson Mail, 6 December 2008

SULTAN OF KING: Scott Mirfin has caught plenty of fine kingfish, most of which he quickly returns to the sea.
A GOOD FIGHT: Scott Mirfin, left, and Chris Cooper with a couple of ‘‘rat’’ (smaller) kingfish.

When it comes to exciting saltwater fishing, it doesn’t get any better than fishing for kingfish. If snapper are New Zealand’s most popular fish, then the kingfish would have to be the most exciting to catch.

Yellowtail kingfish (Seriola lalandi), kingfish, or just plain ‘‘kingies’’, are widely distributed throughout the warm,
temperate waters of the Southern Hemisphere and in New Zealand range from the Kermadec Islands to as far south as Banks Peninsula in summer.

With long, streamlined bodies, these wild fish can reach 1.7 metres in length and amass body weights of up to 60 kilograms, although most specimens taken in the northern South Island fall far short of such gargantuan specimens of the deep.

Kingfish are beautiful straight from the water, with greenish blue on the dorsal surface shading into a silvery white on the
underside, and a distinctive brown stripe running the length of the fish from the snout to the tail.

The most admired and prized colour feature is the bright radioactive-yellow fins, especially the tail. Once you’ve cradled a fresh wild kingfish in your arms, admired the beauty of the fish, and gently released it alive and unharmed back into
the briny for another day, your life will never be the same again.

One of my greatest kingfish memories is of the fish we never caught. In one torrid kingie session, both brother Scott and I were hooked up on strong fish, when our friend Chris Cooper yelled out that a shark had eaten a big kahawai on his jig.  We ogled the huge fish wallowing on the surface, gnawing on Chris’s 3.5kg kahawai, but it wasn’t a shark – it was a
huge kingfish with a giant yellow tail.

That fish was the stuff dreams are made of and it’s great to know that kingfish of that size and quality exist in the northern South Island. We might never catch a kingie of those proportions but it is enough to know that kingfish like that are out there swimming now.

Kingfish are the ultimate fishy predator, with speed, brawn and aggression to match. Feasting mainly on pelagic fish such as trevally, piper, garfish, kahawai and mackerel, they will eat anything that swims, including bottom fish like blue cod.

What makes fishing for kingfish so exciting is their size and strength. No other fish around our coastline, so readily
accessible to recreational fisherman, can fight like a kingie. The power-to-weight ratio of an angry kingie when attached to rod and line has to be experienced to be believed.

People who say fishing is a relaxing sport have never had the cold-blooded equivalent of a freight train attached to
their line.

They are virtually unstoppable early in the fight, with rod bucking and reel screaming, and they can make a big man hurt – sore back, bruises, line burns, aching arm muscles and just plain general exhaustion.

The biggest kingie we’ve been fortunate to land so far, reduced me to sitting on a beer crate later in the fight, using the side of the boat as a lever to keep pressure on while my exhausted arms slowly cranked the tired fish nearer to the boat. The fish first showed as a huge silver torpedo underwater and was soon aboard before release. The big kingie stretched from the boat deck to my chin, but I still think my grin was wider.

Kingies love wild blue water around rocky headlands, strong tidal channels and passages, and indeed anywhere where
current and accumulations of baitfish occur. Many kingies are caught in relatively shallow water, with depths over 80 metres pretty difficult to fish effectively. Braid or nylon both work well and you’ll want line weights over 15kg and up to 40kg to have a real chance if you hook Mr Big.

Kingies are dirty fighters and just love diving into foul ground and shaving the line to freedom. A capable boatman can do
wonders by leading the boat into deep water early in the fight to give the angler a chance of keeping a determined fish from reaching the bottom. Reels can take a real pounding, and quality equipment is always good. We especially like to use high-speed retrieve reels for speed-jigging home-made electroplated lead jigs, but kingfish can also be caught by fast trolling, fishing live baits, whole dead fish at depth, casting surface poppers, and of recent times by fishing large scented soft baits.

Of most importance in successfully catching kingfish is going to the right places, at the right times, understanding the right weather and sea conditions, best tides, moon phases, time of day and the season.

I know enough about fishing to know that my brother Scott is the undisputed ‘‘Sultan of King’’ and I just do whatever I’m told when on a kingfish mission with Scotty. After 23 years of fishing-guiding for trout, I know when to bow to superior
talent. An electrician in his day job, Scotty the kingfish warrior has put untold fine kingfish on the end of our lines.

Kingies are school fish and when you catch one it’s almost a certainty that you will catch others. Many times we have had triple hookups, with three guys grunting on each rod as demonic kingfish do their best to tangle our lines.

Smaller kingies, often known as ‘‘rats’’, put up a great fight too and it is possible to catch many fish on the right days, mixed in with sundry species such as snapper, warehou, trevally, kahawai and barracouta.

It is sport fishing at its best and the reduction of the recreational blue cod limit should encourage even more cod-sloggers to try their hand at catching a kingfish.

Ironically, the bigger jig you use, the bigger ‘‘accidental’’ cod you catch when your jig occasionally stays too long near the
bottom.

We tend to fish big jigs all day long and still get our quota of big cod and whatever else is on offer.

Kingfish are a tasty oily fish to eat and are great smoked but we normally release our fish alive – such is the esteem in which we hold kingfish.

Some of my greatest fishing experiences have been off the wild waters of D’Urville Island in the company of friends and
family. Seasickness, sunburn, dehydration, exhaustion, cuts, bruises, fuel-fum  inhalation and hangovers at sea are all
worth the price of admission when it comes to the opportunity to fish for kingfish.

These magnificent silver torpedoes of the ocean will continue to haunt your dreams and draw you back time and again in search of the angler’s El Dorado.

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