4WD Touring Australia – June 2018

070 | 4WDTouringAustralia

ABOVE: A little bit of luck was involved to land this hefty late season king on a solo
session with no gaff in sight.

RIGHT Another beauty that nailed a gang hooked garfish in the wash.

Kings are no nonsense ghters and if you want to stand a real chance of

landing the sh you hook, you need to go heavy.

50lb braid on a large spinning reel with at least 15kg of drag capacity

matched to a stiff spinning or stickbait style rod between 8-10” is a good

starting point when spinning with lures or ganged gars. Some anglers prefer

to beef up their gear and opt for an 80lb setup in order to reduce bust-offs.

Heavy monolament or uorocarbon leaders of at least 60lb are required,

with 100lb leaders a good choice in a lot of instances.

50lb mono or braid mainline on an overhead reel is the standard

livebaiting setup, with somewhat shorter rods between 6-8” the norm,

depending on the angle of the headland you’re shing.

A lot of livebait anglers will opt for heavy-duty leaders up to 150lb. This

may seem like overkill if mostly smaller sh are being hooked, but can make

all the difference when connected to a big king over 10kg in shallow water.

A long handled landing gaff is a necessity when targeting big kings from

the shore. The most popular models are made up of two seven-foot poles

that screw together to provide 14” of reach.

While smaller kings up to ve kilos or so can be deadlifted out of the

water, a sturdy gaff is the only way to reliably land big kingsh from the

shore.

Kingsh are one of the most challenging species to gure out and to

catch consistently. Getting dusted by big kings in shallow water is humbling

stuff, but the payoff is unreal once you begin to put the pieces of the puzzle

together and eventually land your big king from the shore.

GEARING UP