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50lb Kingfish on 15lb Gear
By Jacob Iedema
Etched into my memory forever is December 11, 2021, the day that I landed a 50lb kingfish from a kayak on 15lb gear. Let me set the scene. It's five in the morning, blowing a light southeaster over the shallow reefs of Moreton Bay. Wedgetail eagles scour the white sands of Moreton Island, while terns pick off baitfish from surfacing schools of sandy sprat.
After an early wake up, from a night listening to gentle waves crashing on the eastern beach of the island, I prepped my gear and strapped the kayak to the car. A short but picturesque drive later I was on the white sandy beaches and launched. Gear wise I was equipped with a 5-12kg Okuma Cerros travel rod and Okuma ITX-4000 spin reel loaded with 15lb Platypus Pulse X8 Braid and 30lb leader. The lure that I had tied on was the ‘small but fearless’ 80mm Fish Inc. Fly Half popper.
As I cast toward a pressure edge, created by the outgoing tide, small sprat scattered from the water. The Fly Half popper sliced through the air as it soared from my rod tip. Water sprayed from the cupped face of the popper as it made its fish attracting, low frequency clicking sound. I worked the lure with short, jolting rod sweeps, in moderately quick concession, with the odd two or three second pause thrown into the mix. It wasn’t long before a school mackerel charged the lure down with enough speed to launch itself a metre out of the water. However, it missed the hooks and I continued working the pressure edge.
An hour had passed since I launched onto the water and the entire sun was now positioned above the horizon. With only a second missed mackerel in the past hour, I cast the Fly Half popper adjacent to the reef in anticipation. It wasn’t until the second cast, made closer to the reef, that a streamlined green and gold shape charged out of the reef and crunched the popper. Without a splash a sizable yellowtail kingfish descended back into the water. The angle in my line rapidly grew steeper as the fish dove to the bottom. With its head into the current the beast swam up and away from the reef, directly toward a yellow mooring buoy.
Without any hope of stopping the fish I made for a hasty pursuit, chasing the fish down in the kayak! Struggling to paddle against the current with one hand, faster than the fish was running, it hurtled up past the mooring buoy. I was afraid that it may attempt to wrap me around the rope, however it beelined past the buoy. I then realised I was on the wrong side of it! Line peeled from my reel as it rubbed on the tough rope and before I could finally position my kayak on the other side of the buoy, a hundred metres of line had been stripped from my reel. I thought to myself… “great a hundred metres of abraded line”. I had a long fight ahead of me. My mind was full of doubt at this stage, with some gruelling hours ahead of me.
A long hour passed by as the kingfish swam up-current, pulling my kayak along as I attempted to put some line back on the Okuma ITX. After such a long run, I managed to gain enough line to see the leader for the first time. It was also the first time that I had the fish next to the kayak. It was the length of half of the kayak! I struggled to get its head or tail to the surface, in the hope of landing the beast. I needed another option and decided to try and land it from the beach almost a kilometre away.
Paddling backwards, I kept pressure on the fish as I nudged my way toward the sand. Although I was getting closer to the beach, the fish managed a rest and as soon as it noticed the shallow sands and its potential capture, it peeled off another 150 metres of Pulse 8X from my reel! Off again, I chased the fish out into the current and all the way to some shallow sand banks that were almost two kilometres from where I had hooked it!
Getting desperate, I cranked the drag up a few clicks on the ITX-4000, in the hope of putting enough pressure on the fish to turn its head. It worked… well sort of. The fish was no longer running out to sea and instead was hugging the bottom. As the kingfish tired and began circling around the kayak, a boat passed merely fifteen metres away and I signalled over to them to come to my aid.
Rob, an avid fly fisherman, was headed for home after a morning in the bay and he generously agreed to help land the beast of a kingfish. I jumped up on the front of Rob’s absolute weapon of a fishing vessel as he tied the kayak to the back of the boat. Line was still peeling off my reel, so we again began the pursuit of this fish. I notched the drag up even further, hoping that the suspected damaged 15lb Pulse X8 would hold up. Furthermore, the leader had been rasping on the sandpaper like teeth of the kingfish for over an hour and a half at this stage.
This was followed by twenty minutes of circle work and short runs. I hadn’t been able to get the fish higher than a metre below the surface. Without a net big enough or a gaff, tail grabbing the beast was the only option available. I wasn’t sure how much longer my line could hold up for. I clenched the drag down even further and lent into the power of the Cerros 5-12kg travel rod. Turning the fish’s head, with such light gear, was a nightmare. At the first opportunity Rob reached for the tail of the behemoth, however the fish wouldn’t give up and dove below the boat. A few minutes later however a second chance arrived and before I knew it a 50lb kingfish was lying on the deck.
I’d never pulled so hard on 15lb line! My FG knot had stretched so much that the braid tag had more than doubled in length. Deep in the throat of the kingfish was my Fly Half popper, with the three points of the trebles almost completely bent out. I had no hope by myself on my kayak and I couldn’t thank Rob enough for his generosity. Without him I would have never landed this fish.
This has taught me a thing or two about fishing and my gear. From now on all my reels are going to be spooled with Platypus Pulse X8. Along with this, the ITX range of reels and Cerros Travel Spin rods are some quality pieces of kit.
I’m still in awe of that day and it still feels like it never could have happened… but it did. With two hours of fight time, three kilometres of distance covered during the fight, and a 1.25m, 50lb kingfish caught on 15lb braid and 30lb leader!
Cheers, Jacob
Gear Summary:
Rod: Okuma Cerros Travel Spin Rod – CER-S-703H 7’ 5-12kg
Reel: Okuma ITX Carbon Spin Reel – ITX-4000
Braid: Platypus Pulse X8 Braid - 15lb
Leader: Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader - 30lb
Lure: Fish Inc. Fly Half 80mm Popper - Tidal Form