Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Bait-Fishing » Trolling Squid for Kingfish
Trolling Squid for Kingfish
By Gary Brown
While sitting at home, thinking about where I was next going to have a fish and what I was going to target, the phone rings.
Picking it up I see that it's Chris my son. "Yeah mate what's up?" I ask and Chris replies, "I have a day off next week and would like to go chase kingfish using squid. Would you like to go?" "Sure, whose boat?" was my reply.
Chris replied, "Yours so that I can see how your new Lowrance 12-inch HDS Live sounder goes... and can you go a get the live squid as I can't get there until 9.30am and I have to leave by lunchtime." Kids! They don't ask for much. Not a problem I thought as I had the boat, sounder and best gear available to do the job.
Having launched at 7.30am, it wasn't long before I reached a spot in the Port Hacking River, where I had caught squid before. Talk about tough! It took me an hour and three-quarters to catch five squid, while using two rods at the same time.
There are plenty of different techniques to catch squid. You can cast out, allow the squid jig to sink few a few seconds and then start a slow retrieve. Another option is to allow the jig to sink and then lift the rod, causing it to swim up and then lower the rod tip so that it sinks again.
It took me a while to work out what technique the squid wanted. All I did was check the depth on my Lowrance sounder and cast out a Fish Inc. Egilicious size 3.0 squid jig, about a metre or two further than the depth I was drifting in. I then stuck the rod in the holder and allowed the slow sinking squid jig to drift down to the bottom. The Egilicious jig's buoyant, 'tail up' design kept the Owner squid jig hooks pointing upward, increasing the hook up rate while minimising snagging and fouling.
With my other rod, I cast out wide of where I was drifting and allowed the squid jig to sink to the bottom. It was then just a matter of winding in the slack line as I was drifting towards it. This would allow the Fish Inc. Egilicious jig to sit on the bottom for about ten seconds or so. While doing this I was keeping a careful eye on the other rod in the rod holder. Some of the squid takes were just as I lifted the jig off the bottom, while others were as it was just sitting there with its tail pointing upward.
After picking Chris up at the ramp at 9.30am, we headed to spot number one to start slow trolling the live squid on a Poor Man's Downrigger. A Poor Man's Downrigger is just a large barrel sinker that runs down onto a swivel. The leader is then about 1.5 metres in length. This allows you too not have the sinker right at the tip of the rod while trying to net a fish.
When starting off you lower the rig and bait to the bottom, put the rod in the rod holder and then put the motor just into gear. As you move along you will see that the line angle will change and it will start to rise towards the surface. When this happens just put the motor out of gear and allow the rig and bait to sink to the bottom. Keep on repeating this process until you have a hook up.
Whether using a whole live or dead squid, I always use a sliding snooded rig, instead of a fixed one. This will allow me to adjust the distance between the two hooks, keeping the squid looking as natural as possible. Nothing is worse than having a lovely whole live or dead squid slide down the hook and form a spinning bunch at the end.
If the squid that you are using is alive, you will need to make sure that you don't kill it. The top hook is pinned through the soft backbone and the bottom hook is then placed through the shoulder of the hood of the squid, ensuring that it's in the centre to stop the squid from twisting.
If the squid is dead, the bottom hook needs to not only go through the hood, but the centre of the head as well. For this rig the top hook will be two sizes smaller than the bottom hook and will have straight eye and no offset. The hooks that I am using lately are Black Nickel Circle Hooks in 6/0 and 8/0.
Chris and I had no luck at spots 1, 2, 3 and 4, however at spot 5 everything came together. On the first pass with the current, over a drop off, the Okuma 5500 Azores Blue threadline, that was mounted on an Okuma Azores Z-S-702M 7' 8-12kg rod, came to life as the first of seven kingfish for the day tore line off the reel.
I have never seen Chris move so fast as he leaped from the driver's seat, over me, to take the rod out of the rod holder and tell me to drive the boat away from the shore. As Chris doesn't get out as much as me, I didn't mind. It wasn't long before the 68cm kingfish was in the net. After a few high fives all around the kingfish was put on ice in the kill tank.
As we travelled back up current, we rigged another squid and started the same slow trolling, with the poor man's downrigger, back over the drop off. The same thing happened and Chris grabbed the rod before I had a chance (what you do for your kids) and started telling me to drive out to the deep water. As I did this the other rod screamed off. Now was my chance as Chris was busy with his fish.
After a bit of kingfish dancing, back and forth, we landed a 72cm and 75cm kingfish. Not bad for only our second run over spot 5. Two more trolls over the same spot produced four more hook ups. Two more legals were landed and released and the other two failed to hook up properly. As the tide stopped and then turned the fish went off the bite. It didn't really matter as we had now run out of squid.
So, in three hours of slow trolling the Poor Man's Downrigger, Chris and I managed seven kingfish strikes, five landed legal kingfish on 5 whole squid. We were able to reuse one of the squid a couple of times, even though it was smashed.
For more information on how to rig live or dead squid check out Gary Brown's Essential Bait fishing rigs by clicking on the following link. Fish on!
Gear List:
Fish Inc. Egilicious Squid Jigs
Okuma Azores Spin / Jig Rods - Z-S-702M 7'0" 8-12kg
Okuma Azores Blue Spin Reels - Azores-5500