Jigging big fish off southern Queensland and northern New South Wales over late winter and spring is not for the faint hearted
By Roderick Walmsley
I pulled the throttles back on the big Steber, RU4REEL, and, as she settled in the water, I turned my focus to my two sounders. The reef rose up out of 85 m all the way to 72 m at its peak and I could clearly see the defined arches on my sounder of the predatory fish marking up 10 m above the bottom. I smiled to myself as I put the engines in reverse to stop the boat and commence the drift.
With the sun well and truly up, the call was made to head for the 45 fathom reefs and this was to be my first stop. The heavy metal jigs were dropped over the stern and one of the guys looked up at me asking the question,
Rods creaking and muscles hurting! AJs, kings and samsons know how to hurt an angler!
‘They are there bud, you just need to keep them out of the reef.’
The jigging started and an angler hooked up with a grunt, quickly followed by another and yet another. Three out of the four jiggers had rods bent over. It was then a seesawing battle to keep the fish up and away from the structure. Once clear, the pressure could be backed off slightly to stop the hooks from tearing loose and the fish brought to the surface. Three good size kingies were soon flopping around the transom and I went down to give the deckie a hand. The fish were lifted into the boat, a few quick photos taken and then released to fight another day. After a round of high fives, I motored up to do the drift again. This is what springtime fishing around northern New South Wales is all about.
The colder winter months produce some pretty good fishing on and around the Gold Coast for general reef species. The current slows and opens up many of the deeper offshore grounds that hold some of the better quality fish. These also include some of the brawlers of the ocean from the Seriola family: namely the amberjack, samson fish and kingfish. They can be a frustrating by-catch for the average boater that is trying to secure a feed of tasty table fish, but are the prized target species of many sport fishermen that enjoy the spirited fight that these fish put up. The colder winter months are a good time to target these fish, but it isn’t really until around August and September that they fire up and show up in good numbers right across the deeper reefs.
Where and when
Amberjack and samson fish usually make the first appearance on the coast with many of the larger amberjack (upwards of 20 kg) showing up from as early as May and June. These bigger fish are extremely difficult to land due to their sheer power and uncanny ability to find their way back into the reef. As the cooler months progress, the smaller, school size amberjack often around 4–8 kg size start to frequent the deeper reefs followed by their brawling cousins, the yellowtail kingfish. Once September rolls around, most of the really hard ground on the 45 and 50 fathom reefs has the potential to hold some of these fish.
The reefs off the Gold Coast and northern NSW run almost directly from north to south or, alternatively, up and down the coast. These ribbons of reef can be sounded out with a quality sounder and once found, worked in a zigzag pattern until the nastiest part of the reef is located. This is generally where the members of the Seriola family like to hang out. Amberjack seem to prefer the slightly deeper water, while the kingies love the shallowest parts of the reef. They will also be clearly visible on your sounder marking up a few metres above the bottom instead of really close to the reef floor. Snapper also have the tendency to mark up a few metres off the bottom but don’t show off the same distinct and well defined markings on a sounder as the kings and ambers. If you are specifically targeting these larger fish, the key to catching them is to find them on the sounder first.
An organised quiver of jigging rods make life easier when the action hots up.
How to catch them
All of these species are predatory fish and will move around until they come across an area that holds good amounts of food to sustain them. They will hold here for as long as the food lasts and then keep travelling until they find more. If you have ever been to an aquarium that has kingfish you will see that they are constantly on the move and never hold stationary in the tank like many other species. Active fishing techniques therefore will always work better for them than inactive ones. For example, live bait will almost always outperform dead bait if rigged correctly. Probably the most popular technique to target the Seriola family is jigging with heavy metal jigs or soft plastics rigged on heavy jigheads.
When using live baits you can rig them on either a single or double hook trace, depending on how actively the fish are feeding. I use a 60–80lb sinker trace of around a metre in length. I run this up to a swivel off which I then run a length of 100lb mono of around a half a metre to my hook. The lighter sinker trace allows it to break if the fish catches your sinker in the reef. Once it breaks off you can then continue to fight your fish and hopefully land it instead of losing the lot. This is by far the most popular rig that we use for these fish because you know exactly when the bite is coming. The heavy sinker takes the live bait directly to the bottom, allowing the bait to swim a metre off. When a fish comes near your live bait you will immediately feel the bait get excited followed by the crunching hit. The target fish don’t have teeth like mackerel that can cut a bait in half, so they hit their prey head first and will often swallow it in one go. Due to this, the place to put your hook is in the live bait’s nose. This generally results in a positive hookup and the livey will stay alive for longer. If you do miss a few fish, then you can run a stinger hook in the back half of the fish for those tentative bites.
Jigging for these fish is an article in itself and has been covered quite comprehensively in this magazine. What I would like to add is the addition of soft plastics to the mix. It is not common practice to be fishing with soft plastics in water deeper than 70 m, but that is actually what makes them so effective. We will often do several drifts with metal jigs on our charter boat and, once the bite shuts down, will then change to soft plastic rigged on heavy jigheads of around 2–4 ounces. These will take longer to reach the bottom but have an enticing darting action that will catch fish when other techniques fail.
Weapons of choice when jigging for brawlers.
The fight
All of these species are very fond of the bottom and will try their level best to get you back in it once hooked. As soon as you hook one, you need to apply low rod angles and pile on the pressure to get them clear of the bottom. The key is to use short sharp cranks of the reel handle to get line back instead of long steady lifts as this will allow the fish to turn its head and, once they are facing back towards the bottom, it is quite often all over. Once you have the fish clear of the bottom and you are in control of the fight then you can ease off on the pulling power– but not too much as these fish will almost always fight all the way to the boat and if you give them too much of a chance will head back down to the bottom and win their freedom.
Fillet or release
Once you have landed your fish you need to decide whether you want to release it or keep it for a feed. If you intend releasing it then handle it with care, support the fish’s belly and try not drop it on the deck and let it thrash around. This will only lessen its chances of survival. Spearing the fish back into the water head first after you have removed the hooks is the best way as it floods water through their gills and they usually take off like a rocket towards the bottom. If it is a large fish and they are showing signs of fatigue, then you may have to put the boat in gear and swim them next to the boat. Hold the fish level in the water with a thumb lock on its bottom jaw. This will get the water flowing through the fish’s gills and help it to recover. If you intend to keep the fish then it needs to be despatched quickly. Spiking the fish in its brain will kill it humanely and quickly. It can then be bled and placed on ice. If the fish is allowed to thrash violently around the boat and is not despatched, the flesh will deteriorate rapidly and you will often find the fish quite unpalatable.
All the members of the Seriola family are great fun to catch and as you target them more, you will grow to respect the power of these fish. They are worthy adversaries on the fishing frontier and each one makes you earn the right to say that you won.
