Thread: First kingie and my new softbait rig

Hey lads,
I don't think I've posted a lot of my fishing stuff up on this site, but my other main hobby (other than hunting/shooting/4x4ing) is fishing. My old man has a Surtees workmate 4.7 that's only a year or two old and I'm allowed the keys to this one so I try to take advantage of it as much as I can. The problem is he's up in Warkworth and I live in Pukekohe... probably close to an hour and a half away.

Anyway, I picked up a new toy yesterday after getting to use my old mans one. I went and picked up a little carbon fibre softbait rig. The rod weights 145 grams... nothing... and it's got a neat little reel using 15lb braided line (this is my first experience with braid). Braid is awesome, you can feel everything the fish is up to.

Set me back a couple hundie (plus all the other bits I bought)... but a man has to have his toys.





I've never caught a fish on soft bait, and to be honest that's not what I bought this for. I promptly put a normal swivel, trace, sinker an hook on. I see the guy on the ITM fishing show pulling in all the snapper on his light little shimano gear (it looks very similar to this) and I found out first hand how much fun fighting a big fish with light gear can be.

My dad, brother and I launched from snells beach and headed out to one of our spots. We pulled up probably 20, 30 or 40 fish each (most baby snapper) but got 6 keepers all 30cm+ (to be safe).



Something chased a bunch of fish around our boat at one stage as fish were jumping out of the water, then my rod and my brothers rod snapped over. We'd both hooked up one some big fish! My little softbait rod was not up to trying to manhandle a powerful fish like that, so I had to let the drag off and try to tire him out. After probably the best fishing fight I've had, I got the kingie to the surface and got him out of the water just after my brother had got his up.

My brothers kingie. They were both 600mm long. Too small to keep.


My first kingie. What a fight! I was so sure I'd lost him after he went under the boat... but I got him back.


Then I went home and made lemon pepper snapper for tea!

nice baitcaster setup handy for pinpoint casting,i used a similar set just used a gloomis rod instead fishing for barra in QLD.Nice fish aswell

Good skills Rimfire NZ

I'd love to hook into some small kingies on gear like that, even kahawai on light gear is fun but a rat kingi will go even longer.

Very nice, I very rarely take bait out with me anymore, I prefer the challenge and "active" fishing of softbait, I use a similar setup with a loomis & franklin rod and a curado 200 baitcaster with 14lb braid, once you have fished a good quality baitcaster you will never go back to an eggbeater!

Got a 19lb kingie on it in december, took 45 mins to land it!

Legend Spudattack. I don't know anything about soft baiting. My old man has never caught anything on his, and he tries most times we go out. So that's why I'm just using it like a normal rod. I know nothing about soft baiting personally.

A 45 min fight? Awesome. I spent probably 10 minutes but it was the best fight I've had yet. I loved it.

That's not a bad snapper there either.

Originally Posted by Toby

I'd love to hook into some small kingies on gear like that, even kahawai on light gear is fun but a rat kingi will go even longer.

Yeah Toby I hooked a couple of kahawai on my last trip but with a different rod. They can be a real fun fight too.

Originally Posted by RimfireNZ

Legend Spudattack. I don't know anything about soft baiting. My old man has never caught anything on his, and he tries most times we go out. So that's why I'm just using it like a normal rod. I know nothing about soft baiting personally.

A 45 min fight? Awesome. I spent probably 10 minutes but it was the best fight I've had yet. I loved it.

That's not a bad snapper there either.

Cheers, yeah the snap was about 8lb.

The best way I find is to set a drift, cast in the direction of your drift, give it heaps of line to let it sink (this is where a baitcaster comes into its own as you can feel whats going on with your thumb even in freespool,) and then retrieve slowly with little jerks. Others may have different techniques that work just as well but this is how I do it!
I use the Gulp Nuclear Chicken Jerk Shad almost exclusively but got thet kingie on a Gulp Firetiger.

Once the fish start coming it becomes the only way you want to fish, 4 years ago I was very skeptical of softbait but this season all my fish have been softbait, I don't even think i have baited one hook this year!

Originally Posted by Spudattack

Cheers, yeah the snap was about 8lb.

The best way I find is to set a drift, cast in the direction of your drift, give it heaps of line to let it sink (this is where a baitcaster comes into its own as you can feel whats going on with your thumb even in freespool,) and then retrieve slowly with little jerks. Others may have different techniques that work just as well but this is how I do it!
I use the Gulp Nuclear Chicken Jerk Shad almost exclusively but got thet kingie on a Gulp Firetiger.

Once the fish start coming it becomes the only way you want to fish, 4 years ago I was very skeptical of softbait but this season all my fish have been softbait, I don't even think i have baited one hook this year!

Alright I'll give it a go then. My old man has heaps of softbait gear, he just doesn't catch much on it. So I can pinch some.

Most of the time our bait doesn't even hit the ground (but they're mostly babies) so it's hard to try something new.

Skills spud