Yellowtail kingfish have a well-earned reputation as one of the most frustrating fish in Australian waters — brutally strong, structure-hugging, and perfectly willing to humiliate even well-prepared anglers. A recent offshore session out of Sydney, filmed by the duo behind the 2Blokes Fishing channel, was a near-perfect case study in both the heartbreak and the reward.
The plan was straightforward: drift over reef in light swell and offer kingfish a choice of baits, including a 10-inch garfish on a two-ounce jig head and strips of fresh squid jigged earlier that morning. "Big bait, big fish," became the running theme.
The reef had other ideas. Time after time, the pair hooked solid fish only to be busted off or reefed, losing leaders and lures in quick succession. "We've been absolutely railed, so I went and bought some bigger gear," one of them admitted after yet another fish parted ways with the boat. The losses stacked up, including one fish that pulled hard enough to leave them stunned before it dropped the hook.
Persistence eventually paid. After a long, cold grind, one angler hooked and held a genuinely big kingfish, fought it carefully away from the structure, and finally slid it onto the brag mat — a fish right around the magic metre mark, taken on a humble strip of squid fished on a 10000-size reel.
"I'm so happy that I landed that. I can't even speak," he said, still catching his breath. "On a strip of squid, 10K locked up on the Certate. Amazing."
The session wasn't finished. With confidence high and bigger baits going down — "strip of squid, bomb it on," as one put it — they hooked up again, and after another tense fight landed a second quality kingfish on the Certate and a Spartan jigging rod.
"We've been out here for so long trying to catch these fish and we finally landed him," one said. "Honestly, this is like the best session I've had."
For anyone chasing kingfish, the session reinforced a few hard truths. Fresh, locally jigged squid remains one of the most reliable kingfish baits going around; heavy tackle and quality leader are not optional when fish live in the reef; and the difference between a blank day and a memorable one is often simply refusing to leave.
As the pair turned for home — light on ice but heavy on adrenaline — the mood said it all. "You just got to be happy with what you've got," one shrugged. After hours of bust-offs and two metre-class kings on the deck, they were.