By Tournament Director Milan Radonich

We believed the Coromandel has been needing a really great fishing contest for years now and it has been a challenge that we, as organisers of KINGS OF THE COROMANDEL FISHING TOURNAMENT, were delighted to pick up.

With extensive local knowledge it was obvious, the middle of winter, when all the big kingfish move in, has to be the absolutle best time for the contest.

Coromandel has an amazing fishery and during the winter months the smaller fish move out into deeper water while big kingfish move in.

It is usually the time weather patterns settle down, the wind stops blowing and conditions are perfect for a fishing tournament!

We also decided we wanted a fishing tournament for serious anglers.

This is why we have no spot prizes, no average weights, and your ticket number will not win a boat in our fishing contest.

OVER $200,000 IN PRIZES

The Kings of the Coromandel is the fishing tournament to reward anglers for catching big fish with the main prize going to the person who catches the biggest kingfish over 100lbs.

Finding the most skilled angler is the sole focus of the KINGS OF THE COROMANDEL

Contest details at the bottom of this page

Below is a step-by-step guide on how to target really big kingfish around Coromandel. These kingfish techniques will also be relevant for the Hauraki Gulf

• Find your live bait
• Find your spot
• Stick a hook in the live baits back
• Place the live bait over the side of the boat and voila, a nice kingie.

(If it were only that easy to catch huge yellowtail kingfish we would all be doing it!)

37kg Spectra Braid (80lb) is a great investment for landing really big kingfish.

Seaguard Flurocarbon Trace works very well as it is invisible to kingfish.

80 lb B/S line is recommended.

I have spent many days live-baiting yellowtail kingfish in the Coromandel area around all the little rocks and small islands that jut out of the water and time and time again have come up empty handed.

My general rule of thumb now is to fish the big islands and the mainland.

I have found that these areas with stronger currents seem to hold most of the big kingfish populations.

After much exploring, we have cut out half the islands leaving only the bigger ones.

Around these areas it pays to try and find deep water with a bit of a pinnacle, most of them will produce fish but only at certain times of the day.

It's not uncommon to see the same fish every two to three hours and on the second or third sighting, after passing your bait several times and showing no interest, it will then decide to nail your live bait.

Finding this bite time is a must and keeping a kingfish diary could be very useful for this.

If you don't want to spend all day in one place, and once you've learned the islands, you can go from spot to spot knowing that the king fish will be there at certain times.

Also, I have noticed that the islands seem to hold large numbers of smaller fish while the mainland holds the bigger fish with fewer juveniles.

While most of the Coromandel mainland tends not to look as productive as the islands, personally I have caught 70% of my kings there.

Again I should stress, it's necessary to learn the times each point, pinnacle, or reef fishes well.

You should find that these bite times are pretty regular, so each time you go it should produce good fish depending on the tides.

I have also found that many of the fish in this area appear to be resident, if you fish a particular spot one day it sometimes takes two to three days for the fish to get back into their routine after being spooked.

When chasing kingfish I find it easiest to target bait fish first thing in the morning.

I have spent days pulling my hair out watching kingfish at the back of the boat knowing that if I only had a live-bait it would be all on.

I find it useful to have a range of baitfish such as yellowtail mackerel, yellow-eyed mullet, kahawai, squid and piper.

The last three are the ultimate kingfish bait. All of these should be easy to find in sheltered, still bays early in the morning, and the bigger the live bait the better.

You will need a live bait tank, a large one if you want a full day's supply of live bait, and with extra room if you want to keep kahawai alive. Make sure the water is well aerated in the live bait tank and change the water regularly.

Large live baits can be a problem to keep alive, and then only the big kingies will eat the dead baits, but then who doesn't want to catch a 80-100 pound kingie.

I must admit that all the big kingfish I have caught have been on huge kahawai or squid baits.

Once the live bait baits are swimming in the tank it is time to rig the baits. There are many ways to catch kings but the best way I've found is rigging with 2 meters of 80lb flurocarbon trace with a sampo game swivel one end and a Gamakatsu live bait hook at the other.

For rigging live kahawai I use a 7/0 live bait hook or bigger.

When using piper or yellow-eyed mullet live baits I prefer to use an octopus 6/0 fish hook as they are light-weight and don't drag the bait down as much as heavier hooks.

There is of course a lot of gear to choose from, but I believe the Gamakatsu hooks have a wicked hook up rate and don't break or bend like some other hooks do.

When fishing for yellowtail kingfish with balloons, I use small water balloons as I have found the wind drag on bigger balloons can sometimes put too much stress on the livebait. On very big kahawai I use party balloons.

I tie the balloons off on the top eye of the swivel as this will reduce the chances of tangles. Once the live bait rig is finished, place the hook just in front of the top fin and on an angle so that the barb is facing forward.

If there is low current piper live better being hooked in the anal area. The live bait is now ready to drop over the side and this is when the fun begins. The live bait is going to want to swim under the boat, around the prop, the boarding ladder, the anchor and around the other lines that are out.

Wait until you get one set in a nice pattern out the back of the boat before deploying the next bait.

I like to run two live baits, one out far and one in close, just to cover all bases. This is when some people give up on live bait fishing because it is necessary to keep an eye on both live baits. The moment you look away you can guarantee they will manage to find each other and twist up or wind themselves around some part of the boat!

This can be very frustrating but be patient and bear with it, it's worth the hassle! The best advice I could give is to target kingies and kingies only. Sometimes I fish a snapper rod as well but always remember that when the live bait gets struck, you are going to have to work fast. Fewer rods in the water will make life so much easier.

The hardest and most exciting part of kingie fishing is the strike. Sometimes they will just inhale the bait while passing by doing a million miles an hour. Other times they will come and try to scale your live bait and muck around before swallowing.

At this time all that has been read and learned from fellow fisho's normally goes out the window. The heart races and the palms begin to sweat. Generally at the strike I turn the ratchet off, the reel should already be in free spool, I thumb the line while counting to four, point the rod at the fish, push the reel into gear, wait for the line to come up tight and then strike the rod back as hard as I can - and pray that all the gear is in top order because this is when the fish hits high gear and the reel starts to scream.

This is the time to remain composed, the time to settle down and concentrate on playing the fish. Everything comes down to knowledge and experience. Praying hard that the fish doesn't get to the anchor rope or off into the rocks couldn't hurt either.

A handy tip is, if possible, play the fish while at anchor, I believe it is much easier to land them. There are many other theories out there, but only by trial and error will you find what is best for you.

I won't go on about line weights, reels and rods for targeting kingies, but I would suggest that you fish heavy line of around 24-37kg because you never know when that 100 pounder will turn up.

Even a 30-40 pound kingfish will still put you through your paces on this gear.

I've been using 37kg braid and find it works well and yet I still get peeled back and busted up into the rocks from time to time.

KINGS OF THE COROMANDEL is going to be "the fishing event" of the fishing tournament calendar, a fishing contest that should certainly not to be missed.

We invite you to join us at the greatest fishing tournament in New Zealand. "Kings of the Coromandel"

Regards

Tournament Director
Milan Radonich