After enduring a pink drought over the last month (high winds, north winds, cold winds, too cold, dodgy tides, dodgy baits, dodgy rigs or anything else I can reasonably hope to blame) we finally had a reason to smile.

King George have been a target for a long time but to date we have had no success. I think we have just been fishing the wrong ground (on top of near shore reef) but recently a MAAC member took pity on us following my incessant winging and whining about no KGs, and no clue about where to go, and “released” a few spots a bit further out. I had to give a “vow of silence” that I would never disclose these locations to anyone and immediately delete any reference to their transmittal, and deny all knowledge of where they came from. It is awesome how fellow fishos will help you sometimes in your hour of need.

Anyway, great conditions yesterday and by early arvo I started to receive a “barrage” of text messages from YPM about going out to try the spots – after all it is school holidays. I changed some meetings (got to look after the young ones!) and managed to get away early and to the ramp by about 4pm. A quick trip out, sounding and selection of the spots and we were ready to go.

My limited KG knowledge is that we did ok on filleted pilchards down at Busselton at Christmas so why not give that a go? What do you know, first drop and a nice KG hit the deck. The next hour was “quality” as skippy, small pinks, small dhu and evil devil fish moved in. It was bite time big time and we certainly enjoyed the “pick the fish before you land it” banter along the way (everything except KGs went back). After numerous catches by him, YPM finally came out with “this is a KG” as he is bringing it to the boat. Guess what, he was right and of course it was bigger than the one I got – and didn’t he let me know about it, and all of the fish I had missed that bit like a KG. It got dark, the fish went away and we were celebrating a lovely little afternoon session in perfect winter conditions.

We had to come back past our old trusty pink spot on the way in. We couldn’t resist stopping and having a go as a big pink would have topped off the afternoon nicely. No sooner had I thrown out the weighted floater the bait runner started running. It certainly didn’t feel like a pink and when it broke the surface near the boat I was sure it wasn’t (it was dark and we couldn’t see). All of a sudden, this 2kg Bonito turned up in the net – I thought you could only get them in the warmer months?

To me, this was the catch of the month as I think they are the best bait I have ever used but you can’t seem to buy them in WA – I have even looked at importing them. There is a real technique in preserving the flesh but everything loves a fresh chunk, particularly the pinks and tailor. Hopefully we can convert blue to pink in the coming weeks. 

First Metro KGs and a kilo of prime bait, what a great day.