Winter Kings

If there is one observation i have made over years about fishing Sydney waterways is Botany Bay is by far the premier location as the mercury plummets. Just when other waterways are shutting shop for a few months as green cold water pushes in from the south, Botany begins to turn on the heat.

It's this time of year catching kings in the bay is our highlight. I know most pundits will say late spring and early summer are the prime times but rest assured winter in the bay is still kingy fever! The most appealing aspect of this winter focus is the depth of water we regularly catch these powerhouses. We regularly see kings busting up in less than 2 meters of water, herding whitebait tight to shore.

Admittedly there is only a short window of opportunity here as the kingys retrest to the safety of deeper water once the sun climbs higher in the sky. usually you will get about an hour to find the fish, figure out what presentation to use, then hook as many as you can till they fall off the bite. It's an adrenaline packed hour let me say that.

While i will refrain from marking an X on a map for you punters i will say that most of the kings have been taken over sand flats. While this is fairly cryptic, seeing as the entire bay consists of sand, i'm sure the crafty angler can join the dots. All that is required is your standard 2-4kg bream flick stick, 6lb braid and a hell of a lot of patience. The kings hit the afterburners real hard in shallow water. Probably seems to startle them and when they sense they are in danger in shallow water, far from thier ideal habitat, they freak out. What this ultimately means for us is line burning runs, a signing drag and disappearing braid off the spool. Dad got taken deep into his backing on the weekend and all i could do was laugh my arse off as he winced in agony. The kingy won that battle convincingly. The beauty of this fishery however is that its far from structure and occurs over sand flats, nothing for the vaunreable kings to do thier usual 'bust you up on anything they can find' routine.

Overcast days will prolong the bite and typically stickbait/Jerk Minnow type lures are the most successful. The usual size of the fish is decent. I wouldn't say im going to brake an IGFA record anytime soon but they are around the 70cm mark as an average.

So while some of you have packed your gear away with one eye on spring, reconsider, cause Botany Bay is still producing, and producing summer species in adbundance.