Lakes Entrance Kingfish

[re-tyred]

I just finished smoking it, OMG, they taste good smoked. I am not sharing this with the neighbours. Tried a bit fresh fried yesterday , it was pretty good, but smoked is another class.

[PhilN]

Well done and thank you for the report. Like you, I have been after a targeted Estuary Kingy for some time and still haven’t cracked it. Offshore I don’t do so bad.
Appreciate the lure pic and the info. I’ve spent a lot of time trying lures in the Estuary and was starting to focus more on bait/livies. After your report, I’ll keep mixing it up

[Irishfisherman]

Hi Re-tyred, awesome fish, and great story to go with it! I’ve been wanting to try smoke fish and was just wondering what wood chips you use, and any other advice on the matter would be appreciated as well, like how long you smoke it for, etc. Thanks.

[re-tyred]

I have a smoker with a separate fire chamber.
Here is how I do it:
Fillet the fish. If it is Aussie salmon I skin it and bone it. The kingfish I skinned but left the rib cage in.
Soak the fillets overnight in brine that is a salty as sea water, with a table spoon of brown sugar in it.
Get fire going in smoker
I use charcoal plus a large chunk of dry hardwood. Once the fire is going turn down air intake so the fire has no flames.
Take fillets out of the brine, drain them and pat dry with paper towel.
Sprinkle olive oil and a little salt over them.
Place in smoker. Add a cupful of muskeet wood chips to the fire. Make sure smoke chamber is between 120 to 150c smoke for about 4hrs.
Add a bit of wood if the fire drops down. Use air vent to control fire.

[Nude up]

Nice work retyred I remember 20 years ago being tied up at barriers landing and 2 big kingfish cruised past I was surprised I didn’t realise that they were so prevalent in the system.

[re-tyred]

And another one today. Down at the entrance. They were chasing the salmon. This time my granddaughter caught it. Was just undersize so we let it go. She followed up with a 60cm salmon.

[Tackleberry]

G'day Mike did your granddaughter get the kingy the same way or did it hit a lure ......

[fishnut]

Well done mate sounds like you worked for it and had a ball

[re-tyred]

Kingy took the lure. Smacked it big time. Was a big patch of salmon there. Kingies were chasing them

[Redhunter]

That’s pretty cool Re-tyred! How big must some of those kingies be if they’re chasing 60cm salmon? Wow.
Have you tried any livies, either at anchor or trolling?