# Is there a good kingfish fly?



## Saltyfly (Dec 13, 2008)

I have hammered the kings this year on conventional, but they have eluded my fly on every trip. I have thrown my fly arsenal at them only to have them get within two feet and turn their nose. I have tried different stripping methods and flies to no avail. Any kingfish fly experts out there willing to give up the goods?


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## luna nueva (Jul 4, 2007)

Did you try something like those Barracuda flies? Rope with a couple hooks on it? I would think that tied with alot of flash stripped as fast as possible might do the trick. One of my goals is to catch a king on fly one of these days. Never thrown flies offshore before.


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## Mustad7731 (May 23, 2004)

*Fly Fishing for Kingfish*

First off I'm not a Flyfishing Guru....I remember seeing an magazine article years
ago talking about "Kingfishing". They had a part of that article that specifically 
suggested fishing for Kings with Bass Wt fly tackle...They said that the drag on
the fly line was sufficent to wear them out...They suggested a "Plain White" fly...
I don't recall how they suggested to retreive...I'd guess as fast as possible....
Good Luck...
Mustad7731
Jackie


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## Bird (May 10, 2005)

I have used blue/white and red/white deceivers with 6" 30lb titanium leader with good success. A lot of times when trolling with conventional tackle and reeling a schoolie sized king to the boat, others will come up with it giving the perfect opportunity to make your fly cast. I use an 8wt with an intermediate or sink tip line. The fish are usually pretty lit up so a few good fast strips and hold on. You could also get pretty good around a shrimp boat I'd bet.

One quick note of caution, get the fish to the reel quickly they will burn the slack line laying on deck or in your stripping basket fast. Good way to loose the fish if the line snags something or give you a whopper of a cut if the line get around a finger or toe.


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## Privateer_01 (Jul 14, 2004)

*Long Clouser*

My experience is if you find them eating they will hit anything resembling a fish. Try a sparsely tied clouser left longer than you usually would leave it, like 6 - 8" of so. Use wavy synthetic if you have it instead of deer hair, and it might last more than one fish. Don't forget the krystal flash!


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## oddfly (May 10, 2007)

*Kingfish fly*

I used, quite succesfully a red and yellow fly called a reducer. Look in the Umpqua catalog for an image. You will have to tie it in that color combo yourself. 
It took a 16 lb. king, and a 29 lb. king! So I am hooked on it!


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## Sharkhunter (May 22, 2004)

a big ol bunker type fly in granny smith green tyed on an owns hook. Don't go cheap on the hooks..


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## THE JAMMER (Aug 1, 2005)

Check out the Oct/Nov 2006 issue of Saltwater Fly Fishing and you will see a 6 page photo essay on flyfishing for kingfish done by famous photographer/author Tosh Brown. It was done on my boat with me and Chris Phillips. Pages 24-29. Take a look at the chart/white clouser in the mouth of that kingfish on pp 24 and you will see the go to fly for catching kingfish. I think we caught 6-8 kings that day, and had a lot of fun. All three of us caught fish.

The secret is heavy sinking lines and a chum line. The last fly fishing charter I had we were able to get our flies down deep enough to catch two keeper snapper in 90' of water. We also hooked up to kings at least a dozen times for two fishermen.

Chart/ white clouser and all white clouser in about 1/0 - 2/0 with heavy sinking eyes. You need to get them down. On page 26 of that article you will see the majority of the flies in my stretcher are those clousers. I pre tie them with AFW 7x7 wire, about 18", with a homer rhode to the fly, and a surgeon's loop on the other end. Therefore changing out flies is a simple loop to loop change.

Best of luck- there are lots of kings out there, and if you like, I'd love to take you.

THE JAMMER


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## Saltyfly (Dec 13, 2008)

Looks like I need to make some large chart/white clousers. I have some runs planned out of Packery over the holiday weekend. I truely appreciate the insight and experience ya'll are sharing. Its obviously tough to toss a heavily weighted fly with a 700 grain line. Do you just toss it short and let the current pull the line out into the slick and start stripping at a predetermined lenth, i.e. 100 ft?


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## THE JAMMER (Aug 1, 2005)

You don't cast lines like this, you lob them. Just kind of lob them in the direction you are drifting, and then use a water haul (just wiggle the tip of your line close to the water) to get more line out as you drift past where the fly actually landed, and if you do it right you can get out almost the entire fly line. Let it string out behind you as you drift further, and then strip it up through your chum line. BAM.

THE JAMMER


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## Huachele (Apr 19, 2009)

I will second the clouser in White, Chartreuse or White/Chartreuse, all with a lot of flash. Since I don't like dredging I use an intermediate line and cast to sighted fish that are coming to the chum. I have caught kings, smacks, amberjack, wahoo, snapper, ling, red fish, dorado, and other less desirable fish using this method. Yes, they will all come to the surface where you can sight cast to them.

If fish are not coming up you can always troll your fly.


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## THE JAMMER (Aug 1, 2005)

TROLL YOUR FLY ????? Please say it ain't so. HERESY!!! WHY BOTHER??

THE JAMMER



Huachele said:


> I will second the clouser in White, Chartreuse or White/Chartreuse, all with a lot of flash. Since I don't like dredging I use an intermediate line and cast to sighted fish that are coming to the chum. I have caught kings, smacks, amberjack, wahoo, snapper, ling, red fish, dorado, and other less desirable fish using this method. Yes, they will all come to the surface where you can sight cast to them.
> 
> If fish are not coming up you can always troll your fly.


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## Huachele (Apr 19, 2009)

The trolling comment. It was sarcastic.

Blind casting a sinking line aint exactly fly fishing either.

However, when you have spent the time and effort to catch a fish I'll do what it takes. Troll, blind cast, maybe even tip the fly with a little bit o'chum


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## THE JAMMER (Aug 1, 2005)

I knew you were kidding. So was I. But I will have to disagree about the blind casting comment. If that's true then every trout fisherman out there who nympns for trout would come under that category, and I would submit that there is as much if not a lot more skill in becoming a good nymph fisherman than there is to becoming a great dry fly fisherman. I can't tell you how many times I've fished the San Juan river, and watched people just on the other side of the run I'm fishing (15 ft away) fish for 2 hours without catching a fish, while I catch one every 5-10 minutes. And that's using the same fly-- " a little brown one" LOL

I agree there's nothing like sight casting to a nice mahi, but I can't say I've ever sight casted to a kingfish. I've always had to bring them up with chum or whatever.

Bottom line- IT'S ALL FUN, RIGHT???

THE JAMMER



Huachele said:


> The trolling comment. It was sarcastic.
> 
> Blind casting a sinking line aint exactly fly fishing either.
> 
> However, when you have spent the time and effort to catch a fish I'll do what it takes. Troll, blind cast, maybe even tip the fly with a little bit o'chum


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## Huachele (Apr 19, 2009)

My point exactly. Catching is more fun than not catching and I'll do what it takes. 

The most exciting in my opinion is sight fishing. Second is throwing to where you see or have seen fish or signs of fish or to a target where a fish might be.

That would be sight fishing and it close relatives. Which includes seeing fish darting through your chum. 

Nymphing would be blind casting but a distant cousin of dredging. Where you pay out a bunch of line and strip it back to the surface.

Either way its fishing:cheers:

Since we have hijacked this thread let me conclude by stating a clouser in chart/white, chart or white will work for all of the aforementioned technics with the exception of nymphing and dry flying.


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## crhfish (Dec 3, 2008)

My first post to the fly fishing board. I have used a drinking straw as a fly for both Spanish and kings. Take about 14" of 30# wire and slip 3 to 4 inches of McDonald's drinking straw over it. Then crimp on a treble hook. The hook obviously holds the straw on. If they are in the mood, they will hit anything white that hits the water. You can use this same rig behind a cork with conventional and its deadly for spanish. Cheap and easy to make.


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## Huachele (Apr 19, 2009)

Excellent idea!!! I will be making some of these for cuda.


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