One of the lesser known species of kingfish that we catch along the South African and Mozambique coastline is the golden kingfish, Gnathonodon speciosus. This hard fighting species is one of my favourite fish to catch, giving a really good pull and always being a nice surprise to land.

Golden kingfish found from Northern KZN, up the East African coastline and around the Indian Ocean Islands. As juveniles they are a striking golden colour, with distinct vertical black bands down the sides of their body. Juveniles display piloting behaviour, often swimming with large marine creatures such as sharks and turtles. Small juveniles are frequently seen swimming amongst the tentacles of jellyfish as well, and are known to swim with divers, presumably for protection from potential predators.

As they grow larger their golden colour begins to fade, turning to silver. The dark bands also become very faded, and in some cases disappear altogether. Large adults often develop random black blotches on the body. The lips of this species are very rubbery and fleshy and the mouth is able to protrude out, in order to blow prey from sand as well as cracks and crevices in the reef.

Golden kingfish are generally a shoaling species, though large adult fish will often swim alone. They feed mainly over sand in the vicinity of offshore reefs at depths of 10m to 30m, but will move into shallow inshore environments at times and feed in water of 1m. Although they do not enter estuaries they are often found offshore in the region of large estuaries, where the brackish water moves over the reefs with the tides. Adults have no teeth at all and feed mainly on crustaceans blown out of the sand and filtered out using their gills. They do eat small fish, and will chase and attack a lure presented in front of them that imitates a small fish, prawn or squid, trying to flee. This species reaches a respectable size, growing to a length of 120cm and a weight of 15kg.

The most successful lure for catching golden kingfish is undoubtedly the bucktail jig. When this lure is allowed to sink to the bottom and then flicked up with a jigging action it is deadly for this species. Dropshots and flies also account for many golden kingfish, and this is clearly because all of these imitate small fish or prawns darting up from the bottom. I have found that plain white bucktail jigs, or those with a yellow tail have produced best over the years for some reason. The hit when it comes is normally very solid, followed by a series of hard runs with the fish staying down deep. There is often some head shaking during the fight, much like when fighting a GT. Golden kingfish do not purposefully try to cut the line off on underwater structure as some other species of kingfish do, and are clean but hard fighters.

Golden kingfish are diurnal feeders, meaning that they do most of their feeding during daylight hours. They are mostly caught from boats fishing around offshore reefs, and seldom caught from the beach or rocks in our waters. On some tropical islands and remote areas they are more likely to move close inshore and are caught by anglers wading or fishing from the side. This species is highly susceptible to gill netting, and has been fished out in parts of Mozambique where gill netting is practiced. Gill nets that are set over sand close to a reef sometimes catch an entire shoal of these fish in one go, which can be a very sad sight to behold.

 

 

 

When drifting over flat reef or sand a shoal of golden kingfish can appear on the fishfinder, looking like a big dense cloud below the boat. They seem to be attracted to boats and will mill around curiously below the boat for a minute or so, before moving off. It is also not unusual to catch a golden kingfish amongst a shoal of other species, particularly yellowspotted kingfish or even queenfish. From this, it would appear that goldens have a habit of joining in with shoals of other species from time to time.

I have had my best results targeting this species offshore over quite flat, featureless reef, with lots of sand patches in between.  I generally start my drift a good 200m up current of the reef and fish the sand all the way down onto the reef during the drift. This is quite pleasant fishing, as you don’t snag up on the bottom and can let the jig sink right down and even drag on the bottom for a while before starting to work it up. As this is generally a shoaling species, when one fish is caught, others are usually bound to follow. After landing a golden it is a good idea to take the boat back up and repeat the same drift, trying not to drive over the shoal on the way back up to the starting mark. This way a few good fish can be caught out of the shoal, before they move off.

The ideal tackle setup for this type of fishing is a nice light, yet strong jigging rod, such as a Shimano Trevala 6’6” medium heavy. This can be mounted with a good front drag spinning reel, such as a Shimano Stradic or Sustain in the 4000 to 6000 range. 50lb braid should be plenty strong enough to handle these fish and most others that you are likely to hook while doing this type of fishing. My braid of choice is the Power Pro, as it lasts so long without needing to be replaced. Bucktail jigs from a half ounce to one ounce are perfect, just check the quality hook and make sure that it is able to withstand good pressure before buying your bucktail jig or dropshot jigheads. It is worth spending a few more Rand on quality, than sitting on the boat looking at a bent hook and wishing you had. There is no need to use any wire leader when fishing for goldens, so if there are not a lot of king mackerel in the area, then rather don’t use any wire. I would recommend a 50lb soft leader such as Sufix Zippy, which is ideal for making good knots, and is an excellent all round leader for spinning.

Like any kingfish, goldens should be carefully handled when they are brought out of the water. Placing them on a wet surface, such as a wet towel helps to preserve the important slime layer on the body. They should be quickly photographed and then held in the water alongside the boat to recover before being released. If you are lucky enough to get into a shoal of golden kingfish, taking these few moments to ensure the wellbeing of the fish could make a difference to the future of the fish as well as to the experiences of future fishermen.