Topwater fishing for kingfish is sold on highlight reels: a calm sea, a popper spat out, and a yellowtail crashing the surface in a shower of spray. The reality, as anglers Jase and Sam discovered on a recent multi-day boat-camping trip, is far more demanding.
The adventure opened with everything the pair could have wanted. Drifting a reef edge into the evening, they found kingfish stacked up and feeding hard, busting the surface around the boat as the sun dropped.
"Bag of a win, no waves, top water kingies. What more could you ask for, eh?" Jase said as the light faded on day one. Sharks taxed more than one hooked fish before it reached the boat, but two kingfish hit the deck and the session was logged as a classic.
Day two was a different animal. The bite that had been so generous the evening before simply switched off, and the pair settled into the long, repetitive work that defines surface fishing. Snapper and a couple of cod kept rods bent through the middle of the day, but the kingfish stayed scarce.
By late afternoon the tally told the story. "We've now been casting for four and a half hours and still only have one kingfish," Jase reported. "This is top water fishing and you've just got to keep casting. One more cast, eventually you might get one."
When a fish finally came on a last-light bite, the lesson was already clear. "Five hours of casting for one fish is the reality of top water fishing," Jase said. "You don't just turn up." Sam, who had ground out that single fish, summed up the trade-off: every whole fish landed is one worth celebrating.
The technical detail mattered too. Jase switched lures with the light, leaning on a white surface lure early when the kingfish were looking up, then moving to a darker pattern, an 80g pencil popper, once the sun climbed overhead and silhouette became the key. It is the kind of small adjustment that separates a blank from a bite when fish are scarce.
Running alongside the fishing was a comic subplot. Determined to add some crayfish to the menu, the pair set and reset a cray pot night after night, only to keep hauling it back with little more than a starfish for company. "We've deployed the starfish pot," Jase joked after another empty lift. "Hopefully we'll get another starfish tomorrow."
The trip never did get easy. A planned shot at kingfish on the final morning produced only a couple of dropped bites and a few sharks before the pair pointed the boat home. But that, both agreed, is exactly the appeal.
"Night one was epic with the kingies all up around the boat busting up," Jase said, reflecting on the run. "Yesterday, tough on the snapper. Still managed to get a few. And then Sam spent four or five hours casting for one fish. But epic trip."
For anyone tempted by the surface-fishing highlight reels, it is a useful reminder: the photos show the payoff, not the hours of casting that buy it.
