Winter Kingfish From a Kayak 2026

Winter has well and truly set in here in Hawke’s Bay — cold water pushing up from the south with the seasonal shift. On the east coast, most of our snapper and kingfish thin out and head for deep water once the temperature drops.

But on select reefs, some fish opt to winter over. With the abundance of food sitting around these pieces of foul, targeting these spots can produce far better fishing than most locals realise.

On the 3km paddle out, I got a decent idea of what the fishing was likely to be like. The sounder was marking lots of small baitfish and kahawai — plenty of it on the surface too, with kahawai rounding up breakfast as I went.

The target for the day was John Dory. While I waited for a perfect bait, I anchored on a weed-line and worked the other species that call the area home — blue cod, tarakihi, snapper.

The first spot had an overabundance of kahawai — double hook-ups, relentlessly. I had to move on to give the other fish a chance. After three moves and not much luck besides a fluked gurnard on a chance bit of bottom sign, I headed out to a favourite pin where I’ve pulled crayfish off the hook before.

While setting up to anchor, I drifted over a massive, tightly packed stack of bait — a strong sign predator fish weren’t far off. I pulled a mackerel out of the school and sent it back down on a 6/0 through the nose, aiming for a JD near the bottom.

First hook-up off the reef came on the ledger rod. Heavy weight, barely any movement — thinking crayfish, I got the net ready as it rose. Sure enough, a beautiful cray appeared, hooked cleanly in the front claw. A welcome addition to a very thin-looking fish bag.

As the current picked up, I moved to the down-current side of the rock, working broken foul and sand patches. Kahawai stayed constant here too, but thankfully left my livebait alone — until a couple of big whacks went through the rod. I was hoping to finally tick the local John Dory. Instead the rod doubled over and line burned off the reel at an alarming rate.

At the same moment, a double of kahawai hit the ledger rod. Smoking livebait on one side, tangle risk on the other — priority one was getting the unknown fish under control before it reached the anchor. I detached just in time to avoid disaster.

Once the anchor was set and the current pushed me clear of the reef, I could focus on keeping the fish away from anything it could bust me off on. With the runs slowing, I burned the kahawai in on the other rod to remove that risk entirely.

The baitcaster put in a valiant effort keeping the fish out of the bottom, and steadily I worked it up through the water column until I finally saw what was on the end. Kingfish — and a good one. Two more runs and he was beside the kayak.

The gaff went in and the fight was over. A June kingfish is a rare catch given the low water temperature and usual lack of bait, but today was the day to be out there. After a quick bleed, the fish went into the bag — tail sticking out the end.

A few more trevally came through between kahawai before I headed for shore. One last drop on a rock on the way home produced another suspected kingfish — it tore me to shreds in seconds.

Overall, a fast day across all sorts of small gamefish, with a couple of genuine surprises thrown in.