There is a version of topwater kingfish fishing that lives on social media, all calm water and explosive surface strikes. Anglers Jase and Sam spent several days proving how much hard work sits behind those few seconds of footage.
The opening evening was the stuff of the highlight reels. Working a reef edge as the sun set, the pair found kingfish feeding aggressively right around the boat. "Bag of a win, no waves, top water kingies. What more could you ask for, eh?" Jase said. Sharks intercepted a couple of hooked fish on the way up, but two kingfish made it to the deck and night one went down as a memorable one.
Then the fishing turned. The frantic surface activity vanished overnight, and the second day became a test of persistence. Snapper and a brace of cod offered some relief on the bottom, but the kingfish refused to play ball.
"We've now been casting for four and a half hours and still only have one kingfish," Jase admitted late in the day. "This is top water fishing and you've just got to keep casting." When a fish finally ate on the last-light bite, he drove the point home: "Five hours of casting for one fish is the reality of top water fishing. You don't just turn up."
The pair worked their lures to the conditions, starting with a lighter-coloured surface lure when the fish were looking up and switching to a darker 80g pencil popper once the sun was overhead and the silhouette became more important. Reading the light, and changing accordingly, kept them in the game on a slow day.
A running gag through the trip was a stubbornly unproductive cray pot, which kept coming up holding little more than a starfish. "We've deployed the starfish pot," Jase laughed after another blank lift, resigned to the idea of more echinoderms in the morning.
The final session never cracked open, yielding only a couple of dropped fish and a few sharks before the trip wound up. Yet that uncertainty, both anglers agreed, is the very thing that keeps them coming back to surface fishing. The reward is rare, which is exactly why it is worth chasing.
For anyone weighing up a topwater mission of their own, the takeaway is simple: be ready to cast for hours, and treat every fish that hits the deck as a genuine prize.