working stickbaits

[Sam Beeby]

I'm fishing saltiga 85g sinking sliders admittedly for kingies. Just curious how slow you guys fish them. If I give it a moderate flick, it'll stay more or less upright but slew randomly off to the side - i'll let it sit neutral for a while before I twitch it again. Looks enticing - Problem is it all just feels too slow for kingies. If I speed things up and flick/rip a little harder the sliders will start to roll onto their sides. Is this ok in your experience or does that indicate that I'm overdoing it? Is it really a matter of this flick - take up slack action or can you also do a straight jerky retrieve like with a minnow? Whats working for east coast kingy hunters!!!!

[Brandon Khoo]

sam - I'm a gumby on kinigies so I'm about the last person here who should be giving advice on how to catch them but something doesn't seem right about your lure. It rolls to the side?    I think there may be a fault with the lure!

[Andrew Poulos]

Sam,

I chase kings as well around Sydney and am experimenting with stickbaits. I have the same saltiga dorado(85gm) plus the smaller ones too.  I used the smaller floating version and it did waddle and roll around alot . I guess it mimics a wounded fish. Works on sambos, and Im guessing will on bonnies too. Havent tried my sinking one yet.

I have also used floating runbohs and sinking orion bigfoots. The spot I used them, you can see the kings come up. On the orion, it swam up to it, but then turned at the last second. I have feeling it saw the line as it wasnt flurocarbon. But will be using fluro when slow working these types of lures. I havent had a chance to play around with all the lures and experiment to see what speed works best . They can be a frustrating type of lure if you can see it and are waiting for it to sink a bit before some swell rolls in. I have a fair few different types now and will be taking more and more with me now that the kings are coming on stronger in numbers.....

[Greg Burt]

My Saltiga Floating Sliders do the same [darts and rolls] which I think looks like a wounded fish, a slow working stickbait not built for speed. The Shimano Oceas are very similar although the Floating Slider is a slow sinker, the Ocea floats on the surface.

[Sam Beeby]

I've found that if you put on a heavy guage middle treble/ring and single on the rear, that the ocea floaters become neutral/sinkers with a really good action and the ability to still be skipped. The saltiga dorado sinkers are a lot more neutral in the water than I thought they'd be. Yeah dunno - thinking that the kings will get far too long to scrutinise them  because they don't like to be ripped at and retrieved quickly.