Capricorn Coast Shimano King of Kings

As promised last month, we are looking into everything that happened back in early February at the Shimano King of Kings Capricorn competition.

First, a big congratulations to all of the organisers, who put together an awesome event again.

This year saw record-breaking numbers, with plenty of new teams registering to be part of the fun.

One hundred team nominations were taken up without even breaking a sweat, so they opened up another 50 entries – which went like hot cakes and made this a sold-out event.

Keep this in mind for the 2025 event or you might miss out.

The weather forecast for the comp weekend was looking average.

A weather window did pop its head up on the Saturday for the anglers who were keen to run wide.

 

Our team Humminbird/Dobyns Rods, which consisted of myself, Luke Peisker and Matty Arnold, opted to stay in the creeks once more to chase barramundi and king threadfin salmon.

In this tournament, the rules are about as simple as it gets.

Whichever species you decide to target, your team needs to catch their biggest two and submit via the SCF app.

You take a photo of your fish on the supplied brag mat, with the length clearly visible.

The big $5000 prizes were giant trevally, barra and king threadfin.

And this year, another $5000 was added for red emperor, which evened up offshore and estuary species for the big money.

Plenty of smaller prizes were on offer for other species, such as coral trout, nannygai, cobia, flathead, bream, grunter, fingermark and more.

 

You were able to target as many or as little of the selected species as you chose.

Targeting more species would hedge your bets I guess.

The registration held on Thursday night February 2 was a busy one at Beaches Restaurant.

The parrilla was top notch for dinner and it was great to catch up with friends from near and far.

Once the business was over, all the teams headed home to get ready for two and a half days of solid fishing.

For day one, we opted to try for some big barra in Coorooman Creek.

It wasn’t a great choice because we ended the day with a handful of small cod and a fingermark.

 

Plenty of big barra were on the Humminbird Apex, though getting a bite proved difficult.

For day two, we headed out to Port Alma to try our luck.

It took us a while, yet we finally managed to get on the board with a beautiful king threadfin at 125cm.

It was looking like a tough-bite competition all round in the creeks and I hoped the offshore fishos were getting more action.

We spot-hopped our way about Port Alma until we pulled into an area that was crawling with barra and threadies.

Even though the sounder was loaded once again, they just swam around our lures.

I dug around in the tackle locker looking for the next lure to tie on, when I heard Luke grunt those sweet words, “Yep, on!”

 

I spun around to see a gigantic bucket mouth come crashing across the surface.

Luke did well and played the big barra out nicely.

Matty and I cleared everything out of the way and prepared for its arrival.

It was scooped up and swung onboard and, after high fiving each other, we laid it on the mat for a quick photo.

It was a new personal best for Luke at 123cm, which we were all excited about.

I took a quick glory shot before Luke put this beauty gently back in the water, giving it a swim.

The fish wasn’t out of the water long, so the recovery was quick.

 

We spot-hopped for the rest of the day and were able to put a bag in for both barra and threadies, with the next barra being 103cm and the next king 97cm.

Day three for us was short and sweet.

We scoured Port Alma and couldn’t manage any upgrades, so we pulled out early, went home for a clean-up and got ready for a few beverages and to find out how everyone had gone at the presentation.

The best thing about this comp, especially the presentation, is that you can’t walk more than a few meters without running into someone for a catch up or a yarn – it has a mint social side to it.

Once everyone was fed, hydrated and relaxed, the presentation started.

First of all, a big congratulations to team Pascoe Boys for taking out the barra category.

Our best two barra came in at a respectable 226cm, but Coby and his teammates (consisting of dad Liam and uncle Leith) came in at 250cm.

 

A tribute to Coby – he deserved this without a doubt, he’s a local big barra specialist and in a league of his own.

The thready crown was won by Reel Play with a total of 272cm.

Those are two giant threadies and a credit to what we know as the Rockhampton net free zone.

The newly introduced red emperor trophy went to a team that lives and breathes reef fishing – red emperor gurus, the Bats crew deserved this acknowledgement, with their two best reds coming in at 169cm.

The GT crown was won by Middle Water, with a massive bag coming in at 255cm.

There were many other winners, though far too many to list here.

Once again, a big thank you to the sponsors, Beaches Restaurant, the King of Kings organisers and the 2024 competitors.

It will be hard to top this year’s event, so I guess you need to ask yourself the question for 2025, which is “Do I have what it takes to be king?”