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Bite Compass
Shore / Reef

Yellowtail Kingfish

Seriola lalandi

Powerful pelagic that pushes through Cockburn Sound and along the coast in summer. Occasionally taken from rock walls and long jetties on live bait or stickbaits. A genuine land-based trophy when it happens.

Size
Up to 50kg, commonly 5–15kg
Peak season
Dec–Apr
Minimum size (WA)
60 cm
Bag limit (WA)
3 (shared large pelagic finfish limit)

Overview

Yellowtail kingfish are Perth's hardest land-based prize. These powerful pelagics push through Cockburn Sound and along the coast from December through April, and the chance of hooking one from the rocks or a jetty keeps serious anglers coming back. A land-based kingy of any size is a genuine trophy — and a reliable way to discover the weak link in your tackle.

Identification

Also known as Kingie, king, hoodlum (big fish), rat kingie (small fish)

Long and torpedo-shaped, blue-green above with a brassy-yellow stripe running the length of the flank and a bright yellow forked tail. The lookalike in WA is samson fish, caught in exactly the same places and hard to pick at speed: samsons have a much steeper, blunter head and show dark diagonal bars when they're fired up, and their yellow is duller. Kingfish have a cleaner yellow stripe and tail and a more pointed head. Amberjack are another lookalike out in deeper water. Note that 'yellowtail' on its own usually means yellowtail scad — the small bait fish — not a kingfish.

How to Catch

Best Baits

Live bait (herring, yellowtail scad, mullet), whole squid

Lures

Stickbaits, poppers, large soft plastics, metal jigs

Rigs

For live bait, a sliding float rig or free-lining setup with an 8/0 circle hook and 60–80lb leader. For lures, a heavy-duty spinning setup with PE3–5 braid and 60–80lb leader. This is no place for light tackle.

Technique

From rock walls and long jetties, fish live bait under a float or free-lined into areas where kingfish patrol. On lures, work stickbaits and poppers along rock walls and reef edges early in the morning. When a king hits, you need to turn its head immediately — any hesitation and it'll reach the structure. Be prepared for a long, powerful fight.

Best Time

Daylight from December through April. Calm, clear days when you can sight-cast to cruising fish are ideal. A tide that pushes bait close to structure is a bonus.

Size & Growth

A land-based Perth kingie is most often a 60–90 cm 'rat' of 3–8 kg, which is still more than enough to strip line and break things. A good one is over a metre and 15 kg; the 50 kg headline maximum is a boat fish off deep structure and not something you'll see from the moles. They grow fast in the first few years and live well past a decade, so the big ones are old fish worth releasing. Be realistic — most land-based kingfish sessions end in a bust-off around structure rather than a fish on the rocks, which is much of the appeal.

Diet & Habitat

Kingfish chase squid, pilchards, herring, scad, garfish and mullet, hunting in packs and pushing bait against structure and the surface. They hold around deep rock walls, reef edges, jetty pylons, wrecks, bommies and current lines, from the surface down past 50 m, and are constantly on the move rather than sitting in one place. In WA they're found from the south coast up the west coast to about the Gascoyne, with Cockburn Sound, Rottnest, the Fremantle moles and the Kwinana jetties producing the metro fish through summer. Warm, clean blue water pushing inshore is what brings them within casting range.

WA Size & Bag Limits

Minimum size 60 cm
Bag limit 3 (shared large pelagic finfish limit)
Counts toward Counts within the statewide large pelagic finfish mixed daily bag of 3, shared with mackerel, tuna, samsonfish and wahoo. WA's general finfish possession limit applies; there is no kingfish-specific one.

Yellowtail kingfish fall within the statewide large pelagic finfish mixed daily bag of 3 (shared with mackerel, tuna, samsonfish, wahoo and the like). Minimum size: 600 mm. Possession limit applies.

Last checked . Limits change — confirm with DPIRD before you fish.

Eating Quality

Good eating — firm, pale flesh with a slightly oily richness sitting somewhere between snapper and tuna, and a dark bloodline worth cutting out. It must be bled immediately and iced hard; an unbled kingfish goes strong and metallic fast, and that's the single biggest reason people say they don't like it. Smaller rat kings are milder and better cooked; bigger fish are richer and are the ones worth eating raw. Excellent as sashimi when handled properly — it's the same fish sold as hiramasa — and very good seared rare, grilled as thick cutlets, or hot-smoked. Big kingfish often carry parasites in the flesh, so check the fillets before serving anything raw. It freezes acceptably bled, skinned and vac-sealed, but the sashimi quality is gone; freeze it for the grill, not the knife.

Where to Catch Yellowtail Kingfish

Alcoa Jetty (Kwinana) Ammo Jetty (Ammunition Jetty, Woodman Point) Busselton Jetty Cape Naturaliste (Dunsborough / Bunker Bay) Carnarvon (Town Beach / Babbage Island / Quobba) Coral Bay (South Ningaloo) Denham (Shark Bay) Exmouth (North Ningaloo / North West Cape) Geraldton (Fisherman's Wharf / Separation Point) Hamelin Bay Hillarys Boat Harbour Houtman Abrolhos Islands (Wallabi / Easter / Pelsaert Groups) Jurien Bay (Jetty & Marina Walls) Lancelin (Jetty & Back Beach) North Mole (Fremantle) South Mole (Fremantle)

Guides Featuring Yellowtail Kingfish

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