Spearos save the dates for these Kingfish Cup events
Thursday October 31st – Information night at Adreno Sydney
Saturday and Sunday November 9/10th – Kingfish Cup
Thursday November 14th – Presentation at Adreno Sydney
From Bird Island to Bass Point be a part of the biggest Spearfishing gathering around Australia.
More information to follow soon.
What is the Kingfish Cup?
The Kingfish Cup is about spearing a kingfish, over one weekend in Sydney’s prime Kingfish season, traditionally this is late October through November.
Where is it held?
“Greater Sydney” is the area entrants may enter. It stretches from Bird Island in the Central Coast to Bass Point in the South covering just over 250 kilometres of coastline. Weigh in Stations are at Adreno Sydney itself, Little Manly in Sydney Harbour, and Terrigal, on the Central Coast.
Who enters the KFC?
Such a wide-ranging demographic of both age, sex, and area. Going on recent years we are expecting over 200 spearfishers entering including sub juniors from 14 years of age right up to Grand Masters (over 65’s), Ladies entries have been strong (9 ladies competed last year). Divers come from as far as Queensland to fish the event. Those who are not competitively focused also fish the Kingfish Cup. We also get relative newcomers fish the Kingfish Cup some of which spearing their first kingfish in the event.
How does it work?
The USFA runs the event, Adreno Spearfishing and its partners are a big part of the Cup and sponsor the Cup, and we work with the Adreno Sydney team to make it the success this community event has become. Prior to the Cup, some 8 days before, we host a “get together” at Adreno – putting on some great food – one of our members creates amazing paella, we explain the simple rules, we have guest speakers (spearfishing gurus) that discuss kingfish habits and hunting tips, and this year we have some great scientific data being divulged on Kingfish by a team that is tracking fish via satellite. A great social night that includes several prizes being given out, for the attendees, and for the early bird registers, including one major prize (to be announced).
Since the running of the inaugural event in 2019 we have seen healthy registration numbers from 170 to well over 200 entrants, thus it requires a lot of organising from an efficient team. Entrants register online, they are given details of the event and how to “sign on” and “sign off” (any times between 0800 and 1600 you may fish multiple times on a day) on each day – (some entrants fish only one day) this lets organisers know who is in the water and importantly when they are back out – safety is paramount. On safety, the organisers also make the decision on postponing the days fishing if the weather is decided to be inclement.
The fish are weighed in at the weigh stations, we try to keep the weights discreet to build some atmosphere for the presentation night the Thursday following the event.
The event is ethical! Sustainable too!
Kingfish are in healthy numbers along Australia’s east coast. Take 2023, when we held the Cup over two days, we had 235 divers in the water for approximately 1343 hours, of the fish that were caught it worked out to over 83.9 hours of effort per fish, with an average weight of 9.5 kilograms per fish. Spearfishing is amazing.
Dates to remember!!
To kick off the biggest event on Sydney’s spearfishing seasonal calendar we host a social & information night to bring the community together under one roof to set the scene for the following weekends event.
This Kingfish cup was born out of necessity, a competition built to bring our communities together in a sustainable and ethically focused competition with divers from all around Australia participating. A competition driven by inclusion, from the most experienced to aspiring greenhorn learning the ropes and piecing it together. This is what spearfishing is all about. Mateship, adventure, respect for the fishery and healthy competition.
A Q&A panel with kingfish gurus such as Aaron Puckeridge, Derrick Cruz, Matt Poulton, Josh Ward, Artie Mensdorff along with past champion’s the night’s goal is to share experiences and knowledge around Sydney Spearfishing with a focus on the Kingfish species. Feedback from you has been requested on the science of this fishery, and we are giving this to you on the night, we have a very dedicated team who have been satellite tracking large Yellowtail Kingfish off our coastline and they are excited to be sharing their findings with us on the evening. An evening meal catered by the Paella King Rico, throw in some sensational door prizes for those in attendance on the night, and to those who early bird register for the Cup, the night is shaping up to be a ripper.
This social event will be bigger than the Cup itself!
Another fantastic social evening, where many of the entrants gather, again at Adreno Sydney Superstore, mingle and talk about the one that got away while enjoying some quality food while anticipating the results. Sponsors for the event are amazing and the 2023 event saw over $15 000 of prizes given out.
We look forward to greeting you at the next Kingfish Cup!
Common Name: Yellowtail Kingfish
Scientific Name: Seriola lalandi
Maximum Size: 250cm
NSW Record: 43.00kg
Range: QLD, NSW, VIC, TAS, SA, WA.
The famous “Kingy”! A much sought after species, the fighting qualities and sheer size of large Yellowtail Kingfish make them a prized catch for just about any spearfisher. Found around headlands, islands and occasionally in estuaries, any spot holding large amounts of baitfish near deepwater is a likely spot to see a Yellowtail Kingfish.
This species has “counter-shaded” body, with a greenish-silver dorsal surface, a dark stripe along the lateral line from head to tail, and a white belly. The yellow coloured tail stands out quite strongly underwater, and a good indication of large size is a relatively small tail. This species is confused with the Amberjack (Seriola dumerili) and the Samson fish (Seriola hippos) which have a similar body shape, but lack the yellow tail and have a dark stripe running diagonally through the eye.
Male Kingfish mature at around one year of age and 47cm fork-length, whereas females take longer to reach breeding age at 4 years and 83cm fork-length. This species spawns in the spring-summer period, the young fish stay well offshore until 40-50cm in length. Maximum age for this species is over 20 years.
Kingfish are often targeted using flasher or burley to attract the fish towards the diver. The best approach to get into range seems to be to simply wait for the fish to approach whilst hanging in mid-water. A speared fish will often be surrounded by other Kingfish, so a quick dive on a fish another diver has speared will often result in another capture. The recreational catch for this species is estimated to be between 120 and 340 tonnes per year.
THE KINGFISH CUP – A yearlong competition split into three geographical zones along the coast where each quarter divers submit photos and a 200 word story of their capture to the USFA. All entries will be posted online on our website and on the USFA Facebook Page. Great quarterly prizes and bragging rights will be up for grabs. There will be a Kingfish Cup shirt with iron on transfers available for divers to record their catches on their shirts as bragging rights. This is mainly aimed at the younger demographic who frequent the social media and aims to create friendly competition and all round traffic to the website.
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The spin offs for this will be the exposure the website and Facebook sites gain and the follow on quality information and resources we can then offer from that same site. It will also tie in with the sponsorship with the traffic justifying the support from suppliers for prizes. Long term archives will be created full of photos and stories which will in themselves be a drawcard to the site as the entries grow. This is just a brief overview, but we are not far off having everything in place for this program to go live!
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