Some of the biggest kings you will ever hook will be within 10meters of the shoreline Chris. When slide baiting WITHOUT a non return slider ill always keep the rod low pointing at the water for a minute or two letting the live bait move freely down the mainline to cover more ground rather than clip on and set straight away back into the rod holder. Balloons are fine when no wind to offshore wind conditions are present but try sending one out into a stiff onshore (F###king pain in the @rse). Favourite slide baiting hooks either Gamakatsu live bait in a 6/0 size or Mustad 8/0 Hoodlums. IMO best live bait in the surf for kings have to be a 25 to 30cm yellow eye mullet. 50lb Stren fluorocarbon or Blackmagic tough similar weight ample over clean relatively snag free ground. I use big btr Longcast reels and the drags a modest 12kg odd but like Chad said and with plenty of experience my self in long drawn out battles that drag needs to be loose and your fingers need to be your brake, as kingfish are known for really big flashes of speed at unpredictable moments, and to avoid snapping them off if the drags too firm on light line this will happen. Give them too much line and they will run and run and run until that spools empty in no time at all. That is truly what makes these fish the most exhilarating surf caught species. It took me an hour and a half to land my pb 34kg fish on tested line of 6.8kg and that was an absolute un relenting battle to the end , which i will never ever forget. Get into them give it heaps!!