Fishing for King Mackeral

www.halfhitch.com • www.legendarymarine.com • 04-01-2014
Fishing for King Mackeral
Fishing for king mackerel is without doubt one
of the most popular types of fishing along the
Florida Panhandle. The kings usually arrive
in late March when water temps reach 68
degrees and stay until mid-November. They
are relatively easy to catch with some good
techniques. They can be caught trolling or
drifting. You can catch them on live, frozen
baits and with a variety of lures.
Where and When To Catch King Mackerel
We catch kings at depths from 20ft to 200ft deep. Kings like to hang out on natural
bottom, reefs, wrecks, edges and FADS. Kings hang out in any area that hold bait
fish. Kings bite throughout the day; exceptions to this are full moon times. On the full
moon, they bite best the first two hours of daylight, the last two hours of daylight,
and right in the middle of the day when the moon is exactly opposite the sun. On full
moon days, the mid- morning and mid-afternoon can be the slowest times of the
day.
Rods and Reels for King Mackerel
There are many options and no single one is correct. A mid-sized conventional reel
on a 6.5 to 7ft light to medium light rod works good. If using a spinning reel, outfit
with a 8000 size reel on a 6.5 to 7ft light to
medium light rod. If you are using mono line,
30lb is good. If using braid, 30lb to 65lb is
great.
Shimano Torium and Tallus rod.
Shimano Stradic and Tallus rod.
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Penn Squall on Ally rod.
Penn Battle on Squadron rod.
mono leader. We run
the small lipped lures
the farthest back and
deep lipped lures closet
to the boat. On the
farthest back rods, I run
4oz trolling leads ahead
of the lure or bait and
8oz trolling leads on the
rods closer to the boat.
Get yourself some Ande Mono 30lb or Power Pro 30-65lb.
Live Baits
There are several live
baits that work well.
The most common live
baits are cigar minnows
and herring. We rig the
minnows on a Carolina
live bait rig. This is
basically a 40-60lb wire
leader, 18-36 inches
long with a #2 treble
hood and a 2/0 single
hook to hold the bait
on. Hook the minnow
through the eye socket
with the single hook
through the eyes and
the treble hook in the
minnows back about
3/4 way back.
Lures and Baits for King Mackerel
For years the way to catch kings was a duster rigged
with a frozen cigar minnow. Most people trolled four
rods; two on the surface and two down deep on
planers used to
take the bait 15ft
to 40ft deep. If
you choose to
fish this way, use
lighter colored
dusters on the
surface or flat
line rigs and
Use dark dusters when fishing deep.
darker colors on
the deep running
rigs on planers. To rig the
planer run 12ft to 15ft of 100lb
mono behind the planer with
a snap swivel to attach the
duster rigged with wire to that.
Trolling leads.
Cigar Minnow
Herring
Hardtail
Threadfin Herring
When tournament
Today most anglers mostly
fishing most people
fish hard baits like Yo-zuri
move more to hardrails,
Crystal Minnows or live
bluefish or ladyfish for
Deep running planer.
baits caught on Sabiki Rigs.
Bluefish
bait. These baits don’t
Whether fishing
produce
the Yo-zuri baits or Live baits I would still
as many
follow the pattern of fishing two surface
fish but a
rods and two deep running rods. Instead
much better
of a planer I would use trolling leads. For
Ladyfish
quality size
the spacing on your rods, put the two flat
tournament
lines the farthest
fish.
back behind the
To catch bait look just inside the pass
boat and the two
and just outside the pass for schools
deeper rods much
of bait fist flipping. Use a Sabiki rig to
closer to the boat.
Sabiki
rigs.
catch the bait fish. Most of the time a
This way your rigs
regular Hayabusa bait rig works great,
will not tangle
Sometimes during a full moon the bait fish can be
when trolling a circle around
very finicky and difficult to catch. During this time
the reef or wreck. We rig the
Yo-zuri lures and leader.
you may need the Fluorocarbon Hayabusa bait rig to
Yo-zuri lures with 5ft of 100lb
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get them to bite. One of the things most people hate
about catching bait is how to store the Sabiki rigs at
the end of the day. I cut 4 or 5 pieces of pvc pipe 5ft
long and zip tie to attach them to a leg of the T-top, I
slide the bait rig lead first into the pvc pipe and hook
the last hook on the edge. This way the rigs does
not just stay tangled on the rod at the end of the
day.
it does not hurt to throw out a drift line. Most
anytime you are bottom fishing you should be in a
good area to get king mackerel.
After the Catch
Once you have caught some kings, proper storage
on the boat will make a huge difference in the quality
of the catch later. Kings are one of the oiler fish and
have a softer flesh. Most people would just throw it
in a cooler of ice. While this does a good job, it can
help to make a small slit just under the pectoral fin
to bleed the fish out. Then, put the fish
in a cooler that has a slush of ice and
saltwater to keep the fish much colder
(the saltwater drops the freezing point
and makes the ice colder).
Downriggers
During the
hottest
summer
months the
kings will
bite all day,
but during
Downrigger
the hottest
part of the
day sometimes planers and trolling leads just don’t
get deep enough to get bites. When it gets this hot,
a downrigger will
allow you to fish as
deep as you need
to get bites. Many
days we find we
need to be fishing
Downrigger clip.
50ft to 100ft deep to
get bites. You’ll need
to get a downrigger ball 8lb-10lb. The downrigger
will come with a downrigger clip that you attach
to the ball and the clip to hold
your line. Most clips are spring
loaded. To adjust the tension
on how hard the fish needs to
pull to release the line, place
it towards the front of the clip
Downrigger ball.
for the least amount of tension
and further back on the clip to
make it harder for the fish to pull. If you are trolling
larger baits you may need
to wrap a rubber band
around the clip to add
extra tension.
Rod holder mount.
Kings are good fried and excellent
smoked and made into fish dip.
Also, don’t use too big a gaff, something
with t 2 and not more than 3-inch hook
works best for king mackerel.
Smoked Fish Dip
First, soak fish overnight in a brine solution:
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1 cup salt
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup lemon juice
2 cups Ketchup
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 can beer
1 tablespoon red pepper
2 or 3lbs fish
Wash and dry fish, Smoke fish over hickory chips. Once you
have the fish smoked let cool and crumble the fish with your
hands into a bowl and add:
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8oz sour cream
1 cup Duke’s Mayo
1 large onion sauteed
4 tablespoons pickle relish
Pepper to taste
If you like it kicked up a little dust the fish with Jerk
Seasoning or Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning before you
smoke the fish.
850-837-3121
halfhitch.com
Drift Fishing for King
Mackerel
Just for the fun of it, you
can drift fish for kings
with live or frozen cigar
minnows. Also any time
you are out bottom fishing
850-337-8300
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