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. Penn Squall on Ally rod. Penn Battle on Squadron rod. - 1 - 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 Trolling leads. of the lure or bait and 8oz trolling leads on the Get yourself some Ande Mono 30lb or Power Pro 30-65lb. rods closer to the boat. Live Baits Lures and Baits for King Mackerel There are several live For years the way to catch kings was a duster rigged baits that work well. with a frozen cigar minnow. Most people trolled four The most common live Cigar Minnow rods; two on the surface and two down deep on baits are cigar minnows planers used to and herring. We rig the take the bait 15ft minnows on a Carolina to 40ft deep. If live bait rig. This is you choose to basically a 40-60lb wire fish this way, use leader, 18-36 inches Herring lighter colored long with a #2 treble dusters on the hood and a 2/0 single surface or flat hook to hold the bait line rigs and Use dark dusters when fishing deep. on. Hook the minnow darker colors on through the eye socket Hardtail the deep running with the single hook rigs on planers. To rig the through the eyes and planer run 12ft to 15ft of 100lb the treble hook in the mono behind the planer with minnows back about a snap swivel to attach the 3/4 way back. Threadfin Herring duster rigged with wire to that. 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. bait. These baits don’t Bluefish 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 quality size Ladyfish the spacing on your rods, put the two flat tournament lines the farthest fish. back behind the boat and the two To catch bait look just inside the pass deeper rods much and just outside the pass for schools closer to the boat. of bait fist flipping. Use a Sabiki rig to This way your rigs Sabiki rigs. catch the bait fish. Most of the time a will not tangle regular Hayabusa bait rig works great, when trolling a circle around Sometimes during a full moon the bait fish can be the reef or wreck. We rig the very finicky and difficult to catch. During this time Yo-zuri lures and leader. Yo-zuri lures with 5ft of 100lb you may need the Fluorocarbon Hayabusa bait rig to - 2 - get them to bite. One of the things most people hate it does not hurt to throw out a drift line. Most about catching bait is how to store the Sabiki rigs at anytime you are bottom fishing you should be in a the end of the day. I cut 4 or 5 pieces of pvc pipe 5ft good area to get king mackerel. long and zip tie to attach them to a leg of the T-top, I After the Catch slide the bait rig lead first into the pvc pipe and hook Once you have caught some kings, proper storage the last hook on the edge. This way the rigs does on the boat will make a huge difference in the quality not just stay tangled on the rod at the end of the of the catch later. Kings are one of the oiler fish and day. have a softer flesh. Most people would just throw it Downriggers in a cooler of ice. While this does a good job, it can During the help to make a small slit just under the pectoral fin hottest to bleed the fish out. Then, put the fish summer in a cooler that has a slush of ice and months the saltwater to keep the fish much colder kings will (the saltwater drops the freezing point bite all day, and makes the ice colder). but during Downrigger Kings are good fried and excellent the hottest smoked and made into fish dip. part of the day sometimes planers and trolling leads just don’t Also, don’t use too big a gaff, something get deep enough to get bites. When it gets this hot, with t 2 and not more than 3-inch hook a downrigger will works best for king mackerel. allow you to fish as deep as you need Smoked Fish Dip to get bites. Many First, soak fish overnight in a brine solution: days we find we need to be fishing • 1 cup salt Downrigger clip. • 1 cup brown sugar 50ft to 100ft deep to • 1 cup lemon juice get bites. You’ll need • 2 cups Ketchup to get a downrigger ball 8lb-10lb. The downrigger • 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce will come with a downrigger clip that you attach • 1 can beer • 1 tablespoon red pepper to the ball and the clip to hold • 2 or 3lbs fish your line. Most clips are spring Wash and dry fish, Smoke fish over hickory chips. Once you loaded. To adjust the tension have the fish smoked let cool and crumble the fish with your on how hard the fish needs to hands into a bowl and add: pull to release the line, place • 8oz sour cream it towards the front of the clip Downrigger ball. • 1 cup Duke’s Mayo for the least amount of tension • 1 large onion sauteed and further back on the clip to • 4 tablespoons pickle relish • Pepper to taste make it harder for the fish to pull. If you are trolling larger baits you may need If you like it kicked up a little dust the fish with Jerk Seasoning or Tony Chachere’s Creole seasoning before you to wrap a rubber band smoke the fish. around the clip to add extra tension. 850-837-3121 Drift Fishing for King halfhitch.com Mackerel Just for the fun of it, you can drift fish for kings with live or frozen cigar 850-337-8300 minnows. Also any time Rod holder mount. you are out bottom fishing - 3 -.