Well, the 4th came and went with no surprises in the marina. I really was expecting more mayhem over the weekend, but thankfully there was none. I stayed off the water on Friday other than a short night run out to watch the fireworks with my wife and son. The holiday traffic definitely stayed the weekend, as it was practically bumper to bumper this morning at the bait flat. There were so many boats I decided to mix it up a bit and headed to the outside.
The ride out was calm and uneventful. My first few stops were only about 5 minutes because of the number of boats circling, running, drifting, trying to anchor, etc. I finally located a nice little piece of water I could call my own. Unfortunately the big schools of Bonito I usually like to play with (and save for some super shark bait) were not around today, so my focus was Kings. I dropped back the first rod, and could not get the second one set before I heard the sweet sound of success….ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Boy Kings sure know how to do it right don’t they?
I spent about 4 hours working the same general area with large (12″ or so) live baits with single hooks, always in the nose. I am not a huge fan of the treble stinger because I really don’t think it is necessary with these larger fish, and I think it might even cause fewer strikes. After all this is fun fishing anyway. I managed to boat 15 Kings to about 40lbs and lost a bunch. I had several eaten, presumably by sharks and/or Goliaths. Its hard to tell when you don’t get any parts back! I released all the kings except 2 that I kept for shark bait (boy do Tigers love their Mackerel.) I was a bit bummed that my little bonito didn’t make an appearance, I do love playing with them on my 10lb Snook rods. A 15lb bonito will give you a 45 minute run for your money on that gear.
If you are looking for Kings this time of year there are two things to look for: 1) Bait 2) Bait. Anywhere you find a large concentration of bait offshore, usually around structure, you will find Kings lurking. To give you an idea, I was able to sabiki up nice baits as I was drifting my king rigs behind the boat. It was pretty much a replace a bait, get a hit, replace a bait type of day. I never had more than 5 baits in the well because they were hitting that frequently.
20 lb spinning outfits with plenty of line capacity, a light drag, rod with a flexible tip (I like the the star 12-20lb 6’6″ stand up rod with a baitrunner 6500) and a very light wire leader. I use 28lb or 31lb Malin hardwire tied directly to the line with an albright knot and a 3/0 Owner SSW on the business end. If you use the single hook rig, you just have to let them eat the bait until they really start zinging off (about 15 seconds or so) before you set the hook. Don’t horse a big King, you have to let him do his thing. Just enjoy it, and resist the urge to tighten down that drag. Kings aren’t usually going to wrap you on anything, when they want to run, let them run. Nothing works a drag like a nice king.
Take care, and be safe out there. Its pretty busy, so keep an extra pair of eyes out if you can. I have a nice array of trips booked this week with Tarpon, night wreck fishing, Snook, and even a night monster shark trip.
Until then,
Capt. Tom
