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Kingfish Moving Up West Coast
By Capt. Dave Pinkham

Looks like the annual spring run of king mackerel is cranking up here on Florida's Southwest Coastline. Over the past week the action west of area beaches has been improving daily with plenty of bait starting to show up offshore. As usual when the bait shows up so do the schools of kingfish along with a variety of other hard fighting species such as Spanish mackerel, little tunny, black-tip and lemon sharks, barracuda, and cobia.

The ideal water temperature for kings seems to be somewhere between 68 to 74 degrees. This past week the Gulf's surface water temperature off of Sharky's Pier was about 72 degrees. We'll just have to see what effect on the fishing the cold front that just passed through has. Regardless of the temporary effect, over the next few weeks the fishing is going to break loose!

There's a lot of different tactics you can use to catch king mackerel, so I'd like to touch briefly on a couple techniques I use. I've found one of the easiest methods to consistently produce kingfish is by trolling with king spoons attached to planning boards. This technique allows you to cover a large area as you search for the heavier concentrations of king mackerel. Kings prefer clear water so it's a good idea to keep your leaders as lightweight as possible. My personal preference is to use two different size planers, a #2 and a #3. Run the #2 out about 75 feet behind the boat, and the #3 about 50 feet. I use a 9-foot long, 50 to 100-pound test monofiliment leader between the planner and the king spoon depending on the water clarity. Trolling speeds should be somewhere between 4 and 7 knots. If you see any fish or birds working the surface head for the action.

If your goal is to catch a big king then you may want to try free-lining some type of live baitfish. Of course first you have to catch the baitfish. Larger kingfish go for larger baits. Blue runners have always worked pretty well for me. Some other live baitfish that will work are sardines, thread herring, and grunts. When using the grunts for bait you'll need to put a float on the line to keep them off the bottom. Sabiki rigs slowly jigged in the area around one of the local artificial reefs should work great to put some live baits in the well.

When rigging up live baits for kingfish you'll want to use singlestrand wire. Depending on the water clarity and the size of your bait, use somewhere between 27-pound and 43-pound-test wire. For tackle I generally will use a 20-pound spinning rig. To this I attach a basic stinger rig which is made up of a small black swivel tied to a three-foot piece of wire with a haywire twist. Then I add a 3/0 short shank bait hook to the other end. To this I add a short piece of wire attached to a #6 extra strong treble hook. If the baits are large you may consider adding a second piece of wire and treble hook. Place the 3/0-bait hook through the nose of the live bait, and place the dangling treble hooks down the back. This rig can be fished at anchor, on a drift, or slow trolled.

If you're not out fishing you're wishing you were. Get out and go fishin cuz' its good fer ya!

Capt. Dave Pinkham has been a fishing guide on the Southwest Coast of Florida for more than 17 years. His Deep-Sea Charter-Boat "LEGACY" is based at Dona Bay Marina in Nokomis, one mile from Venice Inlet. For Gulf of Mexico charter information call (941) 473-4603, email pinkfishes@aol.com, or visit his web page at, www.charter-boatfishing.com