How Do You Fish For King Mackerel?

What is the best bait to catch king mackerel?

Live bait fish work extremely well when fishing for king mackerel. Blue runners, sardines, herring, cigar minnows, and mullet are the top live bait fish. These bait fish are difficult to keep alive. Therefore, most anglers catch their bait fish the morning of the fishing trip using either a cast net or a Sibiki rig.

How do you catch king mackerel fish?

Most King Mackerel are caught by trolling. If using live bait, you should troll pretty slow. If using lures, you can troll faster. Like many members of the Mackerel family, they often bite the tail, so if you are using a bait make sure you have a hook in back as well as in front.

What is the best time to catch king mackerel?

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.

What is the best lure for kingfish?

The most effective for larger kingfish have been the Nomad Stick bait and popper range. The Nomad Riptide has amazing action and a reputable lure for a large range of pelagics. Sinking hard bodies are the go to when fish are not feeding or pushing bait to the surface.

Where is the best place to catch king mackerel?

When looking for king mackerel, good structure is the place to begin. Wrecks, reefs, channel edges, and tidelines all attract bait and bait attracts kings. My favorite king mackerel setup is a 3-1/2 Drone spoon behind a three-ounce trolling or torpedo sinker.

What size planer do I need for king mackerel?

Planers used for Kingfish start with a size one and go to size four. The number of the planer dictates a 10 foot increment, and so a number one would dive ten feet and a number two would dive twenty feet, etc. The leader of choice is 80lb monofilament leader. Kingfish are caught every year with these baits.

How do you slow troll for king mackerel?

Try slow trolling around the bait for 15 or 20 minutes. If this doesn’t work, go to the next plan. The Canaveral buoy line provides structure for both baitfish and predators. Slow trolling up one side and down the other of this line, or try zig-zagging across it (stay out of the way of large vessels).

What should I troll for kingfish?

4. Kingfish Baits and Lures. Silvery live baits such pilchards, threadfin herring, menhaden, mullet and blue runners are preferable to dead baits, according to virtually all top tournament anglers.

How fast should you troll for kingfish?

The boat should be moving forward just fast enough to move the baits and keep the lines apart. One to two knots is fine. It’s not even necessary to keep moving at all times.

What size hooks for mackerel?

Typically, people fish with size 1-0 hooks, but this makes it harder to catch garfish and is a bit big for mackerel too, so something smaller like a size 4 is preferable.

What line do I need for mackerel fishing?

Use 15 lb monofilament line or better still 15 lb braid. Then it is a case of tying on your rig or lure. Heavier gear can be used but you will not feel so much of the fight. Mackerel are fairly ferocious predators, especially when in a school.

What do you need to fish for mackerel?

A small shiny lure such as a spoon, spinner or baitfish imitation, and float fishing with small strips of bait, are successful mackerel tactics. But a string of feathers or small lures beats all methods.

What month is best for mackerel fishing?

May-June is the best time to catch mackerel, although they are caught all summer in numbers and larger specimens are sometimes caught in winter.

What fish can you catch with mackerel?

Small Mackerel Baits: Very small strips of mackerel around 1 – 2cm (¼ – ½ inch) long can be used to catch mini species, while larger strips of ranging from 3 – 6cm (1 – 2 inches) can be used for general sea fishing for species such as pouting, whiting, school bass, dogfish and flatfish species.

Can you freeze freshly caught mackerel?

Yes, you can freeze mackerel. Mackerel can be frozen for around 3 months. Regardless of how it has been packaged, it’s perfectly safe to freeze mackerel. This means you can have access to delicious oily fish regardless of the time of year.

What size hooks for kingfish?

A single chem-sharp offset hook in the 6/0 to 8/0 size range is idea for these fish. Although we have just detailed the effectiveness of fishing with dead baits in certain situations, there is still a place for fishing live baits around these offshore islands and reefs, and that’s for targeting the bigger fish.

What is the best reel for kingfish?

Spinning Reels – kingfish fishing

• PENN Battle III 6000 Spin Reel. Sold out.
• PENN Battle III 8000 Spin Reel. $225. Or 4 payments of $56.25.
• Okuma Avenger 8000 Baitfeeder Spin Reel. $179.99.
• Okuma Avenger 6000 Baitfeeder Spin Reel.
• Okuma Avenger 4000 Baitfeeder Spin Reel. Sold out.
• Daiwa Saltiga High Speed 6500 Spin Reel. $1,399.

How do you fish a king mackerel from a pier?

The proper technique to fish these live baits at the pier is drifting the live baits off the end of the pier. You will want to cast up wind and let the bait drift down wind and down current. Then reel up and repeat. Do not use a weight or float on this rig.

How fast do you troll for king mackerel?

seven to ten knots
There are several methods to lure and catch King mackerel, including straight trolling at seven to ten knots. You can deploy a variety of baits, but popular baits that bring plenty of fish are Spoons, Halco, and Clark.