Kingfish season is in full swing with fish caught in the shipping channel and most of the area's nearshore reefs.
Friday, we worked the South County Reef. We caught bait on gold-hook rigs and slow-trolled blue runners and Spanish sardines. Our biggest king was 22 pounds, with most about 14 pounds. The kingfish started feeding about 9 a.m. and still were eating when we moved at 11 a.m.
Sharks have been a major problem lately. Most of our blue runners were eaten by barracuda or sharks. Brad Carmen of Indiana fought a blacktip shark for more than 50 minutes. I told him I do not kill sharks, explaining it's a karma thing. As a diver, I follow a common code: We don't eat sharks, and they don't eat us.
Grouper fishing has been good in 100 feet and deeper. Drifting dead baits around hard bottom has produced our biggest grouper with some reds weighing as much as 18 pounds.
Amberjack have moved into many nearshore shipwrecks and springs. Blue runners seem to produce the biggest fish. To get the jacks to the surface, we have chummed with live pilchards and free-lined blue runners on the surface. This has produced outstanding action. It's really fun to watch 40-pound jacks compete for live bait on the surface.
Blackfin tuna fishing is strong. Finding the shrimp boats is key, and live Spanish sardines work extremely well for us. The last time I fished behind shrimp boats, they were located in 110 feet, 312 degrees from the Betty Rose. There have been a few reports of guides catching tuna off the Mexican Pride, but our past two trips to the Pride were zeros. We caught no fish the first time, and a dive boat was over the wreck on our second trip.
- Larry "Huffy" Hoffman charters out of John's Pass, Treasure Island. Call 727 709-9396 or e-mail him at huffyl@tampabay.rr.com
