Outdoors

Live baiting is ticket to the big mackerel

By LARRY HOFFMAN, Times Correspondent
Published October 19, 2007

Offshore action has lit up on our coast as the Spanish mackerel, kingfish and grouper fishing is excellent.

Gag grouper have invaded the nearshore ledges and hard-bottom areas, feeding aggressively from about 40 feet to 55 feet of water.

The Spanish mackerel are providing great action from 15 feet to 35 feet of water. Mixed in with the mackerel are kingfish up to 20 pounds.

Bait schools are the key to finding the mackerel and kingfish. Look for diving birds. Under the birds, you will find schools of bait. We have been getting threadfins from 15 feet to 35 feet using gold-hook rigs. Limits of Spanish mackerel and kings up to 20 pounds are just a short ride out from John's Pass.

There are two methods for catching kings and mackerel, both involve live bait. The first is trolling fresh-caught threadfins or pilchards while dragging a chum bag. The other method is anchoring and chumming off the boat transom.

We prefer to slow-troll primarily, because if you do hook a 40-pound king, you have a better chance of landing it from a moving boat. When we hook a big fish we chase it with the boat until we catch up. Then we work the fish from a vertical position to prevent cutoffs. If you are fishing from an anchored boat you can use a quick-release anchor system and chase the fish. There have been numerous times, however, when we were anchored and the big fish took all the line off the spool and we lost the fish while trying to drop anchor and get the boat going.

Light line, 15- to 20-pound test - on high-speed retrieval reels works best for us. We use No. 3 wire with a 1/0 live bait hook and a 4/0 treble as the stinger when we are slow trolling live bait. Half the time we catch fish snagged in the side with the treble hook. Long gaffs - 10 feet - will help you retrieve your kingfish quicker.

[Last modified October 18, 2007, 19:40:53]