Outdoors

Captain's Corner

By LARRY HOFFMAN, Times Correspondent
Published October 29, 2007

What's hot: Live bait skills were tested last week when a half-dozen Spanish mackerel and two nice-sized kingfish were hooked and landed a half-mile from the beach. A large number of stone crab-lines required maneuvering in and around the crab buoys. With the strong east winds, the bait was tucked in close to the beach, and so were the mackerel. Pelicans and mackerel birds located the bait, which was caught using gold-hook rigs. It was then slow-trolled. Most were medium-sized threadfins, just right for the mackerel. The Egmont Channel, our nearshore reefs and most of the shipwrecks out to 80 feet are holding good numbers of kings and some nice cobia, one of which was caught close to the beach on a dead piece of frozen sardine.

Strategy: For big kings, it's light tackle and big baits. Large ladyfish, bluerunners and threadfins are great baits. Thirty-pounders are usually caught near structure near the beach and are loners. Chum bags are essential. Slow troll less than 1 knot 30-pound wire, with No.1 live bait hooks and Nos.4 and 6 size treble hooks the norm. High-speed retrieval reels with a 6-to-1 ratio work best.

Tip: Leave your other live baits in the water and continue to fish while fighting the hooked king.

Larry "Huffy" Hoffman charters out of John's Pass, Treasure Island and can be reached at huffyl@tampabay.rr.com or (727) 709-9396.

[Last modified October 28, 2007, 20:41:55]