Kingfish slice and dice big baits, frequently missing both the nose and tail hook. Harbours generally have easy access with boat ramps and can be fished before or after work without having to chuck a sicky. Usually the driver stays at the helm ready to drag the fish out of the structure onto deeper and safer territory. Tackle used needs to reflect the size and power of kingfish. He makes his rigs resistant to teeth with titanium wire—usually 40-pound titanium tied to a tiny 80-pound Spro swivel. The live bait is best placed in front of their noses so match the line you let out with the corresponding depth of the kings. 5 sold. Mutton snapper often hold below kingfish schools, feeding on the scraps! Anglers using live bait for king fish can troll, drift, or anchor. They are just harder spots to find. The over-the-forehead hook position allows the bait to be lifted straight out of the water and leaves the hook exposed to maximize the hook-up potential. The C&H King Buster Kingfish Pro-Rig, denoted with an ‘KR’ in the part number, is one of the finest live bait rigs available. Together with his brother Mike, Bill Butler owns Venice Marina in Venice, Louisiana, one of... Florida Kingfish Fishing. I often Snell two hooks for a larger bait similar to a stinger rig for fish that do not engulf the bait entirely. You can catch these little guys, sounding around wrecks, drop offs or even burleying up your local Warf. Pre-Made Rigs. Kingfish Rigs Standard live bait Kingfish Rig : This rig can be used on your flat lines, kite baits and downrigger bait. “Rigging live baits so they stay alive is important.”. These are excellent baits, but not as dependable as a source of bait as pogies. Looking around moorings is optimal as the boats, lines, buoys depth usually have kingfish zipping amongst them at some stage. The techniques in this article are geared towards fishing in a harbour, however, can be transferred to offshore waters just as easily. Any structure below the surface is just as likely to help the bait congregate as something above. Exploring and learning where the fish are holding at certain times of the year can take a lifetime. 3 sold. Get it in front of 160+ million buyers. They find live bait irresistible. Copyright Frogleys Offshore Rod Parts & Tackle Specialists, Chasing Murray Cod with the Atomic Slappa, Keys to targeting jewfish on breakwalls with plastics. I use a lighter (1/2 or 5/8 ounce) butterbean bucktail on this rig to make it easier for the live bait to swim. Ribbonfish lure. The rod and reel combo must be heavy set, although spin or overhead are both suitable depending on the choice of the angler. Other areas in the harbour that are going to hold kingfish are steep drop off’s, wrecks or pinnacles. Workman fishes a 32-foot Yellowfin, and he owns Strike Zone Tackle in Jacksonville, Florida. Got one to sell? Most people believe that you must set sail and get to deep water to find big kingfish, but this is a common misconception. Great for the weekend and tournament anglers alike - these rigs are tournament tested by our SKA member team, from the King Mackerel-rich waters off Biloxi MS. to the productive waters off the famed Eastern side of Cape Lookout NC. My zombie rig uses the same size 5 (44 pound) coffee colored single strand wire leader and size 6 (58 pound) silver (or painted gray) single strand wire leader, size 4 775 or 777 Eagle Claw Treble Hooks, 70 pound Krok swivels, and haywire/barrel twist connections as my ribbonfish rig. Over offshore wrecks, many anglers use a Sabiki rig to catch blue runners and google eyes for kingfish bait. Years ago I spotted a sticker in a Bradenton store window that read: “Love is the answer.”, After striking out the word love with a slash mark, the author substituted “live bait.”. When fishing structure a kingfish will head directly for the reef, anchor line or timber. This eel-like fish is a staple of the kingfish diet and the lifelike lures are highly … The combination of AFW Tooth Proof Wire married with the tried-and-true C&H King Buster Lure and Mustad Hooks make this more info Quality baits are the key. They taste amazing, sashimi, seared or thrown on the BBQ. Slow trolling dead Cigar Minnows on skirted Kingfish rigs is very effective and despite their often totally mindless actions, the Amberjack apparently are picky enough not to eat dead baits. When fishing for kingfish and wahoo, Lemieux skips the bridle and embeds the hooks directly into the flesh of the bait. Prized by some for their firm, dark, relatively oily meat, kings are fished commercially with nets, but are mainly targeted by sport fishermen through trolling or employing various live bait techniques. However, if you know the exact position of some underwater structure, that is much more suitable to live baiting. Yellowtail which look darker than the rest of the fish in the tank are usually stressed, or injured. I use Gamakatsu chemically sharpened live bait hooks. When the kingfish are having a sniff, the live bait can become excited, do not strike to early. Rig with small skirt or jig forward, stinger hook aft. Of the above baits, live mackerel, salmon trout and squid are, in my opinion, the number one baits. Bomber bwsj17jxmk and a glow 350 Kingspoon. To get around that problem Mitchell strings a couple of extra hooks on the leader to the stinger. Lemieux bridles his sailfish baits with 6/0 circle hooks secured by small rubber bands. This rig is popular among fishermen who deep water live bait (anywhere from 30 meters +), because of its durability and its simplicity. A lot of tournament and charter boats put a Spanish mackerel in a spread looking for a big bite. It’s no mystery that dirty water is where kingfish prefer to hunt. An electric motor can also assist in getting the boat into position, quietly. You’re looking for one that’s a light colour, swimming well and without a torn mouth. Our rigs consist of bullbuster wire leader, a bullbuster swivel, 1 live bait hook (size 3 ) and a 4x treble hook. Captain Frank Call Jr. of Greenacres makes a special live bait rig for kingfish that marries a circle hook to a trailing treble hook with a piece of flexible braided wire. In colder locations, the warmer months usually fire up the kingfish as they come into spawn. BIG BAIT MULTI-HOOK RIG This is a versatile trolling rig for use with big blue runners or bluefish. After a visit to Florida’s East Central coast, BD’s Rodney Marquez created this overview video on the techniques used to live bait for king mackerel, commonly known as kingfish.. I adjust the size of the hook based on the live bait and knowledge of the size of fish in the area. A metre and a half of 45kg or 50kg mono is usually fine, connected with a quality swivel (either ball bearing or clip) and a live bait hook. Now I know this isn’t conventional wisdom, which says to use live bait for the best Kingfish action, but successful fishing is all about adaptation. Success, now it’s a matter of getting the kingfish aboard before it wakes up again! I adjust the size of the hook based on the live bait and knowledge of the size of fish in the area. The dead-bait rigs are switched out for live-bait rigs with skirts and no weight, and the chum and menhaden oil are put into play. Captain Justin Rieger of Jensen Beach often uses a commercial-style rig when fishing with live sardines, pilchards or threadfins for kingfish. There are finesse ways of catching kingfish, but live baiting is best done with solid equipment and a go forward attitude. Insert the tip of the trailing hook into the throat between the pectoral fins of the baitfish and twitch them a bit when they hit the water to encourage them swim down, Rieger advises. If you do not have a sounder you will know very quickly if the kingfish are there if you present them a live bait. Hook set forward in thread herring for slow-trolling. You May Also Like. Dispersed throughout the harbour are numerous marker buoys, light houses and timber posts. If a ‘rat’, small kingfish took a live bait from our setup it would not be able to click off any drag, in fact a fish is usually over 80cm to be able to take any line at all. Slow trolling with a large live bait on a stinger rig accounts for some of the largest king mackerel taken by anglers. Spending time catching squid will give greater options and improve your chances. The rods are both ideal for jigging as well, so you can always keep fishing when the livies run thin. From your mainline you should have an 8oz sinker above a swivel, then a 1 – 1.5m trace from the swivel to the hook. Live Baiting and Rigging for Kingfish Louisiana Kingfish Fishing. A 6'6" to a 7' rod with a heavy action rating paired with a 4/0 sized reel with 40lb or 50lb line. Collecting fresh bait and presenting a number of tasty choices to any school of fish makes hooking one almost a certainty. 3 Pack 5' Shark Rig Stainless 480lb Cable 14/0 MUSTAD 39960 HOOK HEAVY DUTY. All Rights Reserved, Entering your valid email address signifies you wish to receive our newsletter and have read the, Florida Sportsman Launches Action Spotter Podcast. The ones located in water around 10m deep are usually the best spots. Most importantly, baitfish should be fresh. Leaders are usually no less than 80lb Unitika fluorocarbon. The system I like best is a flow through live bait … Rigging live baits so they swim naturally, stay alive and don’t appear overloaded with hardware is just as important as having frisky baits in your well. I use Gamakatsu chemically sharpened live bait hooks. Kingfish are caught every year with these baits. 5 Kingfish Rigs * Live Bait * King Mackerel Leaders * VMC Black Nickel Treble. Reels with 20 plus kilos of drag are what we are using. livebait rigs can variously be slow-trolled, cast and slowly retrieved, deployed at depth using a sinker, or at the surface under a balloon or float. All three techniques can be effective. Kingfish Baits and Lures. Investing in live bait often makes sense, whether you catch it in a cast net, buy it from a live bait dealer or hoist it up on sabiki quills. Blue Water Candy 40035 King Rig Tourn Skirted with Featherwrights, 5-Pack The basic principle is to scoot around to as many of these locations as possible to see if you can mark bait on the sounder or even better, arches, which indicate larger pelagic fish. Chris Lemieux of Lemieux Fishing Charters in Boynton Beach. How to rig the live bait: Select a good bait from the tank. I often Snell two hooks for a larger bait similar to a stinger rig for fish that do not engulf the bait entirely. Live baiting is a team effort. Let us talk about Sydney Harbour, which is the most widely used fishery in Australia. Kingfish can be caught in a variety of ways, but none are more successful than live baiting. Allow the rod to do the work and load up. The closer fish on shallower structure come alive, but the kings will ­forgo structure to attack schools of bait concentrated near the beach, around shoals, inlets and river mouths during outgoing tides. Let us start with the hook, a live bait hook is essential. In harbours, kingfish are more frequently caught when it is warmer. If you’re planning to slow troll or move a lot with a bait dangled under a kite, bridle it through the nostrils instead of on top of the head so the bait will move easily through the water, advises Capt. To minimize cut-offs by toothy fish such as kingfish, try a light wire trace for smaller baits such as threadfin herring, pilchards and Spanish sardines. The more places that you visit the more likely you are to cross paths with a kingfish. If a bait gets cut in half by a kingfish, let it sink, Rieger says. FS, © 2020 Outdoor Sportsman Group. Shop All Kingfish Rigs Bait Rigs Accessories. Relatively light gear, the simplest of rigs and a tank of live baits had done the job! I like to twist about 6 inches of No. Kingfish are versatile for the plate; they can be broiled, fried, baked or smoked. Jigging up slimy mackerel and yellow tail ‘yakkas’ are a good start. Fishing in a harbour generally allows anglers to escape poor weather or manage to find exceptional fish with nothing more than a tinny. It is so big! Slow trolling a variety of live baits over offshore structures and contours is standard procedure for anglers chasing the hard-hitting kingfish. Anyone not well equipped will learn the hard way, fast. Big schools of smaller fish are in abundance with the larger fish being scattered amongst them. That is why we love them. After crimping on the treble hook, Call creates a small loop in the braided wire with a crimp, then slides the loop onto the circle hook and twists it to secure the stinger rig to the circle hook. Kingfish are the NSW blue water mongrel. King Mackerel Rigs. The fact that we are setting drags so tight means that you should never leave them in the rod holder as they may snap. Large recirculating live wells are standard on kingfish boats. Catching bait isn't a choice, it's a necessity. 2) Live Bait Kingfish can be caught from shore or from a drifting or anchored boat. Looking at the sounder, kingfish will appear as arches. The hook size should match the size of the bait, not the fish being targeted, and you can catch very big kings on … Starting your day with a drag-screaming kingfish strike is always a pleasure. Rods and reels used to troll hardware are different than those used for live bait trolling. There is a wide selection of baits that can effectively be used for kings, including live slimy mackerel, yellowtail scad, salmon trout, garfish, mullet, herring, silver trevally, and of course squid. The idea is to put a hook at both ends of the bait in order to snare crafty kings, which often … Catch the bait that is available with Sabikis or cast nets, keep it well-oxygenated and switch them frequently. $10.99. There is a necessary standard level of gear required to land something decent. Fishing in depths of 90′ to … An ideal spin rod is the samurai X Tracta jigging rod, the long butt makes it comfortable to fight the fish with strong drag. (Unlike traditional single strand wire titanium is flexible and can be tied to hooks and swivels, though many anglers prefer crimping it.). Once the angler is hooked up it is imperative that the boat maneuvers the fish away from the structure to avoid getting bricked. They may be the one of the hardiest live baits you can use, and swim strong on a hook, allowing them to be trolled live – a deadly method for catching kings. Shop All Dehookers Drinkware Face Covers Stickers Gift Card Contact; Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh. The Blue runner, commonly called “hard tail,” is not only one of the preferred natural prey fish of kingfish, but is also excellent bait in general. Those few hours around sunrise are also some of … Having a general understanding of what to look for can save a lot of time and maximize your chances. In the cooler months particularly Autumn, there are much larger fish patrolling the headlands and waterways, more often than not on their lonesome. Silvery live baits such pilchards, threadfin herring, menhaden, mullet and … The hook is then pressed through the … Press the space key then arrow keys to make a selection. Most king mackerel rigs will use a mainline of 20- to 30-pound monofilament. For overhead I like to use the Samurai Osprey rod which has an outstanding parabolic action. His … In North Carolina’s coastal waters where contemporary live-bait slow-trolling tactics originated, kingfish anglers invented the standard stinger rig comprising of a hook set through the nose, mouth or forehead of a baitfish and a treble hook or stinger hook, run from the eye of the main hook on a 3- to 5-inch piece of wire. When presenting larger baits such as goggle-eyes under a kite, bridle them so the hook is exposed over the forehead. They fight hard and dirty, always putting your equipment to the test. A good high capacity pump circulating water in a round live well can keep pogies alive and fresh all day. Get Dirty. Using the highest quality components and construction methods, our Sabikis will load your bait wells in a fraction of the time.
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