Florida Sport Fishing Charters

Sport Fishing Charters for Kingfish.

Sport Fishing Frenzies on the Florida Beaches

Each spring and fall the coastal waters of Tampa Bay Florida experiences a well known run of migrating pelagic fish such as Kingfish, also known as king mackerel, Spanish Mackerel, and bonito. All of these high speed sport fish, along with a host of others, come to Florida following a transitional water temperature and its associated massive influx of bait fish. When the water is in the seventies, which usually occurs from March thru April and again from October thru November, the fishing just offshore from the beach can be incredible. On cool mornings in the spring and fall, we often run out a few miles off the beach to see what the pelagics have cooking for us. At this time it is very common to find churning, foaming, frenzied schools of sports fish gobbling up the dense schools unfortunate minnows just offshore. Birds of all shapes and sizes join the fray and make locating the sport fish simple. When this bite is on, fishing simply does not get any better. As a light tackle operation, we always target these fish with the most sporting gear possible. For casting at the frenzies we usually pitch jigs of small spoons on 10 pound spinning rods and sometimes even use fly tackle. In this situation, virtually every cast is assured a bite.

Lurking around these swarms of fish are the bigger kingfish. They are sighted on occasion launching through the schools with Spanish mackerel in their mouths.
Before long we shift from the wide open mackerel and bonito bite to slow trolling live mackerel for the monster kings. Due to the size of the bait, 1 to 3 pounds, we up the tackle from 10 to 20 pound test and use high speed conventional reels on specialized tournament kingfish rods. The kingfish we catch this way are almost always big. Seldom does anything under 20 pounds strike a live mackerel. Many are in the 3 to 40 pound class and we catch a few over the 40 pond mark. Nothing peels drag like a big kingfish. 150 yard runs requiring a full scale chase with the boat happen all the time.

School kingfish

Perhaps the most fun way to capitalize on the seasonal kingfish runs is to target the “schoolies” . These smaller kingfish (typically in the 8 to 16 pound class) usually travel together in vast schools. When we, or one of the other guide boats in the area, find the mass we anchor the boat, deploy both live and ground chum and let the fireworks begin. For this we go back to 10 pound spinning gear and fly rods. Often hundreds of kingfish can be seen below the boat and it is all we can do to keep the rods rigged and baited. When we have them going they eat everything in the water every time. When it’s finally over (usually when we burn thru all 1000 baits) the gear is usually twisted, tangled, and broken off but everyone is happy. Tossing handfuls of live sardines around the boat can be almost as entertaining as actually fishing as the feisty kingfish leap from the water to feed on the misplaced minnows.

Tournament kingfishing

When catching the single biggest fish is what matters the most, we again switch gears. To land the big ones on tournament day, we slow troll a spread of 4 live baits in an area we suspect is holding the biggest kingfish on the coast that day. This type of fishing is not for everyone, as it does not typically provide fast action but it is a proven way to catch the really big ones. We regularly place in the top 10 of local kingfish the tournaments we enter. Tournament page For the serious angler, we do offer special packages to hire our boat for tournaments of any kind. If you would like to join us on our Florida sport fishing charter please drop us an email or give us a Call at (727) 944-FISH (3474) today to book your Florida sport fishing guide. We do suggest booking as far in advance as possible.