live baiting kings

[rich]

I have never live baited kings before. Or for that matter fished for king mackerel period. I have been watching the report from hatteras and know they are slaying the big kings by live baiting them. Anyone here got any tips on live baiting kings? Do you just drift or slow troll? If you slow troll what speed? Is menhaden the only live bait they will eat? Would it be effective to put out strip baits with sea witches or will that only catch the small kings? What signs do you look for for kings? Slicks, temperature breaks, birds all of the above?

I have a couple of guys coming down to go bear hunting next week (one is bringing his teenage son) and they want to try to go offshore fishing one day this coming up weekend and I just want to be able to use all my options here as far as what we can target and I know that hatteras is full of kings right now and seems everything else offshore is either a hit or a miss.

[Robja]

Rich,

They eat pretty much any live bait. Pogies, bluefish,spanish,blue runners,big mullet, cigar minnows. You slow troll at 1 to 2 knots. Little more than a fast drift. Make sure you have the right kind of rigs.

[rich]

Thanks for the info. When you say big mullet do you mean big as in 1/2 to 1lbs or do you mean 2+lbs
Right rigs? you refering to rod and reel set ups or the actual leader themselves?

[Split Bill]

I'm interested in this as well. We fish out of Oregon Inlet and my biggest question is about finding/making bait this time of year.
I'm not too keen on throwing a cast net in shallow water due to the size of our boat and my lack of castnet skills.
Is it possible to use sabiki rigs somewhere? Buy bait from anywhere?
I was also thinking that we could troll up some blues in the inlet.
Any suggestions or ideas?

Ed

[WAHOONBOX]

THIS THREAD HAS THE POTENTIAL TO GET VERY GOOD....I MEAN IT ALREADY HAS SOME GOOD ADVICE.....BUT I PROJECT IT WILL GET EVEN BETTER!

WHEN IT COMES TO INSHORE FISHING, NOTHING IS MORE EXCITING TO ME THAN TO BE SLOW IDLE-DRIFTING A TREBLED-UP 16 INCH AMERICAN MACKERAL FOR A KINGS DINNER

[jrlsail]

I have never live baited kings before. Or for that matter fished for king mackerel period. I have been watching the report from hatteras and know they are slaying the big kings by live baiting them. Anyone here got any tips on live baiting kings? Do you just drift or slow troll? If you slow troll what speed? Is menhaden the only live bait they will eat? Would it be effective to put out strip baits with sea witches or will that only catch the small kings? What signs do you look for for kings? Slicks, temperature breaks, birds all of the above?

I have a couple of guys coming down to go bear hunting next week (one is bringing his teenage son) and they want to try to go offshore fishing one day this coming up weekend and I just want to be able to use all my options here as far as what we can target and I know that hatteras is full of kings right now and seems everything else offshore is either a hit or a miss.

What the pros do can be a little overwelming that what to do with a few buddies. Do you have a downrigger?

Try three lines. 20# best - 30# ok - conv is better than spinners, but either are fine. connect the main line to 15 feet of 30# flouro to SPRO swivel (50-100#) to 21" of #4/#5 brown wire to 1/0 - 2/0 livebait hook. connect 7-8" wire from front hook eye to #4 treble. I usually get a cheap kingfish duster for one of the lines. This slides up and down the 21" wire. front hook in the baits nose, second loose in the back.

If you have down rigger(s), I like 1 surface, 1 30 feet down and 1 60 feet down. If no downrigger, i rig a 6oz teardrop to the line above the leader with a rubber band to get it down. When a bite comes and reel to the weight, we rip it off.

Lastly, I prefer to replace one a livebait and use at least one deadbait sardine with a weighted jig (capt brown) and treble stinger. Favorite is red jig with red/black duster.

Now if you just wanna kill some kingfish and need to find them first, you may want to run a drone spoon with a planer and a second bait as a seawitch with strip. Cover more ground, find the fish, then move to live bait.

[dolphinfrenzi]

With king fishing you want a very light tip rod. use wire on all of your rigs start with spro swivel to 4x treble or nose hook #4 or #6 prob if your going to be at hatteras the larger would be better, from that hook another piece of wire approx 5-8 inches to the next treble hook (all depending on the size of your bait. We used some pogies this year in the morehead area that would have prob been and easy 1.5 - 2lbs, if you want (depending on the bait size) you can add another stinger hook off the second one this is optional. the light tip of the rod allows that bait to really have action in the water. I have seen pogies get so nervous in the prop wash I was sure they were screaming at me to get them out of the water next I see ole girl shoot by and WHAM!!!!!! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ she on!! your drag setting is very important also for tournaments here in NC and SC we use 15 to 20 lb test line and personally I like between 2, 3 or an ABSOLUTE MAX of 4lbs of drag, in hatteras you can tighten a little more not much. There are some GREAT kingfishermen/women on this board one that comes right to mind is Charlie Neal (EMTAE screen name), Charlie is a GREAT resource. Or if you do not want to live bait just rig you some ballyhoos with wire and have some real fun without having to throw the net. For some reason in KM tournaments we believe you can only catch big fish with live bait, I am guilty of it too. When I know good and well I have caught 30+ lbs with yozuri deep divers and ballyhoo but get me in a tournament I MUST HAVE LIVE BAIT. Dont ask me I am a sheep being led to a slaughter I guess LOL. If you have any more question I can make pictures of the rigs you want or if you do not want to tie you own rigs you can buy KM live bait rigs but they are around 6.00 for each one. Also get you a box of frozen cigar minnows and some hank brown rigs and use those. If you are going fun fishing you do not have to have live bait, but it does make it better and more fun. Now these kings around hatteras this time of the year are BIG, if you are looking to eat them the best kings to eat in my opinion are between 8 and 20lbs, if you catch 30s 40s or 50s just keep in mind they are almost always going to be female and breeders so keep conservation in mind and take snap shot and let her swim free. Not trying to rain on a parade just hate seeing some of these boats fishing this time of the year killing 3-4 50lbers per boat when they are not good tasting fish. Ok off the soap box and back to helping out, hope this helps some have fun it is exciting
This past weekend we used blues and mullet, threw the net one time and had about 600 mullet it seemed kept what we needed gave 7 other boats 5 gallon buckets full and returned the rest to the ocean.

[Razorback]

Go to Hatteras inlet past the second are third set of cans and take a left and start looking on your bottom reader there should be plenty markings of grey trout. Drop down a stingsilver, speck rig, or cut bait and feel your live well with these trout and you might catch some croakers they work well also. You will see several charter boats around this area with a sink net and they will be catching menhaden. Keep your eyes on them and when they pull up and run off, follow them, they will be heading to the Smell wreck it is only a few miles and it is loaded with kings right know.

[rich]

Thanks for the advice so far guys. There has been some great knowledge shared so far.

How about what you are looking for while fishing. What water temps? What color water?

Would 50lbs braid be too big of a line? I see where people are saying between 20 and 30lbs I have a couple of rigs rigged up like that but I also have some rigged up with that braid. If that is too much I will definitely change up some stuff.

I know a few people from over hatteras way they told me that the charter guys were using a sink net to catch their bait. It could only take me a couple of hours to have one of those rigged up.

Pictures of the actual rig itself would be great and I do have 2 downriggers.

[gottaflylee]

Some inserting responses here. First Keep It Simple.
Your TLD rods and reels will work fine, don't worry about a light tip and don't buy new stuff unless you decide you like it and want to do a lot of it.

Run 3 or 4 rods to start off with. One in your prop was 10' behind your motor. I use a close pin style of "flat line clip for this one, keep it as close to the water as you can. Other side of the boat, same thing, 5' behind the first one.

If you do not have a down rigger, 8oz bank sinker and loop a # 64 rubber band to it, let back 50' of line with bait on it and loop bank sinker to the line and pull rubber band tight. Have a good pair of toe nail clippers at hand so when that line gets bit, use the toe nail clippers to clip the rubber band as close to you line as you can and reel in the king.

Other line should be 50 to 60' behind the boat.

Bait, Porgies, hand size are great but you will need a very good live well to keep the alive and healthy. Blue fish are candy for them and 12" one are perfect, also hand size Pinfish work well, easy to keep alive, if you use them, keep a pair of scissors handy to cut the dorsal fins off. This time of year, I like Mullet, 10" to 14" for the big Kings. 2 thinks about using Mullet, first is Kings will lose interest if they have to chase a bait to much and Mullet will be very lively. I will whack them in the head with a screwdriver handle before sending them out to be lunch or and this will work very good, with a knife, at the last dorsal, near the tail, slit the fish to its tail, should be about 1 1/2" slit at the most.

Rigs, I would not get any with "Dusters" or single "nose" hook if you are not use to live baiting. Just get some that have Treble hooks and be done with it, cheaper for one and servile of them as you will go through them. if one gets a kink in it, don't use it again.

Speed as said1 to 2 kts. If windy, drift down wind over where you want to fish and only use the motor to keep the boat stright...
Hope this helps... Rich, give me a call...