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It's been said many times that nothing temps mackeral like a live Menhaden(pogey). Shurely there's got to be a lure that matches the productivity of a live bait. I know with my experiance with Wahoo, lures are the top dog. There's nothing like a Yo Zuri Bonito or Braid Flash Dancer digging for the depths behind the boat at 8 to 10 knotts. But for King Mackeral, would the same apply? I'm getting ready for the up comming season, and I wonder if their are any captains out there who don't use so much live bait, and stick with the less time-consuming lures. I'm cutting loose all the old leader I used for Wahoo and rigging up with a much thinner and lighter 7 strand steel leader. Kings seem more "shy," so i'm trying to set my rigs up as "invisible" as I can. Any suggestions on that? I'm always down to learn new tricks.
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Up Here...they will strike @ Bare Silver Hooks
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When i lived in florida i used to catch them with spoons .They loved anything that has red and white or just a chrome spoon with a lot of flash.We call them kingfish down there and man do they put up a fight ! Also they make jigs that work very good for them too.Capt. Harys in miami carries a lot of good items for jigging for kings.Here is a link [url "http://www.captharry.com/lures-spoons-drone.html"]http://www.captharry.com/lures-spoons-drone.html[/url] .
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I went 7 miles out from Clearwater last year, late in the season. I wasn't doing too well with the grouper, so I picked up my light gear with a 5" shallow minnow in lime green (chartruese?). The smaller kings liked it a lot, and brought a few home. I'm looking forward to the next trip soon - King steaks on the grill are mighty fine eatin'!
Snook in just over a day!!!
Paul
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I was at bass pro shops not too long ago and picked up some Drone Spoons in the 6 1/2 inch size. I figure they'll work out pretty good putt putting along around the reef strapped to a planer. It just takes so long to find live Menhaden sometimes, and it takes too long to rigg up ballyhoo properly. Basically, i'm looking for shortcuts so I can spend more time fishing, and less time searching for bait and rigging up leaders. I've got an hour and a half ride to the ramp, only a few days off a month, so i've got to squeeze as much fishing time in there as I can.
As for the table fare of Kings, they're pretty good at a small size. Anything over 15 or 20 pounds is a bit strong tasting for me. So really, it works out pretty good because the smaller kings are more prone to snap at artificial riggs than the larger ones. I'm actually going out tomorrow fishing inshore around the jetties. The Sheepshead, black and red drum, and flounder are all biting around the rocks right now. I figure i'd get a bucket of fiddler crabs and see about filling the empty void in my cooler. Sheepshead aren't anything shabby when it comes to eattin', infact, other than the pain in the "you know what" they are to clean, i'd rather eat a sheepshead over the majority of other species. (asside from wahoo or cobia)
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