King Mackeral Seasons
King Mackeral, commonly called Kingfish, or Kings, center much of their where abouts around food and water temperature. Whether it's mainly the food or the temperature is anybody's guess. I believe it comes down mainly to food, because they instinctively follow and herd bait pods, and to bait pods, temperature is very relative.
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Which ever it may be, we generally have a ten degree window to find the main body of Kings in our area. When the water warms to about 68 degrees in the Spring, the Kings will start appearing with the bait pods. This happens largely about the middle to the last of March, and extends until the water temp reaches about 78 degrees, when they seem to start thinning out. This usually happens sometime in June.
However, the largest of the Smoker Kings will be caught after the smaller ones leave. They are usually rogues, and travel alone. When the water temp gets up into the 80s, you will not find many Kings around, accept in deep waters.
The second yearly season begins with the water temp falling into the 70s again, and this usually comes sometime in October after we have had a couple of sharp cooling fronts. As with the Spring season the small ones (Snakes) are the first to appear on the secne. The larger smokers come after them.
TIP-When fishing large bait pods, DON'T run up to the pod, or troll through them. Smoker Kings stalk these bait pods, and eat bait fish straying from the edges of the pods. It's the Snakes (small Kings) which you see running through the pods showering the bait. When the small ones scatter the bait, the Smokers round them up again. They herd the bait just as we would herd cattle or sheep. Troll or lay your baits at least a 100 ft. to 200 ft. from the pod and you'll be surprised with a Smoker. When you run through the bait, you spook the big ones and disorient the bait.
When the water temp comes back down to about 68 degrees again, you will find most of the smaller Kings leaving for deeper and warmer waters, as does the bait fish. However, don't give up on fishing Kings, because this is when you will find the big rogues. A good place to look for them is when you see a tightly packed bait pod about 20 or so feet down in the water column. There is usually a big smoker rogue right behind them. We have caught many kings in December. This year we caught 23 Kings the first week of January. The sizes ranged from 17 to 36 pounds.
Bent Rods & Screaming Reels, Captain RW
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