Treasure Coast Royalty
By
Jan Stephen Maizler
As Captain Jon Cooper and I made the drive from Miami to Jupiter, we’d concluded that in some way, there’s always an epic aspect to the excitement of fishing for kingfish. True to form, the morning of our fishing trip with Jupiter Captain Butch Constable was larger than life in many ways. The sun rose on possibly the coldest day of February: thirty-nine degree winds howled out of the northwest over the incoming tide at Jupiter Inlet. The severe temperature contrast between the icy air and warmer water gave off large billowing clouds that briefly engulfed the fishing boats that were cautiously heading out to sea.
The seas were green at the inlet and featured three-foot waves. But it was the dark blue offshore waters all humped-up with huge swells that made my neck hairs tingle! Big seas, cold winds, and dreams of smoker kings all made good ingredients for undeniably thrilling adventure.
Even the mandate-ritual of beginning the day with catching live bait was exciting in these conditions. Ice-cold swirling winds were not enough to keep Butch from flinging his live bait net from the get-go. As soon as Jon and I had boarded Butch’s twenty-five foot center console, the Whiz Kid from Jupiter made a perfect unfurling cast with his bait net right on top of a big school of minnows alongside his boat. Two additional casts filled his livewell with loads of the tiny silvery baitfish. When Butch saw my puzzled expression, he made it clear that minnows would be the chum for the blue runners that would serve as the actual bait for the large kingfish we’d be trolling for.
Butch cranked up his vessel and headed up one of the creeks that abutted Jupiter Inlet. After idling along the shoreline for about one hundred yards, he eased up to a dock and tied off his vessel. Although Jon and I weren’t sure what Butch intended, it soon became clear what his intentions were when he jumped on the dock and pulled up a locked live bait cage twenty feet away. After he opened the trap’s top door, he netted about a dozen blue runners and transferred them to our boat’s livewell. He looked at us and said, “ It always pays to have some insurance.” It was clear that his kingfish mantra could not have been truer, particularly when today’s rough weather might hamper catching live baits for kingfish.
After that essential offloading, we eased away and from the dock and slowly headed out to sea. Although my personal requirements gave Butch only a few hours, it gave us plenty of time to watch him employ, demonstrate, as well as discuss all the important tactics for successful kingfishing off the Treasure Coast.
It was a wild and wooly time on those high seas. Butch was kept quite busy piloting his vessel into the large swells while at the same time trying to rig up the live blue runners and deploy them at different lengths off our transom. At times the baits would get nervous and panicky and we poised for strikes that did not materialize. As we headed south past Juno Pier, Butch pointed his boat southeast and headed for the famed “Zoo” grounds. Our goal was to reach the sixty-foot depths where larger kings were expected to show any day.
On the way out, we saw huge rafts of flying fish –locally called “fliers”- take to the air as they evaded predation from below. Butch felt that the culprits chasing them were small bonitos that had no interest in our large trolled baits. He turned out to be right. In what seemed like no time at all, it was necessary for me to get back to the dock. Reports by radio and cell phones from other boats indicated that no huge kings had come to the baits that morning. As we headed in, it seemed to me that the hit and miss challenge of huge kingfish constitutes its glory.
Different Size Kings Need Different Tactics-
One of the first things good kingfish anglers learn is that big kings and smaller school kings have different habits and preferences. The first distinction to understand is that smaller kings school in larger numbers than their larger counterparts: this is true for other Florida gamesters like bonefish and seatrout.
Large kingfish –often called “smokers”- can reach over fifty pounds. Expert kingfishermen off the Treasure Coast know that smokers are creatures of green inshore waters. This generally covers habitat from right off the beach out to about eighty feet of water. In addition to depth, there are generally four likely areas where larger kingfish gather to feed.
*The first areas- not surprisingly- are the edges of inshore shallow ocean baitfish schools like pilchards, greenies, mullet, or pogies.
*The second likely areas are aggregations of small predatory fish that feed on baitfish. These include schools of blue runners, small jacks, bluefish, and small Spanish mackeral, all of which can make excellent baits. It’s essential to realize that big kings strike these smaller gamesters with relish and make short work of them in seconds. Oftentimes, trolling a double-hooked bluefish is the secret bait-weapon of tournament kingfish anglers.
*The third key to finding smoker kings in the greater Treasure Coast area is to look for hard structure like wrecks, reefs, or irregular bottom configuration that draw baitfish and small predator fish. Getting the coordinates on some of these wonderful hotspots can make all the difference between success and failure. One such spot is called “ The Zoo”. It lies between Juno Beach and West Palm Beach.
*The fourth and final key is to focus angling efforts around such “soft structure” as color edges, current edges, and thermal edges. Some excellent results often await anglers that slow troll live baits along “clean-dirty” edges of green water. If this coincides with groupings of baitfish in forty to fifty foot depths, you’d do well to brace yourself for a jarring smoker strike!
Smaller kingfish position themselves just like their similar sized brothers up and down Florida’s east coast- yet this behavior is not the same as smokers. One major difference between smaller and larger kingfish is that the former-often referred to as “snakes”- tend to bunch up in large schools in ocean depths from eighty to one hundred twenty feet. Captain Butch advises anglers searching for smaller kings to keep a constant lookout for clusters of fishing boats, particularly commercial hook and line boats trolling in circles.
Some of the most crucial factors for kingfish anglers to consider are seasons and time of year. Additional factors on the Treasure Coast that are considered significant are weather patterns and even moon phase.
According to Captain Butch, the larger kingfish from twenty to forty pounds have seasonal peaks of activity.
The first occurs during the winter season when substantial cold fronts push the smokers southward from Sebastian and Fort Pierce into the Treasure Coast. One reason these fish are moving south is to stay in water temperatures that do not drop below the low seventies. Smoker kingfish that arrive on these fronts can often be caught in waters as shallow as thirty to forty feet with prime waters featuring a “bright” green tint. If the frontal weather features high winds that “chop up” the water surface to the point where the water is dirty, consider trolling live baits below the surface on a downrigger. This period generally last from December to March.
The second peak time occurs approximately from April to May when the larger kings spawn from Jupiter to perhaps as far south as Boynton Beach. One tip from Captain Butch is coordinating angling efforts by the time of day or night with moon phase during spawning season. During the full moon, Butch begins his fishing in late afternoons and continues into dusk and nighttime. During the new moon, he switches his tactics to fishing early mornings around bait schools and small predators. Butch said that he feels that the spring tide effect of the full and new moons create a better kingfish “bite” during their spawning season. On single outings during this period, he has logged in catches of thirty large kingfish from twenty to forty pounds. He also added that at this time of year all the large fish are loaded with roe.
After years of fishing for schoolie and smoker kings off the Treasure Coast, Captain Butch was able to discover a secondary smaller period of spawning from July to August during spring tide periods. He employs the same tactics and techniques that were used for the primary April spawn. Butch also advises anglers to look for green water that has a little tint or “smoke” in it: kingfish tend to be a bit more wary striking angler’s baits in the extremely clear water that summer seas seem to feature. If ultra clear water predominates across the habitat, anglers should consider night fishing to reduce the fish over-scrutinizing leader material. This is especially so for the wire leaders that are necessary in double-hooking big live baits for smokers.
Peak periods of activity for large schools of smaller kingfish persist during the same periods already noted. However, smaller kings can be active during any time of year at the aforementioned depths. Since school fish can be caught in such huge numbers, word about a run of smaller kings gets around the Treasure Coast fishing community very quickly.
Different Size Kings Need Different Baits-
Although dead baits can be successful offerings for kingfish, they simply do not give the same outstanding results as live bait. The simple fact is that many top kingfish anglers will not even begin fishing until their vessels are carrying an adequate supply of live bait.
The key to understanding live bait choices is to begin with practicing the old adage, “ big bait…big fish.” It also involves realizing that small kings up to ten pounds must restrict their feeding to smaller baits in ways a huge fifty-pound smoker does not. Therefore, use smaller live baits for schoolies and larger live baits for smokers.
Since live bait needs to be obtained, the three ways to accomplish this are by netting, hook fishing, or purchasing. Which of these choices you’ll make will be determined by the species of live bait that is available, your own skill levels in throwing a net, reading a recorder and deploying Sabiki rigs or the presence of live bait boats. If the nettable baits like greenies, sardines, and pilchards prove hard to net, consider going to jigging with Sabiki rigs.
Blue runners and goggle eyes also are slightly larger baits that are caught by jigging tiny feathers or fishskins. The largest baits for smokers are small bluefish and mackeral. These small game fish are caught with the usual lures employed for them. Bluefish can be quickly unhooked and can survive in the livewell for a period of time. Spanish mackeral, however, must he quickly unhooked and rigged on a two-hook rig and be put overboard for trolling in “pit-stop time” for an optimal presentation.
Consider a smoker kingfish an oversized warrior with a heck of an appetite. All big fish want the maximum protein reward as they are solitary or “pack predators” chasing bait and the best way for them to do this is to get the biggest swallow possible- hence, their proclivity for big baits. In contrast, large schools of small kingfish have the numbers to corral huge schools of small baitfish- again, big kings do not have this advantage.
Moderate-sized live baits for smoker kings include goggle eyes, and pogies. Larger live baits include mullet, blue runners, bluefish, and small mackeral. It’s a wise practice to double-hook all larger live baits designed for either trolling or drifting for smoker kings. Captain Butch always uses coffee-colored wire leader for all his kingfishing. On double-hooked baits he uses lighter (and more fish-friendly) number four wire from his running line to the first hook. Since the body of the bait often hides the wire from the front hook to the back hook, he feels he can use heavier number seven wire with less concern about reduced strikes.
Different Size Kings Need Different Tackle-
Captain Butch is very specific about the specific tackle requirements for large kingfish versus small kingfish.
Smoker kingfish tackle onboard his center console is simple, yet it does the job quite well. He has a quartet of thirty-pound conventional outfits. The reels all hold at least three hundred yards of line to deal with the long blistering runs of huge smokers. One of his reels with hold braided line: this is the outfit he uses when he has to troll live baits far behind his transom in ultra-calm conditions. Like many other guides, Butch knows that the miracle of non-stretching braids permit solid hookups on far-back baits in a way monofilament cannot. Butch obtained reels with high-speed retrieve ratios of either 6:2 or 5:1 that have the capability to take up line quickly when a smoker turns and takes a sizzling run towards his boat.
As to terminal rigging of smoker outfits, Butch suggests a pair of highly sharpened 6/0 to 7/0 hooks along with the aforementioned coffee-colored wire leader setup. He also advises that when a smoker hits the live bait, strike the fish smartly to effect a good hookset. Once the fish begins its run, allow the fish to tire itself out by running a long distance on a light to medium drag setting. Too much pressure on kingfish with thirty-pound tackle-particularly braids- runs too high a risk of pulled hooks.
Tackle for smaller snake kingfish need not be of such heroic specifications. Butch uses twelve-pound class spinning tackle. The reels have a fast retrieve, smooth drags, and hold about two hundred fifty yards of line. After doubling his line, he adds a fifteen-inch leader of number four coffee-colored wire and a 4/0 or 5/0 hook. He finds these lighter rigs work well with the smaller live baits –greenies, sardines, pilchards- that snakes eat with such relish. Oftentimes, he’ll use a single hook. Regarding hook placement, trolling calls for a nose hook, top drifting calls for a dorsal hook, and deeper kingfish strikes call for belly hooking. Butch has also found that throwing smaller live chum like pilchards into the troll wash or upwind drift side of the boat can get smaller kings quite excited.
If anglers decide to troll for either small or large kings, it’s important to remember that that a good spread of lines from close in to far out maximizes the chances for strikes while alerting anglers onboard which presentations are getting the most strikes.
Kingfish have now become the most popular offshore tournament fish. They range from the Gulf of Mexico through the southeastern seaboard of the United States. The reasons for this are their accessibility, fighting prowess, and edibility. You’ll find that Florida’s Treasure Coast is a perfect place to give these speedsters a try!
CONTACT DATA:
Captain Butch Constable
Phone: 1-561-74-SNOOK
Seasport Marina
Jupiter, Florida
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