King

[jkrahl]

Alright, I really wanna try and catch a King Mac. I have not been able to get to much information other than they can be caught around CBBT and the inlets occasionally. Does anyone have any experience with them or information you would be willing to release to me?

I know it will be later in the year before they come in. Any help would be appreciated. It is basically my goal this year to catch one!
Thanks guys

[ronaultmtd]

The absolute best place to catch them is the NC Outer Banks 100 yards or so off the beach- next best place is off VA Beach a hundred or so yards off the beach with a live bait- I always used tobacco colored single strand piano wire leader and a double hook setup- I used a 4/0 short shank live bait hook with about five inches of dropper wire to a 4/0 black nickel Mustad treble hook-I placed the live bait hook behind the head of the bait close to the top of the dorsal fin under the skin in the meat deep enough to anchor the hook but not deep enough to hit the spine- the bait is frisky and unimpaired so it can swim normally- the King Mackerel is extremely fast and if the drag is set the hit can break the line or jerk the rod and reel out of the holder- I set the drag to be easily pulled out by hand and with the clicker on to prevent a backlash when the King strikes- the strike is unmistakable- one second there is nothing and then there is a loud scream of your clicker as the run takes 100 yards of line in four or five seconds- most king strikes result in skin foul hookups so you don't horse these fish or you will pull the hook free-

[Twistedfish]

King Macs

Many years ago I used to do a lot of float fishing from the Outer Banks Pier. I caught a large king and several other good fish float fishing on live bait. A couple of important things is to make sure you use piano wire and 4x strong hooks. My live bait rings used to have about 6 feet 100 pound mono to a barrel swivel where I would use a short pieces, 4 & 6", of 120 pound wire to a live bait hook. From the same barrel swivel I would put a 4x strong treble hook. Some of my rigs I would use a stinger hook if I was using large live bait.

Getting good live bait is the key. On the best days to fish with warm, clear water bait was always scarce. If you didn't catch live bait at sunrise you might not get any bait all day. The king I caught hit a 3 pound bluefish that everyone gave me a hard time about being to big. Bluefish work well because they will last so long on the hook. Bunker also work great.

In most cases its better to keep the pressure on kings light. Because they hit so fast, many times they are foul hooked in the head or gill plate. It's much easier to pull the hooks when they are not hooked in the mouth. The king I caught from the pier nearly spooled a 4/0 reel with over 400 yards on it before I turned him.

Off of OBX, if you can get a couple days of light south east winds and the water clears up so you can see the bottom in 10 or 15 feet of water you are in good king water. Best time is in early to mid June. If you fish out of Hatteras they tend to catch more kings later in the summer as well.

If you are kayak fishing for kings, be prepared for a large shark. 3 years ago I was kayak fishing and free lining live bait off Nags Head and ended up catching about a 150 pound shark. It took me about 30 minutes to get it yak side before I broke him off.

Not really any reason to fish more than half mile off the beach. Depending on where the back side of the outer bar is a good place to float baits. Typically 200-600 yards off the beach. Not only will you have a chance for kings, but also jacks, red drum and cobia. If you are fishing around Hatteras in august you also have a chance for a tarpon.

[ronaultmtd]

Yeah, you're right Twistedfish- live frisky bait is key to catching Kings, Tarpon, Jack Caravelle, Cobia, Cero and big Spanish Mackerel float fishing inshore beach waters- while there have been Kings caught at Kiptopeake, Cape Henry and around the CBBT- they are not often found inside the lower Bay. Kings are not picky about what species they eat, though- I have caught Kings on speckeled trout, pigfish, threadfin herring, small buoy jacks, tinker blues, corncob mullet, spot, grunts, pompano, and the absolute best of all baits- big Menhaden I caught throwing my cast net off the NC fishing piers when huge schools would come by. We caught the threadfin herring on a gold hook rig where you would have a bank sinker and a series of small gold hooks tied about eight inches apart with a simple overhand knot on the single strand of mono. We would jig the empty hooks next to the pilings and the herring would hit the hook. It was nothing to fill a bait bucket in a few minutes when the herring was swimming around the pilings in July and August- We could not use herring on float rigs because they would tangle you up- we used them on clothespin rigs with the herring just in the water but so they could not dive under- they would swim a few inches under the water in tight circles- I saw many a tarpon sky these little baits at the Frisco pier. During the hot King runs in early to mid October it was nothing to see 40 kings a day caught off the Frisco pier. August and September were the peak months for Tarpon and most were hooked at dusk or at sunrise-

Oh yeah- carry plenty of spare spools of line so you can re-spool after a thousand pound hammerhead spools your reels-we used to have one come by and strip every rod on the end of the pier at least once a day- we called him the "Orient Express"- he would eat one bait after another and then just swim off as if he didn't have a care in the world taking every inch of line everyone had- no matter how heavy the tackle- one Guy thought he was smart and brought out a 12/0 Penn Senator big game outfit with a thousand yards of 110 pound test dacron- Yep- stripped him, too- damn near drug him off the end of the pier with four big guys hanging on for dear life before popping the line at the bottom of the spool...we laughed till we were weak- and our ribs hurt- he was pissed-

[Twistedfish]

Kings

Ronaultmtd, your right, Sabiki rigs are great for bait. They catch everything. I have even caught a few spanish on them. It's a real shame that most of the piers on Hatteras Island are gone. I mostly fished OBX Pier but I did fish Frisco Pier and Rodanthe few times a year. I just wish I would have thought about kayak fishing back then. Was that huge hammerhead the legendary "Sam"? I have heard many stories about a huge hammerhead they called SAM around of the piers up and down OBX. I love the old pier pictures from the 50's through late 70. Some great catches.

The kings from all the OBX piers in October is really a thing of past and before my time. The numbers from Jennetts pier in September and October were just unbelievable. Over 100 kings a month. If I remember the board they had posted in the pier house, they had years where it was pushing 200 kings in September. I was talking to a guide a few years ago and asking why they catch so many kings offshore in the fall but so few shore. He explained that the offshore kings are a different stock than the inshore kings and the inshore stock was just fished out in the late 70's early 80's and have never recovered to those levels.

About 15 years ago we were fishing cape point in November and it was one of those classic rainy Hatteras fall days with great drum fishing and I did see a guy catch a 30-some pound king on a big plug and a heaver in the surf. Very cool day.

[ronaultmtd]

Ronaultmtd, your right, Sabiki rigs are great for bait. They catch everything. I have even caught a few spanish on them. It's a real shame that most of the piers on Hatteras Island are gone. I mostly fished OBX Pier but I did fish Frisco Pier and Rodanthe few times a year. I just wish I would have thought about kayak fishing back then. Was that huge hammerhead the legendary "Sam"? I have heard many stories about a huge hammerhead they called SAM around of the piers up and down OBX. I love the old pier pictures from the 50's through late 70. Some great catches.

The kings from all the OBX piers in October is really a thing of past and before my time. The numbers from Jennetts pier in September and October were just unbelievable. Over 100 kings a month. If I remember the board they had posted in the pier house, they had years where it was pushing 200 kings in September. I was talking to a guide a few years ago and asking why they catch so many kings offshore in the fall but so few shore. He explained that the offshore kings are a different stock than the inshore kings and the inshore stock was just fished out in the late 70's early 80's and have never recovered to those levels.

About 15 years ago we were fishing cape point in November and it was one of those classic rainy Hatteras fall days with great drum fishing and I did see a guy catch a 30-some pound king on a big plug and a heaver in the surf. Very cool day.

I was a hard core fisherman back in the late 1970's- started out surf fishing the Outer Banks and then migrated to the piers- had season pier passes at both the Rodanthe and Frisco Piers every year for five consecutive years- We fished the ends of the piers for big game fish and were "regulars" and spent the entire weekend on the pier- I had a customized - 75 Ford Econoline Van (302 V-8 with a stickshift) with a bed in the back- it was my traveling hotel room- made my own custom pier rods- bought the blanks from Beans Henley at the 19th Street Tackle shop in VA Beach- Frank "the Net" Whealton made my custom 20 foot hand tied cast net with fast sinking weights to capture menhaden in deeper waters- back in 1976 it cost me $225- paid for itself in one weekend catch mullet- I had two main pier outfits- a ten foot long surf rod with an Abu 10,000-C reel loaded with 325 yards of 25# pink Ande mono and another custom 10 foot conventional surf rod with an Abu 9000C with 275 yards of 25 # pink Ande mono- I bought the 4 pound spools of line from the Tackle Shop- my popping rod was a Abu 6500C3 with 14 pound test clear Ande- used it for casting Sea Hawks and shorty hopkins and catching live bait- my biggest King Mackerel off Frisco was a 43 pounder caught in early October on a tinker bluefish- best Rodanthe Red Drum was 62# weighed and released alive, best Bluefish was a 19 pounder caught off the Va Beach Steel Pier in 1977, best pier shark was a 220 pound 11 foot Lemon Shark caught off Frisco on my Ambassadeur 10000c 25# outfit on a spot head....been there; done that- Won the second annual VA Beach King Neptune Fishing Tournament with a 22 pound King Mackerel caught off of the Va Beach Wooden pier- Fished the major tournaments for 10 years, but I quit fishing tournaments- too competitive and cut throat for my tastes. Now, I just fish for fun and table fare...

PS- that Hammerhead was famous- everyone knew about it in the late 70's- it was called many names- Freight Train- Orient Express- Sam, El-Diablo- it hit Rodanthe about noon to one o'clock every day- as soon as someone saw it I would reel my stuff in- the hardheads lost theirs...

[jkrahl]

Hey guys thanks for all the info! So it sounds like drifting in front of the beach live linning is the ticket! Also no garuntees on what I will catch I guess. I heard a rod spooled with around 400+ yards is necessary and obviously steel leader. I wil do some more research this year and give it a try.

I had a run in with a King in Mexico. Had two small blackfin tuna on the line (5 - 10 pounds) By the time I got them to the boat they had both been chomped in half cleanly. The captain said it was a King that grabbed them. At the moment I decided I wanted to catch one of those!

[MDFishin]

SAWEET! Im heading to Nags head June 17th I plan on spending a majority of my time right off the beach in my yak, casting and soaking baits. From what you guys are saying, it should be a good week