September has arrived and the bigger kingfish will be arriving on their journey to the south. Kingfish are a great fish to target for some good rod bending action and blistering runs. These fish will be found from just off the beach around the bait schools to the 80-to-90 foot depths in our Treasure Coast waters.
There are many methods to catching kingfish. These fish will hit live trolled baits, as well as shiny trolled lures and big lipped diving lures. The preferred method of most kingfish anglers and tournament professionals is live bait trolling. Kingfish will eat a large variety of live baits such as greenies, pilchards, sardines and big blue runners, which can all be found in our local waters. After obtaining some live baits, go to your favorite area with structure or ledges, or find the bait schools off the beach. The kingfish should not be hard to find in these areas.
Kingfish are very toothy fish so you will want to have your baits rigged with a wire leader and a “stinger rig.” For a stinger rig, you will attach your main hook in the nose of your live bait with another short piece of wire from the main hook to a treble hook in the mid-section or near the tail of your bait. Kingfish hardly ever eat the whole bait on the first strike, so two hooks on the bait will increase your chances for a hookup. This being said, a light drag is essential because a lot of times a kingfish will get foul hooked and a light drag with steady pressure will keep from pulling the hook out.
If you don’t have any live baits, you can troll diving lip lures or flashy spoons (also known as drones). I would still recommend using a wire leader on lures. As with any lure or live bait trolling for kingfish, cover the water column from the surface to down deep by using a down rigger, if available, or a planer.
Big kingfish put up a great fight, are a great trophy and are tasty smoked or smoked and made into fish smack. Smaller kingfish put up a good fight but are the better size for grilling or broiling. If you look online, you can find a lot of different recipes for various ways of cooking this fish.
If the weather and seas this month allow, another rod bending idea is to head out to the deeper waters early and look for the shrimp boats that will anchor up in 150 feet depths and beyond. Trolling live baits and lures around the shrimp boats can yield some blackfin tuna or even some mahi-mahi. The shrimp boats will be tossing by-catch as the sun is rising and fish will be eating.
Please know and abide by the state and federal regulations for the fish you are targeting. Catch ‘em up!
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