Captain’s Corner for June 10 Dave Zalewski 397-8815

It appears that we may have a great summertime fishery for Kingfish just like we had in 2008. Looking back at some trip records from that period revealed that we had a population of kingfish that stayed in our area for the entire summer instead of continuing their migration to the Panhandle. Here it is June and we have been able to target kingfish in several areas instead of them being an incidental catch while bottom fishing. The 10 Fathom curve (60 feet of water) with its numerous ledges, jumbled rock areas and wrecks is holding the majority of the bait and kings.
Tactics:
Many of the fish that we are catching have been below the surface, halfway to the bottom or deeper picking off stragglers from the huge bait piles of Spanish sardines, hardtails and blue runners. Catching the bait with sabiki rigs using a 3 or 4 ounce sinker to prevent these larger baits from tangling the rig has been relatively easy. Presenting the baits is a little more complex. Downriggers can be used with a clip near the weight to present a bait near the bottom. A 2 to 4 ounce trolling weight can be used to present a bait in the mid range and a nose hooked bait can be deployed on the surface. A stinger rig should be used no matter what depth one is fishing. Initial light drag settings should be employed to prevent break offs on the strike.
Tips
Always slow troll around the bait piles with the lines far enough out so that they will pass through the bait instead of the boat which will tend to separate the bait into smaller schools.. These bait piles may not be visible from the surface, so place close attention to your depth finder to locate sub surface schools.