[Sea-r-cy]

Yesterday I saw my first skyrocking king. :clap It was between 4 and 5 feet long, was less than 200' from the boat. By far the largest living kingI'd seen. We had been chumming, already had 5 kings in the box. The day was late, the big one never bit. We were over a really nice piece of bottom.

My question: is it likely the king will stay in the area? Thursday shows to be a good monkey boat day, thinking about starting early and bring a lot of chum to the same area. Sea-r-cy

 

[John B.]

not really, they are pelagics, and like all pelagics, the move around depending on bait, structure, water clarity and temperture...

the best thing to do would be go to the edge ar a bottom spot, and drift some big live baits... BIG is the key word here.

 

[reelfinatical]

I agree with the above post.. There are a lot of factors that affect big King bites.Fishing for them further offshore rightnowis a good bet forthe biggersmokers. It's not impossible to catch a big onenearshore(nothing is ever impossible), but the majority of them are usually offshore right now..especially consideringthis red tide.With no bait to keep them full, they'll continue to move.In NC, we also went by the magicwater temps of68-72*.

 

[John B.]

be on the west side of 3-mile in the channel at daylight tomorrow morning, and float the biggest live mullet you can get...

you're bound to hook a big king.

 

[gmoney]

individual fish dont generally stay in the same area, for the reasons mentioned above. however if you find a good spot that seems to be holding fish then chances are that the next time you go to that spot in a similar situation (ie time of year, time of day, water temp ect) that you will find kings there again. out of destin alot of the kingfishing is done over broken bottem and the South East rocks and its really very dependable. However with cold weather setting in the kings will likely be farther offshore. A run to the edge is the most likely spot, however dont over look little drop offs and shelves as you head out, especially if you can find a nice rip on the surface. double that if said rip happens to be 1-2 degrees warmer than the surrounding waters you can also increase your chances at a larger king by using a downrigger or some other method to get your bait down in the water, usually start halfway down and work down from there. And as the other posters said, if you want a big king use a big bait. lady fish, spanish makeral, bluefish are all good baits that usually arent to hard to come by this time of the year, and it seems that most of the blues and ladyfish survived the redtide just fine.

 

[jack 'em]

:clap You couldnt have said it any better.....