Good God it doesn't get much better than catching big King fish on the beach, and I mean Big Kingfish...within a mile of the beach! Most charter boats in the Tampa area would have canceled this past Sunday because of a 'small craft advisory' for high offshore winds. I like to give my clients the real option, “we can always set camp on some good bottom nearshore St.Pete Beach, chum the water real good, add a few lively baitfish and wait for the excitement to come to us.” Well, Jean Murphy, husband Mike, and young boys Kayden and Corvin were in for just that, and the excitement definetly followed!
After our usual stop at the 'bait market', Jon secured a nice livewell full of 'greenbacks' and 'threadies' and we were on our way, once again. Only 15 minutes later and we were on the hook and getting the chum line started. It took a full 20 minutes before we even had our first bite, and it was lost in a flash. The water was a bit dirty and I knew it would take serious chum efforts to make it happen. In little time we had the Spanish mackerel fired up, and with that, they became both fish box fodder and bait. And the 'macks' worked just fine as the latter...we almost got completely smoked and spooled by a classic 'smoker' Kingfish. This fish took every bit of line before the drag was tightened to being locked, forcing the massive King to turn....whew! It was whipped and so was our young angler, Kayden. Check him out above, with a trophy Kingfish for sure!
All of this action in one, short, 4-hour fishing charter out of Pass-a-Grille and it doesn't even end there. No, we have to make mention of young brother, Corvin, and his even bigger Barracuda that, mate, Jon West was so dilligent in enticing to our Spanish offerings. This huge Barracuda can be seen in our photo galley, along with Corvin, for another classic memory....on the Jawbreaker. Happy fishing, Capt.Dan