As reported last week, Kingfishing in the Tampa Bay area is 'full on' right now, especially along the Gulf beaches. Fishing out of John's Pass and along St.Pete Beach has been about as far as we've had to venture to successfully target these toothy torpedoes. Monday's fishing trip was all about catching the monster-sized Kingfish....tournament style!
Jawbreaker fishing charters had the day off on Monday and what better way to spend the day than go fishing? As a matter of fact, getting up at 4a.m. is so much easier when you don't really have to do it. Anyway, joining me was Jawbreaker first-mate, Jon West, and my 21 year old nephew, Kevin Barry. Kevin is an offshore fisherman in training-Jon and I agreed that a strong, young back is a real asset on the boat and we would let Kevin fight all of the fish....especially the Sharks!
We started out with bait catching rituals and, once again, Jon's net throwing skills completely filled the livewell with only a few throws. A quick ride out of Pass-a-Grille and into St.Pete Beach put us on the hook, and fishing, as the Sun just started to color the sky. Perfect! Little Kev got a lesson on cutting chum and Jon was deploying live Sardines out behind the boat in anticipation of the 'smoker' King that we came for. Within minutes we had a fish on, and I was sure that it was the one until it turned into a Spinner Shark(Black-Tip) and put on an aerial show before finally breaking the thin, 15 pound test line. Oh well, it was good practice for our young apprentice and as it turns out, it was the first of 4 Sharks hooked that day.
We definetly put in our time and after losing several big strikes, and putting a few very large Spanish mackerel in the fish box, we finally had a good fish on the line. Of course this Kingfish had to hit the lightest line in our mix, an ultra-light with 12# test and the smallest greenback I could find in the livewell, hooked with a 2/0 long shanked j-hook and 25# mono leader. More impressive than that, to me anyway, was that this fish would have spooled the small 4000 series spinning reel if it did'nt get attacked by a Shark first....which it did! It gets better though-the Shark only removed the Kingfish's head, missing the hook by a ½ inch. The small 2/0 was hooked into the King's neck and it was just a matter of reeling in dead weight from there...literally. Check out my nephew, Kevin, with Monday morning's destiny fish.(pic above) The headless Kingfish already bled, courtesy of a large Black-tip Shark which, I believe, was the next fish on the line. After bringing in the King, Kevin fought a Black-tip Shark for over 30 minutes before bringing it boatside for a few pictures...this fish was well over 150 pounds and 6 feet long. Good job Kev, and good introduction to the real 'salt life'.
Fishing with friends and family...aaahh, the good life for sure! Happy fishing folks, Capt.Dan