Fishing Action For Kings Is Smoking In 40-70 Feet Of Water

Capt. Larry McGuire of Show Me the Fish Charters out of the Bradenton Beach Marina reported anglers on his custom 31-foot Morgan sportfish are catching gag and red grouper, kingfish, Spanish mackerel, cobia, amberjack and mangrove, yellowtail and lane snappers, as well as blacktip and other sharks.

“Action is hot starting at 40 feet to 70 feet for the kings.” McGuire said. “I prefer to anchor up on a honey hole loaded with grouper and snapper catching all those tasty bottom fish and then deploy a chum block and wait for the king mack attack on the flatlines. Someone asked, 'How do you find kingfish?' I always joke about that: we don't look for smoker kings; they look for us.”

McGuire said with a good chum slick going on the kings do just that.

“Once the kings are around the boat we catch them on spoons, Gotcha lures and variety of live baits using blue runners and cigar minnows as desert for the smokers,” he said. “On one trip we had huge kingfish hiding under the boat trying to eat our Spanish mackerel we were reeling in. So I had to send him back out on a stinger rig with larger hooks and then it was on — a 35-pound smoker screaming the reel and later in the boat.”

McGuire suggests always keeping a flatline out with a large live bait.

Offshore out past 100 feet on the wrecks, springs and large ledges McGuire reported his parties are catching limit catches of amberjacks some monster mangrove snappers, yellowtail snappers, cobia, big sharks and nice red grouper.

“For the firetruck red grouper best bite is out about 130 feet using large pinfish,” he said. “When the grouper bite slows, then I down-sizing my tackle to 25-pound test and sardines for all the snappers you want. During spring and early summer anything can happen from limit catches of speckled trout available in the bay.”

Finally, he added Spanish mackerel are all down the beaches.