Nearshore King Mackerel Fishing off Jacksonville, Florida

Summer is a great time to catch King Mackerel (aka Kingfish) off the east coast. We are fishing in Northeast Florida today and June is a great time to fish for King Mackerel close to the beach. King Fish can be found 50 miles or more off the coast in this area or as close as the beach during the Summer. In fact, many people catch Kingfish right off the pier. A common baitfish to use for Kingfish off Jacksonville is the Pogey (aka Menhaden). These baits can be caught with a cast net and kept in a livewell to use throughout the day. They don't live as well as cigar minnows or blue runner but the Kingfish do love them.

We started fishing a few miles off the beach at a popular live bottom area. We typically troll 5 lines. 2 lines on the down riggers, two lines off each side of the T-Top rod holders, and one line just past the prop wash off the transom rod holder. We started close to the beach because the winds were strong out of the West. By the noon though, the winds laid down, and we went a couple miles further off the beach. The bite was hot in the morning and then again at noon.

We use a mix of rod and reels but generally they are 20 class reels for holding 400 to 500 yards of 20 lb mono, with an 8 foot leader of 25 lb or 30 lb flouro, and then about 18" of 60 lb seven strand wire to keep the sharp teeth of the kingfish from biting through. I like to use a stinger rig, where there is a small #2 j-hook that goes into the nose of the bait and then a #6 or #4 treble hook that trails behind in case the Kingfish short strikes the bait.

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