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KING MACKEREL
(and to some extent, closer to the beach, Spanish)
68-72 degrees they start to show up.
They are sight and hearing feeders. They are beginning to become resident fish year round at oil rigs.
Look for structure and bait....blue runners. Look for emerald green water.
Run and Gun......cover as many spots as possible till you find them, oil rig hopping, basically.
Gulf kings, use #7 stinger wire leaders to a 5/0 nose hook and a #2 treble. Big blue runners as bait, might need two trebles. Use with a 100lb mini swivel.
East Coast, scale down the terminal tackle a bit.
Aslo, try diamond jigs @ 30' down oil rig legs.
Use ribbon fish on downriggers.
Always slow troll, light drags and let the fish have the hard first run then they usually come on in.
One suggested outfit: 7' light action tip roller guide rod, Penn 300 Torques with braid, 20lb mono top shot and fluro leader connected by blood knot.
I like to catch small kings to eat...usually less than 33 inches, a fat 29 incher tastes best. Gotta fry them up, easier to catch them with Strech 30's and cigar minnows.
For bigger macks, live blue runners and ribbon fish are standard.
Good fishing late May-July without having to go too far off shore.
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