King Mackerel-Clearwater kingfish charters, Tampa Bay kingfish charters, Florida Kingfish charters

Kingfish charters, Charters for Kingfish 

Kingfish feeding Frenzies while fishing the Florida Beaches

Each spring and fall the coastal waters of Tampa Bay Florida come alive with a famous seasonal run of migrating kingfish (also known as king mackerel), Spanish Mackerel, cobia, bonito and five foot blacktip sharks.  All of these high speed sport fish, along with a host of others, work thier way up the West coast of Florida following a transitional water temperature and its associated massive influx of bait fish. And with the bait come the kingfish, lots of kingfish. Tens of thousands of kingfish

When the water is in the seventies, which usually occurs from March thru April and again from October thru November, the king fish action just off from the beach can be absolutely incredible. On cool mornings in the spring and fall, we run out a few miles off the beach to see what the kings have cooking for us. At this time it is very common to find churning, foaming, frenzied schools of kingfish as well as spanish mackerel and bonito gobbling up the dense schools minnows. Birds of all shapes and sizes join the fray and make locating the sport fish simple. When this bite is on, charter fishing simply does not get any better. As a light tackle fishing charter operation, we always target these fish with the most sporting gear possible. For casting at the frenzies we usually pitch jigs or small spoons on 10 pound spinning rods and sometimes even use fly tackle. When its like this, all you have to do is land your lure or live bait in the foam ball and a bite is all but assured. Kingfish and mackerel will literally leap from the water hitting anything resembled a shiny minnow.

Lurking around these swarms of baitish are the bigger kingfish known in kingfish circles as "smokers". These giant kings are sometimes sighted launching out of the water with Spanish mackerel in their mouths.
Before long we shift from the mackerel and bonito bite to slow trolling live mackerel for the monster kings. Due to the size of the bait, 1 to 3 pounds, we up the tackle from 10 to 20 pound test and use high speed conventional reels on specialized tournament kingfish rods. The kingfish we catch this way are almost always big. Seldom does anything under 20 pounds strike a live mackerel. Many are in the 3 to 40 pound class and we catch a few over the 40 pond mark. Nothing peels drag like a big kingfish. 150 yard runs requiring a full scale chase with the boat happen all the time.

School kings

Perhaps the most fun way to capitalize on the seasonal kingfish runs is to target the “schoolies”. These smaller kingfish (typically in the 8 to 16 pound class) usually travel together in vast schools. When we find the schools we anchor the boat, deploy both live and ground chum and let the fireworks begin. For this we go back to 10 pound spinning gear and fly rods. Often hundreds of kingfish can be seen below the boat and it is all we can do to keep the rods rigged and baited. When we have them going they eat everything in the water every time. When it’s finally over (usually when we burn thru all 1000 baits) the gear is usually twisted, tangled, and broken off but everyone is happy. Tossing handfuls of live sardines around the boat can be almost as entertaining as actually fishing as the feisty kingfish leap from the water to feed on the misplaced minnows.

Tournament kingfishing-looking for the smokers

When catching the single biggest fish is what matters the most, we again switch gears. To land the bigest of all the kings in this area we slow troll a spread of 4 big live baits such as ladyfish, bluefish, blue runners, mullet or mackerel, in an area we suspect is holding the biggest kingfish on the coast that day. Most of these baits are 1 to 3 pounds. This type of fishing is not for everyone, as it does not typically provide very fast action but it is a proven way to catch the really big ones. We regularly place in the top 10 of local kingfish the tournaments we enter. Tournament page For the serious angler, we do offer special packages to hire our boat for tournaments of any kind. If you would like to join us on our Florida sport fishing charter please drop us an email or give us a Call at (727) 944-FISH (3474) today to book your Florida sport fishing guide. We do suggest booking as far in advance as possible.

Kingfish seasons

Out kingfish runs are highly seasonal so be sure you check dates before setting up a trip to target them. For the most part the kingfish are in our waters in March-April and then again in the fall from October-November. Sometimes there are abberations on the runs and we find king in December or even at the end of February so send us an email and we will give you the current heads up on exactly what it going on with the fish on a daily basis. We'lll always give you all of the alternative of target species that are possible for your upcoming trip and give you a reccomendation on how to run the day. If you are set on a particular species thats fine by us just let us know and we will direct the effort toward your prefered fish of choice.