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HOW KINGFISH RELATE TO WATER CLARITY
Fishing In close to the beaches can present a "King Size" problem when confronted with a wide variety of water clarity conditions.
by Terry Lacoss

It was early June and the beginning day of the St. Augustine Florida, 'King Buster" king mackerel tournament. Northeast Florida had seen only a few drops of rain during the past few months. Southern Kingfish Association team boats that passed through the St. Augustine inlet during the first day of the popular SKA "Open Division" event, were soon greeted by blue green ocean waters, that normally belong in the Florida Keys.

In contrast to previously held King Buster events, the majority of the entries took a northerly bearing after passing through the no wake zone. The word was out, the better numbers of kingfish were holding north of St. Augustine and some even as far as Georgia waters.

Running along the beaches of St. Augustine, schools of bait fish began to flip close to the surface as the sun began to send beads of bright sunlight on the calm, Atlantic ocean. Small pods of menhaden were easy to spot in the ultra clear surf, but catching them in a 10-12 foot cast net would soon become a great challenge.

In most cases the surf is often a little more discolored than the nearby ocean waters, hiding the kingfish boats from the pods of baits. But this morning, the many tight pods of menhaden simply ran away or scattered when a large kingfish boat approached. Needless to say, the many skilled fishing boats soon switched their fishing tactics and began to drift towards the pods of bait, tossing their large cast nets over a unsuspecting pod of menhaden.

Soon, the successful kingfish teams were once again headed for thier favorite kingfish waters, while a handful of other boats had yet to unlock the secret of catching menhaden in ultra clear water.

For the first hour of tournament fishing, the vhf radio was dead silent. Then the silence was broken by a kingfish boat that was too agar to hold it's fishing secret.

"We just boated a nice kingfish", the tournament boat announced. 'We hope this fish will weigh thirty pounds, but more than likely we will settle for a high twenty pound kingfish. Several other kingfish boats are hooked up close by. You may want to head this way, we are fishing where we told you we would be earlier this morning. Have you had any luck yet?"

Now that the secret was out, several other kingfish boats began to share their morning success on the vhf radio. Other teams relied on their cell phones to communicate with other fishing teams.

By late morning, over a hundred kingfish boats were now fishing an area off from the Jacksonville beaches, which is called the "Red Tops". Ironically, during the 1997 "King Buster" king mackerel tournament, several of the winning fish were also caught from this very same area.

As the late morning bite continued, a flood tide pushed even cleaner ocean waters up close to the beaches of the "Red Tops" . Contacted earlier by cell Phone, the "Wave Runner", Donzi fishing team came racing from the north in hopes of catching the bite before the fish moved on.

"We figured that most of the big fish were coming from 30- feet of water and close in to the beach with the flood tide," said captain Steve Shook. "We ,also knew that the fish would be real spooky with the ultra clean waters and the numbers of kingfish boats that were already here. With this in mind, we dropped down to eight pound test monofilament fishing line and hooks that most people would fish for bream with!"

Dropping a frisky menhaden down to fifteen feet of water, with a down rigger, Shook's fishing team soon hooked up to a monster of a kingfish. Later at the St. Augustine, "King Buster", tournament scales, the "Wave Dancer" fishing team weighed in the winning kingfish, at 42 lbs.!

I think this is a great attribute to the "Wave Dancer" fishing team for being able to adjust their fishing tactics from catching kingfish with thirty pound test fishing lines in the Gulf of Mexico, to scaling down to eight pound test in the ultra clear waters of St. Augustine, Florida.

Water clarity is definitely a major factor when determining the size fishing tackle and baits that will attract a winning kingfish. Water clarity also can attract big schools of kingfish and often times, run them away from your favorite fishing hole. And often times, it is a combination of clean, dingy and dirty waters that often provide the best king mackerel fishing conditions.

"During the fall fishing season, off from Hatteras, "Spin Offs" from the Gulf Stream move in close to shore, often times with twelve miles offshore," said Brad Clark. These ultra clear water conditions often offers the best king mackerel fishing conditions of the year, especially for kingfish in the 50-60 pound class. Forty pound fish are caught on a regular basis."

"Some of the best king mackerel fishing often comes when these clear water spin off's pass over a hard bottom. The water temperature here, is normally 72.3 degrees, while the surrounding water temperature, close to the spin off, may be in the sixties."

During the North Carolina fall fishing season, the big kings are normally quite aggressive when found in these clear water spin offs. And in many king mackerel fishing conditions, you won't need to size down your fishing tackle when fishing for these giant kingfish.

"We have found that the fall run of kingfish are really aggressive in their feeding habits," said Brad. "My father, Linwood and I, normally fish with twenty pound test fishing lines, size five wire and 4-2 size treble hooks. Some Hatteras king mackerel fishermen use 25-30 pound class fishing tackle!"

"However when we travel to Florida's, St. Pete kingfish waters, we have found that we will need to down size our fishing tackle in order to entice these clear water kingfish to bite. Often times we will down size our fishing lines to 12-15 pound test, our wire size also is down sized to #3-4 and our hook size is dropped to sizes 6-4 trebles."

Linwood Clark and son Brad fish competitively on the Southern Kingfish Association tournament trail with their 30' ZF Donzi, "Thumpin".

In general, clear ocean waters are often sought after by the majority of king mackerel fishing teams. Keeping in mind that the sun will warm up clear water before it warms up dirty water. Here the warm rays of the sun are able to penetrate clear ocean waters, where dirty water conditions often reflect the rays of the sun.

Although kingfish are well adapted in finding bait fish in dirty water conditions, because of their very sensitive lateral lines, they also have very strong vision as well. Here it is quite obvious, that when given the chose, kingfish will more than likely choose clear water to feed in over stained water conditions.

However king mackerel fishermen are often faced with a variety of water clarity conditions, during a full day of king fishing. With the changing of tides, currents, winds and sea conditions, the clarity of ocean waters also change as well.

One of the most productive water clarity conditions often exists when tide lines are present at your favorite king mackerel fishing hole. When dirty waters from inlets and beaches meet clear ocean waters, this normally sets up fantastic opportunities for hooking up to great king mackerel fishing.

These distinct tide lines, also referred to as "Color Changes", will often attract good numbers of bait fish that are attracted to the plentiful supply of plankton that are found in the dark side of the color change. Naturally, kingfish will often move in to feed on the bait fish, particularly when tide lines are located close to inlet mouths, or pass over bottom structures.

And in many cases, there will also be a water temperature increase on the clear side of the tide line. This also adds to the attraction of bait-fish schools and ultimately, good numbers of kingfish.

During the recently held, 1998 King Buster" king mackerel tournament, David Vining also found the importance of reading the present water clarity.

"We were slow trolling menhaden and ribbon fish in close to the beaches, just south of Jacksonville, when we found clean water and my Humminbird surface water temperature meter, showed a 81.4 degree surface water temperature said Vining. "After catching a few kingfish in the low twenties, the water temperature began to drop to 79 degrees, I also noted that the water conditions also became slightly stained."

"After fishing another hour, without any action, we determined that it was time to move. So we ran north to the mouth of the St. John's inlet. There, we found clean water and 81.6 degree water temperatures. As we slow trolled our kingfish baits close to a very defined tide line, we were amazed that very few kingfish boats were presently fishing these famous kingfish waters:'

Within minutes after arriving at the mouth of the St. John's inlet, David Vining and his SKA team Baja boat, "Total Package", hooked up to a 32 lb. kingfish that put them in the top of the King Buster leader board.

Keeping in mind the wide variety of water conditions that may present themselves, during a full day of king mackerel fishing, skilled king mackerel fishermen will need to adjust the size of their tackle and fishing waters if they hope to hook up to a speedy kingfish. With this in mind, most successful king mackerel fishing teams will have on board a variety of different weight fishing tackle when targeting both dingy and clear water conditions.

Like the Wave Runner fishing team, you may have to down size your tackle to eight pound test when targeting spooky kingfish and clear water conditions. On the flip side of the coin, when fishing for the fall run of aggressive, Hatteras kingfish, you may wish to select 20-30 pound class tackle to harness the aggressive appetite of fall kingfish.

Another solution to this age old fishing problem, is splicing a 10-15 foot section of fishing line to the tag end of your terminal fishing line. Here you can increase or decrease the size of your fishing line, while attaching this long section of lighter or heavier fishing line with a blood knot.

Kingfish rigs should be tied up in advance, in a variety of hook and leader sizes, to accommodate the existing water conditions and the aggressive feeding patterns of kingfish.