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“First Bait Out Wins”
Successful king mackerel teams reach their targeted kingfish waters in a timely manner and the first bait out normally wins the tournament!
By: Terry Lacoss
“The early morning kingfish bite is definitely when our “AT&T Real Yellow Pages” kingfish team needs to be at our targeted kingfish waters,” Kenny Crawford said. “While several kingfish boats are chasing down menhaden and similar kingfish baits, we have already purchased our kingfish baits earlier that morning and speeding towards our fishing waters.”
“If we have located kingfish in water depths of 80 feet and deeper, we will purchase a couple of dozen blue runners. If we are fishing in shallow water depths for kingfish, less than 80 feet of water, we will purchase a couple of dozen goggle eyes, along with at least twelve cutlass fish.”
Kenny Crawford hales from Yulee Florida and has enjoyed great success on the Southern Kingfish Association tournament trails, particularly during the 2007 tournament season. Wins this year include Florida’s St. Augustine Ancient City Kingfish Challenge and Darien Georgia’s Captain Hap’s kingfish tournaments.
“It seems like all of the big tournament-winning kingfish this year have been caught first thing in the morning when there is still a chop on the water,” Kenny Crawford explains. “During the St. Augustine kingfish tournament, we had the winning kingfish in the fish bag by 7:20 in the morning. Our winning kingfish in the Darien Georgia kingfish tournament was also caught first thing in the morning as well.”
A new trend that has been growing in popularity during the past few Southern Kingfish Association kingfish tournaments includes purchasing kingfish baits at the tournament site. Here, live bait vendors often show up at many of the popular boat ramps early that morning and often, hours before safe light and when checkout begins for that particular SKA event.
Both goggle eyes and blue runners are often available for $10.00 each, or $120.00 per dozen. Prices do change with the increase in demand and the availability of these premier kingfish baits.
Cutlass fish, also called ribbonfish, are also great kingfish baits and can be purchased long before the check-out for a scheduled SKA event begins. Ribbonfish sell from $2.00 to $6.00 each. While it varies as to how many ribbonfish should be purchased for a full day of SKA tournament king mackerel fishing, typically most king mackerel teams will have on board at least a dozen ribbonfish. If the kingfish bite is really hot and heavy, tournament teams may store up to two dozen ribbonfish in their boat’s cooler or fish bag.
“I have several standing orders for ribbonfish,” Don Whitman of Leaders & Sinkers bait and tackle shop said. “Some of my king mackerel fishermen will purchase up to one hundred ribbonfish, while others will purchase 200 ribbonfish. They will store them in large freezers and use them throughout the kingfish tournament season”.
“We purchased twelve ribbonfish, six goggle eyes and six blue runners this year during the AT&T Real Yellow Pages Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament,” captain Jim Wormhoudt said. “After checking out from the St. Mary’s inlet, we ran straight to the Nassau Sound and began trolling our ribbonfish and live baits both deep and with downriggers and on the surface as flat lines.”
“During the first day of the tournament, we landed nine kingfish weighing to 27 pounds. Most of the kings hit early that morning, including our largest kingfish. During the second and final day of the tournament, we once again ran straight to our fishing waters while most kingfish boats were still trying to net menhaden along the surf. Our first kingfish was a 34-pound mackerel which landed our “Clean Sweep” fishing team fifth place aggregate in the world’s largest kingfish tournament!”
However, the key to winning money in any Southern Kingfish Association king mackerel tournament is knowing where the big kingfish are holding. It doesn’t pay to check out of an inlet and speed to your targeted kingfish waters if you and your fishing team are not one hundred percent sure that you will have an excellent chance in landing a heavy kingfish from these waters.
“Knowing people that you trust is the key to finding the best kingfish waters,” Kenny Crawford said. “We work with just a few charter captains and fellow SKA teams that are very reliable as to the right information.”
“Once we have determined where to fish, we run straight to that spot after checking out. During the St. Augustine Kingfish Tournament, we arrived at an offshore kingfish haven at 7:00 o’clock in the morning. I dip netted a large blue runner and began free lining the kingfish bait way back to start our traditional kingfish spread while other team members rigged baits and readied for our day of king fishing. The live blue runner was about half way out when a huge fish hit the live bait. I really thought it was a large wahoo, as the fish ran hard and deep. After a 15-minute battle, the fish began to tire and was running deep under the boat. I gave the rod to Trip Fletcher while I stuck our boat’s longest kingfish gaff deep and gaffed the fish.”
In many situations of landing kingfish all fishermen see is the shape of the fish and some shimmering light on the side of the fish and not enough light to identify which
specie of game fish that has been hooked.
“At this point I really didn’t know if we had hooked a kingfish or wahoo. I still thought it was a wahoo as I sank the gaff deep into the side of the fish. However when I brought the fish up closer to the surface, we all saw that it was a “Big Mack” and it was only 7:20 in the morning”!
At the Ancient City Game Fish Association’s Kingfish Challenge tournament scales, the AT&T Real Yellow Pages tournament boat beat all challengers with a 53.2-pound king mackerel and set a new tournament record.
However the biggest early morning win during the 2007 SKA tournament season came when Yulee, Florida’s Bear Croft and his Bear Caught fishing team ran straight offshore some six-miles off Amelia Island during the 2007 AT&TT Real Yellow Pages Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament.
While other teams were having a difficult time securing live baits, Bear Croft had secured enough live baits ahead of time and was well prepared. Once again the successful SKA tournament team ran straight to their targeted kingfish waters and began free lining goggle eyes in 60 feet of water. Literally moments after a full spread of live baits were strategically positioned in a positive kingfish live bait spread, a massive king mackerel struck one of the surface live baits.
Twenty-five minutes later Bear Croft, a sizeable man that you would always hope to be on your team, reeled his catch within gaffing distance. Ed Mecchella, a past SKA Top Angler of the Year, was ready with the gaff and sank the steel point of the gaff deep into the side of a “submarine” sized king mackerel!
“Rick Dopson helped in loading our kingfish bag with both Bear’s huge kingfish and finally iced it down,” team member, Debby Portier said. “However we learned our lesson during the 2005 Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament when we had to take second place, even with a 46.10-pound kingfish. So instead of running to the weigh-in site, we continued to fish!”
Ironically, the Ancient City Kingfish Challenge, The Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament and the Darien Captain Hap’s Kingfish tournaments were all won by Yulee and Fernandina Beach kingfish teams and also won within the first 30-minutes of fishing and on the first day of the tournament!
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