Kings of May return

[Sam]

JENSEN BEACH — May's full moon annually brings together two groups in Treasure Coast offshore waters — kingfish and kingfishermen. Since the beginning of the Gulf Stream, migrating schools of king mackerel worked their way north from the Florida Keys to north Florida. The fish gather in spawning aggregations over reefs following schools of smaller fish.



For decades, commercial king mackerel fishermen have tuned into those migratory patterns, capitalizing on a concentrated body of fish. Although commercial fishermen still target the kings, it's the kingfish tournament circuits that time their operations to coincide with large king mackerel making their way up the Florida coastline. Wednesday's full moon kicks off the area fishing tournament season. Thursday is the captain's meeting for the Frances Langford Memorial Fishing Tournament. A total of five offshore and inshore events will fish through the weekend.Kingfish will be one of those species most sought-after as the Langford event includes about 80 boats competing on the Southern Kingfish Association's Yamaha Professional Kingfish Tour."Hotel rooms and marina slips are filling up across the area," said Jim Sharfschwerdt, tournament director for the second annual event hosted by the Jensen Beach Chamber of Commerce. "Everyone's really excited to start fishing."

Although two lucrative tours have been built around kingfish, the fish still is a classic line-peeling, drag-screaming rod bender able to please even the most novice of anglers. This time of year, the Treasure Coast is one of the best places in the world to get out and have some king-size fun. "Kingfish can be caught all over the place," said Tracy Steele of Port St. Lucie, a former tournament angler who fished for them commercially most of his life. Steele said anglers can locate schooling kingfish by paying close attention to the depth finder. "A mark of kings will appear as an elevated arch and will mark in the top third of the water column," he said. "It'll look like a comma laying on its side." Many fish in a school will be in the 10- to 25-pound range. The best depths are between 25 and 90 feet of water. Places like the Loran Tower Ledge, the Kingfish Hole, the Kingfish Numbers, the Offshore Bar, Bethel Shoal, Thomas Shoal and The Pines will hold fish through the summer.


Large ones will be more solitary or isolated. "Wrecks will typically hold one or two large females," Steele said. "While any bait will get a bite from a king, the big ones tend to prefer a quality, large bait like a blue runner or ribbonfish." Steele admitted that a 56-pound kingfish caught last week aboard his boat Mack Daddy did take a small live sardine. Sharfschwerdt, who has fished for kings in tournaments for the past 15 years, said finding warm water and watching satellite forecast imagery is important to kingfish success.


"We subscribe to Roffer's or Hilton's or even watch the free satellite sea surface temperature images to figure out where we're headed," he said. "For example, cold water moved into Fort Pierce this week that wasn't there a week ago." Slow trolling fresh lively baits is probably the most widely accepted method for catching kings. And when it comes to which baits, Ron Mitchell of Port St. Lucie's Bandit fishing team — the 2006 SKA Pro Anglers of the Year — has one that cannot be left out.
"No king can resist a big blue runner," Mitchell said.

TCPalm: Fishing And Boating