I saw the swirl of the fish and the next thing I knew my dad’s reel was screaming. I looked at him and asked, “What ya got?” (My English teacher would have been so proud). My dad looked at me in a panic and said, “I’m not sure, but it is fast and you better follow it or we are going to lose it”. I looked down at his reel and the gold spool was shining through what little line was left on the reel. We were drifting with the motor running and having fished light tackle for many years I was after the fish in no time. Finally, dad said he was gaining line. I put the boat in neutral, thinking he had a nice Spanish Mackerel and could easily bring the fish to the boat. In a split second he was panicking again saying “go, go!” After the fish had totally dumped the reel three times we finally brought the fish along side the boat. I was amazed to see a King Mackerel. The fish weighed in at a healthy 25lbs.
While this is certainly not the largest King we have ever caught, it was one of the most exciting. We were casting the rocks at the ocean end of the Charleston Jetties with light tackle and Mirro-Lures for Reds, Spanish, Bluefish, and Trout. The rod and reel we caught the King on was a small Shakespeare bait-casting reel with about 100 yards of 10lb test and a Shakespeare 8-12lb class rod that we were field testing. We had used this method of fishing 100’s of times over the years and had never hooked into a king, but that is the beauty and excitement of fishing. You never know what you may hook into and when you do get that unexpected fish that test all of your angling skills you will remember it for the rest of your life.
The Charleston Jetties are one of the best places to have this type of experience. If you think about it, they provide two of the most common things we look for when targeting fish. They provide structure and a steep ledge where the water goes from 15 feet outside of the jetties to 45ft inside the jetties, in the shipping channel. You really cannot ask for a better fish magnet. They are an excellen