From 5/10/01[blue]
King Mackerel fishing has become quite popular over the last decade and every time you turn around someone has found another piece of ledge, live bottom, or some other type of structure that is holding fish. Everyone eventually ends up with these numbers and before you know it these spots are more crowded than a public boat landing on the 4th of July. The GPS has become a wonderful tool, but in many cases it has taught anglers to overlook the obvious. The anglers are so focused on getting to the hot spot first that many times they just plug in the numbers and go and ignore some great opportunities to land a “smoker king” along the way. One of these opportunities comes in the form of schooling Spanish Mackerel.
Large King Mackerel love to eat the smaller Spanish Mackerel. When a large school of Spanish begins to feed on smaller prey they create a commotion that a king mackerel just can’t. Spanish Mackerel are really messy eaters, often tearing through a school of glass minnows and leaving behind millions of pieces parts and plenty of fish oil, creating a chum slick better than any of us could ever hope to create. All of this action combined with chum creates the perfect setting for big fish. Employing the proper techniques when targeting Kings around these schools is often the key to landing the big fish.
The first trick is keeping the proper distance from the school so you do not disturb or scare them. If you get too close the school will sound. If this happens, wait a few minutes and they will pop back up somewhere close by and you will know not to go that close next time. Working the perimeter of the school is the best method. Make large circles around the school and as you turn your inside baits will end up closer to the school than your boat. Getting right up to the school is not as important because the larger kings are generally loners and will stay on the perimeter waiting for a fish to stray outside of the frenzy.
Getting bait down deep is also important. Man