From April 28, 2000</font id=blue>
Introduction: Looking back on our early adventures in King Mackerel Fishing I am quite certain many of our early catches were fish with a deathwish. I recall one hot sunny Saturday trolling live baits at the Charleston Jetties. We had some lively menhaden and were trolling them along behind us just right; we thought we had finally figured this trolling thing out. We just happened to look back and notice one of our baits had outrun the boat and was now swimming out in front of us. It was not until we picked up the rod that we realized a rather large King swimming along at his leisure had gobbled our bait up and passed us. I’m not really sure how, but we did put that fish in the boat. Years later, as we fished the tip of the north jetty (many times among 50 to 60 other boats) we had the occasion to chuckle at others discovering the same things we had already spent many years learning and relearning. These are just a few tips we learned during the past 20 years of experimentation, trial, error, and pure luck. We will focus on livebait inshore and nearshore (within 10 miles of shore) techniques in this particular article. There are many other ways to catch and improve your catches of King Mackerel and we will have more articles throughout the year. If you would like more specific information on any area discussed or would like to share some of your secrets with our readers please e-mail us email@CharlestonFishing.Com.
The Best Time of Year to Fish: Most King Fisherman will agree the best time to start fishing is when water temperatures reach 70 degrees, which generally translates into late April or early May in the lowcountry. Kings can be caught in this close as late as November with mild fall temperatures.
Where to Fish: When we speak of inshore and nearshore we are referring to areas within ten miles of the coast. One of the most popular and convenient places is the Charleston Jetties. Most fishermen prefer to fish the ocean end of