Last Summer a friend invited me to join him on a 2-day king fishing trip to Charleston. Long story short, I had never been offshore fishing and he recently moved to SC and was going to Charleston for the 1st time. We decided to troll cigar minnows and did very well (came home with about 10 fish in 2 days). My friend had some king fishing experience and was very particular about the cigar minnows we wanted to use. He wanted the bait to be fresh, so he would look for clear eyes instead of cloudy or yellow eyes. We bought bait at a couple of different places, but he didn’t see super impressed by any of it. Do any of you guys in the Charleston area know of a good place to buy fresh cigar minnows for trolling? I attended an offshore fishing class at the Charleston Angler last weekend (highly recommended by the way) and I asked about their bait. They said that the guys that bought cigars were usually bottom fishing and didn’t care how fresh the bait was. Does anyone use this technique for kings? I know live bait is preferred, but I would like to have some bait with me because my expense to get out there and I don’t want to count on finding live bait.
Your buddy must be from Fla., you probably won’t find clear eye cigars here, but you can use Sabiki rigs to drop in the bait 10-30 ft., and probably will be cigars live. Reply to the KM club on this forum to get a good start fishing this area…
Jigging them up with Sabiki rigs is fine, but how much of a sure thing is that? I don’t really want to spend a couple hours or half a day fishing for bait, since I’m probably only going to get a couple of trips a month.
jigging bait is almost a sure thing. if you don’t jig up cigar minnows you will catch something else— bluefish,pinfish,greenies,bluerunners you name it. besides if you aint jigging up any baitfish the kings usually ain’t gonna be there anyways.
and as log as their guts aint blowed out frozen cigars work just as well as fresh ones.
green grass and high tides forever
jhp----- Murrells Inlet
At least 90%, if you go 5 miles or more, inshore may be hit or miss, don’t really know. Ft. Sumpter, and the jetties have live Menhaden from April to October, or even into November, caught by cast net; also live mullet by net same period, in rivers. This website has daily reports on whwere the bait is during season. If you need fishing buddies, I and my older son are available when not on our boat.
Those blue runners make a helluva fine king bait and will stay alive for a great while. They were one of the preferred bait for kings in the gulf. If you can catch a few while gathering bait drop em back and hold on!
At least 90%, if you go 5 miles or more, inshore may be hit or miss, don’t really know. Ft. Sumpter, and the jetties have live Menhaden from April to October, or even into November, caught by cast net; also live mullet by net same period, in rivers. This website has daily reports on whwere the bait is during season. If you need fishing buddies, I and my older son are available when not on our boat.
Usually any structure will hold cigars. You can usually see them on you FF. A good place to try is always next to the buoys marking the channel or any or the artificial reefs.
quote:Originally posted by Seafox23
quote:Originally posted by mac daddy
At least 90%, if you go 5 miles or more, inshore may be hit or miss, don’t really know. Ft. Sumpter, and the jetties have live Menhaden from April to October, or even into November, caught by cast net; also live mullet by net same period, in rivers. This website has daily reports on whwere the bait is during season. If you need fishing buddies, I and my older son are available when not on our boat.
unless we are loaded down with bait we pretty much jig constantly even while we are slow trolling. (just be carefull of the down rigger) cast in the same direction the boat is moveing let it sink to the bottom keeping the line snug not tight. when the gold hook rig hits the bottom just pick the rod tip up till its at 12:00 (straight up).let the rig sink and follow it back down with the rod tip. take up any slack and repeat till its back to the boat, reel in,cast out and repeat. won’t be long you’ll have bait.
lizzard fish (charlie browns) are good bait on a hook-up rig, spanish mackrel,pinfish,cigar minnows,greenies,boston mackrel ,tinker mackrel b-liners the list is almost endless. if you named everything that can be caught with a gold hook rig it would take you 6 months to write em all down. heck i’ve even caught keeper kingfish on em.
if you aint jigging anything up there probably aint many knigs there anyways.
green grass and high tides forever
jhp----- Murrells Inlet
“tideline_two” has pointed out a fact that is critical but so often missed by even experienced anglers. I don’t care how great the conditions might seem in an area, if the bait isn’t there, then the predators aren’t either! So, taking sabiki’s along and catching live bait in the area you plan on fishing is much more important than taking even the freshest frozen cigar minnows. Nothing beats live caught bait. And if you can’t catch bait in an area then just move on to an area where you can.
If you are uncertain of your offshore bait location and catching skills, then by all means hit the menhaden inshore on the way out. But remember, if you get to your destination and see no bait activity, move on!
Good Luck,
Tim
quote:Originally posted by tideline_two
jigging bait is almost a sure thing. if you don’t jig up cigar minnows you will catch something else— bluefish,pinfish,greenies,bluerunners you name it. besides if you aint jigging up any baitfish the kings usually ain’t gonna be there anyways.
and as log as their guts aint blowed out frozen cigars work just as well as fresh ones.
green grass and high tides forever
jhp----- Murrells Inlet
That’s why I WILL NOT fish until I find bait and fish on the ff, unless time runs out on looking, which has happened on occasion because of impatience on the part of fishermen. I do not believe you should put your lines out to “see what happens”; rather only after finding bait and fish. That takes the results from 1 or 2 fish, to 8 or 10 fish.
Thanks for all the good advice! I’ll probably pick up a few sabiki rigs before my next trip out. I’ve also heard that gold hooks work almost just as well as sabikis. I’m guessing the preferred size is about a size 8 or 10 hook on the sabiki?
Size 6 or 8. Using gold hooks or any method other than Sabiki results in mass confusion, some people cut off half the hooks on a Sabiki due to tangles. You need 2 people, 1 to jig, and 1 to take the fish off, can get very tangled and hook everything, too. Sabiki makes a rod for this purpose that has a tube for the rig to go into, otherwise they may become a one time only usage. Take 3 or 4 rigs at least, you also catch fish that cut the line, or break the light line, so get the rig in fast. Only use this method in bait that is at least 5’ deep, surface will be glass minnows, somme exceptions of course when bait is being chased, but stick to the deeper rule 90% of the time. With all this free advice, I expect to see reports regularly this year, last year we couldn’t buy a KM report on this site, because of the tournament fishermen.not wanting to share any secrets. We will have a seminar April 24th at our next meeting of the new KM club, meeting will be in Mt. Pleasant @6:30. PM for details, if interested…
Just to add to Macs info try all the buoys in the shipping channel also the near shore reef to jig. before heading out to the wrecks and reefs to troll. I have caught plenty of bait on the buoys with the sabiki rigs. Also cut the rigs in half to avoid being hooked yourself. Bass pro has sabiki rod and reels for $50-$80 bucks. The old standby the cast net works the best when the menhaden is on top in the usual spots off Fort Sumpter and Folly beach. Some days the bait is just not there and you can’t find them all ways carry frozen cigars a box or two out every trip for standby.
… With all this free advice, I expect to see reports regularly this year, last year we couldn’t buy a KM report on this site, because of the tournament fishermen.not wanting to share any secrets. We will have a seminar April 24th at our next meeting of the new KM club, meeting will be in Mt. Pleasant @6:30. PM for details, if interested…
“The big one’s still swimming, let’s go.”
Where will the Mt.Pleasant KM meeting be located? I would like to attend if possible. Is there a cover charge?
Thanks,
H&T