Trolled all around the shipping channel yesterday up to 60’ of water and nothing. Finally went bottom fishing in 50’ of water and found a good selection of bites. Any help with the Kings will be greatly appreciated. Maybe they have not moved in yet. I also heard from other people fishing that the lack of bait fish in the area has prevented the Kings from moving in… again not Kings this past Sat. for us and several other boats up to the end of the shipping channel.
We did some trolling out in the same area too. Nothing happening. We went out to the 60 as well. Lots of boats trolling. I think I saw maybe 1 snake king or Spanish hauled in within a couple hours.
I’ve rarely ever fished that close in, but conventional wisdom says that they should be anywhere nearshore, all the way into the jetties by now, or within the next month. It seems like I remember a guy catching a 50-something pounder inside the jetties one year. I’m a deeper water fisherman, so I can tell you that you are almost guaranteed to find some small to medium-sized ones at Comanche and the Garden right now. The area between Chas 60 and “trolling alley” (the trail of live bottoms stretching SE from the Chas 60 on the chart) should be good too. Troll small ballyhoo with cheap rubber skirts on 108-lb wire leader at 5-7 MPH. Troll right over the structure on your GPS bottom chart at Comanche. Russel lures used to produce for us pretty well too. Of course, the big ones are usually taken on live pogies. I’m not really a serious king fisherman. We have had a lot of fun catching them the easy way in the past though–trolling. We’ve caught plenty in the upper 20’s and 30’s (lbs), but never any 50 to 60-pound kings this way. Ask Haz-R-Dous for some tips. I heard he’s doing pretty well in the SKA tour this year. He’s a nice guy, and probably won’t mind giving you some tips on live-baiting nearshore for them.
Gotcha Covered,
Lee Strickland
Strickland Marine Insurance, Inc.
843-795-1000 / 800-446-1862
Thanks for the info. Lee. We will try to head out to the “trolling alley” in a few weeks.
Would love to have some info on fishing for kings. Have never done it before, only bottom fished out to the sixty hole off Edisto Beach. Just purchased a 22’ sea pro with outriggers and would like to learn about fishing for kings or trolling in general. Not wild about going to far until I learn a few things. Any help would be appreciated.
popparod, do a search for information. it has been discussed several times. also look at www.fishska.com , that has lots of information also.
this time off year, trolling spoons seems to work really well especially on a plainer with a wire rod. “strips” (cut pieces of bonito) also seem to work well. bite seems to be better in 75 to 120ft as of now.