A little advice for a rookie

[Bassboy1992]

Hey folks, I'm a long time lurker, and I've posted here a few times. I'm back with just a few questions this time.

Last year I went to Florida and had my first real BTB experience (granted, with swimming pool conditions). While I didn't catch any trophies, I had an absolute blast. One of my favorite memories was when I was trolling a live blue-runner (about 8" long) and something took it and ran like hell for about 30 seconds before tearing him in two. I learned a valuable lesson that day: use trailer hooks on my leaders.

Well, I'm going back to Florida in August, and I'm determined to land myself a big kingfish. I know the basics, I just want to get into some more specific questions.

1. Leaders: I've been told that while I can catch them on wire leaders, fluorocarbon leaders are best due to the clear water in Florida. I'm worried about losing fish, though. Does anyone here use fluorocarbon leader with high success rates? I've heard blackfin tuna come in close to shore during the summer, too. So the fluorocarbon would be nice for that too.

2. Leaders, knots, crimps and swivels: I always see y'all posting about different knots you use for your leaders. I always figured, that's fine and dandy.... but why not just use some heavy barrel swivels and crimps for your wire? Is it something about the ease of tying knots out on the water? Or do y'all think the fish will see the swivel/crimp? I just want to make sure I'm doing everything I can to hook a king.

3. Bait: I was dropping down little bait jigs and catching tons of 7-10" hard-tails (blue-runners). I hooked a few sharks on these, and had what I believe was a king on for a little bit (ripped the back half off). So obviously these are good bait... but are they the best? I managed to jig up a few cigar minnows, but I notice they don't live very long. Last, I jigged up a small (5" long) Bonito (bonita?). I know this thing was good bait, because it lasted about 10 seconds in the water when something exploded 15 feet behind my kayak (just beat it to hell, never had it in it's mouth. I made the mistake of reeling in too soon). What is your preferred bait?

4. Spanish Mack: Right off the shore there were tons of spanish mackerel busting the surface. They wanted nothing to do with my spoons I was throwing. Or cut bait. Eventually I put on my sibiki jig and tossed it through them, but let's be honest.... 4 pound test isn't going to stand a chance against their teeth. I've been told to catch these guys, you have to have something that is small, like a glass minnow. Do y'all have any lures you love throwing into busting spanish macks?

5. Last: Bonita/Bonito (which is it? I've seen both): There were schools of these things all over the place, busting the surface. What can I use to catch one or two? Just for fun. I pretty much trolled live blue-runners the entire time.

Let me know what y'all think. Any advice is greatly appreciated! And if anyone is going to be around Panama City Beach August 6th to the 13th, let me know!

Thanks,
Chase

[jnd1959]

Chase, I will be down to visit my mom sometime in August. Are you staying on the water or at the State Park? I've always used wire with a haywire twist for kings. You can use heavy mono but you will lose some. I use wire and swivels for spoons and jigs when smack are around. I crimp those but you don't have to.

Sent from my K88 using Tapatalk

[Ciguatera]

I've only fished the Destin area BTB a couple of times, so not an expert, but I'll try to answer a few of your Q's:

1- The one king I caught while trolling a frozen cigar minnow on a wire leader. It seems like most people are still using wire leaders but there is alot of variation in how long they like them. It seems like 6" up to 3' is where people usually fall. I used brown single strand leader in the 40lb range and its pretty small diameter. However, if/when I go back, I will probably put a 25 foot or so fluoro leader attached to the wire because of the super clear water.

2- Yes and yes. Once you tie a knot a few hundred/thousand times, its quick and easy. I tie a uni or uni to uni 90% of the time and its way easier than fiddling with a small crimp and pliers in a kayak. A haywire twist is easy enough to tie in a kayak and all you need is the wire and some cutters. Smacks and bluefish (among others) will bite at your swivel and cut you off so I usually tie the leader directly to the main line with uni/uni or sometimes albright/alberto.

3- Live hardtails will get you some of the bigger kings but your bait may be passed over by some of the smaller ones and the smaller species. I really liked the cigar minnows and the few I caught alive kept for a while in a flow troll bucket, but they'll die off if you over pack them in there. I kept a bag of frozen with me in case I couldn't get any live ones.

4- Seems like everyone likes the gotcha plugs in the panhandle. I had good luck with one at the jetties when I was there and they're heavy enough that you can cast a good distance. I would connect 50lb fluoro directly to the mainline and then tie to the plug. I also had decent luck with a gold spoon - especially with the hard tails. Some people use a bubble rig ( http://fishingdestinguide.com/BUBBLERIGS.html ) but I never fished one there. I used one a couple of times here with both the straw and a gold spoon and had decent luck.

5 - Haven't figured that one out. Tell me if you figure it out. I think a cigar minnow would work, but you'd want to use fluoro leader instead of wire.

Where are you staying when you're down there? Are you camping at a state park?

[Ciguatera]

1 more thing - definitely add a stinger hook to your bait. Most of the time your bait will be hit on the tail end and it'll be the stinger hook that sets.

[Bassboy1992]

I'll be staying right on the water at "Shores of Panama Resort", or something. It's a "family" vacation, but I'll be fishing while my parents/family do beach stuff. I'll have my truck with me, so I'll probably drive around and do a little bay fishing too. Unfortunately I've got a paddle kayak. I enjoy paddling, but it makes things easier having the mirage drive. I can't quite afford $3,000 kayak yet.

So, y'all use the brown wire leader? I've got a spool of silver wire, with a plastic coat over it. I was using leaders about 3 feet long. I also only use braided line. Maybe I'll throw about 30 feet of fluorocarbon on.

As for the spanish macks, I was throwing gotcha plugs and everything. They seemed to only want the tiny lures (my bait jigs). I've heard you can make homemade lures out of lead weights. I'm thinking about doing that, and painting them with silver nail polish or something.

If you had to choose between a dead cigar minnow, and a live hard tail, which would you choose?

I really just enjoy catching fish. They don't have to be huge, but catching something "different" (I usually fish the bay or freshwater) is fun for me. Had a blast dropping the sabiki jig way out in deep water and catching all sorts of weird looking fish. Thanks for the tips, y'all.

[Ciguatera]

Put one of each if you have 2 rods. Personally, I would use a cigar minnow if I was trolling along the outer bar but if I went offshore to some structure, I'd go with the hardtail - just my inclination, but the fish may feel differently.

[Tombo]

A very compact and universal rig is about 6-8" wire in a coffee color, small dark swivel and one dark treble hook. I used this rig for King Mackerel with a by catch of Spanish, Bonito and snapper. Run one of the hooks under the lip of a cigar minnow. You would need a spinning rod with backbone and a lighter tip to throw this rig.

[Prof. Salt]

For the Spanish macks and Bonito on the surface, try the Tsunami Slim Wave. It provides a very skinny chrome profile that everything seems interested in. It casts a mile and when it hits the water, reel as fast as you can with the rod tip right against the surface while jerking the rod tip to the side. If you're not getting bit, reel faster. It will seem too fast for the fish, but it's not.

The split rings and hooks are not strong enough, so switch them out for a small 4x treble. I run them on 25 lb NiTi wire, but 60lb fluorocarbon should work too, just don't forget to check it for nicks after each fish.

[Tombo]

For the Spanish macks and Bonito on the surface, try the Tsunami Slim Wave. It provides a very skinny chrome profile that everything seems interested in. It casts a mile and when it hits the water, reel as fast as you can with the rod tip right against the surface while jerking the rod tip to the side. If you're not getting bit, reel faster. It will seem too fast for the fish, but it's not.

The split rings and hooks are not strong enough, so switch them out for a small 4x treble. I run them on 25 lb NiTi wire, but 60lb fluorocarbon should work too, just don't forget to check it for nicks after each fish.

If you don't mind I would like to add that your reel for Spanish and Bonito should have a good capacity of braided line. I was casting to Bonito yesterday when my Shimano Stradic got spooled in about 10 seconds

[Prof. Salt]

Yeah, kingfish sometimes cut through the school of smaller fish. If that happens your reel might be toast ...but that's all part of fishing offshore with small reels.

[Bassboy1992]

I'm just using some 7' ugly sticks (I'm a big fan of the ugly sticks unless I'm going for accuracy with my casts (bass/other game fish), then I'll use my 6.5' St. Croix) and some $60 reels. I've got 300 yards of 60 pound braided line on the reels (power-pro).

While I'm thinking of it, do y'all use down riggers? Or weights on your leaders for kings? When I was there last time, I just sort of let the hooks/wire leader naturally pull my live bait down, so it looked natural. But I felt like I wasn't getting deep enough. I don't have a fish finder, so I can't tell you how deep the water was, or what the bottom looked like.

As for the spanish macks, how long of a leader should I use? I know for kings it seems to be anywhere from 6 to 18 inches. But I've heard smacks tend to bite the line by accident when a feeding frenzy is going on. Should i have something like 6" of wire leader tied to 6' of 50-60 pound fluoro?

And while I've got y'all here, let's talk about sharks. I've only got an 11' kayak. Last year I was out a little ways, maybe half a mile, and two or three LARGE hammerhead sharks started getting a little too close for comfort. I think sharks are the coolest thing ever, but when they're longer than my kayak, I'd prefer they keep their distance. I realize hammerhead sharks probably aren't going to cause me problems, but when should I be worried about the sharks? Is there a rule about this? Or am I pretty safe as long as I'm on my kayak.

Odds are I'll have more questions in a while.

Thanks again,
Chase