Liquid Dynamite - boats.com

To consistently catch big kings like this requires special tactics and skills.

The motor droned a lazy lullaby. The boat sliced through blue-gray, daybreak water as easily as an arrow pierces air. There was no horizon. In the fleeting moments just before dawn, the sea and sky mixed into a slick, slate-hued backdrop, an ageless abyss that draws your heart into its watery soul.

Gulls and terns hung overhead like some giant's mobile. Astern, trolled live baits flitted in the foamy froth of the propellers, sacrificial lambs for Neptune's wolves.

Then suddenly, breaking the stillness, a charge of liquid dynamite at the surface: a leg-long fish with a cold stare, a hapless bait crossways in its mouth, and a reel drag roaring out "Gotcha!!"

This is fishing for "smoker kings" — the way it ought to be. But today, it takes an angler with more savvy and sense than the next guy to consistently catch his majesty, the king mackerel.

Yet the king's court still includes all manner of anglers, from Saturday-only fishermen in bow-riders with a six-pack and six gallons of gas to Daddy Megabucks in a Hatteras salon who only leaves the Dom Perignon long enough to occasionally reel a mackerel to the stern.

In between there are kingfish anglers from all walks of life who want but one thing — giant mackerel, and plenty of them. Such a man is Butch Garvin.

Kingfish Specialist

To prevent cutoffs by sharp teeth, wire leaders are important. Today, live-bait trollers use very fine coffee-colored wire leaders.

Butch is an Atlantic Beach, Fla., policeman who habitually fishes king mackerel tournaments and has won several, including the prestigious Greater Jacksonville Kingfish Tournament, a summer event that draws nearly 1,000 boats and 4,000 anglers. Butch mops up on heavyweight king mackerel — "smoker kings" weighing 20 pounds and more — which are so big and fast, they literally can make a reel "smoke."

To prove his point one recent morning, Butch headed away from the ramp aboard his 25-foot center-console boat, Early Times. It was 8 a.m. as he outboarded around the jetties at the mouth of the coastal river. Butch slowed the Early Times and radioed other local anglers to locate schools of menhaden to cast net for bait.

Quickly he learned the location of baitfish pods, and soon 100, 4-inch menhaden were deposited in the baitwell.

"I wish we had bigger pogies [menhaden]," Butch said. "Bigger baits seem to draw bigger kings, but at least we have lots of bait, and that's most important. Actually, with little baits, hook-up success on kings is very good because it's difficult for fish to miss getting barbed."

Unlike many kingfishermen, Butch favors light-action popping rods and lines testing 15 to 20 pounds. Heavy rods and lines are unnecessary when fighting even the biggest kings, Butch said. And, in fact, more fish frequently are caught because light lines prompt more strikes and supple rods are more forgiving when fighting big fish.

Butch trolled with three live baits on flat lines from three rod-reel combinations. Two baits were set far astern — one at 200 feet, the other at 150 feet. The third bait was placed just scant yards behind the outboard.

"Many of my biggest kings hit the short bait, right behind the boat," he said. "Fish are drawn to turbulence created by a propeller."

Butch trolled only a few minutes when suddenly a rod bucked and line melted off one of the reels. One of Butch's guests, Jim Riley of Chicago, picked the rod out of the holder, fought the fish, and 10 minutes later Butch gaffed a 25-pound kingfish.

Almost as soon as the mackerel was placed in the fish box, another much bigger king skyrocketed 10 feet out of the water, just behind the boat, with one of the hooked menhaden baits sideways in its mouth. The fish landed on the run and streaked 100 yards off as Jim strained against the rod.

A half-dozen runs and 20 minutes later, he worked the king alongside the boat and Butch gaffed a 36-pounder for him.

Through the morning, rarely did 15 minutes pass that Butch didn't hook a fish or lose a bait to a striking king. The action finally slowed about noon, and Butch headed in.

There were six kingfish weighing nearly 150 pounds aboard the Early Times, and at least that many more mackerel were released during the morning's action.

Secrets for Success

Cutlassfish, here rigged with multi-hooks and attractors at the nose, are great dead baits for kingfish trolling.

Butch Garvin's king mackerel fishing is some of the best to be found anywhere, and many anglers say the reason for it is that there are big schools of mullet and menhaden baitfish in Butch's fishing areas during summer.

With the bait come kings, which is why savvy anglers like Butch use live, natural baits for big smokers.

These days most veteran kingfish live-bait trollers use very fine coffee-colored wire leaders, and they're short, often just a foot or so in length. They like small barrel swivels, and their tandem-hook Carolina rigs also have very small, bronze hooks, something on the order of 3X strong, sheepshead models, sometimes no larger than size 2 or 4.

Anglers who use such small hooks, light wire and swivels, believe big kings are spooky, so going light in clear ocean water increases their odds of hooking outsize mackerel.

Using multiple live baits is an innovative way to draw big kingfish.

Another kingfish tactic in vogue in some areas is using multiple live baits on the same rig. The advantage of using multiple baits is four or five live baits behind each other on a single rig looks like a small school of baitfish. It's more tantalizing and attractive to kings than just a single live bait.

Sometimes when fishing is slow, or if an old, giant fish is trailing behind the trolling boat, a large number of baits instead of just one can be a trigger to make a following fish strike.

When fishing is really tough, much of the time multi-bait rigs are the ones that draw the most strikes. Also, the biggest, smartest fish usually hit the multi-bait rigs.

Hooks in a multi-bait leader are spaced about 6 to 12 inches apart. Nothing fancy is done in the terminal rigging. A small black barrel swivel is fitted to the fishing line end to prevent line twist.

About a foot from the swivel, the first hook is attached to single-strand leader with a Haywire Twist. To the first hook's eye, another 1-foot length of wire leader is attached, with a second hook fitted to the end of that leader.

Then another 1-foot wire leader is attached to the eye of the second hook, and a third hook is fitted to that leader's opposite end, and so on until the number of multi-bait hooks desired are connected.

It's important when using single-strand wire in this rig not to have inter-connecting loops of leader wire formed by Haywire Twists. Two loops of wire pulling against each other during a fish fight easily can kink and break. It's therefore best to have Haywire Twist loops in the rig only connected to the hook-eyes.

Constant monitoring of multi-baits is needed to ensure they remain frisky and most appealing to kings. When four or five baits are rigged in the same leader, if there's a weak bait in the group, it's quickly killed by the other baits pulling it around. Immediately replace any live bait that's looking ragged. In fact, it's a good idea to replace all the baits in the multi-hook rig every 30 minutes or so to make sure they are providing optimum effectiveness.

Slow trolling, naturally, is imperative when multi-hook live baits are employed. For boats having difficulty idling down to proper live bait trolling speeds, a sea anchor or two works well. A trolling plate that "trips" into place behind the prop when slow-trolling live baits also is effective.

Trolling "Silver Eels"

While most expert king mackerel anglers automatically opt for trolling live bait when it's available (usually preferring menhaden), sometimes live baits can't be found. Cutlassfish baits can easily be substituted. Sometimes, during periods of heavy fishing pressure when dozens of boats are slow-trolling live menhaden, anglers trolling dead cutlassfish do exceptionally well since the trolled offerings stand out.

Just why a cutlassfish is such an outstanding bait for king mackerel (bluefish, cobia, amberjacks and barracuda, too) is unknown. But the unique coloration of a cutlassfish, and its long, wispy tail, make it the perfect dead bait for trollers wanting kings.

A cutlassfish body flashes nicely when trolled, so it attracts kings a long distance away. When rigged correctly (using a multi-hook set-up similar to one used for multiple live baits), the long, slender body of a cutlassfish wiggles more seductively than Madonna on stage, thereby drawing rave reviews from kings that track nearby.

Many veteran offshore anglers are convinced that cutlassfish are the best dead bait a king mackerel troller can use. In fact, the baits are so effective for kings that for years top captains wouldn't even mention them by name. Instead, they called cutlassfish their secret weapon. Silver eel is the official colloquialism for the cutlassfish.

Cutlassfish are commonly purchased by kingfish anglers from shrimp trawlers. Sometimes they're caught via hook-and-line (chiefly at night on light tackle), and occasionally they're cast netted.

In a pinch, cutlassfish can be frozen for later bait use. Fresh cutlassfish are best, however, as their unique silvery color and body conformation deteriorates rapidly when frozen. Many coastal bait shops carry fresh cutlassfish baits as standard mackerel trolling bait fare, especially during tournament season.

Get Deep

Downriggers have become very popular with kingfish trollers, since they allow anglers to precisely work dead and live baits at virtually any depth. A good basic trolling set-up is for one bait to be trolled at 20 feet (taken deep with a downrigger), while a second bait is trolled at half the depth of the water fished (in 80 feet, a bait is trolled at 40 feet).

With three flat lines factored into the spread, kingfish trollers can be pretty certain they're covering the entire water column with live baits. Then, just watch the smoke.