Smoker kingfish caught by Johnny while drift fishing in Ft Lauderdale
The smoker kingfish are here and man, are they big. Late May is when we get the giant kingfish snap, some of the biggest kingfish that we’ll catch all year. Johnny caught this monster kingfish that weighed 62 pounds. He caught this fish on a light tackle spinning outfit, whip-jigging with a 3/4 ounce pilchard jig. Nice catch!! We’re seeing some really big kingfish hit the dock this week, some smokers between 30 and 60 pounds. June will give way to a lot more kingfish, but mostly the more regular sized ones in the 6-10 pound range. Bonitos, our summertime fish in the tuna family that migrates through our reefs in massive numbers every June, July and August, are starting to show up. We’re catching a handful of them on every trip. We’ll start catching more and more of them until their peak in August. They are the strongest fish pound for pound you will ever hook into.
Big cobia and nice kingfish caught deep sea drift fishing
Mahi-mahi have been scarce this May. June is usually the month when they start schooling up offshore. We are catching the mahi-mahi one here, one there though. Some big cobias are also still biting. On yesterday’s all day fishing trip, we caught some really nice kings and about a 50 pound cobia. The cobia ate a ballyhoo bottom bait. Bottom fishing is good for mutton snapper and the occassional grouper or cobia. Our night fishing anchor trips are pure deep sea bottom fishing trips and are bringing in A LOT of yellowtail snappers, along with mangroves, muttons and some red groupers. Pretty decent fishing on the bottom fish this month.
Nice kingfish and dolphin caught aboard the Mary B III
The sportfishing boats are catching the monster fish. Big game sharks are biting like mad, hammerheads are abundant in 300-500′ of water. Set up some big baits in that area and you are gonna get a bite on a 6-10′ shark. Hammerhads, makos, threshers and bull sharks are biting. Some big blackfin tuna and wahoo are biting on the troll. We’re catching them mixed in with the kingfish on the reef, or sometimes out deep on the current edge, wherever it is that day. The drift boats aren’t the only boats catching monster kingfish. We are hooking into some mammoth sized kingfish by slow trolling live baits over the reef. This kingfish caught aboard the Out of the Blue was guessed to be around 75 pounds. It ate a live blackfin tuna we were trolling in 120′ of water near to the sea buoy just a mile offshore of Ft Lauderdale.
Smoker kingfish caught sportfishing aboard Out of the Blue
The fishing is great this month and the really big game fish will be here for a little while longer. June is the transitory month when the big game fish start fading away, and the droves of bonitos, mackerals, barracudas and snappers will invade our local reefs for the summer. Tight lines everybody and good luck out there.
Capt Ashley with some big kingfish
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