We caught kingfish on Thanksgiving and with a little luck we may be able to kingfish for Christmas. It’s happened here before. In years with relatively mild waters and water temperatures bouncing in and around the 70 degree range, kingfish will stay in their comfort zone and have no reason to move on. With water temperature a bit chilly, this too is the time of year when big schools of silver trout swarm the beaches off Madeira and Redington often in only 10 to 15 feet. They’ll appear on your bottom recorder as a mass, similar to a school of bait. Diving birds will also give away their whereabouts. They hang in the schools of fry baits and glass minnows. If without electronics, on an east wind, start in on the swim buoys and drift out until you get them located. When you’re in em’ good you can catch them two at a time on tandem rigged jigs. If looking to fire up the smoker for the holidays, now’s the time. This is when mullet get together in huge schools as they work their way into the gulf to spawn. They’ll gang up in residential canals, bayous, marinas, harbors and intercoastal waterways leading to the passes. When nature calls and its time to go, they get in tightly knotted huge schools and move in mass. When in this mode, they’re easy to detect. Feeling safer in numbers, they let their guard down a bit making them easier to cast net.
Captain Jay Mastry
- Jay Mastry - March 26, 2024
- Captains Corner, Gorta - March 23, 2024
- Dave Zalewski - March 12, 2024
