King Mackerel Fishing

 Hold on tight. When that king hits at 40 miles per hour you’ve got a runaway freight train on the other end of that mono. Well, I don’t really think that’s how they normally bite, but it does happen. Texas king mackerel fishing in both state and federal waters can be absolutely awesome. King maceral are a migratory, pelagic, fish and the catch in our area is seasonal running from  

 early April thru October (and sometimes as late as December). During this period kings can be spread from the surf to 100s of miles out into the Gulf. Because of their abundant numbers, lightning-fast runs and hard fighting comebacks, king mackerel are our favorite game fish, followed closely by the blacktip shark which seems to prefer king mackerel as their favorite  

 prey. But kings can be picky. We believe that king mackerel feed in schools and absolute frenzies. When the king bite is on, it is just silly fun fishing. But, once gorged that crazy king bite can end faster than you can spit. You would swear that there are no kings in the area just moments later. And the fisher is left with a quite time that may last up to 6 hours. These are the  

  times that separate a good Captain from a great Captain and call for extreme tactics like live bait, chumming, trolling, varying troll speeds and other tricks of the trade. All of us can catch kings when the frenzy is at its peak, varying techniques and keeping the bite going is what we do because when the when that frenzied bite will start again, is at best a guess. Over the years we  n

 have developed a large arsenal of king mackerel strategies and fishing techniques that can produce under any king Mackerel bite scenario. And our all-time favorite for pure numbers is high speed trolling to cover 4 to 5 times more water and greater numbers of hungry fish. But when it comes to excitement, even fascination, keep your cameras focused on the live bait being  

 bump trolled just behind the boat and maybe you will be lucky enough to catch the 30 to 50 lb king mackerel that attacks from deep below and rockets 15 – 20 ft in the air with that bait in its mouth. And the sound they make as the tail clears the water is like no other. They didn’t name them King for no reason.  The bag limit in both Texas state waters as well as Federal waters is 3 king mackerel per person with a minimum length of 27 inches