Because king mackerel are such aggressive predators they hit hard and blow up on tackle. They’re fast moving so they rip line off reel and shake rod tip like crazy.
That’s why it’s helpful to understand how they grow. These fish will behave differently when they first start out as slender juveniles compared to big grown-up adults. You should of had an idea of what you’re searching for in the water.
King Mackerel Facts for Anglers
As you can see from the infographic, length relates to weight and those smaller increments of girth result in drastic weight gain once a fish exceed thirty inches. This is also the range where game gets interesting. For the average angler, we’re pretty much wired up to fish everything light. That doesn’t apply to big fish.
King mackerel weighing less than twenty pounds can be caught and handled easy on lighter gear. Anything bigger then that requires heavier leaders as their teeth is like needles. You’ll notice in the chart below, it goes from regular fluorocarbon for the smaller fish, then to heavy fluorocarbon and finally wire for the really big bruiser fish.
If you use a soft plastic leader for a fifty-pound king, you’ll be disappointed because those big fish will saw through line like a needle. Go up to heavy fluorocarbon or even better go wire. Survival is not optional.
Why patience is important (growth rates A twelve inch), two pound king is not necessarily worth burning a bunch of gas for if they are just one-year old. At that size, they don’t fight as hard and aren’t quite worth the effort yet. The same fish will reach thirty-inches by age three and ten pounds. That’s when it start putting up a bigger fight. Most folks forget that we are talking about years of growth.
For instance, kings really start picking up speed from ages two through five. This helps determine if you’re going to work on shallow schooling fish or deep offshore structure. In warmer months, the younger fish hang out closer to top and older fish tend to bury themselves on ledges that hold water near seventy-five degrees.
You can find them by trolling. Because they’re fast swimmers, a great way to locate them is by trolling. Unlike casting to a fixed target, trolling lets you cover water fast. You use lures that imitate their favorite prey such as mullet or menhaden while swimming by.
Kings are natural hunters: they want vibration and speed. They also don’t like lures running too deep or sinking too fast, and if this happens, they might not bite until fish is really hungry. Troll just below the surface in the early morning when suns light tends to concentrate baitfish on top and away from cooler bottom waters.
Water temps drive location strategy. As warm water advances up the coast in the spring and summer, king mackerel travel north. When the autumn chill sends water southward, so do kings. They won’t roam aimlessly. The fish is chasing certain thermal bands that keep them comfortabley.
You can fish off Florida in winter. Seek out water deeper than 60 feet where it’s still warm. Along the mid-Atlantic in summer, try ledges in forty to eighty feet. Seasonal knowledge will save you hours just drifting around.
Beyond the law there’s some science behind size. Female tend to outgrow male by much as they can exceed a half ton at more than 50 pounds; males seldom top 30. If big kings are your target, chances are high you’re after old females that’ve lived to see several seasons come and go. Such fish deserve our respect on the deck.
To catch them requires not just appropriate gear but patience and knowledge of their behavior patterns. All that pre-planning gets rewarded when you hook into a sixtieth pounder and feel it buck and swirl across the water. All that study chart time and tackle preparation makes it all worthwhile.