JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Summertime fishing in Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia is all about kingfish! As ocean temperatures warm up, live baitfish, mainly pogies or menhaden, gather along the beaches.
The first thing you'll want to do is locate the bait, most easily by looking for birds diving down for a snack. Then throw a cast net on the bait and place the fish in your live well and head East!
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Captain Don Dingman says, "The Jacksonville Offshore Sportfishing Club did a great job especially during the 70's of coordinating artificial reef sinking nearshore and offshore. There's all kind of great reefs out here from the Gator Bowl press box to old ferry boats. There are tons of great options for reef fishing."
To target kingfish, slow troll live pogeys over the reefs and wait for a strike. Channel 4's Rebecca Barry says it didn't take long during her fishing experience.
"We got a strike on the first reef and reeled in a 30lb kingfish," Barry says. "We hooked up immediately again and reeled in another kingfish but this time a large barracuda set his sights on our fish, biting his tail off as we got it close to the boat."
Barry says the bite was so hot even the camera man Joe got in on the action, reeling in an amberjack.
This weekend is a good one to try fishing out. There is a free kids dock tournament Saturday at Beach Marine from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. The first 100 kids get a free rod and reel.
If you want a fresh fish meal, without all of the work- they are frying up all of the kingfish caught in this weekend's tournament, the King Buster on Sunday afternoon from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00pm at Beach Marine.
If you'd like to see how to do a kingfish rig check out this video: http://youtu.be/ZXdlqMSjYZs