Nearshore Kings

RevJoeyFitz

I know we are a bit early, but is anyone grabbing any kings off the near shore stuff? Heard the pogies have showed up, so I thought I’d ask

plumber1969

Haven't been yet. Seems a little bit early, but who knows. Hopefully those pogies are out there.

RevJoeyFitz

We caught a couple hundred pogies in one cast south of Vilano today. Didn’t get to go out very far. Pretty rough

creekgeek

St sug water is only 73. Seems a bit cool...maybe two or three weeks yet for real close in kings.

creekgeek

Should be plenty of big reds under the pogies.

Tony Roma

Creekgeek, when fishing a pogie pod do you weight pogie or freeline. 

dontezuma

I like a 1-oz egg sinker.  It helps bring the pogey down, but doesn't pin them to the bottom. 

icantfish

Kings are on nearshore wrecks and live bottom. 

Tony Roma

Prove it;)

icantfish

Tony Roma said:

Prove it;)
well if I must. 

Here you go 

creekgeek

Tony Roma said:

Creekgeek, when fishing a pogie pod do you weight pogie or freeline. 

Weight if after reds. Feeling for tarpon or sharks. Early in the season like now I would weight them..1/2 to 1 ounce on a knocker rig...30 to 50lb fluorocarbon to 20 to 40lb braid. Beef it up once the tarpon arrive if you're into that...I'm not...well, maybe once a year

Tony Roma

Water looks great, nice fish can’tfish

creekgeek

icantfish said:

Tony Roma said:

Prove it;)
well if I must. 

Here you go 

Nice. Figured water was still a bit cool. How deep were you? On pogies? I prefer mullet because they are more dependable in terms of finding a few pre-dawn.

DoradoDreamin

Not nearshore but we got a 20 lb king at Elton Bottom on Tuesday while trying to troll for mahi.  Got late start due to truck trouble and could only make it out that far.  Wasn't far enough for mahi unfortunately.  No weeds or flyers but there were lots of bonito hitting the small baits. 

BossVoss

creekgeek said:

Tony Roma said:

Creekgeek, when fishing a pogie pod do you weight pogie or freeline. 

Weight if after reds. Feeling for tarpon or sharks. Early in the season like now I would weight them..1/2 to 1 ounce on a knocker rig...30 to 50lb fluorocarbon to 20 to 40lb braid. Beef it up once the tarpon arrive if you're into that...I'm not...well, maybe once a year

He's more into watching you struggle with the tarpon than actually struggling himself   

creekgeek

I don't mind running the boat and doing the filming.  But getting them to jump a few  times is plenty of fun for me. 

Barnettboys

Anyone get out last weekend or anytime recently? I know it’s been rough, but anything on the nearshore wrecks?

Tony Roma

Went out Friday , found bait just north of Vilano , mix of pogies and hard bellies, got beat up in my 19ft bay boat, slow trolled 4 miles out. No strikes but plenty of bait on the finder and bonito everywhere, my guess is they are deeper, 9 mile, high school, Andy king. This thing saved the day on the way in. 

creekgeek

Nice fish. When I hook those I generally put the rod in the holder and let them drag the boat while I slow troll pogies for kings. Saves gas!🤣

Tony Roma

Sharks swarmed the boat, told my boy he better not fall in

Barnettboys

Thanks for the feedback!

Pangaman

Went on Saturday early to get a parking spot before going to the sandbar. Got pogies at the poles in one cast. Fished jax beach wreck for an hour. Caught one 15 pound king and another hit and got off while fighting the other one. Headed in after that to pick up women for the sandbar.

Chris1979

Picked up a king off Jax beach today, it was on the smaller side . 

creekgeek

Nice. Anyone know the surf temp between st aug and Jax? 80 yer?

plumber1969

creekgeek said:

Nice. Anyone know the surf temp between st aug and Jax? 80 yer?

It was 80 just north of the St Aug inlet towards the redtops. Funny thing it was 78 at Matanzas. 

creekgeek

I got out to 4 mile Sunday with a few mullet and we put a 23lb king in the boat right at sunrise.


But had no other hits by 8am so we came in on the beach and played with bonita on gotchas. Kept some for sashimi. Had one big run on a mullet but the hook pulled. Maybe shark but it smoked the drag for at least 100 yards and sure sounded like a big king.

One of the oddest catches ever while live bait trolling...we thought we had snagged some trash but reeled in this beauty that had shredded our mullet and got caught in the belly by the stinger hook...

Big rabbit fish.🙄

Tried again Monday but it was too sporty in my little boat to get to 4 mile so we trolled the beach not too far north of the inlet and had several small sharks tug our mullet off before our biggest one was getting the same treatment.  When I pulled it in a bit trying to tell if it was still swimming a 22lb king skied on it just behind the boat. Just the coolest strike ever. 


Fish are there. Went with mullet as pogies were not near the inlet.

Barnettboys

Looks like a great time, thanks for the report!

plumber1969

Caught my first rabbit fish in the gulf several weeks ago while we were red snapper fishing. I had never seen or even heard of a smooth puffer. Definately a cool fish.