Tips for Kingfishing Along the Reef in the Florida Keys

written by Evan Anderson

It’s a brisk day in the Florida Keys as Captains Steve Rodger and Scott Walker exit the marina of the Ocean’s Edge Resort in Rodger’s 36 Yellowfin on this episode of Into the Blue. “It was cold as all get out,” reflects Rodger, “it was probably 64 degrees, which in the Keys is about as cold as it gets. I’m wearing jeans, which doesn’t happen very often.” Today the pair is on their way out to the reef, ready for anything that might come their way but hoping to get into some yellowtail snappers or tuna. While some yellowtail certainly make their way onto a couple of their baits, another treasure of the keys is going to be much more prevalent today: kingfish. We’ll go into some of the strategies the two Into the Blue hosts used to prepare and adapt as they head out for a day on the reef.

BRING LOTS OF BAIT

“It tends to make the bait fishing kind of tough when it’s cold, but I don’t think the water temperature had dropped yet,” says Rodger, “the bait was fine, there was no problem with that.” Rodger stands with a net on the bow of the Yellowfin as Walker maneuvers it into position near a school of pilchards, the bait fish of choice in the Florida Keys. “You’ve got to be ready,” continues Rodger as he swoops up a netful of pilchards, “you don’t know what you’re going to come across out there. If the water’s blue, now we’re tuna fishing. And that takes a lot of bait. The reef doesn’t take as much bait, but you’ve got to be ready.”

Walker adds, “Absolutely, you’re not going out there until you’ve got a thousand baits.”

SETTING UP

With the Yellowfin’s live-well full of bait, Walker and Rodger make their way out toward the reef. As they roll up on it, Rodger drops his chum block over the side and begins tossing handfuls of pilchards into the water. “Once you get there, you’re going to anchor up,” he explains, “put a block of frozen chum out, that’s always a must, then you just start trickling those pilchards back.” According to Rodger, it’s also a good idea to put a rod out for bottom-fishing while you spread out your chum. “That won’t bother the yellowtails one bit,” comments Walker. Rodger replies, “Absolutely, and it gives whoever you’re with something to do.”

With cloudy water conditions, the two captains give up on their hopes of tuna fishing. But the conditions are still good for yellowtail, so they continue to chum for them in hopes they will come up from the bottom and start taking some of their baits. However, the silver flashes in the water indicate to them that they may want to target a different species today.

FLASHES OF SILVER

It quickly becomes evident to the two anglers that the yellowtail are not going to come up, so they change up their strategy. “I’ll wait on the surface because we really want those yellowtail to come up,” comments Rodger, “and we waited a while, but they never came up because of the [kingfish]. Once we realized that, we started fishing the surface. And these massive kingfish started attacking every bait we put in the water...The yellowtail were nervous, which was good for us. It allowed us to put out some live bait with wire and catch some kingfish.”

Both captains love kingfish for the visual fight and the strength of the fish. “The runs are unbelievable,” says Rodger. “These bigger ones are a totally different experience, they just take their time.” “Catching kings with light tackle and virtually no drag was awesome,” says Walker, “Even though we had size 6 wire that they weren’t going to bite through, that light drag kept them hooked on those smaller hooks...6 was the perfect sized wire. I put out the size 4 wire and they’d bite right through that.”

“The yellowtail were nervous, which was good for us. It allowed us to put out some live bait with wire and catch some kingfish.”

— Capt. Steve Rodger, Co-Host of Into the Blue

As the pair heads back to Oceans Edge Resort and Marina with several kingfish and a couple good-sized yellowtail packed into Rodger’s 36 Yellowfin, Walker can already smell the smoker getting fired up. “I’m already taking the marinade out of the freezer,” he says with a gleeful smile.

To see these tips and action as well as some great kingfish fights, check out the full episode below. Follow @intothebluetv, @captscottwalker, and @steven.rodger on Instagram for more Into the Blue content as well as @waypointfish, @waypointsalt, @waypointboating, and @waypointtv.