My First King Mackerel From The Kayak

Well...I did it. I'd been trying since early May and I was finally successful this morning at landing a King Mackerel from the kayak.

Got out to the beach at 0530 this morning and launched. It was a little choppy right off the bat, but wasn't too bad. The wind began to pick up once the sun got a little higher and blew right out of the north which pushed the yak further and further offshore. After wrestling with my sabiki rig for close to a decade, I managed to catch one live cigar minnow. The rig was promptly lost on a Spanish with the next cast.

Unfortunately my live Cig was eaten by a remora after only a few minutes. With it gone, I switched to frozen cigs and slow trolled for about an hour. I proceeded to catch nothing on the dead cig so I switched to a red and white diving lure. Over the course of my fishing career, I'd only caught one King with a lure, and that was my very first one that I mentioned in a previous post.

I dragged the lure straight back to shore about 1/2 mile until I reached the second sand bar. I paddled just about as hard as I could so that the lure could dive properly. Just a few seconds before I gave up trolling, I heard the sound I'd been waiting all summer to hear; The drag screaming off my King rod. I quickly hit 'play' on the camera, and recorded my (very short) fight.

And that was it. The rod I was using was a bit overkill so there wasn't much of a fight. After all, it was the same rod that I pulled a 100lbs Tarpon in with in under 20 minutes. It also didn't help that the fish came straight to the boat. Next time I may switch it up to my usual light tackle. I also noticed that I'm in need of a bigger gaff. I just about got bit on the hand and in the knee while pulling that fish in the boat.

Since I had nothing to put the King in, I paddled back to shore to load him in the cooler in the truck. Unfortunately, the swells had picked up and there were 3-4ft breaking waves right on the beach so re-launching was out of the question. We called it a day and loaded the yaks back up around 0830. The fish weighed in right at 15lbs and fried up fantastically for dinner this evening.

 Landing a King in the yak with me was a pretty big goal of mine and it felt great to finally do it. Now I get to sit back and scheme for my next challenge. I'm thinking Cobia from the yak?