Kings are migratory, and even when they move into an area, they seldom hold in one location. They are pelagic, and they follow their food. Food in this case could be cigar minnows, menhaden (pogies), or Spanish sardines.
But the key word in this instance is fishing the “beach”. When I first heard the term a long time ago, I pictured boats just beyond the breakers slow trolling in and out of the surfers. This certainly is done, and a lot of kings are caught this way. However, fishing the beach can mean something far different than that.
Pete Canton from Moorehead City, North Carolina, and Bob Whitaker from Jacksonville, Florida don’t know each other, but they both describe fishing the beach in almost the identical way.
Both anglers start on the beach just behind the breakers, early in the morning, looking for schools of menhaden (pogies). A few expert casts from a ten-foot cast net usually get enough pogies to fish all day.
With a live well full of pogies, they both begin fishing the same way. Two baits go halfway to the bottom on port and starboard downriggers, and two baits are freelined on the surface off the stern. A slow troll, about as fast as a slow walk, insures that the baits actually swim, and are not dragged through the water.
They begin trolling behind the breakers, and then start zigzagging their way down the beach. Each zig is a little further out than the last, and they will eventually be as far as four to five miles off the beach. I guess the term “fishing the beach” came from the fact that they could still see the beach.
Four to five miles off the beach usually means water depths in the forty to sixty foot range. Live bottom is patchy throughout this range, and without some good numbers, the zigzagging works to cover as much bottom as possible. In my experience, live bottom almost always holds some type of baitfish over it, and that invariably will attract feeding fish, including kings.
Should you catch a cuda while trolling, drop a marker buoy on the spot where you got the strike. Barracuda don’t swim much in the open water – they hold over the live bottom or structure that in turn holds the baitfish. So don’t assume that you caught a lone, lost cuda. Go back, mark the spot, and troll back over it a number of times. Chances are you will hook up on more cudas, but chances are you will also find a king.
And, if you happen to be lucky enough to have caught a ribbonfish or two, your chances are even better! Given all the bait I would like to fish, I think a ribbonfish is my all time preference for kings. The only problem I have is catching these toothy guys. Not that they are that hard to catch – I have several locations that I can readily catch several – but unhooking and handling them without slicing my hands wide open has become a real challenge!
Fishing the beach – what better way to spend a day on the water, than a slow troll for fast fish!
