How to catch King mackerel

King mackerel feed in 66–82°F water and bite best at 68–76°F. Fish Scouter's season calendar follows them in 19 waters; in October they are at their peak in The Panhandle, The Big Bend & Nature Coast, Tampa Bay & Sarasota and 8 more.

Blue runners (hardtails)Nose-hooked and slow-trolled on a wire stinger rig for kings; bridled for sailfish and cobia.

Threadfin herring (greenbacks)Nose-hooked on a circle hook and free-lined, or slow-trolled. Fragile — handle them wet and fast.

Cigar minnowsNose-hooked on a stinger rig for kings, or a 4/0 circle hook dropped to the bottom for grouper.

Menhaden (pogies)Nose-hooked on a circle hook and free-lined or slow-trolled; cut in chunks for the bottom.

Spanish sardinesNose-hooked and free-lined in a chum slick, or slow-trolled on a stinger rig.

Speedos (redtail scad)Bridled through the nose on a kite or slow-trolled for sailfish, kingfish and blackfin.

King mackerel run in two herds. The Gulf group winters off southwest Florida and the Keys, then pushes north in April along the Florida Gulf coast, turns west along the Panhandle in May and spends the summer from Alabama to Texas, smoking baits off oil rigs and pier ends, before the fall run brings it back south in October and November. The Atlantic group winters off central and south Florida's east coast and runs north in spring to the Carolinas — summer kings off North Carolina are a tournament circuit of their own — then comes back down in fall. Genetics pinned the winter mixing zone to the waters south of the Keys. For the angler it means two windows almost everywhere: a spring run and a fall run, slow-trolled live bait on a wire stinger over the nearshore reefs.