Commercial Kingfishing off Jupiter Inlet
I went commercial kingfishing two weeks ago with a couple of buddies of mine, two brothers from Jupiter, FL who had been fishing schoolie kingfish off Jupiter Inlet. They still practice the art of catching kingfish by hook and line and use live bait, similar to most sport fishermen, by drifting in 80-90 feet of water. These guys really love fishing, earlier in the week they released a sailfish and also caught a 45 lb wahoo. Kingfish are popular sport fish caught off many Florida Inlets.
Usually they drift, catch a few fish, gut and ice the fish when the fishing slows, then they motor back to the edge of the school and do it over again. On the drift pictured above, the fishing was so hot, we were literally walking on fish as triple hookups were common. The kingfish were skyrocketing everywhere and you could barely get a bait in the water before getting your thumb smoked.
The fishing lasted about five hours, to get legal 75 fish limit, plus about half as many bonitas. The bait, Spanish sardines and cigar minnows, took about half as long to catch, as they like to have about 400 hook caught baits before they start fishing. The total weight of the kingfish was about 840 lbs, we only had two bigger fish of about 20 lbs, but the small fish is what they want anyway.
Their boat is a really old offshore racing hull design with twin 225s. It ain’t pretty or fancy, but it’s really fast. Every trip I fish with these guys is a trip of a lifetime and a lot more fun than fishing with a few people I know who are afraid to get a little blood in their boat.
