Got a call from a good buddy, Nick, asking if I wanted to do some scouting around on Sunday. We'd been reading the reports of the early kings and figured we'd have to do a little looking around.

Most of what we'd heard was just off the beach so we picked up some large white bait along the markers out of Pass A Grille and headed along the beach.

Didn't see a whole lot going on for a bit so we tossed out a couple of clark spoons on #1 planers and tooled around for awhile. Only had one planer tripped but saw alot of action in one spot so we decided to anchor up and toss out a chum block in about 20' just North of the Don (in between a couple of areas that were very active). We planned on heading out a bit deeper but with the wind blowing we figured we might be better off just giving it a go there as the Bucs were playing at 1:00 anyway.

It wasn't non stop... but it was close once the chum got out there. We were getting ripped and shredded when we didn't get them in the boat. I was losing a bunch until I switched to J hooks. I had been using circle hooks both with and without the stinger and losing them after decent runs. Doing the same thing with the J hooks definitely got more fish into the boat.

Nick uses a looong piece of fluorocarbon leader to a short piece of #1 wire to a J hook with the stinger off a small swivel over the hook itself and not through the eye.

It would have been nice to have some smaller baits for the mackerel but in the end we didn't suffer for the lack of fish and they were all good sized.

The macks were huge by my standards, almost all were over 2' and a couple looked to be pushing 30" and we must have had 10 or so of them in the icebox when we hung it up around 12:00.

One thing that was highlighted were my gaff skills or lack thereof. It seems that I have a tendency to jerk the gaff through and slow down before getting the fish in the boat. We'd lost one that way and sure enough Nick was hooked up again with a big mack and calling for the gaf. Well, just as he was getting it to the boat we noticed a St. Beach Police boat just sitting off our bow watching. I don't know what it is but I always get a little nervous when big brother is looking over my shoulder.

TBC with the gaf and an audience... swing and a miss.... swing again and contact but no fish in the boat but it's still on. We finally got the fish in but the funniest thing was the officer. He yells over during the struggle... "Hey, do you guys want me to come over and just shoot the damned thing for you?" You might have had to have been there but it was hilarious.

While the officer is still sitting there (I'm guessing for the humor) Nick hooked up with the only king of the day... and it was sweet! 18-20 pounds of serious fish flesh. After about 20 min I finally got it back within gaff range (we didn't want to screw this one up so I took the rod and Nick manned the gaf as it decided to take another run or two). I think the officer was still there in case I missed the gaf on the king as I'm sure that we both believed that if it happened again, I'd be swimming home. (smiley here)

I cached my camera, just noticed it yesterday during the Coastal Clean Up , so I don't have any pics of the action. Nick took the one of the fishbox below, after we got in.

Had a great day with a good friend, a few laughs, learned a bit, got a load of fish for the smoker and all within a short ride so we didn't get beat up at all. Thanks Nick for a great trip, the tips and... your patience (smiley here).