SNAPPER, GROUPER, AMBERJACK AND KINGFISH OFF LOUISIANA'S GULF COAST

Fishing For Kings

EDITOR'S NOTE: Richard Harris, from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, fishes on the Southern Kingfishing Association (SKA) circuit. He runs an R & R Express 32 Donzi ZF that's designed to take rough water at high speeds. He cruises at 42 to 45 miles per hour or runs wide open at 60 miles per hour with His twin Mercury 225 Opti-Max engines. Harris's boat has two speeds -- dead stop and wide-open. I fished with Harris and had a terrific time.

Question: Richard, you're a tournament king mackerel fisherman. How do you fish and catch kings?
Harris: I prefer to use live bait, live hardtails or blue runners. To use fresh bait on the pole, I run a Penn 5555 reel with 30-pound test Momois Hi-Catch line. We run a No. 4 coffee wire, wire line with a live-bait hook and maybe a swivel and a treble hook. On the smaller baits, we use a single stinger hook. On larger baits, we can use two hooks, unless we use a ribbonfish. And with silver eels, we use up to five hooks. We fish around structure and rigs. We basically slow-troll. We'll bump the boat in and out of gear, using downriggers and flat lines (lines with no weights). We'll watch the depth finder to see where the fish are. We'll start by having several rods out (a spread) with depths anywhere from 25 to 50 feet and drop live bait on free lines (flat lines) until we find the fish. The deepest depth I've ever run my downrigger is between 200 and 250 feet, and I have caught catch king mackerel there. I don't think people believe king mackerel go to those depths, but when you get bait schools close to a rig, the fish will be there.

Question: How do you get a king mackerel up from that deep?
Harris: Normally, they'll run out and toward the top. So with 30-pound-test line, you do some slow coaxing. You don't muscle the fish in at all. We run 3 pounds of drag, so it is a long, slow process.

Question: How big a king are you catching at that depth?
Harris: Our average schooling king runs over 12 pounds. But the larger kings we catch weigh anywhere from 30- to 60-pounds each on the average. There are a lot of 30- and 40-pound kings in this area.

Question: Do you mostly catch the big kings deep?
Harris: Whether or not we catch the big kings deep depends on the conditions. Sometimes we catch them on flat lines. Some days we catch them down deep. At other times, we catch them all on silver eels. You really have to work the conditions and the baits until you find out where they're most active.

Question: Do weather or water conditions cause kings to hold deeper?
Harris: Some active rigs have big evaporators, which put off a little heat. In some warm currents beside the rig, you actually can find more kings.

Question: Tell me how you fish flat lines.
Harris: We use a silver eel or a blue runner, mainly no weight or anything -- just a swivel going straight to the wire leader. We fish with a No. 4 bait hook and again a treble hook. We'll let the fish back 20 to 30 yards and just flat line it on top. We'll let it swim on top of the water by itself.

Question: How fast are you trolling?
Harris: Again, I'll troll dead slow idle at the fastest. Then we bump the boat in and out of gear, depending on the tide, current, weather and wave conditions. Sometimes, the waves push you pretty quickly. So on down current sides, we'll leave the boat out of gear the whole drift.

Question: What is the best day of king fishing you've ever had?
Harris: One day out of Louisiana, we probably caught seven fish in the 40-pound class in one day. A couple of them weighed close to 50 pounds.

Question: What is the biggest king mackerel you've ever caught?
Harris: As far as kings, I caught a 52-pounder the day before a tournament started.

To learn more about fishing off Mississippi's Gulf Coast, call (800) WARMEST, or visit www.visitmississippi.org.

TOMORROW: FISHING RIGS FOR AMBERJACK