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Look for clean water when searching for kingfish

By RANDY ROCHELLE

Tribune correspondent

Published: October 26, 2009

Gulf water temperatures continue to fall, dropping into the mid-70s. With no major fronts on the horizon, temperatures should hold steady for a week or two.

The kingfish bite continues to pick up with new schools showing up weekly. Though there have been a few fish caught in close, the more consistent bite has been in the 30- to 60-foot range.

The key to finding the kings has been locating schools of bait and clean water. The South County Reef, the Rube Allen and the Egmont Channel from buoys 7 and 8 on out have all been producing fish.

Closer in, mackerel have started pushing in to our area. Live bottom areas along the beaches have been holding some decent numbers fish. Trolling hardware is a great method for locating fish but if you like fast action then anchoring and chumming is hard to beat.

Kingfish and mackerel aren't the only fish following the schools of bait. Cobia are also staring to show up in decent numbers. Hot areas for cobia have been wrecks and reefs in 40 to 80 feet. If you don't see them on the surface, be sure to drop a couple of baits down in the water column as cobia often will be holding somewhere in the middle depths.

Live bait such as pinfish or big white bait will be your best choice but cobia also will readily inhale a eel like artificial lure.

Captain Randy Rochelle runs the "Gotta Go" out of St. Petersburg and can be reached at (727) 365-3218 or go to www.islandercharters.net.

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Outdoors

Look for clean water when searching for kingfish