Well I got a monster king yesterday, figured I should write a post on it. Wahoo season has been really slow compared to last year. I think they may have come through early while grouper season was still open. My friend from North Carolina said they left from up there a month early, so I guess it’s possible.
Anyway, I was out there and not seeing any wahoo. This scalloped hammerhead comes in to check me out, and then left. Then this big fish came in on the slick. At first I though it was a wahoo but as I got closer I realized it was a king. Not sure what is up with my shooting but I meant to hit the fish center mass but hit it in the tail. I definitely think slips tips make your shots not as accurate as a straight flopper. Anyway this fish takes off and pulls the float way underwater. This is not usual for a king. They can’t run like wahoo so they usually do one run and then they are done. This fish ran, the float came up and then it took off again.
I swam down the float and started pulling it up. I got the fish almost to the surface and saw the slip tip was barely in it. It was holding on by a small ribbon flesh. I never would have landed this fish with a flopper shaft and a reel.
I called for a second gun, and tried to dive on it holding my big gun and line in the other hand. I screwed up the second shot and the fish took off again. I was pretty sure I had lost it but then it pulled the float down again. I handed the big gun off to Niko and got the fish back up to the surface, and put a second shot in him. Then we got the gaff in him and got it in the boat.
Once we got it in the boat we saw how big the fish was. It was huge. I once shot a king that was 69# a few years ago and this one did not look as long but it looked fatter. Anyways I thought it was not quite as big but I was wrong. When we got in and weighed it, it went 74#. One pound off the world record.
I would say this is might be my best fish ever. I have shot other big fish, but I always can think of someone who shot one bigger. I don’t know anyone who has shot a king mackerel this big.
Probably should have spent more time getting better photos of it.
