King Makerel
King Makerel Description: Kingfish are colored iridescent bluish green on their backs with silvery sides and a streamlined body and tapered head. There is no black color on front of dorsal fins and lateral line starts high and drops sharply below the second dorsal fin. Young kingfish often have yellow spots like those of the Spanish mackerel.
Where King Makerel Are Found: Kings are found NEARSHORE and OFFSHORE and occasionally taken from piers running into deeper water. During the summer months off Port Canaveral and Cocoa Beach you can often find large (smoker) kingfish within a mile of the beach and just beyond the breakers. Most of the time kingfish can be caught along the ridges and wrecks offshore of Florida's East Coast.
- Take a look at Captain Gina's Catch and movie she made of one of her kingfish trips. Port Canaveral King Mackerel Movie
Florida Record King Makerel: 90 lbs.
Remarks: Kings are schooling fish that migrate fom south Florida waters in winter to more northerly waters in spring. Gulf population thought to be separate from Atlantic population, with considerable mixing in winter from Cape Canaveral past Key West. Kingfish spawns in midsummer OFFSHORE and feeds on small fish and squid.
Florida King Makerel Regulations: 24" to fork in tail minimum size limit, limit of two per angler per day.
Other Florida Gamefish
Redfish, Red Drum, Puppy Drum, Channel Bass
Common Snook, Swordspine Snook, Black Snook, Fat Snook, Robalo
Cobia, Ling, Crab Eater, Lemon Fish
Spotted Seatrout, Sea Trout, Speckled Trout, Gator Trout
King Mackerel, King Fish, Kingfish, Mackerel
Tripletail, Triple Tail, Bouy Bass
Fishing Hot Spot Matrix: Match each species with locations and month's best bets.
More King Mackerel, King Fish, Kingfish, Mackerel Information
The largest member of the mackerel family is the infamous "King Makerel". Often called kingfish or just kings, these are one of the fastest line spooling fish in the ocean for it's size. While it's not a hard fighting fish like a tuna, a king mackeral will spool off 300 yards of line faster than you can get the rod out of the holder, thus the name smoker kingfish for those sizable kings that dump spools and leave you holding an empty reel and a smoking thumb that tried to put the brakes on. King Mackerel is the most consistant offshore gamefish off of Port Canaveral and our guides are experts at putting their anglers on smoker kingfish.