It looks like the spring king mackerel run has hit the Gulf of Mexico waters in the Tampa Bay area. We’re getting reports from all across the region of large numbers of big kings being caught.

Smoker kings of 30 pounds and more are being caught in the Egmont channel and in the Mud Hole off of St. Pete Beach. But the Rube Allyn Reef system has been a kingfish buffet. The artificial reef is made of a large steel barge, a prefabricated Japanese reef unit, and numerous high profile pyramid structures.

All of the anglers we’ve spoken with have reported catching kings slow trolling. Some have slow trolled spoons, others use live baits like blue runners or horse minnows. Slow trolled ladyfish work well, too.  The kings are in chasing big schools of bait that have moved in to the area in the last week.

If you’re looking for the Rube Allyn Reef, we’ve included some numbers and a schematic from Pinellas County below. Our recommendation is that you focus around the “twin peaks” area. To find the peaks, start from the south buoy and head due north for two hundred feet. This will place you on a twin peak pyramid measuring about eighty feet long and fifty feet wide. The peaks of the pyramids are 18-20 feet high and the structure has a diameter of 95 feet. Other pyramids can be found 100 feet due east of the north buoy and on the southwest corner of the barge on the center buoy.

FISH ON!

 

fish, Fishing, Florida, King Mackerel

By Sid

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