If you're good, or lucky, or both, it only takes one good cast to have enough bait to last all day. If you're like me, it takes a number of casts, several of them resembling a banana when they hit the water, and a resulting sore back before you have enough bait. Nonetheless we caught enough bait for a good days trolling, about fifty, nine inch long menhaden, and we headed offshore. One thing you need to know is that kings move in and out with the bait. They can be caught off the beach fishing piers at some times, and they can be 30 miles offshore at others.
Every year there are a few kings caught right up in the surf.
Today, they kings were reported to be about 15 miles off the beach, running over the artificial reefs and wrecks east of Jacksonville. One bait went on a downrigger about 30 feet below the surface. The other downrigger was rigged at 70 feet, and a lively pogie was on the end of the line. On the surface we put two freelined pogies out, one on each side of the boat. And with the baits out we began our slow troll over the structure we were marking on our recorder.