Collection: Kingfish Tackle

Trolling spoons, wire leader rigs and stinger rigs for king mackerel.

Kingfish present two problems and both have the same answer. They have teeth that cut mono and fluorocarbon cleanly on first contact, and they short-strike — slashing at a bait and taking the back half, leaving you with a cut-off bait and no hookup.

Wire leader solves the first. It is not a preference; it is the only material that survives them, and a cut-off costs you the fish and the rig together.

A stinger rig solves the second — a trailing hook set back in the bait, positioned exactly where a king slashes. If you are losing baits without hookups, this is why.

The other reliable method is trolling a Drone spoon behind a planer. The thin Drone profile holds a tight wobble at trolling speed where a casting spoon would spin and blow out, and it gets down to fish holding deep. Silver on silver in clear blue water, chartreuse when it goes green.

Kings follow bait, so find the bait first. The fall mullet run brings them close to the beach on both coasts.