30lb King Mackerel at "The Jungle" - The Hull Truth

BigWhiskey · 09-21-2009, 08:24 PM

2nd fishing trip on the new boat.....left out of Little River Inlet at 7am...caught some nice bait right outside of the jettys with two other Sea Hunts.....first spot we ran to was LR Offshore Reef and caught a smaller 17lb king and a few spanish within a minute of putting baits out.....we were the only boat out there and morning bite was hot with spanish and smaller kings...decided to move out to the 65 ft hole.....after 45 minutes of no strikes, decided to give "The Jungle" a try before heading in...

Set out the long, medium, and downrigger line, and right as I threw the "prop wash" bait behind the motor, this baby "skyed" and tossed the bait a few feet as if it was waiting for me to throw the bait in.....I was holding the rod and less than 5 seconds after he was back in the water, felt her come back for the bait and I advanced the drag to set the hook...as it ran, I handed it off to my wife who fought it for only about 10 minutes before I saw her coming up beneath the bow.....only had a 6ft gaff, so i took whatever shot i could get and got her in the boat ASAP before making a 2nd run....

normally i wouldnt gaff a "larger king" like this unless it was a tournament, but with it being our second trip on the new boat and such a nice king for my wife to catch, decided it would make for some decent pictures and story.....steaked it up and gave to my buddies who came out.....im not a big fan of eating kings or spanish, but i took someone recommendation of beer battering and deep frying, and it makes for one heck of a po'boy sandwich for sure....

fish measured 51.625" x 22.5" - estimating a weight of 29-31lbs

lumberman · 09-22-2009, 05:20 AM

nice fish.. I think I was out there with you catching bait. Carolina Blue 26'..
Nice fish and a heck of a way to handle it with the wife! Congrats to her as well!!

Jim

Jetty Jay · 09-22-2009, 08:44 AM

Nice fish, the Jungle is good area to find larger kings on a slow day. The 90's can light up as well. Little river offshore can be tough with all the "cuda" but has a lot of cobia when they are around. I use sibiki's at the LR/AR when I need extra live bait. Lots of cigars there. Maybe I will see you guy's out there sometime. We monitor channel 11 and go by the name "Team Jetty Jay"

ScottK · 09-22-2009, 09:22 PM

Was at the Jungle last Sat in the 5' seas....heard the name Jay on 06 and asked if it was Jetty Jay...reply was no. Next time I'll try 11

Nice king man...they were non existant last Sat, but we did pull up some keeper sea bass!

Jetty Jay · 09-23-2009, 09:19 AM

Scott, I was there friday it was slow but we did manage a few small ones, we ran to the atlantic ledge it was slow there as well but we did have a few knockdowns but the fish let loose. We went back to the Jungle to finish the day and got one decent king around 530 pm. We also listen to channel six as well as eleven. Maybe I will catch you out there.I am planning to run to the 90's thursday afternoon for a short trip. ~JJ~

LR-Sportsman · 09-23-2009, 07:00 PM

Good to hear. Theres an in house fishing tournament in the club my dad and I belong to on Saturday. Plan on running out to the Jungle area in search of some kings. Glad to hear the jungle is producing.

Saturday does not look good but who knows. Ill let you guys know what happens.

ScottK · 09-23-2009, 09:36 PM

No problem Jay....we trolled pogies around 9/19 on the surface and two downriggers which only caught smooth dogfish sharks so we started bottom fishing to save the trip out there. 4 others out there not doing much from what I saw.

Nice king BW - Story of my life, "shoulda been here tomorrow"

BigWhiskey · 09-23-2009, 10:58 PM

haha thanks scott.....honestly, we just got lucky.......real lucky....my GPS/fishfinder hadnt been installed yet, and we just had a 15 year old handheld garmin GPS to get us to the general jungle vicinity....it actually gets you within 100 feet of your mark, so i cant complain......ive never fished the jungle, and this was literally our 2nd time out in NC waters offshore (more than a mile or two in my old mako bay boat).....i grew up in pawleys island fishing out of winyah bay and charleston area and always head that way when i go fishing with friends..... so my goal with this new boat was to finally fish NC waters and find the good fishing up here.....i always heard of great fishing up this way, but i guess you get "comfortable" with what you are used to and never really tried....anyways, we saw 2 other boats when we pulled up...and one got up and left right as we started getting lines out......i set my 3 other lines and just threw that pogey in the propwash and it was as if the king had been sitting there waiting for it....rocketed out about 4-5 feet from the back of the boat, and the rest was actually very easy compared to the smaller king we caught at LR offshore reef.........the bigger ones sometimes just dont have the fire in them like the 15 pounders....

i plan on heading back out saturday and sunday trying "new spots" if the weather holds up.....my garmin 545 finally arrived today, so if the techs over at OI marina get it installed on friday, i plan on trying out some live bottom areas i have been plotting on a maps unique chart i picked up this week....one thing ive learned over the years as im sure everyone else has...fishing is easy, catching is the part ive yet to master

Jetty Jay · 09-25-2009, 02:18 PM

Big Whiskey, we slammed the kings at the Jungle Thursday afternoon, We boated six and a large spanish. The jungle was on fire. If all went well we would have had at least 12-14 kings but some got away. We saw two or three skying behind the boat. A few cut the wire leaders and a few might have been foul hooked and let go after a few minutes of peeling line. I think the fall run will be very good this year. I plan to fish the Rumble out of my Marina.Hope to see you out and about. Channel 6-11 ~JJ~