Canaveral Kingfish Captains

All Aboard for Kingfish at Port Canaveral, Florida

One balmy Friday morning our friend, Captain Brent, of Obession Fishing Charters called to see what we were up to and invited Richard and I to come and play out of Port Canveral looking for cobia or possibly do some commerical king mackerel fishing. Captain Brent is a awesome year around charter captain out of Port Canaveral and occasionally does some commerical fishing.

Gathered ourselves together, we met Brent at the docks and cast off promptly as it was already around 10am. Leaving the Port mouth, we saw many of the commerical mackerel vessels returning, so I considered king fishing out of the question and we would spend a little time looking for cobia then be back so I could enjoy lunch with these two handsome boat Captains. However, once we reached the jetty Captain Brent announced "we're going mackerel fishing" with a confident grin on his face. Brent always talked about how much Richard and I would enjoy this kind of fishing and he seemed determined to take us out on our first commercial fishing experience.

Not knowing what to expect I submitted to the fact we would be out all day probably till dark and really didn't know how well things would go especially leaving so late. Needless to say the moring was beautiful... it's December, and believe it or not it seemed like a summer day on the water with the ocean being calm and glassy under clear blue skys. The conditions were perfect to be out on the water fishing.

My fashion statement for the day was Brent's white shrimp boots I stole from his tackle locker. Which prompted us all to sing Nancy Sinatra's song "These boots are made for walking, and that's just what they'll do, one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you", as we rode out toward the horizon toward our day of fishing.

Three Captains
One Boat and Fifty King Mackerel

On the way out Captain Richard attended the wheel as I observed Brent rig the boat with various wires and hooks before cutting our daily supply of bait strips. I was really in for a surprise as we weren't going to use conventional rods and reels that I'm familiar with.

Forty minutes later we Arrived at the fishing hole and that's where Brent's skills really shined. His hands moved confident and quickly as I've ever seen a man's hand move (believe me, I've seen a few). Brent deployed the lines out and in short order yelled, "FISH ON!" The action never stopped for over two hours.

As Captain Brent started hauling in a fish, Richard awkwardly siezed the other line, and managed to wrench a mackerel to the boat and into the fish box in double the time it took Brent. Within seconds, fish were boiling behind the boat and the "bite was on" as Brent would say. Baits were hammered as quickly as they were dropped back, I watched, momentarily stunned with amazement before pushing Captain Richard aside after he landed three successive kingfish. Asserting myself into the frey by grabbing a line, I wouldn't stand by any longer without trying my hand at bringing these fish in. Definitely an exciting way to catch king mackerel, this bare knuckled fishing surely beat using a rod and reel and took much less time to bring them over the rail and into the fishbox. I was having so much fun, these two charter fisherman just sat back and watched me throw fish after fish into the box, occassionally assisting me when needed.

My first attempts weren't going as well as expected... Captain Brent made it look so easy. I didn't know how to wrap the line around my hands and certainly my technique was lacking, but I somehow suffered through bringing my first fish boatside while tangling lines and being in all sorts of directions, (tangling lines and loosing hooks drives every captain insane and I know Captain Brent had enough of that from me by the end of the day).

After several questions, a little instruction and watching Captain Brent, things started to come together with practice. He taught me how to saftely wrap the lines around my hands allowing me to pull in the fish, throw them into the fish box and use the de-hooker (did I say hooker?). To get them off the line you sling the fish on over a metal bar and pull sideways to release the fish (the de-hooking thing seems to be the hardest part for me).

Astonished at how quickly fish bit our baits, I was unable to get my line out fast enough for the next one waiting to be brought to the boat. Many times the fish would hit the line before you could even get the line out all the way. I had my share of bringing in kingfish, never letting my husband Captain Richard touch a line again. I kept smiling with each fish I brought to the boat until the end I was pretty well fatigued.

After Captain Brent and I caught our limit of fifty king fish, it was time to clean up and head home. Richard again was the one driving home while I watched Brent gut each fish. He sure knows what he's doing and does a great job at it. By the time we returned to port the fish were cleaned, iced down and the boat was scrubbed down ready for the next day.

All it took was one day and I was hooked on commerical king fishing and talking about my next trip. Richard and I had an awesome day together along with Captain Brent doing some fishing totally different than I've ever done before.

Thanks Captain Brent Hancock for an awesome and exciting day of fishing!

It was so good, just two days later I went again and earned the name "Striker" from Captain Scott Bussen.

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All Aboard for Kingfish at Port Canaveral, Florida

Three Captains One Boat and Fifty King Mackerel

Three Captains
One Boat and Fifty King Mackerel