About Guy:Guy Harvey
On one of my recent visits to the public fishing beach in George Town, an unusual fish on the cleaning table caught my eye. Unusual in that I had never seen one here in the Cayman Islands. It was a king mackerel, called a kingfish throughout the wider Caribbean.
The gentleman cleaning the fish was none other than Ferris Ebanks, Cayman’s ‘Old Man of the Sea’ and someone who I respected a great deal because of his fishing success and knowledge. He had two 20 pound kingfish lying next to a fine brace of wahoo. For anyone who wanted to see the difference between a wahoo and a kingfish, the two were laying side by side.
I said to Ferris, “Come now, you did not catch those kingfish here in Cayman did you, Ferris?”
The answer came back negative with a chuckle; they were caught way southwest of here on the banks that stretch far out from the coast of Honduras. In all my time fishing and diving around the Cayman Islands I had never seen a kingfish or spoken to anyone who had seen one. And yet they are a common coastal pelagic fish in Jamaica to the east and its surrounding banks and in Cuba to the north, and over the expansive Yucatan flats to the west.
I worked on my PhD thesis from the Port Royal Marine Laboratory located at the entrance to Kinston Harbour. The water there is green, rich in phytoplankton and the sardines and anchovies would feed heavily on this richness dimpling the surface like a heavy rain was falling. Then there would be a tremendous splash, a burst of energy as an immense predator attacked the throng. Sometimes a jack crevalle, sometimes a big tarpon and if it was a kingfish, it would ‘sky’. Kingfish are known for their prodigious leaps as they attack their prey from underneath and clear the surface by many feet on the follow through, arcing gracefully then returning to the water headfirst, entering cleanly like a diver.
Fishing off the banks of south west Jamaica, we would be trolling along and something would catch my eye as I looked around, an object high in the sky several hundred yards away. A bird? I looked back and saw it falling back into the sea. It was kingfish that had gone 30 feet into the air chasing prey. On another occasion we were drifting for tuna and a 40 pound kingfish ‘skied’ so close to the boat, I could count the sea lice on its head; in its jaws it clutched a blackfin tuna.
The head of the kingfish is pointed, and it has large eyes, primarily feeding by sight in the day time. Its jaws are armed with large blade like teeth that will chop through any bait fish. They feed primarily on coastal pelagic bait species such as sardines, thread herring, anchovies, menhaiden, flying fish, mullet, bonito, small tuna, ballyhoo, mackerel scads and cutlass fish. Their body is long and powerful like all species in the family and it is propelled by a scythe like stiff tail that generates great speed. This species grows over 50 pounds and tops out around 90 pounds. The IGFA world record stands at 93 pounds caught in Puerto Rico.
The kingfish is found throughout the western Atlantic Ocean from the Carolinas in the north, through the Gulf of Mexico the Caribbean and down to Brazil. Migrations are not well understood, but spawning around Jamaica certainly occurred in May and June as numbers of big fish used to gather on certain offshore banks and the kings would show up in big numbers for a few weeks, and then be gone. We collected running ripe females of the kingfish (called a powdertail kingfish in Jamaica) and big cero mackerel from California Bank about eight miles outside Kingston Harbour. So there is evidence that they cross deep water on a regular basis which is the reason I wonder why they do not frequent the waters of the Cayman Islands.
Some people consider that the salmon is the fish that can jump the highest out of the water, but kingfish will clear 25 feet on occasions. Similarly the cero mackerel, a smaller version of the king mackerel which grows to around 15 pounds, is common on the reefs around Grand Cayman, can also make high arcing leaps when chasing prey. Around spring and summer divers will see a large single female cero being escorted by a number of smaller attentive males, particularly along the north wall of Grand Cayman. Some of the cero mackerel are so big I have to take a good look to make sure they are not small kingfish. However Ferris’ son, Charles Ebanks, said he caught a cero mackerel here that weighed 27 pounds. The current IGFA world record for the cero is 17 pounds caught in Florida. Nice one Charles!
The kingfish is a popular gamefish in the southern USA occurring throughout the Gulf of Mexico and up the east coast to the Carolinas. It is one of the most sought after coastal gamefish known for its blistering runs and dogged performance on light tackle.
The kingfish population and other coastal pelagic species have seen rapid growth since the ban on gill netting in Florida state waters several years ago. Gill netting is an effective, but indiscriminate way to catch fish, often with huge by-catch that is usually discarded. Closely related species such as Spanish mackerel and Cero mackerel have also rebounded since the gill net ban.
Commercial fishing for kingfish in the southern USA has continued for decades where they are usually caught trolling with wire lines using flashing silver spoons or fast trolled baits. When live bait fishing for kingfish, sardines, mackerel scads and blue runners are the preferred bait, often armed with a trailing hook as kingfish have a habit of cutting the tail off a baitfish. Generally kingfish are eaten smoked or as fish dip as the flesh can be oily compared to a wahoo or dolphin fish.
Let me know if you see a kingfish on your next dive or catch one while trolling anywhere around the Cayman Islands. Fish responsibly, dive safely. It is our collective responsibility to conserve the marine environment and maintain the biodiversity of the planet.
Guy Harvey PhD.
www.guyharvey.com