Kingfish Release Mortality

[Heywood]

I’ve never really heard of anyone releasing Kingfish once caught. Do any of you have any experience releasing large Kingfish and if so what was your observation?

[Manning]

On a related note, what is the finger mortality rate on releasing king fish?

[Lime Cider]

I was Tarpon fishing a few years ago and caught a King that was successfully released. You've got to jettison it back into the water quickly though or it will die within minutes. I got lucky and landed it while using 80 lb. flouro so I could just cut the line close to the hook. Not sure the fish would survive a stinger rig removal or feed again with two hooks and wire in it's mouth though.

Here is the vid:

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[sfurman]

If you use a dehooking tool and do not remove it from the water, I would imagine the release would be successful. Use one of those long tools like the ARC dehooker or similar.

[FrankC]

Manning brings up a good question. Back when we fished for kings, we never caught one small enough to have to release. Those choppers make a bluefish jealous.

[Blindmullet]

Never have an issue. I don't see how people eat that crap.

[DaveR]

I'd eat it over redfish. Kinda lucky for the redfish.

[seeinred]

In my experience they don't do well out of the water for extended periods of time and are particularly fragile if they hit the deck of the boat.

Like Russ said giving them a good throw into the water head first seems to work best.

[FrankC]

One thing I miss about the time we spent going after kings was having them to eat.

Bleed one when you catch it, keep it iced and then there are several ways to prepare it for the table. Cut one like a loaf of bread, season and put the fillet on a grill and be prepared for a treat. As an alternate, separate the white meat from the dark and frie it for a great meal. Fillet it in the normal fashion and bake it. Once you taste it, you will be hooked.

The dark meat is the bloody, fishy tasting part and is minimized by bleeding the fish.

On the other hand, don't bleed it and be careless with iceing it and you end up with strong fishy tasting grey flesh. Ugh! Commercial fish often come to the table in that condition.

We really enjoyed the roe, but would not eat it today due to possible mercury and other nasties from the ocean.