Like ravenous wolf packs, king mackerel roam the waters over the continental shelf looking for something to devour, but nowhere do these toothy predators gather in greater numbers during the winter than around the southern tip of Florida.

Daniel Felsher is showing off the kind of big kingfish that turns up along the southeast coast of the peninsula in the fall months. Photo by John Felsher.

"There are a million different reefs to fish for kingfish around here," said Capt. Mike Weinhofer of Compass Rose Charters in Key West. "In November and December, we hit fish in both the Atlantic and Gulf sides. Sometimes, we're trying to catch sailfish and we have so many kingfish, it's like the plague. Sometimes, we see schools of fish an acre across."

In the family with tunas, bonito and wahoo, king mackerel range throughout the western Atlantic Ocean and the entire Gulf of Mexico. Common from North Carolina to Brazil, kings sometimes venture as far north as Maine.

The largest species of mackerels in the western Atlantic, kings spawn in late spring and summer in the northern Gulf of Mexico and off the east coast of the United States. One female could lay hundreds of thousands of eggs.

In its first year, a young mackerel may grow to 25 inches long and weigh about 3 to 4 pounds. Males seldom weigh more than 15 pounds, but females can top 90 pounds. The world record, a fish weighing 93 pounds, came from off Puerto Rico in April 1999.

Norton I. Thomton holds the Florida record with a 90-pounder he caught off Key West in February 1976.

"King mackerel are fairly abundant and make great sport," explained Dr. Robert G. Muller, a biologist for the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission in St. Petersburg. "The population goes up and down, but stocks are generally healthy around Florida. Gulf stocks seem to be in much better shape now than a few years ago. It takes about four years to reach 10 pounds or about 33 inches fork length, but a king mackerel can live more than 25 years."

As temperatures cool, big kings migrate south. Kingfish from the northern Gulf of Mexico head to southern Texas and Mexico or down the west coast of Florida to mingle with Atlantic kingfish coming down to eastern Florida. From about November to April, they remain in southern Florida waters or around Caribbean islands. When water temperatures warm again in the spring, the two distinct populations go their separate ways, heading to their respective spawning territories in the Gulf or off the Atlantic states.

"Not all king mackerel migrate," Dr. Muller emphasized. "We do have resident populations in the northern Gulf of Mexico and off North Carolina, but in winter, South Florida is the place to fish for kings.

"Temperature determines when they move," he continued. "King mackerel don't like really warm or really cold waters. In years with cooler springs, people in the southern portion of Florida brag about how good the fishing is, while people in the northern part of the state complain about the awful fishing."

Mackerel typically stay in waters at least 30 feet deep, often over reefs, wrecks or other bottom structure. In deeper, salty areas where the continental shelf edge veers close to shore -- like the waters between Fort Lauderdale and the Florida Keys -- kingfish often come very close to shore. Anglers frequently catch them off long piers near deep water. However, they usually roam open waters over the continental shelf out to about 300 feet deep.

"Just about any sharp drop between Fort Lauderdale and the Keys can be a good place to fish for kings," said Capt. Jim Barlett of Beast Fishing Charters in Miami. "I look for drops off the shelf where kingfish can come up to feed in the shallows and still escape into deep water. The big kings are usually in at least 40 to 80 feet of water. Some better areas around Miami include the Cuban Hole, some ocean reefs and most areas around shoals near the lighthouses."