Spanish Mackerel

One of our most beautiful fish, it is likewise among the gamest, most widely distributed and during certain seasons most plentiful. A member of the Mackerel family, of this species we learn from L. S. Caine's "Game Fish of the South," "It is strictly a migratory fish, and appears at various times off the coast in large schools, where the commercial fishermen make huge catches by trolling with squid and strip bait. . . . Coloration: silvery, bluish above, with a sheen of gold and pale pink, sides covered with elliptical spots of a dull orange on both sides of lateral line."

Spanish Mackerel usually feed on smaller fish, shrimp, menhaden, mullet. Average size from 1 to 3 pounds; largest taken on tackle about 31 pounds. They run all along the coast when the ocean water is clear, and generally can be taken during the northern run in April and May or in the late Summer or Fall, generally the last of August until the last of October.

Most of these fish are taken with regular bait-casting tackle, using clothespin plugs and small feather jigs. Occasionally they are taken on either live mullet or shrimp, but casting is by far the most successful.