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Hooking Up Anglers Since 2011.
In my region, we get a lot of king and Spanish mackerel, although we don’t see the cero mackerel that the guys in South Florida and the Keys have. That being said, mackerel fishing is the staple of our region. Spanish mackerel are very aggressive feeders that range in size from one to seven pounds, with one to three pound fish the average Spanish mackerel in my region. They’re slashing-type feeders that really focus on small baitfish from minnows to juvenile pogies and finger mullet. For that reason, lures that resemble small fish seem to work best, although you can catch plenty of Spanish mackerel on live shrimp. For lures, I like small, bright colored jigs, Gotcha lures and diving plugs. The Rapala X-Rap series is great for Spanish, and what’s nice about these lures is that you don’t have to be extremely experienced at catching Spanish mackerel to use them. You can even troll them and catch Spanish mackerel. Our Spanish mackerel season is basically spring and fall. The fish arrive with the glass minnow schools in fall and are migrating through towards the East and Southeast region. We don’t really see them much in the winter months. We find the majority of the fish on the beach or within a mile or so of shore, although we do seem some fish inside around the tidally influenced areas of Sebastian Inlet. I like to throw 8-10 pound spinning gear or 4-pound braided line with a 20-pound fluorocarbon leader and a small trace of wire to keep the fish from biting through the line. If you’re fishing a spoon, which is already a large piece of metal, you can put a long snap swivel on there and not have to use wide because the total length of the spoon and swivel will keep the Spanish mackerel from getting its teeth on the leader. You’ll get a lot more bites that way. You don’t want to use a swivel on the line between the leader and the terminal end of your fishing line, because when the lure is moving through the water the fish see it and think it’s a minnow and will actually strike your swivel. When that happens, the fish cut through the line and you lose the leader and the lure. While I target Spanish mackerel exclusively with lures, I target king mackerel with live bait. In my area the standard kingfish rig is made up of #4 wire with a 1/0 or 2/0 live bait single hook for the nose of the bait, and a #4treble hook on five or six inches of wire going as the stinger hook that sits on the back of the bait. For tackle, I prefer baitcasting gear, although you can certainly use spinning gear. You need a reel that holds at least 250 yards of 20-pound monofilament and a rod with a soft, limber tip. You want a very flexible rod because you foul hook a lot of fish, and you don’t want to rip the hook out of the soft skin around their face. For baits, I’ll use anything I can catch that is live and silver in color. Pilchards, Spanish sardines and threadfin herring are great baits if you can get them, and by far the most popular baitfish in my area is the pogie (Atlantic menhaden). Blue runners and mullet are also good baits, as is a dead, rigged ribbonfish. We target our largest kingfish around the bait pods on the beach, but our 70-90 foot reefs in the region hold the majority of the fish in my region. You want water that is over 68 degrees for king fishing.The average fish is around 15-pounds, although we get a lot of the 8-12 pound fish in the winter months. In the spring that average jumps to about 12-20 pounds, as the schools of older fish migrate up from down south. King and Spanish mackerel are schooling fish, so where you find one, you’ll likely find more. Keep that in mind any time you need to salvage a day on the water or are looking for a few fish for the smoker. Find the bait, and you’ll usually find the mackerel.
This Fishing Report was submitted on 9/12/2012 3:09:59 AM by Seamus and last updated on 9/12/2012 3:09:59 AM.
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