A smaller version of their bigger cousins the Kings, it just goes to prove dynamite does come in small packages. Known for their slashing, hit and run, making schools of bait fish look like they been through a garbage disposal. With sleek, colorful, streamlined bodies built for speed. Running in packs like a bunch of crazed piranahs after a reject sunbather from a Richar Simons convention. There is little doubt to the novice saltwater angler when a school of mackerel are around. If the washer machine action of the nearby water doesn't give them away. Then the dive bombing hyena seagulls scambleing for some leftover scrapes of baitfish will!!!!
Once locating one of these feeding frenzies of supersonic underwater topedos of the gulf. Be ready for some fast fishing action, with whatever you decide to throw into this churning watery smorgasborg, it better have a wire leader attached to it. Be it a silvery mirrolures, spoons, or wire leaders with some cotton string trailers attached to the hook. For their size the teeth on this perticular game species can make a T-Rex envious, with their ability to cut anything that happen to find it's way inside those snapping jaws. Be it 20 pound monfilament or a misguided finger or two, this is one lesson you won't have to repeat twice!!!!
Migratory by nature, Spanish Makerel are usually found around rocky points and jetty systems beginning in May and lasting till September or the waters begin to cool. Running in fast moving schools they tend to prowl structure and bunch their prey up before attacking with deadly force. As quickly as these bait buster appear, they will be moving on to another location looking for other schools of soon to be mince meat bait fish to slash up. So anglers need to be just as mobile as their quarry when stalking these slilettohs of the gulf. With several rods ready rigs with a variety of different eye appealling offerings. And some agile needlenose pliers and net handy to scoop and unhook their catches, and cast back into those boiling waters before the school moves on.
Sizes vary but most are in the 15 to 20 inch range and weighing in about 2 to 3 pounds of lean mean fighting machine lengths. Hooking up with one of these speedsters of the gulf, can be one of the most fast and furious 30 minutes of fishing a gulf coast angler will ever experience. With quite bust of speed, and more change of directions than Denise Rodman interview. Spanish Makerel will afford a lucky Texans angler with all the fight his light tackle can handle. And heaven help you if you find yourself fortunate enough to hook up with one in the record book classification. You may think you hook up with a redfish on steroids, as he is peeling line of your reel at a record pace!!!!
The really good news about Spanich Mackerel fishing is not only are they a blast to catch. But they also are delicious to eat, with their meat not being quite as oily as their bigger cousins the King Mackerel. So the next time you see the water off the back of the boat boiling like a submarine about to surface. Take a tip from those seagulls not to far behind and get on the action. Throw a lure out in the middle of all the commotion and get ready for some fun that will certainly be soon to follow. Although it may not be the speckled trout fishing you have grown so accustomed too. It can provide some memorable fast action fishing with some nice fillets to boot!!!!