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Last week Silverking provided some tips for catching spanish mackerel. He mentioned a McDonald's straw rig. I thought he was referring to some type of home-made rig. However, when I was in Destin earlier this week (trying some surf fishing with no luck), I stopped by Bass Pro and found a McDonald's rig as I wondered the isles on my adventure to look at everything. Of course, I also purchased a couple Gotchas as well as other stuff. I try to help keep all tackle shops in business when I can. I stopped by Half Hitch and bought a few things, too.

Yesterday, Catherine and I hit St. Marks after lunch and trolled the buoy markers on the west and caught a few mackerel. This was our first time catching these. Now I need to find the best reciepe. I'm getting ready to search BBF now.

In my mind they are best fried... My will bake them covered in yellow mustard.

The BEST is smoke them and make fish dip.
Cream Cheese, Fish, old bay maybe a little hot sauce.

or
2 cups flaked smoked fish
2 tablespoons fat-free mayonnaise
4 tablespoons fat-free sour cream
Few shakes of Old Bay Seasoning
Tabasco hot pepper sauce to taste
Worcestershire sauce to taste
3 drops liquid smoke flavoring - If you didn't smoke them.

Bman, that sounds yummy. How long should I smoke them?

Look at his belly.
He does not use fat-free anything.

Jumptrout51 wrote:Look at his belly.
He does not use fat-free anything.

Amen to the smoking. Awful hard to beat!

Filet them leaving the skin on. Turn on your grill. Put down aluminum foil. Spray foil with cooking spray. Put the filets on skin side down on the foil. Sprinkle with sea salt, garlic powder and little pepper to taste. Drizzle a little melted butter and squirt on some fresh lemon over the filets. Cook until you see the meat turn white. If you like, when the meat begins to turn white put grated cheese on top and take up as soon as the cheese melts.

If they are cooked the same day and never frozen, use butter lemon salt and pepper, put the fillet skin down and run under the broiler for 8 minutes, they are hard to beat. Or smoke'em, just chop the head and tail off, they peel apart to make a very mild smack dip.
I was at St Marks in the AM and it was foggy and windy, it looks like it turned out nice in the PM.

I haven't tried smoking them, but put me in with the Grill Crowd. As a matter of fact, I grilled some last week for dinner.

I fished with a group of guys out of Econfina last spring and they all said they throw the spanish back. On the night we cooked burgers and hot dogs, I slipped a couple of spanish fillets on the grill. We had burgers and dogs left over, but no spanish.

I use a grill basket (fish holder, looks like a square tennis racket) so i can control where the fish are over the heat. Go with any seasoning you like, but keep them moist. I will baste them every 2-3 minutes.

The cheese sounds good. Wonder if I have any more in the freezer..........

Ken,

PM K8show and she'll give you all the details on smoking. She makes a great smoked fish dip. We went saturday and trolled up about a dozen in an hour. one x-rap and one mackeral tree just outisde the line south of Cobb Rocks. Great Pic

I found some great recipes on the forum and Internet. I smoked the fish on my Green Egg for a few hours at around 190 and made some dip. Boy, it was outstanding. We couldn't stop eating it off and on all weekend until it was gone. I'm ready for more. Cooking and making the dip was almost as fun as catching the fish. I wonder how long they will be sticking around?

They are here all summer.