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Can anyone offer any advice on how to target Spanish mackerel? I catch a few by accident when trout fishing but want to be able to target them. Any advice would be appreciated.

We've always trolled a Clark spoon behind the boat. Main line to swivel and egg weight, 3-4 ft Fluro to spoon.

Buy a few mackeral trees and troll behind the boat.

Thanks, I will try that. Am I looking for any particular depth? I was thinking the stake line at st marks.

Always, ALWAYS be on the lookout for diving birds... find them during the warm months, and you'll be finding feeding mackerel (often mixed in with jacks and bluefish) pushing up bait schools and drawing the attention of the birds.

Any / all area reefs will be your friend too... they draw bait, the bait draws the mackerel. They'll almost always chase small silver spoons though sometimes when the tides/solunar forecasts aren't ideal they'll chase but not eat. Stay on the structure long enough and you can tell when their appetite changes because you'll see bait schools get nervous and the blender turned on (see them feeding).

Sometimes you really will be best served by really small baits... think tiny torpedo, straw tube baits, smallest silver spoons you can find... this is true because they love feeding on our area glass minnows which are pretty dad-gum small.

Floating a pin fish under a cajun thunder / float is always a good idea, regardless of whether you're fishing nearshore, midshore, or offshore. Macks hit them like this off my boat all the time, but as a bonus every once in a while so do cobia, kings, sharks, etc.

Should have added if you can't afford to lose lures, find some dark coated thin tie-able wire and use half a foot to a foot of it. Have a buddy who likes catching them so much he's willing to give them his hardware more than I am, and can tell you from fishing side by side with him for years that if I'm using bright silver wire (versus darker coated wire) his hook up ratio is about double mine. I still catch them, but he definitely catches more. The bright wire doesn't slow them from chasing, just from sealing the deal with as many bites, and that can be enough to drive you crazy when you're watching them swim inches behind your lure cast after cast without being willing to bite.

There's no better mackerel lure, IMO, than a silver clark spoon. As others have said, look for birds feeding and bait busting on the surface...a lot of times you can even see mackerel jumping in the distance before you see baitfish. If you find them this way, all you need is a spoon and leader. I prefer 40lb mono over wire, as it is less visible and seems to draw more strikes, but wire can be just as effective and you won't lose as many fish. If you aren't seeing any surface activity, and opt for the trolling route, use the same rig but add an egg weight above your leader to help keep the spoon down. 6'-12' is usually a good depth range to troll for spanish.

Thanks for all the advice.

Be sure to have a smoker ready and a great recipe for fish dip. You will need those for when you catch a boatload.

Cut bait works great on Spainish. Also, the most expensive lure in your tackle box when thrown without a wire leader seems to attract them very quickly.

MudDucker wrote: Also, the most expensive lure in your tackle box when thrown without a wire leader seems to attract them very quickly.

Truer words have never been written!

So true! First Sebile I bought was lost on the second cast. There goes $13.99. It was a very quick reminder that I prefer to fish stress free. Expensive lures, well, they add stress.

10-4 on that Stress Factor!!!

At $1.00 a piece I have started worrying about my GULP!

Flint River Pirate wrote:At $1.50 a piece I have started worrying about my GULP!

There, I fixed it for you. :mrgreen:

Fishin' is the mission.