A Place To Share Your Fishing Experience: spanish mackerel

Fishy Tips

Tip No 1 - For coastal fishing, get a tide chart and learn how to use it.

Tip No 2 - Always try and get fresh bait. Catching it yourself can be fun too.

Tip No 3 - Use the lightest sinker you need for the job. Sometimes this will only be a very small one.

Tip No 4 - Become good at tying important knots. Get a good knot book, learn to tie the Locked Half Blood Knot and practice it.

Tip No 5 - Read as much as you can in magazines like Fishing World. There are heaps of really useful things as well as heaps of good pictures.

Tip No 6 - Never touch or handle a fish or creature that you can't identify. It might bite or sting.

Tip No 7 - Get a good fish identification book and study it.

Tip No 8 - Always wash salt off your fishing gear, including hooks and lures, after you've finished fishing at the coast.

Tip No 9 - Try and have a freshwater tackle box and a saltwater tackle box. This will protect your freshwater stuff from rust at the coast.

Tip No 10 - When you are not using your reels, keep them in a dark place, like a draw or cloth bag. Sunlight damages fishing line very quickly.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Get To Know The Spanish Mackerel

The Spanish mackerel, Scomberomorus maculatus, is a migratory species of mackerel which are voracious, opportunistic & carnivores. As with other members of the genus, food consists mainly of small fishes with lesser quantities of shrimp and squid.

The fish exhibits a green back; its sides are silvery marked with about three rows of round to elliptical orange spots.

Spanish mackerel are similar in appearance to small King mackerel (S. Cavalla) and Cero mackerel (S. regalis). All three are very similar in shape and coloration. They may be distinguished as follows:

The lateral line on Spanish and Cero mackerel slopes gradually from the top edge of the gill to the tail. In contrast that of the king mackerel takes an abrupt drop at mid-body.

The first (spiny) dorsal on Spanish and Cero mackerel has a prominent black patch. The King mackerel has none. As all three species normally keep the first dorsal folded back in a body groove, this difference is not immediately evident.

Spanish mackerel have prominent yellow spots on the flanks at all sizes. In addition to such spots, Cero mackerel have one or more yellow stripes along the centerline. Young King mackerel have similar, but slightly smaller spots; these fade away on individuals weighing over 10 pounds (4.5 kg), but they may still be seen as spots of slightly darker green on the upper back from some angles of view.

World wide there are many members of this genus quite similar to one or another of these three species. In particular, off Mexico, Spanish mackerel may be confused with S. brasiliensis which may appear in the same area.