Catching Mackerel in a Chill

Everyone thinks of Spanish mackerel as warm-water fish, and they are, but often they’ll actually bite best during a warm-up when the temperatures suddenly dip. This seems to be especially true when water temperatures are only slightly above the 70-degree mark, and there’s a chilly evening or two. Seventy degrees is about as low as these fish really like it, and a drop pushing that mark tells the fish they’ll soon be on the move. As long as there’s bait present in the area, the natural response means going on the feed.

One of the best things about this phenomenon is that it often leads to surface frenzies. For a light tackle angler, nothing’s better – that means you can ignore the trolling gear, and start slinging jigs and spoons. Still, the usual factors apply:

• Try gold spoons. There will be days that other lures catch more mackerel, but there will be few days when gold spoons don’t produce.
• If you’re using plastics, make sure they’re the tooth-proof variety. Otherwise you’ll be swapping tails after just about every cast.
• Rip your offerings through the frenzy as fast as possible. It’s literally impossible to turn the crank on a reel too quickly for these fish.
• If you see the fish but aren’t getting bit, allow a 10-count for the lure to sink before you start cranking.
• Try a popping cork rig with beads on the cork and a small lure three feet below. But don’t chug and pause the rig, work it like a walk-the-dog topwater lure. The constant clicking and clacking of the beads and cork works amazingly well at attracting the fish’s attention.
• Be prepared to cover a lot of water looking for the action, even if you knew where it was yesterday. After a drop in temperatures the fish often go on the move, and may be miles away from where they were a day earlier.

Final note: bring the trolling gear, even if you plan to use light gear. If you have trouble finding the fish there’s no better way to locate them then going on the troll, and often, after zeroing in on a specific zone you can wrap up the big rigs and switch tactics.