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Updated: March 15, 2024 @ 8:09 am
Capt. George Hastick of The Fish Hunter Charters displays a Spanish mackerel taken on a recent Tampa Bay trip. The macks have moved up well into the bay to feed on schools of threadfin shad and they can be day-savers when other species are playing hard-to-get.

Capt. George Hastick of The Fish Hunter Charters displays a Spanish mackerel taken on a recent Tampa Bay trip. The macks have moved up well into the bay to feed on schools of threadfin shad and they can be day-savers when other species are playing hard-to-get.
What is the single greatest attribute of the Spanish mackerel? That’s easy — mackerel are easy.
While many species like to play hard-to-get, rushing baits and stopping short, staying in stealth mode or pulling vanishing acts for days, Spanish mackerel are generally pretty easy to please. They can save the day when nothing else is working on a Tampa Bay fishing trip.
Capt. George Hastick says the Spanish bite has been great of late, with schools all the way up to the Gandy Bridge. While he’s been landing a few dinks, most have been running between 18 and 22 inches. Mackerel are a schooling species, and when he’s finding them, he’s finding lots of them.
The mackerel are pushing up the bay because the baitfish schools are there, said Hastick. In this case it is schools of threadfin shad. He has noticed that the mackerel this year are not actively crashing the bait on the surface, which is one of the usual ways to find them. Instead, they have been feeding deeper, well below the surface, so anglers may want to adjust their tactics a bit for now.
“They are down deeper for some reason,” said Hastick. “I’ve only seen two fish skyrocket out of the water on bait this year; they’re feeding, just feeding deeper.”
On a trip last week, fishing a channel edge in the open bay, live free-line sardines put out over a school of mackerel were not drawing much action, so Hastick grabbed a rod rigged with a Luhr-Jensen Crippled Herring lure. A lead-bodied minnow imitation with a single, swinging hook at the tail end, the lure sinks quickly and gets deep. The mackerel instantly responded once he began presenting at the depth where they were feeding.
Another option is using a small lead sinker with a swivel on both ends rigged with a Clark Spoon. Hastick said that it’s important to use sinkers with black swivels, as the bright metal swivels can draw mackerel strikes and cut the line. The toothy species is attracted to anything with a shine, which is why silver and gold metal spoons are so effective for them.
A good strategy now is to cruise the open bay keeping an eye open for schools of threadfins on the surface. Even if there is no sign of mackerel feeding on the bait, Hastick will put out some live bait or pitch a lure, working the water column. Right now, shallow shoals that rise up from 10 or 12 feet of water are likely spots, as are range markers. Drops-off from flats into 8 or 10 feet of water, as well as deep channel shelves are holding mackerel.
Hastick likes to use 30-pound-test mono leader rather than wire for mackerel, as it is not as visible to the fish. To prevent cutoffs from their sharp teeth, he uses a long-shank hook in size 1 or 1/0. Most of the time the mackerel will hit hard and run, hooking themselves, but he’s noticed this year that he’s had fish mouthing the baits. Allowing them to get it fully into their mouths has been resulting in hookups, but also more cutoffs when they get the hook in too far and cut the mono leader. In those cases, he’s switching to a short piece of light-wire leader.
To really get the mackerel turned on, nothing beats chumming. Hastick pitches out some crippled live sardines, along with chunks of fresh sardines, which can lead to a feeding frenzy, particularly when the current is moving.
“The bite can slow down when the tide slows down, but when it started again on our recent trip, we started getting a bite on every cast within a couple of seconds.”
Anglers are permitted 15 Spanish mackerel per day and they must measure at least 12 inches from nose to the fork of the tail. There is no closed season. Anglers should be careful to avoid getting their hands near the teeth of mackerel, and a long dehooker tool is the way to go.
Not often eaten compared to other species, the rich oil of the species is a source of dense nutrition. Mackerel typically are filleted and broiled, but being oily, they are ideal for the smoker and are preferred over smoked mullet by many.
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