Atlantic mackerel

Quick facts

How to identify it

A slim, torpedo-shaped fish built for speed, with a pointed head, a deeply forked tail and a row of small finlets behind the second dorsal and anal fins. The back is steel-blue to green with dark, wavy tiger stripes, the flanks silvery and iridescent, the belly white; it has no swim bladder and only tiny scales. Two widely separated dorsal fins and the finlets separate it from herring and sprat, which have one dorsal fin and no stripes. The chub mackerel is a close relative with a larger eye and spotted lower flanks, and the horse mackerel (scad) is not a true mackerel at all – it has a hard, scaled lateral line.

Where it lives

A pelagic fish of the open North Atlantic, North Sea, Baltic, Mediterranean and Black Sea, the mackerel spends winter in deep water at the edge of the shelf and moves inshore in spring and summer to feed, often in enormous shoals. Then it comes within casting range of piers, breakwaters, rocky points, harbour walls and steep beaches wherever the water is clean, salty and at least a few metres deep; it avoids brackish, murky or very shallow water. Shoals roam the whole water column following baitfish and plankton, so they are here one hour and gone the next. Tide races off headlands, drop-offs and channel edges concentrate them, and diving gulls or 'boiling' surface water give their position away.

Season and behaviour

Mackerel spawn from March to June (later in the north) in open water and then feed hard through summer and autumn. Northern coasts see the first shoals in May or June, the peak from July to September and stragglers into October; in the Mediterranean and Adriatic the fish move inshore in the cooler part of the year and are often caught from autumn through spring. Feeding is driven by light and tide: dawn and dusk on a moving tide are the classic windows, although a shoal in a feeding frenzy will bite at midday. Calm, clear water with a slight ripple is ideal; a heavy swell or dirty water pushes the fish out. Temperature matters – the shoals follow the 10–15 °C band.

Fishing methods

The simplest method is a string of 3–6 feathers or small sabiki-style flies above a 30–80 g weight, cast out and retrieved in jerks or jigged vertically from a boat or pier; a shoal can fill a bucket in minutes. For more sport, use a light spinning rod with 10–25 g casting spoons, small metal jigs or slim minnows retrieved fast, or float-fish a strip of mackerel or a sandeel 2–4 m down – hold the float still and let the tide work it. Slow trolling with a spoon or a feather trace from a boat covers a lot of water. Fly anglers score with small white or silver streamers on an intermediate line. Keep the tackle light (0.20–0.25 mm mono or thin braid), as mackerel run hard; bleed and ice fish meant for the table straight away.

Baits and lures

Mackerel are not fussy: a strip of their own flesh, a small sandeel, a ragworm or a sliver of squid on a size 4–1 hook will all take fish. The flash and colour of the lure matter more than the bait – silver, white, pink and blue feathers or spoons match the sandeels and fry the shoals chase. Spoons of 10–25 g cast far and sink fast, letting you search the whole column. A freshly caught mackerel is the best bait of all, not only for other mackerel but for cod, seabass, conger and garfish.

Tips from the bank

1. 01Fish the first two hours of light and the last two before dark on a moving tide – slack water is the quietest time.
2. 02Count the lure down on every cast and change the depth until you find the shoal; mackerel may be at the surface or on the bottom.
3. 03Watch for gulls, terns and rippling water: the shoal is under the birds, not where you cast last time.
4. 04Use a lighter weight and fewer feathers when the fish are shy – three flies on a light rod hook better than six on a pole.
5. 05Bleed and ice any fish you keep at once; mackerel spoil faster than almost any other species.
6. 06Keep one fresh fish for bait strips – it will catch garfish, seabass and cod on the same trip.

Where to catch Atlantic mackerel

Waters where Shoalmap's fishing reports list Atlantic mackerel.

• Sea
• Sea
• Jadransko more / Mare Adriatico / Deti Adriatik
• Levantine Sea
• بحيرة التمساح
• Sea
• وادي سيح

Related species

• Garfish
  Belone belone

  The green-boned, beaked acrobat of spring coasts and summer surfaces.

• European seabass
  Dicentrarchus labrax

  The silver predator of surf, rocks and estuaries — Europe's premier shore game fish.

• Atlantic cod
  Gadus morhua

  The cold-water heavyweight of the North Sea, Baltic and Norwegian coast.

Frequently asked questions