2020/2021 Spanish mackerel report

DrCoke

Wanted to start a thread on Spanish mackerel report that we can update throughout the winter/spring run. I’ll be going to pecks lake in 2 weeks to check it out. A little early but Those mackerels are a life saver when you take the wife out or guest with ADHD.

Frydaddy

never been. I keep telling my self I'm gonna take my kids but never do😔

hhfisherman

It's still early. The Spanish mac migration not start until around Thanksgiving week.

Aquaholic IV

Frydaddy said:

never been. I keep telling my self I'm gonna take my kids but never do😔

Since you are coming from Boynton, to save you frustration and laughs on this site, they call it "Peck's Lake" but Peck's Lake is actually in the ICW, the old inlet.  What they are referring to is "The Kingfish Hole", in the ocean, give or take 1/2 mile from the beach and about two to three miles south of St. Lucie Inlet.  It is very east to find, look for the flotilla of boats, hundreds.  If they are not there, don't waste your time, the Mac Attack will not be happening.  Be sure to bring about ten, 1/2 ounce, green Gulfstream Glass Minnow Jigs per person.  They work the best.  When arriving, please don't pull behind anchored boats or drive behind them.  Anchored boats are chumming up the school of Mac's and casting to them, if you drive to their stern, you will spook the school.  Be courteous.  Throw your jig as far as you can, let it drop to bottom, reel as fast as you can.  Halfway in, stop, let it drop, jig it and begin reeling fast again.  If you don't catch one, reel faster next time, you can't reel too fast.  I think that might have it covered.  It is great for kids, newbies, owners of smokers/fish dip makers, and fresh they are great grilled or fried(healthy choice).  

King_Me

We use to kill them just north of Spanish River Blvd near the beaches off of Highland Beach.  Used small green fluorescent jigs with about a foot of wire.  Got our limit a few times there.  This was about 8 years ago so who knows if the still migrate there.

Tidal Town

Save yourself some money. The glass minnow jigs are a few bucks a piece x 10 jigs per person. Just buy some 1/4 oz or bigger lead head jigs and some small white or chartreuse Mister Twister soft plastics. For about $5.00, you can have a dozen or so jigs for the day. 

The Cat's Eye

ADHD  that is funny !  
I had a fishing buddy for 20 years and it finally dawned on me that he was ADHD
and that explained so many things he would do when fishing on his boat that drove me nuts.
(I verified this with a relative of his who confided that he had this problem since 
childhood.)

JWPB

I've caught a few cero off of boynton when not paying attention and troll into 65ft vs making a turn.  Nothing like St Lucie but they are around and hit the same baits youd have out for mahi if you make it through the bonita. 

baccarac

DrCoke

Due to weather decided to opt out of SLI and go out of lake worth inlet, plenty of mullet in palm beach but waves were easy 2 to 4 feet. Needless to say it didn’t work out. Will cancel tomorrow’s trip too. Try again next week.

The Cat's Eye

Just by looking at the Dania Pier cam i could see lots of macks being caught on 10/8/20.

DrCoke

The Cat's Eye said:

Just by looking at the Dania Pier cam i could see lots of macks being caught on 10/8/20.

Thanks for the tip with the report and pier cam. Will try this Thursday.

DrCoke

10/15 no Spanish at pecks lake, did find slot cobia just north in deeper waters. Terrible weather today. Looks like 2-4 very close together.

hhfisherman

It's still early for them at Pecks lake. They started to show up around the Thanksgiving weekend.

reelcountry

Frydaddy said:

never been. I keep telling my self I'm gonna take my kids but never do😔

Definitely take your kids. Best day of my life was a 'maintenance cruise' i took the kids on. I had installed a livewell in my boat and done a few other things and just wanted to go for a ride and make sure everything worked. As we turned the corner on the south end of Peanut Island I could see a big school of fish and they were jumping. I didn't know what they were at first but as we got closer I realized it was Spanish Mackerel. I told each kid to grab a rod and I rerigged with gulfstream minnows and they proceeded to catch fish one after another. After about an hour or so they actually asked if they could stop fishing because they were tired of catching fish!! Best Day ever and they both will always remember that day with me!

p914

King Me got it right. I still catch em on the beach.

JWPB , I get a lot of cerros trolling on the way back to Boynton inlet on a small blue/white feather.

2times

Growing up in South Florida I always looked forward to the first day of World Series game.
I never watch baseball game on TV but traditionally first day of World Series coincided with start of spanish mackeral season in our area.    

plastered

The Cat's Eye said:

Just by looking at the Dania Pier cam i could see lots of macks being caught on 10/8/20.

Not macks small kingfish a number of people got popped

by FWC.

DrCoke

I’ve seen FWC give warning for undersize Spanish Mack a lot on blue heron bridge. I used to fished there a lot when I was broke and do agree FWC gives a verbal warning and let them anglers on there way home. Today we are fortunate to catch/release a lot of fish but back than everything was kept for dinner.

CaptJ

Sounds like FWC is on top of it! A gill net in Federal waters does more damage in one set than all of the bridge anglers subsistence fishing can do in a lifetime. What we need is some sensible bag limits. Wonder what the life expectancy of a Mackerel is after banging around in a boat or pavement and being handled before being thrown back? Seems our fish experts would rather see dead fish floating away then considering the options.

hhfisherman

Back to the Original topic.
Are they there yet? Normally they would started to trickling in around Thanksgiving weekend. Any report?

reelcountry

hhfisherman said:

Back to the Original topic.
Are they there yet? Normally they would started to trickling in around Thanksgiving weekend. Any report?

I caught Spanish Mackerel and Bluefish Monday morning north of the St Lucie inlet. If you can go-go.
 Life's too short to miss a chance to go fishing.

pilot45

They were catching them at Peck's Lake on Sunday the 29th.  They were thick, being pulled in every cast.  But if you didn't have the right lure they weren't biting. 

ric1

So what was the right lure, lol?

Aquaholic IV

ric1 said:

So what was the right lure, lol?

Green Gulfstream glass minnow jig, has a mylar (tin foil) strip on it.  Try to get the 1/2 ounce instead of the 3/8 which raises to high in the water column when you reel fast.  Cast as far as you can, let it sink, reel as fast as you can, if you think you are reeling too fast, reel faster.  About halfway in, stop and let it drop and jig it once, usually gets hit, otherwise keep reeling and it will get hit.  If you see them follow it in to the boat and not hitting it, you are not reeling fast enough.

DrCoke

3/8 works well. The 1/2 cast farther and sinks faster. Regardless, if you found the school it wouldn’t matter. Throw, let sink for about 15 seconds. Crank FAST! You should catch 98 out of 100 cast. 

ric1

Thanks,  appreciate the tips. 

ASK KNOT

As stated the gulfstream lure is the best. #2  also use the "speckled trout" double rig found at Wally World (super cheap).  I just split them up and tie each on 4 inch piece of wire with tiny swivel.   #3 Another technique is throw a handful of glass minnows or greenies into the air off the side (close) to the boat.  They will swarm up.  Throw a dead bait (greenie or big glass minnow) on a 1/0 long shank hook with 30 lb fluero leader and a small split shot.  Drop your bait 3 feet from the boat and it will get hit.  Heading there tomorrow....let you know how we did.  Gotcha lures are my number 4 pick as I don't like all the treble hooks when 3 fish are in the boat at once.   By the way....if you go 20 yards deeper off the reef you will start to pick up bluefish.   Catch em up.  

ASK KNOT

FYI...not thick yet.   Fleet not there and water super dirty.   Im waiting a couple weeks. 

Garysmo

Senior Member

Had a buddy in town so we went out for a bit today from FPI.  Got on the Spanish mackerel with light tackle so he had a good time. We got some good size ones. Glad l was able to at least get him out on the water.

nowinchatt

I'm old so the only lure i think about for targeting Spanish is a Clark Spoon. I used to run down around Peck's in my mighty 12' Sears Gamefisher with a 7.5 HP Honda...