Photo: Mikael Nyman, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Mackerel
Scomber scombrus
Season
calendar_month Best: May - Octoberwaves Where to find them
Open water and tide races; anywhere baitfish gather, from harbour walls to mid-Channel.
phishing How to catch them
Feathers and sabikis from a drifting boat; spinners, sliders and small metals from shore.
Iridescent green-blue with black tiger stripes along the back, the mackerel is the fish that gets most British anglers started. From late spring vast shoals push inshore chasing whitebait and sandeels, and for a few glorious months almost any pier, rock mark or drifting boat can produce them by the string.
Pound for pound mackerel are genuinely quick - on light spinning gear or a single lure they tear off in short, electric runs that put many "sportier" species to shame. A string of feathers fished from a drifting boat remains the classic method, and three-at-a-time is routine when the shoals are thick.
Eat them as fresh as you possibly can: grilled whole, hot-smoked, or soused. They are also the bait for almost everything else that swims - a fresh mackerel flapper is the conger and tope angler's currency.
The UK record is just over 6 lb - any mackerel over 2 lb is a very good one.
Fancy catching one?
Our skippers run trips targeting mackerel in season.