Spanish Mackerel action, Southwest Florida.

Posted on December 27th, 2013

Spanish Mackerel feed voraciously all along Florida's Gulf Coast, both in deeper water and over the shallower bars. — Spanish Mackerel feed voraciously all along Florida’s Gulf Coast, both in deeper water and over the shallower bars.

I ventured out again today with Tom Humphrey & we decided to start fishing in the Gulf of Mexico, but strong winds only allowed us to fish about :45 min before we had to leave due to a lack of boat control. We did manage to land a few fish, but headed closer to shore to see if the Spanish Mackerel were still feeding on the shallower reefs.

Tom holds up one of the many Spanish Mackerel he caught fishing spoons. Fighting these fish on medium-action Rapala outfits is the way to go.

To try and locate feeding schools of mackerel we again started trolling at 4-6 mph using Blue Fox and Luhr Jensen Spoons with Terminator Titanium wire leaders. To our pleasant surprise, the mackerel were there in good numbers even in the wind and we caught about a dozen fish before heading back home to another fresh grilled fish dinner.

From left to right; Blue Fox spoons, Luhr Jensen spoon and of course, Terminator Titanium wire leaders, a must when targetting Spanish Mackerel on light line.

For the mackerelagain we fished the Rapala Magnum series Baja 4-piece saltwater spinning rod matched with the largeRapala Xi spinnig reel and loaded with Sufix 832, 20 lb. test line and Terminator Titanium leader.

Spottail Pinfish are one of the most common fish that can be caught along the Florida Gulf Cost. They may not be large, but they hit aggressively and put up quite a fight for their size.

We ran out of time to fish for the Spotted Sea Trout & Redfish but I hope to give them a go tomorrow.

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