Spanish Macs around Annapolis

[BarefootPetr]

The Anglers' FB page has posted lots of photos of people catching Spanish mackerel pretty far north. One that is close to home for me was off Thomas Point. Have any of you yak anglers run into Spanish up here? I'm going out tomorrow evening and if it would be cool to get into some macs. I've never caught them before, so any advice on locations and tactics would be appreciated. I'm in a paddle kayak, so I probably won't troll. Thanks!

[thedutchtouch]

i've only fished for them once.. in a boat in florida, so this may not apply up here, but we used metal jigs/spoons and were told to just reel as fast as we could. (caught a few spanish to use as live bait for king mackerel) the guide i was with said they're an aggressive fish that goes after speed/flash of the lure rather than scent or presentation.

[J.A. Veil]

I don't know if Spanish mackerel are currently near Thomas Pt. Your options to target them are: a) troll fast (8 mph range); b) look for breaking fish and see if you spot any of those fish leaping into the air (those are the mackerel). If you do see them, cast a metal lure past the fish and crank it back as fast as you can. Other types of lures may work too, but metal spoons are the most common lure used.

I have heard of a few mackerel getting caught while jigging for stripers.

[yakscientist]

I fished for them for a few hours on Tuesday night, around the chesapeake beach area. I had heard they had been caught in good numbers around there, but I believe they mostly came from boats trolling 6 lines or so at 6-8 mph (unattainable numbers in a kayak). I couldn't find any spanish, but did find a lot of stripers and many flocks of diving birds. I worked most flocks I saw but only came up with more striper. The water wasn't nearly as clear as it has been due to recent storms, so that may have had something to do with why the mackerel weren't seeing my lures. I didn't see any of them in the water, or breaching, so they may have moved on, they typically move very fast. I've caught them by boat and by kayak, and when it was from the kayak, I wasn't trolling any faster than my normal speed, but it was in FL and they were very thick right past the breakers. In NC I also fished with them from my own kayak, and I think I should've trolled faster as I kept getting big hits but nothing would stay on the line for more than 5-8 seconds. I think a lot of tackle shops get 1 or 2 reports of mackerel from an area, and all of a sudden "they're everywhere!" I get why they do it, pictures and inflated reports draw customers, but I would take most tackle shop reports with a grain of salt. It's best to talk to local anglers that you know to get the real scoop.

[mchottie]

On a large powerboat Saturday 8/31 we trolled 3 rods for 4 hours and caught one ~20" running mid bay from TPL to just south of the bridge.

Between 6 & 8 mph was the sweet spot. Not sure if that speed is achievable via yak. Maybe with Torqueedo or Tohatsu?

[john from md]

On my Trident, with the trolling motor on high and me paddling, I can just make 6 MPH.

[Bayvalley1]

The SM we've been catching have been in school of small rockfish feeding on glass minnows. Small metal spoons or jigs reeling medium fast to very fast. The problem with not reeling fast is the throw back rockfish will take it.

[Fishtank]

I was on the Potomac around St. Clements Island on Saturday and took the easy way out to catch one. A little choppy, a wave washed over my kayak (Predator 13) and dropped a mackerel right in it.

[Big Mike]

I was on the Potomac around St. Clements Island on Saturday and took the easy way out to catch one. A little choppy, a wave washed over my kayak (Predator 13) and dropped a mackerel right in it.

What color kayak and how fast were you going, important if I want to get one like you.

[belairfishing]

What color kayak and how fast were you going, important if I want to get one like you.

I don't care who you are, that's funny right there.

[Fishtank]

What color kayak and how fast were you going, important if I want to get one like you.

That would be urban camo Mike. Mostly white, some black with just a hint of grey. As for my speed...., it was a solid negative 1 mph as I was probably going backwards when that wave hit.

[mchottie]

I was on the Potomac around St. Clements Island on Saturday and took the easy way out to catch one. A little choppy, a wave washed over my kayak (Predator 13) and dropped a mackerel right in it.

Thats the SnaggedLine Way! "Work smarter not harder" !!!

[J.A. Veil]

I want to return to the original topic of this post -- Spanish mackerel around Annapolis. Over the weekend, a boat fisherman reportedly caught quite a few in the Severn River well upstream of the bridges.

This morning a friend fished with me on my center console boat from just above the Bay Bridge to the Thomas Pt vicinity. We found numerous stripers in a tidal rip and near a shallow rock pile. Most were 16" to 20". We caught more stripers and a 17" bluefish just above the Bay Bridge. Crankbaits and paddletails were the hot lures. On the way back to Sandy Pt, my friend saw some working birds. She threw out a G-Eye Jigs rain minnow and caught a Spanish mackerel. It was north of the large concrete pillar just above the west shore rock pile. That area is reachable by kayak. As has been mentioned before, few of us in kayaks can troll fast enough to interest the mackerel. We are better off casting metal lures and ripping them back to the boat.

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