Chub Mackerel Fishing

Other names—common mackerel, tinker mack-erel, Japanese mackerel, Pacific mackerel, Spanish mackerel, scomber, smaach; Afrikaans: makriel; Arabic: baljeh; French: hareng du Pacifique, maquereau blanc, maquereau espagnol; Greek: koliós; Hawaiian: opelu palahu, saba; Italian: cavallo, lanzardo, scombro macchiato; Japanese: honsaba, ma-saba; Portuguese: cavala, cavalinha, sarda comun; Spanish: caballa, cachorreta, macarela, salmonete, verle; Turkish: kolyoz; Vietnamese: cá thu Nhât-bán.

This small member of the Scombridae family is commercially cultured in Japan and used in Chinese medicine. In addition, it is a good food fish and is marketed in many different ways.

Identification

The chub mackerel has a bluish or greenish back with roughly 30 irregular black bars that dissolve into a series of dusky spots near the lateral line. The pectoral fin has a black spot, and there are usually five finlets behind the dorsal and anal fins. The first and second dorsal fins have a large space between them, and the entire body is scaled. The chub mackerel is similar to the frigate mackerel (see: mackerel, frigate), which also has 30 irregular bars on its back, except that it has scales all over its body; the frigate has scales only in corselets around the pectoral fins.

Size/Age

The chub mackerel usually grows to 20 inches and 2.2 pounds, although it has been reported to 2 feet and 6 pounds. The all-tackle world record is a 4-pound, 12-ounce fish taken off Mexico in 1986. They can live for 9 to 10 years.

Distribution

Found in the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, chub mackerel occur in warm and temperate transition waters and adjacent seas. In the eastern Pacific, they occur from Alaska to Cabo San Lucas and are most abundant between Monterey, California, and southern Baja California. In the western Atlantic, they extend from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Florida Keys and Cuba, and also from Venezuela to southern Brazil. Chub mackerel are apparently absent from Indonesia and Australia.

Habitat

Chub mackerel inhabit inshore and offshore waters at the surface, schooling by size in the company of other species of fish, including small bluefin tuna. Huge schools sweep along the eastern Pacific coast in the summer and fall. In the western Pacific, chub mackerel are said to move into deeper areas of Asian waters to remain inactive during the winter season.

Spawning behavior

A female chub mackerel may produce 1 million pelagic eggs.

Food

Chub mackerel feed on copepods and other crustaceans, as well as on small pelagic fish and squid.