Trolling plugs, spoons, flies and small tuna feathers is a good way to locate Spanish when the fish are scattered. Concentrate your efforts around contour edges, structure and area of strong current. Trolling along a rip line is a good way to locate a school of macks. Make sure you try both sides of the rip before moving on.
If a school of macks is encountered, casting jigs, flies and spoons is an exciting way to catch fish. Try to keep the boat a fair distance from the activity to cast your offering ahead of the school, not in the middle.
Chumming for Spanish Mackerel
Finally, chumming is a deadly method of catching Spanish in many areas. Simply anchor on the edge of a channel or over a wreck or rock pile where Spanish are known to hang, then establish a chum slick made from ground, frozen fish meal. If you can obtain live bait, spice the slick every so often by tossing a handful of live baitfish or bait chunks behind the boat. This really gets the fish revved up and feeding aggressively. Once the fish arrive and begin feeding in the slick, simply drift back a hooked live bait or chunk and the action should be immediate. Flies, jigs and spoons can also be fished in the slick with good results when the fish are feeding well.
