Cero mackerel have a distinct gold lateral stripe and dashes.

Tip your chartreuse or white 1⁄4- or 3⁄8-ounce pompano jig with that cutbait or a few frozen mojarra that you’re tossing into the chumline. Cast upcurrent about 20 feet to give the jig better placement on the bottom before the current picks it up again. Once it’s down, twitch it to simulate the movements of a shrimp or pinfish that the mackerel usually hunt along the bottom, and jig it even more if you’re using a bare jig. Let it drift down current and jig it gently on the bottom. One local captain calls it “bipping it,” the way you do for pompano, to make it look like a shrimp hiding on the bottom. Often, they’ll hit on the retrieve in the middle of the water column.

If you’re in a big school, you might use a light wire, No. 3, attached to the leader by an Albright knot, to protect against their slashing teeth. Captain Hassell uses a haywire twist on the wire to the jig “to give the lure a little movement.”

It took me a minute to get a feel for the bottom bumping technique. I had to find the right compromise between the weight of the current pulling and the weight of the rig resisting that pull, but when I did, I knew it by the strike.

Our inshore parade of species started with lane snappers. Then acrobatic ladyfish. We took a couple of mangroves, and then blue runners, and a few yellowtail, and though macks hadn’t shown yet, no one was complaining. It took a few minutes for the scent to get to the far-ranging Spanish mackerel, but a sudden singing drag, the strong run and quick rise to the surface indicated the Spanish blitz had begun. The fish’s telltale turn to the boat, like their cousin the kings, confirmed it.

Spanish and cero mackerels can’t resist live pilchards hooked through the nose and freelined to them. While pilchards are available for cast netting most mornings this time of year in the shallows on Key West’s south side and on the south side of Boca Grande, it’s not necessary to have them. Instead you can use cutbait, or live shrimp weighted with a slip-sinker if the current runs strong. It’s a good trick when using a slip-sinker to put it on the double line before you tie on your leader with an Albright. If you leave a tag from your heavy leader at the Albright, the slip-sinker won’t get past it and foul up with the hook. Your bait will also float nicely just above the bottom, and the fish won’t feel the weight as the line runs freely through the sinker. Otherwise, double wrap the line through the sinker to hold it steady a couple feet above the hook. Since some anglers say that a wire leader puts the sharp-eyed mackerel off, if you’re staying with monofilament and using bait, you can also use a long-shanked bait hook to put some distance between your line and the mackerel’s teeth.

Nothing’s guaranteed, but going after Spanish and ceros near shore around Key West will get you into fish. It’s a mixed-bag game, filled with plenty of surprises and a lot of humble virtues. You can reach their haunts quickly, at any compass point, usually in a 20-minute ride from local marinas. As they did for us that day, mackerel can save a trip when the weather’s too rough to go offshore, or when nothing much turns up out there. Also, jigging for them works and guarantees action for younger, impatient anglers, and those kids can usually handle the mackerel while building their angling skills on a strong-fighting fish. And for those who still aren’t convinced by their sport potential or their taste on the plate, and who must have bigger game, remember that Spanish mackerel make great frozen trolling baits for bigger game offshore.

FS