Trolling isn’t the only way to put Spanish mackerel in the fish box, and Capt. David Cutler takes advantage of two other situations and techniques to put his parties on fish.
“If I can see Spanish busting the surface, I’ll get out light spinning tackle with a Got-Cha plug and 18 inches of fluorocarbon leader and cast into ‘em,” said Cutler, who said fishermen need to retrieve the little plugs as fast as they can turn the reel handle. “You need to set up upcurrent of the fish and drift toward them, casting, but you need to be able to see ‘em on top before you can do that.”
Cutler will also live-bait for Spanish, especially around little pieces of hardbottom or ledges off the beach a ways, after menhaden show up later in the spring or early summer.
“I just look on my GPS for different spots, some subtle drops that are out there,” he said. “It can be as little as a 5-foot change. You can be in 30 feet of water and there will be two humps, 23 and 24 feet deep on top. Those places will hold bait, and the Spanish will be around bait.”
Cutler will use smallish menhaden and use live-bait king rigs tied in smaller sizes and put out a spread of five live menhaden around the structure, fishing with lighter spinning tackle that he might use on redfish, speckled trout or flounder.
“I’ll have two baits a long ways behind the boat, two on downriggers and one in the prop wash,” he said. “I’ll have one of the down baits five feet off the bottom and another one about halfway to the bottom.
“They’re just on king rigs that are smaller to fit the smaller baits. I’ll drift ‘em, depending on the current, but usually, I’ll have one motor in gear, just enough to get us going.”
Cutler said he’s caught Spanish mackerel up to about seven pounds on his mini-live bait rigs.
“We’ve caught a few Spanish on live bait up to 28 inches, gaffer-sized Spanish,” he said. “When the pogies show up, we’ll live bait ‘em just like we do king mackerel, and those 7-pound Spanish will hit exactly like kings.”
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