jack mackerel

Last summer me and the bro were fishing back from the metalman in Tramore when he caught a 'strange' mackerel. We later identified it as a member of the jack family and commonly called a jack mackerel. Has anybody else caught any and how common are they in Irish waters. It was about 10-12 oz. Tasted good too!!!!

from http://www.fishbase.org under "jack mackerel"

Northwest Pacific: southern Japan, Korean Peninsula to the East China Sea. Pacific Ocean off the coast of southeast Asia.

reckon what you might have caught could be a scad or horse mackerel, also beloved of the japanese. Smaller, silvery, big eye, small finlets at the tail, very bony, tastes just like mackerel (slightly milder)...

Just a thought...

I have only ever caught 1 of these and I didn,t even know what it was. I brought it home and I asked another well known sea angler what it was and he said it was a scad. Rare looking boyo.

They are a deep water species, common as muck on the west coast in summer on high tides in darkness, often running with mackerel but they do come inshore occasionally and are taken off the shore... crap for bait.

You regularly pick up scad in summer round the salmon cages in glenarm and red bay - usually only the odd one - have never ran into a shoal.

i don't understand - if they taste like mackerel why do they make crap bait?!

Scad make a very useful bait, being scaly fellas they tend to stay on the hook really well too. Congers, pike..usual suspects.

I had them at teelin pier last october, some northern guy was there aswell and he told me they were good for nothing!! I can imagine that they would be a good bait for conger.....

My mate had one off Fenit Pier last September when we were over there.

yep fairly regular in fenit you always remember you first Scad - and the way the spines towards the tail cut through you skin. takes ages to heal. thats how you know its a scad not a mackeral :)

exactly fenit! - plenty in blackhead in august