Silly Question -

I have a silly question, but how big is a strip of mackeral, related to hook size. Do you remove the skin?

Apologies for an obvious question.

a strip of macker is usually a strip cut verticla from fillet or the side of a whole mackerel,they can be as big or as small as you want leave the skin on as this help it to stay on the hook

Also obviously depends on what you're targetting. 8)

If you are using whole mackerel, especially on a flowing trace, it helps if you cut off the tail