Sept. 1st Great Start
 

Nice day hunting Spanish today:D.
I'm off to an administrative board meeting at church, but wanted to post a pic to wet your appitite for the story to come. Looks like the good karma from saving the osprey is still in effect.
Mouth of Eastern Bay; 50 + ft of water; looking for breaking fish:).
5th (Marty)

Holy Mackerel! Pray for me tonight!!!..........Gary

So the story goes:
I have to thank Rob (fish nut) for introducing me to yet another species of fish I need to chase. These spanish aren't here very long so Lou and I decided to split the cost of "gearing up" for them. Lou bought the planers (four #2's and I bought the lures (5 drones). I eventually bought two #1's as well.
We have had moderate success with blues outnumbering spanish by about 3:1 in our catch rate. Today, Allen (just chillin) wanted to see what it was all about.
We left SP at 6 am and headed to BPL. We had another boat of friends with us so I told them to check deep water (60-100+) and we would check shallow (20-50). Allen couldn't believe you could catch anything running at 6.4 on the gps. No sooner did he express this, when a small (16in) rock hit one of the drones. He said "you gotta be s*ittin' me". I laughed and said, we might need to speed up.
We have been seeing pods of bait with birds overhead and fish breaking on previous days, but today was really quiet. We picked up one single spanish and it perked our interest. We searched for birds, but nothing was happening. About an hour later (and several twizzlers) we saw some breaking fish. Allen had asked me if spanish "school" like rock and blues. I told him I didn't know enough about them, but I figured they traveled in small groups of 3, 4, or 5; as I had seen them "leaping" in pairs or threes.
Well when we approached the breakers, you could look over the side of the boat and see spanish in a feeding frenzy just ripping through the bait.
Two lines went down and we each brought a nice spanish to the boat. The breakers would only be "up" for about 5 minutes (enough for a single pass). We scanned the water and every 10-15 minutes, they would erupt again. Sometimes we let the other boat "skirt" the breakers, and other times we took a pass through.
We had the fish all to ourselves. No other private boats or charters seemed to be in the area. I'm not sure how many spanish our friends picked up, we left earlier then they did (it was hot today around noon).
I took three and Allen kept three. Mine hit the grill as the wife pulled in from work.
Looks like a good way to start September. Lets hope that "Earl" doesn't cause too much of a problem. It feels a bit funny not to be sitting in a dove field popping those little bastards that dart and dash when you pop up from your shooting stool. But, I could get used to this spanish thing.
Thanks to Jim at "Marty's" for helping with selection of lures and suggestions for the spread.
5th (Marty)

I wish I was there in the morning!

I started at Brickhouse Bar at 3:00 in the afternoon pulling 2 #15 tonys and 2 tubes on the channel edge all the way to Bloody point. I picked up one barely legal rock only to put it back in the drink. I switched to drones and picked up the pace to Eastern Bay and trolled til dark and only had two planers tripped the entire time.

Marty awsome report. You are killing me i have been working 12 hour days and you guys are catching fish. Retired people piss me off:D Those spanish are good eating fish. I have a recipe I will have to pass on. will give you a call when things slow down.


Might try an overnight this weekend if the weather holds

Rob; feel free to pass along the recipe. I'm so new to the spanish thing that I didn't have a real recipe. What I did was filet the fish (left skin and scales on). Cut out the blood line. Washed the meat and placed on a tray skin side down. Drizzled a little extra virgin olive oil over the fish and sprinkled a little old bay, salt, and pepper over the filet. Then I placed a couple slices of lemon on top of the fish.
Started up the grill and put some aluminum foil on it and sprayed some non stick cooking spray on it. I placed the filets skin side down on the foil. Closed the lid and let it cook about 7 minutes (until the meat flakes). Removed the fish from the grill and put on plate. When eating, the meat flakes off the skin and I leave the skin (and scales) on the plate to discard.
Does anyone have a better suggestion? Do you scale the fish before cooking and eat the skin? The scales are so tiny, it doesn't look like it's worth the time to scale them. When I filet rock, I remove the skin (and scales) and then cook them. The skin on spanish is hard (if not imposible) to remove.

How do you do it?
5th (Marty)

replace the salt and pepper wit a little rosmary, skin on and towards the heat

Filleting
 

I skin em just like every other fish with out much problem. Then you can cook them any way you want including frying,pan frying, grilling (right on the grates)they were firm enough to hold up. Good Luck, will be out Monday w/ Swartj targeting them,rock, flounder and perch. Wish us luck, we did it last year.:p

JohnnyO; best of luck to you, I hope you find all the species mentioned.

When I try to "skin" my fillet, I wind up cutting through the skin. You must have the skills of a surgeon:D.
5th (Marty)

Sounds like a fun day. Them are some good eatin critters...............Mark

Congratulations on finding them!

Hi Marty! Good job on the macs. Michael has been making (forgive the spelling) caviche with them. Fish cooked in lemon and lime juice/ no heat basically. It is his new favorite thing. Come on down and he'll make you some! Hope all is well!! Christy

I am new to Spanish Mackerel; Can someone let me know if they go up the Potomac and how far? What months are they here and from what I have read they seem to hit both surface and deep running lures? Sounds like SP run with Rocks but not with Blues? Thanks!

Dude; I'm new to Spanish hunting but will try to answer some of your questions.

I have to believe they will travel up the river, how far is a good question. I would think they would follow the bait (like every other fish we chase).

How long are they here? Until the water temp's move them down the bay. Most think they will be here until early Oct.

Yes they hit throughout the water collum. Both shallow and deep trolling can be productive. Some people think they are attracted to the prop wash, so my lines are very close to the boat. My lines run 30, 50, 60, and 80 ft from the boat, with one longline (120 ft) from the top. I run #2 planners on the short lines and #1 planers on the longer lines. The top rod uses a 4 oz inline weight.

Don't make the mistake thinking they don't run with both rock AND blues. All three will be targeting the same baitfish. Normally, the spanish and blues will be the most aggressive and they will be feeding on the bait near the top, and rock will be underneath the action waiting for scraps (talking about breaking fish).

Maybe someone who targets them routinely can give you more useful information.

5th (Marty)

Bleed them out before you throw them in the box

Marty, Thanks for the info. What type lures/ size are you using to troll? I take it you want to spike the SP like Tuna then Bleed them? Thanks again for the info!

Lures: Most people would agree that there are two main lures for spanish. Clark spoons and drone spoons are the goto lures. I have only purchased the drone spoons. They are rather expensive 6-8 dollars depending on size. I like the size O (zero) or 1 the best (when the spanish "spit up" the bait they are eating it's very small glass minnows or silversides).
These two lures (clark and drone) are made to be able to troll at high speeds (5.5-7mph). There are other lures that work as well, but these are the most popular.
If you are located anywhere near Marty's bait and tackle, near south river, stop in to see Jim (the owner). Jim will set you up with everything you need to look for spanish (we also catch rock and lots of blues on the spanish set up). It can be expensive to start up; but my buddy and I split the expense. He bought the planners (4) and I bought the lures (6). This way it cost each of us less to get in the game.
I probably wouldn't have gotten into the spanish, but so many of the rock we were catching were sick with sores. If I catch 8 rock and 6 are sick and thrown back, what makes me feel good about the other two that APPEAR to be ok? I'll wait for the schooling rock in Oct. to start eating rock again.
With upwards of 70% of the chesapeake rock infected, even these are suspect. But I digress:
Best of luck
5th (Marty)