Spanish Mackerel Fishing at Sebastian Inlet

Spanish Mackerel at Sebastian Inlet

Spanish mackerel are the little cousin of the kingfish: sleek, silver, covered in gold spots, and quick enough to make a light rod feel like it has something much bigger on the end. They travel in schools, so when you find one you have usually found a lot of them, and that makes them one of the best fish on this coast for a group or a family that wants steady action.

They are also good to eat if you look after them — bled, iced straight away and cooked the same day or the next.

Where Captain Richard Finds Them

Spanish mackerel go where the small bait goes: glass minnows, greenies and finger mullet. That puts them along the ocean side of the Sebastian Inlet jetties, just off the beaches from Melbourne Beach down to Vero Beach, and around the nearshore reefs and bait pods a mile or two out. Diving birds and fish skipping on the surface give them away. On clean water they will come right up to the boat; on dirty water they move off, so water clarity decides where we start.

When They Are Here

Spanish mackerel are migratory and move with the water temperature and the bait, so they come through this stretch of coast in waves, most often in the cooler shoulders of the year. When the schools are on the beach we fish for them; when they are not, there is always something else on the bite inshore or nearshore, and Captain Richard will build the trip around what is there.

How Captain Richard Fishes for Spanish Mackerel

• Small silver spoons and small jigs, cast into the school and wound back fast. Speed matters: a mackerel will chase down anything that looks like it is getting away.
• Live greenies free-lined on a light rod when the fish are picky.
• A short piece of light wire or heavy fluorocarbon ahead of the lure. Their teeth are smaller than a kingfish’s but just as sharp.
• Light spinning tackle, so everyone aboard, kids included, can cast and fight their own fish.

Spanish, King or Cero?

All three show up off Sebastian Inlet and they get mixed up. A Spanish mackerel has gold spots and no stripe, and its lateral line slopes gently along the body. A king mackerel is bigger, has no spots as an adult, and its lateral line drops sharply under the second dorsal fin. A cero has a bronze-yellow stripe down its side along with the spots. Captain Richard checks every fish on the boat before anything goes in the cooler, since the rules are different for each.

Rules and Regulations

Current status: Open year round — 12″ fork length, 15 per person

• In Florida state waters the minimum size is 12″ fork length, measured from the tip of the jaw to the fork of the tail.
• The bag limit is 15 per harvester per day.
• The season is open year round, though the fish themselves come and go.

A closed season means you cannot keep the fish, not that you cannot fish for it. Captain Richard Ladrew targets every species on this list year round — in season you have the option to take fish home within the limits, and out of season it is catch and release. The fishing does not stop.

Regulations checked October 2026. Size limits, bag limits and seasons change — the current rules are always on the FWC Spanish mackerel page. Captain Richard fishes to current regulations and will tell you on the day what you can keep. Florida fishing licences are provided for everyone aboard, so there is nothing for you to buy.

Trips That Target Spanish Mackerel

• Half Day Inshore Fishing — Half Day, $600
• Full Day Inshore / Nearshore — Full Day, $975
• Kids Fishing Adventure — 3 hours, $495

Fishing prices cover up to four guests, then $100 per extra guest up to six. Every trip is private.