is there such a thing as a specimen mack??

[nialler]

:lol: , got this big fella the other day... biggest mack iv ever gotten anyway! anyone have an opinion on what would be considered a "big" mackerel?? :lol: :P

[aaron]

thats a horse mackeral mate caught of of them in howth before last year they give a good scrap on light tackle

[Liamo]

That's a good old fashioned mackerel alright, specimen weight as far as I know for mackerel is 2.5lbs.

The "horse mackerel" or scad is completely different. See pic

Liam

[kieran]

Hi

You typically get the really big macks in the late autumn, October-ish although these days you can catch them in December and January!

[corbyeire]

ive heard lots of people using the phrase horse mackeral to describe "big ones" over the years - or even ones that are about year round and dont go back to deep water

these people are definitely not talking about scad

im not trying to deny scad being called a horse mackeral - and ive seen it thus in plenty of definitions

but these other peoples different use of the term horse mackeral seems fairly common also

[kieran]

There are several species of mackerel available to boat anglers in the main, with the scad aka european horse mackerel or horse mackerel the most common outside the standard atlantic mackerel (scomber scombrus).

The chub mackerel is apparently taken on boats occasionally and is often a surprise to anglers, as it can be described as a mackerel without the scribbles (it does but they are much paler and far fewer in number etc).

I have seen mackerel with a very odd pattern on their backs, small intense scribbles rather than longer bars, with lots of spots and blotches. In all other respects they look like a standard mackerel - maybe someone could enlighten me on them - are they a separate species perhaps?

The only other one worthy of a mention is the atlantic saury, a much smaller fish of the summer, the one the Giant Blue Fin Tunas seek out when heading in this directly in the late summer. You rarely get it on hooks although I did foul hook one off a boat, funny little beak on it like a garfish and they scud out over the water like flying fish when distressed...

If only they grew a bit bigger! :wink:

[beachcaster]

according to the ifsa diary a specimen makerel is 2.5 lb.or 1.134 kilos.hope this helps .cheers john