Atlantic chub mackerel
Fish · Last reviewed 2026-08-25
The mackerel of warm Atlantic water — and, in the Canaries, the fish that `caballa` actually means, which is not the mackerel a British angler is thinking of.
Catching Atlantic chub mackerel
Everything here on fishing for it. Each entry opens the page behind it.
- When
- Feb and May — months recorded at the places that document it, not a season for the whole range.
- Where
- 2 places FishingHQ documents — strongest claim anywhere: recorded here · From the shore
This record fixes a translation as much as a gap. In Britain a mackerel is *Scomber scombrus*, and `caballa` reads like the Spanish word for it. In the Canaries it is not. The regional fisheries directorate's own size table gives `caballa` as the Canarian name for *Scomber colias*, the Atlantic chub mackerel, and gives *Scomber scombrus* no row at all — because in those waters it is essentially absent. Every Canary source saying caballa has therefore been quietly mis-readable here.
The fish is a mackerel in every way that matters to an angler: a fast, streamlined, shoaling scombrid with finlets behind the dorsal and anal fins, taken on feathers, small metals and strips of its own flesh. It is separated from the Atlantic mackerel by two things. Its eye is noticeably larger, and its flank below the lateral line carries dusky spots and blotches where the Atlantic mackerel is plain silver. It also has a swim bladder, which its northern relative does not.
FishBase records it to 55 cm, in warm Atlantic water on both coasts including the Mediterranean and southern Black Sea, and gives it a temperate climate band running to 65°S — a genuinely wide fish, replaced by *Scomber japonicus* in the Indo-Pacific.
For a shore angler in the islands it does the same job the mackerel does everywhere: it arrives in numbers, it takes a lure hard, and its belly cut into strips is the best bait on the mark. A species-hunting angler on Lanzarote caught one on a small metal jig from a breakwater and then fished its belly on a running ledger, which is the entire life cycle of a mackerel in a shore session.
How it is caught
Where Atlantic chub mackerel is documented
Places where public sources describe this species as fished, with how it is fished and how strongly the evidence supports it. This is not a range map and it is not a recommendation — it is what has been written down about a fishery rather than a record of any individual catch, and being listed is never permission to fish.
Lanzarote
1 documented place
Puerto del Carmen harbour, Lanzarote
Harbour wall
Recorded here
From the shore
Reported May
What these strengths mean
- Recorded here
- At least one credible public account of this species being caught here. That is all it means.
Identification
No photograph of Atlantic chub mackerel has passed identity review yet, so none is shown. FishingHQ publishes a species photograph only once somebody has confirmed the animal in it against the species record’s own diagnostic features.
- Scientific name
- Scomber colias
- Family
- Scombridae
- Water
- Saltwater, Brackish
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Regions
- Western Europe, Mediterranean, West Africa, North Africa, North America, Central & South America
- A noticeably large eye — larger in proportion than the Atlantic mackerel's, and the quickest field difference.
- Dusky spots and blotches on the flank BELOW the lateral line; the Atlantic mackerel is plain silver-white there.
- The dark wavy bars above the lateral line are narrower and less boldly contrasted than the Atlantic mackerel's.
- The typical mackerel outline: streamlined, two well-separated dorsal fins, and a row of small finlets between the second dorsal and the tail.
- It has a swim bladder, which Scomber scombrus does not — visible when a fish is cleaned.
Size
- Typical
- 250–500 g (9 oz–1.1 lb)
- Large
- 700 g–1 kg (1.5–2.2 lb)
Exceptional: FishBase records a maximum of 55 cm
Lifecycle and reproduction
Pelagic-neritic in warm Atlantic water on both coasts, shoaling and moving with prey and temperature. Medium resilience. It is a fast-growing, short-lived, heavily fished species, which is the pattern for the genus.
Not separately detailed on the FishBase record. Scomber species are broadcast spawners releasing pelagic eggs over an extended season, and the specifics for this fish in the eastern Atlantic islands are not established here.
Feeding and senses
A shoaling pursuit predator on small fish, crustaceans and zooplankton, driving bait to the surface as its relatives do. It feeds hard and competitively when a shoal is on the mark, which is why a string of feathers works and a single bait is wasted.
Sight and speed in clear water. Flash and retrieve rate decide the catch: a fast-worked metal or a moving string of feathers is taken and a static bait is largely ignored.
Through the year
Warm-water shoals move inshore and offshore with temperature rather than following a fixed calendar in the islands, and it is available around the archipelago through much of the year. In the northern part of its range it is a summer and autumn fish.
Distribution
Atlantic Ocean. Warm water; eastern and western coasts, including the Mediterranean and southern Black Sea. Replaced by Scomber japonicus in the Indo-Pacific
This is a biological range — where the species occurs, not a prediction that you will catch one. To browse the fishing geography FishingHQ holds, start at fishing places.
Why anglers care
The mackerel of the warm eastern Atlantic, and the bait fish as well as the target: taken on feathers, small metal jigs and spinners from breakwaters, moles and rock, and its belly cut into strips is among the most effective baits available on the same mark. Its greater significance is as a name: `caballa` in the Canaries means this fish and not the Atlantic mackerel, so a British angler reading a Canary report is reading about a different Scomber from the one they are picturing.
Handling and returning
It bleeds heavily and spoils fast in heat, which on a Canarian breakwater is the real welfare and food-safety issue rather than any injury risk. Kill fish being kept immediately, bleed and cool them, and return the rest quickly — mackerel handled roughly and thrown back rarely survive.
Where to go next
Similar and related fish
Where it lives
Sources and evidence
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Family, maximum size, depth range, environment, distribution and the IUCN assessment for Scomber colias.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species — International Union for Conservation of Nature (Conservation authority)Relied on for: The Least Concern assessment for Scomber colias, assessed 01 June 2022.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Tallas mínimas de captura — Canarias: minimum landing sizes and closed seasons — Gobierno de Canarias, Consejería de Agricultura, Ganadería y Pesca — Dirección General de Pesca, with the Grupo de Acción Costera de Tenerife and the Cabildo de Tenerife (Government fisheries body)Relied on for: The Canarian common name for this species, as published beside its scientific name by the regional fisheries directorate.States this directlyPassage read and verified
- Species hunting adventures on Lanzarote — a four-part shore diary with a full tally — Something Fishy Going On (angling blog), parts also posted to World Sea Fishing, 2014 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: That this species is taken from named public shore marks on Lanzarote, how many were caught across one week in May, and the light-tackle methods and baits that took them.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Why the 6 connections on this page are here, and the sources
Similar and related fish
Backed by research — 2 connections
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Atlantic mackerel
Scomber colias has a markedly larger eye, dusky blotches on the flank below the lateral line, and a swim bladder; Scomber scombrus has a smaller eye, a plain silver belly and no swim bladder. The Canary fisheries directorate lists S. colias with a minimum size and does not list S. scombrus at all.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The morphology, size, depth range and distribution that separate these two species from one another.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Indian mackerel
Rastrelliger kanagurta filter-feeds on plankton through long branched gill rakers, swimming with the mouth open; Scomber colias is a pursuit predator on small fish and crustaceans. The gill rakers are the character that separates them and they are visible only when the gill cover is lifted, which is why the two are so readily confused on a slab.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: The morphology, size, depth range and distribution that separate these two species from one another.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How it is caught
What experienced anglers do — 1 connection
Widely and independently recommended by experienced anglers and specialist sources. This is real angling knowledge, not proof: controlled evidence for it is limited, and FishingHQ records it as convention rather than as a demonstrated effect.
Feathering and multi-lure traces
Mackerel of both Atlantic species are taken on strings of feathers and multi-lure traces wherever shoals come within a shore cast, and the reason is the fish's own behaviour: it feeds competitively in numbers, so several lures moving together produce several fish where one produces one.
- Canary Islands regional angling guidance sites — Various Canary-based angling and island guidance publishers (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: Canary shore angling practice: the techniques and tackle used from rock, mole and beach, and the species each is used for.States this directlyCitation checked — the work exists and is described correctly
- Guías de zonas de pesca en Canarias — Tenerife, Gran Canaria y Lanzarote — GuíaCanarias (Credible secondary source)Relied on for: The techniques named for Canarian fishing — rockfishing, jigging, light bottom fishing and squid jigs — and the species attached to them.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Reported, not established — 1 connection
Reported, but without independent support. Recorded because it is in circulation, not because it has been shown to hold.
Spinning
One chub mackerel is recorded from the outer breakwater on a small metal casting jig, and its belly was then cut into two-inch strips and fished on a running ledger — which is the whole life cycle of a mackerel in a shore session.
- Species hunting adventures on Lanzarote — a four-part shore diary with a full tally — Something Fishy Going On (angling blog), parts also posted to World Sea Fishing, 2014 (Practitioner report)Relied on for: The light-tackle methods, rigs, lures, baits and hook sizes a species-hunting angler used on Lanzarote, and the species each took.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Where it lives
Backed by research — 2 connections
Supported by peer-reviewed research or fisheries science. The sources are listed and can be checked.
Harbours, piers and breakwaters
A neritic shoaling scombrid that drives bait fish against structure, which is what brings it within reach of a mole and a breakwater rather than keeping it offshore.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Environment, depth range, habitat association and distribution for Scomber colias.States this directlyPassage read and verified
Open ocean
Recorded as pelagic-neritic in warm Atlantic water on both coasts including the Mediterranean and southern Black Sea.
- FishBase: a global information system on fishes — Froese, R. and D. Pauly, eds. — FishBase Consortium (Scientific institute)Relied on for: Environment, depth range, habitat association and distribution for Scomber colias.States this directlyPassage read and verified
How FishingHQ labels evidence is explained in the evidence policy.