It is no doubt that after a summer feeding off the coastline these fish are in great shape and size and so August is always regarded as the best month for fishing mackerel. It is said that mackerel are not the only fish available to anglers in saltwater so the reduced fishing seasons for cod and other groundfish make mackerel the saltwater species most available to all anglers.
Mackerel has been the favourite of the fishermen. A fisherman said that while he was working for a professor at the college, Dr. Ken MacKay. He spent the summer travelling to ports in Cape Breton and Prince Edward Island sampling mackerel caught by fishermen. He collected lengths, weights, stomach samples and otoliths, or ear stones, which we used for determining the age of the fish.
It is told that mackerel are a small cousin of the great bluefin tuna and possess many of its attributes including speed and fighting ability. Common in our coastal waters in late summer and early fall, mackerel can be caught off many wharves and boat fishing is a popular activity for many Cape Breton anglers. Mackerel support commercial fisheries where the catch is used for food as well as bait in the lobster and crab fisheries.
According to the information mackerel are a pelagic species, meaning they travel in the open ocean in large schools. A migratory fish, they overwinter in deep water off Nova Scotia. In spring they move inshore where most of the Canadian population spawns in the Gulf of St. Lawrence during late June to early July.
