A steady rise in mackerel numbers has given way to a pair of new fisheries in Long Island Sound.
One of the highlights of the 2024 fishing season in Long Island Sound, was the excitement over the surprising abundance of Atlantic mackerel that were caught during late-May and June. As spring shifted to summer, there was a steady drumbeat of word-of-mouth mackerel sightings, texts with screenshots of online posts from surprised anglers, and validating reports from tackle shops.
For anglers across Long Island Sound, the mackerel catches in 2024 represented a season of “firsts”; it was either someone’s first ever mackerel or their first mackerel in 30 years. The lack of a middle ground tells a story of a lost tradition in the Sound and a glimpse of the fishing opportunities that could be regained.
Mackerel are a blast to catch on light tackle, but for me the real excitement lies in the potential to target stripers feeding on them.
Nothing New
There was a time when catching a mackerel in the Sound wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow. Growing up, I heard stories from my dad and older brothers about jigging up buckets of mackerel mid-Sound with “Christmas Tree” rigs in May. This was a yearly tradition until the mackerel disappeared in the early 1990s. Born in 1988, the only mackerel I saw growing up were in the garage bait freezer, tightly wrapped in yellowing newspaper from the bait shop. The disappearance of mackerel in the Sound didn’t play out across generations, it took place in the short span of a shared childhood; my two older brothers experienced them while my younger brother and I did not.
Eager to learn more about the heyday of mackerel fishing in the Sound, I spoke with Pete Degregorio, owner of Dee’s Bait and Tackle in New Haven, CT and DJ King, owner of DJ King Lobsters, a commercial lobster and marine aquaculture business out of Branford, CT. Both have a lifetime of experience on the Sound, and from their respective jobs are uniquely positioned to see and adapt to changing fisheries.
DJ confirmed that mackerel used to be a regular sight in the Sound. “Going back to when I started lobstering as kid in 1969 you’d see mackerel in the Sound every spring. They would hang around until around Memorial Day, or a little later. I’ve still got all my logbooks. Sometimes you’d see huge pods of them up on the surface swimming with their mouths open like they were filter feeding.” Pete responded similarly, “You would see huge schools of them in April and May. Early spring fishing was like clockwork, it would start with winter flounder, then transition to blackfish, and then mackerel.”
DJ and Pete both agreed that mackerel catches really declined in the early 90s and have remained scarce. Both shared vivid memories of catching and fishing with mackerel. “There was one year in the late 80’s, the fishing was crazy. I never sold so many mackerel rigs. There were so many mackerel they pushed all the way up to the Grand Ave Bridge.” Pete recalled fondly, referring to a bridge more than a mile up the Quinnipiac River; this put mackerel in reach of shore-based anglers in downtown New Haven. Pete explained that small diamond jigs (1.5 ounces and under) were effective by themselves or as the weight below a “Scotty Rig”, a series of four hooks dressed with feathers, or a similar rig with brightly colored tubing on the hooks.
When asked about the effectiveness of targeting stripers with mackerel, Pete replied, “Back when the mackerel were around there was a lot of interest in bluefish, there were only a handful of guys catching stripers during the moratorium and it was a big deal to get one. Chunked mackerel out-fishes everything else when it comes to bluefish, hands down, even a frozen mackerel will work better than fresh bunker.”
DJ King also spoke glowingly about mackerel’s qualities as bait. “They were great lobster bait, the best. I almost sunk my little whaler with a single gill net set. We would salt the mackerel down and store them in covered wooden pickle barrels, and they would last until July.” Looking at an old photo of DJ’s mackerel net I was struck by how big the fish were compared to the ones I have seen in recent years.
There Were Signs
Looking back, there were signs in the years leading to 2024 resurgence that mackerel were just starting to reappear in the Sound. In June of 2022 I saw a strange frantic blitz of small fish rapidly porpoising through a school of rain bait. I thought it was odd since it was too early to be snappers or chub macks. That fall I accidentally caught my first mackerel in the Sound during a quixotic attempt to catch albies from shore, and I dismissed it as a chance encounter.
By late May 2023, the presence of mackerel in the Sound was becoming harder to miss. While drifting for sea bass, I saw several pods of suspected mackerel boiling just under the surface. Intrigued, my good friend Andy launched a small jig toward the boils and quickly came tight to a spirited mackerel. After admiring the iridescent silver sides and distinct stripes we quickly pinned the mackerel to a weightless circle hook hoping to parlay our luck into a bonus striper. Before long, our lone mackerel had been hit and line was steadily peeling off the 4000 class spinning reel. The weight of the fish was obvious as it surged toward the bottom. After a tense fight on the light outfit, a hearty 43-inch bass surfaced boatside putting an exclamation point on the day.
This experience left quite an impression. We fished exactly one mackerel, in what no one would consider a reliable striper spot, and within minutes landed a big bass. I was left wishing for a few more baits and a burning interest to know what was going on with these mackerel.
No Coincidence?
After researching the status of the mackerel population and commercial fishery, I quickly realized that the recent influx of mackerel in the Sound maybe should not have been such a surprise. Since 2019 there have been a series of significant management actions resulting in a dramatic reduction in the allowable mackerel harvest. These measures listed below have the potential to allow more mackerel to avoid capture and be available to enter the Sound.
- In 2019 only 55% of the commercial quota was harvested due to reduced trip possession limits that were implemented after the 89 metric ton bycatch quota for river herring and shad captured by the mackerel fishery was exceeded just 10 weeks into the 2019 season.
- In November 2019, the National Marine Fisheries Service initiated a 5-year rebuilding program to restore the mackerel stock after it was declared overfished.
- In fall of 2023 NMFS introduced temporary measures to reduce mackerel harvest after a preliminary stock assessment projected overfishing would occur if the full commercial quota of 3,639 metric tons was harvested.
- The 2024 and 2025 commercial quota was reduced by 76% from the 2023 quota to 868 metric tons. To put the scale of these recent quota reductions in context, the commercial quotas from 2019-2022 ranged from 17,975 to 22,265 metric tons.
The improved mackerel fishing in 2024 immediately followed 2 years of substantial reductions in commercial mackerel harvest. To me, it is reasonable to think that another year of reduced mackerel quota in 2025 bodes well for seeing mackerel in the Sound again.
Fishing Opportunities
Mackerel have historically fueled some of the most explosive striper bites from Cape Cod to Maine. With the mackerel stocks hopefully poised to improve, there is potential for Long Island Sound anglers to score stripers by adapting techniques from fisheries where mackerel are more common.
In my limited experience, mackerel are phenomenal live baits. They are strong swimmers, and their narrow profile is easy for bass to engulf. The key to procuring a supply of live macks is to be prepared to catch and hold live macks before a school is spotted; they move fast, and while fishing has improved recently, tend to run in relatively small pods. Once spotted on the surface or sonar, they can be readily caught on small metal or epoxy jigs, sabiki rigs, or the venerable mackerel tube rig.
Mackerel can be fished weightless, on a three-way rig, or with simple sliding egg sinker above a swivel. Slow trolling live mackerel behind an egg sinker or trolling sinker is a popular tactic when prospecting for bass feeding on mackerel, particularly when they aren’t set up on a specific piece of structure.
Bass feeding on mackerel can be targeted with a variety of artificial lures as well. Which style artificial is best suited for a situation will be dictated by the depth and where in the water column bass are feeding on mackerel. In shallow areas or the surf, I would look to match the mackerel profile with baits like large needlefish, pencil poppers, plastic lipped swimming plugs, or the Sebile Magic Swimmer which a strong track record when mackerel are in the Cape Cod Canal. In deeper areas, I would use narrow bodied soft plastic swimbaits on jig heads such as the 6- to 8-inch Savage Gear Sandeel or the Al-Gags Whip-it fish, and sinking stickbaits such as the 5.5-inch Yo-Zuri Hydro Monster Shot. This bait has reliable shimmy as it sinks and at 3.5 ounces is useful for getting down to a target depth when fish are suspended.
For many anglers, 2024 was the best mackerel year in the Sound they had ever seen. However, the uncomfortable reality remains that what was experienced in 2024 is a shadow of what the fishery has been or, perhaps, can be. I am hopeful that the 30 plus years without mackerel in the Sound haven’t shifted the baseline of expectations to a point where the angling community is satisfied by the now detectable but still very diminished mackerel population. More positive experiences with mackerel in 2025 can only help energize awareness and support continue rebuilding the stock.
