MINIMUM SIZE
None
Species · Mackerel
Pacific mackerel fishing in Southern California
Scomber japonicus
Bait to some, sport to others, and one of the most useful fish in Southern California.
TYPE
Pacific mackerel (greenback)
SCIENTIFIC NAME
Scomber japonicus
TYPICAL SIZE
1–2 lb
LIKES WATER
60–70°F
DOUBLES AS
The best live bait there is
BEST MONTHS
Year round
Pacific mackerel regulations
DAILY BAG
No limit
OPEN SEASON
Year round
Pacific and jack mackerel are both on CDFW's no-limit list, and they sit outside the twenty-fish general limit too.
14 CCR 27.60(b), as read on October 9, 2026. Limits, seasons and marine protected area boundaries change, so the CDFW ocean sport fishing regulations are the authority, not this page. Check them before you keep anything.
Meet the mackerel
Green-backed, wavy-barred and built like a tiny tuna, which is no accident: mackerel and tuna share a family, and the mackerel is the small end of it. Everyone on this coast calls them greenbacks. They school in enormous numbers, they are there all year, and almost nobody sets out to catch them for their own sake.
Why they matter
A live greenback is the premium bait for yellowtail, white seabass, bluefin and halibut. Half of a serious SoCal trip is getting bait, and “getting bait” usually means finding mackerel, which is why boats stop at the bait barge or spend the first grey hour on a sabiki.
Where Pacific mackerel hang out
Everywhere: harbour mouths, piers, the kelp line, the open ocean, under lights at night. They go deeper when it is bright and come up at first and last light, which is when you want to be filling the tank anyway.
How to catch Pacific mackerel
A sabiki rig, which is a string of tiny flashy hooks, dropped into a mark and jigged. Handle them gently and get them straight into circulating water; a bruised mackerel is a dead bait within the hour. As food they are oily, strong and genuinely good grilled fresh.
🐟 FUN FACT
Pacific mackerel populations swing on a multi-decade cycle that tracks ocean temperature, the same regime shift that governs sardine. Warm regimes favour mackerel, cool ones favour sardine, and they trade places roughly every twenty to thirty years.
More species
Bluefin TunaYellowfin TunaYellowtailDoradoCalico BassRockfishMarlinWhite SeabassBarred Sand BassCalifornia HalibutCalifornia BarracudaPacific BonitoLingcodCalifornia SheepheadSculpinOcean WhitefishSpotted Bay BassAlbacoreShortfin MakoCommon ThresherGiant Sea BassOpahSwordfishSkipjack TunaCabezonPacific Sanddab
From the logbook
More on pacific mackerel
Gear
Mackerel off the pier: catching Pacific mackerel from Southern California piers
Mackerel are the pier fish everybody catches. Where they hold around a pier, when they come up, what to tie on, and what to do with them after.
Gear
Making bait: catching Pacific mackerel on a sabiki and keeping it alive
Half of a serious trip is getting bait. Greenback or Spanish, sabiki hook sizes, how to fill the tank without a bird's nest, and how to keep the bait kicking.
Heading out for something we do grade?
This is a profile, not a scored species. Fish or Pass grades seven fish across the Bight every day, so if you are going anyway, see what the water is doing for those.