Chub Mackerel

The chub mackerel is a small, streamlined pelagic that schools in large numbers around the South African coast from the Cape to KwaZulu-Natal. It is metallic blue-green above, marked with fine wavy dark lines, fading to a silvery, faintly spotted belly, and it has the two rows of small finlets before the tail typical of the mackerel family.

It roams open water feeding on plankton, small fish and larvae, often driven into feeding frenzies by predators below and birds above. Anglers catch it readily on small lures and sabiki rigs, and it is prized both as bait and as an oily table fish. Divers most often see it as flickering silver shoals passing over reef and open sand.