Offshore pelagic · Saltwater
King mackerel
Scomberomorus cavalla
Western Atlantic from North Carolina to Rio de Janeiro, including the Gulf of Mexico; two US migratory stocks (Atlantic and Gulf) mix seasonally off south Florida.
Also called Kingfish, king.
- Nearshore
- Offshore
- Regulated context
- 4 of 4 overlays reviewed
- Reviewed 2026-08-27
Before you target this fish
Regulated context — check the rules for the exact water
Where this applies US South Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, state and federal waters; separate migratory-group management with a shared winter mixing zone off south Florida.
The reviewed context, unedited
Managed as separate Atlantic and Gulf migratory-group stocks, both assessed as not overfished and not subject to overfishing (2020 assessment). Recreational minimum size and bag limits are set by region and can differ between the Atlantic and Gulf migratory zones and between commercial permit zones (South Atlantic states currently list a 24 in fork length minimum and a 3-fish recreational bag limit). Separately — and distinct from harvest regulation — FDA/EPA joint seafood guidance lists king mackerel as high in mercury and advises women who are or may become pregnant, and young children, not to eat it; Florida's health department repeats this guidance. Confirm current size/bag rules with NOAA Fisheries, SAFMC, or GMFMC, and check state-specific mercury consumption guidance before eating large fish.
Rules for this fish change at a state line and sometimes inside one. Check the ones that apply to the exact water you are standing on before you act on anything here — this record is biology, not permission.
Take this somewhere
This page is the record. The reading is what happens when you add water, a season and a temperature to it — that is where the families below get ranked against each other instead of just listed.
Those three links carry the fish and nothing else. No conditions were declared on this page, so none travel, and the link says so rather than sending an empty reading.
The half nobody publishes
What this record does not know
Everything else on this page comes from a named agency or peer-reviewed source. This is the other side of that: the questions a reviewer went looking for an answer to and came back without, and the fields the record leaves empty because filling them would mean guessing.
It is here rather than at the bottom because a page that only shows what it knows is easy to read as a page that knows everything. For King mackerel there are 14 of them.
Named by a reviewer
10Somebody looked for this and wrote down that they did not find it.
- Behaviour
Diel activity pattern not sourced.
Cold-front and water-clarity response not sourced.
Current-facing behavior at a specific piece of structure not sourced beyond general bait/temperature association.
- Identification
No sourced population-average length or weight for typically caught fish — only maximum size and legal minimum size were found.
No sourced thermal preference figure distinct from the roughly 20°C / 68°F distribution/movement threshold reported by two agency-adjacent sources.
Cero mackerel (Scomberomorus regalis) field distinction was not confirmed against an acceptable source.
- Forage
Juvenile and young-of-year diet was not separately sourced from adult diet.
Seasonal diet emphasis by SEASONS-vocab season was not found.
- Season
Depth-by-season figures beyond the general <80 m most-common / to 200 m maximum range were not found.
Tide-specific behavior beyond 'moves inshore ... on higher tides' was not further detailed in sourcing.
Absent from the record
4No reviewer wrote a gap here. The field is simply empty, which is its own answer.
- Water temperature
The temperature figures describe where this fish is found and caught, not a measured preference. Those are different claims and the record only has the weaker one.
- Positioning
No sourced account of light or time-of-day behaviour. Light stays a declared condition rather than a prediction.
- Identification
No reviewed image. A photograph is only in this catalog when an agency or a named creator labelled the subject, and nobody has cleared one for this species yet.
- Population context
No regional population profile is registered. The species-level reading stands on its own; it does not silently become a local one.
Where the record puts it
Water and range
Nearshore
4 reviewed holding classes- Nearshore reef
- Wreck
- Inlet mouth
- Nearshore hump
Offshore
4 reviewed holding classes- Temperature break
- Weed line
- Current rip
- Open-water bait school
DepthAdults range to the edge of the continental shelf (about 200 m) but are most common in under about 80 m (roughly 260 ft); moves onto the inner shelf and closer inshore in summer.
Moving waterCoastal pelagic that follows bait and temperature structure rather than holding a fixed ambush station; concentrates along temperature breaks, weed lines, and current rips where bait collects, and moves inshore during summer and on higher tides.
No sourced account of how light or time of day changes its behaviour.
Thermal band
Temperature
- Cold edge
- 68°F
These describe where the fish is found, not what it prefers.
NOAA Fisheries' king mackerel species profile states the species "seldom enter waters below 68° F," and describes seasonal north-south migration tracking water temperature. That is a distribution/avoidance threshold from an agency species account, not a lab-measured preference or a lethal limit, and no preferred, active, or warm-edge figure was found in agency or peer-reviewed sourcing for this species.
How it uses water
Behaviour
Adults typically travel and feed in schools.
Voracious pursuit predator on schooling baitfish (menhaden, jacks, cutlassfish, and similar), plus crustaceans and, rarely, mollusks; documented leaping clear of the water in pursuit of prey. Adults favor prey roughly 10–15 cm long.
Not clearly sourced by time of day; classified as mixed pending a source-backed determination rather than left blank, since the field is required.
Seasonal activityStrong seasonal migrator, moving north and inshore in spring–summer and south and offshore in fall–winter, converging in a shared winter zone off south Florida.
Temperature-driven behaviourMigration is strongly temperature-driven: fish winter in a mixing zone off south Florida and move north (Atlantic group) or toward the northern Gulf and Mexico (Gulf group) in spring and summer as water warms, reversing in fall. Field-reported range runs roughly 20–31°C for larvae, with a roughly 20°C (about 68°F) threshold below which adults are seldom found, reported independently by two agency-adjacent sources.
Depth movementRanges to the edge of the continental shelf (about 200 m) but is most common under about 80 m; moves onto the inner shelf and closer inshore in summer and around higher tides.
CoverNot strongly structure-dependent; associates more with bait concentrations, temperature breaks, and current edges than with hard structure, though it uses nearshore reefs and wrecks where bait holds.
Open waterA coastal pelagic species that ranges widely in open water tracking bait schools and temperature structure rather than holding to one location.
Spawning (conservation context)Batch spawner over an extended spring-through-fall window on the outer continental shelf; this record excludes specific spawning locations as conservation context only.
Where the general rule stops
- Several health agencies list king mackerel, especially larger individuals, as high in mercury; consumption guidance is a health matter, not a targeting instruction, and is addressed only under targetContext here.
What it can eat
Forage
- Small forage fish
- Crustaceans
- Mollusks
Voracious pursuit predator on schooling baitfish (menhaden, jacks, cutlassfish, and similar), with crustaceans and, rarely, mollusks also taken; adults favor prey around 10–15 cm. Diet capacity is not evidence of a current bait event.
- Feeding style
- Opportunistic
- Feeding zone
- Pelagic
By life stage
- Adult
- Schooling baitfish predominate, with crustaceans and occasional mollusks also taken.
Prey sizeAdults favor prey fish roughly 10–15 cm long; a full ontogenetic prey-size progression from juvenile to adult was not found in an acceptable source.
Diet capacity described here is not proof of a current feeding event; what king mackerel are actually eating on a given day still has to come from direct observation.
Through the year
Season
Spring
- Where they sit
- Nearshore and offshore water, moving onto the inner shelf and closer inshore as water warms and on higher tides.
- Movement
- Beginning of the northward and inshore seasonal migration.
- Temperature
- Movement tracks the roughly 20°C / 68°F threshold reported for the species.
What that changesLive-bait slow troll and trolling near bait concentrations nearshore; tide-line drift along temperature breaks and current rips offshore.
Spawning begins in this window on the outer shelf in part of the range; specific locations are excluded from this record.
Summer
- Where they sit
- Continues an inshore/nearshore presence associated with bait schools and temperature breaks; the migratory group's northern range extent reaches its seasonal peak.
What that changesLive-bait slow troll and tide-line drift nearshore; trolling spread along offshore temperature breaks and weed lines.
Spawning continues through this season per sourced material.
Fall
- Where they sit
- Begins moving south and offshore as water cools.
- Movement
- Southward migration toward the shared winter zone.
What that changesTrolling spread and tide-line drift along temperature breaks and current edges offshore; live-bait slow troll nearshore.
Winter
- Where they sit
- Concentrated in the shared winter mixing zone off south Florida for much of the migratory population.
What that changesLive-bait slow troll and other structure-associated nearshore techniques where bait holds; a distinct offshore presentation family was not separately sourced for this period.
Spawning · Spring, Summer, Fall
Batch spawner on the outer continental shelf from spring through fall; this record excludes specific spawning locations as conservation context only.
Recorded as conservation context. No spawning site, staging concentration or migration bottleneck is named anywhere in this catalog, because naming one is how a population gets fished out.
Telling it apart
Identification
What to look at
- Lateral line dips sharply downward below the second dorsal fin, then runs wavy toward the tail — the clearest field mark separating it from Spanish mackerel, whose lateral line curves gently.
- First (spiny) dorsal fin is gray/colorless with no black blotch, unlike the black-tipped first dorsal fin of Spanish mackerel.
- No prominent golden-yellow spots on the sides as adults, unlike Spanish mackerel's golden spotting.
- Two dorsal fins separated by a gap; the first retracts into a groove in the body.
- 7–10 finlets follow the second dorsal and anal fins.
- Large mouth with roughly 30 large, closely spaced, triangular, uniform teeth per jaw side.
- Average adult length
- A sourced population-average length was not found; see commonAnglingSize and maximumDocumentedSize.
- Common angling size
- Legal recreational fish start around 24 in fork length in South Atlantic states; many landed fish run well under the maximum size.
- Typical weight
- A sourced population-average weight was not found; fish over about 30 lb are commonly regarded as large ('smoker' kings).
- Maximum documented
- Up to about 5.5 ft and 100 lb.
- Longevity
- Documented to more than 20 years; sexual maturity reached around age 2.
What it gets confused with
- Spanish mackerel
- Spanish mackerel is smaller, shows a gently curved lateral line (versus king mackerel's sharp dip), a black blotch on the front of the first dorsal fin, and prominent golden-yellow spots along the sides — all absent in king mackerel.
What follows from all of that
Presentation families
Nearshore
Live-bait slow troll
Move live bait just fast enough to cover water while it still swims naturally.
- barely-moving speed
- bait leads the boat
- let it swim
- drop back on a follow
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- Moderate
- Sensitivity
- High
- Casting distance
- None
- Weight range
- Unweighted to 4 oz
- Cover resistance
- Low
- Line visibility
- Low
- Retie frequency
- Moderate
Trolling
Cover a depth contour or basin at a controlled speed to intercept mobile fish.
- speed control
- depth control
- follow the contour
- turn to change action
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- High
- Sensitivity
- Low
- Casting distance
- Boat
- Weight range
- Varies with speed and depth
- Cover resistance
- Low
- Line visibility
- Moderate
- Retie frequency
- Low
Tide-line drift
Fish the visible seam where two bodies of water meet, letting the rip do the work.
- find the colour change
- present up-current of the edge
- let it wash through
- re-run the line
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- Moderate
- Sensitivity
- Moderate
- Casting distance
- Moderate
- Weight range
- 1/4–3 oz
- Cover resistance
- Low
- Line visibility
- Moderate
- Retie frequency
- Moderate
Offshore
Trolling spread
Pull several baits at different distances and depths so one crosses a fish travelling through open water.
- stagger the spread
- match speed to the bait
- work the edge, not the middle
- turn on marks
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- Moderate
- Sensitivity
- Low
- Casting distance
- None
- Weight range
- Trolling weights and heads
- Cover resistance
- Low
- Line visibility
- Secondary
- Retie frequency
- Low
Live-bait slow troll
Move live bait just fast enough to cover water while it still swims naturally.
- barely-moving speed
- bait leads the boat
- let it swim
- drop back on a follow
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- Moderate
- Sensitivity
- High
- Casting distance
- None
- Weight range
- Unweighted to 4 oz
- Cover resistance
- Low
- Line visibility
- Low
- Retie frequency
- Moderate
Tide-line drift
Fish the visible seam where two bodies of water meet, letting the rip do the work.
- find the colour change
- present up-current of the edge
- let it wash through
- re-run the line
What it asks of the tackle
- Depth control
- Moderate
- Sensitivity
- Moderate
- Casting distance
- Moderate
- Weight range
- 1/4–3 oz
- Cover resistance
- Low
- Line visibility
- Moderate
- Retie frequency
- Moderate
What moves them for this fish
Reviewed rules that push particular families up when the conditions match. Each one names the conditions it needs and why it exists, so you can disagree with it.
King mackerel is a voracious pursuit predator on schooling baitfish and is not strongly structure-dependent, so when forage fish are actually present nearshore, presentations that cover water near the bait outperform sitting over a fixed piece of structure.
When
Nearshore · Small forage fish
Moves up
Live-bait slow troll, Trolling
Reviewed 2026-08-30
Offshore, king mackerel concentrate along temperature breaks and current rips where bait collects rather than at fixed structure, so working the visible seam or spreading trolled baits across it fits its documented current-edge association.
When
Offshore · Temperature break, Current rip
Moves up
Tide-line drift, Trolling spread
Reviewed 2026-08-30
Where every sentence came from
Sources
Agency
NOAA Fisheries — King Mackerel species profile
Used for identification; behaviour; forage; season. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-29.
Agency
Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission — King mackerel life history and habitat summary table
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families; behaviour; season. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-27.
Agency
NOAA Fisheries — King Mackerel species profile and stock status
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families. Read 2026-08-27, next check 2026-11-27.
Agency
South Atlantic Fishery Management Council — King mackerel species page and informational document
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families. Read 2026-08-27, next check 2026-11-27.
Agency
FDA/EPA — Advice about eating fish (mercury guidance; king mackerel listed as a choice to avoid)
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families. Read 2026-08-27, next check 2026-11-27.
Agency
Florida Department of Health — Eating Healthy Seafood guidance
Used for habitat, thermal band and presentation families. Read 2026-08-27, next check 2026-11-27.
Agency
North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality — Spanish mackerel species profile (king vs. Spanish mackerel identification)
Used for identification. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-29.
Synthesis
University of the West Indies (OGATT) — Scomberomorus cavalla species fact sheet
Used for identification; forage. Read 2026-08-30, next check 2026-11-29.
A source with no link predates the rule that one has to carry a URL. It is still a real citation and still checkable; it just takes a search rather than a click, and that is worth knowing before you rely on it.