Mackerel
[Rastrelliger kanagurta ]
A highly commercial Indo-West Pacific mackerel found from the Red Sea and Madagascar to Samoa, these fish can grow to over 13 inches but the specimen in the photo was 8-1/2 inches and weighed 4-1/2 ounces. This fish is not considered threatened and is sold fresh, frozen, canned, dried-salted, smoked and made into fish sauce
As with most mackerels this one doesn't have a lot of scales and what it does have are small and scrape off easily. The Indian mackerel fillets rather easily, if you ignore the skirt which has practically no meat on it anyway. A fish weigning 4-1/2 ounces uncleaned will yield 2 oz of fillet. Don't bother trying to skin it, it'll break up. Pan fried skin-on, started skin side up, fillets do not curl, but filleting a bunch of these fish is rather a hassle.
King Mackerel - [Scomberomorus cavalla]
Largest of the fish called mackerel, the king mackerel can weigh nearly 100 pounds, measure up to 6 feet long and live for over 20 years. It is found along the Atlantic coast of the Americas from the U.S. / Canada boarder almost to Argentina. Sports fishing brings in well over twice the catch of commercial fishing.
Indo-Pacific king mackerel or popularly (spotted) seer fish (Scomberomorus guttatus) is a sea fish among the mackerel variety of fishes. It is found in around the Indian ocean and adjoining seas.
It is a popular game fish and grows up to 45 kg and is a strong fighter, that has on occasion been seen to leap out of the water when hooked. It is excellent tablefare and is primarily caught by sportfishermen trolling with plugs (Rapala or Stretch 25+, 30+) or feathers/jigs, and on 30 lbf (130 N) tackle it is extremely sporting. At times it is possible to catch more than one by casting silver spoons or pirks when one is hooked while trolling.
It is very popular among the countries of the Indian subcontinent including India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. It's a fairly expensive fish that's considered a delicacy in most places. In addition to being cooked and eaten when fresh, it is also used to make fish pickle, usually eaten as a condiment with rice.
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