Here are the correct answers. 1 and 4 are the same fish according to Dr. Milton Love.
1.Chub mackeral Scomber japonicus
2. Sardine Sardinops sagax
3.Spanish mackeral (jack mackeral) Trachurus symmetricus
4.Chub mackeral Scomber japonicus
the correct answers…
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flies, sand & surf 
I was going to guess that.
thanks for suppling the great pics John!
The greenback mackerel and pacific mackerel are the same thing: Scomber japonicus.
Anyone who answered that 1 and 4 are the same would have been correct. Other common names for these two fish: Greenie, greenback, pacific, chub, blue are all common variants of the same genus/species.
See California Department of Fish and Wild Life website for disambiguation, or better yet, consult Dr. Milton Love at UCSB or Merit McCrea at Western Outdoor News. Those guys will set us straight!!!
Thank you Fred! You were correct. Here is the answer from Dr. Milton Love: Both common mackeral were caught outside Redondo Harbor. Therefore they are both considered chub mackeral. I reposted the corrected answers…This was a fun post, I learned something too! LOL
Hmmm. Okay, the “sardine” is the Pacific sardine, Sardinops sagax. The “Spanish mackerel” is the jack mackerel, Trachurus symmetricus. Both of the names you gave them are okay, because anglers use them. Where did you get the two mackerels? Were they from southern California or? Tentatively, both the “greenback mackerel” and the “Pacific mackerel” are the Pacific chub mackerel, Scomber japonicus, which comes in a variety of back patterns. However, if one or more of these mackerel came from someplace else in the world, then the bets are off.
I know Dr Milton, I’ll check his book….just going off what a buddy told me on the two sized mackeral.
Hi. A bit different here on the east coast (NC) but the fish identified as Spanish Mackerel doesn’t look at all like the fish we call that here.
George, yes the Spanish Mackeral on the east coast looks more like the Sierra Mackeral in Mexico.
What we call locally the Spanish mackeral is really a jack mackeral!