Are the fish gone mad?

Trotter

While walking on the beach in Woodstown this evening around dusk.. the tide was right as far in as usually goes. I noticed a lot of people standing at the shoreline looking down .. all along the beach and then realised that there were MILLIONS of tiny little fish washed up.. most still alive but dying off as the tide turned.

Also.. about 10 metres out, the water looked like it was boiling.. and it was because of a lot of fish jumping. Someone said they were young mackerel and that there are thousands of them around over the past few days.

SO.. Because of my caveman instincts, Im off out tomorrow night to catch me some food. Grr.

How do I do it? Just get a fishing rod and some mackerel lures and away I go? Or is it more technical?

Fajitas!

Bait might work better than a lure... (Technicality No.1)

Try the angling forum, I'm not in the know really! Let me know how it goes, may head out there with the camera on Sat if it's still going on.

Trotter

Well mackerel are stupid.. so they tell me.

A guy I went fishing with before used tiny little hologram pieces of paper because they think they're fish.. but ahaaa.. they're not.. they're hooks with holograms!!

Thick Mackerel.

Im going to catch one. I will.

Typhoon

thats not mackeral..they're Bass....and Bass are protected your only allowed take 2 from the sea

Jambo

Trotter ,

My Guess if there were large amounts of small fish that they would be sprats (If you have any pics it can be confirmed ), over the last few years there has been increasingly more shoals of them in Waterford Harbour and off the S/E coast .

Its actually was in last weeks Munster and News and Star about them and the increased dolphin activity in the harbour as a result, folks might also remember last year there were more whale sightings off the S/E coast than previous years cause of the plenyful supply of food !

kayaksurfbum

Mackeral and skart chase the sprats into shore to eat them, happens ever year around the september full moon. I used to sand on the beach up to knees in water and pull the mackeralies out with me hands, real caveman stuff.

Its been happening every year as long as i can remember. They are washing up on the beach this year because the water is very clear the last few weeks, last year the waver was pretty cloudy and the mackeral were catching sprats few meters out.

Trotter

kayaksurfbum wrote:

Mackeral and skart chase the sprats into shore to eat them, happens ever year around the september full moon. I used to sand on the beach up to knees in water and pull the mackeralies out with me hands, real caveman stuff.

Its been happening every year as long as i can remember. They are washing up on the beach this year because the water is very clear the last few weeks, last year the waver was pretty cloudy and the mackeral were catching sprats few meters out.

So its possible so to get a couple of bigger mackeral tonight using some feathers and a normal fishing rod off the beach?

kayaksurfbum

totally, get a six hook line and a pretty heavy weight, the silver foil with the orange tape works best i think. the light reflecting off the foil looks like a sprat, and thats what they are chasing! when there are so many fish boiling about you might end up foul hooking some.

I went out in a kayak last year 10meters off the beach with six hooks on a line and caught 18 in four drops.

BUT, im not talking about woodstown. get yourself to boatstrand or annestown. water is cleaner. dont think i would eat anything that has been in the water in woodstown. stinks there.

Trotter

kayaksurfbum wrote:

totally, get a six hook line and a pretty heavy weight, the silver foil with the orange tape works best i think. the light reflecting off the foil looks like a sprat, and thats what they are chasing! when there are so many fish boiling about you might end up foul hooking some.

I went out in a kayak last year 10meters off the beach with six hooks on a line and caught 18 in four drops.

BUT, im not talking about woodstown. get yourself to boatstrand or annestown. water is cleaner. dont think i would eat anything that has been in the water in woodstown. stinks there.

Boatstrand off the rocks or the pier? I was thinking of giving Dunmore a try too off the flat rocks.

kayaksurfbum

flat rocks could be good. if you can find a spot.

If you go to boatstrand then the peir is perfect. flat sand off the wall is perfect for the mackeralies.

If you catch skart dont bother eating them, they dont taste to good. and have a sh1t load of bones in them.

Trotter

kayaksurfbum wrote:

flat rocks could be good. if you can find a spot.

If you go to boatstrand then the peir is perfect. flat sand off the wall is perfect for the mackeralies.

If you catch skart dont bother eating them, they dont taste to good. and have a sh1t load of bones in them.

Are they very similar to mackerel in appearance!?

Trotter

Oh lads what a night for a fishing newbie. I spent it running up and down woodstown beach trying to follow the fish that were literally jumping out of the water about 20 metres out. It was surreal.

11 mackerel in the bucket on the way home too.. cant complain!
Gonna give Boatstrand a shot tomorrow night.

kayaksurfbum

Sounds cool.

What kind of feathers did you use?

Cabaal

I'm curious Trotter, is there many people out doing night fishing?

Also you need pictures of the fish jumping

Trotter

No idea if people do night fishing.. we were just there for a couple of hours between 7 and 9 ish.

I was using little mirrored pieces of paper attached to the hooks. I bought them in the fishing shop near Woodies.

I've only gone and broken my camera though. I came home last night, switched it on.. and the word "Access" came up on the screen. By the looks of it, the camera cant push out the lens.. so ya hear it trying and then a message comes up saying turn it off and on again.

Grrr.

mike65

Salt?

Mike.

christophicus

I thought you need a license to fish in Ireland??

Cabaal

Trotter wrote:

I've only gone and broken my camera though. I came home last night, switched it on.. and the word "Access" came up on the screen. By the looks of it, the camera cant push out the lens.. so ya hear it trying and then a message comes up saying turn it off and on again.

Crap, didn't you mention in to the photo forum that you only got that recently?

I'd say post in photo forum for suggestions for what might help to fix it

I'd say could be sand or salt or something, either way not too much fun

JohnC.

I saw something similar once in Cobh. It was years ago, but from what I remember, it is something that can happen occasionally with unusual currents or something. That time, I saw kids dropping lines into the water, with no bait or anything other than hooks, and pulling them out after a few seconds with several fish attached.

padge hunter

ye thats mackeral alrite i fish them every year thay feed on them small fish if you get halk eyes or feders from your local fish shop and go fishing there you will catch a few bags full of fish

Trotter

I caught another 5 tonight.. definitely not as many out. I was there for 2 hours and caught the 5 in a 4 minute timeframe.

All was quiet then the tide turned right on time and the sprats started jumping like crazy so the mackerel went mental.. 5 mins later.. all was calm and there was nothing to be seen. Mad!

padge hunter

try going a little bit earlyer tonight you proberly just was late was there any other people down there on the beach and how many did thay catch

Trotter

padge hunter wrote:

try going a little bit earlyer tonight you proberly just was late was there any other people down there on the beach and how many did thay catch

There was a good few people there. I've been going to catch the hour before and after the high tide. In general people weren't catching as many as before.

padge hunter

Trotter wrote:

There was a good few people there. I've been going to catch the hour before and after the high tide. In general people weren't catching as many as before.

we allways go down around six and leave a little after dark at least we were there before the fish came you no then when thay do come you will catch some stuff