Mackerel

jimi_t

Down in the Southwest at the moment, have been offshore angling for the last 6-7 weeks (weather permitting) and have seen tiny gurnard, decent sized mullet and the odd mackerel being landed from the piers in the locality.

Size of shoals and average size of fish seem to be nearly halved in comparison to the last two summers. Certainly shrimp, velvet and peeler crab stocks are *well* down on last year, and there's far more dolphin/seal/puffin activity closer inshore than last year - global warming kicking in? I haven't a clue, just makes for more difficult fishing.

Where I'm fishing (not far off Bray Head, Kerry) 2 Anglers at the turn of tide for 2 hours would have no problem pulling in 100+ mackerel offshore on any calm day since the beginning of August, but sizewise the majority would leave a lot to be desired on last year. Feathers (the shorter the better, especially green) are the weapon of choice, but when you're sitting above a shoal they will go for bare 2/0 hooks on a sunny day.

Was about 2-3 miles offshore during the week with 3 reasonably serious anglers and we pulled in over 150lb worth of pollack in 6 hours. Biggest was about 4kg (that's about 10lb?). Seeing a lot of shennigans regarding the record - the ballycotton record (which is over 100 years old) is 19 odd lbs. I'm positive there's been bigger caught since then, but the ISFC regulations mean you can't hold more than X number of records and that

# Fish must be weighed on land with a certified scales or alternatively on a shop scales. If in doubt use a shop scales. Fish must not be weighed on board a boat.
# Scales must be certified annually by a competent independant authority and the certificate of accuracy must be current at the time of weighing. This certificate must accompany each application.

Which would weigh out the more rural areas/non-members of local fishing clubs.

Personally bagged specimen weight Red Gurnard and Chad (Horse Mackerel) - caught respectable size Cuckoo and Ballan Connor as well as a ling of about a foot and a half (although the lads I was out with were out for tope in May and were pulling in 8kg+ ling all day long and saw this as scampi size). Have a picture of a nice size pollack and a fine little gurnard I'll throw up when I get them scanned.

Have snagged codling twice at 25m-odd with white feathers - any advice on what to attract the big fellas?

(p.s. Just saw the specimen Cuckoo Wrasse is a little over 500g, so make that a probable three specimens for the summer )

Hondo75

Anyone interested in hiring boat from Bullock Harbour/Dalkey over the weekend or next couple of weeks?? Cheers

NORTH1

Click for large size

jd

jimi_t wrote: »

I'm positive there's been bigger caught since then, but the ISFC regulations mean you can't hold more than X number of records and that

I don't think that is true, you can hold all the Irish records
but...

5. Limitation on a number of claims

A maximum of three (3) awards will be made to any particular claimant for a single species in any one year. However, provision will be made that when an angler achieves this target and subsequently captures larger fish, these will be taken into account but the final number of awards for any species in a single year will not be more than three awards.

By including this latter provision, it will ensure that the anglers competitive spirit is kept up and higher achievements could still be sought.

dnme

NORTH1 wrote: »

Click for large size

jeez, just spotted the guy out on the extreme right, gotta be a dangerous place to stand ???

EastTyrone

was fishinmg up in the downings, donegal form sunday 2 tuesday and only got 4 mackerel and two tinsy pollack

Hondo75

Fishing skerries pier Sunday from about 12 to 3.No mackies for me,but seen two lads get about 9 between them and same fella twice...

OutsideLane

Was touring around W. Clare last week, and enquiring about catches. Seems to be plenty around this year (from Black Head down to W. of Kilkee), but size down a little on other years. Did get a few casts in one evening and got enough (a doz in 10 mins isn't bad - and that was sufficient for the barbie we were planning - pity about the weather...). And the seal appeard then anyway.....

Mark#1

Went out boat fishing in Dingle last Wednesday. 4 men and 5 kids had the charter boat to ourselves - plenty of room. We boated maybe 25 mackerel and one pouting between us in 2 hours.

Skipper said the mackerel were all over the place this year. I mentioned I was seeing bugger all at home, and he clarified that there are a few, but they're scattered all over the place, and hard to locate.

FWIW, we set out at 1pm and returned at 3.15. I was sick by 1.30, and dry-wretching every 10 minutes from then till we returned to harbour. The irony was that it had been me pushing the organisation of the trip.


Mark

thehamo

was out on a charter boat today, 7 of us only managed 20 macks in 3 hours. Just off the east coast, near dalkey I think. quite disheartening. I remember going out this time last year and pulling in about 100 between us

BERmad

Is there any good spots from dublin to carlingford that is good for catching mackerel?

Gunth

thehamo

That was a bit disappointing especially with the hiring of the boat. Did your group catch anything esle?

thehamo

nope not a thing just the mackrel. I was a bit dissapointed withe the charter to be honest, thought we would have fished for other things, even a bit of pollock, but all we were given were feathers, no live baits or anything.

Gunth

That is disappointing to hear. I can understand that they don't want to lose all of their gear if the boat is chartered by a group of people who have never fished before. Something similar happened to us a few years ago, we had all fished before and wanted to fish a few wrecks but he was only interested in saving as much gear as possible. You are better off to just rent the boat yourselves.

Degsy

BERmad wrote: »

Is there any good spots from dublin to carlingford that is good for catching mackerel?

The beach at greenore isnt bad for macks.

MACK DE KNIFE

Gunth wrote: »

That is disappointing to hear. I can understand that they don't want to lose all of their gear if the boat is chartered by a group of people who have never fished before. Something similar happened to us a few years ago, we had all fished before and wanted to fish a few wrecks but he was only interested in saving as much gear as possible. You are better off to just rent the boat yourselves.

fishing 4 mackies is getting worse and worse every year around dun laoghaire lads have 2 say fishing here is bad right the way up as far as killiney

vermin hunter

im down in kerry lads between tralee and dingle and im looking for makerel any one down this way any places for me to hit

Damo 2k9

Lads whats the best time fishing for mackerel ?
Im only a young noob just interested in catchin some fish :P
High tide or when the tide is coming in ?

SeaFields

when the tide is at its highest they are generally closer into the shore. Incoming tide good too. enjoy

Damo 2k9

Alrighty thanks SeaFields, should be heading out to east pier in dun laoigherie tonight .

jArgHA

With the current spell of settled weather due to last until at least early next week, it can only be a good thing for bringing the mackies closer in to the shore. I hope that by the coming weekend there'll be a good few of the mackers around..

jimi_t

vermin hunter wrote: »

im down in kerry lads between tralee and dingle and im looking for makerel any one down this way any places for me to hit

I reckon maybe castlegregory - good bass and beach fishing in waterville if you want to travel down, excellent fishing out of Cahirciveen/Valentia if you're willing to travel a bit.

NORTH1

I was fishing yestarday of the peir in Skerries, around 6pm with my son. There was about six people fishing of the peir and easily another eight spectators, and it was a beautiful evening.

Anyway there was a lot of boat activity in the harbour with what looked like boat tours and boat hobbiest in the harbour, we where watching out for these and there was no issues at all.

I made a cast out and then there was a roar from a boat engine from a boat in the middle of a load of boats in the harbour. The boat headed straight for where I had just cast my line. The guy fishing next to me said Ahh Hoo, as the boat flew over my line. For a second I though he had missed my line then the rod pull to the right. the four guys to my right had to duck as my line shot over their heads. When the line cleared the last guy on the peir I graped the line and rod and let the line snap.

This to me seemed to be a very dangerous behaviour inside the harbour, and I was wondering are harbours usually a free for all?

I ended up catching nothing but the speed boat, my son caught a tiddler which was put back.

Mark#1

Not uncommon, though pleasure boats (or anythyng smaller than trawlers) usually stay well away from the pier. The guy driving the boat is what's known in nautical terms as an @sshole.

There are nasty people in the world - the guys who drive through the puddles to drench pedestrians, the guys who press the light on the pedestrian crossing when they're not crossing "just for a laugh"...

The sea has its share too.

I guess be grateful your line broke and not your rod. You could harbour a little hope that your end tackle (hopefully a 4oz lead & 6 feathers ) got snarled up in his prop, but that'd just be nasty too, eh? :rolleyes:


Mark

mawk

great holy jeebus I hate those assholes. its happened to me three seperate times now, each time ive twigged the situation fast enough to get the line around something and point the rod at the boat (or ****bricking jetski) so ive not lost a rod yet

each time i have hoped the guy ended up taking a swim to clear his prop

Half-cocked

There are speed limits in harbours, just like the roads. If a boat really needs to cross where your line is you should have time to reel in. But it sounds like this idiot was deliberately causing trouble. Most boat owners are fairly decent. Out at Bray harbour most boats slow down coming in and wait for shore anglers to reel in any lines near the harbour mouth. All the problems seem to be with celtic tiger pups in their fancy speed boats who have no idea about etiquette on the water:(

inode

was thinking about going fishing in Donegal tomorrow with the sun shining and all may as well make the most of it. anyone seen any mackerel about yet or is it too early in the season to even bother?

peterk19

too early mate to get them close to shore, try fishing with for whiting or codling there should still be a few about

Michaelk46

Anyone know if there's amy mackerel around wexford

SeaFields

Mod. Michael please don't bump a 5 year old thread. There is a thread stickied for queries at the top of the forum.