Mega Mackerel thread 2017 - reports, queries and chat

gifted

kildare lad wrote: »

Has anyone been catching much mac's on the west coast, my uncle has been fishing fanore his whole life and he said this year is the worst hes seen it. A handful of mackeral now and again. Is it the same all along the west coast. I remember 20 years ago goin up with him and youd be nearly guaranteed fish at high tide. Now he blanks most times. Hes nearly 70 now. He told me when he was a kid the sea would be black with mackeral. Its criminal whats being done to our seas.

I went to blackhead near fanore 3 weeks ago and caught over 20 mackerel in a couple of hours, went there last saturday morning at full tide and only caught 9 in the same time. Friend went there Sunday morning and caught 1 in a couple of hours. Fairly slow fishing.

Bikerguy

gifted wrote: »

I went to blackhead near fanore 3 weeks ago and caught over 20 mackerel in a couple of hours, went there last saturday morning at full tide and only caught 9 in the same time. Friend went there Sunday morning and caught 1 in a couple of hours. Fairly slow fishing.

Went greenore today morning.... met with locals.... got 3 pollocks and 1 macks in 3 hours from 5am till 8am.... met with 2 old local mans they were saying that no macks there yet...so dont know where were the macks caught...carlingford was dead pretty much.... strange..tide was up and slowly going out.... was 10 people there...only me who caught 1 mack....

Sparks43

Kat1170 wrote: »

Just an fyi, when putting back mackerel try not to touch the fish. Hold the hook and shake the fish off directly into the water.

I know that keeping any handling of fish to a minimum is best, but particularly so with mackerel.

:):)

If I could thank a post multiple times it would be this one.

The mackerels mucus layer once broken allows sea water to enter changing the osmotic balance. The fish can't survive

Also if freezing the fish for bait do not touch it either. Unless you want it mushy when defrosted

Gloomtastic!

Loads of mackerel on Balscadden Cliffs by Howth this morning, only problem was most were tiny. Released as many as I could back (without touching them with my hands) but have six left. Any ideas of what to do with them?

Bikerguy

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Loads of mackerel on Balscadden Cliffs by Howth this morning, only problem was most were tiny. Released as many as I could back (without touching them with my hands) but have six left. Any ideas of what to do with them?

The tiny ones are the ones that escaped the factory nets.... ;( plenty of fish in howth....at all the times....low tide or high...doesnt matter.... fish there

Ultimate Seduction

Where are they lads. Starting to get worried now? Late August and still not much happening

Bikerguy

Ultimate Seduction wrote: »

Where are they lads. Starting to get worried now? Late August and still not much happening

Where are you? Greenore is top spot.... plenty of people but full house on every few casts... again tide seems to be not afecting the fish... they are there... in massive numbers. Drive up take sandwich and drink and enjoy the spreee.... its really hitting hard. And good size. Clogherhead is hit and miss.... seals will take half of your fish anyway.... not talking about lidl fishermans casting over you 24/7.

Ultimate Seduction

Bikerguy wrote:

Where are you? Greenore is top spot.... plenty of people but full house on every few casts... again tide seems to be not afecting the fish... they are there... in massive numbers. Drive up take sandwich and drink and enjoy the spreee.... its really hitting hard. And good size. Clogherhead is hit and miss.... seals will take half of your fish anyway.... not talking about lidl fishermans casting over you 24/7.

Where is greenore? I'm in Limerick, I'd usually head to Youghal or kilkee but havnt heard of anything in both those.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Ultimate Seduction wrote: »

Where is greenore? I'm in Limerick, I'd usually head to Youghal or kilkee but havnt heard of anything in both those.

Greenore is North County Louth. Not worth the journey;)

Ultimate Seduction

Collin Clean Tail wrote:

Greenore is North County Louth. Not worth the journey

No definitely not haha. I may just give the South East a bash tomorrow and see.

Czhornet

Was at black head last night for 2.5hrs and only got 12 macks, very poor numbers, only a few other lads there and they didn't catch much either!

Bikerguy

Czhornet wrote: »

Was at black head last night for 2.5hrs and only got 12 macks, very poor numbers, only a few other lads there and they didn't catch much either!

With all respect 12 macks is plenty... if i take for myself i take 4.... they are not as good frozen... just saying... hopefully you will get more next time.

nokiatom

Went sharking today out of Youghal. stopped numerous times for mackerel until we were 11 miles out. didn't catch one mackerel over 6 inches. other boats reported much the same. the place was teeming with small ones.

Bikerguy

Its the same everywhere pretty much....the same story ove rand over.... big ships (many huge ships) that fish for them have nets that can wipe entire mackerel runs but they have a certain size limits...aka the net lets through small macks....and thats the ones we are catching near shore or at it.... its a pitty but better then nothing...

The same happen with cods.... years a go on the east coast north you could get cod no problemo during the saeson on any day.... now you will not get even micro codling during whole season.... ships wipe them all.... can be seen on daily basis in any harbour small or big....look for fishing crates full of dead corpses.... cods. Crabs.... etc....

Ultimate Seduction

Bikerguy wrote:

Its the same everywhere pretty much....the same story ove rand over.... big ships (many huge ships) that fish for them have nets that can wipe entire mackerel runs but they have a certain size limits...aka the net lets through small macks....and thats the ones we are catching near shore or at it.... its a pitty but better then nothing...

Bikerguy wrote:

The same happen with cods.... years a go on the east coast north you could get cod no problemo during the saeson on any day.... now you will not get even micro codling during whole season.... ships wipe them all.... can be seen on daily basis in any harbour small or big....look for fishing crates full of dead corpses.... cods. Crabs.... etc....

But it's the man with the rod and line causing all the damage..

nokiatom

Bikerguy wrote: »

Its the same everywhere pretty much....the same story ove rand over.... big ships (many huge ships) that fish for them have nets that can wipe entire mackerel runs but they have a certain size limits...aka the net lets through small macks....and thats the ones we are catching near shore or at it.... its a pitty but better then nothing...

The same happen with cods.... years a go on the east coast north you could get cod no problemo during the saeson on any day.... now you will not get even micro codling during whole season.... ships wipe them all.... can be seen on daily basis in any harbour small or big....look for fishing crates full of dead corpses.... cods. Crabs.... etc....

Maybe the big trawlers have something to do with it but I think theres more to it than that. I'm sea fishing 45 years and ive never seen these small ones until the last 3 or 4 years but small mackerel have to be somewhere. is it the case that theres climate change or water temperature change that's bringing them to our coasts recently.
secondly...whales were not a common sight around ireland and in the last few years ireland is now one of the better countries to see them....what brought that change ??
thirdly...porbeagle sharks were a rare catch here. up the west coast two weeks ago an angling boat had 3 or 4 of them. a friend of mine who works on a trawler told me that are constantly getting them in the trawl in the last few weeks...why all of a sudden are these turning up??

Ultimate Seduction

We have pink salmon in our rivers from the other side of the world too. Everything's messed up.

Bikerguy

Ultimate Seduction wrote: »

But it's the man with the rod and line causing all the damage..

No offense but you get nowhere near with rod and 6 feathers what 1 single seal eat in a day...every day... second cormorant take in one day as much as yo take in year... i am not trying to excuse myself but there is less shore fishermans every year...take that with pinch of salt.....
And yeh it must be weather climate as well a bit.... i am not complaining.... but couple of years a go... 5+ you would get mack big ones and small here and there.... now you get small and big here and there.... if not for the nets then the bigger fish must be going somewhere.....

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Ultimate Seduction wrote: »

But it's the man with the rod and line causing all the damage..

Are you serious? Can you elaborate on that, please?

dmc17

nokiatom wrote: »

Maybe the big trawlers have something to do with it but I think theres more to it than that. I'm sea fishing 45 years and ive never seen these small ones until the last 3 or 4 years but small mackerel have to be somewhere. is it the case that theres climate change or water temperature change that's bringing them to our coasts recently.
secondly...whales were not a common sight around ireland and in the last few years ireland is now one of the better countries to see them....what brought that change ??
thirdly...porbeagle sharks were a rare catch here. up the west coast two weeks ago an angling boat had 3 or 4 of them. a friend of mine who works on a trawler told me that are constantly getting them in the trawl in the last few weeks...why all of a sudden are these turning up??

They were being caught from the shore back in the 60's, so there must have always been a few around?

Ultimate Seduction

Bikerguy wrote:

No offense but you get nowhere near with rod and 6 feathers what 1 single seal eat in a day...every day... second cormorant take in one day as much as yo take in year... i am not trying to excuse myself but there is less shore fishermans every year...take that with pinch of salt..... And yeh it must be weather climate as well a bit.... i am not complaining.... but couple of years a go... 5+ you would get mack big ones and small here and there.... now you get small and big here and there.... if not for the nets then the bigger fish must be going somewhere.....

Collin Clean Tail wrote:

Are you serious? Can you elaborate on that, please?

Sorry lads, I was being sarcastic. The man catching a handful of fish seems to get most of the blame while trawlers Hoover up 100s of species and destroy habitats. It's ironic really.

a148pro

I've heard suggestion its to do with warming waters and changing habits / Presence of bait fish. For instance I was talking to a birder the other day and he was saying puffin numbers are way down because of a change in the bait fish available massively reducing the amount of nutrients they can get down here. Further north they're doing fine.

I'd like to see some science on it one way or another.

Obv anglers are clearly not responsible for mackerel depletions but I think they had an impact on porbeagle and blue numbers?

kildare lad

Well i seeing seagulls 30 miles in land on the canals taking small fish, that cant be to good a sign

Bogwoppit

kildare lad wrote: »

Well i seeing seagulls 30 miles in land on the canals taking small fish, that cant be to good a sign

That's perfectly normal and has always been the case. There's no such thing as a seagull, only gulls as far as I'm aware although I'm open to correction on that.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

kildare lad wrote: »

Well i seeing seagulls 30 miles in land on the canals taking small fish, that cant be to good a sign

Gulls have always been present, and breeding, inland. This is far from a new phenomenon.

kildare lad

i guess you learn something new everyday

cd07

a148pro wrote:

I've heard suggestion its to do with warming waters and changing habits / Presence of bait fish. For instance I was talking to a birder the other day and he was saying puffin numbers are way down because of a change in the bait fish available massively reducing the amount of nutrients they can get down here. Further north they're doing fine.

a148pro wrote:

Obv anglers are clearly not responsible for mackerel depletions but I think they had an impact on porbeagle and blue numbers?

a148pro wrote:

I'd like to see some science on it one way or another.

I've read a fair bit on the subject and to me theres a few factors causing depletion. Global warming would be one point but it's the massive super trawlers hammering over-wintering stocks off the north coast. These boats land over 500tonnes of mackerel on every trawl! How can any species cope with that? And another major factor is the overfishing of sandeels. This may seem strange but they're landed to make fertiliser,pet food , and pellets for fish farms ...hence the lessening of puffins and other diving seabirds.. Its all man made problems and governments don't give a ****

blackpearl

cd07 wrote: »

I've read a fair bit on the subject and to me theres a few factors causing depletion. Global warming would be one point but it's the massive super trawlers hammering over-wintering stocks off the north coast. These boats land over 500tonnes of mackerel on every trawl! How can any species cope with that? And another major factor is the overfishing of sandeels. This may seem strange but they're landed to make fertiliser,pet food , and pellets for fish farms ...hence the lessening of puffins and other diving seabirds.. Its all man made problems and governments don't give a ****

their was a shoal of mackerel a few weeks ago in the north sea it was 9 miles long it took the super trawlers 3 days to wipe the shoal out i am afriad the mackerel is heading for the same faith as the salmon .

cd07

blackpearl wrote:

their was a shoal of mackerel a few weeks ago in the north sea it was 9 miles long it took the super trawlers 3 days to wipe the shoal out i am afriad the mackerel is heading for the same faith as the salmon .

An even worse fate I'm afraid at least the government pretends to care about salmon!

IRCA

Hi Folks,

Any reports of macks in Mayo - especially Enniscrone, Easky, Killala, from the shore? Thinking of heading out this weekend.

Cheers

JP