mackerel fishing

[madpiker]

it really annoys me when i see people feathering for mackerel and struggling to carry a sack full of them back up the beach,most of them will be half cooked in the heat.why can`t people just take what they need?
i need about 150 mackerel for winter pike fishing,but i don`t feel the need to fill a bin bag just for the sake of it.i`d rather catch them over a few sessions,making it more fun.

 

[alan]

it annoys me to, its when you hear of people bragging about catching 150 mackerel in a session and keeping the lot, why? they wont be a lot of good, just take a few at a time.

 

[Baz]

I saw one bloke struggling to carry two bin bags full of mackrell, after a boat fishing trip.
more than three quarters of them were dumped the next day.

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay]

Couldn't agree more chaps.

There is nothing like a fresh mackerel or two to eat or to use as bait for other species. But who in their right mind wants 150 mackerel. Catching such a large quantity of fish, other than if it's for a living, becomes a chore.

What an absolute waste.

 

[madpiker]

the 1 hour mackerel trip skippers, that are advertised for the grockles,always stay clear of the best areas so that the punters get 2 or 3 each and none are wasted!
3 of us were down at beer in east devon last week,we`d hired a self drive for a couple of hours pike bait catching.the grockle mackerel trippers were coming back in with 2s and 3s of mackerel each.we filled a cool box between the 3 of us in 30 minutes!the difference was that we were drift fishing with the shoals and the mackerel trip boats were trolling past them!

 

[madpiker]

2 hours later they were either under the grill or wrapped and in the bait freezer

 

[JC]

I just finished packing the last of mine away, 147 in total, none of which will be dumped or wasted, as that is my entire season's pike bait requirement caught in under 3 hours!

 

[alan]

but why catch 147 in 1 go?, that has just helped decimate a shoal, surely it would have been better to take a few at a time over differant days. less chance then of wipinf out just one shoal.

 

[madpiker]

alan,we were in a boat and drifted for over a mile on each drift,there were 4 of us fishing and me and the other two let jon have a number of fish ourselves, as two of my mates only wanted big ones for eating, and i only wanted a few for filleting down and freezing for sea bait.
when i started this thread,i was condemning the idiots that catch bin liners full and then chuck em away because they have too many to eat etc.
i haven`t seen as many mackerel around for years as there are this year,the shoals were so thick that we were catching them from 5 feet down right to the bottom in 65 feet of water,so there must have been millions of em!.last week i was black bream fishing at anchor,on several occasions we couldn`t get to the bottom where the bream are due to our baits getting taken by mackerel.all our fish are kept in cool boxes and none of them go to waste.although i`ve spread my mackerel catching over a few sessions,jon doesn`t get much time to go catch em at this time of year,that`s why i and two of my mates helped him catch enough for his winter pike fishing.i can assure everyone on here that NONE of our fish are wasted,in fact,a lot were returned as they were undersized.

 

[alan]

OK i can understand that then, but the didn't make that clear, and after seeing pictures like this one http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a337/mikec007/masskill001.jpg of fish that have no commercial value apart from being turned in to pellets, i am getting a little paranoid.


i was looking at it this way, JC quoted 147, even 10 others had as many you are looking at 1470 fish. but if it was a catch between 3 of you it isn't so bad.

 

[madpiker]

it was a catch between 4 of us mate,we had well over 200 fish but a lot went back.also,i have been catching some for my other piking mates as well, a few of them get seasick in a boat and can`t get their own.it does make me sick to see idiots going out and catching 100s of mackerel at the start of a session,by the time that they get home,the fish are going off in the heat.then you get the holiday anglers that catch loads and keep doing so because they don`t know how to catch anything else,and what do they do with several dozen mackerel when they get back to the hotel,caravan or tent?
as for the tons of fish that get turned into fishmeal\fertiliser,it`s disgusting in my view.i`ve often wondered why man pumps perfectly good fertiliser(sewage)into the sea and then rapes the sea by taking perfectly good fish(which also sustains marine life)and turns it into fertiliser.
a thought for everyone that uses trout pellets or fishmeal,sandeel stocks are getting seriously depleted due to 1000s of tons of them being caught and turned into pellets for fish farming and anglers bait.this will ultimately affect the marine birds,mammals and fish that either prey on the sandeels,or prey on the sndeels predators themselves.a sobering thought indeed

 

[JC]

I wouldn't want to be a Halibut just at the mo either (assuming that's what Halibut pellets are made of........)

 

[jason fisher]

i think they're for feeding hallibut, like trout pellets are for feeding trout, not made out of them, they do afterall farm hallibut now.

 

[Bill Eborn]

Stop the senseless slaughter - absolutely.

Float tackle and a barbel rod or light spinning gear is a lot more fun too and there's the prospect of more of a variety of species too I find.

 

[madpiker]

i wish that mackerel grew to 20lb plus,what a scrap you`d get!

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay]

They do. They are called yellowfin Tuna and they go like hell.

 

[madpiker]

in the waters around this country i meant ron,!still,with the warmer climate that we are getting who knows,i`ve heard of bonito getting caught by commercials off guernsey this year,and of a flyingfish caught off seaton.

 

[alan]

you can catch tuna over in ireland

 

[madpiker]

yeah i know alan,and very close to the coast too.they follow the gulf stream and predate heavily on herrings i`m told.
years ago there was a good tuna fishery in the north sea until over fishing of herrings drove them away,the british record is around 850lbs i believe.

 

[alan]

mmmmmm 850lbs of tuna and mayo sarnies.

do you think i could land one on my spinning rod?

its suprising how many people think you can only catch pout, bass and mackeral from our shores.

i want to go round the back of the isle of wight and have a go at the sharks, sounds like fun.