Mr Fish
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2020
- Messages
- 22,645
- Reaction score
- 78,575
- Points
- 116
- Location
- North Devon
- Favourite Fishing
- Shore
Different spot today to see if the mackie are about.
A mate had plenty yesterday there, of a better size, around the high, so wanted to try and get another 20 or so to complete the freezer stocks for now.
Sorry, no pics of this mark I’m afraid
Really meant to get there about two hours before high. As it was, sidetracked by work, my first cast went out about 25 minutes before high
I needn’t have worried! Two good sized mackerel first chuck and about 20 feet out.
I worked the area close in, had another four, but some were joeys.
Then lost a few.
But really apart from 20 minutes just after high and a couple of times when I paused for a break and let kayak tours pass, it was non stop!
A lot of the fish had these things in their mouths. Baby herring or something?
I lost my set of cut down (two) feathers and thought sod it, I’ll put some sabikis on.
They certainly worked! Three full houses in three casts.
I was using my Shakespeare Tidewater Flattie rod, rated up to 3oz.
Always found it a bit too soft for a flattie rod, but handy for float fishing and light feathering.
Light? Yes, not really made to use with four feathers
The third full house was all chunky good sized fish and, schoolboy error, completely forgot myself and swung them up as if I had a beachcaster in my hand.
As you might expect…. Crack!!!
Oops. No point getting worked up. I knew damn well I’d done a stupid thing.
However… was it still usable? Cast out again and yep, fine, still getting 50-60 yards easy.
Not quite as far as it has been going but the fish were at all ranges, so I didn’t really care.
Just as I mused on that, the rod bent over again (as much as it could) and there was more mackie on it.
It really was crazy fishing and I’d forgotten how much fun it could be sometimes just to mackie bash.
The area a few feet out seemed to have a lot of tiny joeys - I kept a few, shook off quite a fair few as well.
Further out seemed to be the better fish.
But I also hooked some better ones close in and joeys at range, not to mention in between, the shoal must have been huge.
At one point I had four joeys on, looked down and a whole shoal of joeys were chasing their mates in as I reeled, absolutely nuts!
They got to tell them about their adventure because I shook those off.
I’d have been happy with 20 fish, I probably had about 30 at least.
Fun as it was, I knew I’d need to stop soon, but had a break then cast out, full house before it hit the bottom
Couple more casts, more fish but at range and all but one fell off each time.
Nae bother. Few more.
Phoned a mate and said did he and his mrs want any fresh mackerel. Yes please but not loads. Four okay? Perfect.
I thought I’ll have a few more casts, get his four, then go.
Only took two casts
ONE more cast! Yet more! Fish in a barrel.
Right, that was it. I estimated I had about 40 and that was way plenty for what I wanted.
The cool bag felt pretty heavy too and it was a fair walk back up the cliff!
Went down and gutted the fresher ones (two were still twitching) and set off home to try and find room in the freezer.
I worked out my last 10 casts must all have picked up fish, not one blank cast.
And more than 20 of those fish came in on a busted rod
No more mackerelling for me! Although… I have a comp this weekend… may try and winkle out a bigger one on the float…
A mate had plenty yesterday there, of a better size, around the high, so wanted to try and get another 20 or so to complete the freezer stocks for now.
Sorry, no pics of this mark I’m afraid
Really meant to get there about two hours before high. As it was, sidetracked by work, my first cast went out about 25 minutes before high
I needn’t have worried! Two good sized mackerel first chuck and about 20 feet out.
I worked the area close in, had another four, but some were joeys.
Then lost a few.
But really apart from 20 minutes just after high and a couple of times when I paused for a break and let kayak tours pass, it was non stop!
A lot of the fish had these things in their mouths. Baby herring or something?
I lost my set of cut down (two) feathers and thought sod it, I’ll put some sabikis on.
They certainly worked! Three full houses in three casts.
I was using my Shakespeare Tidewater Flattie rod, rated up to 3oz.
Always found it a bit too soft for a flattie rod, but handy for float fishing and light feathering.
Light? Yes, not really made to use with four feathers
The third full house was all chunky good sized fish and, schoolboy error, completely forgot myself and swung them up as if I had a beachcaster in my hand.
As you might expect…. Crack!!!
Oops. No point getting worked up. I knew damn well I’d done a stupid thing.
However… was it still usable? Cast out again and yep, fine, still getting 50-60 yards easy.
Not quite as far as it has been going but the fish were at all ranges, so I didn’t really care.
Just as I mused on that, the rod bent over again (as much as it could) and there was more mackie on it.
It really was crazy fishing and I’d forgotten how much fun it could be sometimes just to mackie bash.
The area a few feet out seemed to have a lot of tiny joeys - I kept a few, shook off quite a fair few as well.
Further out seemed to be the better fish.
But I also hooked some better ones close in and joeys at range, not to mention in between, the shoal must have been huge.
At one point I had four joeys on, looked down and a whole shoal of joeys were chasing their mates in as I reeled, absolutely nuts!
They got to tell them about their adventure because I shook those off.
I’d have been happy with 20 fish, I probably had about 30 at least.
Fun as it was, I knew I’d need to stop soon, but had a break then cast out, full house before it hit the bottom
Couple more casts, more fish but at range and all but one fell off each time.
Nae bother. Few more.
Phoned a mate and said did he and his mrs want any fresh mackerel. Yes please but not loads. Four okay? Perfect.
I thought I’ll have a few more casts, get his four, then go.
Only took two casts
ONE more cast! Yet more! Fish in a barrel.
Right, that was it. I estimated I had about 40 and that was way plenty for what I wanted.
The cool bag felt pretty heavy too and it was a fair walk back up the cliff!
Went down and gutted the fresher ones (two were still twitching) and set off home to try and find room in the freezer.
I worked out my last 10 casts must all have picked up fish, not one blank cast.
And more than 20 of those fish came in on a busted rod
No more mackerelling for me! Although… I have a comp this weekend… may try and winkle out a bigger one on the float…
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