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fishfreak01
01-03-2010, 12:17 PM
Hi all, had a friend come up from Melbourne last week for some fishing as he had heard the mackerel were around.

Tuesday looked to be the best day with light winds and 1.3m swell. so I spent monday arvo getting the boat ready and tying up a heap of short wire traces, we had a low tide at 9.30am and since the mackerel had been left alone for a couple of weeks due to weather and rain and we were coming up to a full moon it really looked like they were going to come on the chew.

The one thing I hate about mackerel fishing is getting up at 3.30am and being on the water on day break, (to me thats not fun) so I said stuff it we will get there at 6.30am and fish till low tide. The funny thing is all the times I have bagged out on the mackerel have been late, now I'm not saying don't get out early, because your chances are always better at first light, I hate getting up that early and it has worked for me so far.

We had a slow troll around with some lures to see if anything was bitting, but decided to anchor up and start a berly trail and see if we could bring the fish to us. I had a heap of slimies I had frozen up from our last marlin trip, now these are no good as bait, because when they thaw out the become very soft and mushy but make excellent berly, so I got my mate to start a steady stream of berly at the back of the boat.

Within 5 mins we had our first fish and the action didn't stop for the next 3 hours. We had 3 rods going off a couple of times and me trying to gaff fish and fight mine, my son Leon had a spanish mackerel that took him 15 mins to get in, the fist went over 10kg and I caught one aswell that went 7kg, as we were bringing the fish close to the boat we could see other fish following them up so we foated out half pillies and to visually see mackerel stalk and attack a bait near the surface is a great site let alone the huge runs that go with it.

The bite lasted till 9.30 and then shut down on slack tide, we could of stayed and waited for them to come on the chew again, but we were all happy as we had 11 big spotties and 2 good spaniyards, we lost over 20 fish with hooks pulling close to the boat and not hooking up properly. If the bait was left longer than 5 mins without a hit, we found that most of the time the line had been snipped by a fish, we didn't use any floats this time as there was some slight current that kept our baits close to the surface.

My advice is if your going mackerel fishing, is to tie up as many rigs as you can because when they are on there is no time, so be prepared well in advance.

So once again for 3 hours fishing we caught
11 spotties and 2 spaniyards all on pillies.

Will hit them again next week after the crap weather thats coming, at least they would have been left alone and hopefully will be hungry.

fishfreak

Scalem
01-03-2010, 12:43 PM
Thats awewsome fishing well done!

You also hold the record for the most number of fish speared headlong into a bucket, you should be proud!!;D;D

Scalem

fishfreak01
01-03-2010, 12:47 PM
Thats awewsome fishing well done!

You also hold the record for the most number of fish speared headlong into a bucket, you should be proud!!;D;D

Scalem

Thanks scalem

We were just cleaning the esky to pack them in nicely, thats why they were in the bucket and on the floor.

fishfreak

Fishing_Freddy
01-03-2010, 04:31 PM
It looks like there will be a couple good feeds amoungst that lot, well done
Ken:beer:

Horse
01-03-2010, 09:29 PM
Great catch. What is the rig you make up

Cheers

Neil

fishfreak01
01-03-2010, 11:24 PM
Great catch. What is the rig you make up

Cheers

Neil

Hi Neil,

This is the rig I make up and works great, it doesn't matter if it gets twisted when the macs hit as being short hides well next to your bait. I used to have longer leaders of about 30 cm but found that they twisted very easy when you caught a fish and you would have to cut it and retie your hook or tie on a new rig, with this shorter rig my hit rate has improved and don't get too many bite offs. I also wrap the rigs in a small piece of aluminum foil and store them in a plastic lunch bag.

Hope this helps

fishfreak

Horse
02-03-2010, 06:40 AM
How do you tie the wire?
I used to heat it to make it softer

fishfreak01
02-03-2010, 06:50 AM
How do you tie the wire?
I used to heat it to make it softer

I just do a double granny knot, that is all you need.

we are not fishing with heaps of drag, so there isn't a lot of pressure on those knots.

I have fished these rigs when a shark has taken the bait and had to screw the drag right up, the hook straightened before the knot slipped.

hope this helps

fishfreak

Teachnthekids
02-03-2010, 02:02 PM
Fishfreak,

Nice catch what a sensational mornings work.

The wire you are using is multistrand I take it?

Hope the macks arrive down here soon.

Cheers
Rob

frankgrimes
02-03-2010, 03:25 PM
Great session indeed fellas!

Well done.