Mackeral ???

Hi Guys,
Has anyone caught any mackeral recently?
I know this sounds mad at this time of year, but I did catch 12 huge mackeral from balscadden this very weekend last year.

JK

Haven't tried. What was the weather like this time last year? I suppose we're having a decent run of weather, all things considered. But would the water be warm enough now for them to come so close?

Hi Wes,
The weather was pretty much the same as it was on Paddy's day this year - bright and lightish winds. I was only out there to test out a new reel and decided to use feathers aswell as a weight. Bang bang, a couple of mackeral on the first cast. The water temp at the moment is 8.5C which is pretty bad. I might give it a shot Sunday evening though, if the wind moderates and swings back into the SW.
JK

Are you sure they were mackerel? :shock: They are a shoal fish and usually don't arrive till August. The weather is too cold for them at the moment.

Last year i got early mackerel aswell . I got mine at the start of May . Iwas fishing bottom baits and when I was retrieving the baits the mackerel hit the empty hooks . As soon as this happened I switshed to feathers . In the end I finished with 13 mackerel . As for the fish arriving in Augest that is rubbish . I have caught mackerel at Balscadden from as early as May to as late as October . My advice is keep your ears open . When the mackerel are in the word travels pretty fast .

So if Mackerel are being caught in May for instance in Balscadden, they will stay there throughout summer or is it that they don't arrive in decent numbers until August. By the way , when is the latest that you have caught whiting.

Hi George
Just because they arrive early doesnt mean they are going to stay all summer . Last year we got an early run of fish then sport went quiet for a while during mid summer . It was the same on the boats . One week anglers we out and caught plenty of mackerel . Then the next week we went out and caught only a hand full of mackerel . As for whiting , I have caught whiting through out the year . Though the ones caught in summer were all pin whiting . October is when things start to heat up when the bigger fish arriven .

Sorry that reply was from SOD I forgot to type in my username

I found last year there were few Mackeral about. Out on the Dublin sandbanks (can not mention exactly where) there were hoards of them to be had but we never took more than we needed for bait (about six-eight) From a shore point of view they seemed very thin to the ground but then Last year I did not fish too much near the shore. As a rule the fishing is pretty lousy in Dublin for the most part anyway. As for Whiting, they can be taken all year round though as SOD quite rightly says they do all tend to be pin whiting during the summer months. This is because Whiting are a very fast growing fish with the ones you generally catch being only a year old. When you think about it that is a lot to grow in only a year! The fish you take mid summer near the shore are very small because they have not had a huge amount of time to grow yet and are the small fry that were washed inshore during March-May. Mackeral Joeys are also only a year old and it is at the late summer months that they are of decent size and the small shoals start to mingle creating vast shoals. Both Whiting, Sandeel, Herring and Mackeral and indeed Pout are all bait fish and need to be capable of growing and breeding within their 1st year in order to replenish their numbers. They really are low on the fish meal food chain. That is why Predators like Pollack, Bass, Ray and Ling are slower to both grow and breed. :lol:

Sorry that was me. I too forgot to say my name. :roll:

what is caught in killiney?

There's good mackerel fishing off the sea wall in Dalkey harbour. There's a deep channel running between the harbour and Dalkey island. You need to be careful of the shallow reef just beyond the harbour, but plenty of fish run through on the strong tides in mid-late summer.