Mackerel Reports for '08 here.....

1 mack in greystones 10th august :cry:

12 Macks in 20mins tonight off Rostoonstown...
Good 100 yards out though - had to lob for all I was worth!

I was out in dun laoghaire south pier on Tuesday with my 6 year old float fishing for about 3 hours and caught 2 macs one was a big one :) ...When we were leaving decided to check out the back and asked a guy who was fishing with feathers he said he had caught 20 but don't know how long he was there....word of warning though its a bit of a graveyard for tackle.

The quays off Cobh are alive with mackeral this evening...they're pratically giving themselves up. All evening, on the rising tide, there have been massive breaks on the surface right in front of the town. Watched lads on the promenade pulling in full houses. :lol:

Caught a bag of mackerel in dunmore east flat rocks friday evening. Tide was about 6.30 i started about 7.30-8 and had two or three most casts. Previous to catching them a seal made an appearance. Saw a few people reeling in two or three at a time watched for a few minutes and when knew it wasnt a few lone ones joined in beside them. Some mackerel were small, smaller than ive seen for a few years. To be fair the other nationalities that were fishing, i saw a few throwing back the small ones too. Know we have mentioned here before about them keeping everything but it wasnt the case here. Caught on Grauvell red coloured feather hokeyes.
Werent too far out either were relatively close in.

The harbour itself tonight was full, and I mean full, of sprat. You couldn't see the bottom of the whole harbour, which the main part is approx 80 ft by 60 ft. Just outside the mouth of the harbour mack were boiling every were, easily thousands multiplied 10 fold were around. The only really annoying part were the stunned C**ts who were fishing and just throwing mack on the ground, with no intention of keeping any at all. Felt like throwing them into the line of fire and watch them be pierced by a full 5 feather rig.

Heath

... i saw a few throwing back the small ones too.

Waste of time throwing them back, according to a previous post here. Apparently, their skin breaks down over a couple of days after being handled.

20 macks in Dursey Sound, west Cork last sunday. Smallish.

I was fishing Dursey Sound last Sunday as well - got 25 mackerel. But they were down deep - I was targetting pollock at depth but started to get mackerel instead. Feathers fished higher in the water coluumn produced nothing - only got the mack when I let them sink to close to the bottom.

13 from Ardglas Harbour yesterday!

Plenty of Mackerel at high Tide from Kinsale Bridge

Theres loads of mackerel around the Wexford coast, fished Slade early last week even the dock was alive with them. Went to Rostoonstown last Thursday night same story, tried Rosslare Point Friday evening another repeat performance, and last night went down to the Safe, low and behold it too was alive. Best year in a long time.

Also fished Bannow, Rostoonstown, Cut of the lake, Kilmore strand, & Rosslare in the past week. 20 - 30 Mack each night in @1.5hrs, regardless of location. All in very close too, getting hit on every single cast - great for my young lad.
Looks like they're well and truly 'in'....

Was thinking of 'doubling-up' on my feather trace.... dunno if my line would take it though!!
(Frozen mack for sale!!! - PM for details )

I was fishing down at the back channel for Wrasse yesterday evening in Slade. Tide was fully out and I could see people in the distace pulling in mackeral every single cast . They were even catching then in the dark at 10pm .

Loads of mackerel caught in the harbour in kilmore quay during the week, yes in the harbour itself..

Northern end of Hook Head Wexford - 23/8/2008

Myself and 2 friends went to a mark on hook head having heard reports of good bass catches in the area.
Penlty of Gannets diving when we arrived indicating there were plenty of bait fish about.
Also some happy, well fed looking seals basking on the rocks.

When we began to fish, could not get through the mackeral without foul hooking them or haning them take the bait. No matter what we tried, Rag, Lug, Sandeel, Crab (Both Peeler and Hermit) and even a few tail hooked prawns (Live), the macks took the lot. We ended up catching over 100 between us. Kept a few for the breakfast, a few for bait and most were literally shacken off the hooks over the water. At one point a buddy dropped his line in the water under the tip of his rod, no cast required and picked up a full house. Packed up after dark while still catching the bloody things. Never thought I would say it, but we were sick of catching them.
Following Night (Sunday 24th August) the 2 lads were on a nearby beach. Same again, mackeral everywhere. At this point they were even taking bare hooks. There were 2 lads on the beach on approx 6 inches of water picking them out with their bare hands. Nevermind the sprats beaching themselves in trying to get away, the mackeral were washing up on the beach themselves.

By the end of the weekend, there were 2 whales and a small pod of dolphins in the bay, they were joining in in the mackeral bashing too .

29th aug

20 in 20 mins in courtown - bait in - happy days

Rostoonstown again.... 30 macks in 1hr. Big fog rolled in after that.
4-hook trace, silver gone from hooks, so they were 'literally' just silver hooks.

huge shoals off the point of the burrow in rosslare on wed night towards high tide. heard they've been in most days

Venue: Kinsale Bridge
Date: 31st Aug
Time: 18.00
Tide: 1 hr up to HT
Weather: fine
Rig: feathers
Results: a mackerel goddammit!!!!!!

Joined 40 others on the bridge!
Macks were appearing quite plentifully, but of the 40 or so rods, maybe 5 (the same ones) were landing the odd full house, less than half of the 40 rods were landing any until I left just after HT
Macks had the laugh on me this evening, but hopefully not the last laugh.......

Blackie