Mackerel Reports '11 here...

Bumper catches in donegal bay from the boats, might wet a line from the shore later.

Niallb73

Was out in the boat on Sunday. Picked up a few near the Daunt Rock and north of the Lings on the way back in I ran into a big shoal of them about 2 miles south west of the Daunt.

Have been doing a bit of fishing in Dun Laoghaire over the last month and no sign of mackerel at either pier. Reasonable pollack (in the kelp) and wrasse (on the float), numerous small whiting and codling. Missed a big hit off the low-tide ledge at the end of west pier using sandeel. Plenty of sandeels or fry about 6' long swimming inside the harbour.

Anyone know what Sorrento Point is like?

It seems like most of the mackerel catches so far have been off counties Cork, Clare and Galway....might take a holiday to Kerry.

Have been doing a bit of fishing in Dun Laoghaire over the last month and no sign of mackerel at either pier. Reasonable pollack (in the kelp) and wrasse (on the float), numerous small whiting and codling. Missed a big hit off the low-tide ledge at the end of west pier using sandeel. Plenty of sandeels or fry about 6' long swimming inside the harbour.

Anyone know what Sorrento Point is like?

It seems like most of the mackerel catches so far have been off counties Cork, Clare and Galway....might take a holiday to Kerry.

was down in serrento afew days last week float fishing for wrasse and pollack and didnt get a tap but one guy got a mackeral on feathers.

Lots of shoals around the area of the Smiths. Lots of gannets working around so you would have to say there are many shoals in the area. Plenty gannets near the Lings as well.

as jim said above lots around smiths today and alot in the harbour on way in full houses every drop happy days

Re the Smiths buoys or some other location in the harbour

Guys possibly a stupid question but I haven't been fishing for long and would like to ask..

What's the best method for catching mack?

cheers!

Feathers,cast out an pull em in sink and draw ,(reel in a bit with raise rod tip then lower rod tipand stop reeling and repeat),or spin for them,mackeral arent fussy anything shiney with a hook,reel em in strait the lure will do the work just vary how long ye let em sink before reelin in till u find the depth der at,hope dis helps ,try ur nearest harbour

none in mayo yet,but they are being got on the boats out in clew bay. is this going to be made a sticky?

Tried the popular marks around Ballyvaughan last Thursday, no gannets, no sandeel no mackerel. I heard there was a shoal in the week before.
Most marks in North Clare are still clean(ish) so big shoals are not hitting Galway Bay yet.

now a sticky till the end of the year.. well it will be if i can get it to stick??

Feathers,cast out an pull em in sink and draw ,(reel in a bit with raise rod tip then lower rod tipand stop reeling and repeat),or spin for them,mackeral arent fussy anything shiney with a hook,reel em in strait the lure will do the work just vary how long ye let em sink before reelin in till u find the depth der at,hope dis helps ,try ur nearest harbour

Thanks for the advice

What's the best method for catching mack?

The advice above is spot on, but if you're ever out of feathers but do have some hooks, you can cut strips off a Tayto packet and make up a quick rig. The combination of silvery (inside) and red (outside of cheese & onion packet) is perfect for the macks. These rigs don't tend to last long is the only problem..

Killkee area, 14 mackerel after 3 hours, before and after high tide, 7 mackerel (3 on one cast and 4 on another) then 40 Mins nothing, then 6 more.
Castle point cliff, (would not fish there) a disaster area, a right kip, plastic bags, old birds-nests of fishing line, beer cans. It’s a beautiful, scenic spot ruined by the rubbish. If anyone is interested thinking of organising “a black bag exercise”. But would it be worth it

got 2 today up near little killary

Castle point cliff, (would not fish there) a disaster area, a right kip, plastic bags, old birds-nests of fishing line, beer cans. It’s a beautiful, scenic spot ruined by the rubbish. If anyone is interested thinking of organising “a black bag exercise”. But would it be worth it

I am a regular of Castle point cliff and everytime i get macks for grilling and bait I take down with me at least 1 black bag of rubbish. I have been doing this for a while now in the past 4 years and hopefully I am contributing to getting the area and environment clean. Whenever I go there with other lads I make sure they do see my effort of cleaning up and picking up rubbish. I have seen them go back there and fish with their own black bag of rubbish collection. I hope this type of setting an example would be better than doing a once off black bag campaign. By the way there are more rubbish in the parking area than the fishing mark. Maybe its because the rubbish are being swept by the wind to the sea.

This is a good example on how much rubbish is left there by people regularly. I was just there 1 week ago and took with me half a black bag full of rubbish which cleaned up the area. The one week later you have seen loads again.

Sheephaven Bay has them along Horn Head plenty and good ones too

Castle point cliff, (would not fish there) a disaster area, a right kip, plastic bags, old birds-nests of fishing line, beer cans. It’s a beautiful, scenic spot ruined by the rubbish. If anyone is interested thinking of organising “a black bag exercise”. But would it be worth it

I am a regular of Castle point cliff and everytime i get macks for grilling and bait I take down with me at least 1 black bag of rubbish. I have been doing this for a while now in the past 4 years and hopefully I am contributing to getting the area and environment clean. Whenever I go there with other lads I make sure they do see my effort of cleaning up and picking up rubbish. I have seen them go back there and fish with their own black bag of rubbish collection. I hope this type of setting an example would be better than doing a once off black bag campaign. By the way there are more rubbish in the parking area than the fishing mark. Maybe its because the rubbish are being swept by the wind to the sea.

This is a good example on how much rubbish is left there by people regularly. I was just there 1 week ago and took with me half a black bag full of rubbish which cleaned up the area. The one week later you have seen loads again.

I totally agree with your approach. Well done. Out again Greystones on Friday. No macs or anything else for that matter. I think the east wind is keeping them off the east coast at the moment.

No mackerel from Fenit yet, very patchy in Valentia.