Mackerel Reports '10 here......

Total coincidence, about the same time I was writing the above post a friend of mine was out in the boat fishing near Waterfoot beach. He caught 2 mackerel, thats the first ones Ive heard of locally in 2011, didnt expect to hear of any for a few months yet.

Hi,
Interesting to see some reports on this thread!
Well done on the graph Will, I did something similar a couple of years ago, took a fair bit of time, so fair play to you! It's a great potential snapshot of mack around our coast, even for future reference as well as just finding out whether they are in nearby or not.

My plan, unless someone else does it, is to start it off towards the end of April, so that people don't get bored with it before the season even really starts

I know boats can get them during the 'quiet' season, and that's always interesting to see, glad to get any posts. This idea was originally aimed mainly to help those of us who are (still ) shore-bound. Increasing the chance of making that half hour drive to the shore (that's me) worthwhile.

Whoever starts it, and whenever it starts, please post on it if you find it even vaguely interesting, the thread is made successful by adding your reports (especially blanks)

Blackie

Fair play on the graph. This was a very interesting thread last year. Lucking forward to reading it again this year.

MackerelByMonth2010_110311.png

I've attached a graph of mackerel reported caught in this topic for each month of 2010. I strongly suspect that the high numbers of shore-based catches in June and October are mostly accounted for by Dublin and Galway respectively.

It's also interesting to see in June the number of boat-based catches was actually lower than April or July even though the number of shore-based catches peaked in this month. There could be a lot of different reasons for this e.g. good weather encouraging both fish and fishermen to the shore. Maybe the early-season boat fishermen got bored of reporting catches and the June boat-based guys were too busy fishing or eating fish to report back. Alternatively they could be months where Ireland were rocked by massive shoals of hungry mackerel. A better indicator would be to incorporate the number of reports submitted and the number of blanks.

I was just wondering if mackerel are definately recognised as coming in-shore in large numbers.. or is that they are out at sea as well, just that we don't know that because no one was fishing there. If they do come in shore, what might the reasons be....spawning, escape from sharks, more food...?

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

Hats off to you Gilks!

The graphs are a great way to see the wood for the trees.

I found a couple of years ago that there were plenty reports in May and the early part of June. The reports fell off for a lot of July, and picked up again in Aug etc. At the time I wasn't sure if people just got tired of reporting, or if people weren't catching and weren't reporting blanks. My guess was that there were less mackerel about the shore at that particular time.

It would be very interesting for the coming season if people keep reporting (especially blanks) even the minimum of info on the thread. Afterwards a graph like yours would be really interesting (might show some real unexpected trends).

Blackie

Cheers Blackie,

Not satisfied with the graphs I have been doing even more messing around with the mackerel 2010 data and computer (broken ankle not good for fishing). If I was to analyse the data properly I'd probably find that Irish mackerel are mostly around Dublin, Galway and Cork at weekends and hate rain.

The map of Ireland attached shows where and when the majority of successful trips took place. The arrows and associated dates on the attached diagram have been inferred by looking for successful mackerel fishing reports around the same time and region. Reports from marks across Ireland (and not forgetting Northern Ireland) were grouped into any one of ten different regions (see below). Successful reports at similar dates were also clustered together if they were from neighbouring regions.

This is probably a poor explanation but given that the data is crude (although not necessarily inaccurate) I figured this was the easiest way to present it. I have completely omitted incorporating 'blanks' into the analysis - it's too complicated but not so that it wouldn't be worthwhile (Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence). I've also managed to miss out results from a few marks either because of incompetancy/complications/too remote/too little data/couldn't work out where they are on the map. Any improvements or comments welcome as this is a very rough/preliminary analysis.

The drop in west coast catches co-incides with the increase south coast catches so it might be the same population moving around the coast. Alternatively the west coast guys have swum off to Iceland and the later south coast fish are another group. It's also curious how the big catches on the south coast are very sporadic and occur at different times to the clusters of smaller catches in the same area. I think this might be a job for CSI ...back to the scratcher for me.

A format for 2011 reports might look something like this:
1. Date: (as in date actually fished) 12/03/11
2. County: Dublin
3. General region: e.g. Dun loaghaire
4. Mark: end of west pier
5. Shore or boat: Boat
6. Time started: 0600
7. Time finished: 0615
8. Number of mackerel caught: 1,135
9. Comments: e.g. Black feathers, low-tide, seagull ate my catch, launce frenzy, 57cm long.


The ten regions for which successful reports from each individual mark used (85 in total) were pooled and sort-of analysed (many apologies if I've missed any):


Atlantic coast, north region(15): St John's Point, Clifden Bay, Cleggan, north Connemara, Achill Island, Bellmullet (Ballyglass lighthouse,) Portacloy, Mulranny, Old Head (Louisburgh), Killala Bay, Sligo, Lacken pier, Glenarm, Carrickfergus, Whitehead/Carrick

Galway Bay(9): Blackhead (Burren Rocks), north Clare, Aran Islands, Rossaveal, Salthill, Spiddle, Nemo’s pier, Galway docks, Barna/Furbo

Shannon mouth(4): Kilbaha, Carrigaholt, Carrigaholt, Bridges of Ross

Atlantic coast, southern region(8): Dunlicky, Castle Point, Kilkee, Miltown Malbay, Dunmanus Bay, Dursey Sound, Bantry Bay, Barleycove

Celtic Sea(4): Youghal (quays), Ballycotton, Garyvoe, Kinsale (harbour)

Cork harbour area(10): Haulbowline, Cobh (deepwater quay), Fennells's Bay, Graball Bay, Ringaskiddy, Crosshaven, Roche’s Point, Myrtleville , Fountainstown, Cork Harbour

St George’s Channel(9): Ballymacaw, Brownstown Head, Ballyvaughan (The ‘Flat’), Helvick, Dungarvan (Cunnigar Spit), Dunmore East, Iron Man, Tramore Bay, Gilamines, Hook (Fethard-on-Sea)

Irish Sea, south(4): Brittas bay, Greystones, Wicklow town (piers, golf course)

Dublin Bay(12): Bullock Harbour, Sorrento Bay/Point, Dalkey, Colimore, Dillon's Park, Dalkey Bay/Island, Dun Laoghaire harbour, Scotsman’s Bay, Howth habour, Ireland’s Eye, Kiliney, Poolbeg

Irish Sea, north(10): Carlingford Lough, Ardglass, Bangor, Skerries, Ballbriggan, Balscadden, Greenore, Clogherhead (pier), Port Oriel, Dundalk Bay

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

the maps and graphs are great man. fair play to you for putting in the effort