Mackerel Reports '11 here...

Plentiful one hour each side of high water in North Clare. Small white baitcatchers doing the job again.

Was out for a couple of hours tonight at Orlock, Co.Down. Caught a couple of small Mackerel on the feathers.

First mackerel of the year last Thursday from shore at a mark close to Cork harbour. Just 1 mackerel caught so still not close to shore there in numbers.

no surprises for anyone but the mackerel in North Clare disappear in bad weather or strong Westerlies. Only 7 in an hour last night.

no surprises for anyone but the mackerel in North Clare disappear in bad weather or strong Westerlies. Only 7 in an hour last night.

Seven! Has anyone on the east coast caught seven in total from the shore this year?

My running total since early May in Clare on the west is 157 macks... I only have 14 left on the freezer and a whole bag of heads and guts for conger. Might hit the marks this week.

no surprises for anyone but the mackerel in North Clare disappear in bad weather or strong Westerlies. Only 7 in an hour last night.

Seven! Has anyone on the east coast caught seven in total from the shore this year?

We have had a couple of bad years, we were usually able to get enough for bait in twenty minutes, now we have to plan our baitfishing around the posibility of catching mackerel. Mackerel days have turned in to trips on their own instead of getting a few on the way out.

loads about to 1lb 10oz from the boat about a mile off shore at the mouth of mulroy bay donegal yesterday

Saw a mighty six mackerel caught at Dun Laoghaire, west pier yesterday from high tide at 3pm until a few hours after. My mate got his first of the year, three on one line (using my feathers again (pink with silver, size 1 hooks x6)), casting towards Wales.

The three mackerel were of different sizes, the biggest being a bit of a monster. This is slightly curious as I heard that all the fish in any mackerel schoal were the same size.

Generally calm, sunny weather - almost too many people fishing. Most went home before 3pm without catching much. Bites of any kind died off from the wall by the time the tide got to half way out.

Fair play to the lad on his own with the light rod and the shopping bag who caught whiting, pollack, flounder, mackerel and gurnard (all small though) using someone else's left-over razor.

Tried a little experiment this morning, mackerel came on the feed exactly one hour before high water taking small white baitcatchers again. When I had enough bait for today's session I swapped to silver 'sea-flector' style feathers, nothing. Changed to smallish black feathers again nothing. changed back to the small white baitcatchers and was soon into fish again. The baitcatchers are tied on about a size four hook and the body is only 20lb BS so we can only use a four ounce lead. One disadvantage is we lose quite a few fish on the retrieve with the smaller hooks.

Tried Wicklow Harbour nothing happening.

had a couple in galway docks last night would have had more but a lot of weed about lost 2 sets of feathers unfortunately i was hungery when i got home so i ate most of them

Quote from Baitdigger....The baitcatchers are tied on about a size four hook and the body is only 20lb BS so we can only use a four ounce lead....
Would that not be a 2oz weight for 20lb line instead of 4ozs

had a 12 nice fat macks from a rocks in Cashla last sunday eve (high water)

[baitdigger]

Quote from Baitdigger....The baitcatchers are tied on about a size four hook and the body is only 20lb BS so we can only use a four ounce lead....
Would that not be a 2oz weight for 20lb line instead of 4ozs

If you can cast 2 ounce all well and good. in fact if you were to follow the generally accepted rules that would be one ounce with 10lb extra, but as I guess most people on the shoreline wouldn't even look to see the bs of the rig bodies i just thought I would point it out. I wasn't thinking of the powercast aspect more of what you can get away with on a sensible chuck without cracking the lead off.

Last edited by baitdigger on Wed Jun 22, 2011 10:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

caught 4 up here in county antrim tonight....some pretty big ones...all of which caught a good 3-4 hrs AFTER high tide...odd..

My mate Dave Lowe caught a solitary mackerel on spinner on Sat eve at Cushendall Co Antrim off the rocks, his 8 year old son had another one on and into the edge when it fell off. It was at mid tide, 3 hours after low water. Boys are getting fair no.s out in the boat off the shore a bit.

One mackeral from Bangor on monday night but tasty none the less

Tried a little experiment this morning, mackerel came on the feed exactly one hour before high water taking small white baitcatchers again. ...

Hi Baitdigger - would you mind to post a photo of the magic rig? Thanks in advance.

sligo rockmark-roskeeraghpoint-ballyconell

19.jun 22macks
20.jun 43macks
21.jun 12macks

from now on we have fresh bait