Mackerel statistics from 2011

The attached image shows two bar-charts each showing total number of mackerel reported caught by month from shore and boat postions. The data has been extracted from the Mackerel Catches 2010 and 2011 threads.

There are a few caveats/potentially inaccuracies....I've been creative when an actual number of mackerel caught hasn't been stated e.g. 'loads', 'a few'. The 'month' is actually the month in which the report was posted rather than the month in which the report said the fish were caught. It's usally a delay of a couple of days. I've counted kayaks as boats.

I'm going to present some more graphs based-on regional catches. If anyone has any ideas or requests as to how to analyse this data please let me know. I have a few more ideas up my sleeve.....

Also it would be interesting to hear any interpretation of the results.

Thanks everyone for posting all the mackerel reports btw !

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I have a little history in collecting data while doing college work, and the issue I see here is.

There seems to be more people reporting in the shore forums than there is in the boat forums so the data wont add up.
What I mean is, for the data to show propor stats you need the same amount of reports from shore and boat, say 40 from each to get any real stats.

Idealy you would also need the stats to be posted on the same days, So even if you got 1 report from shore and boat each day for each month, so 31 reports from shore for april, and the 31 from boats and then you would kinda get real data. But to get Great data you would need to get it from all cornors of the country, reports from nearly every county and thats alot of reports each day of each month....


Can I ask what the data is going to be used for?

?

I'd say the peaks of high catches coincided with spells of calm weather and warmer water temperatures and high air pressure. Calm weather means more lads heading out in boats and more lads spending the day makkie bashing.
Fair play to ya researching and recording the information and hats off to ya for your kee ninterest in the subject.
Heres hoping this year will bring the shoals of old back to our shores

Hope they come back this year,
Had well over 50 from inishcrone pier MOST were realesed maybe 5 were used for bait
Thomas

Sorry forgot to mention,
That was in one day when the littlens went swimming.
The weather was spectacualar that day as well

Any chance of a regional analysis? - NE - NW - SE - SW?

1 too many bar charts in this thread for me.

-total 2343 shore catches - see pie-chart below for break-down by county

-first shore report - 6th April, Clare

-last shore report - 21st Nov Dublin (total of 229 days from first to last)

-biggest shore catches: Fenit, Kerry (mid-May), Cobh (late-Aug), Belfast Lough (late-September), Mulranney, Mayo (early-October)

-138 different marks reported (although some are vague so real number is lower)

... more people reporting in the shore forums than there is in the boat forums so the data wont add up.

I've just realised that there are a lot more reports in the Boat forum. I should include data from this in the future. In the mean-time I'll just use data from shore-based reports (from the Mackerel catches 2011 thread).

What I mean is, for the data to show propor stats ......and thats alot of reports each day of each month....

The amount of data you were talking about is practically impossible to generate but more would strengthen regional analysis. The total number of reports doubled from 2010 to 2011 so I'd expect more data for 2012 anyway.

The obstacles in collating the data are: i) Erratic format of the reports, ii) Vague description of mark location, iii) Description of how many macks were caught (rather than stating a number), iv) Not reporting blanks.

Can I ask what the data is going to be used for?

The data isn't really for anything - I was just curious. You can have it if you like.

I'd say the peaks of high catches coincided with spells of calm weather....Calm weather means more lads heading out in boats and more lads spending the day makkie bashing.

Absolutely, to be honest the data probably tells us more about human behaviour than that of the mackerel.

Any chance of a regional analysis? - NE - NW - SE - SW?

I've partly addressed this with the chart showing total catches by county. Nice to see some reports from Kerry this year A regional analysis especially showing catches from week-to-week would be very interesting and is kind of the focus of my plotting. However there aren't really enough reports overall to produce trustworthy results...I'm working on it.

[quote='Eddiewamblambbam'] 1 too many bar charts in this thread for me. [/quote] Apologies, is there particular way in which you'd like to see the results presented?

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Thought I'd just add this graph of average mackerel caught per session (shore only), as it was easy to do and is a bit more informative than the last one. Apologies if I've missed or mis-counted anyone.

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I think you might find less reports in 2012, the problem now is Irish fisher men are annoyed at not being able to get a spot to do a bit of mac bashing due to the fact that allot of people go mac fishing only. So they are under the impression that not reporting catchs will stop others fishing that mark...


Its a myth to think that you are the only person that knows that mark....


BTW, Really well dont on the data collection, looks sweet.

Hi, well done Gilks on taking the time to put some shape on the data.

The whole point about the shore thread was to increase the chances of a fella/lass catching a mack during the peak season. I for one was looking for a way of turning the useless "oh you should have been here yesterday" into "they're being caught this evening in ...".

I grew up with the wild Atlantic less than half a mile to the north, west and south of my home, and I couldn't catch mackerel to order as many would have you believe in summer/autumn. When I moved to Cork I found it to be the exact same.

So fellow anglers have been great to volunteer the info about where they are being caught etc. -
the first big plus is to have a better chance of catching at the time i.e. that evening or that morning etc.
An added plus is having a record of what happened, and someone like Gilks putting in the thought and time is no harm at all.

I think it's a bit like taking a pulse, when you're healthy no one takes a pulse, but if you're in hospital you would be quite happy to have your pulse taken very day. And if mackerel suddenly stopped appearing in years to come the reports here would be visited fairly quickly for a baseline pulse

Blackie