Mackeral? what bloody mackeral?

[chief]

Well after waiting for what seems like eternity to get a trip into the paddock, yesterday looked like the go. richieboy was keen to come for a run and after a dam good result from one of garretts work mates of a 20 spottie mackeral session, we were hyped for a mackeral sesh. Headed out to where i was told the mackeral were and it didn;t take long to find some birds . From this time we travelled to harries ,up towards Mud , back to Green with not a mackeral to be seen. It was a paddock full of very flighty Lts. ones and twos everywhere . I used three different sized slugs. I think richie did the same but we just couldn't get a taker. OUr best chance we had was on a school of quite a few fish right on harries they stayed up and we got quite a few great shots at the school but just couldn;t get them to take a slug. You know that feeling when your cranking that slug ,you know its in the zone and your just waiting for that weight and that first blisstering run and nothing. Frustrating you can see those Lts as plain as day and they just wouldn't play. WE could see the baitfish around our boat and they seemed to be close to the profiles we were using. Any way a long winded way to say couldn't find a mackeral, couldn't entice a Lt but what a beautiful day on the water. Sorry richie next time mate we'll find what we went out for

[fishphile]

Unlucky guys, couldn't find a fish up the creek this morning either.

Dave

[webby]

Well mate you werent the only one. I had 3 other rigs with me and we covered every square inch of the paddock from harries to the fours and the measureed mile and all we found we shit loads of mac tuna.
Found one school of spots but they dissappeared as soon as we pull up then couldnt find them again, not like on tuedays when we got our quota.
Managed one Lt, got him to the boat and he went under and cut me off on the leg.
Weather and water were perfect, but we sitill came home with only ice in the box ;D
They just havent turned up in great numbers yet.
We''ll let them have the chrissy party in the bay and hit em again after chrissy.
regards

[cbs]

Was out too yesterday, Had no problems finding them, just had problems getting them into the boat.

Lost quite a bit of gear, bitten off twice and was unable to stop a monster from heading to the horizon. Lost another one due to our own stupid impatience.

Result? Empty esky, but loads of fun.

[charleville]

Yep - same story as for me last Wednesday.

I tried everything, including casting slugs, trolling slugs, floating pillies and weighted pillies. :-/

...and it did not help to see the picture of those two nice spotties that Webby had posted in these pages on Tuesday. :(

Now that I have read of your similar experiences, I don't feel so bad. ;)

[chief]

Thanks fellas , one of those days. Hey cbs at least you had a few hookups. Signposts in the paddock was a great article Brian , a top read

[backhoe]

Well mate you werent the only one. I had 3 other rigs with me and we covered every square inch of the paddock from harries to the fours and the measureed mile and all we found we shit loads of mac tuna.
Found one school of spots but they dissappeared as soon as we pull up then couldnt find them again, not like on tuedays when we got our quota.
Managed one Lt, got him to the boat and he went under and cut me off on the leg.
Weather and water were perfect, but we sitill came home with only ice in the box ;D
They just havent turned up in great numbers yet.
We''ll let them have the chrissy party in the bay and hit em again after chrissy.
regards


Great article in BnB on signposts Webby
Certainly helped us find a few yesterday.
You'll have to stop giving away all your secrets ;D
Kev

[Why-ting]

Hey Chief. I took Richieboy out yesterday arvo chasing jacks. Results pretty similar to yours with me pulling the hooks on 3 fish. There seems to be a little pattern here when Rich is on board ;D ;D ;D

Cheers Whytey

[redspeckle]

Yes the mackerel are scarce at the moment I manged to land a spotty last week and before that where I was fishing for whiting the Doggy's where taking the whiting I was catching cutting in half and so on so put floater rig out for them and mange caught 2 in that session with plenty of bite offs
So I can wait for the Mackerel Meet and Greet happen early next year
Mitch ;)

[Jeremy87]

had a great day yesterday. boated 5 or 6 legal squire an 10+kg longtail on a popper and 5 or 6 spotties between 3 of us. The spotties are big and slug shy though are still catchable. Most of the fish that we landed were around the 90cm mark (whatever that equates to in kilos i don't know) but there were fish over a metre swimming around. i hooked one but it converted itself into a 7ft noah half way into the fight. The doggies we caught were all small only a couple would have been legal. The fish are moving around heaps but they are there. Not going to give away the location to the masses but think south.

[charleville]

Not going to give away the location to the masses but think south.


Why not? Amateur anglers are not going to wipe out whole schools like ring netting does.

North and east of Peel there were heaps during the week.

Where they may be today may be vastly different.

[Jeremy87]

I'm not worried about people wipping out populations, but when i'm fishing on the weekend and see a school pop up i don't like haveing to race another dozen boats to it. I don't mind however giving other anglers reading the forum a general idea of where to look. If you bumped into me somewhere i'd be more than happy to give a full report but you seemed to already have found a patch.

[chief]

Jeremy 87 , thanks for the tip . I'll have a look souther next time but as you say they must be on the move . Hey first day i've been looking for them , No stress we'll find them

[richieboy]

Hey Chief. I took Richieboy out yesterday arvo chasing jacks. Results pretty similar to yours with me pulling the hooks on 3 fish. There seems to be a little pattern here when Rich is on board ;D ;D ;D

Cheers Whytey


Fair go whytey! ;D! As I recall I got a look at my two before they released themselves. What was it again, 3 and 0 from 3 strikes. ;D ;D ;D

The secrets out. :P
Was a great arvo tho mate and thanx for the callup! Maybe next time. I hope......

Chief: What did I tell ya mate. Someone on the site would have gotten some, somewhere. The thought that Webby didn't get any though makes me feel alot better with our outcome tho. No offence Webby, you know how it is when you're the yard stick. ;)
Hey, at least the dolphin show was free and we didn't have to go to seaworld for it.
Should have taken Why-ting's advice and thrown a popper. Go the halco rooster.
Anyw :)ays, you've wet my lips at the prospects. Till next time.

Rich

PS: Don't give me bad karma on the boat. I should have touched wood!! Merry Xmas! :)

[Fisher4life]

yeah we headed out in poor conditions friday, got a few spots in the esky early again, however, once that northerly came in, the fish totally shut down.

Can't wait to get out after the Chrissy rush!!