Mackerel

[theoldfart2]

As I correctly predicted in a previous thread the Mackerel arrived on time on the 16 May.

We have had a few close in at Totland ( casting distance) and a few off Freshwater Bay today.

So they are in and summer starts!

We had some on the Barby just now.

Unfortunatly.... They are ones and twos, the big shoals have long gone.

I suppose that's why they are £8 a kilo in the shops

[alananddan]

I had a look at Yarmouth pier today over high water and on the ebb. Strange tide it seemed not to ease or fall for three hours. there were a few people fished the flood and a few of us on the ebb. No sign of mackerel.
Well done for finding a few.

[richi]

I had a bag of 23 off Hengistbury head in a few hours this morning,my first this year

[loopy78]

I didn't get any drifting around Sandown bay Sunday

[Sunny]

Years back, when fishing off the rocks in Northern Ireland, I got approached and chatted to by a local Old Fart; the ususal, "what have you caught"

I was after conger from the rocks and amusing myself with spinning for the 1Lb+ mackerel they get up there. He told me that when he was a boy his father would long line with feathers for the mackerel. The shoal could be seen from the tops of the cliffs and would be 6 miles long and 3 miles wide.

Whether it was exageration or fact I do not know, but he seemed genuine enough and knew his stuff in every other aspect of our angling discussion.

He morned the loss of the makerel shoals of his youth and I have to say I miss the ones that were the size of football pitches off (west) Cowes in the summers.

The humble mackerel that we all took for granted in its bountiful plenty of our youths. Taken to fertilise fields in Russia, to fill the nets of trawlers of so many national flags......
But thankfully the EU will save the oceans with their Fisheries Policy and our blessed ICFAs

[snoopy54]

Was there a hint of sarcasm in that last paragraph young Nick .........

[theoldfart2]

Back in the day 1979, I was out fishing off Freshwater Bay with a chum of mine.

It was the perfect evening that we only get one night a year.

Oily calm and not a breath of wind.

So were fishing and John says what the Fxxxx is that.

As far as we could see towards the Needles,( around three miles long and about five cables wide, )the sea was boiling, and the noise!!!

The shoal went passed us and we still couldn't see an end to it.

I bullshite you not, that shoal went from the Needles to Compton, and that was just the ones on the surface.

Yeha we took a box full, but no more.

The next day it blew up and I have never seen a shoal like that again and for sure  I will never will.

The other thing about this old story, is what were those mackerel feeding on? 

As Sunny hinted in his thread, thank goodness that we joined the EU and abide by their strict fishing quotas that are vigariously enforced by their fisheries officers, otherwise there would be none left now.

 Realistically ,,,,That shoal probably went in under an hour, sucked up or netted and for what??

So a few greedy xxxxxxx can make a quick buck and xxxxx the rest of the world, and all that time the Euro MPs who were supposed to be doing something about the fish stocks were far more interested in lining their own pockets and riding the gravy train than kicking up a fuss and rocking the boat,and our elected politicians did exactly the same.

Thank goodness things have changed now!

[walker]

You will love reading this. It beggars belief - goodness knows where they dragged the data from??http://www.fishnewseu.com/latest-news/44-uk/12526-mackerel-quotas-may-double.html

[walker]

You will love reading this. It beggars belief - goodness knows where they dragged the data from?

www.fishnewseu.com/latest-news/44-uk/12526-mackerel-quotas-may-double.html

[theoldfart2]

I absolutely agree with this survey, and can show catch records to prove it!!!

Two years ago we fished from the Needles to Brook, at this time of the year, and we caught one Mackerel.

Last year we did the same and got Two.

I have just got in with Nipper now, and we got four for the afternoon.

This shows categorically that the stocks are recovering.

Admittedly, twenty years ago, you would never reach bottom at this time of the year .and after 10 minutes fishing had caught what you needed.


But we can't dwell on the past!

If the stocks keep rising at this rate in 500 years, it may be back to what it should be.

That report reads something like Seph Blatter, would come out with. 90 percent Bullshit, and 10 percent lies.

I give up with it all.

The world is going down the pan ,and all everyone is interested in is  over payed/rated, footballers playing in the World Cup,at the expense of the locals getting decent housing,schools,hospitals etc.

What chance do the fish stocks have when all people are worried about is people kicking a football about?

Sums it up really!