Hi everyone! Welcome back. The day has finally come. My first upload for the Fishing Fridays series! Amy, a couple others, and I went fishing for mackerel (Scomber scombrus) down by the pier. I won’t say which pier because it gets busy enough there already.
This is the first time I got to go fishing since spring, so you better believe my brain was buzzing. I practically flew upstairs to grab my rod from my bedroom; it felt like ages since I’d held it. And I missed it.
It’s a damn good rod too. It’s a Firebird spinning rod by Shakespeare (no, not him), designed to catch mackerel. At just £30 or under, it’s a great balance between being good quality and not breaking your bank.
And it’s got lots of cool features. Features that include all of these:
Blue is always a plus.
But any good rod can’t be complete without a s***load of line. I bought a roll that I think is called Sufix Advance by Dynamite Baits. A lot of these fishing brands have kickass names. This kind of monofilament is both sensitive and resistant to abrasion. I have 300 meters worth of line so I can cover a fair bit ocean, too.
And of course, there can’t be a line without a hook. If you listen to Ricky Montgomery, you’d get that reference.
I have a seeker ISP lure by Savage Gear. This specific seeker is nicknamed the “Sinking Black Pearl”, like something out of Pirates of the Caribbean. It’s 8.7 cm long, weighs 16 grams, and it’s got a Y-treble hook with 360-degree rotation. What the hell does that mean? It’s a hook with three joined hooks and spins.
I’d argue the hardest part of using a rod is actually tying the line to the hook. The line is so thin and the hook eye is so small, you need the steady hands of a surgeon. There are countless knots that you could tie with a fishing line; I don’t exactly know how I tied mine. The best way I can describe it is doing many small clinch knots around the hook eye.
To test how strong it’s tied, give it a big tug. Or you can test it how I did — hook a bag with boots inside. To save your sanity, I’d recommend hooking a plastic bag and not one that’s fabric.
Don’t test it anywhere near fabrics (e.g. beds, carpets, etc) either. Most hooks have a backwards facing barb that makes them a b**** to pull out. Trust me, I learned the hard way. My hook got caught in my carpet and I had to cut a piece off.
The biggest Atlantic mackerel ever caught was 3.4 kg. If your knot and line can hold that much weight, you’ll be totally fine.
I bought all my equipment (rod, line, and hooks) in Trago Mills. If you’ve also got this equipment, all you need now is the bait. We used tinned mackerel in brine from Tesco.
According to an article I read on Fish Mag, one of the best baits for mackerel is mackerel. Because mackerel are cannibals. They do not care. They’ll go for any oily fish that spreads a reeking slick. Reading that article, you’d think it would mean raw OR cooked mackerel…you’d be wrong.
We were all set and ready to head down to the pier. When we got there, it was about 7:30 PM; sunset had started around half an hour prior. While mackerel are diurnal (active during the day time), they’re most active at dawn and dusk. Since they use their eyesight to feed, you’re not likely to catch one at night.
Obviously, you’re never guaranteed to catch a fish. So we were either gonna get lucky and catch one, or stand and stare at water together for two hours. Either way, it was gonna be a good time.
I hadn’t been fishing for a while, so the first thing I did was practice my casting. Pro tip: when you’re casting, stand in wide stance and plant your feet into the ground to keep your balance. It’s like if you were swinging an axe.
It might look easy, but swinging a fishing rod can feel really awkward. Especially if your rod — like mine — is nine feet long. I am a towering 5’10, an absolute monster of a man. And I still sometimes feel like I’m gonna fall over. It helps that the rod I use is light yet strong.
At first, I casted without bait on my hook. Soon after we were ready to bring the tin out. I cracked that bad boy open and poured the brine into the water to get the fish excited. It stank to high hell, but the fish love it. And then it was baiting time. I’ll try not to make a masturbate joke.
Cooked mackerel is very flaky. Almost every time I tried hooking a chunk, it just fell apart into smaller pieces.
You can see the struggle my fingers were having here:
When I did manage to hook a chunk, it didn’t look very secure. But it stayed on, so that’s good enough for me.
I am really sorry about the quality of some of these photos. The bloody thing would not stop dangling like a dog’s bollocks in heat.
With our bait “secured”, it was time for the real casting. For anyone who’s new to fishing (like my housemates), I’ll take you through the steps. The first thing you gotta do is make sure your grip is nice and tight so your rod won’t go flying when you cast.
Then using your dominant hand, pull the line with your index finger (i.e. your trigger finger) only up to the base of the reel. Don’t let go of the line until you cast it.
Next you flip the bail by pulling it so that it flips to the right. This frees the line for when you’re ready to cast.
If that didn’t make sense or you’re a more visual learner, you can just watch this YouTube video from Fishing with Nat. A nice simple tutorial.
Before you cast, remember to stand in a wide stance like you’re a sexy lumberjack. There are two ways you can cast a fishing line: overhead and sideways. I personally find doing it overhead to be harder, but it’s up to you.
Now once you’ve casted your line, flip the bail back to the left to lock it as soon as the hook lands in the water. This’ll stop more and more line that you don’t need from flying.
Any good angler will tell you that you have to attract the fish. As such, I sprayed Valentino on myself and played Lionel Richie songs on my phone. Stuck on You was like gold in our ears.
With the music playing, I was bobbing the line up and down slightly to get the lure moving. Because mackerel hunt using their eyesight, they’re attracted to movement.
I was also slowly reeling the line back in as you can see here:
We all had a few gos each and at one point, I caught something…it was seaweed.
Here’s a photo of me and my prized catch:
We also realised that every time each of us casted, the bait would fall off the hook as it hit the water. In hindsight, using cooked mackerel might’ve not been the best idea; next time I’ll use raw fish as bait. I saw a decent sized bag of frozen fish chunks in Iceland for just £5.
Sadly, mackerel fishing season ends in September and I’ll only be able to have any luck in April next year. But when that time finally comes, I’ll be ready.
I know this first post for Fishing Fridays didn’t turn out exactly as planned. But that’s the gamble you take when fishing. You either get lucky or the fish do.
Anyway, I hope you guys liked the post. I’ll see you in the next one. Stay straying!