If you’d like to catch more mackerel, read on as Dave Magner explains a simple approach that lead to consistent captures.
It seems that for many offshore anglers, mackerel are seen to be little more than an occasional capture. Many casual anglers are happy to adopt a chuck it and chance it approach and simply throw a floater out the back while getting on with the seemingly more reliable routine of bottom fishing. Others will occasionally drag a couple of lures around in a half-hearted attempt to cross paths with one of these silver speedsters.
When these methods do occasionally result in a capture, it generally comes as a bit of a surprise to all on board. This shouldn’t be the case as mackerel are far more common on most coastal fishing grounds than many anglers probably realise.
Once you learn how tap into their feeding habits, it is certainly possible to specifically target them and be reasonably confident of consistent success while doing so.
This poor mackerel has realized its mistake too late after a fast food snack.
MEET THE MACKEREL FAMILY
Mackerel are predominately a tropical species, ranging across the top half of the continent and down into Queensland and Western Australian waters. Along the east coast, their distribution is very much dependent on the currents and they will happily push down into northern New South Wales waters when the warm blue tongue of the East Australian Current licks its way south over summer.
South east Queensland and northern New South Wales waters seem to be a real stronghold for most of the mackerel clan and anglers in this fish rich region can confidently expect to encounter at least four members of the family on a regular basis. These include school, spotted, grey and Spanish mackerel.
The first three members make up what is loosely coined the lesser mackerel species. Schoolies (or doggy mackerel) for example, are generally considered to be the smallest of the bunch, with a large schoolie stretching out to 80 cm or so. Spotties are similar but seem to generally come in at a slightly larger average size and are also a little heavier for a given length. What both of these species miss out on in bulk is more than made up for by their habit of schooling up in large numbers, making multiple captures a real possibility.
The next step up the ladder is the grey mackerel which regularly reaches the metre mark and has the potential to reach 1.2 metres. Being the deepest bodied of the mackerels, at that sort of size you can expect them to be pushing the 10 kg mark. Greys are one of the more determined fighters of the family and on light tackle these things will give you a real workout. They also happen to be one of the best eating, making them well worth targeting.
That of course leaves the obvious king of the clan, the Spanish or narrow-barred mackerel. These things grow huge, with females considered capable of reaching sizes up around the 40 kg mark. Of course, fish of that size are hardly common and actually best avoided due to their nasty habit of carrying ciguatera toxin.
For the sort of fishing under discussion here, it’s quite reasonable to expect Spanish mackerel up to 15 kg or so. Mackerel of this size are much more common than you probably realise and make for a safer target as they generally provide a much lesser risk of ciguatera, will still providing drag melting runs and dogged resistance.
TACKLE AND TECHNIQUE
One of the biggest mistakes many anglers make in their quest for consistent mackerel captures is the notion that you need heavy game tackle to target them. This seems to be a hangover from the good old days where most mackerel were trolled on heavy cord handlines using big silver flashers on the end of a long wire trace. No doubt that technique still works at times, and remains popular with yachties who often leave a line out the back while cruising between ports. Even so, it’s not the sort of approach that makes the most of this species’ attributes.
A far better and more exciting approach is to target them on spin tackle. All that is needed is a 6 to 10 kg spin stick, a suitable high speed spin reel loaded with 20 or 30 lb braid and finished off with a 15 kg mono trace and a metal spoon or jig. If you don’t already have a suitable outfit sitting in the rod rack, it’s quite possible to set yourself up with a quality setup for around the $300 mark.
While that’s a very brief explanation of the gear required, there are some important points that should be more carefully considered when making your tackle choices. Firstly there is no mention of wire there at all, as it is simply not necessary unless you happen to be fishing somewhere wild and remote where the fish are blissfully uneducated. If you are, please remember to take me with you next time because those sorts of locations are few and far between these days. Unfortunately, along Queensland’s heavily populated coastline, most of the pelagics encountered are more than a touch tackle-shy and using even a short wire trace will dramatically reduce the number of fish encountered.
You don’t need a big boat or a heap of fancy gear to target mackerel.a 5” Berkley
Jerk Shad.
Of course, not using wire means you will suffer a few bite offs. It won’t be as many as you think however and if you rig correctly and pay attention to what you are doing, lure losses are not normally excessive.
The largest problem seems to occur when a fish hits your lure as it’s sinking. All you will feel is a slight knock and a sudden lack of weight on your line. When you are cranking however, it’s rare to get bitten off as the fish seem to target the rear end of the lure, probably in a bid to bite its tail off to disable it, which is what they typically do to the baitfish they feed on.
For an angler on a budget, the biggest difficulty in selecting a suitable reel is that you need one with a high-speed gear ratio. Ideally, you want something like 6:1 or higher. Unfortunately, finding a suitable reel in the 4000 to 6000 size range is not as easy as you might think. When you can locate one, most are simply not robust enough to last more than a season or so of serious use. There are options out there though.
I’m currently using a 5000 size Penn Conflict. Its gear ratio is slightly slower than I would prefer at 5.6:1, however it still manages to crank in over 90 cm of line for each rotation of the handle. It’s not blazing fast, but it has a nice consistent drag system that yields line smoothly under moderate pressure, which is another critical requirement in a good mackerel reel. It’s still early days yet, but it appears very solidly built (hardly surprising given its Spinfisher heritage) and with a price tag of around the $200 mark, it represents a very affordable option.
Luckily, finding the right rod is just about the easiest part of the whole setup. I personally prefer a 7 ft, 5 to 8 kg spin stick. While fancy graphite rods are nice, they certainly aren’t required for mackerel spinning. In fact, solid tip glass rods are actually a better option as they provide a bit of flex in the system and help prevent pulling the hooks out of the fish. I’m currently using a Shimano T Stick, which is brilliant for the task but any of the graphite composite rods with a solid tip should do a similar job. There are a lot of very effective options out there for well under the $100 mark.
TECHNIQUES
With the right outfit organised, it’s time to put it to use. The first thing you need to understand is that effective mackerel spinning requires a bit of effort and it’s not the sort of fishing you should engage in if you are just looking for a relaxed day out on the water. The process itself is simple enough, you just cast your lure out, let it sink to the bottom and then crank it back as fast as you possibly can. It probably doesn’t sound that energetic but trouble is you need to keep doing that over and over until you hook a fish or your arm drops off!
If there are mackerel about, hopefully it won’t take that long and generally speaking the first handful of casts put in at any one spot are usually the most likely to draw a strike. Sometimes however, the fish are roaming about chasing the bait schools and you will need to invest a bit of time working over an area by making repeated presentations. Believe me, spend a bit of time doing it properly and you will get a good cardio workout and it can take plenty of commitment to keep casting and cranking at maximum speed when nothing appears to be happening. Hang in there though, as generally speaking, the angler who makes the most casts is the one most likely to hook up when you do manage to put your lure in front of a passing pelagic.
There are a few things you can do to put the odds well and truly in your favour. Firstly, while mackerel are a pelagic species, there are features which attract them and see them congregating in numbers, making them compete for a feed and hopefully your lure. The first and foremost thing to look for is schools of baitfish. This means that any recognised bait ground is also likely to have mackerel hanging around. You will also find that most productive reef fishing spots are also attractive to mackerel, as they are quite happy dining on the smaller reef species when the opportunity presents itself. This means that in all likelihood the locations you already fish are where you should start your quest.
Most popular coastal locations will also have sunken wrecks, or even artificial reefs. These man-made structures are very attractive to baitfish and this of course makes them prime mackerel real estate. Often, a lone piece of structure like a wreck in an otherwise barren location can really concentrate mackerel into a small area and if you can focus in on this structure, you can score repeated hook-ups.
Having targeted a lot of mackerel in these sorts of locations, the most productive approach we have found is to pinpoint the structure with your sounder and GPS. Then you make repeated short drifts across the top of it so that your lures spend the maximum amount of time being retrieved through the potential strikezone. Again, this is not an approach for lazy fishos, as your drift may only be 100 metres or less, and each time you find yourself more than a long cast off the hotspot, you need to motor back upcurrent and start again. After a decent spin session, the track on your GPS screen starts to resemble a well-used scribble pad.
One of the other things you really need to ensure is that your lure is getting right to the bottom. While mackerel are a pelagic species, they will often sit right down in the bottom third of the water column, close to the structure. To get their attention, you need to start your retrieve right down there with them and hope that their fascination with fast moving bits of metal can generate a reaction bite as they see the lure scooting away.
As most of the lures we favour are relatively light in weight, it can pay to count them down as they sink on a slack line to make sure they are getting right to the bottom. Actually, this is quite a good idea in general, as you need to focus as your lure sinks, feeling for any knocks or unexpected tension on your line. When they are in a feeding mood, mackerel will often grab your lure as it is freefalling, and if you react quickly enough, sometimes you can turn this into a hook-up, rather than a bite off.
At this point, it’s probably worth discussing the features that separate consistently successful mackerel lures from the rest of the pack. The first thing to look for is action. While you will get results on a straight retrieve, lures which kick and gyrate generally draw a lot more attention. As discussed previously, it’s also preferable if your lure is not too heavy, as one which flutters as it sinks will often draw more strikes than one which sinks to the bottom like a stone. Of course, it can’t be too light, or it simply won’t get to the bottom before you have drifted out of the strikezone so you need some sort of compromise.
Having tried many lures, we have found the Spanyid Maniac to be just about the perfect mackerel metal. The broad, spoon like profile allows it to waft seductively downwards, yet at 21 g, they can still be cast far enough to make the most of your drifts. Most importantly, Maniacs have an incredibly intense action when retrieved at high speed. The flash and vibration they put out is like a dinner gong to any nearby mackerel and if you’re using them right, and not getting any fish, then it’s a fair bet there aren’t too many mackerel around where you are fishing.
Of course, there are other options which also work. Halco Twisties are well worth using and being more compact in shape, can be cast a long way on spin tackle. Longer bodied jigs are also attractive to mackerel, but you will have to do away with nylon rigged assist hooks or you won’t land too many fish. The bottom line is, if it is shiny, sinks and can be cranked back fast, it will probably catch mackerel.
MAKE MACKEREL YOUR TARGET
Consistently hooking mackerel on spin gear is not difficult. If you set out to do it, and gear up with the right equipment, it shouldn’t take long to get the hang of it. If you focus in on areas where mackerel are known to frequent, use the right lures and wind them in as fast as possible. Sooner or later you will be successful.
The rewards will be there in the sense of satisfaction involved in fooling these high speed predators while using little more than a lump of shiny metal. Of course, the feed of tasty mackerel fillets in the esky at the end of the day won’t go astray either. So why not set out to make mackerel your target on your next offshore trip. You might just find it so enjoyable that you find yourself as hooked on the action as the fish are.
Dave Magner is a keen angler who relishes the freedom and flexibility that fishing from canoes and kayaks brings. While he’ll chase anything with fins, he has a real passion for our native and imported freshwater species
