I have tried feathering for mackerel (or whatever I could catch) a few times with utterly no success at all.

First time was at West Bay (Bridport) when the surf was a good 6ft high. I soon thought better of this as I thought the conditions were too rough - is this correct ?

Next time was on a much calmer day at Ferry bridge, Chesil Beach.

I bought about half a dozen different types of feathers & tried about 4 of them. I started using a 3 oz lead & using the sink & retrieve method.
After no success I moved to a 4oz lead (for a bit more distance) but alas, no success at all.

After this I changed to ledgering with small sandeel & on my second cast hooked a reasonable sized Pollack, so the fish were definitely there.

Some advice please:
What is the best conditions to feather in ?
Should I be sinking the feathers to the bottom or nearer the surface ?

Thanks in advance

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keep going the shoals move back and forth and at different depths ,if their there you will find them if not you wont.i always find bright conditions best they work baited and floatfished as well

[ 01. October 2004, 11:11 PM: Message edited by: chesters1 ]

Feathering for mackeral is either easy or impossible. As they are shoal fish usually, they are either there or not. They tend to move inshore (i.e. within casting range right and up to the beach) only when chasing baitfish, and the seabirds will spot the action and show you where. As the water will probably be fairly shallow, the depth at which you are fishing from a beach won't matter much. Fishing into deep water from a bank, rock or pier is different, if not visisbly chasing stuff on the surface they could be at any depth including hard on the bottom. In those circumstances you'll be scratching anyway so I recommend small hokkais and fish sink and draw right on the bottom, you'll pick up mackeral, small pollack and bass. You could also try a heavy dexter wedge as your weight, the action and flash will be an added attractor if the fish are scattered and don't happen to see your feathers in low viz. Best from shore early morning and evening in calm conditions.

Hope all that helps and good luck

at chesil they are either there or not...and sometimes just 10 yds past where your casting...varying retreve can help sometimes, they can be on the bottom or the top so allow the lead to sink for a different amount of time before retreving.

I dont think the type of feathers really makes a difference in a shoal, but the hockeye types will pull more out when theyre thin on the ground in my experience. I've had them hit my lead before, they'll have anything in a shoal.

They also like big fast tides, in slack they dont seem to be about so much.

Oh, and the best indicator of whether theyre there or not at chesil is to look along the beach...if you see someone else hauling them in, then give it a go...if not, sit back and chill

Weather conditions that i think are best are the ones you like...sunny.

For mackeral yes but Ideal conditons for bass look here http://www.worldseafishing.com/species/bass.shtml

[ 02. October 2004, 01:36 PM: Message edited by: sanctuary ]

i do have made a rig for testing to see when the mackerel are there without constantly feathering just in case.

it consists of a grip lead with a 2 metre trace, single hokkai on the end with some pop up corks so that it stays where you put it ( rather than having to keep recasting a float as it gets dragged with the current ) put that out with your spare rod, do some bottom fishing with the main rod & when the spare bends over, you know there are some mackerel about. it works for me.

Good call Ziggy,

Mackerel fishing is always a bit of a random operation, when ever I have a bash down Chesil I always use a 6oz lead, I personally think the extra few yards make a difference, was down there this august and the grockels fishing either side had jack all and I couldn't go wrong (did give them a couple a fish coz I felt bad).

Some people like to make a lot of nicks in their lead as this creates bubbles which attracts the mackerel. I would personally use a 'Yann' type spinner/pirk of the required weight, as they make a load of difference when using feathers off the boat. You can get them in virtually any weight between 50g & 400g, they are expensive so make sure you don't crack off!