Mackerel fishing

[Zigs]

Hi guys & gals,

 

just popped into A.N. for a minute to see whats going on, was amazed to see 31.000 hits on this thread, nice one.

 

Now if each person that has read this can pass on the info to a few more anglers, we should have the U.K. enlightened by the end of next year. After which time i'll be running for prime minister as leader of the slightly fishy party.

[Chub Frenzy]

When you cook a mackerel is there a legal size it has to be, as i have seen people bag fish that look like they are under 6 inches long. How do you unhook them with out touching it.

[Leon Roskilly]

When you cook a mackerel is there a legal size it has to be, as i have seen people bag fish that look like they are under 6 inches long.

 

How do you unhook them with out touching it.

 

 

Yes, 30cm for the North Sea (areas IVa, IVb & IVc*), 20cm elsewhere.

 

*map: http://www.neafc.org/page/577

 

 

Hold the shank of the hook and shake them off.

[benacre]

I only catch enough throughout the summer for my winter Pike Campaign. I dont fill buckets up for the sake of it

[Vagabond]

Cant be a sin, can it?

 

 

Most certainly not!

 

I think we should try to look at this in perspective. The original paper refers to :-

 

In the late 1970s we carried out several experiments to try to find out why dead mackerel were being found in vast numbers in the SW, co-incident with the purse seine and trawl winter fishery.

 

The short answer is that the fish died due to skin damage interfering with their ability to maintain osmotic balance, and the skin damage was due to abrasion between crowded fish in the nets.

 

ie mackerel in the order of "tons" rather than the hundreds caught by anglers.

 

In other words, compared to the astronomic numbers of mackerel killed by the fishing industry, the number of mackerel caught by anglers is small, and the numbers released by conservation-minded anglers is miniscule.

 

Releasing rod-caught mackerel does not make a ha'porth of difference to mackerel stocks.

 

All it does is show that those who release mackerel, care enough about our fisheries to make this token gesture. (that sounds patronising, but it really isn't meant to be - salt of the earth, such folk).

 

But what happens if the pre-release handling is less than perfect ? The mackerel will die, not directly because of damage to the osmotic balance, but because of impaired swimming ability, which means it is snapped up by a hungry cod, bass, tope or porbeagle. All of these fish (and others too) eat mackerel every day - and go for a sluggish one first. So your released and dying mackerel indirectly saves the life of one of its siblings (until the next bass feeding time, anyway) and at least it is returned to the marine food chain.

 

The paper quoted from above shows how serious trawling/seining is for mackerel stocks - there were so many injured and dead mackerel the predators could not eat them all - hence the researchers finding "vast numbers"

 

There is really only one sure-fire way to avoid killing mackerel, that is, when you have enough for your supper, for bait, or even for a massive bait-up with chum, STOP FISHING FOR THEM AND TARGET SOMETHING ELSE. I suppose that the best we can expect from those that continue to feather on "for sport" is that the mackerel go back into the sea in whatever condition (see two paragraphs above)

 

Catching loads of mackies only to dump them in a bin, on the quayside, or behind the beach is pathetic. However, it only tells us what a wally the catcher is, it doesn't REALLY make a serious dent in mackerel stocks, even though there seems a huge number of wallies out there.

 

If you want to see what DOES make a dent, pay a visit to a busy fishing port.

[MainBassMan]

What no mackeral!!!!!

[Brett W]

Any signs of the mackerel in around the south/east Devon beaches at the moment?

[Zigs]

Any signs of the mackerel in around the south/east Devon beaches at the moment?

 

I,ve been fishing at west bay & cogden this weekend, non showing, only saw 2 landed last weekend.

 

Plenty of crabs on the bottom though.

[Steve Walker]

Plenty of crabs on the bottom though.

 

You want to see the doctor about that.

[Zigs]

You want to see the doctor about that.

 

I'll rub some blue unction on em