Moreton Mackerel

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi all

I was lucky enough to be invited out to go fishing with Brian and Steve today (Friday) targeting mackerel in the Rous Channel, and possibly catching some reefies or winter whiting as well. Unfortunately, Steve was unwell leading up to the trip, so he was not able to join Brian and I today. We launched at Manly a little before seven, and motored out into the bay to carry out the first task - catching livies!

Initially, it was looking like there could be some rain. There were a couple of clouds about, but according to BOM it was clearing up/not that bad. There was also a bit of wind when we initially went out, and it was quite lumpy at our chosen location for bait. Regardless, we sounded around looking for some shows of pike, but we struggled for the first twenty minutes or so. Then, we found something that looked like it may have been pike, but after I pulled up an undersize squire we decided to continue our search. About 30 minutes later we had still gotten no livies so we decided to head to St. Helena island to have a look there. Apart from a small wrasse, this did not produce any livies either, so we motored back to the original spot, where we still could not manage any livies. The electric motor was easy to use though - it was going to be a lot better than anchoring!

Eventually, we decided it was calm enough to head over to the Rous, and with the radar showing no more storms and calm weather we were feeling hopeful for some mackerel. On arrival, the electric was deployed and it was holding fine in the current. We casted out our pilchards under floats and then chose to fish the bottom while we waited. After I landed a couple of pickers, Brian hooked up to something a bit more substantial. After a solid hit, he brought in a solid 33CM Venus Tuskfish - a welcome catch!

Tusky

After that, Brian lobbed another cuttlefish piece down and so did I. It wasn't long before he was on again to something decent, and it showed itself as another tusky. Annoyingly, it got lucky and managed to shake the hook as Brian was about to lift it into the boat. I hooked up shortly after as well, and I managed to land a just undersize tusky. The conditions had improved considerably from the morning now, and it was quite calm!

Good day at the Rous Channel

Anyways, although we thought we might be on a patch of tuskies, they stopped chewing after that, meaning we went back to pulling in the occasional picker waiting for the mackerel lines to go off. We switched to long shank hooks in hope of some winteries, but they were no where to be found. Eventually, some birds started eating our pilchards - somehow managing to lift them out of the water repeatedly but not get hooked. We also saw a turtle breach, and Brian saw a dugong. 

Suddenly, there were some bumps on my mackerel line and some line was tugged off. I quickly grabbed the rod and I was on a fish! I started cranking line back towards the boat, but the mackerel wasn't coming in easy and was taking some speedy runs. We eventually saw the shape of it, cruising towards us in the water - it then managed to shake the hooks... Lucky. The action hadn't ended yet though, and Brian's set up went off. This fish was fighting a lot harder than mine, and was taking some lightning fast runs - dangerously close to the electric motor propeller. It was looking like a big schooly, but we never got to see it because the line ended up breaking on the moving prop. Bugger!

We redeployed our baits and sat back down waiting again. It wasn't long before some more mackerel came along and my pilchard was being attacked. I started winding, and the mackerel was coming in to the boat. We had to land this one, we thought, and after some quick runs around the boat Brian grabbed my float and pulled in my first ever mackerel, a 70CM Schooly. Woohoo!

 70CM Rous Channel Mackerel 

We got our lines back out quickly and we were hopeful some more mackerel would come by but it had seemingly gone quiet. The tide was beginning to change now, but the spot lock was still holding us in position fine. We eventually drifted around with the rising tide, and after berleying a lot for quite some time Brian was on to another decent fish. He fought it to the boat and it was a nice tuskie, but like before it too managed to spit the hook. . We decided to call it quits at about quarter past two, and for the last half hour or so I tried fishing my pilchard about 3 metres below my float. On the way back in (loved not having to pull in an anchor) I managed to lose my hat overboard but luckily we got back to it in time. Interestingly, when I filleted the tusky, it had shell coming from it's stomach, suggesting it maybe had been eating some crab.

Thanks heaps for taking me out today Brian, it was heaps of fun!

Hope you enjoyed the reports,

Cheers Hamish

Stats of Trip:

Tide: 8AM, High Tide, 1.8M, 2:00PM, .5M, Low

Moon Phase: 6.3%, nearly New Moon

Bait Used: Pilchards, cuttlefish

Fish Caught: Mackerel x 1, Tuskfish x 1, lost 2 of each

Tackle Used: 30 pound fluoro leader for mackerel, gang hooks, torpedo floats, small sinker to help pilly sink, 4/o circle hooks or longshank hooks, about a 4 ball sinker, swivel, 20 pound fluoro leader for bottom bashing. I used a Shimano Stradic on Raider for bottom fishing, and Ugly Stik on Abu Garcia Ambassedeur for mackerel. 

Weather: About 15 knots wind and cloudy first up, calmed to sub ten knots later in the day and sunny

Humidity: 95%

Air Pressure: 1012

Overall Success Rate: 90% - we saw and caught the target species but lost a couple to and Brian got some nice tuskies

Also, if anyone is interested, here is the Youtube video Brian made with some video of the days fishing - 

 

[ellicat]

Successful day in the end. Too many dropped fish, but ended up with a beauty.

Hopefully next time we'll take our chances and boat a few more.

Thanks for coming out.

[kmcrosby78]

Nice work team, shame a few were lost. I need to do a report from Tuesday - will try and do so sometime today. Am now at Caloundra so hopefully one from here too ….

[Old Scaley]

Another one ticked off the list, @AUS-BNE-FISHO. Great to see. 

[Kat]

Good job guys.  Would Brian have landed those tuskies if the net was ready?

[ellicat]

1 hour ago, Kat said:

Would Brian have landed those tuskies if the net was ready?

I think - 1st one yes and a maybe on the other

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

11 hours ago, ellicat said:

Successful day in the end. Too many dropped fish, but ended up with a beauty.

Hopefully next time we'll take our chances and boat a few more.

Thanks for coming out.

Thanks Brian. It was a fun day.

2 hours ago, kmcrosby78 said:

Nice work team, shame a few were lost. I need to do a report from Tuesday - will try and do so sometime today. Am now at Caloundra so hopefully one from here too ….

Thanks KM.

2 hours ago, Old Scaley said:

Another one ticked off the list, @AUS-BNE-FISHO. Great to see. 

Thank you Steve.

1 hour ago, Kat said:

Good job guys.  Would Brian have landed those tuskies if the net was ready?

Yes, he would’ve.  

[ellicat]

The first one was my own fault as I said I would lift in. The second one just spat it at the boat so may not have got a net under it in any case.

[Angry51]

1 hour ago, ellicat said:

I think - 1st one yes and a maybe on the other

I think Kat should have been there, she would have had the

net ready. But seeing as she's not needed because we've now got an electric anchor, we start losing fish.

[Kat]

8 hours ago, Angry51 said:

I think Kat should have been there, she would have had the

net ready. But seeing as she's not needed because we've now got an electric anchor, we start losing fish.

Don't forget the boat motor doesn't work properly when I am on board and best of all there are no hook-ups for me to have the net ready!  I must be made of banana

[charlie.hans.fishing]

On 23/09/2022 at 9:32 PM, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Hi all

I was lucky enough to be invited out to go fishing with Brian and Steve today (Friday) targeting mackerel in the Rous Channel, and possibly catching some reefies or winter whiting as well. Unfortunately, Steve was unwell leading up to the trip, so he was not able to join Brian and I today. We launched at Manly a little before seven, and motored out into the bay to carry out the first task - catching livies!

Initially, it was looking like there could be some rain. There were a couple of clouds about, but according to BOM it was clearing up/not that bad. There was also a bit of wind when we initially went out, and it was quite lumpy at our chosen location for bait. Regardless, we sounded around looking for some shows of pike, but we struggled for the first twenty minutes or so. Then, we found something that looked like it may have been pike, but after I pulled up an undersize squire we decided to continue our search. About 30 minutes later we had still gotten no livies so we decided to head to St. Helena island to have a look there. Apart from a small wrasse, this did not produce any livies either, so we motored back to the original spot, where we still could not manage any livies. The electric motor was easy to use though - it was going to be a lot better than anchoring!

Eventually, we decided it was calm enough to head over to the Rous, and with the radar showing no more storms and calm weather we were feeling hopeful for some mackerel. On arrival, the electric was deployed and it was holding fine in the current. We casted out our pilchards under floats and then chose to fish the bottom while we waited. After I landed a couple of pickers, Brian hooked up to something a bit more substantial. After a solid hit, he brought in a solid 33CM Venus Tuskfish - a welcome catch!

Tusky

After that, Brian lobbed another cuttlefish piece down and so did I. It wasn't long before he was on again to something decent, and it showed itself as another tusky. Annoyingly, it got lucky and managed to shake the hook as Brian was about to lift it into the boat. I hooked up shortly after as well, and I managed to land a just undersize tusky. The conditions had improved considerably from the morning now, and it was quite calm!

Good day at the Rous Channel

Anyways, although we thought we might be on a patch of tuskies, they stopped chewing after that, meaning we went back to pulling in the occasional picker waiting for the mackerel lines to go off. We switched to long shank hooks in hope of some winteries, but they were no where to be found. Eventually, some birds started eating our pilchards - somehow managing to lift them out of the water repeatedly but not get hooked. We also saw a turtle breach, and Brian saw a dugong. 

Suddenly, there were some bumps on my mackerel line and some line was tugged off. I quickly grabbed the rod and I was on a fish! I started cranking line back towards the boat, but the mackerel wasn't coming in easy and was taking some speedy runs. We eventually saw the shape of it, cruising towards us in the water - it then managed to shake the hooks... Lucky. The action hadn't ended yet though, and Brian's set up went off. This fish was fighting a lot harder than mine, and was taking some lightning fast runs - dangerously close to the electric motor propeller. It was looking like a big schooly, but we never got to see it because the line ended up breaking on the moving prop. Bugger!

We redeployed our baits and sat back down waiting again. It wasn't long before some more mackerel came along and my pilchard was being attacked. I started winding, and the mackerel was coming in to the boat. We had to land this one, we thought, and after some quick runs around the boat Brian grabbed my float and pulled in my first ever mackerel, a 70CM Schooly. Woohoo!

 70CM Rous Channel Mackerel 

We got our lines back out quickly and we were hopeful some more mackerel would come by but it had seemingly gone quiet. The tide was beginning to change now, but the spot lock was still holding us in position fine. We eventually drifted around with the rising tide, and after berleying a lot for quite some time Brian was on to another decent fish. He fought it to the boat and it was a nice tuskie, but like before it too managed to spit the hook. . We decided to call it quits at about quarter past two, and for the last half hour or so I tried fishing my pilchard about 3 metres below my float. On the way back in (loved not having to pull in an anchor) I managed to lose my hat overboard but luckily we got back to it in time. Interestingly, when I filleted the tusky, it had shell coming from it's stomach, suggesting it maybe had been eating some crab.

Thanks heaps for taking me out today Brian, it was heaps of fun!

Hope you enjoyed the reports,

Cheers Hamish

Stats of Trip:

Tide: 8AM, High Tide, 1.8M, 2:00PM, .5M, Low

Moon Phase: 6.3%, nearly New Moon

Bait Used: Pilchards, cuttlefish

Fish Caught: Mackerel x 1, Tuskfish x 1, lost 2 of each

Tackle Used: 30 pound fluoro leader for mackerel, gang hooks, torpedo floats, small sinker to help pilly sink, 4/o circle hooks or longshank hooks, about a 4 ball sinker, swivel, 20 pound fluoro leader for bottom bashing. I used a Shimano Stradic on Raider for bottom fishing, and Ugly Stik on Abu Garcia Ambassedeur for mackerel. 

Weather: About 15 knots wind and cloudy first up, calmed to sub ten knots later in the day and sunny

Humidity: 95%

Air Pressure: 1012

Overall Success Rate: 90% - we saw and caught the target species but lost a couple to and Brian got some nice tuskies

Also, if anyone is interested, here is the Youtube video Brian made with some video of the days fishing - 

 

Awesome Job Hamish and Brian!

Looked like a fun day out.

The little video is cool too put on smile on my face to watch!

Cheers, Charlie. 

[Hweebe]

Nice Job on the first Mackerel @AUS-BNE-FISHO. 

For me Mackerel is probably my most consistent year round catch along with winter whiting. Helps that i love both types for a feed too!

I think your next target should be to catch a Mackerel on the metal slug (while you have the pillie on float)

 

[ellicat]

I've been hearing reports of Grey Mackerel being caught in the Bay lately, so suspect that may have been the fish that gave me curry until being cut off on the electric.

[Old Scaley]

46 minutes ago, ellicat said:

I've been hearing reports of Grey Mackerel being caught in the Bay lately, so suspect that may have been the fish that gave me curry until being cut off on the electric.

If you caught it, you could have given it curry. Love mackerel in a curry.