NO END IN SIGHT TO MACKEREL

WE seem to be in the middle of a never-ending mackerel season. Good numbers of big Spanish mackerel (pictured) were caught last weekend when the wind finally dropped and massive numbers of spotty mackerel were caught in areas around Rainbow Beach.

Earlier in the season fisherman were having the most success trolling for the big Spaniards, but now it seems you have to find the fish hovering in deeper water anywhere from 20-40m of water.

One good method is to anchor up and create a berley trail of pilchards to attract the fish then float a ganged hook down the trail towards the bottom.

Spanish mackerel are smart and for that reason I recommend not using a wire trace but rather a heavy leader – your strike rate will be far higher than using a wire trace.

Use a small sinker, anything from a 1-4 ball sinker, to take your bait towards the bottom and keep your reel in free spool with the drag on.

It helps to have a few rods running at the same time, with different-weighted sinkers.

This way, you’ll soon find out what is working.

Last weekend a mate was targeting Spaniards using this method but ended up with a massive snapper instead and there are also small yellow fin tuna around that can be caught using this method.

It is getting late in the season for mackerel and usually round this time we start to see them caught in areas like Nine Mile Reef.

If you are fishing those southern reefs this weekend it wouldn’t hurt to troll skirted lures while finding fish on your sounder as the big Spaniards should be there.

The spotty mackerel have slowed a little but off Rainbow Beach the action is red hot.

One charter boat, with eight on board, had to stop catching them within an hour as they had reached their bag limit.

Given the bag limit is five per angler that is quite a haul.

The spotty mackerel should eventually make their way south to our waters and continue our seemingly neverending mackerel season.