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Guernsey 2009

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 90 days.
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My 2 favourite eating fish are plaice and mackerel. I find that with a little knowledge it's possible to freeze both and have them come out perfect. I know some people find this untrue for mackerel but for whatever reason I find my frozen mackerel delicious and I stock my freezer with them. We shared the mack's so I had 15 and I will eat some fresh tomorrow, give a few away to relatives and freeze a few.

I do use some mackerel for bait, especially if I work my trots but I mainly use the trimmings remaining after removing the fillets from the frames. This is mainly the 2 long silver strips of stomach wall. The only mackerel I'll kill just for bait are small ones. There is strong scientific evidence that you cannot return mackerel. As soon as you touch them they're as good as dead. If you can shake them off without touching them they may survive. Most bait I use for trotting and angling is sandeel, a few of which I catch (launce) but mainly use ones I'm given. Occasionally I'll buy small squid for bait and occasionally kill the odd longnose that has got mangled in the mackerel fathers.

Talking bait, I always keep all my fish frames and give them to my mate who is a local crab potter. This not only provides a more complete use of the fish I kill (as well as me eating parts of them) but helps to stop the indiscriminate slaughter of so called "trash" fish for use as pot bait. It's just a token but every little helps.

Dave.
 
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Dave , any tips for freezing the mackerel ?
I've never tried but would be interested to give it a go .
Have heard the same thing about touching mackerel and was told it's best to kill them all , even small ones .
Regards ,
Dave .
 
Mart glad the first outing in the new boat went ok and I’m looking forward to seeing it in the flesh, or in the plastic.:)
Are you going to use it to dive from or just to fish from?
 
Re the unusual marina fish - I tried to catch some in my fish trap pot think but only caught crabs however they are still there. The one that most interest me is more mackerel shaped with a black spot behind the gills & a few small tiger stripes down the back???
Podge I especially wanted the plastic boat so that I can safely beach her on our surrounding islands then we can then shore dive, however she will be used for rod fishing too.
 
Worth digging the old freshwater gear out again? Surely you could get them on a size 18 and a tiny bit of rag?

Great vid Jonny, a lovely sight. Yes, rod caught.
 
The tiny fish I saw and called RL while watching we are pretty sure are two banded sea bream. New species for Britain though a few have been had in nets. Stripe over the gill plate and on the root of the tail. They liked my mullet shirvy the other day and were nibbling the bread but the smallest hook I had was an 8.
 
I went in for a swim again this evening, this calm weather is too much to miss out on...
went in off somewhere near the grandes rocques, within 3 miles of them...
first off some shallow stops over some pollacky holes, where i saw and left a bunch of pollacks around 2lbs mark, i like pollack, but this time i decided to leave them be.
after a while i decided there weren't any bigger fishies in the area so swam around the deeps and moved on top another area. straight away i saw a bass around 3lbs, but spooked him big time when i dropped down :-(
plenty more pollacks, but i still didnt shoot any!?
decided to move on, off to a favourite spot north of the big surfing beach.. within 10 seconds i spotted a mullet in the murk, vis was down to around 2m in the swell which was being picked up right down to the bottom.
Plenty of baitfish so i carried on, dropping down to a pleasant 5m (pleasant 'cos i'm neutral there) and a comfortable 45 seconds in when mr fishy swims into view, all is calm in the world... BANG! in that short second i decided he was too far away, but no the poor vis makes him seem further away, ok i'll take the shot, it's a cert!
The result, i good bass on the stringer - did he go mad!
there is something really special about bass, not sure what? they're spectacular and canny, powerful for sure, and there is something special about taking one to feed the family for a week :-)
 
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