Sea Angling for Spearos

[Pav]

Been out in the yak a couple of times recently due to poor spearing conditions. Very few mackerel about, infact the Bass seem easier to catch! Tonight nothing, although joined 3 porpoises which came within a 3 meters of the yak. Great to see.

Anyone with experience of fly fishing? Want to start on the stocked fishery .. Just an alternative to sea and a place to chill! What's the score with the starter sets on eBay for £30+?

 

[atomichaggis]

Hello guys, been a while.

Been unproductive fishing for me the last... oh... eternity. Resorted to cod fishing due to some issues with my boat the other day but managed to film a good bit.

 

[Mr. X]

...Very few mackerel about, infact the Bass seem easier to catch! ...

Read a news article the other day saying that mackerel are now over-fished and are no longer considered a sustainable species. No doubt as a result of the quotas being raised for them about a year ago I expected that to happen but am surprised by how quickly the modern fishing boats were able to "vacuum" them all up. The world's fishing fleets need to be downsized. History has shown that professional fishermen will fish their quarry until the quarry no longer exists (e.g. herring, sardine/pilchards, tuna, anchovies,....)

BBC News - Dispute means mackerel is no longer catch of the day
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21149554

 

[atomichaggis]

You UK guys not out fishing?

doubt very much that mackerel is under threat Mr. X, They are however moving north, it's the icelander's ball now and they are not playing

Took a little short trip yesterday to a fairly shallow bay nearby. The Idea was to fish the wreck of a junkers 52 seaplane that listed and sank in bad weather in 1943.
The bay itself is not that exciting to fish being silt and sand substrate and mostly featureless but we figured there would be some small ling under the wreck... and it's not everyday you fish a nazi warplane.

We started by fishing small hooks for bait to catch ling but the ling got impatient...

 

[Mr. X]

Hi Davie, I hope you are right. I think mackerel came under threat as soon as the government/EU "pointed" the commercial fisherman at them while cutting the white fish quotas. I see the supermarket is giving canned mackerel as much shelf space as sardines recently. Mackerels tendency to hunt if shoals will make them particularly vulnerable to eradication - but I guess that is the same for many fish. Particularly worrying as mackerel is a food source for other fish and wildlife, and a good fish for anglers close to shore.

On the other hand, despite health recommendations to eat oily fish twice a week (an article in the newspaper yesterday reckons it will add more than 2 years to your life expectancy), most folk in Britain eat none. They are missing out.

We ate some "fresh" mackerel last week. It had very little taste (or oil) . We are at the end of a long, cold winter - perhaps the fish are depleted?

 

[atomichaggis]

They had been crying out for increased quotas due to massive amounts of mackerel in recent years. Boats were out only a few hours before the fishery was closed due to quota being met. Mackerel numbers had probably never been as healthy. Everything thats going on now is industry and international politics... these guys make money of fishing them and so do their governments, they may be biased They bleat when they can't fish more, then they bleat when someone else is and they start quoting the bleakest biology paper they can find.
I don't know exactly how the stock is doing on a global scale but I doubt very much they have managed to break it's back in a couple of years.

About that mackerel you ate, How did you prepare it?

 

[Mr. X]

The wife grilled it gutted but otherwise whole. We always grill mackerel. It's possible that she cooked too much of the oil out* of it but I suspect not. I used to think freshness was the issue but have eaten fish in the evening that we've caught in the afternoon and been surprised at how bland they are. The best tasting ones seem to be plump with oil - you can see it before you cook them. At least that's my recent experience.

I suppose it might be worth trying frying it.

 

[atomichaggis]

They go through periods of plankton eating and other fishes at other times, so probably the lean months for them right now if there is not a lot of prey.

I always found that grilling Mackerel with lemon juice removes the oily taste, something I used to do to encourage people to eat it

 

[Mr. X]

I like the oily taste of mackerel & grilled sardines/pilchards & herring. The wife grills it with lemon, perhaps that is part of the problem - I found lemon flavor overpowering for bass, mullet & scallops (as you suggest, it covers the fish flavour), so I generally use lime now if I use any citrus fruit. Although I don't always use citrus. Fennel, garlic, butter/olive oil are staples for us when cooking speared fish. A couple of years ago I discovered some additional flavours that seemed to work well with fish: ground ginger, mace & soy sauce .

 

[foxfish]

We eat mackerel throughout the season from about now until November.
We have regular mackerel fests with the family & friends, I boneless fillet the macs & fry them in medium hot oil until the skin goes crispy.
I have discovered that the very best results come after about the second pan full as the macs leave thier own oil in the pan.
The fillets are served with buttered bread, grilled cherry toms, horseradish sauce & mayo.
I can fillet 30 mac in about 30 min, we find 4 average size fillets per person is about right.
I prepare & cook outside, I throw the fish frames onto my house roof & the gulls collect them within seconds.
Roll on the summer mac parties...!!

 

[sp9hzx]

Nice recipes guys.
I must try your way one day Mart



============================
SPEARFISHING

 

[foxfish]

I was hopping you might join me & my friends this summer!

 

[Mr. X]

Received from Dr. Mike Ladle today:

Hi,



Steve Pitts and I have just written a new book on sea fishing - ‘Operation Sea Angler – The Second Wave’. It follows a similar format to that of ‘Operation Sea Angler’ which was published in 1983 but is completely new information. It’s available from Amazon, from book shops, online from Veal’s Mail Order https://www.veals.co.uk/acatalog/operation-sea-angler-the-second-wave-3961.html and from Bloomsbury Press www.amazon.co.uk/adlard+coles who are the publishers.



Apparently, these days, it is important to make people aware of new publications through digital media (and we aren’t very good at this) so if you are a user of Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, etc. We would really appreciate a mention of the book to your contacts. Also, any recommendations you could make on fishing forums and particularly, some good star ratings on Amazon and other outlets would be very greatly appreciated.



All the best,



Mike

 

[agbiv]

4 mack fillets won't be enough for me! :naughty

 

[landshark sa]

Fishing for tuna with Miles and crew a couple of weeks ago aboard his boat Dr.Fish

At the end of the day we all agreed that we should have taken some spearguns but none the less had a good day out.

Final tally: 7 Yellowtail, 1 Skipjack Tuna, 11 Longfin Tuna (biggest 24kg's) and 17 Yellowfin Tuna (biggest 88kg's)

[ame]https://vimeo.com/67210093[/ame]

PS: Tuna fishing what it is, this video contains quite a bit of blood so not for sensitive viewers

 

[Mr. X]

That's a name I haven't heard in too long: How the heck is Miles and Dr. Fish (the alias of his wife as well as the boat name I believe)? Miles & OMD pretty much founded the spearing section of DeeperBlue - the rock on which we build

 

[landshark sa]

That's a name I haven't heard in too long: How the heck is Miles and Dr. Fish (the alias of his wife as well as the boat name I believe)? Miles & OMD pretty much founded the spearing section of DeeperBlue - the rock on which we build

He's doing very well! Two kids and the usual fishing antics keeping him very busy

Quite right, with the boat name, it's named after his wife who is a qualified medical doctor.

We run a forum in SA called Boat Fishing (Boat Fishing • Index page) which focuses mainly on fishing in and around the Western Cape. If you are keen you can check out some of his latest adventures there.

And for sure, he's a legend... It was him and Tommy Botha that pioneerd spearing big Yellowfin Tuna in the deep off Cape Point. Tommy, who is rated as one of the best spearos to have ever come out of SA, also features in the vid I posted. He's the guy in the green oilskin fishing with the rod.

 

[Mr. X]

2 kids! I bet that keeps him busy.

 

[Mr. X]

It appears that one of the links for Dr. Mike Ladle & Steve Pitt's new book in the email above is broken. The book is available from Veals.co.uk or from Amazon at this link:

Operation Sea Angler: the Second Wave: Tactics for Successful Saltwater Fishing: Amazon.co.uk: Mike Ladle, Steve Pitts: Books

 

[Mr. X]

Amazon just dropped the price 33% below RRP: [ame="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1408187876/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=19450&creativeASIN=1408187876&linkCode=as2&tag=sloyd-21"]Operation Sea Angler: the Second Wave: Tactics for Successful Saltwater Fishing: Amazon.co.uk: Mike Ladle, Steve Pitts: Books@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5180n8jwl7L.@@AMEPARAM@@5180n8jwl7L[/ame] with free shipping. I placed my order .

BTW I previously bought his Mullet fishing DVD - excellent value. If you watch it, you will understand why this fish (a personal favourite) needs such special attention - you will not catch it with "normal" sea-fishing techniques.