Damien with a solid bass.
Toby caught quite a few bass during a recent afternoon session.
Mackerel and mahi mahi mayhem
A
Snapper and jewfish will often grab a mackerel bait, especially on a downrigger. Damien took this cracking shot of Gary with a jewfish on a recent mackerel excursion.
Dust off the mackerel rods and get some bait in the water, it’s that time of the year again! Page 32 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, February 2023
ROUND here, February is the pick of the months for mackerel, if you ask me. As I write, they are still very patchy but big swells have dominated the bar over the new year holiday period and there haven’t been too many boats getting out. When boats did take the bar on, an occasional spanish mackerel was caught, but not a lot, that’s for sure. Mahi mahi are the pelagic of the season so far, with terrific specimens coming from the 32 and 50-fathom lines. The 50-fathom line – or the shelf line – seems to be the dominance of big mahi, whereas the 32-fathom line is holding anything from 50cm rats to 15kg specimens. The fish aggregating device off Byron is on the 32-fathom line and, while the vast majority of mahi are small, there are some bigger models
Tweed to Byron Bay by GAVIN DOBSON
with them this year – if you can wade through the little tackers. Trolling the 32-fathom line with a spread of skirts seems to be the best way to pick up the larger fish, but if you troll past the FAD, the smaller ones will tackle even a great big lure at times. I’m not sure why FADs seem to attract large numbers of smaller fish but, as I said, this season there are a few bigger mahi hanging around it, so be persistent. Back to the mackerel – there are massive amounts of frogmouth pilchard hanging around, which may lead you to think that, if they stick around, both spotted and spanish mackerel will come and gorge themselves – so fingers crossed that is the case.
Anchoring up and using a berley with white pillies, frogmouth pilchard or blue pillies should get you in the game. Sometimes live bait can be hard to find – such as at the moment with the big swells we’ve been having – and this is when a good supply of bigger dead bait are important for slow trolling. Bonito have recently shown up, so grab some of them if you get a chance because they are the premium spanish bait. But remember, you can’t claim them as baitfish if NSW Fisheries checks you out as they are a species that have a bag limit. This year, once again, sharks are going to be a problem eating hooked mackerel.
* continued P34
www.bnbfishing.com. au
