Getting down past those pesky Mackerel

[captainhook]

Has anyone got any ideas other than 'heavier sinkers' for getting past the mackerel shoals and onto the sea bed for the cod ?

 

[kingcod deano]

either put chunks of macky on your hooks or just use a jigger by it self no lures

 

[oldessox]

I don't have too much bother with mackerel , I catch the odd one now and again and I can feel them attacking my gear on the way down ,but that's about all , I don't fish hokais or daylights ,I only use one hook and it's usually in a pirk or a shad .

Ray

 

[The Jester]

either put chunks of macky on your hooks or just use a jigger by it self no lures

Works for me too

 

[lingking]

a single hook 6-0 plus heavily baited,or a jigger with 6-0 plus treble,will greatly reduce your mackeral catch

 

[big fish]

Make sure you have bait on every hook and a 1lb lead weight,Works perfectly well for me

 

[clarky]

I don't have too much bother with mackerel , I catch the odd one now and again and I can feel them attacking my gear on the way down ,but that's about all , I don't fish hokais or daylights ,I only use one hook and it's usually in a pirk or a shad .

Ray

Aye thats what I was told to do, we didnt have much hassle with the macky in the first place though
I fished a jigger loaded with macky but only caught ling on that

 

[oldessox]

I don't want to catch mackerel or ling , I like catching ling , but no one wants to eat them when there is cod on the go and they don't go back very well with the swim bladder blowing so I try to avoid them , I don't use bait on the wrecks , it attracts ling every time , specially a big lump of mackerel.
If I'm fishing hard ground I'll use daylights and hokkais and such and bait them with chunks of mackerel and squid and catch most anything thats down there , sometimes a ling as well , but they go back ok on the hard with it generally being shallower.
On the wrecks in the deeper water I usually start off with a 200g or 300g pirk depending on how fast the drift is and I let it drop fast , sometimes a mackerel will get hooked on the way down ,but give it a slack line and it generally comes off , if there are cod on the wreck they will usually take a pirk , once I know they are there I switch to shads , because I prefer to fish with shads and rather than mackerel , I'm often plagued by coalies , even with a BIG pirk.
99% of the fish I catch on shads are cod , pollock like them , but they are usually higher up in the water and I fish hard on the bottom , I still catch the odd ling and hate it every time one comes up with it's swimm bladder sticking out of it's mouth
I will fish for ling at some stage , because I want to catch a biggun , but I'm told the best time is later on in the season , so until then I'll try to avoid them , I want a few mackerel next time out also , a friend has asked me to bring some , I like catching mackerel as well , but not if they are going to be wasted , I like to catch them one at a time on a little spinning rod , but I might chuck a fly at them next time we get a calm sea ......... if we ever get another calm sea

Ray

 

[captainhook]

Thankyou all for your responses, I look forward to putting them into action on my next venture out!

 

[bigroppa]

Wrap wet newspaper around your daylights/ hokkis and let them sink. when they hit bottom a few hard jiggs will remove the newspaper leaving a nice clean, mackeral free hook.

 

[lingking]

Wrap wet newspaper around your daylights/ hokkis and let them sink. when they hit bottom a few hard jiggs will remove the newspaper leaving a nice clean, mackeral free hook.

and if it dosent it means your cod is in the news paper,seriously mate well worth a try:exclam::exclam::exclam::exclam::exclam:

 

[captainhook]

Newspaper sounds like a cracking idea, i'd had a brainstorm and thought of putting the hookpoints through a strip of cardboard but newspaper sounds even better again! And its bio-degradeable eh ?

 

[jarrowviking]

A six inch shad works for me, mackeral seem to avoid these but the cod love them. Mackeral will have a rare go at the 4 inch shads though.