Mackerel and Scad have been breaking down the beach for the past week or so and I have been popping down most evenings and nabbing a few. I think they are here earlier than last year the majority are smaller and I throw them back.

What baffles me are the people on the local fb pages are trying to offload large quantities of fish that they have caught, for example: “Hi, can you put a post out to local fishermen. If they would like any horse mackerel caught early this morning. I have about 40/50 of them”.

Why do people take more than they need? Does it hark back to our hunter gatherer days or are people just greedy thick t**ts?

The latter

Mackerel always reminds me of a holiday in Cornwall when I was little. The chap we rented a cottage from used to take folk out on his boat and he always pulled a couple of lines behind. The mackerel caught went straight in his home smoker and we got fresh smoked mackerel almost daily. I never tired of it and I still love it.

A lot of ‘proper’ sea anglers will literally fill their bait freezers with macky to use as bait in the winter months for Cod & Whiting. It’s a staple bait.
Out boat fishing last year we stopped off to get fresh Mackarel to tip the hooks off, got about 100 in no time between 10 of us, went on to the ‘grounds’ in search of Cod/Ling & you couldn’t even get your lure/pirk/Hokki deep enough before the Macky were on. You just couldn’t not catch them!
A lot of Macky bashers are just greedy gits though, the piers get rammed with them.

Fresh mackerel, grilled or barbequed with onions, is food of the gods.

Newly smoked, grilled with butter, few new potatoes, mmmmm. One of the tastiest simplest dishes ever. We’re lucky to have a fish dude that comes straight from the sheds to our door and it gets eaten that same night

or are people just greedy thick t**ts?

Welcome to the 21st Century (if you won the postcode lottery)

I went out with a party of 5 and we took approx 12 each. These were filleted, some cooked fresh that night at a party, and the rest frozen which fed us for a good while. None was wasted. Fresh mackerel straight in the pan and fried is just amazing as it is. Sweet white fishy fish. Nothing like grey ‘supermarket-fresh’ plastic-wrapped tasteless nappysacks!

Prefer tinned mackerel in tom sauce than the ‘fresh’ chilled stuff tbh.

Freshly cooked mackerel with horseradish and some decent bread and butter.

Tinned mackerel stirred in with pasta, curry paste and frozen peas is truly food of the gods.

Butterflied, grilled with smoked paprika and garlic. Bossssshhhhhhh

Tinned Mackerel on toast with a dash of chilli sauce, is also a divine treat.

I used to be shite at catching Mackerel, then I got a new boat

i think that is perfect justification of +1

Smoked mackerel on toast with marmalade – heaven.

Salted and then vinegared. Then made into nigiri sushi. Even oily fish haters seem to like it… 😊

Nice boat! Is it a Lugger? Didn’t someone sail to Australia in one?

St John’s Wood

I remember two northern blokes sat on the beach at Beesands mackerel bashing. They were on a ratio of a can of Stella to four mackerel. They kept falling over pissed reeling 8n and falling off their deckchairs when they sat down. They stumbled up the rocks when they finished laden with buckets of mackerel, falling over and dropping fish. They then got in their car and drove off! I waited for a while before we left as I didn’t fancy being anywhere near them on the on road.

Got back to our campsite and they had pitched up next to us when we were out for the day! They stumbled around for a while (this was about 7pm) and then went and fell asleep in the tent. Snored like mad and in the morn8ng on the roof of their car was 2 buckets full of warm stinky mackerel.

Sorry to tell you – but any mackeral you handle and put back is desitined to a fairly rapid death. Catch and release doesnt work if you touch their skin.

Beautiful fish to look at, foul tasting. Best used as bait to catch something else. 😉

Jamaican “Mackerel run down”… now that’s a dam good fish receipe.

barrykellet – I never knew that I wish I had not put the too small ones back now.

db – thanks it is actually a Drascombe Longboat – a stretched lugger (3 ft longer)

jaminb

barrykellet – I never knew that I wish I had not put the too small ones back now

You could use a fish grabber on the lip to help unhooking or barbless hooks to shake them off without touching.

Apparently the science says skin damage interfering with their ability to maintain osmotic balance is the problem

or barbless hooks to shake them off without touching.

Definately this.

Just be quick at getting reeled in cos they fight like hell & are easily unhooked!

I remember being told you can also use wetsuit-style neoprene gloves as long as they’re wetted out with sea water before you handle the fish- no clue if that’s actually true mind

I remember two northern blokes sat on the beach at Beesands mackerel bashing.

Ha! I remember being on holiday at Beesands in a touring caravan with the folks, probably around ‘69-72ish, couple of blokes had one of the static ‘vans there, along with a little Avon RIB, used to take some of us out when the mackerel were running. I had one of those wooden reels with orange line and a spinner on the end, I’d drop the line in, catch a fish, drop in, get fish, rinse and repeat. Ended up with a bucket full, couldn’t give them away there were so many fish coming in close to shore, so we put water in the bucket and brought them home next day, gutted them and put them in the freezer; we were eating them for what seemed like weeks! Bit like the Christmas turkey.
The beach has changed a fair bit since, I was last there about five years ago, longshore drift is taking its toll, sadly, thanks to the actions of the government and its contractors a century or so ago. ☹️