No sign of them here yet either!

I remember the days when the sea used to be black with bait fish, with mackerel in the middle hitting them. The water looked like it was boiling!!

Not seen that in years!

 

Could have something to do with the massive factory ships hammering the shoals , but I blame Hugh and his mackerel baps

 

Same thing around the Isle if Wight this year ..... hardly any mackerel at all. Most people blaming factory ships taking whole shoals. Very worrying indeed.


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I do hope the Tope anglers are made aware that the AT and 'some' Sussex anglers are campaigning for conservation measures with regards to the Black Bream, as they are also very much in decline around that area. As for lack of Mackerel, hoovering up entire shoals just can't be sustainable.

 

I'm glad its not just me thats failing to come across the mackerel and being concerned! Sadly, this is now the second year on the trot when the mackerel have been notable only by their relative absence which does seem to coincide with the massive campaign to eat mackerel rather than other species.

This also seems to be having a knock on effect on the bass for while the year started really well it has not lived up to the early expectation and I suspect thats because the fish are off shore hunting better food stocks....

 

There is a distinct lack of bait fish close in. Combine this with overfishing, and you probably have the answer to the mackerel conundrum.

They were close in on a shingle beach 3 or 4 weeks ago, but there weren't many of them and they didn't hang about for very long. That's the only time that I've seen them though.

 

Commercials not hooking them in Torbay and they are now fetching nearly 6.00 a kilo for landing at Brixham Fish Market - none around so prices rocket.

 

Most likely due to that Icelandic quoto row thing that started a year or two ago when the fish moved into their waters in large numbers. Mackerel stocks are basically under far more pressure than when before all this started. There could be other natural factors too but it does seem too much of a coincidence. There seems to be less of them around here during the last two years and they are also of a smaller average size than in the past.

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Probably all been eaten by the plentiful bass stocks which the commercial fleet inform us we are blessed with.

 

Could have something to do with the massive factory ships hammering the shoals , but I blame Hugh and his mackerel baps

dont forget hughes sustainable smoked seabass as an alternative to smoked cod, nice one hughe u really are a cock.

 

I think the tuna have eaten them all!

 

dont forget hughes sustainable smoked seabass as an alternative to smoked cod, nice one hughe u really are a cock.

I've got to stick up for our local boy here I'm afraid. The information he gave out at the time was correct. Mackerel was sustainable. Sadly, officially, no longer.

The fault lies with our inability to police our own waters effectively, modern fishing methods, and our lame arse politicians, not with a well meaning 'celebrity chef'.


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Here you go:

http://m.thelocal.com/20140313/norway-strikes-mackerel-deal-with-eu

Blame the Vikings.

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Don't worry ... I found all the Mackeral. They were on my French mark this evening ! Panic over !

 

Don't worry ... I found all the Mackeral. They were on my French mark this evening ! Panic over !

Sshhhhhh , dont let the French know , they will be fooked.

 

Some good & concerning shouts above chaps. Speaking to a local elderly & wise fisherman today on the subject of Mackerel numbers. He sadly informed me that when Mackerel stocks of yester-year had dwindled, he recalled that it took up to 4-5 years for stock levels to eventually get back to what he regarded as normal..... A worrying thought indeed.

 

Was with Dominic and his dad in their boat yesterday off newhaven, found a few mackerel, not many. 11 in a couple of hours,but we weren't really targeting them, just dropped some feathers when they appeared on the fish finder. Thing was, the shoals were mainly 7/8 fish! Only twice we saw 30 plus fish. Failed to catch anything else however, i am convinced i hooked and lost a big bass over a wreck however..l
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From today's Guardian.


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the talk in Tralee bay is of little or no macks....out tonight and not a sign of life the Terns were not diving nor were the few Gannets...so its all turning to shite...

 

Been getting the odd one around here, but pretty patchy (from shore anyway). That being said, they have all been a good size around the lb mark.

 

Scary thread this. The salmon season this year has been very poor and there's a general feeling that stocks are about to collapse. Are we nearing the end of our beloved pastime....

 

On one of my marks, there's been bait fish close in on every visit, but never more than two or three terns hitting them, I've even watched what looks like baby bass an inch or so long swimming up and down in a shoal, but absolutely nothing hitting them from below?

I have had or two bass each session but nothing of size, are the bigger fish and birds further out looking for the mackies?

 

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Gannets are one of life's magical creatures! I shared an hour or two at Neist Point with them, wonderful Steve and thank you for the image:smiley-signs101:

 

alot of this is possibly down to global warming and the food chain in general (also maybe made worse this year by the winter storms as per the many reports of large numbers of dead auks washed up around our coasts having died of starvation)............if you start at the bottom, the smaller organisms that thrive at a certain lower sea temperature have been moving north as the water warms,all be it at a rate that we humans barely detect....so in turn the small baitfish (sandeels) also move north to follow their food supply.........this was noticed a couple of years ago when uk puffin colonies were really suffering and their young were dying of starvation.............

so the sandeels move north.......and are followed by the mackerel as we are told that the huge shoals of macks are now being caught well north of scotland and nearer to iceland.........

i spent a couple of hrs yesterday reading a scientific report on the impact that the ever increasing numbers of bass making Norway their home might have on their local cod population..........turns out that they live and feed at different depths and arent in direct competition for food, but with each year that passes more and more bass are becoming resident rather than completely leaving there during the winter...........they have been electronically tagging bass and recording their movements ..........shame we cant be arsed to do the same.........

some of the data they reveal is very interesting...........

like ,bass feed mostly at night in the winter and spring.........then switch to daylight in summer and autumn.....but always peak at first and last light, also they confirm that bass become much less active at sea temps of 10c or below,and probably stop feeding completely at 7c or below...................shame the uk cant spend any money on similar studies of our own bass stocks.........

at the end of the day us pluggers cant really change anything so have to take our bassing as it comes i guess.....

ps........i'm no scientist so all the above is probably a load of cobblers, but is how i see it...lol