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Drop the Metal - Mackerel
By Sean Bekkers
Over summer the mackerel in Moreton bay have been a little timid and it's no secret that I like to troll some lures around until I find a school of fish that want to play ball. In years gone by this has worked a treat, however this year I've had to work hard for every one that I've caught. Leading into Christmas a good mate Gavin and I went out in search of a feed of mackerel and after three hours we finally found some held up on a small piece of structure.
With an unweighted pilchard we managed to tempt the softest of takes and when I say soft I mean grabbing an entire pillie, holding it in their mouth and not even running until the hooks were set... on par with a whiting bite. After finally cracking a fish we kept feeding unweighted pillies out, while drifting over our mark, which made for some exciting fishing. After feeding the line out it became a juggling act in terms of getting the bail arm over quick enough to hook the fish, before it dropped the bait. Following my fourth set of gangs getting donated to the mantelpiece, I was getting keen to nail a couple on an artificial presentation.
Normally I would tie on a ZMan plastic that matched the hatch, however in this case I chose a TT Lures Hard Core metal slug. The Hard Core has a cult following and is known for being super productive, especially when it comes to ripping them across the surface as fast as possible when chasing pelagic species like tuna. Over the years I've also been using these as a dead drop style lure, sending them to within a metre of the bottom and vertically jigging them. Even with a treble they perform really well and rarely tangle. The other benefit of dropping these is, apart from the fact that they work, they're very competitively priced and inexpensive when compared to other presentations. This is a good thing, knowing that over time you're more than likely going to lose them, LOL.
The first drop proved that I had made the right call, with a good size mackerel coming aboard the boat, followed by another and another. Actually, come to think of it, it was so productive that Gavin expressed his frustration with a barrage of supportive obscenities. The epic thing though was that the mackerel weren't the only things keen to smash this presentation, a steady stream of snapper, sweetlip and Moses perch also came up as a bycatch. On the way back in I couldn't help but think that this may have been a fluke and with that in mind I was keen to get back out and have another crack... fast forward seven odd weeks and I had another opportunity.
You always head out hoping to come across a school of hungry fish that eat everything that you throw at them, however to be honest I was hoping they would still be a little shy, just to see if I could tempt a bite again. Getting onto our first mark right on daybreak, I flicked a pillie out of the back as a floating dead bait and myself and Kaitlin started sending Hard Core metals to the bottom. The first drift resulted in a lost metal each, however we managed heaps of attention from the toothy targets.
The second drift resulted in some steady hits, rips and runs, before Kaitlin finally got a keeper to the net. Over the next hour or so I landed a couple of undersize specimens and a keeper, again with a steady flow of bycatch that included everything from grinner to Moses perch. My pillie on the other hand was totally ignored until four foot bronzy latched on and went like a freight train. It was great fun until the leader wore through and we knew it was time to move on when a few more boats got on the mark and the dolphins and sharks were in on the action.
A quick twenty minute burn onto the next mark and this time we were in 20m of water, working a rocky bottom. We received loads of attention from the mackerel again, however we couldn't convert. That being said, once again the mackerel weren't the only ones willing to have a dig and we landed Maori cod, snapper, whip fish and even squid couldn't resist having a crack at a vertically jigged TT Hard Core. They must make for a good fleeing baitfish presentation down there.
By now the sun was well and truly up and the tuna were starting to boil. Like the mackerel, the tuna were a little shy and even though they were working the bait schools hard, a steady stream of boats could be seen ripping up to have a few cast and moving on again. For the most part we were no different, with heaps of chasing and casting, chasing and more casting and we couldn't get a result.
Like the old saying goes, good things come to those that wait... or in this case keep casting. Kaitlin was the one to come up with the goods as we caught back up with the school just on the edge of some shallower ground. Kaitlin placed her cast perfectly into the school, gave it time to sink and with one crank of the handle she was locked into one hell of a fight. Whatever had taken the Hard Core was a lot bigger than the tuna that we were chasing around. Following a hard fight a lit up spotty mackerel came to the surface, only to hit the gas again once it saw the boat. Once back to the boat Kaitlin was stoked that she had chalked up her first ever spotty and we decided to head back to the ramp before the wind got up.
On this particular trip the Hard Core metals were a go-to presentation and even with other boats around we still managed to tempt a few mackerel away from there well-presented baits. Something that I am going to experiment with on my next trip is running a single hook.
Hot Tip: Because we were using lighter leader in an attempt to tempt more bites, we added a bite guard to offer a little more bite resistance. I found that uni knotting a short piece of 50lb leader before the lure helped and didn't impact the bite rate too much.
Screaming drags, get amongst it...
Sean
Gear Used:
Okuma Helios Spinning Rods - HS-S-701M 7' 3-6kg
Okuma Azores Blue Spin Reels - Azores-4000
Platypus Braid - 20lb
Platypus Leader
TT Lures Hard Core metal slugs