mackerel bait,

A nice oily fish bait.
use either in strips, chunks or whole
best used when freshly caught, though blast frozen is a good alternative, (unless defrosted and refroze )

usually availiable from most wet fish counters but they will have been on ice for a while .
stale or refrozen bait will be soft and manky, not good, but may still catch.

I've never had much luck with mackerel as bait! :cry:

Its a great bait on the right water, usually unpressured waters like rivers

perfect size is something like below and youll never get fresher than this

one word if you catch your own two things to remember

dont dump a job load in the freezer in one go or they dont freeze with enough speed and you end up with crap baits

second once youve caught a few leave em alone as studies show that they dont survive handling so any you throw back will probably die, its something to do with the skin not tolerating pressure or chemical changes

Interesting that John, you learn something new everyday

Woodchucker wrote:Interesting that John, you learn something new everyday

they can be a piece of wee to catch on bait and any bait liver bits of bacon, I make it more fun just fishing one hook/bait per rod as when hooked alone a fish of that size really can pull back on pike/carp rods

great fun and top the tan up too

I caught them on feathers in Portugal when I was shark fishing, they do pull well on light gear, and to be honest I got right into it and was a little bit gutted when we had to use them to catch Mako's

Woodchucker wrote:I caught them on feathers in Portugal when I was shark fishing, they do pull well on light gear, and to be honest I got right into it and was a little bit gutted when we had to use them to catch Mako's

p... off sulking now

theres me enthusic the fun they are as a change and then

well my dads bigger than yours

It was only 45lb John, on stand up and fight gear, it was like reeling in a fecking bream on pike tackle

Woodchucker wrote:I caught them on feathers in Portugal when I was shark fishing, they do pull well on light gear, and to be honest I got right into it and was a little bit gutted when we had to use them to catch Mako's

He's a proper "Tommy Topper" aint he?

Badger wrote:

Woodchucker wrote:I caught them on feathers in Portugal when I was shark fishing, they do pull well on light gear, and to be honest I got right into it and was a little bit gutted when we had to use them to catch Mako's

He's a proper "Tommy Topper" aint he?

I bet Tommy Topper has not had two 20lb pike this year

I bet he has! That's why he's "Tommy Topper"!