Solent Mackerel

An impromptu day off today and a chance to spend a bit of time with my good lady! We planned to head out just before lunch for a couple of hours in the new boat chasing down Solent mackerel. She has an unbelievable knack of finding them so who better to take along!

We were a bit keen and were down at the boat before she was afloat so I set up a spinning rod and flicked out some worms. Ali was kept busy pulling in school bass and baby smoothounds while I fuelled up and readied the boat.

Before long we were afloat and making our way down the creek, the sun was beating down and the sea was like a mirror.

Once free from the confines of the creek, the throttle went down and we made our way at speed towards the forts.

We never made it that far in the end though as hawk eyes spotted some gulls working on route! Pointing me in the right direction I eventually saw them too! There were fish everywhere, boiling in tennis court sized shoals all over the place. As soon as the feathers hit the water they were loaded up…too much going on for me to fish at the same time! When ever I did have a sneaky drop, mackerel and flailing feather came dangerously close to my ears!………..I remained chief un-hooker for safety reasons!

What a laugh though and after 30 minutes she had filled the cool box with 89 mackerel, 1 herring and a token cuttle!

We had a bit of a blast around in the boat before heading back to fillet and vacuum pack our catch……nice to see the mackerel here in good numbers and with this weather of late it really feels like summer is upon us.