...It's official! The mackerel are in!

After work on Friday I popped five minutes along the road to the place where my love of fishing was rekindled a few years ago. My mate Naz took me "Mackie Bashing" there and I haven't looked back. Whilst the heavy beachcaster, six feather trace, 6oz bomb and aching arms from winching in half a dozen fish at a time have been exchanged for a Japanese ultra light solid tipped rod, zero stretch super thin braid, a small 7g metal casting jig and an ache free enjoyable scrap the target is still the same, the humble, and very tasty, mackerel.

Granton Breakwater stretches out into the River Forth. A few fish have been caught there recently including some unusual species for the area I'm told including goldsinny wrasse, ling and lesser spotted dogfish.

Arriving on the breakwater I could see quite a few other anglers fishing already and decided to start fairly close to the shore and work my way along a few metres after every cast. My thinking was that the mackerel would chase their prey close into the beach and hopefully this methodical approach would see me locate them. Far better to do this than go to the end of the breakwater and stand in the same place hoping they swim by I think! Anyway, I plodded along flicking out my little metal, a Yoshikawa Jig that my mate Lee Goddard recommended after catching a few fish on one, and it flew out like a little missile, the wind at my back no doubt assisting me.

Look just like a little sandeel.

I soon got to the first angler who was also spinning with a metal lure but he told me he hadn't caught anything yet. Walking past him and starting my search again I cast out and let the lure sink down before slowly retrieving it, pausing every now and then to let it flutter down in the water. As I approached the next group of anglers they caught a couple of mackerel on their bait rods. A good sign so I kept working my way along towards them. Midway through a retrieve and with the lure fluttering down I felt a few knocks through my sensitive rod and after the third or forth my rod bent over nicely. The mackerel on the end of my line put up a great scrap and my rod had a proper bend in it especially as the fish got closer and shot off to my left and the back across to my right. Soon though I brought it to the surface in front of me and lifted up a fairly decent mackerel, quickly dispatching it as it was coming home with me.

Perfect size for a hearty supper.

Quite content with adding another species to my 2013 tally, having enjoyed the scrap it gave, not keen on catching more than I can eat due to them not coping very well with being handled and also starting to feel quite cold due to the blustery wind, I headed home for a tasty supper.

Tight lines, Scott.