And what about fishing while sailing ?

[Sybarite]

We normally fish for mackeral with a hand held line. The usual take is about 10-15 each day. Once we have enough for ourselves and the neighbours we stop.

However I do not slow down specifically. The biggest one we caught was at around 7 knts.

John

 

[agurney]

Now that's interesting, because that is not unlike the boards used in trawling is it ? The question is, does the board remain submerged of its own accord when being towed or does it require tweaking of some sort using a weight to overcome its bouyancy ?

Anything above .5 kt and stays under, initiated by the chamfer and then because of where the line is pulling. The only problem is getting the balance right so that the pull is symmetrical - it corkscrews or pulls to the side otherwise.


Alisdair

 

[Ludd]

In the 1970s we used to handline for mackerel. we used a 3lb lead on a 1 fm 100 lb perlon trace, above that 15, 20 or even 25 hooks, at least 9in apart on 80 or 100 lb line, with feathers or plastic tube lures, another 1 fm trace of 100lb perlon on top, then 50 fm of either 150lb perlon or 4mm braided polyprop, depending on what gear was in the boat, shaking the fish off by hand or mechanical strippers. The line was wound up on a gurdy, a big reel with a handle on the side.
We would cruise about looking for oily water or marks on the sounder, or an accumulation of boats, which often stretched over several miles. One shoal of fish in 1974 was six miles long, a mile wide and 90 feet deep, 170 boats on it. The best, biggest fish would be on the edge of the shoal and not mark on the sounder until you dropped a line and they grouped around it.
One morning we arrived off Helford in the dark at 0730 and could smell fish, but there were no marks on the sounder: we dropped a line and there were large fish right under the boat, we were shaking them off by hand. At 09.45 there was a radio call limiting us to 150 stone (just under a ton) a man. Two of us had 330 stone aboard, so home we went.

Rig up with say ten hooks, nice light gear, about 40 or 50 lb breaking strain, and a heavy weight at the bottom. As you cruise along, drop the line free so it gets as deep as possible, then haul up steadily, you need substantial line that you can haul by hand. This way you cover the whole depth each drop.

Before you accuse us of wiping out the mackerel, we were only pecking at the fringes of a huge biomass, and fishing exclusively for human consumption: what b uggered it was the industrial boats, mostly fishing for meal, and landing to the eastern bloc klondikers. We asked the government to protect the stock at the time and were told that the mackerel could 'never be wiped out'. Five years later they were all gone.

As a lad in late 50s I fished for mackerel in the Moray Firth from a 12ft heavy clinker boat,up to three miles out. Frequently landed 4x 8stone boxes in an evening,2/3 in morning. We had a self imposed rule--no fishing between 0800 and 1600. All fish caught went to market and was bought by McConnochies Canners for an agreed price of £1 per box, transport was 2/-,sales commission 2/-. I had registered my boat and was paid 7/6d per box subsidy by Gov.!
I used 2lb weight 9 flies on handline when scarce fish,6 when plentiful. Reason was with 6 on,line wouldn't go down! Happy days!

 

[Bajansailor]

Re sailing across the Atlantic - just go for a pretty stout hand line as suggested above (at least 100 lbs breaking strain. If you wrap it the wrong way a few times around a spare sheet winch, then that acts as a brake when a fish hits the lure and pulls line out - and the noise of the ratchet tells you that there is a fish on the line.......
You need some sort of brake or damper, as otherwise the force will just yank the hook out of the fishie's gob.
Pink plastic squid work well - we towed one approx 2 boat lengths behind in the wake, and when we were sailing at 7 - 8 knots it was airborne half the time - which has a devastating effect on dorados. It became a case of 'Do we want dorado today?' - if 'yes', chuck the line out and catch one.....
We have also used just a hook with a strip of white cloth on it - caught a 20 lb tuna, lived on that for a week, chucked the line out again hoping for a smaller dorado, got another 20 lb tuna.... couldnt face the prospect of another week of tuna, so chucked him back in..... and got a dorado the next day.

 

[Neil_Y]

A useful tip learnt from a local in Grenada which works really well.

Wrap the hand line round a genoa winch the wrong several times, there will be enough friction to hold th eline from running out, then leave a short length loose before securing the end.

When a tuna dorado etc is hooked it will spin the drum which you can hear from anywhere on the boat, it also gives a little. Some people also used an elastic band tieing the line to the guardrail to see if you've hooked something.

Speed is not a problem we've caught fish at 9+ knots surfing down waves on the way across.

I just wrote all that without reading Martins post oooops, the caribbean method works!

 

[fisherman]

As a lad in late 50s I fished for mackerel in the Moray Firth from a 12ft heavy clinker boat,up to three miles out. Frequently landed 4x 8stone boxes in an evening,2/3 in morning. We had a self imposed rule--no fishing between 0800 and 1600. All fish caught went to market and was bought by McConnochies Canners for an agreed price of £1 per box, transport was 2/-,sales commission 2/-. I had registered my boat and was paid 7/6d per box subsidy by Gov.!
I used 2lb weight 9 flies on handline when scarce fish,6 when plentiful. Reason was with 6 on,line wouldn't go down! Happy days!

£1 for 8 stone is a rip off. About that time there was mackerel here in the summer, as you say, morning and evening only. 14s a stone, 70p to these youngsters, transport 5p, 2% commission and landing dues at Newlyn. Only got 50p a stone here in 2001.

Winter fish were frequently hard on the bottom in 40fm, winding up a lineful was hard work, perhaps 40lbs of unwilling fish, you could spot a mackerel fisherman, he had one arm bigger than the other from winding the gurdy.