fishing off a yacht

solent clown

solent clown

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This week we took a couple of people out for the day on our boat in connection with the wife's work for CRUK. They brought along fishing rods, and in an ad hoc manner dangled them iver the side as we sailed. Karen also put out a mackerel line. Of course nothing was caught apart from the rudder, fingers, and items of clothing of those in the cockpit.
Is trying to fish while the boat is moving a waste of time? We were doing around 4kts a lot of the time. Karen and I are fishing novices, one attempt many years ago resulted in me casting the line only to hook the back of my own head in a very painful and humiliating manner that saw me pollute the river with road and line in a fit of rage, much to Karen's amusement.
We love to eat fish, and dream of catching a load of mackerel to cook on board.
 
You were going too fast!

2 knots is a better speed, though I have to admit that my nephew caught a few good mackerel on a 6knot (in a Snappie 24!) passage from Cherbourg to Omonville La Rogue.

Avis aux amateurs - the suggestion to avoid Omonville if there's an easterly or NE wind is a good one. We weren't going to be sleeping on board, so it didn't matter comfort-wise, but there was so much swell in the harbour I used the anchor chain as a mooring line - anything else risked chafing through
 
I've trolled for mackerel (when they were plentiful and shoaling) from a kayak with success, but dealing with the catch humanely (bopping them with a priest) and safely wasn't particularly easy!
 
Hydrozoan said:
I've trolled for mackerel (when they were plentiful and shoaling) from a kayak with success, but dealing with the catch humanely (bopping them with a priest) and safely wasn't particularly easy!
Click to expand...

last Sunday we saw a group of Kayaks moored together off Lepe, fishing. Looks a very tricky process once things start happening! Cool though to see them with their kayaks laden with equipment, and beer.
 
We use a paravane and find 4 knots is a good speed for mackerel and pollack. Tuna, Mahi Mahi and billfish all need 6 knots+ but thats a very different sort of fishing!
 
one thing for sure, I am going to need to fabricate some rod storage, and rests. it gets very crowded in the cockpit of a 24ft boat. Time to get the welder out and torture some stainless.
 
We regularly fish for mackerel off Eynhallow. We look for the classical signs of a shoal of mackerel feeding on sprat, small herring or other small unfortunate fish.

Look for a flock of birds feeding on the surface in a relatively small area, preferably with Gannets diving in the same area. The mackerel are under the small fish driving them to the surface.

Aim for the area and slow down and if possible drift through the area. Use hand lines with feathers, usually 6 hooks and a big lead weight on the end. Drop the line over the windward side and jig it up and down, You usually don't need to go very deep, 10m perhaps 20m max. I don't think rods work well on sailing boats, too many bits of string and thing for hooks to get caught on.

If you are in the fish, you'll get 6 mackerel first time and then you'll have supper.

Feathers also work for Cod, Saith, Whiting and a variety of other bottom living fish, again using a hand line, but you really have to be stationary or you'll hook a lot of weed.

I flatten the brabs on the hooks, this means you can unhook the fish by simply inverting the hook and dropping the fish into a black plastic bag, they lie still in the dark until you can deal with them humanely. The barbless hooks are also easier to remove from clothes and body parts, and yes, you do lose some fish, but if you're in the mackerel, that's not a problem.

If you catch too many mackerel, you can return them to the sea, but if you damage the mucus layer (slime), by handling the fish, it will probably die. The blood in mackerel has less salt in than seawater, the mucus layer is the barrier to the salt, and when it gets damaged, it allows the salt migrate into the mackerel, and they die slowly of sodium poisoning. The best way to return them is to do it when first caught, by inverting the barbless hook and allowing them to fall back into the sea.

How do I know all this? I worked as a marine scientist for over 10 years in th e1970's, and worked out ways to catch many species of fish and keep them alive.
 
solent clown said:
one thing for sure, I am going to need to fabricate some rod storage, and rests. it gets very crowded in the cockpit of a 24ft boat. Time to get the welder out and torture some stainless.
Click to expand...
Short lengths of 1.5" stainless tubing and jubilee clips for rod holders. Just strap it to the pushpit. I've had several 10lb+ fish using these and nothing broke! Tubing was free offcuts so a cheap solution.
 
Paravanes put a lot of strain on the rod and line. Better to stop and drift along. Mackerel don't usually feed at the bottom or top. You can do it while sailing but you have to perfect a technique where you cast ahead of the boat and let it sink by the time you catch up with it but if you don't get a nibble the lures will be at the surface pretty quickly. There is also a danger of ending up with the line around the rudder, keel, prop, rigging, back of your head, back of your crew's head, forestry etc etc so prob best avoided unless practiced on dry land first. Next problem you have is when you catch one and get it aboard the splatter shit, blood and scales everywhere. Hooks with the barbs flattened help getting them off the hook I usually do this while there are still hanging over the side to avoid said problems of mess. On the upside if there are mackerel around you will catch them with almost anything.
 
solent clown said:
last Sunday we saw a group of Kayaks moored together off Lepe, fishing. Looks a very tricky process once things start happening! Cool though to see them with their kayaks laden with equipment, and beer.
Click to expand...

I had just a hand line - and definitely no beer. It was also not an inflatable kayak!
 
Ian_Edwards said:
We regularly fish for mackerel off Eynhallow. We look for the classical signs of a shoal of mackerel feeding on sprat, small herring or other small unfortunate fish.

Look for a flock of birds feeding on the surface in a relatively small area, preferably with Gannets diving in the same area. The mackerel are under the small fish driving them to the surface.

Aim for the area and slow down and if possible drift through the area. Use hand lines with feathers, usually 6 hooks and a big lead weight on the end. Drop the line over the windward side and jig it up and down, You usually don't need to go very deep, 10m perhaps 20m max. I don't think rods work well on sailing boats, too many bits of string and thing for hooks to get caught on.

If you are in the fish, you'll get 6 mackerel first time and then you'll have supper.

Feathers also work for Cod, Saith, Whiting and a variety of other bottom living fish, again using a hand line, but you really have to be stationary or you'll hook a lot of weed.

I flatten the brabs on the hooks, this means you can unhook the fish by simply inverting the hook and dropping the fish into a black plastic bag, they lie still in the dark until you can deal with them humanely. The barbless hooks are also easier to remove from clothes and body parts, and yes, you do lose some fish, but if you're in the mackerel, that's not a problem.

If you catch too many mackerel, you can return them to the sea, but if you damage the mucus layer (slime), by handling the fish, it will probably die. The blood in mackerel has less salt in than seawater, the mucus layer is the barrier to the salt, and when it gets damaged, it allows the salt migrate into the mackerel, and they die slowly of sodium poisoning. The best way to return them is to do it when first caught, by inverting the barbless hook and allowing them to fall back into the sea.

How do I know all this? I worked as a marine scientist for over 10 years in th e1970's, and worked out ways to catch many species of fish and keep them alive.
Click to expand...

wow, that was a very informative post, thanks. we have seen the gulls doing what you said, so now we know where to try. thanks for the info on careful handling of the fish too.
 
Spyro said:
Paravanes put a lot of strain on the rod and line. Better to stop and drift along. Mackerel don't usually feed at the bottom or top. You can do it while sailing but you have to perfect a technique where you cast ahead of the boat and let it sink by the time you catch up with it but if you don't get a nibble the lures will be at the surface pretty quickly. There is also a danger of ending up with the line around the rudder, keel, prop, rigging, back of your head, back of your crew's head, forestry etc etc so prob best avoided unless practiced on dry land first. Next problem you have is when you catch one and get it aboard the splatter shit, blood and scales everywhere. Hooks with the barbs flattened help getting them off the hook I usually do this while there are still hanging over the side to avoid said problems of mess. On the upside if there are mackerel around you will catch them with almost anything.
Click to expand...

So seems we need to just throw out a mackerel line, and use the rods when anchored or drifting along then?
 
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