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Caught on a handline at 4kts off Brittany using a paravane and 6cm mackerel plug.
Jif Lemon with cheap vodka in it, squirt onto gills for instant, bloodless and happy dispatch.
fishing off a yacht
- Thread starter solent clown
- Start date
Jif Lemon with cheap vodka in it, squirt onto gills for instant, bloodless and happy dispatch.
solent clown
RIP
Genius! :encouragement:
solent clown
RIP
thanks for that, trolling sounds the easiest method and as you say, why not? I am reading a fishing book someone gave me now to get used to the proper knots etc, and putting the rod together without making a right old tangled mess.
doug748
Well-known member
Fladen do a paravane kit with wooden winder and many sea fishing tackle shops will supply a plastic version, which is even better. You don't need to have a rod, just tow the thing and the paravane will forced down to the fish by the forward motion and be capsized, and skip along the surface, when you have a catch. Using other methods you need a lot of weight to keep the lure down. Rods tend to be the mark of the specialist/sportsman, fine if you want to go down that route.
All I have ever got is mackerel and, in my experience, you need to be doing a fair clip to interest the fish, if there are mackerel around you will murder them with this kit.
If you want to keep your cockpit and boat clean, have lots of newspaper available and handle the fish with this. It subdues them making them easier to handle and keeps the worst off your hands. Once you have grasped the fish, swipe the back of it's head smartly against a winch or similar. Done with elan this will kill it instantly. Dump the whole issue, newspaper, fish and all into a plastic carrier bag and deal with it at your leisure.
All I have ever got is mackerel and, in my experience, you need to be doing a fair clip to interest the fish, if there are mackerel around you will murder them with this kit.
If you want to keep your cockpit and boat clean, have lots of newspaper available and handle the fish with this. It subdues them making them easier to handle and keeps the worst off your hands. Once you have grasped the fish, swipe the back of it's head smartly against a winch or similar. Done with elan this will kill it instantly. Dump the whole issue, newspaper, fish and all into a plastic carrier bag and deal with it at your leisure.
Spyro
Well-known member
Agreed, hold upside down with left hand ,right finger and thumb one in each gill and bend the neck and head backwards. (For a right handed). Loads of blood and instand death. Much more humane than a priest which doesn't always work first time.
laika
Well-known member
Here's my experience. I'd never caught a fish before owning a boat and in fact hadn't eaten a fish for most of the 20 years prior to buying a boat.
Invest in a book. I've got Dick Mclary's RYA book of fishing afloat although this seems to be out of print at the moment. Why not borrow one and just read it? Because unless you're doing this every day you'll forget how to tie the knots and when you surprise yourself by actually catching a fish you'll want your partner to be reading it to remind you where to cut to blood and gut the fish or you'll be reading it while she/he does the messy work.
Things don't work out the way people tell you. Having seen people posting about alcohol in the gills, this was the first thing I tried (some high proof thai rum I decided I really didn't want to drink, loaded into a water pistol). It didn't work. Here's a link to the australian rspca site regarding most humane ways to kill a fish:
http://kb.rspca.org.au/what-is-the-most-humane-way-to-kill-a-fish-intended-for-eating_451.html
If you're going with "percussive stunning", don't do it half heartedly. There are youtube videos demonstrating both the finger-in-the-mouth-and-break-the-neck method and brain spiking.
We use a hand reel and paravane. Note that having a line out in the solent requires you to have someone constantly looking out for boats which might decide to nip across your stern and reel it all in before that happens.
People say they've caught mackerel at 6kts. I don't think I've caught anything over 4kts. 2-3 seems fine though.
There also seem to be more / bigger fish as it gets later in the summer. August is much better than June.
Do have bucket (ideally 2), *sharp* knife, and partner with book ready when you reel in your catch. Bucket is multi-purpose. Stops fish slipping away, catches gore, allows for rinsing the fish in salt water, allows you to rinse your hands and needed of sluicing the deck down afterwards.
I've never caught anything other than mackerel whilst under way. The only other thing I've ever caught is a wrasse whilst at anchor off sark last year.
Do note that after eating mackerel you've just pulled out of the sea on board you will never want to buy it from a supermarket again.
Invest in a book. I've got Dick Mclary's RYA book of fishing afloat although this seems to be out of print at the moment. Why not borrow one and just read it? Because unless you're doing this every day you'll forget how to tie the knots and when you surprise yourself by actually catching a fish you'll want your partner to be reading it to remind you where to cut to blood and gut the fish or you'll be reading it while she/he does the messy work.
Things don't work out the way people tell you. Having seen people posting about alcohol in the gills, this was the first thing I tried (some high proof thai rum I decided I really didn't want to drink, loaded into a water pistol). It didn't work. Here's a link to the australian rspca site regarding most humane ways to kill a fish:
http://kb.rspca.org.au/what-is-the-most-humane-way-to-kill-a-fish-intended-for-eating_451.html
If you're going with "percussive stunning", don't do it half heartedly. There are youtube videos demonstrating both the finger-in-the-mouth-and-break-the-neck method and brain spiking.
We use a hand reel and paravane. Note that having a line out in the solent requires you to have someone constantly looking out for boats which might decide to nip across your stern and reel it all in before that happens.
People say they've caught mackerel at 6kts. I don't think I've caught anything over 4kts. 2-3 seems fine though.
There also seem to be more / bigger fish as it gets later in the summer. August is much better than June.
Do have bucket (ideally 2), *sharp* knife, and partner with book ready when you reel in your catch. Bucket is multi-purpose. Stops fish slipping away, catches gore, allows for rinsing the fish in salt water, allows you to rinse your hands and needed of sluicing the deck down afterwards.
I've never caught anything other than mackerel whilst under way. The only other thing I've ever caught is a wrasse whilst at anchor off sark last year.
Do note that after eating mackerel you've just pulled out of the sea on board you will never want to buy it from a supermarket again.
kieronriley
Member
Traveling at over 4 knots requires a slightly different approach,using a rod and line with app 6 to 8 ounce weight with a string of feathers cast the weight in the direction of travell as low as you can let it drop until it’s at-about 90% to the surface of the water and jig a few times 3 maybe 4times and repeat over and over. I have never failed to.get a feed for everyone on the boat,patience and luck is what lt takes .The luck is if there are any fish around if there’s none around you won’t catch even. With a trawler
jdc
Well-known member
The alcohol in gills really does work and I've used it lots, but it's only worthwhile for big fish like tuna. For mackerel I just break the neck as others have recommended.
The way the alcohol works is that it stops the gills working. They work quite well even out of the water - which is why fish can survive quite a long time, maybe 30 mins after being caught - provided they are wet and able to transport Oxygen. But if dry, or wetted with ethanol, the gills no longer work at all and the fish is deprived of Oxygen and so dies in a few tens of seconds. So a squirt from a water pistol is probably not enough: one needs a good slug into the gills on each side.
UK waters the catch has been mackerel and garfish under way at upto 5 knots or so. If nearly stopped, eg hove-to, over rocky ground at perhaps 20m depth pollack are pretty plentiful. At anchor I've also caught cod, flatfish, dog-fish and gurnard (never bass but I keep trying!).
On ocean passages S of about 40°N tuna, and in the tropics albacore, dolphin fish (aka mahi-mahi), king mackerel and wahoo, plus once a scabbard fish. Apart from this last all were at about 8 knots as for the ocean predators it's important that the plug skips out of the water every few tens of secs.
The way the alcohol works is that it stops the gills working. They work quite well even out of the water - which is why fish can survive quite a long time, maybe 30 mins after being caught - provided they are wet and able to transport Oxygen. But if dry, or wetted with ethanol, the gills no longer work at all and the fish is deprived of Oxygen and so dies in a few tens of seconds. So a squirt from a water pistol is probably not enough: one needs a good slug into the gills on each side.
UK waters the catch has been mackerel and garfish under way at upto 5 knots or so. If nearly stopped, eg hove-to, over rocky ground at perhaps 20m depth pollack are pretty plentiful. At anchor I've also caught cod, flatfish, dog-fish and gurnard (never bass but I keep trying!).
On ocean passages S of about 40°N tuna, and in the tropics albacore, dolphin fish (aka mahi-mahi), king mackerel and wahoo, plus once a scabbard fish. Apart from this last all were at about 8 knots as for the ocean predators it's important that the plug skips out of the water every few tens of secs.
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KellysEye
Active member
When we sailed we alway fished with two rods and reels with 50lb line on the stern quarters in tied on tubes. We had swimming lures that have metal plate on their chin which makes them wiggle like fish. The lure is just below the surface and all fish will come up to take a lure other than bottom feeders like Plaice. One thing is different fish like different coloured lures, for example off Gibralter we had a red and white lure and blue and yellow lure and the mackerel went for blue and yellow, so if you don't catch anyhing change the lure colour, we had had six different colours. Five or six knots is fine for catching fish. In the Seychelles we caught lots of Tuna over the Atlantic it was Dorado, so different fish in different areas. To kill them hit them on the head with a hammer, the same with lobsters.
Lon nan Gruagach
Active member
When selecting a lure it is important to remember what you with it is as important as what it is. I went out fishing with a mate, no matter how we swapped lures all the fish were his side of the boat. He got a bucketful and I got one that was so small it's a miracle it got on the hook.
BabaYaga
Well-known member
While I tend to do much of the sailing, my wife's favorite pursuit onboard is trolling for mackerel. If luck strikes, we like to bring out the charcoal grill when we get to our destination. Our best recipe:
Prepare a a thick flowing marinade from some olive oil, grated lime peel, lime juice, french mustard, a chopped garlic clove or two, chopped parsley, some dried rosemary, salt and pepper.
Gut and unbone the fish, put the fillets skin side down on the hot grate and spread the 'marinade' on the meat side.
Ready in 2-3 minutes. Enjoy!
PaulRainbow
Well-known member
Mackerel can be caught trolling or when stationary using jigged feathers. Bass will take a lure, but for best results troll it 100 metres behind the boat and don't be going too fast.
Note, it is illegal this year to keep Bass, all Bass have to be returned.
Note, it is illegal this year to keep Bass, all Bass have to be returned.
SlimRick
Member
We catch as much mackerel as we can eat sailing at around 5 knots off Weymouth using a paravane like this one:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PARAVANE-Trolling-Board-on-Handline-boat-fishing-line-/120608498305
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PARAVANE-Trolling-Board-on-Handline-boat-fishing-line-/120608498305
Richard10002
Well-known member
These guys catch a lot of fish whilst yachting, and would probably starve if they didnt. Most episodes include some fishing. Some episodes spend more time on how it all works - I dont know which episodes are the best, but it's actually all worth a watch, with a bit of fast forwarding as appropriate 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJEs1zFZAfs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJEs1zFZAfs
lenten
Active member
i used to catch mackerel to salt for lobster bait and for a bit extra money----mackerel were a bit thin in sea where i fished---so trolling 2-3 knots---5lb cannonball weight---60-80 foot of courlene/polyprop line---feathers attached 12 foot above weight and finished with a nice shiny lure--used paravanes but don t like them----if you are in an area where the mackerel are shoaling----polyprop line then feathers then weight at the end --- drift and jig----fishing rod is unecessary---hand line is quicker to set and retrieve
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Zing
Well-known member
I was taught to gut right away. I’ve always left the gills in place. I didn’t know they caused the fish to go off quicker.
What’s the best way to bleed them?
shan
Well-known member
Breaking their necks and ripping the gills will bleed them out. It is of course best to fillet/gut immediately but if you are on a catching spree or not stationary, it's easier to wait until you are. I always get them on ice as well - they are then generally filleted within a few hours.
If you are planning to eat them as fillets instead of cooking the fish whole, there's little point in gutting. Whip the fillets off (without puncturing the gut) then chuck the carcass over the side.
If you are planning to eat them as fillets instead of cooking the fish whole, there's little point in gutting. Whip the fillets off (without puncturing the gut) then chuck the carcass over the side.
Sandy
Well-known member
I don't fish, but a pal aways has a paravain hung off the back and we usually get four or five mackerel a day.
Boathook
Well-known member
The type of item that I use whilst underway. Possibly cost about £5 but well worth it. This year though for mackerel has been zero so far …...
shan
Well-known member
A bit early yet for mackerel. We tend to pick up a few in early July and then more toward August.