Newbie fisherman here.
Can you catch mackerel at night?
I caught some mackerel from South Parade Pier during the day last week but was wondering where is the best place along Southsea beach to fish for mackerel at night?
GNASHER
I have had a mackerel at night: Last october was chucking out lug/mackerel strip at Hayling in attempt to catch bass when something grabbed it within seconds of it hitting the water about 80 yds out. Thought it must have been a bass around the 2 lb mark as it fought well but instead reeled in one of the biggest macks I have ever seen - well over 1 lb in weight. However, the shoals do seem to disappear from the beaches as it starts to get dark, probably because they can't see any bait fish to chase. My guess is that they head for deeper water to grub along the bottom for what they can find. In view of my experience last October, it might be interesting to lob a set of feathers out into deep water loaded with small worms just to see what happens. You can certainly get whiting by that technique and I have seen it done.
Best way to catch them at night is to use a 2 hook rig maybe a one up one down the top snood about 2 foot and the lower about a foot size 4 hooks and add pop up beads bait up with a tiny piece of mackie i also use this rig for bream as well but baited with squid you may also want to use a little bait elastic if casting distance hope this helps
I've caught them after dark using a small dexter wedge. I've also seen them caught after dark on the float. It might be that they see reflections off shore lights.
Sorry to hear about ur problem ejay.
I was like a little kid catching my first lot of macky last week from South Parade Pier.
Even took a pic of them lol.
gnasher
caught 3 mackerel from southsea beach early this morning. on a down side, i lost my feathers. not sure what took the line but it kept moving about and i experienced different amounts of pull.
I've caught loads of Mackerel at night on the fly. From a fishes perspective it's never truly dark as it looks up to a lighter background at night, which silhouettes any prey fish . You just need to look at the size of a Mackerel's eye to see it's well adapted to seeing in extremely low light.
MJB wrote:I've caught loads of Mackerel at night on the fly. From a fishes perspective it's never truly dark as it looks up to a lighter background at night, which silhouettes any prey fish . You just need to look at the size of a Mackerel's eye to see it's well adapted to seeing in extremely low light.
thats good point MJB ive never looked at it that way a few people i know catch mackerel at night but they are normally going for bass
