Mackerel Handling

[toomanyhounds]

There has been a lot of mention on this forum and down on the beaches/rocks about handling mackerel and their subsiquent survival rate and I would like to add my bit (this is after all what forums are for)

I have recently seen people "shaking" fish off their hooks with not the best results. fish have been cascading down 20-30 foot of rocks, dropped on to sandy beaches a fair distance from water and pushed in to the shallows by a pair of size 10 wellies or picked up after being shaken off and dropped.

I think in trying to do the right thing, many sea anglers are actually reducing the survival chances of these fish (I know i'm not a scientist but just employing common sense).

Fish released when unhooked as sympathetically as possible by wet hands and carefully placed back in to water must have a better chance of making it than those who have been subjected to the trauma i mentioned earlier. If some of the fish released do die then although its unfortunate its not as big a desaster as some would make out. As we can see from this forum in recent weeks/days, mackerel are a plentiful fish. the weaker or nearly dead fish become the natural first choice for bait for the bigger fish we are currently trying target and contribute vitally to the food chain that supports all the sea life aroun our coast.

very few proper anglers (i dont consider someone who fishes twice a year and stands on a rock with 20 other tinsel chuckers an angler) would deliberately fatally harm a fish they have no intention of keeping. but the sad fact is, when fishing, most anglers will at some time end up killing fish they wish to release. this is part of our hobby/sport and while we should try to minimise these unwanted fatalities, we should look at them in context. What percentage of the mackerel schoals do you think are lost to this accidental death and what inpact do you think it has on our ecosystem?


TMH

[philipn]

beautiful speech tmh are you sure your not an mp

[ninjamonkey]

Yeah I agree, I only heard about this 'not touching mackerel' business recently. Could someone fill me in on what happens when you handle them, or direct me to a thread that does. Cheers.

[tommy a]

As I understand ( was told this some years ago ) if you handle makeral they will end up dying within about 3 or 4 days - not a disaster as has been said because they will become an important part of the food chain but simply being careful with them and getting them off the hook without handling is obviously the best way to ensure life.

That said Im talking from a boat where it is far simpler to do this and not from the shore - if people are shore fishing for them Im assuming they are looking to keep most for the freezer in which case this wont apply - if not to be kept a sensible and humain release from the hook can be carried out with care.

[ninjamonkey]

Hmmm, right, would be good to do an experiment on this, see how much it is really true, and what you can do to avoid it. Is it the slime on them that is removed or is it something else? Maybe I should Google it...

[ninjamonkey]

Aaah, I do love Google! This Thread is great, experiments have been done... Also this thread, and this thread Have some useful info too.

Seems it is true... Well, as said in one of the threads, I'll just have to move on to the Bass chasing the buggers once I've got enough for the pot!

Saul.

[monkey nuts]

i just catch what i need for bait or the freezer then put the feathers away......easy
if run out of bait just catch a few more
so i cant see wht the worrie is about

i might go on dragons den and invent a mackerel unhooking mat.................. only kidding ...............then again...lo l

one thing that does piss me off is when people just catch a bucket of them and then dump them. anypub would take them off there hands and may even get a pint for there trouble

[Gremlin]

Worth a read -

CEFAS (ex-Govt scientist opinion)

http://www.sacn.org.uk/index.php?news=105

[philipn]

Originally Posted by Gremlin

Worth a read -

CEFAS (ex-Govt scientist opinion)

http://www.sacn.org.uk/index.php?news=105

read it ???? and ???

[Noel]

As others have said, the best thing to do is just catch what you need.

Or switch to single spinner etc.