There’s no doubt about it, when the mackerel are on there will be more sickies called in and parking spaces at the local boat ramp will be non-existent. Mackerel fever usually hits the SE QLD and northern NSW coastline from December to May and unless you get to the ramp before 5am on a weekend, there’s very little chance you will get a space to park your vehicle and trailer. It’s one of the most popular forms of fishing on the QLD and NSW coast and for good reason too; mackerel are one of the most exciting sports fish you can hook, grow massive and also taste great! It’s little wonder why us fishos come down with a case of mackerel fever at this time of the year.
Floating pilchards
This is one of the more deadly ways to hook a mackerel and accounts for more mackerel than just about any other technique. It’s super simple and produces great results, especially on the spotties. For this technique you will need three ganged hooks, a small length of 3lb single strand wire connected to a small black swivel, which is connected to your leader or mainline. A few metres up your leader or mainline you attach your float. I typically use a small piece of Styrofoam box or a party balloon blown up to the size of a grapefruit.
Anchor up on a like piece of inshore reef with good concentrations of bait and slowly float your pillie out. I try to set one around 50m from the boat and another at around 30m and a third rig with no float at all and a small split sinker so it sinks down the water column slowly and naturally.
Trolling
Towing a spread of lures around is another great way to catch a Mackie. I like to run bibbed minnows that swim from around 2m deep to 10m. Get a mixture of deep divers and shallow water lures so you can cover a range of depths. These lures need to be able to swim well at 7 knots or more. Mackerel are such a speedster that the faster you can tow the lures, the better your results. I find 7-8 knots works the best for me. Some lures that have worked well for me are the Rapala X-Raps and Halco Laser Pros and I like to have at least one red and white lure in the spread as well. Troll on reef edges and areas that are holding lots of bait for the best results.
Live bait
Many of the locals down in NSW from the Tweed to Coffs tend to fish with live bait over any other technique. Once you can find yakkas or slimies you will catch mackerel if they are around. Without a doubt, slimy mackerel out fish yakkas about 5 to 1 and if you are lucky enough to catch a pike on your bait jig, then your change of getting a Spanish mackerel have increased yet again! Rig your live baits up with a two-hook rig running 30lb single strand wire between. Your first hook is best to be a smallish hook and that is used to tow the bait from the nose. The second hook can be a slightly larger 5/0 or treble that gets pinned in the tail of the bait fish. It’s this rear hook that will get 90% of your hook-ups as a mackerel always hits a baitfish from the tail or rear section. Once I have rigged my live bait, I like to just put the outboard in gear and very slowly troll the bait around the reef. I usually flatline one livie on the surface and one down deep a few metres off the bottom.