Posts Tagged ‘Mackerel fishing’

The Essence of Sea Angling

Saturday, August 24th, 2013

Two feet below the surface tightly packed herring fry swam close to my rocky perch, suddenly, long darting flashing shapes snaked amongst the terrified mass snapping here and there. Launce having balled up the shoal moved in for the kill, behind them out of the depths, like a World War One fighter squadron of old flying out of the sun, appeared tiger striped mackerel and they meant business. Josh and Sean, two local teenagers enjoying the last days of their summer holidays were already running feathers through the frenzy. “Look full house, ah s##t one’s fallen off”, the joy on the lads faces saying it all.

Summer mackerel, our heritage, where would we be without them.

Nature in full view and a right of passage re-enacted annually since the dawn of time, instantly I was transported back to my youth. Firing out a silver toby, letting it sink then retrieving, the hit, the zig zag fight, and to cap it all the mackerel falls off just as I’m swinging it ashore, laughs all around then off again. The shoal wasn’t big staying around for a little over an hour before eventually moving on. However the calm surface regularly dimpled first here, then there, with fry jumping clear of the mini predators below, the larger chasing bretheren occasionally head and tailing.

At session end we all had a enough mackerel for tea, young Sean had caught his first conger whom I’ll quote, “that fish has made my summer”, and Jay God bless him helped me to understand this LRF business, of which more later. You can take all your economic surveys, holiday visitor numbers, specimen fish tales, celebrity anglers, the latest piece of tackle that’s going to change the world and place it all, well you know where. Yesterday afternoon in the company of Josh, Sean, and Jay encompasses all of what sea angling is about, the rest ultimately is bollox………….